The 300 mounted men of the Ermelo and Carolina commandos charged up the rolling hills at Leliefontein, high above the Komati River in the Transvaal, South Africa, 111 years ago - at 1100 hrs 7 November 1900. The Boers already held a large store of British 12-pounder shells. Now they were after two guns of Ottawa's "D" Battery, Royal Canadian Field Artillery, to fire them out of.
The Boer attack failed. The Canadian guns were defended by 96 men of the Royal Canadian Dragoons (RCD). Among them was Corporal Edward A. Filson, 23, of Amherst Island. When the battle was over at 1400 hrs Boer general Fourie and his second-in-command, Commandant Prinsloo, were dead. So were Cpl. Filson and two comrades. But three Dragoons had won Victoria Crosses, one the Distinguished Service Order and one the Distinguished Conduct Medal. Commanding Officer LCol Lessard was later awarded the Commander of the Order of the Bath (CB).
It was not a large battle. It was not an important battle to either the Boers or the British. Boer General Grobler and most of the other combatants on both sides survived. For as with many mounted actions during the South African War, most of the bullets that struck home hit the horses in the neck or chest.
Without this show of grit by former Canadian militiamen, clerks and farmers, the with-drawing British "slash and Burn" column under General Horace Smith-Dorrien would have taken heavy losses on its way back to base at Belfast, half-way between Pretoria and the Indian Ocean.
The British infantry ordered to support the Canadian rear-guard - the last men to withdraw - had failed to stop, leaving the Canadians to face the larger Boer force. But if the Boers had grabbed the Canadian guns, they could have used the score of 12-pounder rounds won from the British in an earlier action. The Canadians, by saving their own guns, thus redeemed the honour of the empire. For the guns are to the artillery what the colours are to an infantry regiment or the guidon is to the cavalry unit.
But what was it that led the handsome young Amherst Islander away from his peaceful native shore? What demon took him to die by a Mauser bullet in far away South Africa in a fight that was nothing to do with him? - in a fight against other pioneer farmers in a harsh and unremitting land.
No one was left to report this text-book example of how a botched battlefield withdrawal could be saved by skill and courage.
But this brilliant rear-guard action in which Cpl Filson, Sgt Builder and L/Cpl Anderson died, and so many gallant acts took place, was significant for Canada beyond the winning of the coveted medals.
It was the first all-Canadian action in the history of the dominion. It marked Canadian men at arms as an independent force to be reckoned with before the world. It also validated Canadians to themselves. It was thus more important to Canada than the earlier much celebrated battle of Paardeberg. And there the infantry of the Royal Canadian Regiment had brought about the final surrender of Boer general Cronje and 4,000 men.
But all the Canadian journalists had gone home after the fall of Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal. No one was left to report this text-book example of how a botched battlefield withdrawal could be saved by skill and courage. Ironically, the British themselves had every reason to call it a feat of arms by British troops, for that’s what the Canadians were.
Was it the rhetoric about queen and country? More likely it was what always takes young men on pilgrimages, crusades, campaigns and the quest for the Holy Grail: the pulse of pride; the urge to prove oneself and make a mark before settling down to raise a family, after which a man gives hostages to fortune and must live a prudent life. Some said the war was a squabble about gold and diamonds. Others said it was a fight against slavery, which the Boers believed they had a God-given right to practise. The Filsons had lived on Amherst Island since the 1850s when they left their home on the Ards Peninsula south-east of Belfast, Ireland. Amherst Island was home away from home. It, too, was a coastal community. And by 1857 some 105 Ards families had settled there with the Earl of Mount Cashel, an Irishman, as landlord.
As early as 1838, during the Mackenzie rebellion, when Amherst Island mustered its company of the 48th Addington Volunteers after “pirate” Bill Johnson attacked the Preston house on the island, at least 22 of the 65 “other ranks” had been born in the Ards.
Edward Allen Filson was the second child of six born to Robert Filson and Mary Jane Allen. He went to school near his home on South Shore Road and attended St. Paul’s Church. He said goodbye to his widowed mother and his sweetheart, Marion Patterson, to join “A” Squadron of the Canadian Mounted Rifles two days after Christmas, 1899 - seven days after the call to arms for the second contingent went out.
Ed gave his occupation as “sailor,” his next of kin as his younger brother, H.K. (Harry) Filson. Perhaps Ed had a notion that someone might need to contact his next of kin and wished to spare his mother. In the event, the bad news was sent to the minister, Mr. James Cumberland. His arrival by horse and gig before supper one day less than a year later gave the family food for thought as they watched him coming along the road.
Young Ed, six-foot-three and 177 pounds, must have impressed the recruiters. He was enlisted with regimental number 26 in a mounted troop of 40 men, three-quarters of whom were former soldiers from London and Kingston. His success as a soldier shows that Major H.R. Duff, surgeon of Kingston’s Fourth Hussars, and Colonel Montizambert, the district commander, chose well. In the next six months the former sailor would be promoted twice.
There were delays. The battalion soon known as the Royal Canadian Dragoons (RCD), a stowaway named William Anderson, and Kingston’s “C” Battery, Royal Canadian Field Artillery, finally sailed from Halifax on Feb. 21 with five bands playing on the dock. They reached Cape Town on March 21.
After six weeks of training on the march, on 30 April Ed was appointed lance-corporal. He took part in the brutal 33-day, 300-mile, cut-and-thrust campaign that took the Dragoons from Bloemfontein to Pretoria. Pretoria fell on June 5. By now a seasoned warrior, Ed was promoted full corporal the next day.
A nasty guerrilla war began. Ed’s No. 4 Troop rode fighting patrols and guarded the railway running east from Pretoria through Belfast to the sea. Early in November, in bone-chilling rain, Ed’s troop was in several dashing actions south of Belfast in which the British infantry and Canadian Mounted Rifles lost many men. Ed’s troop, as rear-guard, saved two British pom-poms and their crews.
On 6 November, with the regiment down to 95 men from their original 370 mainly because of sickness, the Dragoons took part in a raid to burn the farms of what were now called rebels. They made camp at a farm called Leliefontein.
The Boers attacked the next morning from two directions just as the British column was withdrawing. Dismounted, the six sections of the RCD took up positions on a wide knoll backed by gently rolling hills. They formed a loose screen some 2500 yards wide. In the centre the two field guns of Ottawa’s “D” Battery and the dragoons’ own Colt machine-gun opened fire in support.
Soon a new force of Boers appeared, the Middelburg commando, moving swiftly up a gulley to snatch No. 5 gun, by then exposed on the left.
Lt. Harry Cockburn with 20 men rushed to the rescue knowing full well they’d be surrounded by the time the 12-pounder was limbered up and drawn uphill by its exhausted team. Cockburn and most of his men were wounded and taken prisoner. Two were killed, Cpl Filson and L/Cpl Anderson.
Chaos reigned. Sgt. Ed Holland fired belt after belt through his Colt machine gun as his friend Sgt. Builder died defending him with his rifle. Riderless horses ran willy-nilly, chased by worn out and wounded dragoons.
Both gun teams, one with a wounded horse, were again soon in danger. They plodded up the long slope aided by weary gunners on foot who dragged them on. Lt. Morrison halted them and opened fire with shrapnel; then hauled away again.
Lt. Turner, already wounded, rallied 12 dragoons and set up an ambush between the charging Boers and the guns. Both Boer officers were shot in the head. The Boers broke through; Turner and his men attacked them from the rear. After a free-for-all the Boers withdrew: Turner had saved the guns. The guns reached the next ridge. Under their covering fire the bloodied RCD withdrew.
Life and death are full of ironies.We don’t know exactly how Cpl Filson died. But he must have been with Cockburn’s men. Lt. Cockburn was awarded the V.C.; Ed’s mother received Ed’s Queen’s Medal and five campaign clasps. Her family came from near Belfast, Ireland; her son lies in Belfast, South Africa. Near him lies his comrades, L/Cpl William Anderson and Sgt Nelson Builder. Sgt Holland served as one of Builder’s pall bearers.
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