TOPIC:

WO108/372 is a printed book held at the National Archives containing details of the surrenders by Imperial and colonial troops.

The book is in two parts. 140 pages containing a summary of the surrenders in table format. The second part comprises 110 pages of textual, 'Special' accounts from 36 of the more important surrenders eg Adelaide Farm, Nicholson's Nek, Stormberg, Colenso, Lindley etc.

I attach a 2 page sample from section 1. The document is printed on very thin paper. It makes for very interesting reading.

Happy to look up any specific incidents as I prepare the data for the site.

Coincidentally, I was reading Cassell's account of the relief of Wepener this morning. It recounts how:

Late that night five-and-twenty of the Worcestershire Regiment, the cooks of the battalion, having prepared an appetising meal, for their hungry comrades on the rocky kopje, set out for that position to carry the savoury mess to the men who hungered for it. First of all the cooks tried to clamber up the back of the hill. But they found this too steep, seeing that every man was loaded with as much food as he could carry. They therefore went round the base of the kopje in order to find an easy ascent, with a result that not infrequently happens in a mountainous country. They lost their bearings entirely, and instead of walking up the rocky kopje, they walked slap into the Boer lines on the green hill. Three were shot and twenty-two captured. So the Worcesters went hungry that night, and twenty-two cooks found their way to Pretoria.

A slightly different account appears in the book.

20th April 1900:

Thank You David..... Cannot wait for it to appear on the forum and check against some POW's that I have..... Mike