[Editor: This letter, from a soldier serving in the Boer War (1899-1902), was published in The Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld.), 23 November 1900.]
At the front.
With the Fourth Contingent.
Letter from Lieutenant W. J. Kellaway.
Mrs. J. E. Kellaway, of Denison-street is in receipt of a letter from her son Lieutenant W. J. Kellaway, who is now in South Africa serving in the Queensland detachment of the Imperial Bushman’s Contingent. The first part of the letter is dated from Selous River, near Rustenburg, 29th September, and reads as follows:—
Sick of soldiering.
Once more I have the pleasure of being able to sit at ease in camp and write to tell you all I can about what is going on over here in connection with our Queensland soldiers and the part they are playing in endeavouring to bring to an end the most successful war ever waged by the British bulldog.
I have not yet received any letters, though I expect to be rewarded shortly with a big dose of news that will put me at my ease. The papers you sent were very acceptable; but they have come at irregular intervals.
All the officers and men are doing splendidly; but the majority are thoroughly sick of the business and anxious to get back to Queensland. Very few will stay here, although it is a very fine country in some parts and a good country to make a start in the world. But trekking about Africa now is very hard work and the heat is terrible, especially in the part where we have been for the last month.
We have had no rest since we left Pretoria, but have been kept at it the whole time, travelling from one place to another. We are always up at 3.30 a.m. or 4 a.m., and on the trek at 5 a.m., and never move faster that a walk at any time. Unless we meet the enemy in force it is very monotonous and we get sick of plodding along hour after hour in the usual military formation.
We have all had very narrow escapes many times; but we get used to wondering how it is we are still alive and kicking and not lying under a few inches of sod in this Dutch forsaken country away from all we have come to call our own.
Death of Private Clancy.
I suppose by this time you have had the news of poor Lieutenant Higson’s bad luck. He got wounded in the head at Zandfontein a few days ago. It was a narrow escape from instantaneous death. He bore up bravely, poor fellow, and walked about a quarter of a mile to get shelter, leaning on the arm of Corporal Symes. The Mauser bullet entered the right temple and came out at the left temple higher up. His frontal bone was smashed a good deal and the brain was showing.
It was fortunate the doctors were handy and up with him in a few minutes. Drs. Roth and Nesbit performed an operation on him immediately. They took out a few square inches of bone from his forehead and cleaned the brain. When we left he was doing pretty well and the doctors had some hope of his recovery; but the worst stage was coming on, so we are all anxiously awaiting some news of him.
Private Clancy, who was with Lieutenant Higson, was killed by a Mauser bullet entering just at the apex of the heart. We buried him on the field and put up a cross to mark his last resting-place.
A curious thing happened to Clancy which makes his death more touching. A bullet pierced his hat when we were advancing on a strong position held by the Boers on a stony ridge. He took off his hat and showing it to his mates said, “Look, chaps; what do you think of this?” He was immediately shot again and fell to rise no more. He was a great favourite. He always had a pleasant smile on his face.
Lieutenant Higson was in the act of firing himself to find the range for his men while Corporal Symes was looking through the field glasses to see where the shot would hit. Higson was just in the act of pulling the trigger when he clapped his hand to his forehead, saying “My God. I’m shot.”
Three horses were killed and one wounded and another man was shot through the helmet. Five Boers were killed and one wounded; but the others got away and we have not seen them again. An officer and a man of Roberts’s Horse were also slightly wounded.
Brigadier-General Ridley would not advance again that day as he said he was not going to throw himself into the hands of the Boers with a handful of men. We were a flying column to get round behind De La Rey past Oliphant’s Nek, while General Clements was advancing straight up the valley and Broadwood’s Cavalry were holding the Nek. De La Rey managed to get away and is now over towards Lydenburg. He does not do much fighting himself; but all his men are kicking about in small parties.
“One Boer hanging to my belt.”
Lieutenant Parker had a hot reception to-day while out on patrol six miles from here. He was nearly surrounded by a large party of Boers who were hovering about; but nobody was hit. I had the good fortune to come in with my division at the right moment and assist him.
We had a nice piece of sport and completely surprised both Parker and the Boers, especially the latter. We killed one Boer, wounded another, and killed two horses. The prisoner we captured was galloping away when I brought down his horse by a lucky shot. The Boer broke his leg in fall or he might have got away. So I have got one Boer hanging to my belt, and that is more than hundreds of officers here have got although they have been here for eight or nine months.
Our contingent was split up when we were in Pretoria last. F Company went eastward towards Middelburg and G and D companies westward towards Rustenburg and Krugersdorp. F Company I believe has returned to Pretoria, so we will be together in a week or two as we are about to start on the return journey.
Botha’s commando near Lydenburg has been broken up, so the end is coming near very fast. Fully 1500 Free Staters passed through Oliphant’s Nek yesterday on their way back to their farms in the Free State and refused to be commandeered by De La Rey, who happened to meet them on his way to Lydenburg. They say they are full up of it and will not fight any longer.
Picture of Rustenburg.
The letter continues on the 1st of October:—
I am now writing from Rustenburg, where we arrived yesterday after a pleasant march from the Selous River. We passed through Majuba Pass for the third time and on the way I picked up a beautiful lot of wild veldt flowers, which I intend to post home as soon as they are pressed. I have twenty different kinds. They can beat the Australian wild flowers into a cocked hat. The grass and flowers are growing luxuriantly now all over the country, and present a very pretty appearance.
Rustenburg is a very pretty little old rustic village and a ride through its narrow, but verdant, streets is very enjoyable indeed and well worth the extra ride after a hard march across the hot veldt. Roses of all colours bloom in great abundance, while one also sees the English oak, the Australian passion fruit and gum tree, and also the white cedar.
Sentries, marching around with slow and weary steps, are dotted here, there, and everywhere and bring back to one’s recollection the hard and solid fact that the little rural village is under the rigid and thorny bonds of military law and occupation. We had a pleasant hour in the place and came out to camp in much better spirits than we have been in for some time.
We had a good dinner of roast beef with baked sweet potatoes, boiled peas, horse radish, cheese, biscuit, and black coffee, and rolled into bunk with very happy dispositions, and drove away for a time the horrible thought that, perhaps, we would be marching at four o’clock in the morning as usual.
I must not forget to mention incidentally the fact that we all most dutifully attended divine service in the Kruger Church at 5 p.m. yesterday. It was quite an accident, for we never for a moment had any idea that it was God’s day until we saw everybody in their best Sunday clothes making their way solemnly to the church square. Of course we decided to go, too, and gave ourselves up to prayer like good boys that we are.
I suppose you imagine from this — as I want you to do — that our lot is not at all half bad and you can take all you hear or read about with a pinch of Boer snuff, for we have good times now and again just as well as those who stayed at home in sunny Queensland.
A busy night and a good day’s work.
The letter continued on the 5th of October:—
I am writing now from Commando Nek. We left Rustenburg on the 1st of October under orders from General Clements to proceed to the north-west to look for 100 Boers whom General Broadwood reported were about with twenty or thirty waggons.
We camped about twelve miles from Rustenburg at the Hex River and unknowingly within five miles of the Boers. The allowance of water that night was very small and went only one mess tin to two men, officers and all. I was on picket that night with fifteen men, and we had a busy night, as the Boers were sneaking about in the dark spying just outside our camp for information. We were sniped at all night, so we had no sleep.
We moved off from the camp at 4 a.m. towards the Hex River and found that the enemy had camped on the creek the night before, but had evidently cleared out in great confusion, as they left behind some cattle and two waggons, the latter of which we burnt.
We followed after the Boers, who were about three miles ahead under a kopje, and shelled them with two guns and a pom pom. They returned the fire with volleys from their Mausers and wounded two men of the Lancers. We captured sixteen waggons and nine prisoners and a great lot of forage, which we burnt after taking what we wanted. We also captured a tremendous lot of Martini ammunition and the row it kicked up when we set fire to it was like a great battle going on.
The advanced guard followed them up, but returned to camp a few hours after, for the Boers broke up into little parties and got away.
We marched back to Sterkstroom, where we arrived about nine o’clock after having covered about twenty-five miles that day. We were pretty tired and hungry and tucked into a few dozen eggs and some hot cocoa and went to bed thoroughly done up. We remained in camp all day at Sterkstroom on the 3rd of October, when we cleaned our teeth and had a good shave — the first time for a week.
Burning the Boer farms.
We left Sterkstrooom on the 4th of October for Commando Nek — our old friend — and brought along a few waggon loads of Boer women and children with us after burning their farms to the ground.
When within eight miles of Commando Nek word came that the enemy were on our right front along the Magaliesberg Range with waggons, supplies and 400 men. We moved out with Kitchener’s Horse and two guns and a pom pom in attacking formation toward the kopjes; but after a desultory fire they disappeared over the range and we camped at Walhuter’s Kop for the night.
We had a nice little expedition before going into camp. An officer of Roberts’s Horse, myself and thirty men of my company were sent out at five o’clock to burn down some farms just under the kloof. An officer and four of the Queenslanders who were carrying despatches between Clements and Ridley’s columns were fired at within thirty yards by a Boer who had come down to the farm to spy about and get food. He emptied his magazine into them and cleared off, and it is a marvel none of them were shot. Four of our men happened to be near by on patrol and seeing him run away for the kopjes, set after him on horseback. He blazed away at them while they were galloping to get between him and the kopje, and he made much better shooting than when he first fired at the other men. Bob Huston from Clermont, and Hutchison and Clark, also from Clermont, were the men who cut him off and Huston had the luck to bring him down with his second shot, wounding him below the knee.
Huston has got the Boer’s rifle and bandolier full of Mauser cartridges, some of which were filed at the nose to make them explode when they hit an object. Others were soft-nosed, which mean almost certain death when they hit.
The Boer rode six miles with his leg badly broken. He must have had a big stout heart to keep up riding for such a long time. They had to take him off the horse when within two miles of camp and let his head rest on a saddle until the ambulance arrived.
We burnt four farms and I shot three Boer ponies which were not good enough to take with us.
Cowardly murders of the British.
The women were wild about it, and they are a lot worse to deal with than the men. The women supply the Boers with all the information they can and give them what they want. Of course it is only natural they should do so; but the British authorities should remove them all into Pretoria and burn everything to the ground. That would be the only way to stop all the cowardly murders that take place whenever the British troops come along.
The Boers come back to their farms when the British disappear and clear into the kopjes to snipe the patrols as they ride past. Two of Roberts’s Horse were brutally murdered near Heckport the other day by seven Boers who came up suddenly when the men were talking to some English people at their front gate. They shot them dead without any warning right in front of two English women and left them lying on the ground for the women to bury.
It is happening every day, and the numerous snipers are allowed to play their cowardly game at will. While the Dutch get passes for handing in their old rifles and keeping their Mausers hidden, the thing will go on for a long time, for it is only natural to suppose that they will help the fighters as much as they can by supplying them with food and everything else they want.
There is no scarcity of food in this valley and no such thing as a drought. The Boers grow everything here without any trouble and without hard work. They loaf about smoking their big pipes all day long and make the women wait on them.
We expect to remain at Commando Nek for about three days before moving west again.
The letter was concluded on the 11th of October, when Lieutenant Kellaway stated he had had plenty of fighting and was then under orders to proceed from Rhenoster Spruitt, fifteen miles south of Commando Nek, to go to a place seventy miles to the west.
Source:
The Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld.), 23 November 1900, p. 6
Also published in:
The Capricornian (Rockhampton, Qld.), 24 November 1900, p. 29
Editor’s notes:
apex = the highest point, the peak, the summit, the top; the pointed end or tip of something (e.g. the lowest part of a human heart, the deepest part of root of a tooth, the pointed peak of a pyramid, the pointed tip of a leaf); the highest and most important position; the high point, the pinnacle, the peak of success (e.g. of a career, of a civilisation); the highest point of drama, excitement, or interest; the climax
Boer = a South African of Dutch descent; Afrikaans for “farmer”; the Europeans in South Africa (primarily of Dutch and French Huguenot descent) who fought against the British in two major wars, the First Boer War (1880-1881) and the Second Boer War (1899-1902)
See: “Boers”, Wikipedia
Botha = Louis Botha (1862-1919), the first Prime Minister (1910-1919) of the Union of South Africa; he was born in Greytown, Natal (a British colony in south-eastern Africa), and died in Pretoria (South Africa) in 1919
See: 1) “Louis Botha: prime minister of Union of South Africa”, Encyclopaedia Britannica
2) “Louis Botha”, Wikipedia
Commando Nek = (also known as: Kommando Nek) a mountain pass in eastern South Africa, located to the north-east of the town of Ficksburg (there is also a mountain pass named Kommandonek in south-eastern South Africa, located north of the town of Merweville)
See: 1) “Kommandonek (R26)”, Mountain Passes of South Africa
2) “Brandwater Basin Map”, The British Empire [includes a map which shows Commando Nek to the north-east of Ficksburg]
3) “Brandwater Basin”, Wikipedia [refers to Kommando Nek (Commando Nek)]
De La Rey = General Koos de la Rey (1847-1914), a leading Boer commander during the Boer War (1899-1902)
See: “Koos de la Rey”, Wikipedia
field glasses = an alternative name for “binoculars”
flying column = a small independent highly-mobile military unit which is capable of rapid mobility, and which can be used as a quick-response unit; in this context, “flying” means “designed for rapid movement”, e.g. flying camp, flying column, flying squadron
See: “Flying column”, Wikipedia
forage = food for domestic animals (i.e. fodder), including cornstalks, crops, grasses, hay, legumes, straw, and vegetables (especially hay and straw grown for feeding cattle and horses)
See: “Forage”, Wikipedia
Free State = the Orange Free State (1854-1902), an independent Boer republic in Southern Africa; after the end of the Boer War (1899-1902), when the Boers were defeated by the British, the Orange Free State became the Orange River Colony (a British colony in southern Africa)
See: 1) “Orange Free State”, Wikipedia
2) “Orange River Colony”, Wikipedia
Kitchener = Herbert Kitchener (1850-1916), a British Army officer who served in the Mahdist War (the Anglo-Sudan War), the Boer War, and the First World War; he was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal in 1909
See: “Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener”, Wikipedia
Kitchener’s Horse = a British light horse unit which participated in the Boer War (1899-1902); it was named after Lord Kitchener (1850-1916)
See: 1) “Kitchener’s Horse”, AngloBoerWar.com
2) “Kitchener’s Horse”, Wikipedia
kloof = (Afrikaans) a gorge, ravine, deep glen, mountain pass, or deep narrow valley, especially a wooded mountainside ravine; (archaic) a narrow pass between mountains (including man-made and natural passes)
See: 1) “kloof, noun”, Dictionary of South African English
2) “kloof”, Wiktionary
kopje = (Afrikaans) (also spelt: )a hillock (a small hill), or a piece of rising ground (a mound), as an isolated formation situated on a plain (i.e. situated on a mostly flat area); the term is normally used regarding a small hill, usually rocky in its composition) on a veldt (plain) in Africa
See: 1) “koppie, noun”, Dictionary of South African English
2) “kopje”, Wiktionary
Magaliesberg Range = a mountain range located in the north-east of South Africa
See: “Magaliesberg”, Wikipedia
Mauser = a rifle produced by the Mauser company of Germany (the company produced a range of pistols and rifles)
See: 1) “Mauser”, Wikipedia
2) “Mauser Model 1895”, Wikipedia [the Mauser Model 1895 was widely used by Boer forces during the Boer War (1899-1902)]
nek = (Afrikaans) a mountain pass, a dip (a saddle) between two peaks of a mountain ridge; capitalised (i.e. Nek) when part of a name of a geographical location (e.g. Constantia Nek, Daggaboers Nek, Laing’s Nek, Latema Nek,Qacha’s Nek)
See: 1) “nek, noun”, Dictionary of South African English
2) “nek”, Wiktionary
pom pom = the QF 1-pounder, an autocannon (produced by Maxim-Nordenfelt, and later by Vickers, Sons and Maxim) which used 37mm calibre ammunition; it was invented by Hiram Stevens Maxim in the late 1880s, basically as a larger version of the Maxim machine gun; it gained its nickname of “pom pom” from the sound it made when firing
Pretoria = a major city in South Africa, which function as the country’s administrative capital; the city was named after the Boer leader Andries Pretorius (1798-1853)
See: “Pretoria”, Wikipedia
Rhenoster Spruitt = (also known as: Rhenoster Spruit, Renosterrivier, Rhenoster River) a river in north-east South Africa
Roberts = Frederick Sleigh Roberts (1832-1914), 1st Earl Roberts, known as Lord Roberts, a British military officer, he was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal in 1895; he was born in India to British parents in 1832, and died in France (of pneumonia) in 1914
See: “Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts”, Wikipedia
Roberts’s Horse = Roberts’ Horse: a British light horse unit which participated in the Boer War (1899-1902); it was named after Lord Roberts (1832-1914)
See: “Roberts’ Horse”, AngloBoerWar.com
Rustenburg = a city in South Africa, located west of Pretoria, at the foot of the Magaliesberg mountain range
See: “Rustenburg”, Wikipedia
veldt = plains of southern Africa; open country, grassland with few bushes or trees
verdant = countryside covered with lush green grass and/or other plant life; covered with green and lush grass and other vegetation; can also refer to the colour green, or to someone who is “green” (i.e. lacking experience, judgment, or sophistication)
waggon = an archaic spelling of “wagon”
[Editor: The original text has been separated into paragraphs.]
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