The Cape Mounted Yeomanry was a military force created on a militia basis by Act 5 of 1878 in the Cape Colony, with a strength of 3,000 in three regiments, to act in conjunction with the Cape Mounted Riflemen on the eastern frontier. [1] About 600 men were put into the field for the Basuto Rebellion in 1880.
A militia is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a nation, or subjects of a state, who can be called upon for military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of regular, full-time military personnel, or historically, members of a warrior nobility class. Generally unable to hold ground against regular forces, it is common for militias to be used for aiding regular troops by skirmishing, holding fortifications, or irregular warfare, instead of being used in offensive campaigns by themselves. Militia are often limited by local civilian laws to serve only in their home region, and to serve only for a limited time; this further reduces their use in long military campaigns.
The Cape of Good Hope, also known as the Cape Colony, was a British colony in present-day South Africa, named after the Cape of Good Hope. The British colony was preceded by an earlier Dutch colony of the same name, the Kaap de Goede Hoop, established in 1652 by the Dutch East India Company. The Cape was under Dutch rule from 1652 to 1795 and again from 1803 to 1806. The Dutch lost the colony to Great Britain following the 1795 Battle of Muizenberg, but had it returned following the 1802 Peace of Amiens. It was re-occupied by the UK following the Battle of Blaauwberg in 1806, and British possession affirmed with the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814.
The Cape Mounted Riflemen were South African military units.
Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Southey commanded the Cape Mounted Yeomanry during the Basuto Gun War.
Colonel Richard George Southey CB CMG (1844–1909) was a South African colonial military commander. His father, Sir Richard Southey, was a high-ranking Cape civil servant.
The Gun War, also known as the Basuto War, was an 1880-1881 conflict in the British territory of Basutoland in Southern Africa, fought between Cape Colony forces and rebellious Basotho chiefs over the right of natives to bear arms. Although officially considered a stalemate, the final settlement favoured the Basotho.
Twenty-six-year-old Surgeon John Frederick McCrea was a Surgeon in the 1st Cape Mounted Yeomanry during the Basuto Gun War. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions on 14 January 1881, at Tweefontein, Basutoland.
John Frederick McCrea VC was a South African recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
Surgery is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate or treat a pathological condition such as a disease or injury, to help improve bodily function or appearance or to repair unwanted ruptured areas.
The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for gallantry "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces. It may be awarded posthumously. It was previously awarded to Commonwealth countries, most of which have established their own honours systems and no longer recommend British honours. It may be awarded to a person of any military rank in any service and to civilians under military command although no civilian has received the award since 1879. Since the first awards were presented by Queen Victoria in 1857, two-thirds of all awards have been personally presented by the British monarch. These investitures are usually held at Buckingham Palace.
In this action, the burghers had been forced to retire under a most determined enemy attack, with a loss of 16 killed and 21 wounded. Surgeon McCrea was the only doctor present and notwithstanding a serious wound on the breast bone, which he dressed himself, he most gallantly took the casualties into shelter and continued to attend to the wounded throughout the day. Had it not been for this devotion to duty on the part of Surgeon McCrea, there would undoubtedly have been much greater suffering and loss of life.
Eleven members of the 3rd Cape Mounted Yeomanry died as a result of enemy action at Morosi's Stronghold on 29 May 1879. Sixteen members of the 1st Cape Mounted Yeomanry were killed in action at Morosi's Stronghold 5 June 1879 along with seven members of the 2nd regiment. [2]
Three hundred and six members of the unit received the Cape of Good Hope General Service Medal. [3] Captain AL Chiapini and Trooper E McGuire received the medal with all three clasps i.e. Transkei, Basutoland and Bechuanaland. [4]
The Cape of Good Hope General Service Medal is a British campaign medal which was awarded to members of the Cape Colonial Forces who took part in three campaigns in and around the Cape of Good Hope, in Basutoland in 1880–1881, in Transkei in 1880–1881 and in Bechuanaland in 1896–1897.
Trooper from the French "troupier" is the equivalent rank to private in a regiment with a cavalry tradition in the British Army and many other Commonwealth armies, including those of Australia, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand; it is also used by the Irish Army.
Transkei, officially the Republic of Transkei, was an unrecognised state in the southeastern region of South Africa from 1976 to 1994. It was a Bantustan—an area set aside for members of a specific ethnicity—and operated as a nominally independent parliamentary democracy. Its capital was Umtata.
The Cape Mounted Yeomanry was disbanded in 1881. [1]
