Orders, Decorations and Medals

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 6 clasps, Cape Colony, Paardeberg, Driefontein, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill, Wittebergen (Major J. C. P. Manuell, 7/Mtd. Inf.), minor official correction to surname, very fine £400-500

John Charles Pengelly-Manuell was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 3rd (Militia) Battalion East Lancashire Regiment on 5 August 1891 and promoted Captain on 9 April 1892. In February 1893 he transferred to the 4th (Militia) Battalion, the Border Regiment in the rank of Captain and, as such, was presented to the Prince of Wales at a levee at Buckingham Palace on 25 April 1893. On 23 January 1895 he was further appointed Honorary Major in the 1st Cadet Battalion, the Norfolk Regiment (he lived at Morningthorpe, Long Stratton, Norfolk). However, he was declared bankrupt in September 1895 and therefore resigned both his commissions.

Major Pengelly-Manuell fought with the 7th Mounted Infantry in the Boer War as part of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers Company. After the first disasters in South Africa, it soon became apparent that more mounted infantry was required. This was of especial importance for Lord Roberts who started creating a South African Field Force soon after his arrival in January 1900, which would fight to and capture Bloemfontein, Johannesburg and Pretoria. He ordered that the existing mounted infantry be increased by 3,000 men by the simple process of ordering each infantry battalion to furnish a mounted infantry company. Eight additional battalions of mounted infantry, each of four companies, were raised in this fashion and the 7th Mounted Infantry was formed in February 1900 from the four regiments in Brigadier-General Chermside’s 14th Infantry Brigade that had arrived at the Cape in January 1900 as part of Tucker’s 7th Division. Thus the four companies, each approximately 150 strong, were found by the 1st Battalion, Norfolk Regiment, 2nd Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment, 2nd Battalion, Hampshire Regiment and 1st Battalion, King’s Own Scottish Borderers. It was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Bainbridge of the Buffs.

The clasps on Major Pengelly-Manuell’s medal represent the battles and engagements of Lord Roberts’ army on its victorious great flank march to Bloemfontein and beyond, in which the 7th Mounted Infantry more than played their part. After fighting at the small engagements at Wolvekraal, in defence of the convoy at Waterval Drift and with General French around Klip Drift in the middle of February, they played an important role at the battle of Paardeberg. On 18 February, Lord Kitchener ordered Colonel Hannay to take his men in the dark on to Koedoesrand Drift close to the main Boer laager. It became the prelude to the battle. Kitchener’s Horse were ambushed and a company of 7th Mounted Infantry crossed at Paardeberg Drift and engaged the Boers some two miles from the main laager. In the main battle they fought to the left of the Highland Brigade and carried on an independent fight with great determination and heavy loss against steadily increasing forces. In all, they were the heaviest sufferers proportionately to the number of men engaged and the 7th M.I. lost 30 percent of its strength in the scrub fighting on the north bank. Their sterling services continued throughout the campaign: they successfully reconnoitered the Boer positions ahead of the battle of Driefontein in March and found them in strength on Abraham’s Kraal and Damvallei kopjes. They were later engaged in classic mounted infantry work at the Battles of Doornkop and Brandwater Basin in moving with speed to cut off passes that would have allowed Boer reinforcement or escape.

The 7th Mounted Infantry is especially well known, not only on account of one of its officers winning the Victoria Cross (Lieutenant G. H. B. Coulson, K.O.S.B., in May 1901), and its mention in Kipling’s poem M.I. (Mounted Infantry of the Line), but because one of its N.C.Os wrote perhaps the finest book on the campaign from a soldier’s perspective: Murray Crosby Jackson’s A Soldier’s Diary. Sergeant Jackson, of the 2nd Hampshire Regiment, joined the 7th M.I. as a reinforcement at Bloemfontein in April 1900 and fought with them for the rest of the war, being awarded the D.C.M.

As he was without a parent unit, Major Pengelly-Manuell’s Queen’s South Africa Medal was uniquely named to the 7th Mounted Infantry and the roll was signed by an officer of the K.O.S.B.