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Auction: 24111 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 431

Pair: Private H. Putland, Rifle Brigade, who was wounded in action at Bergendal on 27 August 1900

Queen's South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Defence of Ladysmith, Orange Free State, Laing's Nek (3646 Pte. H. Putland, Rifle Brigade); King's South Africa 1901-02, 2 clasps, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (3646 Pte. H. Putland. Rifle Brigade.), very fine (2)

Herbert Putland was wounded in action at the Battle of Bergendal on 27 August 1900. On that day, the 2nd Battalion, Rifle Brigade led the charge:

'Whilst the artillery hurled a last annihilating downpour upon Bergendal, both regiments advanced upon the scarcely visible kopje. The onset of the Rifle Brigade was swift and irresistible. Sweeping across the open glacis they dashed upon the rocks in the face of a roaring wind and of a still louder blast of bullets.

Many were struck down, their Colonel amongst the foremost, three officers and eighty men falling around him upon the naked slope, whilst many who were wounded kept on, hoping to reach the enemy before they sank. Still the Police stood firm, crushed though they were up to the very last moment by the falling canisters of lyddite and the all-searching shrapnel.

The final shell from Gun Ridge burst but ten yards in front of the leading infantry of the battalions of the attack. The burghers had lost fifty per cent, of their numbers; of the remnant many were too dazed to run when flight would have been but another service to their cause. But had the devoted band been a hundredfold stronger, they would have been unable to withstand the onslaught which converged upon their little fort.

The Rifle Brigade were upon them on one flank, the Inniskilling Fusiliers, charging up in the nick of time, enclosed them on the other; and in another moment both battalions poured over them, obliterating them rather than forcing them to yield. Less than twenty men, of whom eight were wounded, were captured alive; about thirty made off, pursued by the shrapnel of Brocklehurst’s and the 21st battery’s gunners, who had long been watching for a break-away. The remainder lay amongst the rocks where they had fought; and of those who died, none was mourned more deeply than the brave young Lieutenant Pohlmann. The commander, Oosthuizen, who was wounded, stayed with his men to the last, and yielded up his arms only with his charge.'

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Sold for
£250

Starting price
£110