Lieutenant Richard Lawrence Baker was severely wounded and Mentioned in Despatches for his gallantry when Smuts ambushed the British convoy at Buffelshoek on 3.12.1900. Smuts attacked the ill defended ox-wagon convoy at dawn while it was heading towards Rustenburg. He badly needed the supplies and commenced his attack in a gorge near Nooitgedacht, capturing 118 wagons, 54 prisoners and inflicting 64 casualties. Baker was Mentioned in Despatches 'For good service. He was wounded whilst attending to wounded men' (London Gazette 7.5.1901 and War Office records refer).

Baker had been commissioned in the Royal Artillery after serving in the Imperial Yeomanry. An Eton educated gentleman-Trooper, he had enlisted in the elite 47th Company in January 1900 and was taken prisoner at Lindley on 31.5.1900 after the disaster to the 13th Battalion.