BOER WAR NARRATIVES OF THE CAPE COLONY-Synopsis

by Allen Duff.

These narratives are all people centred. They narrate the experiences of ordinary people who were overtaken by events which impacted considerably on their lives and which took some of their lives.

In the Mount Hope skirmish three young men of the George District Mounted Troop unexpectedly came face to face with the campaign-hardened veterans of General Jan Smuts’ commando. Chance and luck played their part along with Smuts’ sense of justice. One died, but the other two lived to be old men.

Scheepers attack on the train at Ganna siding is a dramatic narrative of night-time guerrilla warfare and the courage and dedication of railway employees.

The clash between Boer commandos and the soldiers of the Worcester regiment – known as Worcester Hill – is a well-known narrative. What is not well-known is the role played by the men who operated the machine gun and the Boers who captured it. This account narrates their personal experiences.

The Bamboesberg forms, in south-eastern South Africa, part of the extended mountain chain which demarcates the high interior plateau from the coastal region. The discovery of coal in the area and the establishment of the town of Molteno brought Englishman, Robert Blandy, to manage a number of coal mines. As the officer in charge of the district’s militia one of his tasks was to attempt the capture of Cape Rebels – Cape Colonists who sympathised with and actively supported the Boers. It was such a pursuit which resulted in his death in the high Bamboesberg.

Nicolaas van Wyk was one such Cape Rebel who was captured, tried and shot – as warning to others. Colesberg shop-owner, Thomas Jackson, photographed his execution. Over a hundred years later these photographs are published for the first time.

The final week of the Colesberg campaign saw British, Cape Colony and Australian forces from three states involved in numerous clashes which were adventurous and heated. The Victorian Tom Price – the only Australian to be given a command in the Boer War – led the Hanover Road Field Force which included Tasmanian Major Cyril Cameron. The advance of this force and the personal fortunes of Cameron are a fascinating narrative which occurs in a part of the Boer War which has been much neglected.

There is also a chapter on the adventurous trek of a section of the 1st Western Australian contingent – led by Captain Oliver – to the southern Cape Colony’s coast through the Klein Karoo. This trek culminated in a day-long fight with Kritzinger’s commando on the farm Featherstonehaugh. The Australians were eventually forced to surrender as their ammunition ran out.

The two final chapters cover the fortunes of Wynand Malan and Willem Fouche and their commandos in the final days of the war. Their pursuit by and clashes with forces which greatly outnumbered them and their evasion of capture till the peace treaty was signed, are covered with comment.

The author on a number of occasions visited all the locations covered by these narratives. The book has many black and white historical photographs and scores of present-day large  colour photographs so that the reader can experience almost first-hand the terrain and places where the narratives occurred.