South Africa
South Africa the Republic of South Africa, is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by 2,798 kilometres of coastline of Southern Africa stretching along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans. South Africa is the largest country in Southern Africa and the 25th-largest country in the world by land area and, with over 57 million people, is the world's 24th-most populous nation, it is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Eastern Hemisphere. About 80 percent of South Africans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, divided among a variety of ethnic groups speaking different African languages, nine of which have official status; the remaining population consists of Africa's largest communities of European and multiracial ancestry. South Africa is a multiethnic society encompassing a wide variety of cultures and religions, its pluralistic makeup is reflected in the constitution's recognition of 11 official languages, the fourth highest number in the world. Two of these languages are of European origin: Afrikaans developed from Dutch and serves as the first language of most coloured and white South Africans.
The country is one of the few in Africa never to have had a coup d'état, regular elections have been held for a century. However, the vast majority of black South Africans were not enfranchised until 1994. During the 20th century, the black majority sought to recover its rights from the dominant white minority, with this struggle playing a large role in the country's recent history and politics; the National Party imposed apartheid in 1948. After a long and sometimes violent struggle by the African National Congress and other anti-apartheid activists both inside and outside the country, the repeal of discriminatory laws began in 1990. Since 1994, all ethnic and linguistic groups have held political representation in the country's liberal democracy, which comprises a parliamentary republic and nine provinces. South Africa is referred to as the "rainbow nation" to describe the country's multicultural diversity in the wake of apartheid; the World Bank classifies South Africa as an upper-middle-income economy, a newly industrialised country.
Its economy is the second-largest in Africa, the 34th-largest in the world. In terms of purchasing power parity, South Africa has the seventh-highest per capita income in Africa; however and inequality remain widespread, with about a quarter of the population unemployed and living on less than US$1.25 a day. South Africa has been identified as a middle power in international affairs, maintains significant regional influence; the name "South Africa" is derived from the country's geographic location at the southern tip of Africa. Upon formation, the country was named the Union of South Africa in English, reflecting its origin from the unification of four separate British colonies. Since 1961, the long form name in English has been the "Republic of South Africa". In Dutch, the country was named Republiek van Zuid-Afrika, replaced in 1983 by the Afrikaans Republiek van Suid-Afrika. Since 1994, the Republic has had an official name in each of its 11 official languages. Mzansi, derived from the Xhosa noun umzantsi meaning "south", is a colloquial name for South Africa, while some Pan-Africanist political parties prefer the term "Azania".
South Africa contains human-fossil sites in the world. Archaeologists have recovered extensive fossil remains from a series of caves in Gauteng Province; the area, a UNESCO World Heritage site, has been branded "the Cradle of Humankind". The sites include one of the richest sites for hominin fossils in the world. Other sites include Gondolin Cave Kromdraai, Coopers Cave and Malapa. Raymond Dart identified the first hominin fossil discovered in Africa, the Taung Child in 1924. Further hominin remains have come from the sites of Makapansgat in Limpopo Province and Florisbad in the Free State Province, Border Cave in KwaZulu-Natal Province, Klasies River Mouth in Eastern Cape Province and Pinnacle Point and Die Kelders Cave in Western Cape Province; these finds suggest that various hominid species existed in South Africa from about three million years ago, starting with Australopithecus africanus. There followed species including Australopithecus sediba, Homo ergaster, Homo erectus, Homo rhodesiensis, Homo helmei, Homo naledi and modern humans.
Modern humans have inhabited Southern Africa for at least 170,000 years. Various researchers have located pebble tools within the Vaal River valley. Settlements of Bantu-speaking peoples, who were iron-using agriculturists and herdsmen, were present south of the Limpopo River by the 4th or 5th century CE, they displaced and absorbed the original Khoisan speakers, the Khoikhoi and San peoples. The Bantu moved south; the earliest ironworks in modern-day KwaZulu-Natal Province are believed to date from around 1050. The southernmost group was the Xhosa people, whose language incorporates certain linguistic traits from the earlier Khoisan people; the Xhosa reached the Great Fish River, in today's Eastern Cape Province. As they migrated, these larger Iron Age populations
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, of other parts of the Commonwealth, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime in actual combat. Since 1993 all ranks have been eligible. Instituted on 6 September 1886 by Queen Victoria in a Royal Warrant published in The London Gazette on 9 November, the first DSOs awarded were dated 25 November 1886; the order was established to reward individual instances of meritorious or distinguished service in war. It was a military order, until for officers only, awarded to officers ranked major or higher, with awards to ranks below this for a high degree of gallantry, just short of deserving the Victoria Cross. While given for service under fire or under conditions equivalent to service in actual combat with the enemy, a number of awards made between 1914 and 1916 were under circumstances not under fire to staff officers, causing resentment among front-line officers.
After 1 January 1917, commanders in the field were instructed to recommend this award only for those serving under fire. From 1916, ribbon bars could be authorised for subsequent awards of the DSO, worn on the ribbon of the original award. In 1942, the award was extended to officers of the Merchant Navy who had performed acts of gallantry while under enemy attack. A requirement that the order could be given only to someone mentioned in despatches was removed in 1943. Since 1993, reflecting the review of the British honours system which recommended removing distinctions of rank in respect of operational awards, the DSO has been open to all ranks, with the award criteria redefined as'highly successful command and leadership during active operations'. At the same time, the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross was introduced as the second highest award for gallantry. Despite some fierce campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, the DSO has yet to be awarded to a non-commissioned rank; the DSO had been awarded by Commonwealth countries but by the 1990s most, including Canada and New Zealand, were establishing their own honours systems and no longer recommended British honours.
Recipients of the order are known as Companions of the Distinguished Service Order, are entitled to use the post-nominal letters "DSO". All awards are announced in the London Gazette; the medal signifying the award of the DSO is a silver-gilt cross with curved ends, 1.6 in wide, enamelled white and edged in gilt. It is manufactured by the Crown Jewellers. In the centre of the obverse, within a green enamelled laurel wreath, is the imperial crown in gold upon a red enamelled background; the reverse has the royal cypher of the reigning monarch in gold within a similar wreath and background. A ring at the top of the medal attaches to a ring at the bottom of a gilt suspension bar, ornamented with laurel. Since 1938 the year of award engraved on the back of the suspension bar. At the top of the ribbon is a second gilt bar ornamented with laurel; the medals are issued unnamed but some recipients have had their names engraved on the reverse of the suspension bar. The red ribbon is 1.125 in wide with narrow blue edges.
The bar for an additional award is plain gold with an Imperial Crown in the centre. Since about 1938, the year of the award has been engraved on the back of the bar. A rosette is worn on the ribbon in undress uniform to signify the award of each bar. From 1918 to 2017 the insignia of the Distinguished Service Order has been awarded 16,935 times, in addition to 1,910 bars; the figures to 1979 are laid out in the table below, the dates reflecting the relevant entries in the London Gazette: In addition, between 1980 and 2017 90 DSOs have been earned, including awards for the Falklands and the wars in the Gulf and Afghanistan, in addition to three second-award bars. The above figures include awards to the Commonwealth:In all, 1,220 DSOs have gone to Canadians, plus 119 first bars and 20 second bars. From 1901 to 1972, when the last Australian to receive the DSO was announced, 1,018 awards were made to Australians, plus 70 first bars and one second bar; the DSO was awarded to over 300 New Zealanders during the two World Wars.
Honorary awards to members of allied foreign forces include at least 1,329 for World War I, with further awards for World War II. The following received the DSO and three bars: Archibald Walter Buckle, rose from naval rating in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve to command the Anson Battalion of the Royal Naval Division during the First World War William Denman Croft, First World War army officer William Robert Aufrere Dawson, Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment during the First World War, wounded nine times and mentioned in despatches four times Basil Embry, Second World War Royal Air Force officer Bernard Freyberg awarded the Victoria Cross Edward Albert Gibbs, Second World War destroyer captain Arnold Jackson, First World War British Army officer and 1500 metres Olympic gold medal winner in 1912 Douglas Kendrew, served as a brigade commander in Italy and the Middle East between 1944 and 1946. Subsequently appointed Governor of Western Australia. Robert Sinclair Knox, First World War British Army officer Frederick William Lumsden, British First World War Army officer awarded the Victoria Cross Paddy Mayne, Special Air Service commander in the Second World War and Irish rugby player Sir Richard George Onslow, Second World War destroyer captain and admiral Alastair Pearson, a British Army officer who received his four awards within the space of two years during the Second World War James Brian Tait, RAF pilot awarded the DFC and bar, completed
1st Regiment of Life Guards
The 1st Regiment of Life Guards was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, part of the Household Cavalry. It was formed in 1788 by the union of the 1st Troop of Horse Guards and 1st Troop of Horse Grenadier Guards. In 1922, it was amalgamated with the 2nd Life Guards to form the Life Guards; the regiment was formed in 1788 by the union of the 1st Troop of Horse Guards and 1st Troop of Horse Grenadier Guards. It fought at the Waterloo. In 1877, it was renamed 1st Life Guards and contributed to the Household Cavalry Composite Regiment in the Anglo-Egyptian War, in the Second Boer War and in the First World War from August to November 1914. From 1916 to 1918, the Reserve Regiment contributed to the Household Battalion. In 1918, the regiment was converted to the 1st Battalion, Guards Machine Gun Regiment, it was reconstituted in 1919 and was amalgamated with the 2nd Life Guards in 1922 to form the Life Guards. The battle honours of the regiment were: Early Wars: Dettingen, Waterloo, Tel-el-Kebir, Egypt 1882, Relief of Kimberley, South Africa 1899–1900 The Great War: Mons, Le Cateau, Retreat from Mons, Marne 1914, Aisne 1914, Messines 1914, Armentières 1914, Ypres 1914'15'17, Langemarck 1914, Nonne Bosschen, St. Julien, Somme 1916, Albert 1916, Arras 1917'18, Scarpe 1917'18, Poelcappelle, Hindenburg Line, Cambrai 1918, France and Flanders 1914–18 The Colonels-in-Chief of the regiment were: 1815–1830: HM King George IV 1830–1837: HM King William IV 1837–1880: vacant 1880–1910: F.
M. HRH The Prince of Wales HM King Edward VII 1910–1922: F. M. HM King George V The colonels of the regiment were: 1788–1789: Gen. William John Kerr, 5th Marquess of Lothian, KT 1789–1792: Gen. Hon. Sir Joseph Yorke, 1st Baron Dover, KB 1792–1829: Gen. Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl of Harrington, GCH 1829–1865: F. M. Sir Stapleton Cotton, 1st Viscount Combermere, GCB, GCH, KSI 1865–1888: F. M. George Charles Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan, GCB 1888–1902: F. M. HSH Prince William Augustus Edward of Saxe-Weimar, KP, GCB, GCVO 1902–1907: Lt-Gen. Dudley FitzGerald-de Ros, 24th Baron de Ros, KP, KCVO 1907–1920: F. M. Sir Francis Grenfell, 1st Baron Grenfell, GCB, GCMG 1920–1922: F. M. Sir Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby, GCB, GCMG, GCVO British cavalry during the First World War Life Guards White-Spunner, Barney. Horse Guards. Macmillan. ISBN 978-1405055741
Normandy landings
The Normandy landings were the landing operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and referred to as D-Day, it was the largest seaborne invasion in history; the operation began the liberation of German-occupied France from Nazi control, laid the foundations of the Allied victory on the Western Front. Planning for the operation began in 1943. In the months leading up to the invasion, the Allies conducted a substantial military deception, codenamed Operation Bodyguard, to mislead the Germans as to the date and location of the main Allied landings; the weather on D-Day was far from the operation had to be delayed 24 hours. Adolf Hitler placed German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in command of German forces and of developing fortifications along the Atlantic Wall in anticipation of an Allied invasion; the amphibious landings were preceded by extensive aerial and naval bombardment and an airborne assault—the landing of 24,000 US, Canadian airborne troops shortly after midnight.
Allied infantry and armoured divisions began landing on the coast of France at 06:30. The target 50-mile stretch of the Normandy coast was divided into five sectors: Utah, Gold and Sword. Strong winds blew the landing craft east of their intended positions at Utah and Omaha; the men landed under heavy fire from gun emplacements overlooking the beaches, the shore was mined and covered with obstacles such as wooden stakes, metal tripods, barbed wire, making the work of the beach-clearing teams difficult and dangerous. Casualties were heaviest at Omaha, with its high cliffs. At Gold and Sword, several fortified towns were cleared in house-to-house fighting, two major gun emplacements at Gold were disabled, using specialised tanks; the Allies failed to achieve any of their goals on the first day. Carentan, St. Lô, Bayeux remained in German hands, Caen, a major objective, was not captured until 21 July. Only two of the beaches were linked on the first day, all five beachheads were not connected until 12 June.
German casualties on D-Day have been estimated at 4,000 to 9,000 men. Allied casualties were at least 10,000, with 4,414 confirmed dead. Museums and war cemeteries in the area now host many visitors each year. After the German Army invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin began pressing his new allies for the creation of a second front in western Europe. In late May 1942 the Soviet Union and the United States made a joint announcement that a "... full understanding was reached with regard to the urgent tasks of creating a second front in Europe in 1942." However, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill persuaded US President Franklin D. Roosevelt to postpone the promised invasion as with US help, the Allies did not have adequate forces for such an activity. Instead of an immediate return to France, the western Allies staged offensives in the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations, where British troops were stationed. By mid-1943 the campaign in North Africa had been won.
The Allies launched the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, subsequently invaded the Italian mainland in September the same year. By Soviet forces were on the offensive and had won a major victory at the Battle of Stalingrad; the decision to undertake a cross-channel invasion within the next year was taken at the Trident Conference in Washington in May 1943. Initial planning was constrained by the number of available landing craft, most of which were committed in the Mediterranean and Pacific. At the Tehran Conference in November 1943, Roosevelt and Churchill promised Stalin that they would open the long-delayed second front in May 1944. Four sites were considered for the landings: Brittany, the Cotentin Peninsula and the Pas-de-Calais; as Brittany and Cotentin are peninsulas, it would have been possible for the Germans to cut off the Allied advance at a narrow isthmus, so these sites were rejected. With the Pas-de-Calais being the closest point in continental Europe to Britain, the Germans considered it to be the most initial landing zone, so it was the most fortified region.
But it offered few opportunities for expansion, as the area is bounded by numerous rivers and canals, whereas landings on a broad front in Normandy would permit simultaneous threats against the port of Cherbourg, coastal ports further west in Brittany, an overland attack towards Paris and into Germany. Normandy was hence chosen as the landing site; the most serious drawback of the Normandy coast—the lack of port facilities—would be overcome through the development of artificial Mulberry harbours. A series of specialised tanks, nicknamed Hobart's Funnies, were created to deal with conditions expected during the Normandy Campaign, such as scaling sea walls and providing close support on the beach; the Allies planned to launch the invasion on 1 May 1944. The initial draft of the plan was accepted at the Quebec Conference in August 1943. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed commander of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force. General Bernard Montgomery was named as commander of the 21st Army Group, which comprised all of the land forces involved in the invasion.
On 31 December 1943 Eisenhower and Montgomery first saw the plan, which proposed amphibious landings by three divisions with two m
Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders
The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders or 79th Regiment of Foot was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in 1793. It amalgamated with the Seaforth Highlanders to form the Queen's Own Highlanders in 1961; the regiment was raised as the 79th Regiment of Foot on 17 August 1793 at Fort William from among the members of the Clan Cameron by Sir Alan Cameron of Erracht. The regiment was deployed to Ireland and southern England to Flanders in 1794 where it took part in an unsuccessful campaign under the command of the Duke of York during the French Revolutionary Wars. On its return to England the 79th Foot was listed for disbandment, with the men being drafted into other units. In the end the regiment was reprieved, being instead posted to the West Indies in 1795; the regiment was again in action against the French at the Battle of Alkmaar in October 1799 during the Helder Campaign. In 1800 the 79th was part of a force that took part in a failed assault on the Spanish coast at Ferrol; the 79th Foot landed in Egypt as part of an expeditionary force to prevent French control of the land route to India and saw action at the Battle of Abukir in March 1801.
After victories at Battle of Mandora and Battle of Alexandria that month, the British forces forced the surrender of the French forces at Cairo. Along with other regiments that took part in the Egyptian campaign the 79th Foot were henceforth permitted to bear a sphinx superscribed EGYPT on its colours and badges; the 79th spent the next two years in Menorca and a second battalion was formed in 1804. On the Irish establishment, the regiment became part of the British Army in 1804 and was renamed the 79th Regiment of Foot; the 1st Battalion took part in the Battle of Copenhagen in August 1807 during the Napoleonic Wars. In July 1808 the 79th Foot was deployed to Portugal for service in the Peninsular War; the regiment took part in the Battle of Corunna in January 1809 and was subsequently evacuated to England. The regiment returned to Portugal in January 1810 and saw action at the Battle of Bussaco in September 1810, the Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro in May 1811 and the Siege of Badajoz in March 1812.
It fought at the Battle of Salamanca in July 1812, took part in the occupation of Madrid in August 1812 and the Siege of Burgos in September 1812. It saw combat at the Battle of the Pyrenees in July 1813, the Battle of Nivelle in November 1813 and the Battle of the Nive in December 1813 before taking part in the Battle of Toulouse in April 1814. Following the abdication of Napoleon in April 1814, the regiment moved to Ireland. However, with the return of Napoleon from exile, the 79th Foot travelled to Belgium in May 1815; the regiment took part in the final battles of the Napoleonic Wars at Quatre Bras and Waterloo in June 1815. The regiment sailed from Portsmouth to Scutari as part of the Highland Brigade for service in the Crimean War in June 1854, it fought at the Battle of Alma in September 1854, the Battle of Balaclava in October 1854 and the Battle of Sevastopol in Winter 1854. After returning to the UK, the regiment sailed to India to take part in the suppression of the Indian Rebellion.
The regiment took part in the Capture of Lucknow in March 1858 and the Battle of Bareilly in May 1858. Queen Victoria presented the regiment with new colours at Parkhurst, Isle of Wight on 17 April 1873 and directed they should be known as the "Queen's Own" in August 1873, they became the 79th Regiment, The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders. On 1 July 1881 the 79th Foot was redesignated as 1st Battalion, Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders, the county regiment of Inverness-shire; the Camerons were the only infantry regiment to have a single regular battalion. The 1881 reforms combined the militia and rifle volunteers of the county with the 79th Foot, becoming the 2nd Battalion and the 1st Volunteer Battalion. In 1897 a 2nd regular battalion was raised, the Militia battalion was renumbered to 3rd. In 1886, the new depot for the regiment, Cameron Barracks, was completed in Inverness by the Royal Engineers. In 1882 the 1st Battalion moved from Gibraltar to Egypt, where they took part in the invasion and occupation of the country and the Battle of Tel el-Kebir in September 1882 during the Anglo-Egyptian War.
They remained in Egypt until 1884, when it took part in an expedition to the Sudan: the battalion took part in the defence of Kosheh and the Battle of Ginnis in December 1885 during the Mahdist War. In 1897 a 2nd Battalion was formed; the 1st Battalion served at the Battle of Omdurman in September 1898. The 1st Battalion fought in the Second Boer War. On 27 February 1902, the noted Australian soldier Harry "Breaker" Morant was executed for murder by a firing squad of Cameron Highlanders in Pretoria jail. Following the end of hostilities, 810 officers and men of the 1st battalion left Cape Town in the SS Dunera in late September 1902, arriving at Southampton early the following month. In 1908, the Volunteers and Militia were reorganised nationally, with the former becoming the Territorial Force and the latter the Special Reserve; the 1st Battalion landed at Le Havre as Army Troops for the 1st Division in August 1914 for service on the Western Front. The 2nd Battalion, in India, landed at Le Havre as part of the 81st Brigade in the 27th Division in December 1914 for service on the Western Front and moved to Salonika in December 1915.
The 3rd Battalion was posted to Birr in Ireland in November 1917 as part of a move to replace Irish Reserve Battalio
Imperial Yeomanry
The Imperial Yeomanry was a volunteer mounted force of the British Army that saw action during the Second Boer War. Created on 2 January 1900, the force was recruited from the middle classes and traditional yeomanry sources, but subsequent contingents were more working class in their composition; the existing yeomanry regiments contributed only a small proportion of the total Imperial Yeomanry establishment. In Ireland 120 men were recruited in February 1900, it was disbanded in 1908, with individual Yeomanry regiments incorporated into the new Territorial Force. The Dutch Cape Colony was established in modern-day South Africa in the second half of the 17th century; the colony subsequently passed to the Dutch East India Company which, in 1815, sold it to the British, thus strengthening the rival British-ruled Cape Colony. Unhappy with the subsequent British governance, the Dutch settlers, known now as the Boers, established their own territories, the Orange Free State and the Transvaal; the two states were recognised by the British following Boer victory in the First Boer War.
The discovery of gold in the Transvaal in 1886 led to a gold rush, the treatment of the prospectors by the Boers resulted in greater British government involvement, a revival of friction between the British and Boers and, in October 1899, the outbreak of the Second Boer War. Although the Boers were predominantly farmers and were outnumbered by the regular forces of the British Army, they organised themselves into mobile mounted columns called commandoes and fought at long range with accurate rifle fire, their tactics proved to be effective against the lumbering British forces, in one week in December 1899, known as Black Week, they inflicted three significant defeats on the British. It soon became apparent that the British mounted capability – comprising small contingents of regular infantry on horseback and insufficiently supplied, ill-suited cavalry – needed to be reinforced; the basis for just such reinforcement had been in existence since 1794 in the form of the volunteer Yeomanry Cavalry.
In October and November 1899, Lieutenant-Colonel A. G. Lucas, the yeomanry representative in the War Office and a member of the Loyal Suffolk Hussars, had proposed this force as a source of reinforcement, his proposals were declined, but the request by General Redvers Buller, Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in South Africa, for mounted infantry after his defeat in the Battle of Colenso on 15 December 1899 prompted a rethink. The domestic yeomanry was, however, a small home defence force, only some 10,000 strong, steeped in a cavalry tradition and restricted by statute to service only in the United Kingdom, making it in itself unsuitable for service in South Africa. On 18 December, Lords Lonsdale and Chesham, who both commanded yeomanry regiments, offered to recruit 2,300 volunteers from the domestic yeomanry for service in South Africa. Although Lord Garnet Wolseley, Commander-in-Chief of the Forces opposed it, George Wyndham, Under-Secretary of State for War and himself a yeoman, established an imperial yeoman committee with Chesham and two other yeomanry commanders.
The result, announced on 24 December, was the Imperial Yeomanry, duly established on 2 January 1900. By the end of the war, just under 35,000 men were recruited in three separate contingents, its structure and battalions rather than the squadrons and regiments of the domestic yeomanry, reflected its role as mounted infantry. The existing yeomanry was invited to provide volunteers for the new force, thus forming a trained nucleus on which it was built, it was, however, a distinct body in its own right, separate from the home force, the domestic yeomanry provided only around 18 per cent of the first contingent of over 10,000 men. Volunteers came from the yeomanry's infantry counterpart, the Volunteer Force, but the majority were newly recruited from the yeomanry's traditional demographics of the middle class and the farming community, although some 30 per cent were working class; the first contingent recruits were able to build on the experience many of them had with horsemanship and firearms courtesy of two or three months drilling in domestic yeomanry regiments before they were shipped to South Africa.
The first contingent of Imperial Yeomanry departed for South Africa between January and April 1900. Its first action came in the Battle of Boshof on 5 April, when its 3rd and 10th Battalions surrounded and defeated a small force of European volunteers and Boers commanded by the Comte de Villebois-Mareuil; this success was overshadowed by a disaster the next month which tarnished the Imperial Yeomanry's reputation, when its 13th Battalion was ambushed and surrounded by 2,500 Boers at Lindley on 27 May. The yeomen were besieged for four days before they surrendered, losing 80 killed and 530 captured. Among the prisoners were the future Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, James Craig, four members of the House of Lords. Although the defeat at Lindley reflected poorly on the yeomanry, the yeomen had fought as competently as any regular soldier, much of the blame lay with poor leadership by Lieutenant-Colonel Basil Spragge, the regular officer commanding the battalion, the failure of Major-General Henry Colvile to come to the aid of the yeomanry with his Guards Brigade.
Questionable leadership featured in another encounter between yeomanry and Boer at the Battle of Nooitgedacht on 13 December. Three companies of yeomanry formed part of a regular brigade commanded by Major-General R. A. P. Clements, attacked as it camped, by a superior Boer force. Clements was criticised for his poor choice of campsite, though his swift action enabled him to extricate his brigade, albeit with casua
Stanley Baldwin
Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, was a British Conservative Party statesman who dominated the government of the United Kingdom between the world wars, serving as Prime Minister on three occasions. Born to a prosperous family in Bewdley, Baldwin was educated at Hawtreys, Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge, he joined the family iron and steel making business and entered the House of Commons in 1908 as the Member of Parliament for Bewdley, succeeding his father Alfred. He served as Financial Secretary to the Treasury and President of the Board of Trade in the coalition ministry of David Lloyd George and rose rapidly: in 1922, Baldwin was one of the prime movers in the withdrawal of Conservative support from Lloyd George. Upon Bonar Law's resignation due to health reasons in May 1923, Baldwin became Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party, he called an election in December 1923 on the issue of tariffs and lost the Conservatives' parliamentary majority, after which Ramsay MacDonald formed a minority Labour government.
After winning the 1924 general election Baldwin formed his second government, which saw important tenures of office by Sir Austen Chamberlain, Winston Churchill and Neville Chamberlain. The latter two ministers strengthened Conservative appeal by reforms in areas associated with the Liberal Party, they included industrial conciliation, unemployment insurance, a more extensive old-age pension system, slum clearance, more private housing and expansion of maternal and childcare. However, continuing sluggish economic growth and declines in mining and heavy industry weakened Baldwin's base of support and his government saw the General Strike in 1926 and the Trade Disputes and Trade Unions Act 1927 to curb the powers of trade unions. Baldwin narrowly lost the 1929 general election and his continued leadership of the party was subject to extensive criticism by the press barons Lord Rothermere and Lord Beaverbrook. In 1931, with the onset of the Great Depression Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald formed a National Government, most of whose ministers were Conservatives, which won an enormous majority at the 1931 general election.
As Lord President of the Council, one of four Conservatives among the small ten-member Cabinet, Baldwin took over many of the Prime Minister's duties due to MacDonald's failing health. This government saw an Act delivering increased self-government for India, a measure opposed by Churchill and by many rank-and-file Conservatives; the Statute of Westminster 1931 gave Dominion status to Canada, New Zealand and South Africa, while establishing the first step towards the Commonwealth of Nations. As party leader, Baldwin made many striking innovations, such as clever use of radio and film, that made him visible to the public and strengthened Conservative appeal. In 1935, Baldwin replaced MacDonald as Prime Minister of the National Government, won the 1935 general election with another large majority. During this time, he oversaw the beginning of the rearmament process of the British military, as well as the abdication crisis of King Edward VIII. Baldwin's third government saw a number of crises in foreign affairs, including the public uproar over the Hoare–Laval Pact, the Remilitarisation of the Rhineland and the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.
Baldwin was succeeded by Neville Chamberlain. At that time, Baldwin was regarded as a popular and successful Prime Minister, but for the final decade of his life, for many years afterwards, he was vilified for having presided over high unemployment in the 1930s and as one of the "Guilty Men" who had tried to appease Adolf Hitler and who had – – not rearmed sufficiently to prepare for the Second World War. Today, modern scholars rank him in the upper half of British prime ministers. Baldwin was born at Lower Park House, Lower Park, Bewdley in Worcestershire, England to Alfred and Louisa Baldwin, through his Scottish mother was a first cousin of the writer and poet Rudyard Kipling, with whom he was close for their entire lives; the family was prosperous, owned the eponymous iron and steel making business that in years became part of Richard Thomas and Baldwins. Baldwin's schools were St Michael's School, at the time located in Slough, followed by Harrow School, he wrote that "all the king's horses and all the king's men would have failed to have drawn me into the company of school masters, in relation to them I once had every qualification as a passive resister."
Baldwin went on to the University of Cambridge, where he studied history at Trinity College. His time at university was blighted by the presence, as Master of Trinity, of Montagu Butler, his former headmaster who had punished him at Harrow for writing a piece of schoolboy smut, he was asked to resign from the Magpie & Stump for never speaking, after receiving a third-class degree in history, he went into the family business of iron manufacturing. His father sent him to Mason College for one session of technical training in metallurgy as preparation; as a young man he served as a Second Lieutenant in the Artillery Volunteers at Malvern, in 1897 became a JP for the county of Worcestershire. Baldwin married Lucy Ridsdale on 12 September 1892; the couple had six children. One child, was injured by shrapnel in March 1941 as a result of a bombing raid which destroyed the Café de Paris nightclub she was attending and decapitated the famous bandleader Ke
