Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

‘I can state hundreds of such instances where you proved yourself a Hero and a worthy descendant of the Boys of the Bull dog breed. I hope earnestly that the Government will do something for you. It is your just due. You are young in years, and I know quite well that you will be one of the first to go forth again in the hour of your country's need, prepared to give your life for the honour of the Old Flag.’

A letter to Smith from his ‘affectionate Comrade and old Commanding Officer’, Lieutenant-Colonel D. P. Driscoll, D.S.O., late commanding Driscoll's Scouts

The outstanding Boer War D.S.O. group of seven awarded to Captain C. F. Smith, Royal Fusiliers, late Royal Navy and Colonial Forces, a one-footed warrior of the bravest kind who Driscoll said ‘won the V.C. dozens of times’: a fellow officer in the Great War agreed, reckoning he should have added a V.C. to his D.S.O. for a spectacular armoured train action in Uganda - though on the latter occasion, amidst much gunfire, Smith’s ‘language was awful ... he shouted poor Miss Cavell’s name in the company of such strange oaths and anathemas that the poor Lady would turn in her grave’

Distinguished Service Order, V.R., silver-gilt and enamel; East and West Africa 1887-1900, 1 clasp, Benin River 1894 (C. F. Smith, Ord., H.M.S. Philomel), name and rank re-engraved; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 4 clasps, Cape Colony, Wepener, Transvaal, Wittebergen (437 Corpl. C. F. Smith, Frontier M.R.); King’s South Africa 1901-02, 2 clasps, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (Capt. C. F. Smith, D.S.O., Driscoll’s Scouts); 1914-15 Star (Lieut. C. F. Smith, R. Fus.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Capt. C. F. Smith), the first with loose/recessed obverse centre, otherwise generally very fine or better (7) £4000-5000

D.S.O. London Gazette 31 October 1902.

Charles Futcher Smith was born in Battersea, London, in February 1876, and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in March 1891. Joining H.M.S. Philomel in October 1893, aboard which ship he would gain advancement to Ordinary Seaman and to Able Seaman, he was present in operations with the Naval Brigade landed at the time of the Benin River Expedition of 1894 (Medal & clasp). Shortly thereafter, however, his seagoing career came to an end when he was invalided ashore to Chatham Hospital in May 1895.

Having then worked for a company in Lambeth, London, he was made redundant in August 1897 and decided to seek his fortune in South Africa. And, by the time of the outbreak of hostilities in October 1899, was working as a Station Master for the Cape Government Railways at Dordrecht.

The Boer War - ‘He won the V.C. dozens of times’

Fortunately for posterity’s sake, a wonderful statement of services submitted by Smith as a part of a future petition survives, recounting in detail his assorted actions and promotions, and it is therefore possible to submit the following outline of his experiences in Boer War, experiences that encompassed operations in Cape Colony and the Transvaal, including the defence of Wepener and the action at Wittebergen (Queen’s Medal & 4 clasps; King’s Medal & 2 clasps).

Quickly presenting himself for military service, he was enrolled as a Trooper in the Frontier Mounted Rifles, and served as a scout to Captain Hon. Raymond de Montmorency, V.C., late 21st Lancers. After the reversal at Stormberg, Smith was one of a party of 37 men surrounded at Labuschagnes Nek, near Dordrecht, but the party held out until relieved by the Cape Mounted Rifles, although the senior officer present was mortally wounded and all of their horses shot dead. Smith received the thanks of General Sir W. F. Gatacre and was advanced to Corporal, with charge of a Maxim gun, and was back in action at the capture of Dordrecht, Jamestown and Aliwal North. At the latter place, in March 1900, most of the Frontier Mounted Rifles refused to cross into the Orange Free State, but Smith was one of 60 volunteers to do so, under Captain D. P. Driscoll, thereby forming the nucleus of Driscoll’s Scouts.

Advanced to Sergeant, he was next present at the capture of Rouxville, Zastron, Smithfield and Ladybrand, having in the interim served at the defence of Wepener in April 1900. Appointed Sergeant-Major in October of the same year, Driscoll and 15 men, Smith among them, captured Fouriesburg, thereby enabling the release of some 300 British prisoners, while in December he was promoted to Regimental Sergeant-Major and acted as a “runner” for General Sir Hector MacDonald. Smith was commissioned as a Lieutenant, gained advancement to Captain in July 1901 and was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 29 July 1902 refers).

And the injury that would lead to the loss of his left foot occurred in May 1902, when he was returning from the successful raid on Schweizer Renecke in the Transvaal and his horse took a tumble - thrown from his mount, the foot remained trapped in the stirrup iron, causing a serious internal injury: hence Smith’s petition to the Rt. Hon. R. B. Haldane, M.P., Principal Secretary of State for War. Smith takes up the story after he was unable to run a new business in Bloemfontein on demobilisation, on account of the ongoing agony caused by his injury:

‘The treatment your Petitioner underwent was ineffectual, owing to the development of disease in the bone occasioned by the injury, until eventually the Petitioner was compelled to abandon his business and return to this country a helpless invalid for expert treatment. The Petitioner then attended St. Thomas’s Hospital in London and it was found necessary to amputate the injured foot in order to remove the diseased bone and the amputation was ordered by Mr. Battle, Consultant Surgeon to the Hospital, on 21 October 1909. The wound from the operation up to the present time has not healed, notwithstanding that your Petitioner is still in attendance at the Hospital for treatment.

Your Petitioner’s commanding officer at the time of the injury was Lieutenant-Colonel D. P. Driscoll, D.S.O., who is in London commanding the Legion of Frontiersmen. He will be pleased to place at your disposal all particulars and information in support of this Petition.’

Which leads neatly to Driscoll’s glowing testimonial - and probable confirmation that Smith’s D.S.O. was awarded in respect of rescuing a colleague at Doorn Kloof:

‘Dear Captain Smith,

You have asked me to back your petition regarding the obtaining from Government compensation of some sort for the loss of your foot.

I have to say, that I am honestly and conscientiously of the opinion that if you had retired from Active Service at the time of your accident you would now have been in perfect health and with your body intact.

Your sense of duty at a time when you were most needed by the regiment and your Country also coupled with my earnest request that you should stay with me, as I could not spare you, has caused you to be a permanent cripple.

You started at the first period of War under me as a Trooper, you went right through with me earning each step up to Squadron Leader with the rank of Captain; and in the end you were awarded the D.S.O.

Evergreen in my memory will live your splendid gallantry all through the War.

You won the V.C. dozens of times but as you know our law in the regiment was never to recommend any man for one.

I don't think it will be out of place here to recall how on one occasion between Lindley and Kroonstad, at a place called Doorn Kloof, when you with 16 men were caught in a trap, three or four were captured straight away and you with the remainder were fighting your way and carrying little Harper, shot through the stomach on a blanket: you saw one of our men, that huge American called Franks, lying behind a low wall: you rushed back alone under a heavy fire 50 yards range to assist him, and finding he was simply paralysed with fright, you kicked and punched and cursed him till he jumped up and ran from you towards your comrades, whom you both reached in safety. You saved him from being captured.

I can state hundreds of such instances where you proved yourself a Hero and a worthy descendant of the Boys of the Bull dog breed.

I hope earnestly that the Government will do something for you. It is your just due. You are young in years, and I know quite well that you will be one of the first to go forth again in the hour of your country's need, prepared to give your life for the honour of the Old Flag.

Your affectionate Comrade and old Commanding Officer

D. P. Driscoll
Lieutenant-Colonel, late Commanding Driscoll's Scouts

P.S. If necessary I am prepared to make sworn statements regarding your case.’

The Great War - ‘I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he gets the V.C. to add to his D.S.O.’

The outcome to Smith’s petition remains unknown, but, as predicted by Driscoll, he did indeed ‘go forth again’ in the hour of his country’s need, and where better a place to start than his old C.O.’s new unit, the colourful 25th (Frontiersmen’s) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers? Quickly appointed a Lieutenant, he was disembarked for active service at Mombasa in April 1915 - and with him were some some equally fascinating characters:

‘With the Fusiliers, however, Tighe did have the consolation, if that is the word, of claiming what may have been the most picaresque body of men to fight in East Africa or any other theatre of the war. Known quasi-officially as the Frontiersmen, they had also acquired the sobriquet of “The Old and the Bold.” Although the majority of the volunteers were in fact young men, quite a few whose khaki blouses sparkled with the ribbons of long-forgotten colonial campaigns would never see forty again - or pass any standard army physical examination. Captain William Northrup Macmillan, an American who owned a farm in British East Africa, wore a sixty-four-inch belt to encircle his 336-pound frame. Other Fusiliers included ex-bartenders, veteran big game hunters and arctic explorers, a number of Russians escaped from exile in Siberia, several circus clowns and acrobats, retired bandsmen, a few Texas cowpunchers, an opera singer, a Buckingham Palace footman, a lighthouse keeper and a general in the Honduras army (He held the rank of sergeant). But regardless of background, military experience or fitness, all had in common a schoolboy zest for adventure.’

And Smith and his fellow “Frontiersmen” went on to see extensive action, including the attack and capture of Bukoba on the western shore of the Victoria Nyanza. Most memorable of all, however, was his subsequent stint in command of an armoured train. A letter to Smith’s uncle, Colonel W. B. Smith, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O., from Captain Hazzledine, takes up the story:

‘You will I think be pleased to know that one of your fire-eating Nephews has had another of the times of his life.

With your experience of evidence you will not expect everything I tell you to be accurate for I am over thirty miles away from the place and have to reply on rumour.

It seems that he was with his Armoured Train at a station on the Uganda Railway and had a warning that a party of over sixty enemy were heading for him across the Bush Desert, separated from the line by a range of hills. Rumour has it that lest they should be frightened off, he disguised his train by mixing it up with some innocent looking empty goods vans. It was arranged nicely that the picquets were to retire to the train and that the train was to be the surprise packet when the attack opened out on the Station. It was a night attack. However things turned out more sudden than expected as things generally do, perhaps a little too openly perhaps and a little too precipitately, and the enemy numbering a 100 perhaps - 12 whites and 90 native trained troops - followed into the Station hot on their heels.

Then the blood ran thick through the back of Captain Smith's neck. He opened fire with his revolver from the Station steps and shouted and looked fierce, and he held the enemy up alone until everyone was in the train when he got in himself and opened out at them with a Maxim at 15 yards range. They found four white men dead outside and white men are what we want to bury, for they are the brains of these raids on the line. They say the natives were afraid of Captain Smith - I shouldn't wonder, for he can look fierce. Fancy him limping up and down blazing away like Captain Kettle. Of course you know he has a wooden leg - this the censor should wipe out, or it may get to Germany, that we have to force the halt and lame into the field, and encourage them. Not much of a cripple is Smith though he has worn out three patent false limbs in this campaign. They say by the way that his language was awful. Also that he shouted poor Miss Cavell's name in the company of such strange oaths and anathemas that the poor Lady would turn in her grave. Anyhow I wouldn't be at all surprised if he gets the V.C. to add to his D.S.O. over it.

Following this exploit Captain Smith next morning located the spot in the hills where the enemy were camping and gathering their shattered nerves, and either from the line or perhaps by taking H.M.A.T. Undaunted up the ricks, opened fire on them again and drove them off so that they left their food and scattered.

Let me hope that things are going well with you. This is a very trying climate for typewriters amongst other things.’

Smith relinquished his commission on account of ‘ill-health contracted on active service’ - in fact malaria - in August 1918, when he was permitted to retain his rank of Captain (London Gazette 11 August 1920 refers). And he died at Whitstable, Kent in August 1925, aged 49 years.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation and photographs, including a letter of reference from his former employer at Lambeth, London, dated 12 August 1897; his Certificate of Service, Cape Government Railways, dated at East London, 23 October 1899; old typescript copies of the above quoted testimonial from Colonel. D. P. Driscoll, and of his Petition to Haldane, this latter accompanied by a similar draft written in his own hand; around a dozen printed passes, for concerts and such like, mainly of the Boer War period; his commission warrant for the rank of Lieutenant, Land Forces, dated 6 March 1915; old hand written copies of reports sent to Driscoll by Smith in May 1915 (6), covering events in the Machine Gun Company at Nairobi; an extensive letter to his wife Attie, dated ‘Somewhere in the Tropics, British East Africa’, 25 June 1915, 6pp.; an illustrated pamphlet The Battle of Bukoba, the cover inscribed in the recipient’s hand ‘To my darling Attie, 1915’; an old typescript of a report from Smith to Colonel Kitchener at Kajiado, dated 5 January 1916, in which he describes with modesty his preparations in case of an enemy attack on his armoured train and subsequent the events that prompted Captain G. Hazzledine to suggest he deserved a V.C. to add to his D.S.O. (’I wish you had been there, you would have enjoyed it’); a field message regarding the recipient’s armoured train, dated 21 March 1916, together with a copy of his orders for same, dated 23 April 1916, and an old typescript of the above quoted letter from Captain G. Hazzledine; an old official copy of his death certificate, dated 18 November 1925, and a good selection of career photographs (approximately 25 images), including seven card-mounted studio portraits.