Lieutenant Guy George Egerton Wylly Tasman Imperial Bushmen 1st September 1900 |
On the 1st September 1900, when a foraging party was near Warm Bad, Lieutenant Wylly was one of the advanced scouts. While passing through a narrow and thickly-wooded defile, they were suddenly fired upon, at a very short range, by the Boers. Being well hidden by the trees, it was impossible for the enemy to be exactly located, or for our men to fire with any effect ; and, being much exposed, six, including Lieutenant Wylly, were hit, out of the little party of eight. Corporal Brown was badly hurt in the leg, and his horse shot, seeing which, though wounded himself, Wylly went to the man's assistance, helped him up on to his own horse, and took shelter behind some boulders, from which he opened a sharp fire on the enemy to cover the retreat of the rest of his party. Colonel Hickman, D.S.O. (Worcestershire Regiment), reports that Wylly's brave action saved Brown from being killed or taken prisoner, and, in firing to cover the retreat of the rest, at the grave risk of being himself cut off, he was the means of saving others of his party from a similar fate. Born in 1883, Lieutenant Wylly is the son of Major E. Wylly, late Leinster Regiment and Indian Staff Corps, and grandson of the late Mr. Robert Clerk, of Westholme, Somerset, and Sergeant-at-Arms to the House of Assembly, Hobart, Tasmania. Has been gazetted to the Royal Berkshire Regiment. |