Penn Symons
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Lieutenant-General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was normall ...
Sir William Penn Symons KCB (17 July 1843 – 23 October 1899) was a
British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...
officer who was mortally wounded as he commanded his forces at the Battle of Talana Hill during the
Second Boer War The Second Boer War (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic and ...
. While his forces won the battle, they had to abandon their position and fall back to Ladysmith. Symons and the more severely wounded were left to the Boers; he died three days later. A monument to his valour was raised in Victoria Park,
Saltash Saltash () is a town and civil parish in south Cornwall, England. It had a population of 16,184 in 2011 census. Saltash faces the city of Plymouth over the River Tamar and is popularly known as "the Gateway to Cornwall". Saltash’s landmarks ...
, Cornwall, UK.


Early life and family

William Penn Symons was born on 17 July 1843 at Hatt, Cornwall, the eldest son of William Symons and Caroline Anne (''
née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...
'' Southwell). He was educated privately and commissioned as an
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of the 24th Foot (later the South Wales Borderers) on 6 March 1863. He married Jane Caroline (née Hawkins) of
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on 13 February 1877 but the couple was childless.


Military career

Symons was promoted to
lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...
on 11 December 1866 and
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on 16 February 1878. His first combat experience was in South Africa during the Ninth Xhosa War (1877–78) where as a captain of the 2nd Battalion of the 24th Foot faced the native
Gcaleka The Gcaleka House is the Great house of the Xhosa people, Xhosa Kingdom in what is now the Eastern Cape. Its royal palace is in the former Transkei and its counterpart in the former Ciskei is the Rharhabe, which is the right hand house of Phalo. ...
and Ngqika tribes led by King Sandile kaNgqika. In 1879 he took part in the Zulu war and on 1 July 1881 he obtained his
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. He then served during the Burmese Expedition (1885–89) being breveted as lieutenant colonel on 26 November 1886 and appointed as Assistant Adjutant General for Musketry in
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(with the brevet rank of
colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...
) on 25 November 1887. In 1889 he commanded one of the two columns of the Burma Field Force in the Chin-Lushai Expedition for which he received the
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(CB). On 31 September 1891 Symons was promoted to regimental lieutenant colonel where he would command the 2nd Battalion, South Wales Borderers, until being made A.A.G Musketry in Bengal in April 1883. Then in 1894-5 he commanded a
brigade A brigade is a major tactical military unit, military formation that typically comprises three to six battalions plus supporting elements. It is roughly equivalent to an enlarged or reinforced regiment. Two or more brigades may constitute ...
during the Waziristan Expedition being promoted to local (brevet) brigadier general on 25 March 1895. In 1898 he was in command of the 2nd Brigade, Tochi Field Force during the Tochi Valley Expedition 1897-98, after which he led the 1st Division in the Tirah Campaign and was awarded the
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(KCB) on 20 May 1898.


Second Boer War

Colonel Symons was given the staff rank of brigadier general and was to be
General Officer Commanding General officer commanding (GOC) is the usual title given in the armies of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth (and some other nations, such as Ireland) to a general officer who holds a command appointment. Thus, a general might be the GOC ...
of Natal with temporary rank of major general on 15 May 1899; later that year on 20 September his staff rank would be raised to major general and on 9 October to
lieutenant general Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was norma ...
. When Symons arrived in South Africa there were around ten thousand troops spread between Cape Colony and Natal.Pakenham 1979, p.76-77 & p.82. He was asked by the
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to advise on the number of troops required to safely garrison the Natal from the threat of invasion from the Boer Republics of the Transvaal and
Orange Free State The Orange Free State ( ; ) was an independent Boer-ruled sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeated and surrendered to the British Em ...
. His initial estimate was for an extra two thousand troops but he later raised that to five thousand. In the end the Cabinet decided to send ten thousand extra troops but they also appointed Lieutenant General Sir George White to supersede Symons as GOC in Natal.Pakenham 1979, p.93 & p.96 However, before White arrived at
Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...
Penn Symons (who was known as a "fire eater"), had on his own authority deployed one of his brigades seventy miles north of Ladysmith at a town called
Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...
.Pakenham 1979, p.98-99 The position of both Ladysmith and Dundee was precarious as they stand in a triangle of Natal north of the
Tugela River The Tugela River (; ) is the largest river in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. With a total length of , and a drop of 1370 metres in the lower 480 km, it is one of the most important rivers of the country. The river originates in M ...
with the Orange Free State to the west and the Transvaal to the east. White wanted to recall the Dundee garrison to Ladysmith but because of political pressures from Sir
Walter Hely-Hutchinson Sir Walter Francis Hely-Hutchinson (22 August 1849 – 23 September 1913) was an Anglo-Irish diplomat and colonial administrator. Background and education Hely-Hutchinson was the second son of Richard Hely-Hutchinson, 4th Earl of Donoughmore. ...
, the Governor of Natal, he agreed to leave them there.Pakenham 1979, p.108-109 The Boers declared war on 11 October and began crossing the Natal borders the following day.


Battle of Talana Hill

On 20 October 1899 as dawn broke, men of the Dundee garrison spotted Boer troops on the nearby Talana hill (at ) who proceeded to open fire on the town with their Creusot 75mm guns. Symons was annoyed by the "impudence" of the Boers to attack before breakfast.Burnett 1905, p.13 The British guns moved to return fire as the general surveyed the Boer positions and gave orders to his commanding officers.Pakenham 1979, p.125-130 Symons believed in old-fashioned military tactics of close order, where by concentrating troops on the attack he hoped to smash the Boer defences. The reality was that these formations were not designed to be used against long-range
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rifles, and Symons' brigades would be the first of many in this war to pay the heavy cost of the mistake, as many generals would repeat it. However, his orders for the cavalry commander, Colonel Möller, were less conventional, telling him to act on his own initiative; it would be another costly mistake. At 7:30 am the infantry battalions set off from the east of the town; first the 2nd Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers, then the 1st
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and lastly the 1st
Royal Irish Fusiliers The Royal Irish Fusiliers (Princess Victoria's) was an Irish line infantry (later changed to light infantry) regiment of the British Army, formed by the amalgamation of the 87th (Prince of Wales's Irish) Regiment of Foot and the 89th (Princess ...
(the 1st Leicestershire Regiment were left to guard the camp). The first part of the advance went well and they reached a small wood at the foot of the hill where they found some shelter but beyond the wood there was a wall with a small gap and then open ground. Some of the Dublins were pinned down in a ditch ahead and the Fusiliers were lining the wall to the left. Shortly after 9am Symons rode up to the wood being followed by an aide-de-camp holding up a red pennant, to find out why the attack had stalled. He ordered the men to proceed, rode through the wood and dismounted, then walked through the gap in the wall still being followed by his pennant. After a few moments he returned and was helped to remount his horse. He then rode back from the front lines until he was out of sight from his troops before he asked for assistance from the Indian stretcher bearers as he had been shot in the stomach.


Death

In excruciating pain from a severe wound to his stomach, Symons was taken to the 20th Field Hospital at Dundee. Despite this, all that he wanted to know was, "have they got the hill?" While the battle was won, their position at Dundee quickly became untenable. After a few wasted days, Symons' replacement, Brigadier General James Yule, decided to abandon the town along with the most severely wounded to the Boers, stealing away at night to Ladysmith. The next day, the town surrendered and thus Symons became a prisoner of war along with many others. He clearly felt betrayed by Yule and just before he died on 23 October he implored the medical officer, Major Donegan, to "tell everyone I died facing the enemy, tell everyone I died facing the enemy".Pakenham 1979, p.142-147
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wrote in his telegrams to ''
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'':


Memorials

The Durban Light Infantry erected a memorial stone over his grave at Dundee. Another monument to his valour was raised in Victoria Park,
Saltash Saltash () is a town and civil parish in south Cornwall, England. It had a population of 16,184 in 2011 census. Saltash faces the city of Plymouth over the River Tamar and is popularly known as "the Gateway to Cornwall". Saltash’s landmarks ...
, Cornwall. A memorial was erected in December 1902 in Umballa, from funds raised by the local population. He had been in command there until he left for South Africa.


Notes


Sources

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Symons, Penn British Army lieutenant generals 1843 births 1899 deaths British Army personnel of the Anglo-Zulu War British military personnel of the Tirah campaign British military personnel of the Third Anglo-Burmese War British Army personnel killed in the Second Boer War British prisoners of war of the Second Boer War Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath People from Saltash South Wales Borderers officers Military personnel from Cornwall Deaths by firearm in South Africa