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Origins | Laurier Acts
| Royal Canadian Regiment
| Battle of Paardeberg |
Richard Thompson |
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Relief of Mafeking |
The Boers |
Leliefontein |
Going Home |
Further Reading
One of the British
soldiers serving in South Africa during the Boer War was
Prince Christian Victor who sent letters to his
Grandmother about the war and the conditions which the
troops faced. On of the repeated comments he made in his
letters was ho bitterly cold the nights could be in
South Africa. His Grandmother was Queen Victoria and her
reaction to these letters was to show her support of the
troops fighting for her Empire by knitting scarves
herself to keep the men war and these scarves would be
awarded to the soldiers who displayed the most
conspicuous bravery.
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In April of
1900 she sent 4 scarves to Lord Roberts and
asked him to determine which soldiers should be
chosen to receive the scarves, one each going to
the South African, Australian, New Zealand and
Canadian troops. On July 10th, 1900 Private
Richard Rowland Thompson had been selected as
the Canadian candidate "in recognition of his
conspicuous gallantry during the campaign." |
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Thompson had
immigrated from Ireland in 1897 and had joined the Royal
Canadian Regiment on October 8th, 1899 in Ottawa.
Thompson was a great admirer of Rudyard Kipling and
fully support British Imperialistic ambitions. He was
assigned duty as a medical assistant in the second
Battalion and left for South Africa in November of 1899.
Once in action he repeatedly risked his own life under
fire to save or help fellow troops. One of these was for
a soldier, on February 18th, who had been wounded during
the battle of Paardeberg where Thompson stayed on the
battlefield for seven hours treating Private James L.H.
Bradshaw wounded throat by stopping the bleeding. He
repeated this action on February 27th by crossing 200
yards of open ground under constant fire to reach the
wounded soldier but the failed to save the mans life
this time. At
the end of July 1900, Private Thompson was invalided
back to Canada but was to return to South Africa after
the war to serve in the South African Constabulary and
then worked for DeBeers at Kimberly. He died of
appendicitis in Buffalo New York in 1908 and his body
was returned to Canada where a military funeral was held
at Cartier Square, Ottawa in the drill hall.
He never wore the
scarf as a soldier and today it resides at the Canadian
War Museum on permanent loan from his descendants.
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