BARTTELOT – SIR WALTER GEORGE

Note:
LIEUT.-COL LOUIS du MOULIN’S DIARY PUBLISHED IN BOOK FORM IN 1907 – “TWO YEARS ON TREK, BEING SOME ACCOUNT OF THE ROYAL SUSSEX REGIMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA” – RELATES :-  “I WAS WATCHING THROUGH MY TELESCOPE FOR SOME LITTLE TIME, NOTICING SIR WALTER BARTTELOT RUNNING FORWARD AND THE HALF-COMPANY FOLLOWING HIM, AND I THOUGHT HOW UNMISTAKEABLE A LEADER HE LOOKED, WITH NO EQUIPMENT AND NO RIFLE, STANDING AND POINTING WITH HIS STICK TO PLACES WHICH MEN SHOULD OCCUPY.  SIR WALTER DID NOT KNOW THE MEANING OF FEAR OR NERVOUSNESS, AND THE PLUCK AND MARVELLOUS ENDURANCE HE DISPLAYED DURING THE CAMPAIGN WAS A CONSTANT WONDER TO ALL OF US , AND PUT TO SHAME MANY A SOLDIER OF HALF HIS AGE.”  DU MOULIN ALSO RECORDS THAT SIR WALTER WAS BURIED UNDER A HUGE EUCALYPTUS GROWING BY ITSELF IN A FIELD TO THE EAST OF BOSHOP FARM, AND THAT TWO OF THE MEN KILLED, BENNET AND BUCK (THE HEADSTONE RECORDS THE NAME AS BECK) WERE BURIED THERE TOO.  PETER SCHOLTZ jnr IS SITTING ON THE REMAINS OF THE EUCALYPTUS WHEN PHOTOGRAPHED IN MAY 2014.