REID James Cuninghame Corsane

Born 2nd October 1881. Siblings: Robert Corsane Reid, John Arthur Borron Reid.

On 10th December, Major General Clements made a poor choice of camp near Nootigedacht. The Boers outnumbering the British for a change made a three-pronged attack, capturing a dominant mountain to the north and all the outpost kopjes (hills) to the south except one. If the Boers had not blundered into British pickets early the attack would have been a complete surprise wiping out the entire detachment.

Clements made his defence around this single hill and using a single 4.7 in naval gun saved in the attack, turned the Boers away. The Boers were more interested in looting the British camp as they were lacking clothing, boots, tents food, etc. this allowed Clements to escape with half his detachment.

Reid would have been killed in this action as Clement lost 650 officers and men killed, wounded or captured. Though he was an officer not just an enlisted man, I have not found any mention of his death. This may be a problem with his postings, he was originally in the Somerset Light Infantry, he had then been attached to the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and was posted to the “Mounted Infantry” under General Sir Ian Hamilton though there is no mention of his unit.

Sources: AngloBoerWar.com, My Heritage, Boer War Casualties Catalog, Wikipedia, Battle of Nooitgedacht Page