Orders, Decorations and Medals

The Boer War medal to Major Louis Irving Seymour who raised the Railway Pioneer Regiment and was killed in action at Zand River by snipers of Hassell's American Scouts

QUEEN'S SOUTH AFRICA 1899-1902, 2 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State (Major L.I. Seymour, Rly. Pnr. Rgt.) edge bruise, otherwise very fine and better

Major Louis Irving Seymour is believed to have been born in America although at least one authority (Dooner 'The Last Post') states that he was Australian by birth. What is certain is that he held American nationality and had worked in South Africa as a consulting mining engineer, initially for a local company and subsequently for DeBeers at Kimberley. Prior to the outbreak of the war he was employed as chief engineer by Messrs. Eckstein atJohannesburg. Like many of his fellow-citizens in South Africa, Seymour was profoundly convinced of the justice of the British cause. It was at his suggestion that the engineering skill of many of the Uitlander refugees, miners and artisans of many trades, should be formed into an irregular engineering corps for railway duties. Together with another leading engineer of the Transvaal mining industry, Mr. G.A. Goodwin, Seymour had approached Lord Milner with an offer to organise a corps for railway work from these men, and with their assistance the Railway Pioneer Regiment was enrolled from skilled men of all trades. It was raised under the command of Major J.E. Capper, R.E., while Messrs. Seymour and Goodwin were appointed Wing Majors, and many other engineers and mine managers were appointed as officers. This regiment was soon destined to do splendid service both in the hasty and semi-permanent repairs of the railway bridges.It was whilst superintending the repair of the railway line to Johannesburg on 14 June, 1900, that Major Seymour was killed in an attack by the commandos of Muller and Boerman. The Railway Pioneer Regiment in the advanced trenches were most cool and collected, engaging the enemy at very close quarters. They were for part of the morning surrounded by the enemy in the scrub but never lost their heads, and the enemy were ultimately driven out of the scrub by the advance through it of a line of reserve Railway Pioneer Regiment aided by half a company of Militia. Major Seymour, whilst advancing with the extended line through the bush to clear out the snipers, was shot dead by men from Hassell's American Scouts, a unit formed by the American J.A. Hassell to fight with the Boers. Lieutenant J. Clements who was mortally wounded on the same occasion was also an American citizen. Major Seymour was twice mentioned in despatches and in that from Lieutenant-Colonel Capper R.E., commanding Railway Pioneers, he states 'I especially deplore the loss of Major Seymour, whose loss will not only be felt by us as a regiment but by the whole of South Africa.' His tombstone proclaims that he was a 'Citizen U.S.A., Major in Her Britannic Majesty's Railway Pioneer Regiment. A photograph of Major Louis Seymour with Cecil Rhodes appears in 'With the Flag to Pretoria' p.372.