Sgt. D.B. Hammond RCFA/CS, KIA 27 January 1901

[QSAMIKE]

Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen:

Just an offering for your viewing and reading pleasure my latest accuisition, a Canadian casualty of the Anglo/Boer War. Infact Sgt. Hammond was the first casualty that the unit suffered also a rumor of Friendly Fire.

HAMMOND, DAYTON BROWN

BOER WAR - PART ONE

REG. NO.: 129

RANK: DRIVER

REGT: "C" BATTERY, ROYAL CANADIAN FIELD ARTILLERY

BARS: CAPE COLONY, RHODESIA, TRANSVAAL

REMARKS / HISTORY:

1. VERIFIED IN BOOK, KNOWING NO FEAR BY JIM WALLACE

2. 12 PAGES OF SERVICE DOCUMENTS

3. PHOTOGRAPH OF THE GRAVE OF D. B. HAMMOND

4. ENLISTMENT DOCUMENT

ENLISTED AT: TORONTO, ONTARIO

ON: 2ND FEBRUARY 1900

AGE: 22 YEARS

BIRTHPLACE: OWEN SOUND ONTARIO

FORMER CORPS: 31ST GREY'S BATTALION

TRADE OR CALLING: FARMER

RELIGION: CHURCH OF ENGLAND

NOK: FATHER, ROBERT HAMMOND, OWEN SOUND

ADDRESS NOK: OWEN SOUND, ONTARIO

MARRIED OR SINGLE: SINGLE

NUMBER OF CHILDREN AND AGES: NONE

HEIGHT: 5' 9 1/2"

MARKS ON PERSON: NONE

MEDICAL REPORT: FIT

DATE OF DISCHARGE: 30TH NOVEMBER 1900 TO JOIN HOWARD'S SCOUTS / CANADIAN SCOUTS

BOER WAR - PART TWO

REG. NO.: 129

RANK: SERGEANT

REGT: HOWARD'S / CANADIAN SCOUTS

BARS: ENTITLED TO ORANGE FREE STATE, SOUTH AFRICA 1901 NOT WITH MEDAL

REMARKS / HISTORY:

1. VERIFIED IN BOOK, KNOWING NO FEAR BY JIM WALLACE

ENLISTMENT DOCUMENT

RANK: SERGEANT

REGIMENTAL NUMBER: 129

ENLISTED AT: CAPETOWN, SOUTH AFRICA

ON: 1ST DECEMBER 1900

AGE: 23 YEARS

BIRTHPLACE: OWEN SOUND ONTARIO

FORMER CORPS: 31ST GREY'S BATTALION / "C" BATTERY ROYAL CANADIAN FIELD ARTILLERY

TRADE OR CALLING: FARMER

RELIGION: CHURCH OF ENGLAND

NOK: FATHER, ROBERT HAMMOND, OWEN SOUND

ADDRESS NOK: OWEN SOUND, ONTARIO

MARRIED OR SINGLE: SINGLE

NUMBER OF CHILDREN AND AGES: NONE

HEIGHT: 5' 9 1/2"

MARKS ON PERSON: NONE

MEDICAL REPORT: FIT

DATE OF DISCHARGE: KILLED IN ACTION, 27TH JANUARY 1901, VLAKKRAAL

LETTER TO COLONEL OTTER FROM FATHER, ROBERT HAMMOND:

Owen Sound, April 14th, 1902

To Colonel Otter Stanley Barracks

Dear Sir,

Ever since the soldiers received their medals I have thought of writing to you. I do not see why the parents of deceased soldiers who fell in South Africa would not receive their medals their sons who would have received had they returned. Was not their lives given for their country? Were they not as brave as those who lived to return and receive the medals. I for one would like to receive the medal my son would have got had he lived to return. There is one part of it which I think the hardest to bear and that is he was killed by the British by a mistaken order, this we have learned from a comrade who was on the field at the time. His No. Was 129 and his name was Dayton Brown Hammond. Now I hope to hear from you soon about this as we think it right we should receive the medal. He was killed at a place called East Frabickew (sp) on the 27th January, 1901.

Yours truly

Robert Hammond

Spring Mount, Ontario

April 14th, 1902

To Colonel Otter

Dear Sir,

I opened this letter again just to mention that my son was in C Battery for a year and was then allowed to come home but reinlisted in Howard's Scouts and was with them from 1st Dec. until the 27th Jan. 1901 the day he was killed.

Robert Hammond

Spring Mount, Ontario

FROM: KNOWING NO FEAR, The Canadian Scouts in South Africa 1900-1902 by Jim Wallace. (Quoted for research purposes only)

On January 27th, Alderson's column marched via Kleinfontein and Tweedracht to Kameelkraal. Two companies of the Mounted Infantry went to the left via Puntlift to Witfontein then back to Roodekoppies along the right bank of Bronkhorstspruit, driving about 60 Boers ahead of them. As they moved forward, the Scouts suffered their first fatal casualties at Vlakkraal, when Sergeant Major Duncan McGregor and Sergeany Dayton Hammond were killed, Sergeant Walter Gordon was wounded and one of the Scouts' Colt guns was captured by the Boers. As Anderson's column moved forward, with Knox's column on their right and Campbell's on their left, the Canadian Scouts formed a screen well in advance of the main column. Seventy-five Scouts had to keep in touch with both flanking columns over a front of twelve miles. Lieutenant Ryan, with five men and a Colt ghun, was ordered to fill a gap of about a mile and a half in the centre where the main road ran.

After advancing some 15 miles, Ryan's men found no sign of the enemy. Two of his Scouts were in advance and Ryan could see them going to a farmhouse ahead of him. When he a small kopje on the right he sent a man to see if it was occupied and watched him as he went over the hill. When Ryan was within a few hundred yards of the farmhouse he saw two men who, he believed, were the two he sent forward. When one of the men waved to him, Ryan told Sergeant Major McGregor, who was incharge of the gun, to stay where he was with Sergeant Hammond while he, Ryan, checked to see if the way was clear. Ryan then put the spurs to his horse and when within a hundred yards of the house saw a figure in khaki, with a felt hat, wave his hand and go around the corner of the house. Ryan followed him "around the corner.... Into the arms of seventy-five Boers with their rifles looking me in the face." He found his men, other than McGregor and Hammond, had been taken prisoner and one of them, Sergeant Gordon, was shot and wounded when he attempted to escape.

The Boer who decoyed Ryan then walked to the front of the house and waved McGregor forward with the Colt gun, When he was about sixty yards out, McGregor sensed that something was wrong so dismounted and unlimbered the gun. The Boers immediately opened fire, killing both McGregor and Hammond. Ryan said the Boer commander Prinsloo, and his staff were dressed in khaki, some with helmets and others wearing felt hats turned up at the side with a badge of the Transvaal coat of arms. When Ryan was captured, he talked to Prinsloo for three quarters of an hour and was then allowed to send for an ambulance. Prinsloo told Ryan to stay with his badly wounded man until the ambulance came then he and his Burgers left, retireing to the silver mines and Kromdraai. The ambulance arrived about three hours later.

When Ryan reported to Anderson, the general was of the opinion that it had been no place to send a gun and Ryan should have been provided with an escort so he was cleared. Major Howard was, understandably, highly upset at the loss of the Colt gun and he quickly set off with a few Scouts to track it down. The party returned early the next morning after an unsuccessful search and Howard to his men that any individual or group who recaptured the gun would be given $500.00. Within a few weeks a portrait of Sergeant McGregor was unveiled at the Gladstone Avenue School in Toronto where he had been a puple.

There is some mystery surrounding the reports on the death of Sergeant Hammond. In his documents there is a letter from his father (see above) to Lieutenat Colonel William D. Otter, which states "There is one part of it which I think the hardest to bear and that is he was killed by the British by a mistaken order, this we have learned from a comrade who was on the field at the time." Presumably the "mistaken order" was sending Ryan forward without an escort for the Colt gun, but this is not explicit in the letter and it is clear from Ryan's account that the casualties were directly from Boer fire.

End Quote.....

After receiving the letter, Colonel Otter started the paperwork to have the medal delivered to Hammond's father.....

The medal was presented to Mr. Robert Hammond personally by Colonel Otter in May of 1902.....

The nice thing is I know the location of the Queen's South Africa Medal awarded to Sergeant Major McGregor which might be for sale at some time in the future.....

Mike

[sabrigade]

Excellent post, thank you for sharing the well researched and tragic story.

Regards,

Will

[Chris Boonzaier]

A very nice bit of history indeed!! That really breathes life into the medal!