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The Battle of Modder River

The Battle of Modder River is an engagement in the Second Boer War, fought at Modder River, on November 28, 1899. A British column that includes Irish units under Lord Methuen, that is attempting to relieve the besieged town of Kimberley, forces Boers under General Piet Cronjé to retreat to Magersfontein, but suffers heavy casualties altogether.

When the war breaks out, one of the Boers’ early targets is the diamond-mining centre of Kimberley, which stands not far from the point where the borders of the Boer republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, and the British-controlled Cape Colony meet. Although their forces surround the town, they do not press home any immediate assault. Nor do they attempt to cross the Orange River on this front to invade Cape Colony.

Meanwhile, British reinforcements are on their way to South Africa. Their commander, General Sir Redvers Buller, detaches the 1st Division under Lieutenant General Lord Methuen to relieve the Siege of Kimberley. This decision is made partly for reasons of prestige, as the capture of Kimberley, which contains the famous Imperialist and former Prime Minister of Cape Colony, Cecil Rhodes, would be a major propaganda victory for the British.

During November, Methuen’s force advances north along the Western Cape Railway. They fight and win two engagements against Boers from the Orange Free State under General Prinsloo at the Battle of Belmont and at the Battle of Graspan. At least one American, Lance Corporal Hollon Bush of the 7th Company, First Battalion Coldstream Guards is present and wounded at the Battle of Modder River. His journey to enlist from departure in New Orleans to England is not without many pitfalls before beginning service at the Tower of London, then on to Gibraltar and South Africa.

Methuen’s force consists of two infantry brigades, the Guards Brigade under Major-General Sir Henry Edward Colville and the 9th Brigade under Major-General Reginald Pole-Carew, two mounted regiments, three batteries of field artillery (18th, 62nd and 75th) and four guns of the Naval Brigade. Further reinforcements are arriving up the railway.

The British cavalry (the 9th Queen’s Royal Lancers and a unit recruited in Cape Town, Rimington’s Guides) make some attempts to scout the ground ahead of the army but fail entirely to detect General Koos de la Rey‘s trenches and other preparations. For example, the Boers had whitewashed stones on the veld or had placed biscuit tins as range markers. At 4:30 a.m. on November 28, Methuen’s force rouses itself, deploys into line and begins advancing toward the Modder River, with no plans other than to cross the river before having breakfast on the far side.

As the British troops come within 1,200 yards of the river, Methuen remarks to Colville, “They’re not here.” Colville replies, “They’re sitting uncommonly tight if they are.” At this point the Boers open fire. Most of the British troops are forced to throw themselves flat. Some try to advance in short rushes but can find no cover on the veld. Few British troops get closer than 1,000 yards to the Boers. The Guards try to outflank the Boer left but are unable to ford the Riet River. The British guns pound the buildings near Modder River Station and the line of poplar trees which mark the north bank of the Modder River, and entirely miss the enemy trenches on the south bank. Meanwhile, the Boer guns maintain a galling fire and are kept in action by repeatedly moving their positions.

The battle becomes a day-long stalemate. Most of the British infantry lay prone on the veld, tortured by heat and thirst, but safe from enemy fire unless they move. Many stoically smoke pipes or even sleep. Methuen gallops about the field trying to renew the advance and is himself wounded. At midday, some of Pole-Carew’s 9th Brigade find the open Boer right flank at Rosmead drift (ford) downstream. British infantry infiltrates across the ford and at about 1:00 p.m. drives the Boers out of Rosmead. The attack is disjointed and suffers casualties when a British field artillery battery which had just arrived on the field shells them by mistake. By nightfall, De la Rey has driven them back into a small insecure bridgehead.

Nevertheless, the Boers fear that they are now vulnerable to being outflanked and withdraw during the night.

Methuen reports that the battle had been “one of the hardest and most trying fights in the annals of the British army.” Although casualties are not cripplingly heavy (between 450 and 480), mainly because the Boers opened fire prematurely, it is clear that any simple frontal attack by infantry only against an enemy using bolt action rifles, is effectively impossible. The British are forced to pause for ten days, to evacuate their casualties, receive further reinforcements and repair their lines of communications. The delay allows the Boers to construct the entrenchments which they are to defend in the Battle of Magersfontein.

On the Boer side, there are about 80 casualties, including, Adriaan, the eldest son of Koos de la Rey, mortally wounded by a shell.

(Pictured: An illustration of the Battle of Modder River during the Second Boer War. This illustration is more dramatic than the actual battle, and is meant to amplify the British side of the war, Bacon’s South Africa War Prints, G. W. Bacon & Co. London)


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Kidnapping of Brig. Gen. Cuthbert Henry Tindall Lucas by the IRA

Major General Cuthbert Henry Tindall Lucas, CB, CMG, DSO, DL, British Army officer, is captured by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) on June 26, 1920, during the Irish War of Independence. He also commands the 4th Infantry Division during the final months of World War I and serves in the Second Boer War.

Lucas is born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England, on March 1, 1879. He later attends Marlborough College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.

Lucas is commissioned as a second lieutenant into 2nd Battalion, the Royal Berkshire Regiment, on May 7, 1898. He serves with the battalion in South Africa during the Second Boer War from 1899 to 1902, taking part in operations in the Orange Free State from February to July 1900, in Transvaal from July to November 1900, and later in Cape Colony south of the Orange River. He is promoted to lieutenant on August 1, 1900, while in South Africa. After the end of the war in June 1902, he and the rest of the 2nd battalion is sent to Egypt, where they arrive on the SS Dominion in November 1902. He later serves in the Egyptian Army and Sudan Civil Service.

Lucas serves in World War I with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and fights at Gallipoli in 1915 where he is promoted to command the 87th Brigade of the 29th Division. He leads the brigade during the Battle of the Somme and into 1917 before becoming Commandant of the Machine Gun Corps training centre in 1918. He is appointed General Officer Commanding (GOC) 4th Infantry Division in October 1918 during the closing stages of the war.

On June 30, 1919, Lucas is appointed a deputy lieutenant of Hertfordshire. He is made Commander of 17th Infantry Brigade in Ireland, and of Fermoy Barracks, on October 30, 1919. On June 26, 1920, during the Irish War of Independence, he is captured by the IRA while he is fishing on the Munster Blackwater near Fermoy along with Colonels Tyrell and Danford. After Danford is wounded during an unsuccessful attempt to escape from a moving car the same day, the volunteers free Tyrell to attend to Danford’s wounds. Both Colonels are subsequently taken to a military hospital at Fermoy.

Lucas is subsequently held in West Limerick and East Clare.

A letter from his wife, announcing the birth of their child, and addressed simply “to the IRA”, is delivered to him and his captors allow a subsequent exchange of letters between the couple. His letters home remain in the possession of his descendants and are shown on an episode of the BBC Television programme Antiques Roadshow.

The IRA moves Lucas to East Limerick from where he escapes four weeks later. It is believed his captors purposely relax the guard to allow him to escape rather than be faced with the possibility of executing him. While being transferred from Pallas Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) barracks to Tipperary military barracks in a routine army patrol they are ambushed, and Lucas receives a slight injury.

Lucas becomes Assistant Adjutant General at Aldershot Command in 1924 and serves with the staff at General Headquarters, British Army of the Rhine from 1927 before he retires to Stevenage in 1932. He dies on April 7, 1956, and is buried in Graveley, Hertfordshire. His wife, Joan Holdsworth, whom he marries in October 1917, dies on September 6, 1979, and is also buried in Graveley, Hertfordshire.

In 2014, Barbara Scully, a granddaughter of George Power, one of the IRA volunteers involved, publishes his recollections to his family of the kidnap in The Irish Times. This brings a friendly reply from Lucas’ granddaughter, Ruth Wheeler, in which she states that Lucas risked a court-martial for stating that during his kidnap and time in captivity he was treated as “a gentleman by gentlemen” and was held by “delightful people.”

Ireland’s Defence Forces have published online Bureau of Military History witness statements by the IRA volunteers involved in the kidnap, as well as those who guarded General Lucas while he was held as a prisoner of war.

In 2020 Lucas’s granddaughter, Ruth Wheeler, and other members of the Lucas family publish online the letters he wrote and received while in captivity. Limerick Councillor Emmett O’Brien and other local people in March 2019 announce an intent to re-enact the capture, imprisonment, and release of Lucas on the anniversary in 2020.

(Pictured: Cuthbert Henry Tindall Lucas, bromide print by Walter Stoneman, 1919, National Portrait Gallery)


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The Battle of Colenso

battle-of-colensoOn December 15, 1899, Irish units of the Boer army face the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, Connaught Rangers, and the 6th (Inniskillings) Dragoons in the battle of Colenso, the third and final battle fought during the Black Week of the Second Boer War. It is fought between British and Boer forces from the independent South African Republic and Orange Free State in and around Colenso, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Inadequate preparation and reconnaissance and uninspired leadership lead to a British defeat.

Early on the morning of December 15, Major General Arthur Henry Seton Hart-Synnot, commander of the 5th (Irish) Infantry Brigade, gives his men half an hour’s parade ground drill, then leads them in close column towards the Bridle Drift. However, his locally recruited guide, who speaks no English, leads the brigade towards the wrong ford, the Punt Drift at the end of a loop in the river. Louis Botha, commander of the Boers on this front, orders his men to hold their fire until the British attempt to cross the river. However Hart-Synnot’s brigade, jammed into the loop of the river, is too good a target to miss and the Boers open fire. Hart-Synnot’s brigade suffers over 500 casualties before they can be extricated. The battalions repeatedly try to extend to the left and locate the Bridle Drift. On each occasion, Hart-Synnot recalls them and sends them back into the loop.

Meanwhile, as Major-General Henry J. T. Hildyard moves his 2nd Infantry Brigade towards Colenso, the two batteries of field guns under Colonel Charles James Long forge ahead of him and deploy in the open well within rifle range of the nearest Boers. Once again, this is too tempting a target, and the Boers open fire. The British gunners fight on, even though suffering heavy casualties, but ammunition cannot be brought to them and they are eventually forced to take shelter in a dry stream bed behind the guns. The bullock-drawn naval guns have not been able to keep up with the field pieces, but are able to come into action 1,500 metres from the Boer trenches.

General Sir Redvers Buller, who has also heard that his light horse are pinned down at the foot of the hill known as Hlangwane south of the river and unable to advance, decides to call the battle off at this point, even though Hildyard’s men, advancing in open order, have just occupied Colenso. He goes forward, being slightly wounded himself, and calls for volunteers to recover Long’s guns. Two teams approach them, hook up and bring away two weapons. A second attempt to recover the rest of guns fails when horses and volunteers are shot down by Boer rifle fire.

During the afternoon, the British fall back to their camp, leaving ten guns, many wounded gunners and some of Hildyard’s men behind to be captured during the night. Although Buller had committed few of his reserves, he reasons that a full day under a boiling sun would have sapped their morale and strength. Major General Neville Lyttelton (4th Infantry Brigade) commits some of his troops to help Hart’s brigade withdraw, but the cautious Major General Geoffrey Barton (6th Infantry Brigade) refuses to support Lord Dundonald‘s or Hildyard’s hard-pressed troops.

Buller’s army loses 143 killed, 756 wounded and 220 captured. Boer casualties are eight killed and 30 wounded.

After the battle of Colenso, four soldiers are awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest decoration for gallantry that can be awarded to British forces. All crossed an exposed area of intense Boer fire and rescued two of the twelve guns of the 14th and 66th Batteries when their crews had become casualties or were driven from their weapons. They are Captain Walter Norris Congreve, Captain Harry Norton Schofield, Corporal George Edward Nurse and Lieutenant Frederick Hugh Sherston Roberts, son of Field Marshal Frederick Sleigh Roberts, who died of his wounds two days later.

(Pictured: Boers capturing the British guns at the Battle of Colenso on December 15, 1899 in the Boer War. Picture by Fritz Neumann.)