TOPIC:

Yesterday I acquired a QSA to 2828 Pte W Christianson Railway Pioneer Regiment. Its bars didnt fit with someone in this regiment being Tugela Heights, OFS, Relief of Ladysmith, Transvaal, Laings Nek. My assumption was that he had seved in a Natal colonial unit before joining the RPR. Adrian very kindly looked up the rolls and confirmed that he had served in the ILI previously.
A search through the attestation roll on this site showed that he was in the 4th RPR and he was captured at Groblaars Drift on 24/10/1901 and then "shot by the Boers'. Steve Watt's roll has him down as 'M"( murdered ) , which , I guess, rules ot 'shot while escaping '.
Adrian dug a bit further and found that Christianson had served in the Utrecht Mounted Police pre the Boer War, so maybe there was a bit of debt-settling. I had a look in the 'War Reporter', a book of exerpts from the Boer newspapers of the time, and in October 1901 there was a report on 'Retaliation in the North Eastern Cape'which recorded the activities of Cmdt Willem Fouche who took a very active stance against those thought to be traitors in the light of British executions of Cape Rebels. I always had the idea that the Boers were very correct in following the rules of war and only executed people in exceptional cases and then after much soul-searching. What do you think ?
Regards
Mike

Hello Mike

Splendid medal with a great story - if unfortunate for Mr Christianson. The Official Casualty roll states he was shot while a prisoner - so shot while escaping is a possibility.

As to your question, difficult to say unless you are talking non-whites, then there was no soul-searching. Finding British accounts of Boers breaking the "rules of war" are not hard to come by; executions and shot while escaping less common. But, they came down harder of their own who they thought were traitors, especially the "hansuppers".

Regards
Meurig

Mike,

An interesting question.

I checked in the papers for references and found only the basic details:

The Times, 7 Nov 01:



14 Nov 01



I will keep searching.

Best wishes
David

Thanks david & Meurig,
Does anyone know where Groblaar's Drift is ?
Regards
Mike

Mike,

It looks to be somewhere between/around Heilbron and Wolvehoek/Wolwehoek.

This is an extract from Kitchener's despatch of 9 Jul 01:

This article from The Times would suggest it is to the east of Wolvenhoek, closer to Parys.