GUNNER H.W. DUKE, Q BATTERY, ROYAL HORSE ARTILLERY. Queen’s South Africa Medal, 2 clasps,

GUNNER H.W. DUKE, Q BATTERY, ROYAL HORSE ARTILLERY. Queen’s South Africa Medal, 2 clasps, Relief of Kimberley, Orange Free State, officially impressed (32278 Gunner H.W. Duke, Q Battery, Royal Horse Artillery). Extremely Fine.

Gunner Duke died of enteric fever at Bloemfontein, 23rd May 1900, 53 days after the famous action at Sannahs Post fought by Q Battery and one gun from U Battery, Royal Horse Artillery, on 31/3/1900.

Medal accompanied by 4 pages of photocopied service papers, photocopy of original medal roll extract (confirming medal and clasps), and page from published Boer War Casualty Roll.

Herbert William Duke, born in the parish of Bengeo, near the town of Hertford, Hertfordshire, enlisted into the Royal Artillery at London on 19/12/1898. At the time of enlistment Duke was 18 years and 1 month old, gave his trade as that of engineer, and confirmed that he had been apprenticed for the previous two years to the firm of M & HJ Rogers in Watford. After training Duke was posted for service with P Battery with the rank of Gunner on 24/3/1899, and subsequently posted for service with Q Battery, 27/11/1899. Duke was still serving with Q Battery when he died of enteric fever at Bloemfontein on 23/5/1900. Service papers give next of kin as his father, William Duke, Stanstead Abbots, Ware, Hertfordshire.

The officers and men of Q Battery Royal Horse Artillery won four Victoria Crosses, for fighting and extricating their guns during the action at Sannah’s Post, 31st March 1900, when they, as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle so aptly put it in his history of the Boer War, plucked glory out of disaster.

On 31st March 1900, General Broadwood was in the process of retreating from Thabanchu towards Bloemfontein. His force consisted of 1,700 men, comprising Rimington’s Guides, Roberts’s Horse, the New Zealand and Burma Mounted Infantry, a composite regiment of Household Cavalry, the 10th Hussars, and ‘Q’ and ‘U’ Batteries, Royal Horse Artillery. This large body of men would have been safe from attack, had Broadwood not committed the cardinal error of failing to place scouts at the head of the column. As a result, it rode straight into a well concealed ambush at Sannah’s Post, staged by a Boer Commando of 300 men under the command of General Christian De Wet, the leading sections of the column, including 5 guns of ‘U’ Battery, being taken prisoner to a man without a shot being fired. Alerted to the fact that an ambush was in progress, ‘Q’ Battery and the surviving gun from ‘U’ Battery wheeled around and rode off to form a firing line some 1,150 yards from the Boer positions. The speed of the deployment resulted in one gun from ‘Q’ Battery being overturned when the wheel horse was shot and it had to be abandoned, but the remaining 6 guns of ‘Q’ and ‘U’ Batteries quickly came into action, and covered the retreating survivors of the ambush as they extricated themselves. At such a short range from the Boers, the officers and men of ‘Q’ and ‘U’ Batteries were sitting targets and subject to a withering fire from the Boer positions, but they fought their guns and returned fire until the order was given to retire. Eventually, with the assistance of other officers and men in the column, four guns were saved, manhandled out out of action to a position behind some buildings, where a team of uninjured horses stood ready to receive them. During the action ‘Q’ Battery suffered such severe casualties that, out of the original 50 officers and men, only one officer, one sergeant, one corporal and eight men were still standing at the end of the day, and many of these were wounded.

Lord Roberts was so impressed by the gallantry of the officers and men of ‘Q’ Battery that, after full consideration of the circumstances of the case, he formed the opinion that the conduct of all ranks of Q Battery was conspicuously gallant and daring, and that all were equally brave and devoted in their behaviour and each equally deserving of a Victoria Cross. Invoking Article 13 of Victoria Cross Warrant, he asked that the battery select from among themselves one officer, one sergeant, one gunner and one driver to receive the decoration on behalf of their fellow officers, sergeants, gunners and drivers. As a survivor, Gunner Duke was amongst those eligible for the award of a Victoria Cross. Eventually, the battery selected Major E.J. Phipps-Hornby, Sergeant C. Parker, Gunner I. Lodge and Driver H.H. Glasock to receive the Victoria Cross. Lieutenant F.A. Maxwell, Indian Army, attached Roberts’ Horse, was also awarded the Victoria Cross for the action at Sannas Post.

When the British advance north to Pretoria re-started after the action at Sannahs Post, a number of streams (spruits) and rivers had to be crossed, including the Modder River, which lay just two miles to the east of Korn Spruit, scene of the Sannahs Post engagement. By this stage of the war, the Modder River and the various streams in its vicinity had been severely polluted by the various military units, Boer and Imperial, crossing and re-crossing them. Gunner Duke undoubtedly contracted enteric fever as a result of drinking polluted water from the streams and rivers that Q Battery crossed during the re-commenced advance on Pretoria, capital of the Transvaal Republic. Duke was subsequently evacuated to Bloemfontein, capital of the Orange Free State, which had fallen to the British and Imperial forces on 13/3/1900. Gunner Duke died at Bloemfontein on 23/5/1900, 53 days after the action at Sannahs Post.

Enteric fever (now know as Typhoid fever) is transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the faeces from an infected person. The incubation period for the disease usually lasts between 7 and 21 days. Unless properly treated, death usually takes place within 21 days of the incubation period ending. Given that the maximum normal period of survival after drinking polluted water is around 42 days, and since Duke died on 23/5/1900, this would indicate that he contracted the disease on or after 11th April, some eleven days or more after the action at Sannahs Post.

British and Imperial forces eventually entered Pretoria on 5/6/1900, thirteen days after the death of Gunner Duke.