Medals from the Collection of Peter Duckers Part I


The regiment left Blessy on 10 December for Marseilles and East Africa, but Tyndall was left behind as Embarkation Officer and was unable to rejoin the 40th until 2 March 1916, when he assumed command of No. 2 Double Company. The 40th took part in the advance to Handeni along the right bank of the Pangani River as the Germans retreated southwards. They fought the German rearguard near Momb on 9 June, when Tyndall led the attack against a German machine-gun position, through dense sisal-grass and took the ridge. He remained there with some of the 40th as Commander at Momo. On 17 June Tyndall and his detachment were ordered to garrison Koragwe, while the rest of the 40th moved on to Nsala and then to Handeni, where Tyndall arrived with his detached company on 1 July.


He was appointed to command “A” Column in the advance from Handeni towards the coast, leaving on 12 August. They reached the Wami River on the 15th and Tyndall took over command of the regiment the following day, Colonel Mitchell having been placed on the sick list and returned to Manga to be evacuated. Tyndall was ordered to take the column to Rufu and either seize the bridge over the Mgeta (or Rufu) River or, if it had been destroyed, to move south towards Dar-es-Salaam. By 5th September, the bridge having been found destroyed, Tyndall entered Dar-es-Salaam - the fall of the enemy’s capital.


Tyndall wrote a detailed account of the events of 31 August to 5 September. They had left Bagamoyo on 31 August at 2 a.m. and drove away a piquet of Germans from Mbaua village. The next day they continued to push back German piquets and snipers, losing two men wounded. Tyndall then took the force towards Rufu station, crossed the Central Railway and working through the bush south of the station, scattered the enemy rearguard. On 2 September he attacked Masinga village, approaching it through dense bush, and captured men and equipment. On the 3rd his column cut the telegraph wires to Dar-es-Salaam and located the enemy in two groups holding Kola and Kasinga villages. Tyndall led the attack against Kasinga while Major Lawrence was sent against Kola. After heavy fighting both villages were taken, along with many prisoners. Tyndall then moved to Farsi on the 4th and on the 5th, marching via Motoni, entered Dar-es-Salaam in style:


‘The march of the 40th Pathans into the crowded bazaars and the European Quarter of Dar-es-Salaam was a stirring spectacle. They brought with them the largest numbers of prisoners-of-war, including 27 German whites, which had been made up to date in the East African campaign. The streets echoed with Dogra, Punjabi and Pathan [war cries] and the srinai players nearly burst. The column was headed by African scouts dancing... with complete abandon. At the tail of the column came the wounded in stretchers, prisoners, the long line of porters, controlled with difficulty by the Quartermaster in the throng and the loads of captured supplies. The roads were thronged with a motley crowd of sailors, troops and other Europeans, among whom were the wives and friends of the prisoners.’


For his success in command of this column, Tyndall was awarded the D.S.O.


Tyndall was now placed in command of the landing parties which General Smuts decided should be dropped at villages along the coast from the transport Barjora. His command consisted of the 40th Pathans and others, totalling about 1,100 men. On 17 September he landed with a force of the 40th Pathans at Lindi, and on the 25th went on board the Echo, guardship, to reconnoitre a creek near Mwreka prior to an attack on some enemy reported to be there. Echo shelled the village on the following day and, on the 27th Tyndall took a patrol of 100 men 15 miles to attack the village. During the attack Tyndall was wounded in the thigh whilst leading a patrol against a hill at the rear of the position. The patrol returned to Lindi by midnight and Tyndall was evacuated to Zanzibar Hospital but came out of hospital shortly afterwards.


By December 1916 the enemy were concentrated more or less to the north of the Rufiji, but they also had units in the Mtumbi Mountains and were trying to invest Kibata. It was near here that the 40th Pathans were engaged in the action on Gold Coast Hill occupied by the Germans. On 15th December Gold Coast Hill was captured by the Gold Coast Regiment which was then heavily shelled by the enemy. They were reinforced by Major Tyndall with seventy-five men. The Gold Coast Regiment were ordered to withdraw, having by then lost two British officers killed and seven wounded, thirty ORs killed and eighty-six wounded. Tyndall remained with 150 rifles, two machine-guns and four Naval Lewis Guns. For a week the regiment held Gold Coast Hill under very difficult conditions. Heavy shelling continued and the men were becoming exhausted. Half the sentries being visited would be found lying down in the rain, sick from malaria or other ailments. Ten men were sent down daily. On 22nd December the ridge was evacuated, the regiment having had eight men killed, two M.G. porters killed and two wounded.


Promoted to acting Lieutenant-Colonel before the end of the year, January of 1917 found the 40th Pathans engaged in some lively patrol work, the Germans having evacuated Kibata. At the end of February the regiment marched into Kitambi, and in April moved to Chemera, by which time Lieutenant-Colonel Tyndall was the only British officer of the H.Q. party fit for duty. On 12 April news was received that the Germans were threatening Kilwa Kiwindje in force with nine companies numbering 1,200 men. As the 40th Pathans were the nearest unit, they received orders to march south-east to delay or stop the German advance. It was not only the rainy season but the heaviest rainfall for nine years, and the column led by Lieutenant-Colonel Tyndall, with 300 Indian ranks and five machine- guns (including the Gold Coast Regiment), made a long and miserable march in very wet and extremely difficult conditions when it was sometimes impossible even for porter transport to move, but they reached Rumbo after a few days and this lay between the Germans and Kilwa Kiwindje.


Tyndall led his column, now reinforced with 150 rifles of the 2nd King’s African Rifles, out from Rumbo in an attack of the German position which was found to be impregnable. Major Murchison was shot through the heart and killed. It rained all day and when retreating they found that the Ngaura River, which they had paddled across on the advance, had become a swollen, rushing torrent. However, they luckily found a fallen tree and this materially assisted a very good, well timed and controlled withdrawal. Casualties were twenty-seven killed and sixty-nine wounded. The Germans had also suffered heavily, and there were thirty European Germans in hospital. In the event the enemy did not reach Kilwa Kiwindje with its stores and ammunition, so the action fought by Tyndall’s column achieved its objective. It was one of the most remarkable actions in which the regiment had taken part. Lieutenant-Colonel Tyndall was awarded the French Croix de Guerre for his work (London Gazette 31 August 1917).


On 23 June Tyndall, not in very good health, went on leave to Durban. He rejoined as Commandant on 8 August but in November was invalided back to England. After service during the Third Afghan War, Tyndall took command of the regiment from 11 July 1921. He retired on 6 June 1925, and died at Thakeham, Sussex, on 2 February 1942.


Sold with a copy of High Noon of Empire - The Diary of Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Tyndall 1895-1915, edited by B. A. ‘Jimmy’ James, Pen & Sword Military Books, 2007.


See Lot 836 for the C.B. group awarded to his father, Major-General Henry Tyndall, 2nd Punjab Infantry.


www.dnw.co.uk all lots are illustrated on our website and are subject to buyers’ premium at 20% (+VAT where applicable)


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