Captain James Craig
Company: Lieutenant, 46th Belfast Company, 13th Battalion, First Contingent/ Captain, 134th (Irish Horse) Company (Ulster), 29th Battalion, Third Contingent
Appointed: 24 February 1900
Age: 29 years when first appointed to the Imperial Yeomanry. (Born 8 January 1871 at Sydenham, Belfast.)
Trade or calling: Stockbroker
Family: Father James Craig, spirit merchant, mother Eleanor Gilmore Craig (nee Brown).
Previous military service: Lieutenant, 3rd Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles
Religion: Church of Ireland
ACTIVE SERVICE
Date to South Africa: 3 March 1900/ 10 May 1902
Date home: June 1901/ November 1902
Actions: Lindley
Service medal, clasps and other awards: Queen's South Africa Medal; King's South Africa Medal. Cape Colony, Orange Free State, 1901, 1902 clasps.
Craig was among the 400 men of the 13th Battalion captured by Boer forces at Lindley on 31 May 1900. His actions at Lindley were mentioned in a letter home by fellow Yeoman Joseph Campbell:
Lieutenant James Craig lay by my side during these terrible days, displaying the utmost bravery and coolness the whole time. I think his only wound was a slight one in the lip from a fragment of an explosive bullet. I am sure that I and many others were extremely grateful to him for food and water, which he went down for on repeated occasions at the greatest risk. Any words of mine would be but feeble to express my admiration of the bravery that Lieutenant Craig displayed.
He was released at Barberton with a number of other officers on 13 September, subsequently serving as Deputy Assistant Director of the Imperial Military Railways at Kroonstad.
Craig was prominent in raising a new squadron in Ulster for Lord Longford's 29th Battalion, Third Contingent. The following letter was published in the Northern Whig on 27 December 1901:
Sir,-- May I avail myself of your columns to intimate that Lord Longford has written asking if I could raise and take command of a squadron of the new Irish Horse, particulars of which have appeared in the "Northern Whig?" In order to judge of the amount of support I might count upon, I am anxious to hear by letter from any of the old Ulster Yeomanry or others who would serve under me prior to the 1st January, on which date recruiting will begin, and I purpose attending in the Grand Central Hote, Belfast, between the hours of two and four p.m. on Tuesday next, 31st inst., to talk the matter over privately and unofficially with those desirous of joining. I trust to meet with support from a sufficient number to form one good squadron (116 N.C.O. and men) to join what will be a magnificent force - Longford's Irish Horse - Yours, &c,
JAMES CRAIG, Craigavon, Strandtown, Belfast, 26th December, 1901.
The paper published a similar letter from James R. Mitchell, who had served as a officer in the 54th (Belfast) Company. Mitchell was given command of the 133rd (Irish Horse) Company (Ulster), and Craig the 134th (Irish Horse) Company (Ulster).
The 29th Battalion sailed for South Africa on 10 May 1902 on board the Bavarian, arriving on 28 May, just three days before the war ended. Craig was mentioned in an account of the activities of the 134th Company which can be read here. He returned from South Africa with a large contingent of the Battalion, embarking at Cape Town on the Gascon on 29 October.
A prominent Unionist and opponent of Home Rule, Craig served as the First Prime Minister of Northern Ireland from 1921 until his death at Glencraig, County Down, on 24 November 1940. He was made a Baronet in 1918 and Viscount in 1927. Further details of his career can be found here.
Image from the Fermanagh Times, 12 March 1903.
This page last updated 1 February 2026.