THE Last Post and a simple wreath paid tribute to Bury soldiers who died 101 years ago.

Spion Kop, a historic battle in the South African War, was in truth a disaster. The British Army was robbed of a brilliant victory as a result of a breakdown in the chain of command which resulted in 350 infantry and 300 Boers killed in battle.

Yet, despite the display of supreme military incapacity, one battalion, Bury's own Lancashire Fusiliers, "in exceptionally trying circumstances, magnificently upheld the best traditions of the British Army."

In 1900 this very week, the 2nd Battalion of the heroic LFs were among 2,000 soldiers who were detailed to capture Spion Kop, Lookout Hil, during night manoeuvres. Their attack was successful and a cursory reconnaissance was made before the soldiers tried to dig themselves in. Trench warfare had been born.

Their tools, however, were useless against the solid rock and no sandbags had been brought up. The lifting of the dawn mist revealed the fatal error. The LFs and other regiments discovered that the shallow trenches they had scraped were in the centre of an exposed semi-circular plateau and were easily visible from nearby positions.

Boer marksmen opened fire and six guns pounded the huddled British troops causing heavy casualties.

Two miles away, 10,000 troops stood idle, aware of the siege but never got the order to help their struggling comrades.

In the end, both the British and the Boers abandoned Spion Kop. Both sides agreed to an armistice to bury the dead and collect the wounded.

It was said of the battle that "there cannot have been many battlefields where there was such an accumulation of horrors within so small a compass."

The LFs campaign throughout the South African War earned them two battle honours and, in 1901, the regiment's distinguished service over more than 200 years, culminating in the courage displayed at Spion Kop, was recognised by the grant of the primrose hackle, the King's approval for the motto "Omnia Audax", and the red rose of Lancaster to be borne on the Regimental Colour.

On Tuesday (Jan 23), LF veterans and members of Bury Grammar School's Combined Cadet Forced paid tribute to the fallen at Spion Kop when Captain John O'Grady, the new North West secretary of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, laid a wreath at the Fusilier Memorial statue in Whitehead Gardens followed by a short service of remembrance.