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Page 16
A list of prices at this time in Ladysmith at the public auction is of
interest:--
Eggs per dozen, 11s. 6d.
Small vegetable marrow, 1s. 6d.
Twelve small carrots, 2s. 6d.
Small water melon (worth 1d.), 6s. 6d.
Condensed milk per tin, 5s. 6d.
Fifty-two small potatoes, �1 10s.
Chickens, each, 8s.
Ducks, 13s. 6d.
Dutch butter in tins, 6s. 6d. per lb.
1/2d. Manilla cigars, 1s.
There was no English smoking tobacco obtainable, and one bottle of
whisky changed hands at �5 10s.
December 25th, Christmas Day.
"Hark, the herald angels sing!" was forcibly brought to notice by the
whistling of shells passing overhead at daylight. No Divine Service was
therefore held. The garrison received the following message from Her
Majesty the Queen: "I wish you and all my brave soldiers and sailors a
happy Christmas. God protect and bless you all.--V.R.I." In the evening
there was a soldiers' sing-song in the lines, which was finished off by
three most hearty cheers for Her Majesty. Christmas Day completed the
eighth week of the siege.
The losses which the 2nd Battalion sustained at Colenso were
heliographed into Ladysmith. These were 15 N.C.O.'s and 10 men killed,
72 wounded, and 33 taken prisoners. This was in addition to the officers
wounded and taken prisoners already mentioned.
On December 27th, shortly after breakfast, a shell from the big gun from
Bulwana pitched and burst in the officers' mess shelter, where fourteen
officers had taken cover on the whistle being blown. Lieutenant A.F.
Dalzel was killed and the following were wounded:--
Lieutenant P.H. Price-Dent, dangerously in the head.
Lieutenant Caffin, dangerously in arm and shoulder.
Lieutenant Byrne, slightly.
Lieutenant Tringham, slightly.
Lieutenant Kane, slightly.
Lieutenant Scafe, slightly.
Lieutenant Twiss, slightly.
Lieutenant Blunt, slightly.
Captain Lafone, slightly.
Private Laycock, mess waiter, slightly.
The wounded were taken into the Railway Cutting and there cared for.
They were then sent down to hospital in a church in the town. Lieutenant
Dalzel was buried that night in the cemetery after dark during a heavy
thunderstorm and in torrents of rain.
The men had a bad experience on the night of the 29th. The rain flooded
their bivouacs, and the morning found blankets and clothes floating
about in the water in the trenches. Later on, however, the weather
cleared, the sun came out, and everything was soon dried.
[Illustration: After a Wet Night in the Traverses, Ladysmith]
At the latter end of December marksmen were sent out daily to the
hill-tops some 1000 yards in front of the line of forts to act as
countersnipers to the Boers, who continually fired at the grazing
guards. One man was hit twice in one day by a Boer sniper, but only
slightly wounded. It would appear from a letter written by a Boer that
these marksmen made it very uncomfortable for the Boer snipers. In the
letter, which was afterwards published in a Boer newspaper, the
correspondent, writing to a friend in Pretoria, said: "I and my two
comrades went out this morning to fire into the English position. We had
only just got to our hiding-place when one of my comrades was shot dead;
shortly after, my other comrade was badly wounded, and I lay down and
hid the whole day till dark, when I got back to the laager." This would
go to prove that, comparing him with the Boer, the British infantry
soldier is not such a duffer with his weapon as some of those in
authority were in the habit of asserting.
There was a good deal of musketry fire whilst the scouts were out, and
it was supposed that shots were being exchanged with the Boer snipers;
but when the marksmen, who were posted on the hills near the Orange Free
State Junction Station and just above the abandoned piggery, came back
with portions of the carcasses of pigs, it was evident that all the
firing had not been at Transvaal Boers.
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