Lt.-Col. Robert Bruère Otter-Barry

http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/monographs/tollerton1929/otterbarryp...

Lt.-Col. Robert Bruère Otter-Barry was appointed Officer, Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.)

Children of Phoebe Storr and Lt.-Col. Robert Bruère Otter-Barry
Isabel Edith Otter-Barry b. 21 Aug 1908, d. 8 Oct 1994
Cicely Phoebe Susanna Otter-Barry b. 26 Jan 1911, d. 8 Sep 1980
Robert Leycester Otter-Barry b. 26 Oct 1914, d. 15 Jul 1994

On the farm Modderfontein in the Eastern Cape, 22km from Tarkastad, are the graves of officers and men of 'C' Squadron, 17th Lancers, who died on 17 September 1901 while defending their camp against the commando of General Jan Christiaan Smuts. Three officers have separate headstones and they and thirty-five men of the regiment are buried in a mass grave.

The Battle of Elands River took place near the Elands River Poort mountain pass on 17 September 1901 during the Second Boer War. During the battle a Boer raiding force under Jan Smuts destroyed a British cavalry squadron led by Captain Sandeman, a cousin of Winston Churchill, on the Modderfontein farm. This battle is therefore also known as the Battle of Modderfontein.

On 17 September, as Smuts' commando threaded through a gorge that opened out into the Elands River valley, a 17-year-old farmer named Jan Coetzer informed them that a British force held the pass at Elands River Poort in the next valley. Smuts commented, "If we don't get those horses and a supply of ammunition, we're done for". The British were C Squadron of the 17th Lancers. The Boers took advantage of a mist to encircle the British camp. When Smuts' vanguard ran head on into a Lancer patrol, the British hesitated to fire because many of the Boers wore captured British uniforms. The Boers immediately opened fire and attacked in front while Smuts led the remainder of his force to attack the British camp from the rear. The British party suffered further casualties at a closed gate that slowed them down. All six British officers were hit and four were killed, only Captain Sandeman, the commander, and his lieutenant Lord Vivian surviving. The 17th Lancers lost 29 killed and 41 wounded before surrendering. Boer losses were only one killed and six wounded.

Lt. Francis Melvil Otter-Barry was mentioned in despatches by Gen. Lord Kitchener, December 8 1901, for his "conspicuous good service." His name is inscribed in a tablet placed in Marlborough College Chapel to the memory of all Marburians who fell in the war.

http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol131rs.html