Lot Essay
Scout W. Cooper was wounded and taken prisoner at Stormberg on 23.2.1900. In this skirmish, the legendary Omdurman V.C. Captain R.H. de Montmorency was killed in action. Montmorency's Scouts were a feared picked body of scouts and caused some unrest within the Regular Army with their 'skull and crossbones' flag. Conan Doyle described their fight at Stormberg:
'On February 23rd he [Gatacre] reoccupied Molteno, and on the same day sent out a force to reconnoitre the enemy's position at Stormberg. The incident is memorable as having been the cause of death of Captain de Montmorency, one of the most promising of the younger officers of the British Army. He had formed a corps of scouts, consisting originally of four men, but soon expanding to seventy or eighty. At the head of these men he confirmed his reputation for desperate valour which he had won in the Sudan, and added to it proofs of enterprise and judgement which go to make a leader of light cavalry. In the course of the reconnaissance he ascended a small kopje ... "They are right on top of us" he cried to his comrades, as he reached the summit, and dropped next instant with a bullet in his heart ... The rest of the scouts, being farther back, were able to get to cover and to keep up a fight until they were extricated by the remainder of the force. Altogether our loss was formidable rather in quality than in quantity, for not more than a dozen were hit, while the Boers suffered considerably from the fire of our guns. (De Montmorency had established a remarkable influence over his rough followers. To the end of the war they could not speak of him without tears in their eyes. When I asked Sergeant Howe why his captain went almost alone up the hill, his answer was, "Because the captain knew no fear." Byrne, his soldier servant, an Omdurman V.C. like his master, galloped madly off next morning with a saddled horse to bring back his captain alive or dead, and had to be forcibly seized and restrained by our cavalry)' (The Great Boer War refers). Very few medals were issued named to Montmorency's Scouts, around 20.
'On February 23rd he [Gatacre] reoccupied Molteno, and on the same day sent out a force to reconnoitre the enemy's position at Stormberg. The incident is memorable as having been the cause of death of Captain de Montmorency, one of the most promising of the younger officers of the British Army. He had formed a corps of scouts, consisting originally of four men, but soon expanding to seventy or eighty. At the head of these men he confirmed his reputation for desperate valour which he had won in the Sudan, and added to it proofs of enterprise and judgement which go to make a leader of light cavalry. In the course of the reconnaissance he ascended a small kopje ... "They are right on top of us" he cried to his comrades, as he reached the summit, and dropped next instant with a bullet in his heart ... The rest of the scouts, being farther back, were able to get to cover and to keep up a fight until they were extricated by the remainder of the force. Altogether our loss was formidable rather in quality than in quantity, for not more than a dozen were hit, while the Boers suffered considerably from the fire of our guns. (De Montmorency had established a remarkable influence over his rough followers. To the end of the war they could not speak of him without tears in their eyes. When I asked Sergeant Howe why his captain went almost alone up the hill, his answer was, "Because the captain knew no fear." Byrne, his soldier servant, an Omdurman V.C. like his master, galloped madly off next morning with a saddled horse to bring back his captain alive or dead, and had to be forcibly seized and restrained by our cavalry)' (The Great Boer War refers). Very few medals were issued named to Montmorency's Scouts, around 20.