TOPIC:

Alphonso Stott - Killed in Action at Tweefontein

Private, 34th Company, Imperial Yeomanry

- Queens South Africa Medal with clasps Cape Colony, Orange Free State and Transvaal

Alphonso Stott started out life in Carlton in Cleveland, Yorkshire, England where he was born in early 1881. The son of John and Jane Stott he was a mere 3 months old when the 1881 England census rolled around on 31 March of that year. The family, resident in Long Street, Easingwold was not exceptionally large by Victorian standards and comprised young Alphonso together with his parents (his dad was a Secretary of a Mill in the area) and siblings Eliza (15), Benjamin (11), Theodore (10), John (8), Thomas (4), Ada (3) and Henry (1)

Ten years later at the time of the 1891 England census Stott, now a lad of 10 was living with his family at North Moors, North Riding, Easingwold. The family was now substantially smaller with only Ada (16), Henry (11) and new arrival Maud Mary (6) joining him and his parents. John Stott had now swapped Mill life for that of a Farmer.

Having finished whatever schooling was deemed appropriate for the period, Stott commenced employment as a Clerk and it was in this capacity that we find him in February 1901 when, on the 20th of that month, he enlisted with the Imperial Yeomanry for service in the Boer War. To be precise he completed the Attestation for Short Service (One year with the Colours) form at Carlton Street on that day.

The questions he answered provide us with insight into the man – he was 20 years and 2 months old, has already been employed by the Fore Street Warehouse Company for two years and had served as a volunteer with the 1st City of London Artillery. Physically he was 5 feet 10 ½ inches tall, weighed 140 pounds and had a dark complexion, brown eyes and dark hair. Dr Hastings Stewart pronounced him “Fit” for the army and his service commenced with no. 30288.

Posted from the outset to the 34th Company he spent a measly 25 days at home before being shipped out to South Africa for operational duty. The war by the time Stott arrived had entered its second or guerrilla phase where the Boers, superb horseman and excellent shots, engaged in hit and run tactics against an increasingly frustrated Imperial force. The modus operandi for these small Commando groups was to track down isolated convoys or patrols and attack them plundering the baggage wagons and making off with supplies and clothing. This was the state of the war when Stott arrived on African shores.

By the time of the 1901 England census his father was running the Station Hotel at Alne in Yorkshire.

Stott’s time in South Africa was to last 284 days and was destined to end, unlike most of his comrades who made it back safely to England, in his untimely demise. How did this come about? Stott and the 34th Company, I.Y. were engaged in what became known as the Battle of Tweefontein although it wasn’t so much a battle as a massacre.








Picture the scene, It was Christmas Eve 1901, the troops were settling down to their sleep in anticipation of the festivities that were to follow on the morrow. They had probably been issued with an extra ration of rum in honour of the occasion and some, very likely the pickets included, might, just might have imbibed too much. Most certainly the last thing on their minds would have been the possibility of a late night assault by the Boers. Sadly this is exactly what happened! Stott and his comrades were in their night clothes when the Boers, led by De Wet, launched an unlikely early morning attack. They scrambled up a steep incline which was poorly guarded owing to the nature of the terrain and opened fire on tents full of sleeping men. Moving at full tilt through the encampment the Boers fired at point blank range exacting maximum casualties on men who stumbled out of their tents still wiping sleep from their eyes and feeling round for their rifles with which to respond. The commotion and confusion must have been intolerable as was the element of surprise and men were shot down indiscriminately.

An attempt at a counter attack was made but it rather a case of too little too late as the Boers fled back into the early morning mist as quickly as they had come leaving the assembled companies of Yeomanry to count their losses and the heavy cost of not being fully prepared. In all 69 men were to perish with many more wounded.

An eye witness account stated that, “Day was just breaking as I got on top of the hill, bearing a stretcher, - Christmas morning. Dead and wounded men were lying there in scores. The gun pits were like shambles. On the inner crest the 34th chaps were lying almost in a line as they had been mowed down as they came up the hill. Their Captain (Hall) was in front of them, literally shot to bits.






A contemporary view of the site thanks to Henk Loots


Leading up to this sorrowful even the new draft of the IY had been training in nearby Harrismith before being assigned to Colonel Firman’s Column for Blockhouse duty (defending the blockhouses being built against Boer attacks) Letters from survivors post the tragedy provide us now with a spectator view of what actually transpired.

The first was a telegram from Lord Kitchener to the War Office dated December 26 which read, in part, as follows:

“Column was encamped on slope of solitary kopje; southern side of kopje almost precipitous, and an outpost held edge of it. Northern slopes, on which camp was pitched, are gentle, and on this side outposts pushed well out; position naturally strong and also has been entrenched. Moonlight but cloudy.

Detailed reports not received but it is stated Boers climbed up precipitous southern side of kopje and , collecting near the top at 2 a.m., suddenly attacked pickets on summit in superior force before men in camp could get clear of their tents. Boers rushed through, shooting them down as they came out, officers shot trying to stem the tide.

No panic all did best, but Boers too strong, and once picket overwhelmed had all advantage. Including killed and wounded, about half column are now at Elands River Bridge, remainder are prisoners.

Boers who apparently numbered about 1 200, under De Wet, behaved well leaving men to look after the wounded.”

A private letter dated 7 March 1902 provided the following detail;

“Tweefontein is about thirty miles from Harrismith, in a direct line to Bethlehem, about half way between. It is a solitary kopje with a slope up one side. We were camped on the slope, the 34th Company nearest to the top, about 20 yards down.

The Boers came up the precipice in single file (the first two hundred taking their boots off at the bottom) there was only one place they could get up, and that was a very difficult one. They first collected on the top until there were several hundreds of them, and the first thing we knew was that they were within twenty yards of our tents, firing as they went through the camp.

We got the men out as soon as possible, and tried to rush the Boers on the top, but we only got within twenty yards of them when nearly everyone was killed or wounded. The squadrons lower down the hill had no chance, as directly after the Boers had seen they had outnumbered the first lot they marched down through the camp, firing all the way. It was all over in an hour.”

In another letter dated January 17th 1902 the writer stated;

“It was hot while we were at it. The Boers must have lost very heavily as chaps were shooting each other point blank down in the camp, it was just murder. I thought my number was up. One of our chaps was lying in the lines with his leg smashed by an explosive bullet.
We had been helping the hospital orderlies to carry down the wounded. It was a ghastly job. One poor chap kept beseeching us to put him out of mess. The real Boers were very decent chaps, and did all they could, but there were a good few foreigners with them, who were very bitter. One of them was jeering at me, but a Boer shut him up promptly and said to me, “Never mind him old chap”

In yet another account from someone who must have been an officer it was mentioned that;

At two a.m. on Christmas morning we were awakened by bullets through the tents, and on getting outside you could see that the place was thick with Boers firing straight through the camp.

Hall gave me orders to go down one row of our tents while he went down another. We then went with most of the 34th to try and get to the top of the kopje, but before we got to the top most of the men were dead or wounded.

Nearly all the men hit were with the Martini and expanding bullets; awful wounds. It was an awful sight when it was all over, and we went round collecting the dead. There were six officers and fifty two men, and about twenty five natives. These were all laid out in three rows in the blazing sun all day, while trenches were being dug to put them in. You could put your fist in some of the poor chap’s heads where they had been hit by expanding bullets.”








The post mortem of the fight and the recriminations that followed revealed little save for the fact that the element of surprise was what did for Stott and his comrades.

The local paper carried this sombre article,

“Private Alphonso Stott (34th Company Imperial Yeomanry), who was killed at Tweefontein, was the son of Mr. John Stott, of the Station Hotel, Alne, County Court bailiff for Easingwold. Another son, Henry, is in the same company, and much anxiety is felt about him.”

So ended the life of a young man, with only rudimentary training who was brave enough to face the perils of war and who succumbed honourably in trying to repel the Boers from the camp.

Stott was posthumously awarded the Queens South Africa medal for his services to the Empire.

Hello Rory,

Thank you for another fascinating piece of research, I do enjoy reading them.
Carlton in Cleveland is very local to me and also Alne which is about 30 miles away.
I have been searching for pics of "The Station Hotel" in Alne but without success,there is a "Station Inn" but I do not think it is the same.
I found this website which has a few pics of the old railway station so presume the Hotel must have been near, I hope it may be useful.
www.disused-stations.org.uk/a/alne/

Thanks again
Paul

Many thanks for your favourable comments Paul - they are always appreciated.

I find the most fun is to be had in researching the recipients - that way we can bring them alive albeit for a short while until they again fade from memory or are replaced by more contemporary posts on the Forum in the relentless march of time.

Regards

Rory