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Auction: 17001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 112

(x) 'Displaying great courage and discipline for irregular and newly raised troops, the two Squadrons continued whole as their comrades fell all around them. Many of those who reached the Boer position were already wounded and bleeding profusely. Attempting to scale the parapet, they were horrified to discover the whole position roofed over. Moving around desperately, officers emptied their revolvers into the apertures and the men thrust their bayonets inside. Vernon, already twice wounded, was finally killed with a shot through the head. The wounds inflicted by firing at point-blank range were terrible … '

A description of events at Game Tree Hill on 26 December 1899, as the men of 'C' Squadron, Protectorate Regiment, under Captain R. J. Vernon, faced overwhelming odds; Mafeking: A Victorian Legend, by Brian Gardner, refers.

A fine 'Defence of Mafeking' Queen's South Africa Medal awarded to Trooper J. T. Corfield, Protectorate Regiment (Frontier Force), who, as a member of Captain R. J. Vernon's 'C' Squadron, would have shared in the severe fighting at Game Tree Hill

Queen's South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Orange Free State, Defence of Mafeking, Transvaal (47 Tpr. J. T. Corfield, Protect. Regt. F.F.), suspension a little slack, one or two minor edge bruises, otherwise very fine

Joseph Thomas Corfield is confirmed on the published roll as having served in Captain R. J. Vernon's 'C' Squadron during the defence of Mafeking. As such, he would have been among those deployed in the attack on the Boer positions at Game Tree Hill on 26 December 1899, when two squadrons of the Protectorate Regiment met fierce resistance.

Part of the plan had been for supporting artillery fire directed by observers in an armoured train but the signal to halt the barrage was delivered prematurely, as a result of which the two squadrons had to advance uphill under murderous fire. Moreover, just as the attack commenced, the Boers were in the process of changing their day guard, thereby enabling them to double the usual strength of their stronghold.

Of the 60 men engaged from 'C' Squadron, over two thirds were killed or wounded. Two of them, Sergeant H. R. Martineau and Trooper H. E. Ramsden, were awarded the V.C.

Reference sources:

Gardner, Brian, Mafeking: A Victorian Legend (Casell, London, 1966).
Stirling, John, The Colonials in South Africa 1899-1902 (Hayward, 1990).
Mitchell, F. K., Defence of Mafeking Medal Roll (A. H. Baldwin & Sons, London, 1962).




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