Randolph Nesbitt

A tiny patrol fought through fire to bring people to safety.

Captain Randolph Cosby Nesbitt led a thirteen-man patrol to the Alice Mine in the Mazowe Valley on 19 June 1896. Miners and their families had been cut off during the Mashona uprising. His men reached the besieged party and escorted the survivors, including three women, towards Salisbury through repeated fighting. Three members of the small force were killed and five wounded. His leadership earned the Victoria Cross.

Born at Queenstown in Cape Colony on 20 September 1867, Nesbitt entered mounted colonial service as a young man. He served in the 1890 Mashonaland expedition and became an officer in the police establishment that developed into the British South Africa Police. By the 1896 rescue he was a captain in the Mashonaland Mounted Police.

His career continued after the rescue. He reached the rank of major and served during the South African War of 1899-1902. Moving into colonial administration, he worked as a Native Commissioner, including service in the Goromonzi district. After retirement he returned to South Africa. He died at Cape Town on 23 July 1956, aged eighty-eight. His ashes were later placed in the cloisters of the Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, now Harare.

Victoria Cross citation: This officer, on the 19th June, 1896, led the Mazoe Rescue Patrol, consisting of only thirteen men, fought his way through the rebels to get to Salthouse’s party, and succeeded in bringing them back to Salisbury, with heavy fighting, in which three of his small force were killed and five wounded, and fifteen horses killed and wounded.

The London Gazette of 7 May 1897, Numb. 26850, p. 2535