The Victoria Cross Wars by Brian Best

Author:Brian Best
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / General
ISBN: 9781473887381
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books
Published: 2017-03-29T16:00:00+00:00

MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY MEIKLEJOHN VC (1870-1913)

Matthew Fontaine Maury Meiklejohn was born in Clapham, London on 27 November 1870, to Professor John and Jane Meiklejohn, their first son was christened in a singular way. He was named after the American pioneering oceanographer, Matthew Fontaine Maury and it seems likely that Matthew’s parents attended one of Maury’s London lectures and were impressed enough to want to favour their offspring with such a lengthy name.

Professor Meiklejohn of St Andrew’s University was from Edinburgh and when Matthew was old enough, he was sent to one of Scotland’s finest schools, Fettes College. Although he did not come from a military family, upon completing his education, young Meiklejohn was sent to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst in February 1890. He is recorded as being 5ft-5in tall and his conduct ‘exemplary’.

On 17 June 1891, he was commissioned and posted to India to join 1st Battalion Gordon Highlanders. He took part in the relief of Chitral with General Low’s force and later was one of the Dargai heroes who crossed the fire-swept plateau to eject the Afridis from the heights. He was transferred to the 2nd Battalion when the 1st Battalion returned to Scotland.

Anticipating war with the Boers, the 2nd Battalion was sent to South Africa, disembarking at Durban on 9 October, two days before the declaration of war. They were immediately sent by rail to Ladysmith, the Aldershot of South Africa. Here they were brigaded under Colonel Ian Hamilton, along with 1st Devons, with whom they had sailed from India, and 1st Manchesters.

The Boer’s central aim was to cut railway communication with the coast and prevent the British moving their troops to the main theatre of operations. Three towns were singled out as key targets; Kimberley, Mafeking and Ladysmith. Of the three, Ladysmith was the central point of the whole Boer plan.

On 11 October 1899, the Boers crossed the Natal / Transvaal border, and nine days later confronted the small British garrison at Dundee, forty miles northeast of Ladysmith. The Boers had taken up a position on top of a steep ridge called Talana Hill about two miles from the camp. A Creusot 75-mm shell landed near the line of tents and the first battle of the Boer War began.

The British advanced in close order, a formation General Penn Symons insisted upon, resulting in many dead and wounded. Amongst them was Symons, who was mortally wounded. Gradually, the British inched their way up the steep flanks of Talana until they forced the Boers to retreat. It was a British victory but, at best, a Pyrrhic one.

The Boer invasion force had been split in two. Generals Erasmus and Meyer had marched on the rich coal-mining town of Dundee, while General Koch was to hold a defensive line on Mkhupe Pass over the Biggarsberg Mountains in case the British counter-attacked. Three days after the Battle of Talana, the Boers succeeded in dislodging the British from Dundee, who withdrew to join the main body of the army at Ladysmith.

Koch’s commando

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