The Julian Johnson Collection

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Cape Colony, Tugela Heights, Relief of Ladysmith (Lieut: F. R. W. Metxa, R. Scots Fus:) good very fine, scarce £600-800

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Julian Johnson Collection.

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Provenance: Sothebys, March 1982.

Frederick Robert Wyndham, Count Metaxa was born in 1878, and was the son of Admiral Frederick Cosmeto, Count Metaxa (a Venetian title created in 1691). He was commissioned Second Lieutenant, 3rd Battalion Dorset Regiment, in October 1897, and transferred to the 2nd Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers in May 1899. He served with the 2nd Battalion during the Second Boer War, and was present at Colenso and Val Krantz and was wounded during the advance to Ladysmith, at Pieter’s Hill, 27 February 1900. At the latter he was part of Barton’s Fusilier Brigade, and ‘on the 26th it was decided to attack the high ground where the railway turned north - Inniskilling and Railway Hills on the left, and Pieter’s Hill on the right... Barton’s brigade - Scots, Irish, and Dublin Fusiliers - crossed the bridge at 10.30am on the 27th, turned right, and moved in single file along the foot of the slopes, till at noon they were formed for attack below Pieter’s Hill. On the right were the Scots Fusiliers, on the left the Irish Fusiliers, each with three companies in the firing-line, while the Dublins were in support. The attack was to pivot on the left, swing round and occupy the long hill which extended for nearly a mile northwards, while the Scots Fusiliers were also to send companies to the right in case of an attack from the direction of Eagle’s Nest.....

After a steep climb of nearly five hundred feet, the troops reached the crest, and the Irish Fusiliers captured the nearest kopjes, though galled by the fire from Railway Hill on the west. The Scots Fusiliers had farther to go, and as they raced over the plateau they were met with heavy fire from the farther kopjes on the summit, so that their line was compelled to contract, and they failed to envelop the highest kopje at the northern end. Colonel Carr fell wounded, but by 2.30pm they had gained all the centre of the ridge... Then began a difficult hour. The Boers on the northern kopje, having been now re-inforced, kept up a heavy enfilading fire.... and the only artillery support for Pieter’s came from Monte Cristo. It was clear that the northern kopje must be taken, so Barton’s brigade-major, Captain McBean got together one company of the Scots and three of the Dublins, whom he lead to the assault. Over the bullet-swept plateau the little force worked its way: but, after all the officers but one had been wounded, the advance came to a halt in a donga three hundred yards from the kopje. The brigade was bearing single-handed the whole brunt of the action.’ (The History of The Royal Scots Fusiliers (1678-1918), by J. Buchan refers)

Relief did come, and by midnight of the 27th the Boers stand on the Tugela was over, ‘the fight at Pieter’s Hill was, for our regiment, the costliest since Inkermann. Barton’s brigade had most casualties of the three engaged in the attack, and of these the Scots Fusiliers had nearly half. Among the killed were Captains V. Lewis and H. S. Sykes, Lieutenants Simpson and Onraet, and twenty-four non-commissioned officers and men. Colonel Carr, Captains A. Hull and E. E. Blaine, Lieutenant C. H. I. Jackson, Second Lieutenants Metaxa and H. C. Fraser, and sixty non-commissioned officers and men were wounded.’ (Ibid)

Metaxa advanced to Lieutenant in July 1902, but was placed on half-pay the following year on account of ill-health. He retired in 1908, and served as Captain of Invalids at Royal Hospital Chelsea, 1910-1917.