Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Captain A. F. Dalzel, Devonshire Regiment, who was killed in action at Ladysmith on 27 December 1899

India General Service 1895-1902, 2 clasps, Punjab Frontier 1897-98, Tirah 1897-98 (Lieut. A. F. Dalzell. 1st Bn. Devon: Regt.); Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 2 clasps, Elandslaagte, Defence of Ladysmith Capt. A. F. Dalzel. Devon. Rgt.) extremely fine (2) £2,800-£3,400

Augustus Frederick Dalzel, Devonshire Regiment, was killed in Ladysmith by a Boer shell, December 27th, 1899. He was the only son of the late William Frederick Blygh (sic) Dalzel, M.D., Surgeon-Major Bengal Army, was born Sept., 1870, educated at Haileybury, and joined the Devonshire Regiment, January 1892, being promoted Lieutenant, May 1895. He served with the first battalion of his regiment in the campaign on the North-West Frontier of India, 1897-98, under the late Sir William Lockhart, with the Tirah Expeditionary Force, being present at the capture of the Sampagha and Arhanga Passes, receiving the medal with two clasps. Lieutenant Dalzel was serving with his battalion in Natal, when war broke out, was in the fighting round Ladysmith, and served in the town during the siege until killed.’ (The “Last Post” refers).

‘27th December. We are all feeling terribly down in the mouth today, as an unlucky shell came right into our mess this morning and burst there, killing poor Dalzel on the spot, and wounding eight other officers more or less. Price-Dent, and Caffin of the Yorkshires, are dangerously wounded, and Lafone, Byrne (Inniskillings), Tringham (Queen’s), Twiss, Scafe, and Kane very slightly - all with knocks on the head from bits of stone. Price-Dent has a piece of the back of his head knocked off, exposing the brain, and Caffin has his right arm broken and a bit of stone in his lung, and the doctors think badly of both cases. The rest are all right. I was down in the orderly-room at the time, and most of the officers had just left it and gone back to the mess, which is a big canvas and tarpaulin shelter behind a 7 ft. thick stone wall, with an earth bank behind it, and is pretty safe; but, by bad luck, the shell just scraped the top of the wall and burst over the heads of the fellows sitting underneath, sending showers of stones and dirt over them. Dalzel was sitting further on at a table reading, and had just laughingly said he wouldn’t move but would take his chance, when he was struck and killed instantaneously. One of the newspaper correspondents has very kindly sent a message through for me, asking his editor in London to break the news to Dalzel’s sisters, so that I hope they will know before they see the bare official news in the papers. Our mess can’t be seen from anywhere near the Boer guns, so that this shot was a pure fluke, and must have been aimed at something else. It has wrecked the mess, smashing two-thirds of the tables and chairs, and cutting the canvas and tarpaulin into shreds. It was a big 6-inch shell from a hill nearly four miles off. We have a look-out man, with a whistle, who blows whenever this gun fires, so that everyone has lots of time to get under cover, and the fellows in the mess thought they were quite safe. It is not likely to happen again in 1000 rounds. Poor Dalzel will be buried this evening in the cemetery here.’ (Letter from Lieutenant-Colonel Park at Ladysmith refers).