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Good Morning Everyone......

Yesterday I was given a few, very yellow, very fragile, news paper clippings that were literally falling apart that date from 1900 to 1950....... I am going to try and transcribe them as best I can if everyone is interested...... There were some pictures with this one but they were so fragile that every time I moved them pieces fell off and so faded that I could not even scan or photograph then...... It was the very high acid content paper of the time......

Hope you enjoy.....

Mike

15th July, 1950
The Standard, Ottawa, Ontario
By Gerald Waring

FIFTY YEARS AGO WE FOUGHT THE BOERS

Almost Forgotten South African Conflict
Sped Canada's Evolution as a Nation

The Boer War wasn't the first time Canadians had fought abroad for the Mother Country. But it was the first conflict in which the government of a new nation, only then budding into independent statehood, had voluntarily raised an army and gone to Britain's aid – as succeeding governments were to do again in two far more terrible wars.

Thus Sir Wilfred Laurier's Liberal Government took a step of great historical and constitutional moment when, on October 14th, 1899, it authorized the despatch to South Africa of a regiment of 1,000 volunteers to fight alongside the Imperial forces.

Sixteen days later, on Oct 30th, the first Canadian contingent sailed from Quebec. Known as the 2nd (Special Service) Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry, it was to fight in South Africa, as Sir Wilfred said in a farewell speech, for the cause of justice, the cause of humanity, of civil rights and religious liberty.

It was little more than the raw material of a regiment. After only a week or two in uniform the recruits were anything but prepared for the hardships they were to experience. They everything to learn, and they learned it the hard way.

They learned at Paardeberg, where the whole regiment went into action for the first time. On February 17th, hungry and tired after an all night march of 21 miles, the RCR's were thrown forward across open sandy plain stretching 1500 yards to the trenches of the Boers they couldn't see. The enemy's fire was withering. The Canadians advanced in short rushes, literally from the cover of one ant hill to the next. After a day of this under scorching sun, they rose to their feet and charged the Boer trenches with fixed bayonets.

Ten days later, days spent digging trenches to tighten the trap around Commandant Cronje the Canadians went into action again. At 2:15 am Feb. 27th they rose out of their trenches and stole silently forward. They'd covered 400 yards, were only 65 yards from the Boers' position when someone's foot hit a tin. A Boer sentry heard the noise and fired. Then a hot fusillade swept the Canadians. They fell prone and returned fire while British engineers behind them dug trenches.

The new trenches, in which the Canadians were well established by daybreak, commanded the Boer enclosure. Two hundred Boers immediately hoisted the white flag on realizing that their position was untenable. And within an hour Cronje the “Lion of the Transvaal,” had surrendered his entire army unconditionally to Lord Roberts, the Imperial Commander.

Even before the first contingent had thus distinguished itself, the Canadian government offered a second contingent comprising a regiment of mounted rifles and a brigade division of field artillery. One battalion of rifles was recruited from the cavalry, and the second from North-West Mounted Police, cowpunchers and other frontiersmen.

The battalion recruited from cavalry was renamed the Royal Canadian Dragoons, while the second battalion retained the name Canadian Mounted Rifles. Along with the artillery they sailed from Halifax early in 1900. “C” Battery Royal Canadian Artillery participated in the relief of Mafeking. The CMR's were in the van when Roberts invaded the Transvaal, a fought valiantly throughout the campaign which ended in the capture of Johannesburg and Pretoria.

Meanwhile Lord Strathcona, Canadian High Commissioner in London, raised and outfitted three squadrons of mounted rifles at his own expense and paid their transportation to South Africa. Numbering 500 roughriders from the Canadian Northwest. Strathcona's Horse scouted and skirmished and occasionally engaged in stubborn fighting. One of the four Victoria Crosses awarded to Canadians in the war was won by a Strathcona Sergeant A.H.L. Richardson.

So far as the Canadians were concerned, the post-Pretoria phase of the war was mainly chasing the elusive Boer commandants De Wet and Botha. There were many instances of the Canadians' cool daring and steady courage.

But nothing, not even the gallantry of the RCR at Paardeberg, surpased the feat of the Dragoons and Artillery on Nov. 7th when they defended the rear of General Smith-Dorien's flying column on its retirement from the Komati River.

Col. F. L. Lessard had 95 Dragoons, a Colt machine gun and Lieutenant E. W. B. Morrison's two 12 pounders to stand off the Boers along a two mile front while the long transport column toiled on three miles ahead. He put half his cavalryon each flank, with the guns in the middle front. The Boers began infiltrating among the kopjes, (hillocks) to turn the flank, but Lessard pulled his men and guns back to successive new positions.

The rearguard's right flank, with Lieutenant H. Z. C. Cockburn was holding with two week troops became hard pressed, and Morrison rushed one gun to its support. The gunners had not fired a dozen rounds from their new position when Lessard galloped up.

“For God's sake, Morrison, save your guns!” he shouted, pointing to the left where, a half mile away Boers were swarming towards them.

Morrison limbered up and hit out for the next ridge, some three miles away, as fast as the tired horses would go leaving Lessard and Cockburn to try and stem the onrushing tide. Then the Boers came from another direction. Straight across the rear a line of Boers a mile long charged over the plain fireing from their saddles. They were 1500 yards away, but quickly narrowed the gap as the blown artillery horses slowed to a trot and then a walk despite the whip and despite the men running alongside, pulling on the traces.

Lessard's little force was rolled back, fighting desperately. The enemy was only 300 yards from the gun when 60 C.M.R.'s spurred in from the main column's right flank to support the greatly out numbered Dragoons. That halted the Boer charge.

Lieutenants Cockburn and R. E. W. Turner got the Victoria Cross for their work that day, and so did Sergeant Ernest Holland, who, when his Colt gun was overrun, made off with it under his arm, leaving the enemy only the tripod. Morrison was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.

That was the last big Canadian show of the war. The following weeks various units saw considerable fighting but the men's terms of enlistment were expiring. By March, 1901, all were home except those who had chose to stay on with British or other colonial forces.

The units mentioned bore the brunt of fighting in which Canadians participated, but there were also the Canadian Scouts, the 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles, the 10 th Field Hospital, the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th Canadian Mounted Rifles (who landed in South Africa in June 1902, only days after the Boer capitulation) and the Canadian contingent of the South African Constabulary, a post-war force. Army records show that 7,368 Canadians served in South Africa. Total casualties were 224 killed or died, and 252 wounded.

By modern standards it wasn't much of a war. But it was Canada's first since she became a nation, and it had far reaching effects on the pattern of things to come.

Thank you for transcribing and sharing this Mike. I found this very interesting and it serves as another reminder to me to expand my knowledge by reading more about the Canadians’ part in the war.

I see that the article called Cronje “The Lion of the Transvaal”. I thought General Koos De La Rey held that title? Or were there two Lions?

Very interesting and now it’s shared and won’t be lost. Thank you.

Ian