TOPIC:

Hi and Good Morning......

Thought you might like to see this thread.......

www.angloboerwar.com/forum/5-medals-and-...ph-battalion?start=0

Mike

Sturgy! Outstanding help!
I attach here the section relevant to Spion Kop,
thanks a million
Rob

I'm not sure what role these Boer telegraphists had. With the exception of the man in the centre, they certainly aren't suitably dressed for life on commando. The news sheet attached to the table is a copy of the British Government Gazette Extraordinary and appears to carry a Proclamation (possibly for the annexation of the Transvaal). But why has this been put centre stage?

The baboon with the Martini worries me.

The file name reads: "Telegraaf 1-1 Izaak Joubert(Sabie) 1-2 Barter 1-3 Hamman".

Any ideas?




.Courtesy of the W.M.B.R., Bloemfontein

..

Wheatstone Automatic Telegraph, Boer War - from Art UK and Royal Signals Museum

Hi Rob,

Here is another picture for your thread; courtesy of the Australian War Memorial:
www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1175944



Description
A group of five telegraphists and telephonists communicate from behind a line of guns in the desert, taking advantage of the shade given by a sparse bush. In the background are other small groups of soldiers either seated or standing by the guns. This is one half of a stereo image, the original caption reads 'Telephonists and Telegraphers getting and sending news from the British siege train at Orange River, S Africa.'



Description
SOUTH AFRICA, C. 1900. CABLE LAYING CARTS OF BRITISH FIELD TELEGRAPHISTS. NOTE THAT THESE CARTS ARE DRAWN BY OXEN INSTEAD OF THE USUAL HORSE TEAMS.

Neville, re baboon picture. The presence of an Extraordinary Governement Gazette makes entire sense as it was customary that British war news, Proclamations and other important news (e.g. death of the Queen and Rhodes) were telegraphed up the line to HTD (Hoofd Telegraaf Dienst) together with the war messages. I have a number of such telegrams in my collection. Because the box looks different from the units I have seen, I thought for a moment that it could perhaps concern a wireless unit. I gather, however, from Duncan Baker’s article (Military History Journal, December 1998) about wireless telegraphy that it couldn’t have been a wireless box as the ones that were ordered by the ZAR were intercepted by the enemy. Batting well out of my league here, is it possible that this box is actually a telephone (albeit with only one horn)? That could explain the men in black as employees from Trotsenburg’s Post en Telegraaf Departement. Although the (field) telephone was still relatively new at the time, it is known that it was used by the British (as you are aware the balloon observers talked to the crew on the ground by telephone) as well as by the Boers. For example, Generaal Botha kept Kruger informed by telephone about the progress of the battle at Belfast.