WAUCHOPE – ANDREW GILBERT

Note:
MUCH HAS BEEN WRITTEN OF BATTLE LOSSES BY THE BRITISH FORCES IN WHAT BECAME KNOWN AS BLACK WEEK.  ONE OF THESE LOSSES WAS AT THE BATTLE OF MAGERSFONTEIN WHERE THE HIGHLAND BRIGADE OF METHUEN’S FORCES SUFFERED MANY CASUALTIES AND WHERE MAJOR GENERAL ANDREW WAUCHOPE WAS KILLED.
GENERAL WAUCHOPE WAS INITIALLY BURIED AT MODDER RIVER, BUT WAS LATER RE-INTERRED AT MATJIESFONTEIN.  IN HIS BOOK “GENERAL WAUCHOPE” PUBLISHED IN 1901, WILLIAM BAIRD PROVIDES A DETAILED ACCOUNT OF THE BATTLE, AS WELL AS THE DEATH AND LATER RE-INTERNMENT OF GENERAL WAUCHOPE.
“HE FELL AFTER BEING TWICE HIT WITH RIFLE BULLETS THROUGH HIS HELMET, AND EVEN WHILE LYING ON THE GROUND.  HE DIED WHERE HE WOULD HAVE WISHED TO DIE, AT THE HEAD OF HIS GALLANT HIGHLANDERS, WITH HIS FACE TO THE FOE.  THE GENERAL’S BODY WAS FOUND THE NEXT MORNING FROM TWENTY TO THIRTY YARDS OFF THE BOER TRENCHES, RIDDLED WITH BULLETS.  THERE AMONG HIS MEN WAUCHOPE’S BODY MIGHT HAVE BEEN LEFT TO REST ON THE OPEN VELD, AND THE SPOT WOULD DOUBTLESS EVER AFTERWARDS HAVE BEEN CONSECRATED IN THE HEART OF EVERY PATRIOT BRITON, LONELY AND WILD THOUGH IT BE, BUT THE KINDLY SYMPATHY OF A BROTHER SCOT FOUND FOR HIM A LAST RESTING PLACE FOUR HUNDRED MILES FURTHER SOUTH IN THE CAPE COLONY, AT MATJIESFONTEIN.  ON RECEIPT OF THE NEWS OF WAUCHOPE’S DEATH, THE HONOURABLE J.D. LOGAN, A MEMBER OF THE CAPE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, WHO OWNS AN EXTENSIVE ESTATE ON WHICH THERE IS A SMALL ENCLOSED BURYING GROUND, PROMPTLY ASKED PERMISSION TO BRING THE BODY FOR RE-INTERNMENT THERE.  PERMISSION HAVING BEEN GRANTED BY LORD METHUEN, MR LOGAN PROCEEDED TO MODDER RIVER AND RETURNED WITH THE BODY IN A ZINC LINED COFFIN, ON THE 18TH DECEMBER.  THE REMAINS OF THE GALLANT GENERAL WERE BURIED NEXT MORNING WITH FULL MILITARY HONOURS. THUS PASSED FROM SIGHT, AT THE AGE OF FIFTY FOUR, THE MAN WHOSE CAREER IT HAS BEEN OUR PRIVILEGE TO SKETCH”
DEAN ALLEN, IN HIS BOOK “EMPIRE WAR & CRICKET IN SOUTH AFRICA – LOGAN OF MATJIESFONTEIN” PUBLISHED IN 2015, PROVIDES A DETAILED ACCOUNT OF THE EVENTS SURROUNDING THE BURIAL OF GENERAL WAUCHOPE, FROM PAGE 212 TO 222. THERE HAS ALWAYS BEEN SOME DISPUTE OVER THE PERMISSION GIVEN FOR THE REMOVAL OF THE BODY FROM MODDER RIVER. THE ACCOUNT IN THE BOOK IS AS FOLLOWS:
“ARRIVING AT THE MODDER RIVER CAMP ON 17TH DECEMBER 1899, THE PURPOSE OF LOGAN’S MISSION IS RECOUNTED BY HIS LATE GRANDSON, MAJOR JOHN BUIST : WHEN J.D. LOGAN HEARD OF THE DEATH OF WAUCHOPE HE DECIDED, WISELY OR UNWISELY, THAT IT WAS INAPPROPRIATE FOR THIS GALLANT , DISTINGUISHED OFFICER TO BE BURIED WITHOUT DUE CEREMONY IN SO HUMBLE A RESTING PLACE, AND OBTAINED PERMISSION FROM LORD METHUEN TO EXHUME THE BODY AND TO HAVE IT RE-INTERRED IN MATJIESFONTEIN.  HE THEN CONTACTED LADY WAUCHOPE, IN SCOTLAND, OFFERING A VAULT AT MATJIESFONTEIN.  LADY WAUCHOPE, POSSIBLY CONFUSED BY THE NAMES MAGERSFONTEIN AND MATJIESFONTEIN, IS BELIEVED TO HAVE AGREED AT THIS TIME. ON A VISIT TO THE GRAVE IN 1906, LADY WAUCHOPE IS SAID TO HAVE REMARKED THAT SHE WAS WELL SATISFIED THAT HER ANDREW RESTS HERE”.