Australian Regiments in the Anglo-Boer War

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The Anglo-Boer War Study Group of Australia's

EXHIBITION GALLERY No. 1

Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902

The Australian Regiments

In praise of the Australian Mounted Regiments

[I can say] nothing but praise of their gallantry, their

conduct, their intelligence, their horsemanship and

their skill. Of all the troops they can least be spared.

For column work and guerilla warfare they have no

equals.

Colonel Sir Howard Vincent

ADC to King Edward VII

The Situation in South Africa, further personal observations & impressions

About 24,000 Australians served in South Africa during the Anglo-Boer War. Sixteen

thousand served with official contingents sent by the Australian Colonies, and with the

Australian Commonwealth Horse Battalions after Federation. Another 8000 joined

irregular South African units like Thorneycroft's and Bethune's Mounted Infantry

and the 2nd Bn Marquis of Tullabardine's Scottish Horse. These units, with their large

component of Australians suffered considerably in action like Spion's Kop, and the

Scottish Horse during the heroic Defence of the Guns at Bakenlaagte.

Highly regarded for their workload, bushcraft, horsemanship and marksmanship, the

Australians helped set a new standard for mounted infantry operations during the war.

The theatre of war. Cape Colony is at the foot

of the map. Orange Free State (light green),

and Transvaal (light blue) were the Boer Re-

publics. Some battles took place hundreds of

kilometres from Cape Town (bottom left) and

Port Elizabeth (bottom centre) stretching log-

istical support to its limit. The importance of

maintaining the railway system against Boer

attacks is obvious.

There were many proud victories and successful operations by Australian

Contingents. In addition, Australian medical teams and nurses earned deep appreciation

for their care of the sick and wounded, often in the worst of conditions.

Battle scene from a Magic Lantern slide.

People in faraway Australia were given

glimpses of the war in Magic Lantern

slide shows.

The huge distances in South Africa led to

increasing reliance on mobile mounted

infantry units such as those provided by

Australia and New Zealand.

The striking uniform of the

first Tasmanian Contingent

of 80 soldiers in 1899. A

blanket was jauntily slung

over the right shoulder, and

each soldier wore a haver-

sack in 'field order'. These

men, when in South Africa,

were incorporated into the

1st Australian Regiment.

Artist: Lt-Gen. Carl Jess in

Festburg & Videon, 1971.

Uniform of 1st Tasmanian Contingent, 1899

Among the many colourful Australians at the war was Colonel Tom Price, one of only a handful

of Australian Officers to be given command of allied forces in addition to his own command.

Price had formed the Victorian Mounted Rifles in the mid-1880s, and led the 2nd Victorian

Contingent to South Africa. There he was given command of the Hanover Road Field Force

which included allied units like two companies of Prince Albert's Guards and a battalion

of the Lancashire Militia.

A bronze bookend featuring Colonel Tom Price.

Major Walter Tunbridge, CO of the

3rd Contingent Queensland Mounted

Infantry, was a hero of the Siege of

Elands River Post, August 1900.

Queensland Mounted Infantry in Cape Town about to entrain for the front.

The New South Wales Lancers. A small detachment returning to Australia from

England was the first Australian Colonial force to land in South Africa for the Anglo-

Boer War. The Lancers soon were joined in early operations by the 1st Australian

Regiment (formed utilising companies from most of the Australian colonies, rushed

to the seat of war by Australian governments).

Tasmanian and SOuth Australian horse lines at Maitland.

South Australian and Tasmanian lines at the Maitland Camp, Cape Town, where all

mounted units staged before being committed to war.

Victorian Mounted Rifles at the Maitland staging camp. Australian infantry units

were given mounts and training at Naauwpoort by 6 February 1900.

It was a daring rescue like this that won

a Victoria Cross for L. C. Maygar who

served with the 5th Victorian Mounted

Rifles. Maygar was among the last to

leave Gallipoli in World War I, but was

killed near Beersheba on the same day

of the famous charge by the 4th Aust-

ralian Light Horse Brigade.

The Birth of a National Badge

The first Rising Sun hat badge--now a national emblem--went with the first

units of the Australian Commonwealth Horse after Federation.

The first badges were of a seven-pointed design based on an arrangement

of bayonets and swords. One version suggests that the idea of the design

stemmed from a trophy of arms housed over the dooway in Major-General

Edward Hutton's office at Victoria Barracks, Melbourne.

It was from this basic badge that a modified design in 1904 resulted in the

famous Rising Sun worn with pride by Australian soldiers since.

Nurse Beatrice Huston (front row, 6th from left) of Clermont, Queensland, served at Green

Point Military Hospital and at Bloemfontein during the Anglo-Boer War. Diseases such as

enteric fever (typhoid), dysentery, measles, pneumonia and malaria caused havoc in the

British Army and its allies. At Bloemfontein, between April--May 1900, ten thousand cases

of typhoid delayed Lord Roberts's Army for six weeks.

Australian Medical Staff

Australia sent nurses and, after Federation, the Australian Army Medical Corps to

South Africa. Both individually and as units, Australians served with distinction. One

Victorian Nurse, Ivey Hines, died at Bulawayo Hospital after contracting typhoid.

Australian War Correspondent Donald McDonald wrote: 'The more I see of our young

Australian doctors the greater my pride in my countrymen'. He was writing about

Surgeon Robert Buntine, formerly of Melbourne, who during the Battle at Wagon Hill

calmly did a delicate throat operation on a wounded officer while exposed in a crossfire.

Buntine busied himself all over the battlefield during the November 1899 encounter in

defence of Ladysmith.

Mounted infantry crossing a drift under fire. From a sepia tone print

in Carter's The work of War Artists in South Africa, The Art Journal

Office, London, Christmas 1900.

Kit inspection for Australians at Zand

River, South Africa.

Australian casualties

Of the official contingents comprising 16,378 officers and men, there were 1400

casualties. These included 251 killed; 267 who died of disease; and 735 wounded.

The casualty rate was therefore 8.55 per cent.

An early Australian casualty was Alex Ross.

He had joined the 4th Battalion Infantry

Brigade in 1898, being promoted Corporal

in July 1899. He joined the First Victorian

Contingent, but was killed at Rensburg on

12 February 1900, "whilst gallantly

defending a position against overwhelming

numbers. He was shot through the chest,

and died shorty after. Major Eddy and

Lieutenant Roberts also fell in the same

action. When the news of his death reached

Castlemaine a general gloom was over the

town; flags were flying half-mast, and the

stern realities of war were brought home

for the first time to Castlemaine people".

Private Charles Edwin Williams had

joined the Victorian Mounted Rifles

(E Coy) in 1895, and was among the

first in his district to join the First

Victorian Contingent in 1899. He too

was killed at Rensburg on 12 February

1900. His sacrifice is commemorated

on a memorial in Violet Town, Victoria.

The handsome young soldier is here

pictured in the uniform of the Victorian

Mounted Rifle Regiment.

The casualty rate for Australians serving with irregular units is unknown, but

research is being undertaken by members of the Anglo-Boer War Study Group

of Australia.

The largest horse killer of this or any other age . . .

The total loss in horses on the British side was 326,000. Australian horses

contributed 37,245 to this number. Not one horse from Australia is known

to have returned.

This overall loss prompted St. John Broderick to write in a private letter to Lord

Kitchener that 'You will go down in history as the largest horse killer of your or

any other age'.

Horse monument, Ballarat

St. John Broderick was wrong. The toll on horses in World War 1 was horrific. A

monument in Sturt Street, Ballarat, commemorates the 958,600 killed "including

196.000 that left these shores and never returned".

Proud British cavalry regiments

came with their splendid horses.

It was said that Australians who

helped themselves to these super-

ior animals could make them

unrecognisable to their former

owners in less than half-an hour.

Photo of 1st Australian Regiment at Belmont, S. Af.

Horses and men of the 1st Australian

Regiment at Belmont early in the

Anglo Boer War.

Australian 'Walers' taken by most of the official Australian contingents fared

quite well initially in South Africa. But being grass fed, soon began to lose condition

on the veldt. After the disastrous defeat at Wilmansrust, Boer General Ben Viljoen

described the captured Australian horses as 'the most miserable collection of animals

I have ever seen'. But these horses were more likely to have been inferior remounts.

The local Basuto pony was the best possible mount for difficult veldt conditions.

A Quiet Return

Crowds cheered wildly when the Australian Contingents left for the War. But as with

the more recent Vietnam War, the Anglo-Boer War veterans returned to a subdued

welcome home. The closing stages of the war in South Africa, with an all out effort to

burn crops and famhouses and force the Boers to surrender had disgusted most of

the Australian soldiers. At home in Australia too, news of the shocking conditions

endured by some Boer women and children in concentration camps, divided opinion.

"Farewell, Lads"!

Tumultuous departure of the 2nd Victorian Contingent.

Despite everything, the Australian force had demonstrated great adaptability,

resourcefulness and a deadly determination. Mateship, a love of two-up gambling,

and some petty pilfering too showed up as national military characteristics. The war

showed that volunteer soldiers who before then (with the exception of smaller wars

in New Zealand and the Sudan) had paraded endlessly and trained for invaders that

never came, could also survive inhospitable terrain, master new types of warfare and

dared to win.

SHORT SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Festburg, Alfred S. and Barry J. Videon: Uniforms of the Australian Colonies: Hill of Content Publishing: Melbourne, 1971.

Holloway, David: Hooves, Wheels and Tracks: A history of the 4th/19th Prince of Wales Light Horse Regiment and its predecessors: Regimental Trustees: Melbourne: 1990.

In Memory of the Gallant Officers and Men of Victoria who died in Defence of Our Empire in the Transvaal War:

Printed and Published by G. A. Osboldstone: Melbourne: 1900.

Wallace, R.L.: The Australians at the Boer War: The Australian War Memorial & Australian Government Publishing Service: Canberra: 1976.

Yarwood, A. T.: Walers: Australian Horses Abroad: Melbourne University Press (Miegunyah Press): Melbourne: 1989.

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