TOPIC:

What volunteers are you referring to that travelled from Scandinavia to South Africa to join the boer forces? My understanding is that the Scandinavian Corps and Ambulance were made up of people already in the country with other occupations?

I have not found many travellers to the war myself from scandinavia with the object of joining up, but I may have looked in the wrong places?

ATB,

Lars

Lars, in Part 1 of Skandienawiers in Die Tweede Anglo-Boere-Oorlog as translated into Afrikaans by Cornelis de Jong (University of SA) that was published in Amsterdam in 1983 it is written that the majority of the Scandinavians in the Corps had already been in the Transvaal, implying a minority of the Corps members had come over for the occasion (de Jong doesn't cite where that iformation came from). This latter category must however have been a low number (a couple of dozen at most) as the Scandinavian Corps was small (at Magersfontein the Corps was composed of 45 Swedes, 23 Danes, 13 Norwegians, 18 Finns, 7 Germans, 3 Hollanders, 2 Russians and a lone Italian). I was mixed up with the Irish Volunteers, the majority of which came from outside the Republics (notably the USA). So, it could very well be that your statement “For some time I realised that the Scandinavians on British side were as many and more as on the Boer side” is correct. The only proviso is that I do not have any data on the number of men of Scandinavian descent who fought in other Boer Commandos, something that could skew the comparison into the other direction. Do you have any information about the number of men of Scandinavian descent fighting on the British side?

A very interesting discussion on scandinavian volunteers on either side, which deserves to be continued. Can I ask a moderator to split the topic so I can concentrate here with the rest of my collection?

ATB,

Lars

Lars/Everhard - have you seen this?

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

and this:

www.angloboerwar.com/unit-information/bo...55-scandinavian-vols

and this:

www.angloboerwar.com/forum/13-miscellany...glo-boer-war?start=0

and this:

www.angloboerwar.com/forum/2-introductio...rps-research?start=0

Using the search facility at top right of screen numerous other mentions of Scandinavians can be found.

Regards, David.

Thanks, very familiar with them.

ATB,

Lars

I have some some offerings from the British newspapers of the day but I will leave posting them until the post has been split.