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In 2018 the Boer War museum in Bloemfontein published an excellent book titled “the Anglo-Boer War in 100 Objects.” It contains photographs and descriptions of items used in -or directly relating to- the war presented in a format that is interesting to layman and collector alike. Besides many valuable, historically important relics, it features small items without any noteworthy value which made a huge difference to the men, women and children who owned them. Because these apparently insignificant things make the war come alive, I would like to invite my fellow forum members who own such items to share these with us.

Below is an item which I acquired many years ago. Described as a “curio purse,” it is actually a flint purse, a small leather wallet with iron striking edge that originally must have contained a flint and some easily flammable material. Fire was an essential element in the Boer’s ability to survive in the field: it was needed for cooking food, to stay warm during cold nights and even in battle for ‘smoking out” the enemy hiding in dry fields. It is often said that the essentials of the Boer on commando were his pony, his Mauser, his pipe and his Boeretroos (coffee). How important these latter two were at the time for the men in the field can be illustrated by the fact that in some cases Boers flatly refused to get into the saddle for an early morning attack before they had their coffee and smoke.

With the supply of vuurhoutjies (matchsticks) running out early in the war -matchsticks were of limited use in the field anyway, sulfur heads crumbled easily and the sticks were useless in wet conditions- the Boer on commando came to rely on alternative fire-making tools such as the tonteldoos (Dutch: tondeldoos for thinderbox).

The flint-purse featured below was an adaption of the metal tonteldoos and seems to have had its origins in Tibet. Risking the chance of boring the mickey out of those who were Badge Bearing Baden Powell Boy Scouts it worked as follows: Held like a hatchet as used by our stone-age forebears, the purse was hit at an angle on a stone flint with the resulting sparks directed at some tinder-dry material (cotton, wood-shavings, dead grass, tobacco, dried dung etc). The smouldering material was subsequently blown into a proper fire ….and Bob’s your uncle. I have seen individual striking irons that were used during the Boer War (often unrecognised as such) but am unaware of similar examples attached to a purse although I’m pretty sure they must exist.





According to the accompanying contemporary note, this example of a flint purse was a take-home-trophy, found on the battlefields after the “Boar” war. I have always assumed it was a Boer item but the Tibet angle could equally qualify one of Mahatma Gandhi’s stretcher bearers as a possible previous owner.

6319 Corporal Ernest Carrington Ouvry snaffled this British Army Post Office mail bag for use as a sleeping bag. An ink inscription at bottom right reads: "My Sleeping Bag during the War 1900-1901 E.C. Ouvry".

Ouvry served with "F" Section, 34th (Middlesex) Company, 11th Bn. Imperial Yeomanry. He acted as Battalion Signaller, and was promoted (from Trooper to Corporal) after the action at Senekal on 25 May 1900. He was invalided home from Harrismith, December 2nd 1900. See Corner, 1902, pp.104, 337 & 506.

I can't imagine the coarse hemp would have offered much comfort or warmth.







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Artisanal coffee mug used by an inmate of the Howick concentration camp. This mug (10 cm tall with a diameter of 9,5 cm) was forged from a metal sheet (probably iron although there is some bronze color visible) and was repaired with a patch which was riveted over the joint. The mug was retrieved after the war by a resident of Howick and acquired 20 years ago from one of his direct descendants who still lives in the town.









The Howick Concentration Camp.
The second concentration camp to open in Natal during the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) was at Howick during January 1901. (The first camp was at Pietermaritzburg) The 3300 inhabitants of the camp came from both the Free State and the Transvaal and were all housed in tents. The camp at Howick was known as one of the better camps during the war. Most amenities were available to the notoriously republican inhabitants of this camp. Many worked on farms in the area or relaxed next to the Umgeni River and the bigger boys were allowed to work as labourers on farms in the vicinity, thus earning a little money with which they were able to buy certain medical necessities and additional food.

The next object is a home-made roll-up purse, crudely sewed together from some sturdy grey leather. The purse contains 12 slots to hold coins (possibly 4 for Gold Ponden, the balance for ½ Ponden or other smaller sized coins). There is also a small pocket that could have been used for holding Gouvernement’s Noten or other. Although, especially in the latter stages of the war, the Burgers on commando in most cases simply commandeered needed supplies, hard coin was often still needed to acquire goods, e.g. when buying in (pro) Boer towns, in the concentration camps, from fellow burgers or from native tribes the Boers didn’t want to antagonize.

Interestingly, this purse came with the ID tag of the owner, “D.N. Beukes of Rooigrond” Although the use of the Red Cross card as means of identification is well documented (refer other post on this website) the use of ID tags by the Burgers on commando is rather rare. Most of the examples I have seen are defaced Kruger pennies crudely hammered with the name of the owner and the farm they lived on or of the commando they served in.








I could not find a “D.N.Beukes” on this or the Boer War museum website although the “Beukes” name in combination with Rooigrond (a farm in the Lichtenburg District 16 km South East of Mafeking) gave some weak Google hits. (There were undoubtedly more farms named Rooigrond at the time)

I attach two other photographs of ID discs used in the war. The first is hammered onto the reverse of a silver shooting medal and named “Louis Botha, South Germiston.” This is possibly Christoffel Abram Lodewikus Botha (born 7.9.1876) of the farm Elandsfontein, a Burger in Commandant Gravitt’s commando, who was wounded on May the 3rd, 1902.



The second, on a Kruger penny, is named "Jan van Groote, Petr(u)sburg" (town near Bloemfontein). I could find nothing in relation to this tag.

Whilst not entirely in keeping with the theme; I thought I would post something along similar lines of "insignificant items that made a difference..."

A while ago I bought a British Flag from a deceased museum collector in Australia:



Included within the flag was this letter:



James was indeed captured at Spion Kop in January 1900:



One of the reasons I enjoy collecting so much is the personal connection; no matter how small and insignificant.

This post concerns a number of small items that miraculously survived more than 120 years of spring-cleanings. With exception of the page turner, these items have no monetary value but the fact that the owner brought them back to South Africa from a prison camp in Ceylon meant they were important enough for him to preserve after his release. Beside a shaving knife from Solingen (made especially for S. J. Kardachi* and stamped “Our Best Make”) in a leather pochette of the Durham Duplex Razer company in Sheffield, there is a camp whistle, a King’s Counsel cigarette tin, a wooden page turner (“Ceylon 1902”) and an egg-shaped darning ball with a long (17 cm) crudely made hand-forged iron darning needle, possibly for stitching leather. The darning ball is inscribed: Boere Kamp, Ceylon with T.G. on the reverse.

*The name Kardashi hails from Armenia and is now abused in slightly altered form by a bunch of entitled American snobs, inexplicably famous for possessing oversized bums and what my un-woke friends refer to as bouts of cross-dressing.












Based on the information “Boer POW, T.G., Ceylon, and because of the whistle, possibly someone of some seniority” I tried to track down the previous owner. Taking into account that T. could also be Anton, Antonius etc, I found one listing of a man that could, possibly, fit the bill: Thomas Frans Gilliland 43, of Vermeulen, POW # 11250, captured at Pretoria on September 9, 1900 and sent to Diyatalawa camp on Ceylon.