TOPIC:

Hello Journalist.......

Have you seen this by any chance.......

www.angloboerwar.com/forum/20-tribute-me...fontein-1899?start=0

Mike

Hi Mike,

No I hadn't seen this so thanks very much. It is very interesting for me to once again see so many Swedes fighting for the Boers while my grandfather was fighting for the British and also in their intelligence. I'm wondering if him being in the intelligence had anything to do with interrogating the Swedes and other Scandinavians who had been captured by the Brits. And if so how that would have gone. But as the Scandinavians were saying there were times when they were not fighting that they had friendly interaction with the British soldiers. I see a number of the Swedish soldiers came from Gothenburg where my grandfather also had a lot of family.

It is not correct that Swedish or Scandinavian soldiers are mostly known on the Boer side.

I have the medals to about 15 such soldiers, and looking at the rolls of the locally raised South African units I would appreciate the number to more than twice the number on the boer side.

Some joined for adventure, some were recruited among sailors and some joined from the mining industry when jobs became scarcer due to the war.

ATB,

Lars

While the total number of people with Scandinavian blood in the British ranks might have been higher globally (due to the sheer size of the British Army), the number of volunteers who travelled specifically from Scandinavia to South Africa for the war was much higher for the Boers. So there may have been a number of English speaking South Africans with Scandinavian blood sympathetic to the Brits. The numbers I have repeatedly seen are approximately 250 - 300 military volunteers on the Boers' side with only 100 on record in Durban merely stating that they opposed the Boers. Also sympathies in northern Europe, apart from Britain, were predominantly pro-Boer during that period. It would be good to get more factual info.

There are some good Scandinavian books on the emigration to South Africa in the late 1800s.

Most emigrated for work, not many are noted to emigrate to join up. Some officers on the british side joined to further their professional experience, I cant recall having seen a note for someone joining the Boers if not already resident?

ATB,

Lars

I think you're right about many of the the Skandinaviska Kåren already being resident in the ZAR. Just as other Scandinavian residents in the ZAR who were sympathetic to the Brits were treated as uitlanders by the government officials. I wish I could read those books about the Scandinavian migration to SA but unfortunately my grandfather never passed Swedish down, and it's such a beautiful language.