Auction Catalogue

27 & 28 September 2016

Starting at 10:00 AM

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Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

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Lot

№ 1151 x

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28 September 2016

Hammer Price:
£420

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 1 clasp, Defence of Ladysmith (259 Tpr. A. C. Brandon, Natal M.R.), good very fine £280-320

Brandon was a member of Sir George White’s Bodyguard at Ladysmith, in which capacity he was chosen as one of five men sent out to scout the Newcastle Road on 23 October 1899. One of those men, Trooper G. J. Lewis Golding, later had good reason to describe their task as a ‘dangerous duty’ for, but for the intervention of his comrade, Trooper A. W. Evans, he would surely have been picked-off by the Boers.

Having met up with a party of concealed British officers on the Newcastle Road, who gave the scouting party updated intelligence in respect of known Boer positions, Brandon and his four comrades rode slowly up a donga leading towards a suspected enemy post. Troopers Lewis Golding and Landsberg then dismounted to carry on the recce. alone, Brandon and the others remaining in the donga with the horses. Lewis Golding takes up the story:

‘We then cautiously advanced, taking advantage of all available cover, some five or six hundred yards and took up a commanding position behind some boulders facing the enemy's lines. From our vantage point, we soon descried a Boer sentinel, distant about five hundred yards. We, for some little time, watched the movements of this man without seeing anything more. But, presently, our vigil was rewarded by observing five or six others join the original sentry and soon their numbers were further augmented until quite a large number of individuals could be seen moving about the face of the hill. At last we perceived a movement among the Boers as if to cut us off from our Comrades. Thereupon we decided to break cover and join the others with the horses in the donga. But no sooner had we arisen from the sheltering stones than zip zip came two mauser bullets about our ears - then three or four more, and soon a continuous hail of the murderous little missiles whistled among our flying figures, but thanks to the serviceable colour of our uniforms, combined with our zig-zag movements, neither of us was touched.

After a very exhausting scamper over rocks and long grass, we eventually reached our Comrades. As we approached we called out to our fellows to mount as the Boers were pursuing us, shooting as they ran. But for this warning there was of course no necessity, as our comrades, hearing the crack of rifles, at once guessed that we were discovered by the enemy, and had accordingly stood ready to gallop off as soon as we had joined them. Seizing the reins of our respective horses, Landsberg and I prepared to mount, the Boers blazing volleys into us the while. Just as I was about to place my foot in the stirrup, my horse - a nervous, excitable, half broken-in South American brute - tore the reins from my grasp and galloped away after the retreating forms of the others, leaving me by myself on foot. Then I gave up all hope of getting away with a whole skin; as being already thoroughly done up with my previous hard run, I could only stumble and stagger along the river bed, bullets throwing up little spurts of sand under my very feet. But almost as I was about to lie down from utter inability to proceed any further, I was astonished to hear my name called by some one. Making a fresh and final effort, I rounded the next bend, and to my great joy saw my plucky young tent mate Evans - the youngest trooper of us all-nay, in the corps - calmly sitting down holding his own horse and my runaway steed. “Here you are, old chap,” he said, “here’s your horse, jump up smartly - it's too beastly hot in this quarter-let's get out of it”. Murmuring my heart-felt thanks, I scrambled into the saddle, and together we rode off after the remainder.

We all, thank God, eventually reached a place of safety, and found that none of us had even been grazed by a bullet; and the only result of the expenditure of hundreds of rounds was a bullet in the near flank of my horse. From Landsberg I subsequently learned that Evans, observing my horse galloping by without a rider, at once determined to ascertain what had become of me. He, thereupon, (bullets were flying by thickly the whole time, be it remembered) chased, caught and rode back some distance until finding, as he himself said, the fire too hot, dismounted, and as I have previously stated, waited for me, whom he could occasionally see as I scampered along the bends of the donga. That he saved my life I have no doubt; for, had I not heard him call, I should, most certainly, have been compelled to lie down where I was from utter exhaustion.’

Evans’s bravery was greatly applauded in Ladysmith and his name was put forward for the award of the V.C. In the event, he received the D.C.M., but not before a company of cigarette manufacturers had actually prepared a card depicting him as a ‘V.C. hero’.