Rearguard action near Daratoleh, Somaliland, 1903

Print after a drawing by Milton Price, 1903 (c).

This work depicts an incident during the 3rd Somaliland Expedition on 22 April 1903 near Daratoleh. The rearguard of the Berbera-Bohotle Flying Column was attacked by an enemy force in superior numbers led by Mohammed Abdullah Hassan. Captain George Rolland, 1st Bombay Grenadiers, and Captain William Walker, 4th Gurkha Rifles, with a Sikh and three African soldiers, were with a fellow officer when he fell badly wounded.

Rolland ran back some 500 yards to get help while the others stayed with the casualty, endeavouring to keep off the enemy. This they succeeded in doing, and when the officer in charge of the column, Brevet Major John Gough, The Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own), arrived, they managed to get the wounded man on to a camel. He was, however, hit again and died immediately. Gough, Rolland and Walker all received the VC.