Guy Wylly - Boer War

Boer War

As a 20 year-old, he became a lieutenant in the Tasmanian Imperial Bushmen, raised to fight in the Second Boer War.

On 1 September 1900 near Warm Bad, Transvaal, South Africa, Lieutenant Wylly was part of a force under Herbert Plumer which engaged a small group of Boers at Rooikop. The Imperial forces captured 100 rifles, 40,000 rounds of ammunition, 7 Boers, 350 cattle, and 2 supply wagons. After the engagement, Wylly was reported to have been severely wounded, along with another Tasmanian officer, and 3 men from the Bushmen.

On 18 September 1900, the London Gazette carried an announcement that Wylly had been granted a commission as a second lieutenant in the Royal Berkshire Regiment, on the nomination of the Governor of Tasmania, backdated to 19 May 1900. On 16 November, this appointment was cancelled for some reason. On 23 November his VC was gazetted, with the following citation:

Tasmanian Imperial Bushmen, Lieutenant Guy G. E. Wylly On the 1st September, 1900, near Warm Bad, Lieutenant Wylly was with the advanced scouts of a foraging party. They were passing through a narrow gorge, very rocky and thickly wooded, when the enemy in force suddenly opened fire at short range from hidden cover, wounding six out of the party of eight, including Lieutenant Wylly. That Officer, seeing that one of his men was badly wounded in the leg, and that his horse was shot, went back to the man's assistance, made him take his (Lieutenant Wylly's) horse, and opened fire from behind a rock to cover the retreat of the others, at the imminent risk of being cut off himself. Colonel T. E. Hickman, D.S.O., considers that the gallant conduct of Lieutenant Wylly saved Corporal Brown from being killed or captured, and that his subsequent action in firing to cover the retreat was "instrumental in saving others of his men from death or capture."

On 5 December, came a new commission as a second lieutenant, now in the South Lancashire Regiment. Confusingly, The Times of 14 January 1901 listed in a report of killed and wounded "2nd Berkshire Regiment.—Lieut. G. Wylly, dangerously wounded, doing well, Nooitgedacht, date not stated." Whether this was a new wound, or he had not yet recovered from the wound he received in September, his condition was such that he was invalided to England, leaving Cape Town on 5 March 1901, on the hospital ship Avoca, which arrived at Southampton on 26 March. The report of this also indicates that he was serving with 2nd Battalion, South Lancs. By the following Sunday, 31 March, when the United Kingdom Census 1901 was taken, he was staying with his uncle, Robert M Clark, a retired colonel, at Charlton House in Shepton Mallett. He was presented with his VC at Buckingham Palace by King Edward VII on 25 July 1901.

On 22 March 1902 he was promoted to lieutenant in the South Lancs. He transferred to the Indian Army on 1 October 1902, and his promotion to lieutenant was backdated to 5 March 1902.

On 7 January 1906 Wylly was appointed the aide-de-camp to the Commander in Chief, India, who was then Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener. Wylly had been serving with the Corps of Guides. He was promoted captain on 26 April 1909. In 1913 he passed the examination for entry to the Staff College, Quetta, but not high enough up the list to be admitted immediately.