Trailrider
Bachelor Dog
A small sign near the dirt road for the Wuppertal turnoff points to “The Englishman’s Grave.”
The headstone is in the form of a Celtic cross and bears the words “BRAVE AND TRUE.” At the base of the cross is inscribed:
In sacred and loving memory of Graham Vinicombe Winchester Clowes Lieutenant 1st Battn. the Gordon Highlanders… killed in action near this spot on 30th January 1901.
Lt. Clowes’ Gordon Highlander regiment was famous in South Africa. It had suffered a catastrophic defeat in the battle of Majuba Hill that concluded the lesser-known First Boer War of 1880-1881 (British casualties at Majuba, 280; Boers, 1). When the Second Boer War started in 1899, British soldiers who had a spirit of revenge would run into battle shouting, “Majuba! Majuba!” That word had been chanted at Elandslaagte, when the 2nd Gordons wore their kilts into battle.
Lt. Clowes’ 1st battalion shipped out to Cape Town after Elandslaagte, arriving just in time to march out for the ill-fated battle of Magersfontein. By the end of it British casualties numbered 902, compared with 200 for the Boers, and they had made no advance: a disaster. Lt. Clowes lived a year and two months longer, only to fall victim to a small band of Boer guerillas on an ordinary summer day.
The soldier’s mother had journeyed all the way from England after the war to find this remote spot and have the memorial erected.
(source)
The headstone is in the form of a Celtic cross and bears the words “BRAVE AND TRUE.” At the base of the cross is inscribed:
In sacred and loving memory of Graham Vinicombe Winchester Clowes Lieutenant 1st Battn. the Gordon Highlanders… killed in action near this spot on 30th January 1901.
Lt. Clowes’ Gordon Highlander regiment was famous in South Africa. It had suffered a catastrophic defeat in the battle of Majuba Hill that concluded the lesser-known First Boer War of 1880-1881 (British casualties at Majuba, 280; Boers, 1). When the Second Boer War started in 1899, British soldiers who had a spirit of revenge would run into battle shouting, “Majuba! Majuba!” That word had been chanted at Elandslaagte, when the 2nd Gordons wore their kilts into battle.
Lt. Clowes’ 1st battalion shipped out to Cape Town after Elandslaagte, arriving just in time to march out for the ill-fated battle of Magersfontein. By the end of it British casualties numbered 902, compared with 200 for the Boers, and they had made no advance: a disaster. Lt. Clowes lived a year and two months longer, only to fall victim to a small band of Boer guerillas on an ordinary summer day.
The soldier’s mother had journeyed all the way from England after the war to find this remote spot and have the memorial erected.
(source)
