PRIVATE H.H. YATES, 23RD (LANCASHIRE) COMPANY IMPERIAL YEOMANRY. THE 23RD COMPANY IMPERIAL YEOMANRY TOOK PART IN THE LAST ACTION FOUGHT BY ANY IMPERIAL YEOMANRY UNIT DURING THE BOER WAR. Queen's South Africa Medal, 3 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, South Africa 1901 (officially named, impressed in upper and lower case: 2740 Pte. H. H. YATES, 23rd. Coy. 8th. IMP: YEO.). Good Very Fine.
Medal accompanied by biographical details, medal roll extracts (confirming medal and clasps) and copied extract from 1911 census.
Henry Harrison Yates was born in Eccles, Lancashire, circa 1881. He is recorded in the 1911 census as a 30 year old cotton manufacturer living at Rydal Mount, Boothstown, Lancashire, with his 32 year old wife, two daughters and two servants.
The 23rd (Lancashire) Company Imperial Yeomanry took part in two significant actions during the Boer War.
On 30th May 1900 a column including the 23rd and 24th Companies Imperial Yeomanry took part in an offensive against Dutch rebel forces in Cape Colony. The column was attacked close to a farm in the Northern Cape called Faber's Put, by 600 Cape Dutch rebels. During the action, the 23rd and 24th Companies each lost 6 men killed and a total between them of 18 wounded.
On 2nd June 1902 (two days after the Boer War had officially ended, the Boers having surrendered at Vereeniging on 31/5/1902), the 23rd Company took part in the last action fought by any Imperial Yeomanry unit during the Boer War, when it ran into a party of Boers who did not know that the war had ended two days previously. During the action that ensued, the 23rd Company lost 2 men killed in action, another slightly wounded and one officer, Lieutenant H.D. Spratt, mortally wounded (he died of his wounds the next day).
