TOPIC:

The first of Rob's photos & both of Neville's show evidence of medal ribbons being handed out in the field in South Africa.



The 3rd (Militia) Battalion Scottish Rifles sailed to S Africa in the second half of April 1901 and they returned home in July1902. "Reports on Scottish Soldiers" in the Aberdeen Press & Journal newspaper show that from late 1901 and through 1902 they had problems with enteric fever with the locations for reports of dangerous illness & deaths being mainly at Boshof (30 miles NE of Kimberley), less so at Kimberley itself and one at Windsorton Road (30 miles due north of Kimberley). On 29th January 1902 they had some sort of "bust-up" near Boshof as this report shows:



All I have been able to find out about the 5th (Militia) Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers is that they went out to South Africa in February/March 1900 and returned home in January/February 1902 which seems a surprisingly long time for a militia battalion as they were in effect volunteers. They also seem to have kept away from the casualty lists and all I have found is an August 1900 report of one of their officers returning to duty from hospital.

Btw Neville examining a Facebook page with lost of coloured in photos of the ABW I deduce you have a photo of a blockhouse manned by 5 men and 3 cats (one back, two white) - can I persuade you to post it as I prefer the originals to the coloured in ones. Regards, David.

Here you are, David

I'm slightly worried that the men might have skinned one of their white cats. The pelt drying on the wall between the two men standing on the right looks suspiciously similar to the fur of the live animals. Mind you, it would have had to have been a mighty large cat to provide a skin of those dimensions .....






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Yet another photograph of our friends the 3rd (Militia) Bn. Scottish Rifles, this time taken in front of Blockhouse No 130, presumably close to Windsorton Road's Blockhouses 128 & 128b.

Note the dog, a feature seen in many of these photographs. The presence of such "pets" was presumably to fulfil standing order No 13 - "The use of watch dogs is to be encouraged" (see Everhard's post HERE).



.Courtesy of the McGregor Museum, Kimberley




This picture, again of the 3rd Battalion and described in the caption as depicting the "Station Defence" at Windsorton Road, includes both a dog and two cats. The latter may have been kept to deal with vermin, which I'm sure would have been a problem in these rural settings.


.Courtesy of the McGregor Museum, Kimberley

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In SA, cats are good at catching rodents which proliferate where there are crumbs of food. Rodents in turn attract snakes. So having cats means far fewer snakes.

More interesting photos:

Blockhouse 195 - is the standing man also nursing a cat? He appears to be wearing a wristwatch. The first recognised wristwatch dates back to 1810 but it was made for the Queen of Naples and could be better described as a bracelet. During the rest of the 19C well to do women took to bracelet like wristwatches but men stuck to pocket watches. In the 1890's wristwatches, as we know them today, were developed for the military and many officers in the ABW wore them but they must have been rare amongst the rank and file. Also note the secondary use of the barbed wire, presumably the unseen lower end was tied round a large stone.

Blockhouse 130 note the shrinkage of the aperture associated with the firing slot compared to Blockhouse 195 - does this, despite the numbers, make it a later improved design? All wearing uniform jackets and medal ribbons all present but apparently no NCO. Are they deliberately trying to look fierce, if so the chap in the middle of the back row let the side down.

I presume the 3rd Scottish Rifles drew the attention of a professional photographer and he went right along the line, wonder how much he charged? Not a day at the seaside!

David,

Some volunteer detachments were presented with transitional wristwatches on their departure. For instance, on 22 Feb 1900, Captains Hanbury and Mason gave "small silver keyless watches in wristlets" to the 14 members of the Maidenhead contingent of the Volunteer Service Company, Royal Berkshire Regiment. Volunteers and yeomen departing from Lincoln were similarly treated (watches presented by Mrs Seely, wife of the local MP).

I expect you will be particularly interested to hear that twelve members of the Pembrokeshire I.Y. received transitional watches from the inhabitants of Haverfordwest, Lady Phillips (of Picton Castle) making the presentation in March 1900. Four Haverford volunteers received similar watches on their return, on 24 May 1901.

It appears that few of these timepieces survived the harsh conditions of life on the veldt. Below is the only extant example I have come across - one of eight 34mm gun-metal watches presented by comrades of "C" & "D" (Devizes) Companies, 2nd V.B. Wiltshire Regt, on 15 Feb 1900. Engraved: "6611 / PVTE W. RUSS / from his / DEVIZES / COMRADES 1900". As you can see, it has seen better days.

The Nottingham Evening Post reported that 820 Trooper William F. Elderkin lost his Lincoln watch on the veldt, but, miraculously, it was found and returned to him in England.







This photograph of a blockhouse garrison of 3rd Bn. Highland Light Infantry shows an officer wearing a full-sized pocket watch on his wrist. This is something I haven't come across before, and conjures up images of WWII bomber crews, with their over-sized 55 mm pilots' watches.


.Courtesy of the McGregor Museum, Kimberley


.Courtesy of the McGregor Museum, Kimberley

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