Francis Leopold Melvill

F.L. Melvill writes in the Jeppe High school magazine as follows:-

Hut 16, Military Hospital

Wynberg, C.P., 13.4.12

“On the following afternoon we advance to Taveta and had hardly been on the move for a quarter of an hour before we heard the distant boom of our guns and realised that there was some excitement at the end of our day’s march. We reach Taveta at sunset and began to dig ourselves in. We had been at this job just an hour when we suddenly got the orders to fall in immediately and were marched off in the direction of the noise where the Germans had taken up their positions and which our guns had been shelling and our 1st Brigade had been attacking since one o’clock. We got within rifle range and then formed up in two ranks and got the order to lie down and fix bayonets. We remained here for about ten minutes with a few bullets whistling around, and then got the order to advance, which we did until within 200 yards of the bush where the enemy were supposed to be entrenched. Here we again got down, and after we had fired a few rounds the order sounded in the still night, “South Africans, Charge!” and we did, shouting and yelling at the top of our voices. The effect was good, for the enemy began to retreat and we followed, stopping every now and then, charging forward as fresh as ever, although we were all in full kit with two day’s rations. I do not think anyone felt at all fatigued;; I know I did not.

           When we had followed the retreating Askaris almost through the pass, about 30 of us got separated from the rest and found ourselves with two officers, Lieutenant Davis (K.E.S.) and Lieutenant Lowden (J.H.S.). The latter went forward to reconnoitre, and thought he saw the enemy running, and so came back and told us. We got up like one mane and charged forward again, but, alas! We had only gone about thirty yards when the bush in front seemed to blaze with fire as the beggars opened on us at 20 yards’ range with three machine guns and every other conceivable weapon. Luckily, the Askaris were, as usual, shooting high, but one machine gun got our range, and with the first burst killed poor Lieutenant Lowden and three others, nine were wounded, including yours truly, through the foot.

We remained under this hot fire for some time, and then some fellows came up on our flanks and engaged them and so allowed us to retreat 100 yards. Then I was carried about three miles to the dressing station.”
Leopold Francis Melville was 28 years old when he make a voyage from Trinidad where he was living at Pointe a Pierre, on the ship Mayaro on the 8th of September 1924 from Port of Spain Trinidad to New York