The Kirstead Taylors Part 2

 

The Kirstead Taylors

A Newspaper cutting 'Kirstead Family Don Khaki', a captioned photograph montage of the six Taylor brothers in uniform, the sons of Mrs. Mary Ann Taylor and the late James Taylor of 42 Kirstead Ling, Brooke, Norwich. Three of the brothers were killed in June - July 1916, and are remembered on the Kirstead Green War Memorial.

Life wasn’t easy for James Christopher before, during and after the Great War.  Together, James Christopher and Helen had three children.  Ivy Helen, born 1906; James Ernest, born 1907; and John Christopher, born 1911 and died in 1912.  His wife Helen Mary Forster died on January 14, 1915.  After the end of the Great War, James Christopher married Gertrude Emma Lane and they had one child, Constance Helen., born in 1920.

In the spring of 1939, James Christopher, age 61, was an unemployed fisherman, according to the 1939 Register.  In July 1950, James Christopher John Taylor died in Lothingland, Suffolk, England.

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Herbert Ephraim Taylor, (pictured in the montage of the Kirstead boys in Khaki, top right), joined the Army at age 18 and 2 months on February 15, 1898.  He became a part of the regular active army when he joined the 2nd Battalion, Norfolk Regiment.  At that time, he was 5’, 6-1/2” inn height weighing only 122 lbs., with fresh complexion, blue eyes and light brown hair.

Although he began his military service as a Private, he was appointed as Lance Corporal on June 25, 1901, but voluntarily resigned that grade on April 18, 1903 and returned to the grade of Private.  This reduction in grade happened within two months after having returned home from his service in South Africa.  The lance corporal is in charge of a small group of enlisted soldiers – he is the combat leader with responsibility for the actions and behaviors of his team members; he also has a duty of care toward their welfare. One may speculate that the responsibilities of ordering men who served with him into battle may have influenced his decision to resign his rank. On March 23, 1904 he extended his army service to complete eight years of military service with the regiment.

On February 23, 1905, Herbert married Lily Beatrice Steer in the Parish Church at St. Giles, Colchester, Essex, England.

On February 14, 1906, he was transferred to the Army Reserve.  He rejoined the active army for another four years on February 15, 1910.  He was discharged from active army status on February 14, 1914 upon termination of his engagement contract.  His total time in service was 16 years.

Herbert served in the military at home from February 15, 1898 until January 3, 1900.  He was then deployed to South Africa in support of the Second Boer War from January 4, 1900 until February 10, 1903.  He returned home to England and continued his military service from February 11, 1903 until February 14, 1914.

During the campaign in South Africa, he was awarded the Queens South Africa Medal with clasps for “Relief of Kimberley”, “Paardeberg”, and “Johannesburg”.  He was also awarded the Kings South Africa Medal with clasps “South Africa 1901” and “South Africa 1902”.

His only medical issue during his time in service appears to have been an abrasion on his hand from an accidental fall.  The accident was described in his service record as follows:

“This man was on “Pioneer’s” Fatigue when the accident occurred.  He was apparently running along the planked floor under the veranda when someone threw a broom and tripped him up, thereby causing him to fall and injure himself—He was probably skylarking at this time.  Date of injury 6^th May [1903]. Place Goojerat Barracks, Colchester.”

 

Campaign for Kimberley

Boer forces from the Orange Free State and the Transvaal began besieging the diamond mining town in what was then Cape Colony on 14 October 1899 and began shelling the town.  Cecil Rhodes, who owned many of the mining resources, was a controversial presence, arguing with the military but assisting in setting up defences. The 124 day siege was finally relieved by a cavalry division under Lieutenant-General John French, part of the larger forces led by Lord Roberts.

Siege life took its toll on both the defending soldiers and the civilians in the cities of Mafeking, Ladysmith, and Kimberley as food began to grow scarce after a few weeks. In Mafeking, Sol Plaatje wrote, "I saw horseflesh for the first time being treated as a human foodstuff." The cities under siege also dealt with constant artillery bombardment, making the streets a dangerous place.

Near the end of the siege of Kimberley, it was expected that the Boers would intensify their bombardment, so Rhodes displayed a notice encouraging people to go down into shafts of the Kimberley Mine for protection. The townspeople panicked, and people surged into the mine-shafts constantly for a 12-hour period. Although the bombardment never came, this did nothing to diminish the anxious civilians' distress. The most well-heeled of the townspeople, including Cecil Rhodes, sheltered in the Sanatorium, site of the present-day McGregor Museum; the poorer residents, notably the black population, did not have any shelter from shelling.

In the last months of 1899, General Cronje’s Boer army fought a series of battles against General Lord Methuen’s British army that was advancing up the western border of the Orange Free State to relieve the important diamond town of Kimberley, held by a British garrison and under siege by the Boers.  At the battle of Magersfontein on 11 December 1899 Methuen was heavily defeated by Cronje and his advance halted.  With the arrival in South Africa at the beginning of 1900 of Lord Roberts, Lord Kitchener and substantial reinforcements and the British advance towards Kimberley, General Cronje resolved to abandon his position around the Magersfontein Hills and retreat east along the Modder River back to the Orange Free State.

As Cronje made his preparations, General French swept past the Boer positions with the British Cavalry Division into Kimberley, ending the siege, although French’s ride across the Veldt came near to wrecking his regiments by its destruction of horses.

In retrospect, the Boers' decision to commit themselves to sieges (Sitzkrieg) was a mistake and one of the best illustrations of their lack of strategic vision. Historically, it had little in its favour. Of the seven sieges in the First Boer War, the Boers had prevailed in none. More importantly, it handed the initiative back to the British and allowed them time to recover, which they did. Generally speaking, throughout the campaign, the Boers were too defensive and passive, wasting the opportunities they had for victory. Yet that passiveness also testified to the fact that they had no desire to conquer British territory, but only to preserve their ability to rule in their own territory.

 

Battle of Paardeberg

On 15 February 1900, General Cronje, his Boer army and an enormous column of ox drawn wagons started the slow march towards Bloemfontein, covering ten miles a day.  Cronje and his force marched around Lieutenant General Kelly-Kenny’s Sixth Division, encamped on the Modder River and continued east. General French, alerted by a mounted infantry patrol, pursued the cumbersome column with the remnants of his division and came up with it at Paardeberg Drift on the Modder River.  Cronje would probably have been able to push aside French’s small force of some 1,500 troopers, but chose to halt and entrench his Boer riflemen on the banks of the Modder River.  Cronje’s halt enabled Kelly-Kenny’s infantry division to march up and surround the Boer positions.

Kelly-Kenny had absorbed the painful lesson of the early battles of the war: that positions held by entrenched Boers, armed with magazine rifles and modern artillery, could only be attacked at great loss, with doubtful prospects of success. Kelly-Kenny’s plan was to use his overwhelming preponderance of artillery to bombard Cronje’s Boer force into submission.

The battle began in the early hours of Sunday 18th February 1900.  The British artillery opened fire and the Boer positions becoming increasingly untenable, as numbers of wagons and oxen were blown to pieces.  The Boers were temporarily reprieved by the arrival of Lord Kitchener, with orders from Lord Roberts putting him in overall command. With his military experience entirely in wars where the premium was on dash and aggression, Kitchener ordered a series of attacks against the Boer positions of the sort that had proved so costly for the British in almost every major battle of the war: Modder River, Magersfontein, Colenso and Spion Kop.

Responding to Kitchener’s orders, Kelly-Kenny’s Sixth Division attacked the Boer entrenchments on the Modder River from the south across open country, while two flanking attacks by Colville’s Ninth Division assaulted the Boers, from the west along the Modder and downstream from the east.  The Sixth Division assault reached the Modder River in places, but the British suffered heavy casualties from the hidden Boer riflemen, doing little damage in return. On the left of the line, the Highland Brigade repeated the experience of Magersfontein, advancing across the Veldt in the face of heavy fire. But the British infantry was learning fast and better use was made of whatever cover could be found. Kelly-Kenny issued orders that no unit of his division was to attempt to cross the river.

Kitchener directed all the commanders to press their attacks. Kelly-Kenny was sufficiently senior to resist Kitchener and avoided making further frontal assaults with his division.  On Kitchener’s direct command a half battalion of Cornwalls, holding a key kopje on the south-eastern corner of the battle field, was brought forward and committed to the assault.

Once the Cornwalls moved, the Boer leader De Wet, who had been shadowing the battle from a distance with his commando, looking for an opportunity to assist Cronje’s embattled force, took the kopje, known thereafter as Kitchener’s Kopje and gave Cronje his one chance of escaping; a chance Cronje and his men refused to take. Every attempt by the British to displace De Wet failed and it was only when De Wet withdrew from the position that Cronje’s fate was finally sealed.

The last British attacks took place at around 5pm from the east. Following suicidal assaults by Colonel Hannay’s Mounted Infantry, the 1st Leinster Regiment attacked only to be forced back with considerable loss.  Although the British force was in disarray following the day of costly and abortive assaults, the soldiers making their way back to camp for food and water, the Boers were in worse condition. Few Boers had become casualties but the lengthy bombardment had destroyed virtually all their wagons, oxen and horses.  Lord Roberts arrived on the field on Monday 19th February 1900.

Overtures from General Cronje seeking an armistice prevented any further British attack on his laager, although desperate attempts to recover what came to be called ‘Kitchener’s Kopje’ were made against De Wet.  On the Wednesday, Roberts made the decision to retreat. He was saved from what would have been the greatest humiliation of the war by De Wet’s withdrawal from the kopje and Cronje’s surrender the next day, transforming Paardeberg from disaster to triumph.

Casualties at the Battle of Paardeberg

British casualties were 1,270, the highest for any day in the war. Boer casualties in the fighting were negligible, but some 4,500 surrendered with Cronje.  Following the battle and Cronje’s surrender, Lord Roberts marched to Bloemfontein and took the surrender of the capital of the Orange Free State.  The period of formal fighting was nearing its end, leading to the extended period of guerrilla warfare.

 

Battle of Johannesburg

In late May 1900, the British army was nearing the gold-mining centre of Johannesburg. Across the army's route lay the formidable Klipriversberg Range. In its midst was the position of Doornkop, which the Boers had occupied in force. The British ran up against the Klip River, which lay about four kilometers to the south of Doornkop on 28 May. In preparation for a direct assault, the commander of the cavalry division gave the task of crossing the river and gaining a foothold on the other side to the 1st Mounted Infantry Brigade, which included the Royal Canadian Dragoons and the Canadian Mounted Rifles. Once across, the force fanned out, but then spent a long, unpleasant day and night under Boer fire, in temperatures that fell below freezing after dark.

In the meantime, the British commander-in-chief, Lord Roberts, came to appreciate that there was an alternative to the frontal attack that the Boers anticipated. Instead, he would seize a crossing further down-river to the west and, from there, turn the Boer position from the flank. Units of cavalry began to withdraw from the first position and move to the west on the 29th. The two Canadian units remained temporarily behind to draw Boer fire and deflect the enemy's attention from the flanking manoeuvre taking place south of the river. After enduring about three hours of heavy Boer fire, the Canadian Mounted Rifles finally galloped back across the river, followed soon thereafter by the Dragoons. The two units had played a vital part in the battle, and suffered only light casualties.

The cavalry succeeded in seizing a new crossing of the river to the west, but it was still be up to the infantry, including the 2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry, to advance and attack Doornkop. As part of the general attack, the Canadian infantry moved forward over a low ridge and up a long slope under fire the whole way. The Boers had set fire to the brush and for part of the distance the troops had to run through flames, while the smoke made navigation and control difficult. By clever use of the ground, aided by the aggressive support of the battalion machine gun section, the Canadians captured their objective with losses of only seven men wounded. The bulk of the fighting in taking Doornkop had been undertaken by a British unit, the Gordon Highlanders, which sustained heavy casualties.

The action at Doornkop was the only time during the war that units of Canada's first and second contingents fought together. Their success indicates the high level of efficiency the units had reached by this stage of the war.

 

 

Norfolk Regiment

 

This is a more precise history of the 2nd Battalion, Norfolk Regiment during the South Africa war in which Herbert Ephraim Taylor took part.

The 2nd Battalion sailed on the Assaye on 4th January 1900, and arrived at the Cape on the 23rd.  Along with the 2nd Lincolnshire, 1st King's Own Scottish Borderers, and 2nd Hampshire, they formed the 14th Brigade under Brigadier General Chermside, and part of the VII th Division under Lieutenant General Tucker.

The VII th Division took part in the advance from Modder River to Bloemfontein. On 11th February 1900 the division moved from Enslin and Graspan to Ramdan; on 12th to Dekiel Drift on the Riet River. The 13th was occupied in getting wagons across. On the 14th the division moved from Dekiel Drift to Waterval Drift, where Lord Roberts had on that day his headquarters. On the evening of the 14th the division moved to Wegdraai Drift, still on the Riet. On the 15th part of the division occupied Jacobsdal, to which place Lord Roberts moved his headquarters on the 16th. On the 18th, the day of the battle of Paardeberg, the 14th Brigade, under Chermside, was ordered to march from Jacobsdal to Paardeberg, where it arrived on the evening of the 19th. Thereafter the 14th Brigade sat down at Paardeberg till Cronje came out, but it also did very important work in assisting to repel and defeat the Boer reinforcements coming to his assistance. The 15th Brigade, under Wavell, was ordered to bring up the last convoy from the Modder River camp, and to be at Osfontein, east of Paardeberg, on 7th March; no easy matter, as the drifts were swollen with heavy rains.

On the 7th was fought the battle of Poplars Grove. In his despatch of 15th March Lord Roberts says: "The 14th Brigade of the VII th Division, with its Brigade Division of Field Artillery, Nesbitt's Horse, and the New South Wales and Queensland Mounted Infantry, was ordered to march eastward along the south bank of the river for the purpose of threatening the enemy, distracting attention from the main attack on Table Mountain (entrusted to the VII th Division), and assisting the cavalry in preventing the Boers from crossing the river at the Poplar Grove Drift". On the 8th and 9th March the army halted at Poplars Grove, but on the latter date Lord Roberts issued his instructions for his next advance in three columns on Bloemfontein. Lieutenant General Tucker commanded the right or southmost column, consisting of the VII th Division, the 3rd Cavalry Brigade, and Ridley's brigade of Mounted Infantry, and he was instructed to march via Petrusburg, Driekop, Panfontein, to Venter's Vlei, eighteen miles from Bloemfontein, in four marches; but on the 10th, after the battle of Driefontein or Abraham's Kraal had been fought by the left and centre columns, Lord Roberts asked Lieutenant General Tucker to halt his force at Driekop. The division did not reach Bloemfontein till the 14th, Lord Roberts having entered the town on the 13th.

The division had no very serious fighting in the course of the eastern advance. One captain and one corporal of the Norfolk Regiment were mentioned in Lord Roberts' despatch of 31st March 1900 for good work on the way to Bloemfontein. After passing through Bloemfontein the division was posted north of the town, General Maxwell succeeding to the command of the 14th Brigade when General Chermside was given the III rd Division.

On 29th March Lieutenant General Tucker, with the VII th Division, 1st and 3rd Cavalry Brigades, and Le Gallais' Mounted Infantry, fought the action of Karee Siding to drive the Boers off a line of kopjes from which they had been doing some mischief. The operations were successfully carried out. The enemy held several strong positions in the line of hills. Le Gallais on the right and French on the left found their projected turning movements very difficult, the enemy retaining their positions and even taking the offensive at parts until the infantry closed in in the afternoon. The Norfolks were the first in the infantry advance and seized the position allotted to them. Our total casualties were about 170. The battalion lost 1 man killed and 2 officers and 20 men wounded. After the action the VII th Division retained the hills they had won, thus keeping open the door for the subsequent advance on Brandfort.

When Lord Roberts moved north from Bloemfontein to Pretoria the VII th and Xl th Divisions formed the centre of the army, the XI th, on the left centre, being under Pole-Carew, and consisting of the 1st or Guards Brigade, and the 18th Brigade under Stephenson, composed of the 1st Yorks, 1st Essex, 1st Welsh, and 2nd Warwicks. The VII th Division was on the right of the XI th in the advance. Brandfort was occupied on 3rd May, Smalldeel on the 6th, Kroonstad on the 12th, Pretoria on 5th June. On the way some fighting had to be done, but the centre was never so seriously engaged as the right and left wings of the army. On 10th May at the crossing of the Zand River the enemy had a strong position and was inclined to make a stand, and the 15th Brigade had some fairly stiff work.

After Johannesburg had surrendered on 31st May 1900 the VII th and XI th Divisions marched past the Commander-in-Chief in the town, and when Lord Roberts moved on to Pretoria the 15th Brigade, Waveil's, was left as garrison at Johannesburg. The VII th Division did not act together again. After Pretoria was occupied on 5th June the 14th Brigade, Maxwell's, was detailed to garrison that city, Major General Maxwell being appointed governor.

The Norfolks were present at the ceremony of proclaiming the annexation of the Transvaal on 25th October 1900. During the later stages of the war the battalion was employed mainly in the Central Transvaal, being for a considerable time the garrison of Rustenburg.

Twelve officers and 14 non-commissioned officers and men were mentioned in Lord Roberts' final despatches, and 4 officers and 5 non-commissioned officers in Lord Kitchener's final despatch.

 

2nd Battalion Norfolk Regiment
Losses during the Anglo-Boer War 1900-1902
	Officers	NonCommissioned Officers and Men
Killed in Action and Died of Wounds	4	11
Death from Disease		56
Wounded	5	39
Missing/ Prisoner of War	2	17
	11	123

 

For a more, in depth review of the Second Boer War, use the hyperlink below:

​Boer War | National Army Museum (nam.ac.uk)

 

The Queen's South Africa Medal is a British campaign medal awarded to British and Colonial military personnel, and to civilians employed in an official capacity, who served in the Second Boer War in South Africa. Altogether twenty-six clasps were awarded, to indicate participation in particular actions and campaigns.

·         RELIEF OF KIMBERLEY (15 February 1900). Awarded to those in the relief column under Lieutenant General French who marched from Klipdrift, and 6th Division troops under Lieutenant General Thomas Kelly-Kenny who were within 7,000 yards of Klipdrift.

·         PAARDEBERG (17–26 February 1900). Awarded to troops within 7,000 yards of General Piet Cronjé's final laager in the Orange Free State, and within 7,000 yards of Kudusrand Drift.

JOHANNESBURG (29 May 1900). Awarded to troops north of an east–west line drawn through Klip River Station (exclusive) and east of a north–south line drawn through Krugersdorp Station (inclusive) in the South African Republic.

The King's South Africa Medal is a British campaign medal awarded to all British and Colonial military personnel who served in the Second Boer War in South Africa, and who were in the theatre on or after 1 January 1902 and who had completed 18 months service in the conflict prior to 1 June 1902.   The medal was never awarded singly, but was always paired with the Queen's South Africa Medal.

The medal recognised service in the difficult latter phases of the war and rewarded those who, by their long service in the field, had brought the campaign to a successful conclusion. Poor logistics over very long supply lines and disease, combined with having to fight against a disciplined and capable enemy of excellent horsemen and marksmen who had perfected guerrilla warfare, made this a hard-won medal. In addition to men often having had to go without basics such as food and water, enteric fever killed several thousand and was a constant drain on manpower. Published casualty rolls run to over 50,000 names, while studies of contemporary publications and reports put the actual figure for all casualties, including caused by disease, at 97,000.

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Prior to Lily Beatrice Steer’s marriage to Herbert Ephraim Taylor in 1905, she gave birth to a daughter, Adelaide Rebecca Steer in 1898.  Her father is not known however, it is entirely possible that Herbert is the father and that Adelaide was born while he was preparing for military deployment to South Africa.  Herbert didn’t return to England until 1903.Herbert married Lily in 1905 and subsequently had two children with Lily.  Herbert Taylor, born in 1910 and Violet Rose Taylor, born in January 1915. 

Lily Beatrice Steer died on May 5, 1915, soon after the birth of her daughter Violet.  By 1939, Herbert, age 60, is living without a wife, but is also residing with Francis "Frank" Taylor Steer, 21 and May Steer, 14.  I believe that these are the children of Adelaide who may have died in 1839.  Therefore, it is possible he was raising his own grandchildren.