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Auction: 19001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 636

Three: Private P. Towler, Lancashire Fusiliers, who was wounded at Spion Kop

Queen's Sudan 1896-98 (4120 Pte P. Towler 2/Lan. Fus.); Queen's South Africa 1899-1902, 1 clasp, Defence of Ladysmith (4120 Pte. P. Towler, Lanc: Fus:); Khedive's Sudan 1896-1908, 1 clasp, Khartoum (4120. Pte. P. Towler. 2nd. L.F.), very fine (3)

P. Towler was wounded at Spion Kop on 24 January 1900 whilst serving with the 2nd Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers.

The Battle was little short of a massacre for the men of the Lancashire Fusiliers. As the fog lifted and Boer shells began to reign down upon the plateau commanded by British troops, Commandant Henrik Prinsloo, responding to Botha's call for reinforcements, led his 88-man strong Carolina Commando onto Aloe Knoll, 400 yards east of the British position. From there, Prinsloo's marksmen unleashed a deadly fire on the unsuspecting men of the Lancashire Fusiliers, who were on the extreme right flank. The 'Khakis' as the Boers called them, never knew what hit them - seventy were later found dead with bullet holes in the right sides of their heads.

Grimly, the British held on to a 400-yard-wide battlefield. The men in the ranks squirmed into every square inch that they could find in the rocky topsoil, but it did little good - Boer artillery shells dismembered entire files of soldiers as they lay whilst the sharpshooters dealt with those who dared raise their heads off the ground.

According to The Spion Kop Despatches, the Principal Medical Officer reported at 7.30 p.m. on 24 January that 150 wounded had been brought in, that every available stretcher of 4th, 10th and 11th Brigades had been sent, and 24 ambulances as well. The wounded were brought down to the foot of Spion Kop and transferred to ambulances, which made their way to the field hospital at Wright's Farm; sold with copied research.

For further details see:

https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/military-history/an-acre-of-massacre-the-second-boer-wars-battle-of-spion-kop/


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Sold for
£1,400

Sale 19001 Notices
Clasp to the QSA is 'Relief of Ladysmith'.