Early Life :

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

Detail :

B Squadron of the Natal Light Horse. Killed in Action at Kheis Drift and buried at Winstead Farm Cemetery, Groblershoop, Northern Cape, South Africa.

Boer Rebellion: "Upon recruiting his full complement Royston received orders to entrain the Natal Light Horse (NLH) for Upington, an area near the border of German South-West Africa and, in just a few days, complete with horses and machine guns the regiment detrained at De Aar Junction. Shortly after this arrival the regiment was ordered out to fight a rebel Boer General Maritz who had recruited men to the German cause and was going out in open rebellion of the South African Government. Moving north from Upington to Bechuanaland the NLH engaged Maritz and his rebels at Kakamas mid-afternoon the next day. In this engagement the NLH successfully captured the rebel camp but failed to capture Maritz who, though wounded, got away.

After this action the NLH took up position at Kheis Drift on the Orange River with the intention of stopping another rebel Boer General Kemp and his large commando from crossing through to German territory. While at this station Royston's observation post reported a large body of men approaching carrying a white flag and wearing white arm bands such as those displayed by the South African Forces. Taking this group as being members of a detachment he was expecting Royston allowed the group into his outpost. Unfortunately this was actually an advanced guard of Kemp's commando who suddenly dismounted and began to send volley fire into the ranks of the NLH, five of whom were killed ( JA Antel, WJ Bands, CV Daly, W Speight and EV Wentworth) and another seven wounded. The NLH response was swift. Returning fire they repelled the commando with losses of forty to fifty men at the same time successfully defending Kheis Drift and preventing Kemp from crossing into German South-West Africa."

The C.V. Daly recorded is most probably a bad transcript of Gregory Victor - G.V. Daly.

See also: South African War Graves Project.

Masonic :

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley