THE QUEEN’S SOUTH AFRICA MEDAL AWARDED TO SERGEANT E.H. WILLIAMS, IMPERIAL YEOMANRY FIELD

THE QUEEN’S SOUTH AFRICA MEDAL AWARDED TO SERGEANT E.H. WILLIAMS, IMPERIAL YEOMANRY FIELD HOSPITAL, WHO WAS TAKEN PRISONER OF WAR DURING THE ACTION AT ROODEVAL ON 7TH JUNE 1900, WHEN THE DERBYSHIRE MILITIA (4TH BATTALION THE SHERWOOD FORESTERS), THE IMPERIAL YEOMANRY HEADQUARTERS BAGGAGE TRAIN AND THE ENTIRE IMPERIAL YEOMANRY FIELD HOSPITAL WERE CAPTURED BY THE BOERS. SERGEANT WILLIAMS WAS SUBSEQUENTLY ESPECIALLY COMMENDED BY THE COMMANDING OFFICER OF THE FIELD HOSPITAL FOR HIS WORK WITH THE HOSPITAL IN SOUTH AFRICA. Queen’s South Africa Medal, 4 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, South Africa 1901 (officially impressed: SGT. E.H. WILLIAMS, IMP:YEO: FIELD HOSP:). Small bruise to obverse rim at 8 o’clock, couple of old light scratches and contact marks in obverse field, but now with an attractive old dark tone, and Good Very Fine or better, and a rare award to a member of the only civilian field hospital to see service in South Africa, one of just 61 officers and men who saw service with that field hospital.

With photocopied medal rolls (original and published), confirming medal and clasps, along with photocopied extract from Will Bennett’s “Absent-Minded Beggars – Yeomanry and Volunteers in the Boer War”, giving details of the raising and services of the Imperial Yeomanry Field Hospital during the Boer War.

During the Boer War vast numbers of volunteers come forward from throughout the United Kingdom and the Empire, offering their services in a military capacity during that campaign. In addition, there was a large number of volunteers who offered their services in a medical rather than a military capacity, with the result that a number of purely civilian hospitals and medical units went on to see service during the Boer War. Among the better known were John Langman’s Hospital, Lord Iveagh’s Irish Hospital, the hospital financed by and named after the wealthy American philanthropist Mr A Van Alen, the Princess Christian Hospital, the Edinburgh and East of Scotland Hospital, The Scottish National Red Cross Hospital and the Welsh Hospital.

The largest contingent of military volunteers was provided by the Imperial Yeomanry. Likewise, the largest number of medical volunteers was also provided by the Imperial Yeomanry, who went on to staff the Imperial Yeomanry Hospital, the Imperial Yeomanry Field Hospital and the Imperial Yeomanry Bearer Corps.

The Organising Committee for these Imperial Yeomanry medical ventures was led by Countess Howe and Lady Chesham, and its members included a large number of titled ladies, including seven Duchesses, four Marchionesses and forty-three other titled ladies. With their contacts they were able to raise some £127,000 within four months, which went towards equipping the Imperial Yeomanry Hospital, and institution that in its day was regarded as the best hospital in Sough Africa. The Imperial Yeomanry Hospital opened at Deelfontein on 17 March 1900. Soldiers treated there, well aware of how lucky they were, and suitably impressed, nick-named it The Haven of Rest. By the end of May 1900 the hospital had expanded to more than 1,000 beds.

The coffers of the organising committee were so full that it was also decided to expand on the original plans and set up an Imperial Yeomanry Field Hospital (the unit in which Sergeant Williams served) and an Imperial Yeomanry Stretcher-Bearer Company, the Bearer Company. The Imperial Yeomanry Field Hospital and the Bearer Company went on to become the only civilian units of their kind to operate in South Africa during the Boer War. The Field Hospitals senior surgeon was Charles Stonham F.R.C.S., F.Z.S. (awarded a C.M.G. for his services in South Africa), was a leading consultant at Westminster Hospital and a Surgeon Captain in the Middlesex Yeomanry, and the majority of the staff of the Field Hospital and Bearer Corps were recruited form the Volunteer Medical Staff Corps. The two units arrived in Capetown on 17 April 1900. Two months later the Field Hospital and Bearer Corps were in the front line at Roodeval where, on 7th June, a Boer Commando under Christian De Wet captured the 4th Battalion Sherwood Foresters, the Imperial Yeomanry Headquarters Baggage Train, and the Imperial Yeomanry Field Hospital and Bearer Corps. The Boers initially opened fire on the members of the Imperial Yeomanry Field Hospital and Bearer Company, but apparently later apologised when it was brought to their attention that they had been firing on medical units. The members of the two units were, however, all taken prisoner. After obtaining permission from a number of Boer officers, the Field Hospital and Bearer Corps subsequently took care of the wounded and dying on the battlefield, Imperial and Boer, at a number of locations. The Field Hospitals Commanding Officer, Charles Stonham, later wrote a detailed account of the action and the units subsequent attempts to care for the wounded, which describes graphically the difficult conditions. Our first care was, of course, for the wounded. We found fourteen of them lying in the station sheds or propped up against the extemporised defences. Poor chaps, many of them had been hard hit. Later that day the British prisoners taken at Roodeval were transferred to a camp by the Rhenoster River. There the Imperial Yeomanry Field Hospitals operated from 4pm until midnight, amputating limbs, repairing fractures and dealing with many serious neck, chest and abdominal wounds. Stonhams account paints a surreal, nightmarish scene, the surgeons operating by flickering lamplight, as around them a stockpile of captured British ammunition was being blown up by the Boers, providing a huge fireworks display (by this stage the war had entered it guerrilla stage, and the Boers were in no position to carry off the huge store of munitions they had captured). This was the Imperial Yeomanry Field Hospitals first experience of dealing with battle casualties. Four days later the Field Hospital and Bearer Corps staff were rescued from captivity by advancing British forces, by men from their own parent unit, the Imperial Yeomanry, and shortly afterwards Lord Chesham, whose wife had played a key role in organising the hospital and bearer unit, came on the scene with his Buckinghamshire Imperial Yeomanry, to find out how the released prisoners were faring.

For some reason the published casualty rolls, so far as I can see, do not list any of the members of the Imperial Yeomanry Field Hospital and Bearer Corps as having been taken prisoner at Roodeval. This includes Stonham, despite the fact that he wrote a clear account of the incident, which was published in 1902 as Volume 2 of the three volume The Imperial Yeomanry Hospitals in South Africa 1900-1902, Stonhams account containing a photograph, page 35, captioned The Boers who made us prisoners advancing on our wagons. I suspect that the Field Hospital and Bearer Company members taken prisoner at Roodeval were not officially considered to have been prisoners, and thus not recorded as such in the casualty returns. Technically, the Field Hospital was a Red Cross unit. When Henry Dunant established the Geneva Convention for the conduct of war in 1864, one of its foundation clauses specifically conferred immunity from capture and destruction of all establishments for the treatment of the wounded and sick. The Field Hospital staff could thus not technically be recorded as having been taken prisoner of war, despite the facts of the matter, officialdom subsequently regarding them as having merely continued to do their duty under Boer supervision.

After service at the front Sergeant Williams is recorded as having been posted for service at the Headquarters and Wonderfontein Detachment, 27/1/1901.

Sergeant Williams was one of only ten sergeants to see service with the Imperial Yeomanry Field Hospital (one Staff Sergeant, three Sergeant-Majors, and six Sergeants). The history of the Field Hospital in South Africa records him as the Field Hospitals Steward and Storekeeper, a unique position in the unit, who had working under him an Assistant Steward, Mr. A.W. Evershed.

There are at least 2 photographs of Williams in the published history of the Imperial Yeomanry Field Hospital, page 18, on the trek upcountry to Roodeval, and page 107.

The Imperial Yeomanry Field Hospital was staffed by 5 officers, 37 n.c.os and men, and had a transport detail of 19 n.c.os and men, 61 officers and men in total. The Bearer Company had a staff of 3 officers, 56 n.c.os and men and a transport detail of 24 n.c.os and men, with a total strength of 83 officers and men. The total strength of the two units thus being 144 officers and men.

For further details regarding the services of the Imperial Yeomanry Field Hospital and the Imperial Yeomanry Bearer Company see The Imperial Yeomanry Hospitals in South Africa, 1900-1902 (Countess Howe, editor, 3 vols, Arthur L. Humphreys, London 1902). In particular, volume 2, whose 266 pages comprise a detailed account of the Field Hospital and Bearer Company by Charles Stonham, complete with a roll of officers and men.

In his account of the services of the Imperial Yeomanry Field Hospital and Bearer Company, Stonham notes, page 226, that he especially commended Sergeant Williams for the work that he did whilst service with the Field Hospital in South Africa. Williams was one of 22 n.c.o.s and men to be especially commended, Stonham remarking with regard to them all of these men did most excellent work in their several capacities.