Sunday 6th January 2013
The 1st Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment, part of a much larger force, were under siege by the Boers in the township of Ladysmith in Kwazulu Natal Province in South Africa, on 6th January 1900.
At dawn the perimeter defences of the town came under attack from well-protected Boer sharpshooters, and the depleted battalion was despatched to retrieve the situation.
As the British force advanced through withering fire, sustaining serious casualties, Captain William Lafone said: “I wish we could get a message to the Imperial Light Horse (ILH) behind us to take on the Boers on our left.”
Hearing him, Lieutenant James Masterson ran towards the ILH, getting the message through, saving many lives, and winning the Victoria Cross.
113 years to the day later, on 6th January 2013, more than 50 former Devons, Dorsets and Devons, and Dorsets, gathered at the Toran Indian Restaurant on the A36, just west of Codford, in the Wylye Valley, Wiltshire, to commemorate the battle and salute their ancestors in a spirit of remembrance and comradeship.
A toast was drunk to all three predecessor regiments and to the Rifles, their successors today.
Organiser, Brigadier (retired) David Shaw, who now lives in Codford, said: “Lieutenant James Masterson survived ten bullet wounds and set an example we see emulated daily in Afghanistan today. Not only have we gathered to remember the gallantry and that of the 1st Devons that day but can relate it to what our soldiers are doing for all of us in 2013 in far off battlefields. We have an opportunity to salute them all.”
At the reunion at Codford, £150 was collected for ABF, the Soldiers’ Charity.