TOPIC:

1900 - Mafeking siege day 175 (80%). Villebois Mareuil killed in action near Boshof. Hunter at Rooidam.
1901 - Transvaal Government leaves the Tuutesberg and joins Botha at Ermelo.
1902 - End of the fourth drive in the N.E. O.R.C.



In Mafeking:

This morning Smitheman went to the brickfields with the Colonel and was shot at a bit. We all told him that we were afraid we shouldn't be able to find him any entertainment as the Boers are very quiet just now, and he said we needn't trouble. However, as the morning wore on the enemy's sixteen-pounder commenced bombarding us from Game Tree and Jackal Tree and kept on the whole morning, apparently directed by a deserter, Private Hay, Protectorate Regiment, who selected his late fort and the headquarters of the Protectorate Regiment, as his main target. I shouldn't care to be Private Hay after the war as there is £50 on his head, dead or alive, and the Boers are hard up. The afternoon was pretty quiet, and the Boers have now retired all round to extreme musketry range of all the town. They livened up in the evening though, and fired a good deal, landing many bullets in the square.

Hi everybody

I intended posting yesterday on the 5th, but my one daughter and family arrived much earlier than anticipated and then medals obviously had to take the back seat!

I have not yet been able to pinpoint the spot near Boshoff where the action took place : can any member help out with directions?



The postcard obviously is an imaginary portrayal of the incident.





The cardboard-core medallion of French origin in honour of the "French General"



This group is one of my favourites : not many ABO's were issued to men who served in the "Foreign Legion" on the Boer side

ABO: Burger J. J. H. Geeringh; 1914-15 Star: Pte. J.J.H. Geeringh 4th F. Amb. S.A.M.C.; BWM & AVM(Bil): A/Sgt J.J.H. Geeringh 1st S.A.R.

John James Humphries Geeringh was born in Robertson in the Cape Colony in 1875 and apparently worked in Johannesburg prior to the Boer War. Although of German descent, he joined the Hollander Corps in October 1899 to fight on the Boer side.
After the Battle of Elandslaagte the Hollander Corps was disbanded. Geeringh’s subsequent movements are not known, but he was one of the captured survivors of the “Foreign Legion” under General de Villebois-Mareuil’s after their heroic “last stand” on 5 April 1900 near Boshoff.
The PoW's were recorded in the ZAR Staats Courant (extract below)



He was sent to St Helena (PoW No. 3813) where he eventually was one of a group of volunteers who did duty as male nurses under Dr R L Roe tending fellow PoW’s.



In 1915 Geeringh joined the SA Medical Corps and served in South West Africa with the 4th Field Ambulance. In February 1915 he attested in the 1st SA Rifles for the East African campaign, eventually transferring to the Nyasaland Section of the SA Postal Corps.
He was discharged on medical grounds (malaria) in December 1917 and died in 1918, probably during the “Flu Epidemic”.
His WWI Trio (1920 & 1922) and ABO (1928) were posthumously claimed by his brother on behalf of his mother.

Henk

Corrigendum!!
Geeringh joined the 1st SA Rifles in February 1916
Henk

Henk,

The Times History states that it was 8km SE of Boshof.

Trooper 8008, I.Y. (Hon Sidney Peel) reckoned it was closer to 12 miles. Several sources refer to a farm but Peel states:

"The position held by the enemy was a sort of natural fortress, crowned by great boulders, behind which a man could stand secure from rifle fire." (P.33).

The prisoners were locked up overnight in a farm on the way back to Boshof and; "Next day the prisoners came in; a strange crew they were, chiefly Frenchmen, with a few Boers and Hollanders and a Russian or two."

Best wishes,

Justin

Hello Henk

"[2824: 2837-2517] a farm in the Orange Free State (Boshof district; Free State), eight kilometres south-east of Boshof. On 5 April a detachment of 750 men from the Imperial Yeomanry, the Kimberley Mounted Corps and the 4th battery, Royal Field Artillery, attacked a small commando of 150 led by Col (Veg-Gen) G.H.A.V. de Villebois Mareuil in laager on the farm. The commando held out for four hours before being forced to surrender. De Villebois Mareuil was killed by a shell and buried with full military honours in Boshof* cemetery; the body was reinterred in Magersfontein* on 14 August 1971. This action is also known as the battle of Boshof. HMG II p.333 (not mapped); Times IV pp.213-214 (map of the Orange Free State in the front pocket)."

A Gazetteer of the Second Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902 (Military Press, Milton Keynes 1999) HM & MGM Jones

Regards
Meurig

Hi Justin & Meurig

Thanks for the info.

When I tried to find the site some 20 years ago I also had the "5 miles SE of Boshoff" note, but without a 1: 50000 map or aerial photos I could not find the spot. In addition I was in a bit of a hurry and moved on.

Maybe now with a GPS and GoogleEarth it will be easy

Henk