Sir Charles Warren and Spion Kop: A Vindication

I omitted to state that during the afternoon of the 22nd the Commander-in-Chief proposed an attack upon the enemy’s position on our left flank that night. I summoned at once the General Officers available—namely, Generals Clery, Talbot Coke, and Hildyard. General Clery, who was in command of the left attack, did not consider it advisable to make this attack, because, if successful, it would commit us to taking the whole line of the enemy’s position, which he considered a hazardous proceeding, as we might not be able to hold it. In this I concurred, more particularly as it was evidently too late in the day to carry the operation out effectively.

C. Warren, Lieut.-General,
Commanding 5th Division.

I continually proposed to General Warren that he should attack the enemy’s right, which was en l’air and not strong, and which it was part of the original programme to try and turn, but I never suggested doing this hurriedly or without adequate forethought and preparation.—R. B.}}

[15] See pages 104 and 105 for substance of Sir C. F. Clery’s Report. The Report of Major-General Hildyard is not reprinted.

[16] C.

[17] See G.

[18] See H.

[19] See page 154.

[20] See page 156.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE

Section F in the Appendix is a reproduction of a Report by Sir Charles Warren and has several sidenotes in the margin. The Sidenote ‘A’ is referenced from Section E. Sidenote ‘1’ appears twice in one paragraph. Sidenote ‘1’ appears twice in one paragraph but is shown only once on handheld devices.

Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources.

Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text, and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.

Pg 120: ‘Thaba Mjama’ replaced by ‘Thaba Njama’.
Index: ‘Sarjent’ replaced by ‘Sargent’.
Index: ‘Van Renen’ replaced by ‘Van Reenen’.

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