19 MARCH 1902 - NEAR LYDENBURG (“BEN TOR” BLOCKHOUSE)

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“The Campaigns and History of the Royal Irish Regiment from 1684 to 1902”, p360-1:

 

The dynamite episode occurred two months later. Among the blockhouses held by the Royal Irish was one, named by the troops Ben Tor, which stood on a kopje so thickly covered with big boulders that the sentries could not watch all the approaches to it.

 

The building was of stone, roofed with sheets of galvanised iron; and on the night of the 18th of March it was held by a non-commissioned officer – Sergeant M’Grath – and nine private soldiers. A

 

bout two o’clock in the morning of the 19th, the two men on sentry outside the blockhouse heard sounds which they rightly interpreted to be those of approaching feet.

While one remained on the lookout, the other crawled into the blockhouse and reported to Sergeant M’Grath, who immediately stood to arms and manned his loopholes, but almost before the men were in their places, a bomb was hurled on the roof, which unfortunately being flat, not sloping, afforded the missile a secure lodgement.

 

In a second there was a tremendous explosion: the blockhouse was wrecked and every man of the garrison dangerously or severely wounded, except the sentry outside who escaped all injury. 

After capturing this man the Boers waited for some minutes to see if anyone was still on foot; then, satisfied that no resistance was to be expected, they rapidly looted the blockhouse and decamped, fortunately without finding the boxes of reserve ammunition hidden under the sheets of galvanized iron which formed the beds of 
the garrison.

 

Beyond stripping some of the wounded, the burghers did their victims no harm, and sent off the uninjured soldier to summon medical aid from Lydenburg.

By dawn a detachment of troops, a doctor, and an ambulance were on the way to Ben Tor, where, says one of the officers, “the place was like a shambles – too horrible to describe.”

 

As soon as the wounded men had been 
removed, the blockhouse was rebuilt and greatly strengthened.