Queens South Africa Medal clasps Elandslaagte, Defence of Ladysmith, South Africa 1901 (315 S.Q.M.SERJT. A.F. TURNER. NATAL M.R.)
Albert Foster Turner was born in Lambeth, Surrey on 9 February 1868 the son of John Foster Turner a well-to-do Builder, and his wife Ann.
At the time of the 1871 England census the Turner family were living at 26 High Park Street in Toxteth Park, Liverpool. Mr Turner was, as has been mentioned, a Builder by trade employing 24 men. Others in the house were Louisa Turner (10), John Foster Turner (7), George Foster Turner (5), Edith May Turner (1) and a 2 year old Albert. Mathilda Raynor, 17, was the Domestic Servant keeping the house in trim.
At some point after that the Turner clan made the decision to emigrate to South Africa – as a Builder Mr Turner might have felt that opportunities in his line were more abundant in a fast growing and developing Colony like Natal which is where the family found themselves. Following in his father’s footsteps and going into business with him, Bertie was a Bricklayer by trade, an occupation which he readily admitted to on his marriage certificate.
This was on 6 January 1892 when, at the age of 34, he tied the marital knot with Jane Ann Wolstenholme at her father’s house on the Berea in Durban.
According to the Natal Directory of 1896 he was a Bricklayer living in Moore Road, Berea, Durban whereas his father John lived not far from him in Clarke Road. Tragedy struck on 13 September 1897 when his 31 year old wife died from Pulmonary Tuberculosis leaving him a widower with a 2 year old daughter, Annie.
Social activity in Victorian Durban was a limited affair and, partially in an attempt to meet and mingle with like-minded people as well as fulfil the Victorian sense of duty, many men enlisted with either a local Militia unit or with one of the more established Regiments for peace-time duty. Turner was no exception aligning himself with the Natal Mounted Rifles.
One of the oldest regiments in the Colony and one with a proud record of service dating back to the Zulu War of 1879, the N.M.R. would have provided a home for many a man. Drill sessions and rifle practice were regular features as were the camps that men were required to attend from time to time to hone their musketry and other skills. The need for the preparations such as those described above became very apparent in late 1899 when long simmering tensions between the two Dutch-speaking Republics of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal and Great Britain burst into open warfare on 11 October 1899.
In anticipation of such an event the colonial regiments in Natal had been placed on standby – in readiness for any role they might be called upon to play. The N.M.R. were mobilised for service on 29 September 1899 and didn’t have long to wait before being deployed operationally. Natal Volunteers were sent to Ladysmith, the town which Sir George White had decided on as his northernmost headquarters.
Comprising three squadrons they entrained at Durban on 1 October 1899 and left for Ladysmith via four trains specially equipped to convey their personnel, horses and baggage. On arrival in Ladysmith the regiment was assigned to patrol duty – something that kept them busy day and night. On 13 October, two days after the commencement of hostilities, it was reported that a large party of Free State Boers was headed for Ladysmith. The N.M.R. was part of the force sent out to engage the enemy but returned to camp without having spotted a single Boer.
On 20 October General French left Ladysmith with a large body of men including the Natal Mounted Rifles and Natal Carbineers to ascertain the situation at the railway siding known as Elandslaagte where the Boers were known to have attacked and captured a supply train on its way to Glencoe. Another force, an infantry brigade, under the command of General Ian Hamilton moved out in support – the orders were clear – “rid the neighbourhood of Elandslaagte of the enemy and cover the reconstruction of the railway and telegraph lines.”
White, riding hard with his N.M.R. escort, overtook Hamilton’s force and took up their positions – A Squadron as escort to the artillery and armoured train, B and C Squadrons on the left of the Gordon Highlanders, after joining the cavalry to cut off the retreat. An eye-witness account states that the N.M.R. were in the firing line for three hours. At about 6.45 that early evening it was dark with a drenching mist all pervasive. At about 8 p.m. the grim work of bringing in the wounded began. Volunteers were called for with almost every N.M.R. man putting his hand up.
Eventually, at 2 a.m. the next morning the N.M.R. left Elandslaagte as the advance guard. Daybreak revealed the extent of the carnage, horses were lying dead by the dozen, and the regiment only reached Ladysmith at 9.30 a.m. It had suffered no casualties.
On the 24th October, the regiment left Ladysmith at 2.30 a.m. (to assist Yule’s coming in from Dundee) and discovered the enemy at a place called Tinta Nyoni, a hill on the Ladysmith side of the Modder Spruit. A trooper present stated as follows:
“We got into action at 7 a.m. and had a warm seven hours, three men being bullet-wounded. The next day we started out to meet General Yule, and we bivouacked at Modder Spruit, in as nice a storm as heart could wish. We returned on the 26th. One squadron then formed part of a demonstration towards Pieters, and the next day the other followed; but the Bowers retreated, and we returned dead tired at 8 p.m.
We left again on 30 October (Mournful Monday) in pitch dark, at 1.30 a.m. The N.M.R. took the position on the extreme right, on a well-covered ridge just before Lombard’s Kop. We opened fire at 5.30 and fought until 2 p.m. We returned at 4.30 p.m. having suffered one dead and three wounded.”
The N.M.R. history by Eric Goetzsche gives a more detailed account:
The Boers were pressing closely around Ladysmith. General White decided to strike hard at them. He began a double attack – the main force to meet the Boers on the east of the railway to Dundee, where they were holding the heights of Lombard’s Kop, while a force of some 1100 men was to go seven miles north of Ladysmith and occupy a pass in the surrounding hills known as Nicholson’s Nek. The N.M.R. were part of the first force.
They left the camp at 01h30 and took the extreme right position on a well-covered ridge just before Lombard’s Kop. Firing commenced at 05h30 and continued fiercely until 14h00. They returned to camp at 16h30, perhaps unaware that the operation had been unsuccessful, for in this battle, as in others during the early part of the war, the British advanced without really knowing where the Boers were. The advance was halted and General White could do no more than hold his own.
The situation was slightly improved by the arrival, during the battle of naval guns, but the General had, nevertheless, to return to Ladysmith without making any impression on the Boers
On 1 November the regiment was in camp in Ladysmith when the first of many bombardments from “Long Tom” began to pepper the town with 100lb shells. By the break of dawn on 3 November Ladysmith was invested – the siege had begun. The N.M.R. was ordered to End Hill to support the Imperial Light Horse, fighting from 2 until 4.30 p.m.
The N.M.R. also played a role in the celebrated night attack on Gun Hill on 7 December 1899 where they took the extreme right flank together with the Natal Carbineers. Nevinson in his book Ladysmith, The Diary of a Siege related that:
“….Those are the two guns which for the last fortnight have caused the most damage to the troops and town. Their capture was the object of the night’s adventure. Leaving two-thirds of his force in the bush nearly half way up the slope, General Hunter took about 100 Light Horse, nearly 100 Carbineers and (Natal) Mounted Rifles, and began the main ascent. So they advanced silently through the rocks and bushes under the uncertain light of the moon which was just setting.”
After blowing up the gun the party got back to the camp at about 4.30 a.m. The N.M.R. suffered no casualties.
But what were conditions like in Ladysmith? Shells rained down on the town, even after dark, almost every day apart from the Sabbath which was strictly observed by the God-fearing Dutch. Food started to run out and the rations were reduced to be replaced by whatever the commissariat could find. Horses, standing idly by, were soon under the butcher’s knife. Dysentery and other illnesses, Enteric Fever among them, decimated the population – townspeople and soldiers alike and the hospital at Ntombi was full to overflowing.
Buller and his relieving force finally got through and Ladysmith was liberated on 28 February 1900. The troops that could be moved were entrained and sent down to Highlands and other spots to recuperate. Turner, who was promoted to Squadron Quartermaster Sergeant whilst in Ladysmith, took no further part in the war and, although still nominally on strength, probably returned home. For his not inconsiderable efforts he was awarded the Queens Medal with the much-coveted Elandslaagte clasp. The South Africa 1901 clasp on his medal was awarded on a supplementary roll and was affixed after the event. It was awarded off the “No. 2 (Quad) Volunteer “roll.
Having returned to Durban Turner decided that the single life he had endured for three years was not for him – he did the next best thing and married his late wife’s sister, Jane Elizabeth Wolstenholme, at St. Thomas’s Church, Berea on 11 July 1900. He was 33 years old at the time and she was 25.
It was just as well that Turner returned to Durban – his father passed away four months after his wedding, on 21 November 1900, and he was left running the building business.
Albert Foster Turner passed away in Durban on 28 July 1949 at the age of 61.
