TOPIC:

I'm looking for more information about Struben's Scouts i.e. how they were formed, where they fought etc. Can anyone help please?

Ian,

Struben's Scouts were a Natal unit and were commanded by Lt Robert Henry Struben. Very small. Only 14 men on the roll.

angloboerwar.com/unit-information/south-...showall=&limitstart=

Led by Lt Robert Henry Struben, they were founded by (his uncle?) William Charles Stuben.

William Charles Marinus Struben. C.M.G. (1900); b. 12th May, 1856; s. of Captain Struben, of Pretoria; m., 1882, Helen, d. of A. K. Murray. Served in Zulu War (1879-1880), Boer War (1880-1881), South Africa (dispatches for the Natal Guides; medal).

In Buller's farewell speech, he said:

"Some said I had no intelligence department. I believe I had a remarkably good one, and I am thankful to the man who began it—the Hon. T. K. Murray, who came forward and started it; and he was followed by Mr. Struben, the Allison, Whipp, and Henderson families, all local men. And when the history of the war comes to be written it will be found that no General received better information than I did, and I got it from the colonists of the districts I passed through. I am grateful to be allowed to speak in my own defence. No matter what English papers or German critics say, the people who live on the spot know best, and the people of Natal agree with me, that if General Hildyard and his men had not been in Estcourt on the 22nd November, the Boers would have taken Marilzburg. It would have been a terrible calamity, and if I had been sitting still in Capetown, though I would not have cared a sixpence for the critics, I would have felt thoroughly ashamed of myself."

For a Natal unit, there is very little about them in the Natal Volunteer Record.

Thanks for this information David. Every little bit helps to add to the group I have.

A QSA to Struben's Scouts?

Yes, to Lieut. Struben himself

Wow!

May we see some pictures and of the naming please?