Sedbergh VC in the Boer War

We are extremely grateful to Peter Weeks (Powell 64-68) for his report regarding Robert Digby-Jones, who was awarded the VC after the Boer War. Peter recently visited the grave of Digby-Jones in South Africa. He writes:

We are all familiar with the monument above the Cloisters commemorating the 3 OS who won the VC in World War Two. Less well known is Sedbergh’s fourth and earlier VC, awarded posthumously for an action that took place in the Siege of Ladysmith during the Boer War. On a visit to Ladysmith a few years ago I found the grave of Robert James Thomas Digby-Jones. This is his story.

Robert Digby-Jones was born in Edinburgh in 1876 and educated at Alnouth, Northumberland and at Sedbergh. He entered the RMA Woolwich in 1894 and was commissioned 2 years later into the Royal Engineers.  1899 found him in 23 Field Coy, RE, in the small town of Ladysmith in Natal, South Africa at the start of the Boer War. The town was soon surrounded and besieged by a Boer army which overlooked the town from a ring of low flat-topped hills. Wagon Hill lies to the south just within the British lines. During the night of 5th January 1900 a party of gunners and sappers including Lieutenant Digby-Jones were installing a naval gun on the south-west point of Wagon Hill when out of the darkness Boers from the Free State made a surprise attack.  Fierce fighting continued into the morning all along Wagon Hill – a critical point for the town’s defence – before dying away. Around one o’clock a party of Boers again stormed over the edge of the crest, this time reaching right up to the gun emplacement.  Digby-Jones shot one of the Boer leaders, De Villiers, at close range with his revolver and led the fight to clear the hilltop, losing his life in the mêlée.

Digby-Jones lies in Ladysmith cemetery.  Near the site of the gun emplacement on Wagon Hill are memorials to him and to De Villiers.

An interesting footnote. The award of posthumous VCs was sanctioned by King Edward VII in 1902 after the end of the Boer War with the family of Digby-Jones receiving his medal.  Formerly the VC was only awarded to living recipients.

Brass tablets were put up in St Mary’s Cathedral and Alnouth parish church to his memory and a red sandstone memorial stands in the grounds of the School Chapel behind Malim Lodge.

Peter Weeks

OS, P (1964 – 1968)