Llewelyn Alberic Emilius Price-Davies

At twenty-three years old, Lieutenant Llewelyn Alberic Emilius Price-Davies rode directly into a mass of charging Boers in an attempt to save British guns at Blood River Poort. He was shot from his horse, yet survived an action that the official Victoria Cross citation described as a ride towards what seemed like "almost certain death." That extraordinary moment on 17 September 1901 made Price-Davies one of the best-known Victoria Cross recipients of the Second Boer War, but it was only one episode in a military career that would stretch from South Africa to the Western Front, Italy, senior peacetime appointments and, decades later, service with the Home Guard during the Second World War.

Major-General Llewelyn Alberic Emilius Price-Davies VC, CB, CMG, DSO, born on 30 June 1878, was educated at Marlborough College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He was commissioned into the King's Royal Rifle Corps on 23 February 1898 and promoted lieutenant on 21 October 1899. South Africa quickly transformed the young officer's career. Serving with mounted infantry during the Second Boer War, he took part in operations that included Colenso, Spion Kop, Vaal Krantz, Tugela Heights, Pieter's Hill, Laing's Nek and fighting in the Transvaal. His service brought two Mentions in Despatches and appointment as a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order. The DSO was published in the London Gazette on 19 April 1901 with the succinct citation, "For services in South Africa."

Only months later came the action that defined his name. At Blood River Poort in Natal on 17 September 1901, Boer forces had broken around the right of a British column and roughly 400 mounted men were threatening the artillery from the flank and rear. Seeing the danger to the guns, Price-Davies drew his revolver and rode into the attackers, firing as he went in an effort to disrupt them and assist the gun teams. He was immediately shot and knocked from his horse. The deed was recognised with the Victoria Cross, announced in the London Gazette on 29 November 1901, issue 27381, page 8409. Lord Kitchener presented Price-Davies with the VC at Pretoria on 8 June 1902. He was promoted captain in January 1902 and completed the South African War with an unusually distinguished record for an officer still in his early twenties.

His South African service was also reflected in his campaign medals. He received the Queen's South Africa Medal with five clasps, Tugela Heights, Orange Free State, Relief of Ladysmith, Transvaal and Laing's Nek, together with the King's South Africa Medal with the clasps South Africa 1901 and South Africa 1902. These awards, combined with his DSO, two South African Mentions in Despatches and the Victoria Cross, made his Boer War record the foundation of a career that would soon move from mounted warfare to the far larger armies of the First World War.

When the First World War began, Price-Davies was already an experienced staff officer. He served as a General Staff Officer, Grade 2, at General Headquarters from October 1914 and later with the 4th Division. In November 1915 he became a temporary brigadier-general and moved into brigade command. His best-known command was the 113th Infantry Brigade of the 38th (Welsh) Division, which fought on the Somme and took part in the bitter struggle for Mametz Wood in July 1916. The battle was fought through dense woodland, intense artillery fire and severe confusion, conditions that tested brigade and divisional command as severely as the infantry themselves. Price-Davies later reconsidered some of his initial criticism of his troops and acknowledged that he might not have given the brigade full credit for what it had achieved. His later wartime commands included the 214th and 8th Infantry Brigades.

His First World War service brought further recognition. Price-Davies was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1918 New Year Honours, by which time he was a major and brevet lieutenant-colonel holding temporary brigadier-general rank. A June 1918 London Gazette entry records him as VC, CMG and DSO while serving with the temporary rank of major-general. From April 1918 he undertook special liaison duties connected with the British effort in Italy, and his surviving correspondence provides a valuable window into Allied command during the final year of the war. He was also mentioned in despatches during his First World War service, the distinction represented on his Victory Medal ribbon by the bronze oak-leaf emblem.

The end of the war did not end his military responsibilities. In 1918 and 1919 he served as president of a standing committee of enquiry concerning prisoners of war. In 1920 he became an aide-de-camp to King George V and served from 1920 to 1924 as Assistant Adjutant-General at Aldershot Command. On 1 January 1921 he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath, with the London Gazette listing Colonel Llewelyn Alberic Emilius Price-Davies, VC, CMG, DSO, ADC, among the new Companions of the Military Division. He later commanded the 145th Infantry Brigade and served as Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster-General at Gibraltar before retiring from the Regular Army on 15 April 1930 with the honorary rank of major-general.

His reputation also brought international recognition. Price-Davies was appointed an Officer of the French Légion d'Honneur, one of the Allied decorations authorised for British wear following the First World War. He was later made a Commander of the Italian Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus. The latter appointment is explicitly recorded in the London Gazette of 2 March 1923, where Colonel Llewelyn Alberic Emilius Price-Davies, VC, CB, CMG, DSO, ADC appears under the grade of Commander. These foreign honours reflected a career that had moved well beyond regimental service into senior command and international military liaison.

Retirement did not sever Price-Davies's connection with military and royal service. From 1933 to 1948 he was associated with the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms. When Britain again went to war in 1939, the veteran of Blood River Poort and the Western Front returned to home-defence duty, serving from 1940 to 1945 as a battalion commander with the Upper Thames Patrol of the Home Guard. It was a remarkable closing chapter for an officer whose first commission had been granted in the reign of Queen Victoria. The National Army Museum today preserves twelve of his diaries and other papers dating from 1899 to 1944, covering the Boer War, First World War and Second World War periods and providing an unusually substantial documentary record of his long military life.

Price-Davies's verified honours ultimately reflected service across more than half a century. In addition to the Victoria Cross, CB, CMG and DSO, his entitlement included the Queen's South Africa Medal with five clasps, King's South Africa Medal with two clasps, 1914 Star with clasp, British War Medal, Victory Medal with Mention in Despatches emblem, Defence Medal, King George V Silver Jubilee Medal, King George VI Coronation Medal, Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal, Officer of the Légion d'Honneur and Commander of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus. He died on 26 December 1965, aged 87, and was buried at St Andrew's Church, Sonning. More than sixty years after the charge at Blood River Poort, the young lieutenant who had ridden towards overwhelming odds had become the surviving link between three very different eras of British military history.