TOPIC:

A most memorable day for all those engaged in the defence of Ladysmith on that awful ridge.

Hi
Medals to casualties on the Boer side are not encountered very often.

The following brief notes about Herman Nienhuis are largely based on extracts from Ian Uys’ two books “Heidelbergers of the Boer War” and “Fight to the Bitter End”. Uys’ prime source was a Memoir by Wilhelm Mangold titled “Heidelberg Dorpskommando in Sud Afrikaanschen Krieg”.
Nienhuis was born in Bedum, Holland in 1868 and apparently emigrated to the ZAR in the late 1880’s. At the time of the Jameson Raid (1895) Nienhuis and Mangold, a German immigrant, were already bosom friends and saw service together against the Raiders.
In October 1899 both men served in the Heidelberg Town Ward of the Heidelberg Commando and came under fire for the first time at Modderspruit on 30 October 1899. During November and December 1899 the Heidelberg Commando was active around Colenso and Ladysmith. On 6 January 1900 they played a prominent role in the Battle of Platrand (Wagon Hill): there were 125 Heidelbergers on the hill, of who one in five were to die that day. Herman Nienhuis, caught in an exposed position, was one of them.

His body was only found the next day. One bullet had hit him in the left side, another in the right thigh and a shell splinter in the head. After he had been wounded in the side, he told a burgher from the Utrecht Commando who he was and gave him his watch, chain and bandolier. These items were later handed to Commandant Spruyt of Heidelberg.
Nienhuis was initially buried at the Utrecht laager, south of Ladysmith near the railway line to Colenso and was re-interred in 1903 with 7 other local burgher casualties (including Gen Spruyt) in the Kloof Cemetery, Heidelberg.

Henk

Hi
Medals to casualties on the Boer side are not encountered very often.

The following brief notes about Herman Nienhuis are largely based on extracts from Ian Uys’ two books “Heidelbergers of the Boer War” and “Fight to the Bitter End”. Uys’ prime source was a Memoir by Wilhelm Mangold titled “Heidelberg Dorpskommando in Sud Afrikaanschen Krieg”.
Nienhuis was born in Bedum, Holland in 1868 and apparently emigrated to the ZAR in the late 1880’s. At the time of the Jameson Raid (1895) Nienhuis and Mangold, a German immigrant, were already bosom friends and saw service together against the Raiders.
In October 1899 both men served in the Heidelberg Town Ward of the Heidelberg Commando and came under fire for the first time at Modderspruit on 30 October 1899. During November and December 1899 the Heidelberg Commando was active around Colenso and Ladysmith. On 6 January 1900 they played a prominent role in the Battle of Platrand (Wagon Hill): there were 125 Heidelbergers on the hill, of who one in five were to die that day. Herman Nienhuis, caught in an exposed position, was one of them.

His body was only found the next day. One bullet had hit him in the left side, another in the right thigh and a shell splinter in the head. After he had been wounded in the side, he told a burgher from the Utrecht Commando who he was and gave him his watch, chain and bandolier. These items were later handed to Commandant Spruyt of Heidelberg.
Nienhuis was initially buried at the Utrecht laager, south of Ladysmith near the railway line to Colenso and was re-interred in 1903 with 7 other local burgher casualties (including Gen Spruyt) in the Kloof Cemetery, Heidelberg.

Henk

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Henk

A memorable battle and thanks to those who have memorialised it with their posts! My meagre contribution is in the form of a QSA to Harold Livingstone Wood of the I.L.H. who was wounded on the Hill and a QSA (featured recently) to John Augustine Hicks of the Hotchkiss Gun Detachment who almost got taken P.O.W. along with his gun.

Regards

Rory

Rory
Your two QSA's with links to Wagon Hill may be meagre in quantity, but they are still stars in quality.
Regards
Brett