TOPIC:

Good day all, I have a vested interest in Lord Roberts' arrival in Bloemfontein, after Marthinus Steyn and his Free State Government had moved to
Senekal. The opposition members in the Republic's government had decided they would rather surrender Bloemfontein to the advancing British forces, and prevent damage to the Town and its people. According to Pakenham's book, Roberts advanced with such speed that morning, that the only forces that could keep up were the Cavalry Regiments, and therefore there were no regular army units with Roberts when he was met by the Bloemfontein Burghers. Roberts had received news that the Mayor of Bloemfontein, the Magistrate, and my Great-Grandfather, John George Fraser (not GORDON Fraser as noted in Pakenham's book) were coming to meet him, with the keys to the public offices in Bloem. John George Fraser was the son of Dominee Colin MacKenzie Fraser of Colesburg, and a trained lawyer, and strangely enough the uncle of Marthinus Steyn's wife Tibbie (Elizabeth), so must have had mixed emotions when his niece and her husband President Steyn left town!

Over the last years, I have collected about 70 helmet or slouch hat badges of the British Regiments, always looking for badges of the units that rode into Bloemfontein with Roberts, seeing in my mind the badge I held in my hand being in Bloemfontein at the time Fraser, the Mayor and the Magistrate met Roberts.

And that is where my query arises. I can't find exact reference to the (Scottish, I think) Cavalry Regiments accompanying Roberts on that ride.
Where do I find the names of those regiments? Hall's handbook quotes all the regiments or units in Roberts' Divisions, but the infantry couldn't keep up, and weren't there at the moment.

The accompanying photo shows the Diamond Wedding family group with the grey-bearded man in the centre, by then Sir John George Fraser, and my Mother sitting at the feet of her Grandfather!

Your help would be appreciated! Thank you for a wonderful historic site.

Kind regards, Dave

Hello Dave, welcome here,
To at least go a little way to answering your question, members of Porter's 1st Cavalry Brigade took part in this particular phase of the war, but, men who joined the cavalry could "choose" a particular regiment and you certainly did not need to be Scottish to join the Greys, although, of course, very many of it's members were.
With the British Army in general, it is important to remember that for the period in question, the helmet plate was not worn on campaign, so when you say helmet badges, I assume what you are talking about were the cloth badges that normally started life as embroidered shoulder straps from the Home Service Full Dress tunic.
The regiments went to war with their Field Service Caps and the Glengarry for the Scottish Infantry regiments, they were carried on campaign and the "new" cap badge were worn on these, as the war went on the helmet was often replaced by the more practical Slouch Hat and many regiment wore their particular cap badge on them.
The badges actually made in the period are very distinctive in terms of quality and some are now very scarce indeed, South Africa used to be awash with them in the 1970's and there were a couple of shops in Johannesburg where they could be bought in large quantities for pennies, sadly no longer the case and it is possible to pay over a hundred pounds for one of the scarcer examples.
My advice to you, is to simply collect an example to each regiment from the Infantry and Cavalry who actually served in the campaign, not a cheap option, but, you sound as though you are well on the way to actually doing just that anyway.
Regards Frank Kelley

Good Morning Dave......

I have to concur with Franks comments.....

It is my suggestion that you possibly find yourself a copy of Kipling and King's book on Badges of the British Army..... You will only need Volume One as the second volume is WW2 etc......

Also there is THE MILITARY BADGES AND INSIGNIA OF SOUTHERN AFRICA, by Colin R. Owen ....

These I am sure will give you a good reference......

Mike

Good afternoon, Frank and Mike, from Cape Town, South Africa, and thank you for your rapid responses!
Clearly, Hall's Handbook of the Boer War, which quotes the regiments under Roberts' direct command is too literal in describing the units with Roberts as he advanced on Bloemfontein. Did I presume wrong in thinking that some of the Cavalry Division under Lt Gen JDP French, including 2nd and 6th Dragoon Guards, Inniskilling Dragoons, 14th Hussars, 10th Hussars, 12th, 9th and 16th Lancers, as well as many Mounted Infantry units were with Roberts when he rode into Bloemfontain? (I have an Inniskilling cap/helmet badge in metal, which seems of the right vintage.)
And in March 1900, would these cavalry units have worn slouch hats already? I have seen pictures of cavalry members wearing pith helmets with badges mounted on the left side, and thought this equipment would have accompanied the cavalry in to Bloemfontein, even if they were not actually worn during the ride.

Thank you too for your advice about the books to own. In fact I do already have both of them. Owen's book is not terribly useful in this search, because most of the units were non-South African. And I hoped I might confirm the names of the Regiments or Guards, and then search Kipling and King for confirmation of the correct badge To search through the histories of each unit to find out whether they were involved or not is to work backwards towards the solution.

However, your combined knowledge is hugely appreciated, and helps me to gain clarity of who was there. Pakenham's book doesn't mention the name of the Mayor of Bloem, nor the Magistrate. I wonder how he confirmed my Great Grandfather's name..... (He got his first name wrong, too!)

Kind regards,
Dave
P.S. I have been registered on this site for about 2 years, and only now has it occurred to me to post a query as a starter! Old cogs grind slowly in this head of mine

Hello Dave,
No your presumption is correct, of General French and his Division, Thomas Porter's Brigade was in the vanguard with his own regiment, the 6DG, he was promoted to command the Brigade, which also included the 2nd Dragoons (those terrible grey horse's) the 6th Dragoons, a single squadron of 14th Hussars and a few attached Australians, from New South Wales.
I'm rather confused by your mention of an Inniskilling cap/helmet badge, this regiment, the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons, at that point in the war carried the Field Service Cap as already mentioned, worn with a cap badge, the Foreign Service Helmet, made of cork, was worn at that particular point in time, had a khaki cover with a cloth "6D" on it's (the wearers) left side.
They wore the Albert Helmet complete with it's handsome plate in Home Service Dress, but, not on campaign actually during the war.
Owen's book is not a reference book, it is merely an illustrated catalogue of a particular collection, moreover, it is nothing to do with the British Army whatsoever and the other book mentioned is really very poor, in particular, the photographs.
Regards Frank

sup3rm00 wrote: Good afternoon, Frank and Mike, from Cape Town, South Africa, and thank you for your rapid responses!
Clearly, Hall's Handbook of the Boer War, which quotes the regiments under Roberts' direct command is too literal in describing the units with Roberts as he advanced on Bloemfontein. Did I presume wrong in thinking that some of the Cavalry Division under Lt Gen JDP French, including 2nd and 6th Dragoon Guards, Inniskilling Dragoons, 14th Hussars, 10th Hussars, 12th, 9th and 16th Lancers, as well as many Mounted Infantry units were with Roberts when he rode into Bloemfontain? (I have an Inniskilling cap/helmet badge in metal, which seems of the right vintage.)
And in March 1900, would these cavalry units have worn slouch hats already? I have seen pictures of cavalry members wearing pith helmets with badges mounted on the left side, and thought this equipment would have accompanied the cavalry in to Bloemfontein, even if they were not actually worn during the ride.

Thank you too for your advice about the books to own. In fact I do already have both of them. Owen's book is not terribly useful in this search, because most of the units were non-South African. And I hoped I might confirm the names of the Regiments or Guards, and then search Kipling and King for confirmation of the correct badge To search through the histories of each unit to find out whether they were involved or not is to work backwards towards the solution.

However, your combined knowledge is hugely appreciated, and helps me to gain clarity of who was there. Pakenham's book doesn't mention the name of the Mayor of Bloem, nor the Magistrate. I wonder how he confirmed my Great Grandfather's name..... (He got his first name wrong, too!)

Kind regards,
Dave
P.S. I have been registered on this site for about 2 years, and only now has it occurred to me to post a query as a starter! Old cogs grind slowly in this head of mine

Good day again, Frank, thanks for the correspondence.
I have enclosed pictures of the badges I have of the 6th Dragoon Guards (Carabiniers), and the 6th Dragoons (The Inniskilling Regiment).
These were picked up for a relative song here in South Africa via our local eBay system (BidorBuy).
Were these badges never worn here in SA, and, if so, how did we get such a plethora of them on the local BidorBuy. As I say, I have collected at least 70 of them, and only because I was able to identify the various regiments as having been here during the ABW.
Would these have been packed away in the soldier's equipment and used only on ceremonial occasions?

Kind regards,
Dave