TOPIC:

The single memorial at Moolmanspruit / Moolman's Spruit.





There is an interesting article on the action at Moolman's Spruit on 20 April 1902 .

David many thanks for pointing me at the excellent SAMHS article regarding the engagement on 20 April 1902 at Olivier’s Farm, Moolman’s Spruit which involved the Mounted Infantry Company of the 1st Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment.

It actually contains three accounts of the engagement – one from the diary of an officer of the South Staffs who took part in the engagement and two written by military historians, one about 20 years after the event and the other over 60 years later. I had only discovered the one published in 1923.

The man on the ground admitted the affair did not go well with the only successful part being their withdrawal for which he praises his own men for having the foresight to shoot most of the Boer horses. He makes no criticism of the man in command and neither does the 1923 writer but the 1969 one condemns him as not being fit for purpose. That man died in 1955 a knighted Major General who during the Great War had served as Sub-Chief of Douglas Haig’s Staff, then commanded the 49th Division before retiring home for health reasons and ended the war in command of Shorncliffe Barracks.

Eight British* soldiers died as a result of this well recorded engagement as opposed to the essentially unrecorded engagement at Springs on 9 April 1901 when six members of the South Staffs MIC died. The recording difference lies in one of the additional two men being a Baronet.

The SAMHS article nearly correctly lists the dead as:

Name, Regiment
Captain Sir Thomas Fowler, 1st Bn Imperial Yeomanry (1st Wiltshire Squadron)
Captain A T Blackwood, South Stafford Mtd Infantry
Sgt C Hayes, South Stafford Mtd Infantry
Pte F Partridge, South Stafford Mtd Infantry
No 24089 Tpr C Davies, 1st Wiltshire Squadron
No 21330 Tpr C O Thomas, 1st Wiltshire Squadron
No 22775 Tpr D McCarthy, 1st Wiltshire Squadron
No 21549 Tpr N Lloyd, 1st Wiltshire Squadron

Here we see the whole range of social classes – Sergeant John George Hayes was born in lowly Balsall Heath, Birmingham and when he attested for Militia Service in 1894 gave his occupation as “wire drawer”. He married in 1896, still a “wire drawer” and by the time he went to South Africa he had fathered three children. He was the only one of the eight not to be killed in action, he died from his wounds, they reckon he had been shot in the arm by an elephant gun.

Sir Thomas was outlived by seven of his sisters. One, with her husband, visited Olivier’s Farm in 1905, and the famer, Andries Olivier, who had been a POW in India at the time, told them his children had been in the farmhouse at the time and his daughter had lost her right hand when one of the guns she was loading for the Boers blew up in her hands.

Another of Tom’s sisters decided to build a church in honour of Tom and their father, who had been a Lord Mayor of London. It was dedicated in 1913 and here it is with the tablet to be found inside.



Can anybody beat half a church as a memorial to a soldier who died in the South African War of 1899-1902?

* I could not call all eight Englishmen because surprisingly only one of the Wiltshire IY Troopers was born in England and then Cheshire. Davies was born near Monmouth, Thomas in Cardiff and McCarthy in Cork in Ireland.

Couldn’t locate an Olivier’s farm or Olivier’s Rust but I found a Moolman’s Spruit 89 NNE of Ficksburg in an old map. Perhaps the farm Moolman's Spruit was owned by Olivier. The photograph shows the view from the R 70 road towards the Spruit and was approximately taken from where the red arrow points in the old Map (Photo credit: Google Maps). The photo was taken early in the month of May (2004) and the veld would probably have looked very similar during the skirmish late April 1902.

Everhard - all the British Newspapers of the day reported the engagement took place at Olivier's Farm, Moolman's Spruit but as we all know newspapers are often not accurate in their reports. Reading through the SAMHS article again I am happy to go along with it being at Moolman's Spruit Farm owned at the time by Andries Olivier.

I did make a major error in my post as Hayes was not the only one who died of his wounds rather than being killed in action. He died 3 days after the event but Partridge died the day following the event and Blackwood although he died the same day as the event he did not die instantaneously.

Elmarie - the plaque is correct in recording Nelson Lloyd was in the 4th (Glamorganshire) Company of the 1st Battalion IY. in effect it is also correct naming Hayes as G Hayes, although he was baptised John George he seems to have been familiarly called George and on that basis he attested. However Thomas was definitely C O which stood for Charles Oswald. Am I correct in saying the plaque claims only two Boers were killed as a result of the engagement.

Having claimed Partridge died on the 21 April 1902 I then came across this:



Photo taken in Ficksburg Cemetery which is stuffed full of 1st South Staffers and several 1st Worcesters.

Steve - the Lichfield Mercury claimed one of the wounded at Moolman's spruit was a 1st Worcester but they did not name him. It is the only reference I have found of the 1st Worcesters being involved.