A Good Queens South Africa – U Battery Royal Horse Artillery (Prisoner of War at Sannah’s Post 31.03.1900)

A Good Queens South Africa – U Battery Royal Horse Artillery (Prisoner of War at Sannah’s Post 31.03.1900) Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, clasps, Relief of Kimberley, Paardeberg, Driefontein, Transvaal, 33439 Gnr: M. T. Edwards, U Bty., R.H.A. Mayo Thomas Edwards was born in Bristol in 1880 and attested for the Royal Artillery at Devonport on 30 January 1899, having previously served in the Devon Artillery Militia. He was posted to ‘U’ Battery, Royal Horse Artillery on 15 November 1899, he served with them in South Africa during the Boer War from 21 December 1899. He was captured and taken at Prisoner’s of War ‘with practically the whole personnel and five guns’ at Sannah’s Post on 31 March 1900, and died of disease in captivity at Pretoria in June 1900 The Battle of Sanna’s Post (or Koorn Spruit) on 31 March 1900 stands out as one of the most stunning Boer ambushes of the Boer War—and showed the grit for the U Battery, Royal Horse Artillery (RHA). With Brigadier-General Robert Broadwood retreating toward Bloemfontein, Boer General Christiaan de Wet concealed 400 riflemen within a deep, angular ravine (spruit). As the British baggage train and artillery columns advanced blindly without prior scouting, they blundered directly into the ambush. U Battery, leading the artillery contingent, descended into the drift expecting an ordinary crossing. Instead, they were quietly surrounded. Boer burghers stepped out, seized the horses, and forced the immediate surrender of almost the entire battery. Five of U Battery’s six field guns were captured instantly, and roughly 200 men were disarmed without a shot being fired in the initial confusion. Amid the chaos, the crew of U Battery’s final gun managed a desperate, evasive maneuver. Sergeant-Major Martin took charge of the remaining team, cutting through the gunfire to break away from the trap. He rallied 14 horses and drove the lone gun clear of the ravine, delivering it to the nearby railway station where the surviving British forces were hastily scrambling to form a defensive perimeter. This single piece of salvaged artillery was immediately unlimbered alongside the neighboring Q Battery. Together, they deployed in the open under a torrential hail of Mauser rifle fire, executing a brutal, close-range rearguard action that successfully pinned the Boers down and prevented the complete annihilation of the retreating British column Condition – GVF, minor edge bruising.