TOPIC:

This Blockhouse does not seem to feature in Elmarie's gallery although it is very similar in design to the one in the top left hand corner.



I found the photo in an album (in the on-line Wellcome Collection) which belonged to a medic who was based at 21 General Hospital, Deelfontein between April 1901 & November 1902. I wonder if it was one of the last phase to be built when construction costs had been minimised. The last line constructed I believe ran from Victoria West to Lambert's Bay. Deelfontein to Victoria West is about 50 miles as the crow flies.

I have just scanned this map, showing Blockhouse Lines, Stationary Garrisons and Posts, which accompanied the R.E. report published in the Professional Papers of the Corps of Royal Engineers (1904).

It may be of use to members researching this aspect of the war.












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Many thanks Neville.

I am very interested in the line from Victoria West to Lamberts Bay - they were amongst the last to be built and the line would not have been completed by March 1902. They were also manned by the 5/RWR who had six Smethwickians amongst their number. Simon Green in his ABW Blockhouse Field Guide (Christmas present from my son) has a table on page 179 covering this line:

Victoria West to Carnarvon 129km, 115 blockhouses built.
Carnarvon to Williston 130km, 131 blockhouses built.
Williston to Calvinia 117km, 121 blockhouses built.
Calvinia to Clanwilliam 154km, 159 blockhouses built.
Clanwilliam to Lambert's Bay 55km, 53 blockhouses

Total length 586km, 486 blockhouses built - as an engineer his arithmetic appears to be worryingly wonky because I make his totals 585km & 579 blockhouses.

I have found a potted history of the 5/RWR which says they went out 740 strong and returned 651 strong. It also says every other blockhouse in the line was manned by black troops but with a white NCO in charge. That makes an average occupancy rate of the 5/RWR ones of something like 2 to 3 - so other units must have been involved or the black troops occupied many more than every other one.

Blockhouse Blues: This post deals with a rather scrappy little notebook of Private Henry (John Henry) Dyson. It contains a short diary about Dyson’s life at Blockhouse “Kilo 122” located near Nylstroom on the railway line from Pretoria to Pietersburg (Refer Neville's map in an earlier post). The notebook is full of scribbles pertaining to rations, cash at hand, calculations, addresses etc. Dyson’s actual diary starts on Tuesday March 18 (1902) and ends with him boarding the RMS Roslin Castle on May 29, 1902, so just two days before Kitchener declared the Boers to be his new best friends. Dyson uses 30-odd pages to recount his life in and around the blockhouse, describes his meals, gives details of the trains that pass by “May 12, 3.45. Long train North with reinforcements for Colenbrander” and describes in stomach-turning detail how he shoots and skins or plucks large apes, snakes, blue jays and a host of other protected wildlife.



Some extracts:
“Easter Saturday: Anniversary of my wedding Day. Heard that Rhodes was dead. Also 21 Northampton killed 30 mules east of Pietersburg. Easter Sunday: Heard that De la Rey S. Burger etc. have gone down to see Milner. Hope they settle it and let us get away. Monday: The enemy are expected to attempt a crossing near here tonight. Have got it up the train that DelaRey has got a smashing.”

Dyson must have been at the Blockhouse before March 1902 as there is a single page pertaining to December (1901). December 13th: Up at 5.30. Brought gang of boys to burn bush about 2 miles up the line. Saw the [really bad word for black people] off 280 which I got off the train last night. The sun at 7.30 is hot enough to melt a chap. December 14th: Orders for Kilo 120 ½. Got there about 11. Wiring all afternoon. Sentry 9 to 10.30. Rained like hell and dark as pitch. Bitter cold. Slept absolutely naked. December 25th, Christmas day. On sentry all day. That’s all. Nothing fresh. Never is now.”

The highlights of Blockhouse life seem to have been meals and receiving mail. Dyson obviously was longing for home as throughout his diary he writes “Roll on Big Ship”

Based on his writings I’m not sure that Dyson coped well with his tenure in the blockhouse. In any case and judging by the Rastrick (West Yorkshire) Cemetery receipt, he didn’t live long after the war.



There are a couple of candidates for “J. Dyson” with a Yorkshire connection mentioned on this website, but I couldn’t locate a John Henry. Based on the info, hopefully one of the medal-men can help me out and perhaps tell me this was the great grandfather of the clever chap who thought sacks in vacuum cleaners were a dumb idea.

EFV - examining the burials in Rastrick Cemetery via Find-a-Graves comes up with the following:



Obviously your skinner of protected species. Just going to do a rerun on his military career.

EFV - I have fact checked the Find-a-Grave info and it is 100% correct and here is the record of his marriage:



So he married & died a Bintcliffe but based on his diary served as a Dyson.

Medal Rolls show up a 2171 Private H Dyson who served in the 5th Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own). The Unit Info on this site only gives info on the 2nd Battalion but Wikipedia has this to say about the Middlesex Regiment Militia Battalions: The 5th and 6th (Militia) battalions were also embodied for active service during the Second Boer War. 760 men of the 5th battalion (formerly the Royal Elthorne Light Infantry) was reported to return home on the SS Assaye in September 1902, after the war had ended. The 6th battalion (formerly the Royal East Middlesex Militia) was embodied in December 1899 (when it was still the 4th Battalion), and 530 officers and men left for service in South Africa in February 1900.

Unfortunately I cannot find the service records for 2171 H Dyson and the Medal Roll for the 5th Battalion does not contain anybody called Dennison but there is a Dennis.

The Roslin Castle did indeed leave S Africa on 29th May 1902 - this from the shipping records to be found on this site:

London Times, 04 Jun 02 (Wednesday)
p13c The Roslin Castle left for England May 29, with the following invalids:
12/Lancers – Major J CB Eashwood
Imperial Yeomanry – Lieutenant Colonel G J Younghusband, CB
ASC – Lieutenant Colonel A N Roberts, Major S S Long
With the following on passage home:
3/KOSB – Lieutenant Colonel J K M Witham, CMG, Majors C V E Laurie, DSO, J Mackie, DSO, Captains F J Carruthers, J B Wilkie, W L C Allan, lts. W McCall, Sir W Jardine, J T Scriven, N W M Brunton, H S Gladstone, 2/Lieutenants the Hon. F W Scott Napier, B L J Tollemache, Lieutenant & Quartermaster W E Webb and 255 men.
V C Border – Captain E W Wakefield, Lieutenants A C Scoular, G H Shepley, and 86 men.
V C W Riding – Lieutenant H K Bracewell and 91 men
Sussex Volunteer Eng. – Lieutenant F R Paramor and 22 men
V C Liverpool – Lieutenant W G Lindsay and 16 men
V C Berks. – Lieutenant C F Simonds and 18 men
V C Leicestershire – 17 men
7/Hussars – Major J Vaughan
Reserve of Officers – Captains A B Boyd Wilson, R W F Fullarton, W L Forbes
Imperial Yeomanry – Captain H B Burnaby, Lieutenants G B Hunt, E Harrison, Lieutenant & Quartermaster G Payne
RGA – Captain R O Marton, 2/Lieutenant S Montague
W Militia Subm. Miners – Lieutenant R B T Rye
2/R Scots – 2/Lieutenant A B R Pearce
3/R Fusiliers – 2/Lieutenant B A S Dyer
2/Devon – Major A G Spratt
2/Somerset Light Infantry – 2/Lieutenant C S H Roberts
3/Sussex – Lieutenant G N G Monck-Mason
4/Warwick – lt. C P Nicholas
3/Black Watch – Lieutenant P L Moubray
Lancs. Fusiliers – 2/Lieutenant A B Wigley
2/S Lancs – Lieutenant Colonel F A Adam
York & Lanc. – Colonel W J Kirkpatrick
Highland Light Infantry – Captain H C Stockwell
5/Irish Fusiliers – Lieutenant G S Jackson
5/Connaught Rangers – Lieutenant E H T Lawrence
3/Leinster – Lieutenant A A Stoney
KRRC – Captain J H Smith
W India – Lieutenants A Forbes, W Addison
ASC – Lieutenant Colonel A H Thomas
RAMC – Lieutenant E W Herrington
P O W L H – Major W H Thomas
W Aust. M I – Lieutenants C Griffith, J Hawkins
RE – Lieutenant H M Bremner
2/N S Wales M I – Lieutenant Adrian
N S Wales Bushmen – Lieutenant W B Carter
S A Irregular Mounted Forces – Lieutenant R C W Selby Lowndes
Canadian Scouts – Lieutenant W A K Nicholson
Civil Veterinary Surgeons R Anderson, E A Welshaw, J B Knowles, J Fahey
Civil Surgeons C Mildmay, G C Owsley, R Staward
Reverend E M Young
Due Southampton June 18.

Can't see any mention of the Middlesex Regiment but there are about 500 unnamed men from half a dozen other units - sadly only one unit is defined down to Battalion level (and the KOSB seem a unlikely Regiment for him to serve in) making Medal Roll searching for a co-serving Dyson & Dennison a ginormous task.

Bizarrely there is a John Henry Bintcliffe who was killed in action in the Great War in 1918 but I do not believe in resurrection.