Arthur Wakefield, Private, 70 Company, 18 Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) 1876-1949
Arthur Wakefield was one of the first Sharpshooters, suspending his university studies to join the Regiment when its first companies were raised to serve in the Boer War. He later served as medical officer on the 1922 Everest Expedition.
Wakefield and his battalion left Southampton in April 1900 travelling to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) as part of a force intended to threaten the Boer Republics from the North. The battalion later entered the Orange Free State to deal with what was now a guerrilla war. The Sharpshooters were one of the few mounted infantry units and their skills as marksmen and horsemen stood them in good stead against an enemy born to the country it operated in. They returned to England in June 1901.