TOPIC:

"The Inventor of the Blockhouse Major Spring Robert Rice, R.E." - ??!!?? - firstly military blockhouses pre-dated the ABW, secondly what about Major-General Elliott-Wood?

There are also two books about ABW Blockhouses of very recent vintage by Simon C Green.

I am interested in the manning of blockhouses which I understand was between 10 and 20 and Sturgy's third photo shows 13 men standing outside "their" blockhouse.

This is part of the sketch provided by EFV but rotated:



Does this represent the manning of blockhouse "Kilo 122"?

Hi Smethwick,

I think what the passage from the book was referring to was the "Rice Type" Blockhouse when that design became a more cost effective and expedient solution. That's why I added the last passage in the post referring to the "Rice Type" going mainstream in 1901; it looks like he went from octagonal to circular a bit after that too.

Maybe the first "flatpack" blockhouse.....but not a great way to spend your day, dark and cramped.

Regards,
Sturgy

Smethwick, perhaps this post answers your query regarding the manning of the blockhouse.

McCracken Villa: This photograph depicts the 16-strong crew posing in front of a blockhouse at unknown location. The crew is identified as the No 4 Section, Volunteer Company, Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment. According to the information on the damaged cardboard to which it is glued, this photograph was published by Chitty & Moss of 29 Henry street in Wool… (Probably Woolwich as that town used to be in Kent)
The strappy lads baptized the Blockhouse “McCracken Villa” possibly in an effort to conjure images of scantily clad damsels sipping cocktails while lazing beside a kidney shaped pool. There are no less than 63 McCrackens mentioned on this website but none belonging to the Royal West Kent Regiment. Perhaps it was named after the Sapper J. McCracken (1237) who was with the Royal Engineers Fortress Company.

Smethwick; the book referenced above states "The garrisons of these posts consisted usually of seven to fifteen men".

It also states that the blockhouses were built at intervals of 3,000 yards to allow for adequate sweeping fire; however, these were reduced with the construction of new blockhouses as small parties of boers were still able to get past.

Regards,
Sturgy

Major Rice's blockhouses are described in some detail in the official R.E. report, published in the Professional Papers of the Corps of Royal Engineers, Vol. XXX (1904), pp. 279-280.



About February, 1901, Major S. R. Rice, R.E., Commanding 23rd (Field) Company, hit upon the idea of fixing corrugated iron to both sides of wooden frames 4½'' thick, stuffing the space between with hard shingle.

He used eight frames to each (octagonal) blockhouse; the ends of the frames were bevelled to the right angle; and the inner skin of corrugated iron was blocked out at the corners on wooden blocking pieces, so as to give 4½'' of hard shingle between the inner skin and the vertical parts of the wood frames.

The frames were simply placed on a level platform and bolted together, the outer skin being put on as the filling proceeded; thus no post holes were required. A square gable roof was placed over all.

The loopholes were ingeniously cut out of sheet iron, and constructed so as to give a loophole, 6" high and 3" wide at the neck, in the centre of the shield, the outside and inside of the loopholes being the wide ends of two funnels with a common neck in the middle. They worked well in practice; there were few, if any, authentic cases of bullets striking the cheeks and penetrating. Holes had to be left in the sides of the loopholes to allow of putting in more shingle as the filling settled; several men were shot by bullets which passed through under the sills after the filling had subsided. Other Commanding Royal Engineers had their own ways of making the loopholes, for the most part simpler than Major Rice's and giving the same result.

Major Rice's company, then at Middelburg in the Transvaal, soon became an extremely well-organised blockhouse factory, the construction of each separate part being in the hands of the same men.

Every part was made to template, and, consequently, these blockhouses all fitted well together, which was far from being the case with those made by contract at the coast. The gable roofs were useful for ventilation, and were much cooler than the umbrella-shaped roofs adopted in some parts, but were heavier and required more material. The canvas roof with a pole, which was much used later, was considerably lighter.

Before long Major Rice invented his circular blockhouse, which was a very great advance on the octagonal type.

The circular type required no woodwork in the shield except small blocks, 6" x 6" x 3", to keep the skins of corrugated iron the right distance apart and to give a means of attaching the roof.

This pattern had great advantages, and meant less material, less work in the shops, less transport, and easier fitting together in the field. It was also much stronger than the octagonal pattern, in which the corrugated iron in the frames used to bulge when filled with shingle; the circular type moreover had no vertical timber in the shield, requiring a special device to make the shield bullet proof where the timber occurred.

All the sheets had to be curved, in a machine costing about £60 to £70; it was probably from watching the manufacture of the cylindrical corrugated iron water tanks with one of these machines that Major Rice got the idea of the circular blockhouse.

Meanwhile Major-General E. Wood, Chief Engineer, had designed a form of two-story stone blockhouse with steel plate loopholes, for erection at important points such as railway bridges. These, of course, took a long time to build.

As soon as Lord Kitchener heard of the pace at which Major Rice could turn out the octagonal blockhouses, he pressed on their construction on all the railway lines to safeguard the railways. General Wood had drawings and descriptions of the blockhouses sent to all C.R.E.'s, and they were started all over the country; but before long the circular type became the general pattern.

Either the drawing of the circular blockhouse was not as explicit as it might have been, or else the idea of dispensing with timber in the shield was not grasped at first; anyhow, I never saw a single blockhouse made anything like right until models had been sent round.













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EFV - brilliant photo. Here is the reason it was named McCraken Villa: