1900 - Trooper Johnstone, of Deloraine, Tasmania, started to write a letter today.
....Trooper Johnstone, of the Imperial Bushmens' Contingent, writes to his sister at Deloraine :—
....Transvaal, September 29.— I received your letter dated May 29, on September 20th being the long wished for and welcome letter. I was glad to hear that you were all well. I expect we will receive more when we go to Pretoria. As the Boers have captured two lots of mail going from Pretoria to Capetown I expect some of my letters were among them, as I have written as often as I possibly could under trying circumstances. I think I told you most of my experiences in my last letter. Since then we have been out to Crocodile River under General Plumer. We expected when we got there to have a great battle, but to our surprise the Boers had cleared out. We only had a few snipers left to annoy us in a farm house. They were instantly fired on, one being killed and another wounded through the shoulder. We captured 15 of the Boers and burnt several houses. We brought them back to Waterval and then went on to Hammons Kraal East after Erasmus, a Boer commander. We have three columns with us - Generals Plumer's, Hickman's and Paget's. We. muster about 4,000 cavalry and 150 infantry and two big guns, two batteries and Canadian battery guns, so we expect to give them a great shaking up. We marched 28 miles in one day. General Paget's brigade going one way, Generals Plumer's and Hickman's another. We went with Plumer's to Syuvrand Kraal where we met Paget's brigade. Again we were close on the Boers the last 5 miles. They were forced to leave a lot of cattle and sheep on the road as they went ; they also left women and children in wagons. It is a distressing sight to see them. We rushed them along 5 miles further and had a little rifle shooting and a few shells when our general sent out to tell them to surrender. Erasmus came in under the white flag, and said he would surrender providing Botha had resigned. General Paget gave him 6 days to find out if he had resigned, so we have been resting those few days and had a day or two sport such as steeple chase flat and footracing which we all enjoyed you may guess. On October 1 we moved two miles further on for the purpose of grazing horses and cattle in the Boer crops, which are coming out in head, so they had a good feed. If they do not surrender we are going to burn all farm houses as we go along and take the women and children to Pretoria. I met Morris Best at Kroonstad ; he said he had had the fever, but was all right. We have 85 men in our lot; some of the poor fellows have taken the fever, and others have joined the police at Pretoria. I had a chance to join myself, but do not think I will as the arrangements are not very satisfactory. I suppose you know more about the fighting we have had to do than I can tell you, as you see all in the papers. We have all had great experience in warfare. If I am spared to return home I will be able to tell you many interesting tales and of the rough times since leaving old Tassie. I have heard some talk of the men going to England when the war is over; I only hope it is true, as we all should like that trip very much. I think our next move will be towards Johannesburg, but I will be able to tell you in my next. It will take a while longer to finish these rebels off, as they have broken up into small bands and go in different directions. R. Wyatt and Clarry wish to be remembered to you all, and we are all in the best of health, although we have had to rough it at times. I have not seen Leslie yet, but hope to fall in with him before long. I am writing this on my knee, so hope you can read it. Love to all at home and remembrances to inquiring friends.
The North Western Advocate [Burnie, Tasmania], Monday 19th November 1900
The same paper published another letter from him to his mother (on 22.9.1900), also at Deloraine, giving his name as A. A. Johnstone.
"Leslie" was probably Leslie William Johnstone, also of Deloraine.
....The following is, your correspondent thinks, a correct list alphabetically of the natives of this district [Deloraine] who have gone to South Africa since October 27: A. R. Adams, D. T. Gleeson, J.T. Griffin, J. W. Johnston, C. Johnston (brothers), A. Johnston (cousin), R. P. Pitt, P. Stagg, J. Sullivan, G. H. Weber, and R. O. Wyatt. In addition to the foregoing the following who were residents but not natives of this place have also gone :C. Beresford, W. J. Campbell, H.F. Davies, J. Shaw and A. E. Viney.
North Western Advocate, Wednesday 2nd May 1900
According to the Daily Telegraph [Launceston], 72 Trooper A. A. Johnstone returned to Australia on board the Britannic, arriving at Launceston on 31st July 1901. On the same troopship was C. A. Johnstone, of Sheffield.
The closest name I can find for that service number is "Alfred Johnson".
