TOPIC:

Sturgy,
Thanks! Those are very interesting photos. I was esp. pleased to see the Cable Carts. In this map of telegraph wires laid out on the Upper Tugela for Spioenkop and Vaalkrans and later for the relief of Ladysmith I noted there were 2 Cable Carts (arrowed) and it's great to see an image of them.
Can you get it in any higher resolution?
Rob

Hi Rob,

I thought you may like the picture of the cable cart since we don't see alot of them.

Here is the reference to the picture:
www.awm.gov.au/collection/C47786

The Australian War Memorial allows for free downloading of the low resolution picture and there is no copyright protection (expired).

They do allow for purchasing a higher resolution picture but they, as we say in Australia, "...charge like a wounded bull..."; it's expensive even by Australian standards.

Given the picture resolution though I don't think it will give the definition you are looking for; sorry for that.

While looking for photos of Transports, I stumbled across this article published in Army & Navy Illustrated in October 1899. Although it doesn't deal with their ABW deployment, it gives a brief history of the Telegraph Battalion. It also includes a good photograph of a cable cart.




The duties of the Royal Engineers are manifold. To them are assigned, in the first place, the charge and conservation of lands, stores, and unoccupied buildings belonging to the War Department, and the duty of designing, constructing, and maintaining all War Department works, buildings, and machinery. They are also responsible for the water supply, electric light and gas systems, and drains in barracks. They also construct parades, roads, military railways, canals, bridges, fortifications, and land and submarine mines, and supply the necessary men for the making and working of military balloons. Besides performing these and other similar duties, the Royal Engineers construct and work the military telegraphs.



This duty falls to the Telegraph Battalion, which is divided into two divisions. In peace-time the first of these divisions is stationed at Aldershot, and is employed for purely military telegraph work. It is provided with portable telegraph matériel, and is constantly exercised in field telegraphic operations. The 2nd Division, while also an entirely military body, is attached to the postal telegraph service, and has charge of a large district in the South of England. By this means the officers and men become thoroughly acquainted with the details of telegraph work on a large scale. The Telegraph Battalion, whose uniform, by the way, is the same as that of the other battalions of the Royal Engineers, namely, scarlet with blue velvet facings, contains a certain proportion of mounted men. These are armed with cavalry carbines, while the dismounted men have Artillery carbines and sword bayonets. Two of our illustrations show how useful the mounted men are in laying the field telegraph. One picture is also interesting as showing that the horse, as well as his rider, seems to know his duty.



All men who enlist for dismounted units of the Royal Engineers must have a trade, and the terms of enlistment vary. Men for the telegraph service enlist for three years with the colours and three years' reserve service. These are all men who are employed in the Post-Office telegraph service, and who are classed as efficient volunteers. They are usually transferred to the reserve immediately on enlistment. Telegraph reservists are discharged on ceasing to serve the Post-Office, or on ceasing to count as official volunteers.
Two of our illustrations depict groups of the 24th Middlesex Rifle Volunteers, which is entirely composed of employees of the General Post-Office. The men are telegraph reservists, and are doing their a1111ual training at Aldershot. The regiment, which musters some 1,000 men, has an interesting history. Towards the end of 1867 the Fenians attempted to blow up Clerkenwell Prison. The Government thereupon invited Londoners to enrol themselves for the preservation of order, and thousands of special constables were sworn in. One thousand five hundred men in the General Post-Office were enrolled. The period of danger passed by, but the Post-Office men, having once been organised, soon evinced a creditable degree of military efficiency, and when the special constables were disbanded they obtained the requisite authority to form a Volunteer corps. In 1868 the Post-Office men were officially gazetted as the 49th Middlesex Rifle Volunteers.



They rapidly became a soldierly body, and they can now boast of being the only Volunteer regiment that has seen active service. When the campaign in Egypt in 1882 was planned, the British postal and telegraph arrangements were placed in charge of the "Army Postal Corps", composed entirely of men of the 49th Middlesex, which soon afterwards became the 24th Middlesex, and was attached to the Rifle Brigade. The services of the Post-Office men in Egypt were highly appreciated, and Lord Wolseley in his despatches made special mention of "the admirable manner in which the Post-Office Corps discharged all their duties". The colonel-in-chief of the corps is the Duke of Teck, while Colonel S.R. Thompson is commanding officer.
It would be impossible to notice all the occasions on which our military telegraph service has proved its efficiency, and we can only glance at a few eases in which special commendation has been given to the Telegraph Battalion. During the first Ashanti War, at forty-eight hours' warning, a complete force trained in the postal telegraph service was sent out with stores, etc., drawn from the Post-Office, and were eminently successful in their work. During the Zulu War some of the colonial lines were taken over and worked by military telegraphists. In 1882 the existing telegraph lines were similarly worked up to the time of the capture of Cairo.



During the Nile Expedition of 1884-85 the telegraph service was of the utmost importance. The following facts, gathered from that admirable work, "The Army Book for the British Empire" will give some idea of the work done by the telegraph section on that occasion. A line already existed from Cairo nearly to Korti, and this was continued for eighty-nine miles to Hamdab, the whole length of the wire from Cairo to Hamdab being 1,169 miles. For more than half this distance, that is to say, from Cairo up to Wady Haifa, the line was worked by the Egyptian telegraph department and along this stretch interruptions frequently occurred. The rest of the line was worked partly by military and partly by Egyptian operators, but was entirely under the Director of Telegraphs. Beyond Wady Haifa there was but a single wire, and as an example of the strain thrown upon the telegraph service it was stated that on one night 17,000 words were by this one wire signalled from Korti. No fewer than 188 miles of new line were laid down, and forty miles of the existing line were renewed.



In the Dongola Expedition of 1896 the laying of the telegraph was under the direction of Lieutenant Manifold, R.E. Throughout the campaign he generally managed to have his line laid to a place by the time the troops had established themselves in it. The wire in lengths of a mile was coiled on revolving wheels and carried on camels. As the camels moved forward the wire was unwound and trailed on the ground. The work of stretching and poling was, of course, attended to at a later date. At the end of the campaign a cable was laid across the river at Kerma, and Dongola was thus put in telegraphic communication with the outer world. On September 7 last year [1898] (in the subsequent campaign) the telegraph was brought to Omdurman. The date is memorable as being also the day on which the news was received that the French had occupied Fashoda. The Indian Frontier Campaigns furnish other examples, but enough has been said to show that the battalion is efficient.





And this photograph was published in Shurey's Pictorial Budget, 12 March 1900



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Hi Neville,

Thanks so much for that information; it provided valuable insight into the Telegraph Battalion.

As an engineer myself I am interested in anything to do with engineering; I currently have in my collection the QSA & Sudan medal to Captain William Sholto Douglas (nephew of General Sir Charles W.H. Douglas); there is a good write-up by Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Edward De Santis on his website which includes the courses that the officers had to undertake:

www.reubique.com/Douglas.htm?fbclid=IwAR...mmYAhCLwsfR6lDu3mriQ

The officer training was well encompassing and included Telegraphy, Electric Lighting and Submarine Mining at the time.

My question is related to Lt Douglas (as he was in 1899) and whether there is any mention of the Nile Expedition of 1899?

On a lighter note...it's official...the Boers captured "Morse" from the Telegraph Battalion...what were the odds of that?

My great grandfather commanded No 1 Section, Telegraph Battalion, from 1884 to 1887. In this capacity he accompanied Sir Charles Warren on the Bechuanaland Expedition. This was his first experience of South Africa, spending time in Wynberg and Mafeking.

In 1887 he was posted to Meerut with the Bengal Sappers and Miners, who also had responsibility for maintaining the telegraph lines.


















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Hi Neville,

That's wonderful history; so much to be proud of!

I'm sure your G-Grandfather and Capt Douglas would have crossed paths at some point....small world!

Regards,
Sturgy