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You are here: Home / Archives for Boer War

Boer War

HMS Powerful, Gunner Sims and the Boer War

September 1, 1999

At the start of the Boer War, 1899, the enemy use of large calibre guns, able to outrange the British field artillery, forced retreat after retreat, until within three weeks, Ladysmith was being shelled by heavy guns positioned on the surrounding hills. There is little doubt that the arrival of HMS Powerful’s Naval Brigade was a decisive factor in the town’s survival, the naval 4.7’s and 12 cwt, (long) 12 pounders being the only guns capable of engaging the Boer guns at long range.

One of the outstanding characters of the Siege of Ladysmith was the Warrant Gunner of HMS Powerful, Mr. W. Sims, described variously as: “One whose verbal encouragement was of a very high order,” and last but not least, from an admiring soldier, (quoted, I think, in “Thank God we kept the Flag Flying) “His language, Gawd you could have cut it with a knife.” For a Gunner, Royal Navy, to be “persuasive and eloquent” is in the natural order of things, as anyone who has ever met an R.N. Parade Gunner on his home ground will remember with a touch of nostalgia, if the passage of the years has been sufficient to take away the pain! Mr. Sims, however, seems to have been an outstanding practitioner of the art. There was, however more to him than a flair for “language”!

The arrival of HMS Powerful’s Naval Brigade in Ladysmith was dramatic; the 12 pounders were in action as soon as they could be off loaded from the train. “Long Tom,” a Boer 6-inch gun, was making life unpleasant, and succeeded in overturning one of Powerful’s guns. However two other 12 pounders opened up from the open plain in front of Gordon’s Hill with such accuracy that the third salvo “knocked out” the Boer gun, (albeit temporarily) and the crew took to their heels. The range was between 6,000 and 7,000 yards, the guns laid and fired by Mr. Sims.

Both of the Ladysmith 4.7 guns were “platform mounted.” Each gun weighed about seven tons, the platform consisted of four heavy baulks of timber. On the night of January 5th one of these guns was moved to Wagon Hill at the southern end of the defensive perimeter, arriving at the foot of the hill at about 0100. Gunner Sims was in charge.

The gun platform was half way off the wagon at the new location when twenty or thirty picked Boer marksmen gained a position on the crest of the hill. The thirteen bluejackets, plus a handful of Gordon Highlanders and Sappers manned the empty gun emplacement. The Gunner immediately took charge of the erratically firing mob of sailors and soldiers with such an easy flow of drill book “lingo” that he might have had the book in his hand. “Number,” he shouted, the answers came back in a mixture of West Country and Scots. “One to eight will be the right hand section, nine to fifteen will be the left hand section. Right hand section will fire a volley while the left hand section loads, right hand section Ready, Present, Fire.”

Shortly after 1300 a fresh assault was made on Wagon Hill, Gunner Sims and the 4.7 gun’s crew had been relieved at noon, and had just finished eating when there was a sudden increase in the firing and a loud shouting, then they saw a confused mass of men tumbling down the hill yelling that the Boers were on top and up to the gun emplacements. The Gunner, realising that it was a momentary panic shouted “Naval Brigade”, (there were only thirteen of them!) “Extend in skirmishing order, to the left and right, Forward,” and led them up the few yards to the crest of the hill, fixing bayonets as they went and expecting to see a row of hairy faces appearing over the crest. They found Colonel Ian Hamilton pointing his revolver at the solitary Boer and shouting “Come back, men.” One stoker was killed and an A.B. badly wounded. Shortly afterwards Gunner Sims had his rifle blown out of his hands by a piece of shrapnel. In view of his outstanding reputation for language it is a pity that no one saw fit to record his words for posterity; Shakespeare himself might have gained a rival!

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Twins Were Pioneers of the RAN

December 31, 1972

An announcement that two brothers had been appointed to command sister ships in Australia’s Destroyer Squadron has brought to light the careers of twin brothers who were pioneers of the Royal Australian Navy.

The Creer brothers, aged 80 at an Anzac Day reunion.

THE TWINS, REGINALD AND HERBERT CREER, first joined the Navy in 1894, and were still serving 50 years later, at the end of WWII.

The twins had remarkable parallel careers as naval officers, beginning in the very first ships delivered to the RAN in 1911, and including simultaneous command of Australian warships. For a period of 11 weeks in 1921, they had command of sister ships of the RAN’s destroyer flotilla (Success and Swordsman), a record that had been claimed for Captain G. J. and Commander A. A. Willis, who commanded two Australian Daring Class destroyers.

The Creer brothers, who were born in Sydney in 1881, began their naval careers at the age of 13, when they became midshipmen in the newly formed Naval Brigade of NSW.

In 1900, Reginald was promoted to Sub- Lieutenant in the Brigade, and went off to the Boxer War, while brother Herbert was serving as a cadet in the sailing ship, Mount Stewart.

CHANGED SERVICES

The twins changed uniforms for the Boer War, and were officers in Australian Commonwealth Horse Battalions.

They were among the first group of 12 officers selected to form the Royal Australian Navy when it was established in 1911. Herbert was appointed as navigating officer to HMAS Yarra, while his brother had the same job in HMAS Parramatta. In the First World War they served in the cruisers Melbourne and Pioneer.

After the War, they had their own commands before being demobilised in 1926, at the age of 45. Herbert had three years as Captain of the destroyer ANZAC, taking over from his brother Reginald when he was appointed to command the training ship, Tingira.

For the next 14 years, Herbert commanded a private yacht in Britain, while Reginald was master of a merchant ship on the China Coast.

At the age of 58, in 1940, the brothers joined the Royal Navy as Commanders, and were given assignments in South East Asia.

Reginald had command of a Gunboat Flotilla on the China Station, and Herbert had the Gunboat Command in Shanghai. Reginald was captured when Japan entered the War, and spent the rest of the campaign in Japanese prison camps.

BANGKA MASSACRE

Herbert took his flotilla to Singapore, where he was a Port Defence Officer when the Japanese began their drive south. He was ordered to leave Singapore on the last ship to escape from the colony. One of his final jobs in Singapore was to supervise the embarkation of the Australian nurses, who were to become the victims of the Bangka massacre.

He was then assigned as Camp Commandant of a staging camp in Colombo, and later to the command of naval establishments in India.

After four years and a half a century at sea, the twins went into retirement.

Australian Naval History on 30 October 1900

October 30, 1900

The Naval Brigade of HMS POWERFUL, (a previous flagship of the Australia Station), attacked Boer positions at Lombards Kop, Ladysmith, South Africa.

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