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Third Somaliland Campaign, Somalia, 1904
Lieutenant Charles Henry Bowden-Smith, Hampshire Regiment
St. Nicholas', Brockenhurst, Hampshire
There were some parts of the Empire where the British never seemed to stop fighting, despite being in nominal control. Burma stands out as one example, and Nigeria; Somaliland is another.
After being defeated in the battles of Gumburu and Daratoleh in April, 1903, the British could not just allow Sayyid Mohammad Hassan, known to popular parlance in Britain as 'The Mad Mullah', to continue with his quasi-autonomous predations. The embarrassed man in charge, Sir William Manning, was replaced as commander by General Charles Egerton, and British and Indian Army reinforcements arrived from Aden in June. Three companies of the Hampshire Regiment were posted inland to perform a holding operation while roads were constructed and transport and water supplies improved. Among their officers was Lieutenant Charles Bowden-Smith.
We have met the Bowden-Smith in these tales elsewhere. Charles great-uncle was Henry Bowden-Smith, killed fighting the Bheels in India in the 1830s. Charles' grandfather, Henry's brother Nathaniel, had inherited the family house in Brockenhurst, Hampshire, and raised a large family there, including Charles' father, William.
In 1872, at Freshwater in Hampshire, William married into a prominent British family of Indian merchants by wedding Louisa Sophia Princeps. Charles was born in Brockenhurst in 1877, and was educated at Charterhouse before joining the army. By the time he was posted to Somaliland his widowed mother had moved to live with her aunt in a house in College Street, Petersfield. It is still there, a Grade 2 Listed building called Cedar Cote.
While the Hampshire Regiment awaited action in Somaliland, General Egerton was receiving information from his reconnaissance patrols that Hassan and his followers, with their herds and families, were gathering in the grazing lands in the upper reaches of the Nugaal Valley. This valley runs for about two hundred and fifty kilometres from its mouth on the Indian Ocean in northern Somalia. In 1903 it was mostly in Italian Somaliland, but the upper reaches were in British-designated territory.
At the end of October Egerton sent out two columns, one under Manning and the other under Brigadier-General William H. Fasken, with the aim of driving Hassan north, and hopefully trapping him between the two columns. The expedition took time to move around the vast area, and it was not until January 1904 that Egerton received word that Hassan's forces were gathered near Jidballi, in the valley's upper reaches. Egerton joined his two columns together, and by the morning of Saturday, 9th January, he was ready. At five a.m., an hour before dawn, the combined forces moved towards Jidballi. Taking no chances, as risk-taking in the past had proved disastrous, Egerton left behind a party of troops of the 27th Punjabis to guard the supplies and baggage train.
Moving in two columns, with tribal horsemen protecting their flanks, the British came across the Dervish army camped in a large grassy depression. When eight hundred metres away Egerton dismounted his troops and formed them into a square. The front face was made up of the 52nd Sikhs and mountain guns. On the right were Kings African Rifles and sappers, who also covered the right rear. The left side and the left rear were taken by the Hampshire Regiment and the 27th Punjabis. The corners were occupied by Maxim guns, and Lieutenant Bowden-Smith stood with his regiment.
In previous encounters Hassan's Dervish troops had performed almost berserker-like frontal charges, but on this occasion that had little effect, the accurate rifle and Maxim gun fire limiting them to short rushes before being driven back. After twenty minutes the attacks faltered and the Dervish retreated. Then they broke and ran, chased by the now-mounted Mounted Infantry and the tribal horsemen. It was a rout. The chase lasted for over thirty kilometres, and all those fleeing who were caught were killed. In total the Dervish dead totalled over thirteen hundred; the British force lost twenty killed, but that included three officers, and one of them was Charles Bowden-Smith, shot during one of the attacks on the square. His men were firing their rifles from a prone position but he, as an officer, is likely to have been standing, exhorting his troops, making him an obvious target.
His effects of £112 were forwarded to his mother in Petersfield, and another memorial to a military Bowden-Smith appeared in St. Nicholas', Brockenhurst. Long before that the British had seemingly reduced Hassan to the level of a fugitive. They had forced him out of his coastal base of Illig, and forced him to retreat further south into Italian Somaliland. There he would remain relatively quiescent - for a while.
After being defeated in the battles of Gumburu and Daratoleh in April, 1903, the British could not just allow Sayyid Mohammad Hassan, known to popular parlance in Britain as 'The Mad Mullah', to continue with his quasi-autonomous predations. The embarrassed man in charge, Sir William Manning, was replaced as commander by General Charles Egerton, and British and Indian Army reinforcements arrived from Aden in June. Three companies of the Hampshire Regiment were posted inland to perform a holding operation while roads were constructed and transport and water supplies improved. Among their officers was Lieutenant Charles Bowden-Smith.
We have met the Bowden-Smith in these tales elsewhere. Charles great-uncle was Henry Bowden-Smith, killed fighting the Bheels in India in the 1830s. Charles' grandfather, Henry's brother Nathaniel, had inherited the family house in Brockenhurst, Hampshire, and raised a large family there, including Charles' father, William.
In 1872, at Freshwater in Hampshire, William married into a prominent British family of Indian merchants by wedding Louisa Sophia Princeps. Charles was born in Brockenhurst in 1877, and was educated at Charterhouse before joining the army. By the time he was posted to Somaliland his widowed mother had moved to live with her aunt in a house in College Street, Petersfield. It is still there, a Grade 2 Listed building called Cedar Cote.
While the Hampshire Regiment awaited action in Somaliland, General Egerton was receiving information from his reconnaissance patrols that Hassan and his followers, with their herds and families, were gathering in the grazing lands in the upper reaches of the Nugaal Valley. This valley runs for about two hundred and fifty kilometres from its mouth on the Indian Ocean in northern Somalia. In 1903 it was mostly in Italian Somaliland, but the upper reaches were in British-designated territory.
At the end of October Egerton sent out two columns, one under Manning and the other under Brigadier-General William H. Fasken, with the aim of driving Hassan north, and hopefully trapping him between the two columns. The expedition took time to move around the vast area, and it was not until January 1904 that Egerton received word that Hassan's forces were gathered near Jidballi, in the valley's upper reaches. Egerton joined his two columns together, and by the morning of Saturday, 9th January, he was ready. At five a.m., an hour before dawn, the combined forces moved towards Jidballi. Taking no chances, as risk-taking in the past had proved disastrous, Egerton left behind a party of troops of the 27th Punjabis to guard the supplies and baggage train.
Moving in two columns, with tribal horsemen protecting their flanks, the British came across the Dervish army camped in a large grassy depression. When eight hundred metres away Egerton dismounted his troops and formed them into a square. The front face was made up of the 52nd Sikhs and mountain guns. On the right were Kings African Rifles and sappers, who also covered the right rear. The left side and the left rear were taken by the Hampshire Regiment and the 27th Punjabis. The corners were occupied by Maxim guns, and Lieutenant Bowden-Smith stood with his regiment.
In previous encounters Hassan's Dervish troops had performed almost berserker-like frontal charges, but on this occasion that had little effect, the accurate rifle and Maxim gun fire limiting them to short rushes before being driven back. After twenty minutes the attacks faltered and the Dervish retreated. Then they broke and ran, chased by the now-mounted Mounted Infantry and the tribal horsemen. It was a rout. The chase lasted for over thirty kilometres, and all those fleeing who were caught were killed. In total the Dervish dead totalled over thirteen hundred; the British force lost twenty killed, but that included three officers, and one of them was Charles Bowden-Smith, shot during one of the attacks on the square. His men were firing their rifles from a prone position but he, as an officer, is likely to have been standing, exhorting his troops, making him an obvious target.
His effects of £112 were forwarded to his mother in Petersfield, and another memorial to a military Bowden-Smith appeared in St. Nicholas', Brockenhurst. Long before that the British had seemingly reduced Hassan to the level of a fugitive. They had forced him out of his coastal base of Illig, and forced him to retreat further south into Italian Somaliland. There he would remain relatively quiescent - for a while.
Sources
Somali Dervish - saved by Faisa Ibrahim, Photo Credit: ALAMY
Portrait of Sayyid Mohammad Abdullah Hassan, of the Dervish State - Douglas James Jardine, Public Domain
Grave stone of Charles Henry Bowden-Smith, St. Nicholas', Brockenhurst - Rachel Dewhirst
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Wikipedia
www.kaiserscross. com
The Spectator, 16th January 1904
www.royalhampshireregiment.org
