Montmorency's Scouts was raised by
Captain De Montmorency
VC, 21st Lancers, in December 1899.
The medal roll in WO100/259 pages 87 to 94 lists 112 names. Volume 5 of the Times History gives their number at 100. The roll header suggests 56 medals and 126 clasps were issued.
Creswicke (Vol 3, chapter3) records an action for Captain De Montmorency but it is not clear whether the scouts has been formed at this time (24 December 1899(.
Owing to a series of successful skirmishes, in which a patrol under Captain de Montmorency, V.C., was engaged, the Boers thought discretion the better part of valour, and cleared out of Dordrecht, with the result that on the 24th of December Colonel Dalgety, of the Cape Mounted Rifles, with his force
occupied the town.
But by the 29th, they were an discrete unit:
On the 29th [December], a pouring day, Captain de Montmorency started with his scouts and thirty Cape Mounted Rifles in hope of catching the enemy. But the Boers, under cover of the mist, took themselves off in the direction of the Barkly East district.
Creswicke reports another engagement on 30th December, giving the unit strength as 110:
On the 30th of December a hundred of Flannigan's Squadron of Brabant's Horse had a smart brush with an equal number of Dutchmen, retired, but unfortunately Lieutenant Milford Turner and twenty-seven men were left behind in a donga which none would leave, determining to remain there and protect Lieutenant Warren of Brabant's Horse, who was wounded. To their assistance went Captain Goldsworthy the next day, accompanied by Captain de Montmorency's scouts, 110 men, and four guns. These arrived on the scene so early as to surprise the Boers, who, after having been kept at bay by the small force of Colonials, had continued to snipe at them from a distance throughout the night. A sharp fight now ensued, and, after some clever manoeuvring on both sides, the enemy retired with the loss of eight killed, while the party in the donga was relieved, and returned in safety to Dordrecht. The rescue was highly exciting, as the Boers were finally sent helter-skelter just as our men, worn out with a night's anxiety in the nullah, had almost given up hope of release. As it was, they were restored to their friends in camp amid a storm of cheers.
Later, Creswicke notes:
Though General Gatacre's Division was merely the shadow of the division it should have been, and his strength, such as it was, materially thinned by reverse, he had at his elbow one man who was a host in himself. This man was Captain de Montmorency. He kept the Boers who were holding Stormberg in a simmering state of excitement and suspense. He and his active party of scouts were perpetually reconnoitring and skirmishing and emerging from very tight corners, getting back to camp by what in vulgar phrase is called "the skin of their teeth." One of these narrow escapes was experienced on the i6th January, when Captain de Montmorency and his men went out from Molteno to gain information regarding the whereabouts of the enemy. A smart combat was the result of their efforts, and when they were almost surrounded Major Heylen with sixty Police came to the rescue, and the whole force, after some animated firing, returned safely to Molteno, plus horses, mares, foals, and oxen, which had been captured from the enemy.
Black and White Budget (13 January 1900) commented:
Captajn de Montmorency, who is the commander of some mounted scouts with General Gatacre's force, is showing the great value of horsemen in fighting the Boers. As soon as the enemy find themselves out-flanked by Montmorency's men, they make a very hurried movement to the rear, and the fight is over so far as they are concerned. Captain Montmorency is the hero of the 21st Lancers, and won the Victoria Cross at Omdurman in 1898 by returning, after the charge, for the dead body of Lieutenant Grenfell, and carrying it off from among the enemy. He is the eldest son and heir of Major-General Viscount Frankfort de Montmorency, while his mother is the daughter of a
Field-Marshal.
Black and White Budget (24 February 1900) reported an engagement at Sterkstroom:
While these operations were going on, General Gatacre was repelling a well-organised Boer attack at Sterkstroom. A feint at Penhoek was followed by a desperate attempt, supported by three guns, to capture our position at Bird's River. The Boers tried to capture a ridge which commanded our right, but were frustrated by a neat move on the part of Company A of the Royal Scots. The brunt of the fighting was then borne by the Cape Mounted Rifles and a Battery of Field Artillery, till Montmorency's Scouts and a company of Brabant's Horse, followed closely by the Royal Irish Rifles, came up to reinforce, and made it so hot for the Boers that they fled precipitately.
Unbeknown to B&W, De Montmorency was killed a day before their issued was published. Maurice gives more information on his death:
While the Colonial division was thus employed on the right front of the Illrd division, which on the 11th February numbered approximately 5,300 officers and men, Lieut.-General Gatacre ordered a reconnaissance on the 23rd February, to ascertain the truth of rumours that, in consequence of Lord Roberts' invasion of the Free State, the Boers were falling back from Stormberg. Five companies of the Derbyshire with one machine gun, and the 74th and 77th batteries, Royal Field artillery (four guns each), were posted north of Pienaar's Farm, while the mounted troops, numbering about 450, and consisting of De Montmorency's Scouts, four companies mounted infantry, and a party of Cape Mounted Rifles, were ordered to scout to the front as far as the height overlooking Van Goosen's Farm, and to try to lure the enemy towards the position occupied by the guns and the infantry. The scouts were fired on from a ridge held by the burghers ; their advance was checked, and General Gatacre, finding that the Boers were not to be tempted forward, ordered a general withdrawal. The reconnaissance was not effected without loss. About 10.30 a.m. Captain the Hon. R. H. L. J. De Montmorency, V.C., 21st Lancers, had mounted a small kopje, accompanied by Lieut. -Colonel F. H. Hoskier, 3rd Middlesex Volunteer artillery, Mr. Vice, a civilian, and a corporal, when sudden fire at short range was poured into the little party, and De Montmorency, Hoskier and Vice were killed. This was not at once known to those behind, who for a time were left without orders. The enemy's fire was so heavy that until 3.30 p.m. it was impossible to extricate the remainder of the scouts. The losses in De Montmorency's small corps were two officers and four rank and file killed, two rank and file wounded, one officer and five other ranks missing, of whom two were known to have been wounded. The result of the day's operations, in Lieut.-General Gatacre's opinion, tended to show that the enemy's force at Stormberg had diminished
On the day Roberts entered Bloemfontein, The Times History reported :
That same day Captain Hennessey, of the Cape Police, and Captain Turner, of De Montmorency's Scouts, hearing that the railway was intact to Springfontein, rode the 30 miles to the junction on a trolley, surprised eight Boers asleep in the station and disarmed them, and next day brought back to Bethulie two engines and over 40 trucks, the prize of their daring exploit.
Of Montmorency's Scouts, Stirling says "Their work during the next three months [from December 1899] was constantly referred to in terms of praise by Major Pollock and other writers on the operations in Central Cape Colony. In the last fortnight of December and in January they did particularly well. The corps lost their gallant leader in a skirmish near Stormberg on 23rd February 1900. It is said that he fired eleven shots after being mortally wounded.
Captain M'Neill, of the Seaforth Highlanders, who had been aide-de-camp to General Gatacre, succeeded to the command of the scouts on Montmorency's death.
When the Boers had been driven from the neighbourhood of the Orange, the corps took part in the operations for the relief of Wepener. They were in the advance to the Transvaal, and were among the first troops to gallop into Pretoria.
After Pretoria was occupied, Montmorency's Scouts were split up. In July a detachment served in the column of Lieutenant General Ian Hamilton, which did much hard work marching and fighting, both east and west of Pretoria, during July, August, and September 1900.
Spink sold a QSA to Montmorency's Scouts last week. Their description which was inaccurate regarding the number of medals issued given the information above read;
Montmorency’s Scouts took their name from the legendary ‘Omdurman V.C.’, Captain Raymond Harvey Lodge Joseph de Montmorency, who was killed during the action at Stormberg on 23 February 1900. A hand-picked - and feared - body of scouts, they caused some unrest within the Regular Army with their ‘skull and crossbones’ flag. Conan Doyle described their fight at Stormberg:
‘On February 23rd he (Gatacre) re-occupied Molteno, and on the same day sent out a force to reconnoitre the enemy’s position at Stormberg. The incident is memorable as having been the cause of death of Captain de Montmorency, one of the most promising of the younger officers of the British Army. He had formed a corps of scouts, consisting originally of four men, but soon expended to seventy or eighty. At the head of these men he confirmed his reputation for desperate valour which he had won in the Sudan and added to it proofs of enterprise and judgement which go to make a leader of light cavalry. In the course of the reconnaissance he ascended a small kopje … “They are right on top of us,” he cried to his comrades, as he reached the summit, and dropped next instant with a bullet in his heart. The rest of the scouts, being farther back, were able to get to cover and to keep up a fight until they were extricated by the remainder of the force. Altogether our loss was formidable rather in quality than in quantity, for not more than a dozen were hit, while the Boers suffered considerably from the fire of our guns.’
Byrne, his soldier servant, an Omdurman V.C. like his master, galloped madly off next morning with a saddled horse to bring back his Captain alive or dead, and had to be forcibly seized and restrained
by our cavalry’ (The Great Boer War, refers).
x633 Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal (Scout W. A. Robinson. Montmorency’s Scouts.), good very fine and rare £120-160
Very few medals were issued named to Montmorency’s Scouts, perhaps around 20.
The medal roll in WO100/259 pages 87 to 94 lists 112 names. Volume 5 of the Times History gives their number at 100. The roll header suggests 56 medals and 126 clasps were issued.
Creswicke (Vol 3, chapter3) records an action for Captain De Montmorency but it is not clear whether the scouts has been formed at this time (24 December 1899(.
Owing to a series of successful skirmishes, in which a patrol under Captain de Montmorency, V.C., was engaged, the Boers thought discretion the better part of valour, and cleared out of Dordrecht, with the result that on the 24th of December Colonel Dalgety, of the Cape Mounted Rifles, with his force
occupied the town.
But by the 29th, they were an discrete unit:
On the 29th [December], a pouring day, Captain de Montmorency started with his scouts and thirty Cape Mounted Rifles in hope of catching the enemy. But the Boers, under cover of the mist, took themselves off in the direction of the Barkly East district.
Creswicke reports another engagement on 30th December, giving the unit strength as 110:
On the 30th of December a hundred of Flannigan's Squadron of Brabant's Horse had a smart brush with an equal number of Dutchmen, retired, but unfortunately Lieutenant Milford Turner and twenty-seven men were left behind in a donga which none would leave, determining to remain there and protect Lieutenant Warren of Brabant's Horse, who was wounded. To their assistance went Captain Goldsworthy the next day, accompanied by Captain de Montmorency's scouts, 110 men, and four guns. These arrived on the scene so early as to surprise the Boers, who, after having been kept at bay by the small force of Colonials, had continued to snipe at them from a distance throughout the night. A sharp fight now ensued, and, after some clever manoeuvring on both sides, the enemy retired with the loss of eight killed, while the party in the donga was relieved, and returned in safety to Dordrecht. The rescue was highly exciting, as the Boers were finally sent helter-skelter just as our men, worn out with a night's anxiety in the nullah, had almost given up hope of release. As it was, they were restored to their friends in camp amid a storm of cheers.
Later, Creswicke notes:
Though General Gatacre's Division was merely the shadow of the division it should have been, and his strength, such as it was, materially thinned by reverse, he had at his elbow one man who was a host in himself. This man was Captain de Montmorency. He kept the Boers who were holding Stormberg in a simmering state of excitement and suspense. He and his active party of scouts were perpetually reconnoitring and skirmishing and emerging from very tight corners, getting back to camp by what in vulgar phrase is called "the skin of their teeth." One of these narrow escapes was experienced on the i6th January, when Captain de Montmorency and his men went out from Molteno to gain information regarding the whereabouts of the enemy. A smart combat was the result of their efforts, and when they were almost surrounded Major Heylen with sixty Police came to the rescue, and the whole force, after some animated firing, returned safely to Molteno, plus horses, mares, foals, and oxen, which had been captured from the enemy.
Black and White Budget (13 January 1900) commented:
Captajn de Montmorency, who is the commander of some mounted scouts with General Gatacre's force, is showing the great value of horsemen in fighting the Boers. As soon as the enemy find themselves out-flanked by Montmorency's men, they make a very hurried movement to the rear, and the fight is over so far as they are concerned. Captain Montmorency is the hero of the 21st Lancers, and won the Victoria Cross at Omdurman in 1898 by returning, after the charge, for the dead body of Lieutenant Grenfell, and carrying it off from among the enemy. He is the eldest son and heir of Major-General Viscount Frankfort de Montmorency, while his mother is the daughter of a
Field-Marshal.
Black and White Budget (24 February 1900) reported an engagement at Sterkstroom:
While these operations were going on, General Gatacre was repelling a well-organised Boer attack at Sterkstroom. A feint at Penhoek was followed by a desperate attempt, supported by three guns, to capture our position at Bird's River. The Boers tried to capture a ridge which commanded our right, but were frustrated by a neat move on the part of Company A of the Royal Scots. The brunt of the fighting was then borne by the Cape Mounted Rifles and a Battery of Field Artillery, till Montmorency's Scouts and a company of Brabant's Horse, followed closely by the Royal Irish Rifles, came up to reinforce, and made it so hot for the Boers that they fled precipitately.
Unbeknown to B&W, De Montmorency was killed a day before their issued was published. Maurice gives more information on his death:
While the Colonial division was thus employed on the right front of the Illrd division, which on the 11th February numbered approximately 5,300 officers and men, Lieut.-General Gatacre ordered a reconnaissance on the 23rd February, to ascertain the truth of rumours that, in consequence of Lord Roberts' invasion of the Free State, the Boers were falling back from Stormberg. Five companies of the Derbyshire with one machine gun, and the 74th and 77th batteries, Royal Field artillery (four guns each), were posted north of Pienaar's Farm, while the mounted troops, numbering about 450, and consisting of De Montmorency's Scouts, four companies mounted infantry, and a party of Cape Mounted Rifles, were ordered to scout to the front as far as the height overlooking Van Goosen's Farm, and to try to lure the enemy towards the position occupied by the guns and the infantry. The scouts were fired on from a ridge held by the burghers ; their advance was checked, and General Gatacre, finding that the Boers were not to be tempted forward, ordered a general withdrawal. The reconnaissance was not effected without loss. About 10.30 a.m. Captain the Hon. R. H. L. J. De Montmorency, V.C., 21st Lancers, had mounted a small kopje, accompanied by Lieut. -Colonel F. H. Hoskier, 3rd Middlesex Volunteer artillery, Mr. Vice, a civilian, and a corporal, when sudden fire at short range was poured into the little party, and De Montmorency, Hoskier and Vice were killed. This was not at once known to those behind, who for a time were left without orders. The enemy's fire was so heavy that until 3.30 p.m. it was impossible to extricate the remainder of the scouts. The losses in De Montmorency's small corps were two officers and four rank and file killed, two rank and file wounded, one officer and five other ranks missing, of whom two were known to have been wounded. The result of the day's operations, in Lieut.-General Gatacre's opinion, tended to show that the enemy's force at Stormberg had diminished
On the day Roberts entered Bloemfontein, The Times History reported :
That same day Captain Hennessey, of the Cape Police, and Captain Turner, of De Montmorency's Scouts, hearing that the railway was intact to Springfontein, rode the 30 miles to the junction on a trolley, surprised eight Boers asleep in the station and disarmed them, and next day brought back to Bethulie two engines and over 40 trucks, the prize of their daring exploit.
Of Montmorency's Scouts, Stirling says "Their work during the next three months [from December 1899] was constantly referred to in terms of praise by Major Pollock and other writers on the operations in Central Cape Colony. In the last fortnight of December and in January they did particularly well. The corps lost their gallant leader in a skirmish near Stormberg on 23rd February 1900. It is said that he fired eleven shots after being mortally wounded.
Captain M'Neill, of the Seaforth Highlanders, who had been aide-de-camp to General Gatacre, succeeded to the command of the scouts on Montmorency's death.
When the Boers had been driven from the neighbourhood of the Orange, the corps took part in the operations for the relief of Wepener. They were in the advance to the Transvaal, and were among the first troops to gallop into Pretoria.
After Pretoria was occupied, Montmorency's Scouts were split up. In July a detachment served in the column of Lieutenant General Ian Hamilton, which did much hard work marching and fighting, both east and west of Pretoria, during July, August, and September 1900.
Spink sold a QSA to Montmorency's Scouts last week. Their description which was inaccurate regarding the number of medals issued given the information above read;
Montmorency’s Scouts took their name from the legendary ‘Omdurman V.C.’, Captain Raymond Harvey Lodge Joseph de Montmorency, who was killed during the action at Stormberg on 23 February 1900. A hand-picked - and feared - body of scouts, they caused some unrest within the Regular Army with their ‘skull and crossbones’ flag. Conan Doyle described their fight at Stormberg:
‘On February 23rd he (Gatacre) re-occupied Molteno, and on the same day sent out a force to reconnoitre the enemy’s position at Stormberg. The incident is memorable as having been the cause of death of Captain de Montmorency, one of the most promising of the younger officers of the British Army. He had formed a corps of scouts, consisting originally of four men, but soon expended to seventy or eighty. At the head of these men he confirmed his reputation for desperate valour which he had won in the Sudan and added to it proofs of enterprise and judgement which go to make a leader of light cavalry. In the course of the reconnaissance he ascended a small kopje … “They are right on top of us,” he cried to his comrades, as he reached the summit, and dropped next instant with a bullet in his heart. The rest of the scouts, being farther back, were able to get to cover and to keep up a fight until they were extricated by the remainder of the force. Altogether our loss was formidable rather in quality than in quantity, for not more than a dozen were hit, while the Boers suffered considerably from the fire of our guns.’
Byrne, his soldier servant, an Omdurman V.C. like his master, galloped madly off next morning with a saddled horse to bring back his Captain alive or dead, and had to be forcibly seized and restrained
by our cavalry’ (The Great Boer War, refers).
x633 Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal (Scout W. A. Robinson. Montmorency’s Scouts.), good very fine and rare £120-160
Very few medals were issued named to Montmorency’s Scouts, perhaps around 20.