My father, Trooper W D Dodd of the Northumberland Hussars Imperial Yeomanry used to tell me the story of a night ride and dawn raid on a Boer party that was accompanying President Steyn of the Orange Free State along with the Boer treasury. The British detachment tried to surround the Boer camp at dawn but were spotted at the last minute and Mr Steyn got away, riding bareback . The rest, and the treasury, were captured.
My dad was one of the Brit cavalry group that made the raid. The Boers across whose territory they rode fired the veldt once the riders had passed. And then fired upon them as they returned across the burnt grass. No idea why a white horse would be allowed on a night operation but my dad was on one. The detachment had to halt while all hands fell to rubbing the white horses with burnt grass.
As a souvenir of the occasion, General Roberts autographed a captured pound note for each trooper on the raid. I asked all my uncles and aunts when I first met them in 1951, and they all remembered the note framed in their mother’s parlour. But no one knew what had become of it.
The story of the raid is confirmed in the biography of General J B M Hertzog, by C M Van den Heever published in 1946.
A number of those autographed notes must have existed and perhaps found their way to a museum. I'm hoping to obtain a digital image that I could include in my dad's part of my family history project.
I would be grateful for any help the readers of this site can give.
Thank you
Bruce Dodd,
Ottawa
Canada
[email protected]
