Though the myths of the Boer War would have one believe the British were humiliatingly hammered in all the opening battles, the reality is pretty much the reverse. On the Western Front, the earliest three battles (Belmont, Graspan, and Modder River) were all British victories; and in Natal, despite being outnumbered and unprepared, the much-derided Tommies also proved more than a match for the invading Boers, storming to victory at Talana Hill, and again – devastatingly – at Elandslaagte.
Disobeying his orders to hold Mkupe Pass with about 1,500 men and two[1] guns, General Kock had instead advanced and grabbed Elandslaagte,[2] a station on the railway between the main British garrison at Ladysmith, and the 8th Brigade, up at Dundee. On 21 October 1899, General French moved a mixed force up from Ladysmith, and the Tommies – in one of the most brilliantly conducted actions of the war – stormed the Boer positions, and routed them. To make matters worse, the fleeing Boers were then charged and ridden down by two squadrons of British cavalry.[3] Despite the way it has been brushed under the carpet by some modern writers,[4] in an official communiqué to Kruger, no less a man than Commandant-General Joubert described the thumping the Boers had taken at Elandslaagte as ‘a total defeat as great as has ever yet befallen the Afrikaner volk’.[5]
So far, so unambiguous. But I fell into conversation with the estimable Dominic Hoole a couple of days ago, and we discussed what happened to the Boer guns which were captured by the British at Elandslaagte. These were a pair of Maxim-Nordenfelt[6] 75mm (12-1/2 pdr) pieces, and were dragged back to Ladysmith by the victorious British, and – Dominic reminded me – were used against their erstwhile owners during the subsequent siege. Though a relatively light piece, the Maxim-Nordenfelt 75mm was one of the more advanced guns used in the Boer War, and featured a rudimentary recoil suppression system, meaning it recoiled less than other guns used in the conflict.
There is not a huge amount of detail about their use in British hands in many accounts, but we can be sure they were in action on ‘Mournful Monday’ (30 October 1899). Both guns were pressed into action to fire in defence of Ladysmith after an overly-complicated British attack on the Boers closing in on the town had gone badly wrong:
‘Meanwhile Colonel W.G. Knox, who, in the absence of the army, had been placed in charge of the defences of Ladysmith, was by no means secure. Left with a garrison of a few companies of infantry, he detailed two of these, with the 23rd of the Royal Engineers, and the two Boer guns captured at Elandslaagte, to cover the north of the town, posting them upon a ridge north-west of Observation Hill. Here he found himself confronted immediately by strong bodies and two guns of the enemy, who manoeuvred about Bell’s and the adjacent kopjes’.[7]
And:
‘So few men were available that it was necessary to impress the drivers of the engineer park and ammunition columns, as well as every detail in the camps. The two field-pieces captured from the Boers at Elandslaagte were dragged into position, and every effort was made to place the northern perimeter in a state of defence’.[8]
And their use during the Battle of Nicholson’s Nek / Lombard’s Kop was not just a one-off in extremis; the guns must have been captured together with a fair amount of ammunition, as they continued to be used later in the siege too, as mentioned in the regimental history of the 1st Devonshires:
‘On November 20th, the Boers mounted some more guns on Bulwana and also on Umbrella Tree Hill, which lay in the Nek between Bulwana and Gun Hill. Colonel Knox[9] ordered a dummy battery to be made at night on the further side of the Klip River and out in the open. Wooden imitation guns and imitation gunners were erected, and these were worked with a string by a gunner concealed in the bank of the river.
Captain Kincaid-Smith, with the two Maxim-Nordenfeldt [sic] guns captured at Elandslaagte, of which he was now in charge, was to open fire from Devon Post on to the Boers guns newly placed on Umbrella Tree Hill, and as he was perfectly concealed and fired smokeless powder, it was supposed that the Boers would imagine that the firing came from the new dummy battery just erected.
Kincaid-Smith began firing at about six o’clock on the following morning. He fired some five shells in perfect silence unanswered by the Boers. He was then suddenly located by them, and shells were hurled on to him from all sides and from all descriptions of guns. This continued for a quarter of an hour and then slackened off. The Boers burst their shrapnel better than usual, and in the evening just before dark one shrapnel got into a working party on Devon Post, killing one man and severely wounding another’.[10]
So much for the much-loved myths of the British being ‘hidebound by tradition’, obsessed with parade ground deployments of guns, and being totally averse to innovation and deception.
The account continued:
‘On the 23rd, Kincaid-Smith received orders to proceed with one of his guns during the following night down to the river-bed near the dummy battery and open fire if the Boers fired at it in the morning. This they had done the previous day, much to every one’s amusement. At daybreak, he opened fire from the river-bed. After his second shot the Boers found him and made wonderful practice, bursting shrapnel all over him. No damage, however, was done as he was well dug into the bank’.[11]
So yes, the Boer guns captured at Elandslaagte were certainly used by the garrison during the Siege, but there is a rather interesting twist to the tale. It is often claimed that these guns had, a few years earlier, been captured by the Boers from Dr Jameson’s Raiders – and thus they had actually been ‘recaptured’ at Elandslaagte.[12]
Though a fun and appealing story, unfortunately this is not true. Firstly, the Jameson Raiders only had a single 75mm Maxim-Nordenfelt (referred to in most accounts as a ‘12-1/2 pdr’, rather than a 75mm piece[13]). As well as the Maxim-Nordenfelt, Jameson’s gallant band of brothers also had eight Maxims, and a pair of RML 7-pdrs[14] – and it would seem that the myth started due to the guns captured at Elandslaagte being mistaken for this pair of rather smaller pieces.[15]
What is more, the serial numbers of neither of the captured guns (Nos. 4381 & 4408)[16] matches with the single 12-1/2 pdr (No. 4116) which the Jameson Raiders had deployed[17], and they were, in fact, a pair of guns which the Transvaal had bought after the Raid. Of course, that HM Government was perfectly happy for Kruger to buy modern guns from a British manufacturer rather torpedoes the nonsense about London being desperate to ‘invade the republic to steal the gold’. Both of the guns captured at Elandslaagte were later brought to Great Britain as trophies – one (No. 4381) was at Catterick Camp, while No. 4408 was at the Royal Artillery Museum in Woolwich.[18] I am not sure if they are still on display, and though this might have since been corrected, in both cases they were incorrectly labeled as having been captured by the Boers from the Jameson Raiders, and recaptured at Elandslaagte.
But this is not the twist in the tale.
The more Dominic and I dug into this, however, a link to the Jameson Raid did indeed emerge, as the Captain Kincaid-Smith mentioned above had, somewhat remarkably, been in command of the artillery during the Raid. He was thus obviously au fait with the Maxim-Nordenfelt 12-1/2 pdr – a field piece not in use with the British army – which probably explains why he was put in command these guns at Ladysmith.
In 1871, Kenneth John Kincaid-Smith was born into the Falkirk branch of an ancient and illustrious Scottish family, and part of the Clan Kincaid. To say that the Kincaids had an impressive military history would be an understatement, with members of the clan having captured Edinburgh Castle from the English in 1296. The Kincaids went on to fight in endless clan wars, in the civil wars of the 17th Century, and in support of the Jacobites in the 18th Century.
Clan Kincaid crest
Kenneth John was the second (of three) sons of Major Kincaid-Smith, of Polmont, Falkirk, and Mrs Kincaid-Smith, of Aldingbourne, Chester. Kenneth entered the RA in 1891, was promoted to Lieutenant in 1894, and was on ‘special extra-regimental employment’ from April 1895 to September 1886 – which was, of course, his period of service with the British South Africa Company, and the time of the Jameson Raid. As we know, and to the detriment of all South Africans aside from Kruger’s self-appointed ‘Chosen People’, the Raid ended in utter failure after the Johannesburg Reformers failed to rise up as planned, leaving the Raiders in the lurch.
Following their surrender at Doornkop (near modern-day Soweto), Jameson’s men were divided into two groups: on 11 January 1896, the ‘less important’ 26 officers and 399 other ranks were marched to Pretoria Station and put on two special trains to Natal, ‘We officers were put into First Class carriages and well supplied with fruit and liquor. We were cheered as we left the station, and at every station we passed’.[19]
These scenes of adulation might surprise some readers, and it is often forgotten just how popular the Raiders and Reformers were. Despite the way the enterprise has since been reinvented as some sort of ‘dastardly, unjustifiable invasion’, their attempt to gain a fair franchise naturally, and obviously, had widespread support from those tens of thousands who were shamelessly discriminated against by Kruger’s corrupt regime. Either way, this first group was handed over to the British authorities at the Natal border and taken to Durban, from where they either embarked on the Harlech Castle (to be dropped off at their home ports in either South Africa or Great Britain), or else were given railway tickets home, with some heading back up to Rhodesia. All the expenses were paid by the British South Africa Company, which was also required to pay compensation of almost £1 million to the Kruger government.
The other – much smaller – group, comprising Dr Jameson himself, his military commander, Lt. Colonel Willoughby,[20] Lt. Colonel Raleigh Grey,[21] Major the Honourable Bobby White,[22] and 11 other Imperial Army officers – including Kincaid-Smith – were held in Pretoria for another week, before being put on a train and handed over to the Natal authorities at Charlestown on the Transvaal / Natal border on 20 January 1896. They then sailed from Durban on the troopship Victoria, arriving at Gravesend on 24 February where they were arrested by officers from Scotland Yard, and taken to Bow Street Police Court for trial.[23]
Jameson and his officers, heading home to face the music. Jameson is standing, fourth from the left. Kincaid-Smith is standing, second from the left, just visible. Willoughby is seated in the middle, wearing a black cap. Standing, third from the right, hands in pockets, is the very dapper Major the Honourable Bobby White. Seated, in the bottom right corner, is Lt. Colonel Sir Raleigh Grey
Jameson and his officers were charged in terms of the Foreign Enlistment Act of 1870 that ‘within Her Majesty’s dominions, and without licence of Her Majesty, they did unlawfully prepare and fit out a military expedition to proceed against the dominions of a certain friendly state – to wit, the South African Republic’. The 15 Raiders endured a lengthy trial at the Old Bailey – one of the biggest talking points of the season – at which the Lord Chief Justice, ‘considered that Jameson’s conviction was necessary to the moral status of Great Britain in Europe, and that no legal technicalities should be allowed to stand in the way of justice’.[24] Sure enough, The Doctor was found guilty, and sentenced to 15 months,[25] while Willoughby received 10 months, Bobby White got seven months,[26] and three other officers, including Lt. Colonel Grey, got 5 months apiece.[27] Kincaid-Smith was one of nine who were acquitted, and thus did not serve any time.
His association with the Raid did not seem to unduly impact his military career. Kincaid-Smith quickly returned to the army and, indeed, ‘won his jacket’ – ie. gained a much-coveted posting to a Royal Horse Artillery battery.[28] This saw him posted to India, which is where he was when Kruger started the Boer War on 11 October, 1899. Kincaid-Smith was one of those rushed to South Africa to try to stem the invasion, making it into Ladysmith just before the net closed. Another two of our chums would also get bottled up in Ladysmith during the siege – Willoughby and Dr Jim himself. And, as we know, Kincaid-Smith was given command of the two guns captured at Elandslaagte, with this ad hoc unit noted as: ‘A Maxim-Nordenfeldt [sic] Battery, consisting of the two 12.5 pounders captured at Elandslaagte, manned by horse artillerymen who had come from India with remounts under Lieutenant K. Kincaid-Smith’.[29]
It is interesting to note that his relative / fellow clansman, Major Charles Style Kincaid, [30] also ended up in Ladysmith, serving with the 1st Royal Irish Fusiliers. The significantly understrength battalion (only 640 all ranks[31]) had been rushed to Durban from Egypt, and arrived into Ladysmith on 13 October, before being pushed up to Dundee in time to fight at Talana Hill, and then retreating back to Ladysmith again. Kincaid,[32] who had been at home on sick leave when the battalion shipped out, arrived into Ladysmith after all that, and just in time to fight at Nicholson’s Nek with his battalion. Alas, most of the unit was taken prisoner at that cock-up – including Major Kincaid. He was only held for about a week, however, as he was taken ill, and sent by the Boers into Ladysmith to be cared for there.[33]
However, let us return to Lieutenant K.J. Kincaid-Smith before this all gets too complicated. After the Siege of Ladysmith was lifted and Kruger’s invaders were driven out of Natal, he remained in South Africa, and served throughout the rest of the Boer War on most of the various fronts. He was mentioned in Despatches twice,[34] received the Queen’s South Africa Medal with five clasps, the King’s South Africa Medal with two clasps, and was created a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order: ‘Kenneth John Kincaid-Smith, Captain, Royal Horse and Royal Field Artillery. In recognition of services during the operations in South Africa’.[35]
After service with the West African Frontier Force from 1905 to 1907, Kincaid-Smith was promoted to Major in June 1909, during his stint as Assistant Military Secretary to the GOC, Eastern Command, from May 1908 to April 1912. This was followed by a posting as Assistant Military Secretary to the GOC the Forces in Ireland from May 1912 to August 1914. With the outbreak of the Great War, Kincaid-Smith served in a series of Staff and Liaison positions, being promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in May 1915.
He thereafter was Commander Royal Artillery (CRA) of the 25th Division, seeing action at the Battle of Messines in 1917, and the Battle of Ypres. After a period of reorganisation, the Division was back in the thick of it towards the end of war, and, still in his role of CRA 25th Division, Kincaid-Smith saw more service at the breaching of the Hindenburg Line and Cambrai, and then at the Battles of the Selle and the Sambre, at the last days the war.[36] As well as again being mentioned in Despatches, Kincaid-Smith was created a CMG in 1916, and a CB in 1919.[37]
Though he had inherited the family pile in Falkirk from his brother in 1907, Kincaid-Smith made his home at St Osyth’s Priory, Colchester, Essex and was a high ranking Free Mason in the county, rising to the position of Provincial Grand Master – a post he held for the last 13 years of his life. He was also a Deputy Lieutenant of Essex and was High Sheriff[38] of the county in 1929. It was claimed that, in this role, Kincaid-Smith always carried a marriage licence in his pocket, but had never had to use it.[39] After a life well-lived, he died in the Royal Masonic Hospital, Hammersmith, London, in July 1949, aged 77.
As well as bequeathing a hefty sum to his great-niece, Kincaid-Smith also included the Hall Porter of the Turf Club, Piccadilly in his will; William Whitehead was left £50 in recognition of his ‘unfailing courtesy in assisting me through the black-out period in returning from the club to my flat’[40] – which, knowing Scotsmen and soldiers as I do, may or may not be a euphemism for helping him stagger home after a few too many whiskies.
Either way, Kincaid-Smith really did rather well for himself for a man who had stood trial as a common criminal.
NOTES:
[1] Some sources say three, though any such third ‘gun’ was probably only a machine gun
[2] Amery, The Times history of the war in South Africa, 1899–1902, Vol.2, p.176
[3] Marquis of Anglesey, A History of the British Cavalry, Vol.4, p.57
[4] Nasson, The War for South Africa, p.105, Mead, The Good Soldier, The Biography of Douglas Haig, p.109, and others
[5] Pakenham, The Boer War, p.169
[6] Headquartered in London, the Maxim-Nordenfelt Guns and Ammunition Company was the result of a takeover by Hiram Maxim of the Nordenfelt Guns and Ammunition Company in 1888. It was itself taken over by Vickers in 1897
[7] Maurice, History of the War in South Africa, Vol.1, p.183
[8] Amery, The Times History of the War in South Africa, Vol.2, p.231
[9] Colonel W.G. Knox, commanding A Section of the town’s perimeter in the north-east, a sector which ran from Devon Post to Cove Redoubt
[10] Jacson, The Record of a Regiment of the Line, p.39-40
[11] Jacson, The Record of a Regiment of the Line, p.41
[12] Stott, the Boer Invasion of Natal, p.76
[13] Gibbs, History of the BSAP, Vol.1, p.124
[14] Gibbs, History of the BSAP, Vol.1, p.136
[15] Indeed, to my shame, I also made this mistake in ‘The If Man’, and refer to them as 7-pdrs: Mea culpa
[16] Lucking, What Happened to Jameson’s Guns?, RA Journal, Autumn, 1998
[17] The 12-1/2 pdr captured from Jameson was, however, used by the Boers on the Rhodesia / Mafeking front
[18] Lucking, What Happened to Jameson’s Guns?, RA Journal, Autumn, 1998
[19] Gibbs, History of the BSAP, Vol.1, p.151
[20] Later, Sir John Christopher Willoughby, 5th Baronet DSO (1859–1918). Educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, John Christopher Willoughby joined the 3rd (Royal Bucks Militia) Battalion, Oxfordshire Light Infantry, as a lieutenant in 1879. From the militia he secured a commission in the Regular Army as a 2nd lieutenant in the 6th Dragoon Guards and then transferred to the Royal Horse Guards in 1880. He saw service in the Egyptian campaign in 1882 (awarded medal with clasp, and bronze star), in the Nile expedition in 1884–1885 (mentioned in despatches), and with the British South Africa Company’s Force in Matabeleland in 1893. After the debacle of the Jameson Raid, he served through the Boer War – like Kincaid-Smith, Willoughby and Dr Jameson both endured the Siege of Ladysmith. Willoughby went on to serve in the Great War
[21] Later, Sir Raleigh Grey KBE CMG CVO (1860–1936). Grey, the great-grandson of 1st Earl Grey, was educated at Durham School and Brasenose College, Oxford. In 1881 he joined The Inniskillings (6th Dragoons) and saw service in the Zulu War. When the war ended he was given command of the Bechuanaland Border police, seeing service in the Matabeleland rebellion of 1893. Grey led the Bechuanaland Border Police contingent in the Jameson Raid, and after serving time for his part in the Raid, volunteered for service in the Boer War
[22] With a local rank of Major, Bobby White was a Captain in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers at the time of the Jameson Raid, and served as the senior staff officer on the ill-fated escapade. His brother, local Lieutenant Colonel Honourable Henry Frederick White (Major, Grenadier Guards) commanded the Mashonaland Mounted Police contingent in the Raid
[23] A third group – the 64 would-be revolutionaries arrested in Johannesburg – were arrested and charged with high treason before the High Court of the South African Republic. Four – including Frank Rhodes, elder brother of Cecil – were sentenced to death. The others were sentenced to two years’ in prison, a fine of £2000, and banishment from the Transvaal for three years. The death sentences caused such an outcry, that Kruger commuted them to life imprisonment. When one prisoner committed suicide in early May 1896, Kruger reduced the sentences on the four leaders to 15 years, and the others were released upon the payment of their fine – other than the uber-uitlanders, Karri Davies and Wools-Sampson, who refused on principal, and were thus held for another year. In late May, the four leaders were released on payment of £25,000 each – paid for by the BSAC
[24] Seymour Fort, Dr Jameson, p.197
[25] He was released in December 1896, however, due to his health having become ‘so precarious that he had to undergo a severe surgical operation in prison’. Upon release, Jameson went straight into a nursing home to recover
[26] Seymour Fort, Dr Jameson, p.199
[27] Gibbs, History of the BSAP, Vol.1, p.153
[28] Kincaid, This I’ll Defend, the Story of the Kincaids, p.130
[29] Cunliffe, The Royal Irish Fusiliers 1793-1968, p.325
[30] Kincaid, This I’ll Defend, the Story of the Kincaids, p.130
[31] Stirling, Our Regiments in South Africa, p.348
[32] Described as ‘a good bridge player, flirtatious, but a rather cynical man of the world’.
[33] Kincaid, This I’ll Defend, the Story of the Kincaids, p.186
[34] London Gazette, 8 February, and 10 September 1901
[35] London Gazette, 27 September 1901
[36] Kincaid, This I’ll Defend, the Story of the Kincaids, p.131
[37] DSO recipients (VC and DSO Book)
[38] Death notice, Evening News, 6 December 1949
[39] Kincaid, This I’ll Defend, the Story of the Kincaids, p.131
[40] Death notice, Evening News, 6 December 1949
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