TOPIC:

Figured, like Chambers and other Canadian historians, I would write 3 paragraphs, to be used as filler, until I started debunking Canadian FWW accounts. Now 100 pages, and slightly over a month later,at an impasse, frazzled, on Canadian Second South African War accounts. S.V.P.: from war of 1812, until pre FWW, Canadian historical accounts, littered with mistakes and contradiction, not counting FWW. I have accumulated decades of pages, comparing historian accounts, and since the existence of the “WWW,” those pages filled up quickly. Canadian FWW accounts are in dire need of corrections, providing credence to Dan Snow comment; “we are teaching students, (WWI) history, that’s full of mistakes.” I sent MSG to Dan Snow, on twitter; “Hey Dan, bad-form and not very British, using WWI American terminology”!



Anglo-Boerwar.com:Canadian contingent casualties:
(officers): 7 KIA, 3 DOD, 23 wounded, 1 missing/prisoner
(men): 87 KIA, 76 DOD, 255 wounded, 55 missing/prisoner. (Total 173 dead), not counting MIA, or prisoners

CWM: Of the Canadians who went to South Africa, 89 were killed in action, 135 died of disease, and 252 were wounded.
(= 224 died)
www.warmuseum.ca/education/online-educat...rican-war-1899-1902/

Canadian War Museum: Of the Canadians who served in South Africa, 267 were killed and are listed in the Books of Remembrance.
www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/exhibitions/boer/boerwarhistory_e.shtml

As the reader can see, CWM contradicts its own account, brilliant.


The Royal Canadian Regiment (RCR), official website: Some 8000 Canadians enlisted and 242 died in the South African War. thercr.ca/main/index.php/the-south-african-war-1899-1902

Veterans Affaires Canada: Canada’s contributions in the South African War came at a cost. Approximately 280 Canadians lost their lives (most due to injury or illness brought on by the harsh conditions) and more than 250 were wounded. The names of the fallen are recorded in the South African War / Nile Expedition Book of Remembrance which is displayed in the Memorial Chamber in the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill. www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/histo...he-south-african-war


Veterans Affaires.gc.ca:
South African War / Nile Expedition The South African War / Nile Expedition Book of Remembrance commemorates Canadians who died during the South African War (1899-1902) and the Nile Expedition (1884-1885). The Nile Expedition in 1884 marked the first time Canada took part in a war overseas. Four hundred volunteers skilled in river navigation served in the expedition; sixteen gave their lives. The South African War broke out on October 11, 1899. This war marked the first occasion in which large contingents of Canadian troops served abroad. More than 7,000 Canadians volunteered to fight in the South African War. Almost 300 names are listed in the South African War / Nile Expedition Book of Remembrance. The Book was dedicated and placed in the Memorial Chamber on May 31, 1962, the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Peace of Vereeniging, which ended the war in South Africa. www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/books/history#nile


The Canadian Encyclopedia: They formed a Patriotic Fund and a Canadian branch of the Soldiers' Wives' League to care for their dependants, and a Canadian South African Memorial Association to mark the graves of the 244 Canadian casualties, over half of them victims of diseases, principally enteric fever. After the war they erected monuments to the men who fought. www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/south-african-war/


Legionmagazine.com: In all, 7,368 Canadians served in the war The Canadian Encyclopaedia says 244 Canadians have graves or are commemorated on monuments in South Africa. The Books of Remembrance feature a slightly higher number of 283 but that includes 16 casualties, from the 1884-85 Nile Expedition, to relieve General Charles Gordon at Khartoum. ( =267) legionmagazine.com/en/1996/05/neglected-in-south-africa/


Col. Ernest J. Chambers: “Canadian Militias 1907, 5th Regiment Royal Scots of Canada Highlanders, 1904, ect., ect.” a former editor, publisher, partial owner, of the “Canadian Military Gazette,” The casualties among the Canadian contingents in South Africa were as follows:—

Killed or died of wounds, 65; died from disease or accidentally killed, 79; wounded, 197;
missing, 2. “On the return of the various contingents, no less than 310 officers and men remained in South Africa, with permission to join various military bodies.” (Note I have the original “Cables,” For First contingent alone, (300 stayed in SA), for all other contingents, still looking for the original documentation. (Total dead 144)




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Great piece of work!

Seems like quite a high proportion of KIA and DOW compared to DOD. They must have been busy and brave men.

The South African War (1899-1902) or, as it is also known, the Boer War, marked Canada's first official dispatch of troops to an overseas war.

In 1899, fighting erupted between Great Britain and two small republics in South Africa. (See map) The two republics, settled by Boers, descendants of the region's first Dutch immigrants, were not expected to survive for long against the world's greatest power. Pro-Empire Canadians nevertheless urged their government to help. The war, they argued, pitted British freedom, justice, and civilization against Boer backwardness.

While many English-Canadians supported Britain's cause in South Africa, most French-Canadians and many recent immigrants from countries other than Britain wondered why Canada should fight in a war half way around the world. Concerned with maintaining national stability and political popularity, Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier did not want to commit his government. Yet the bonds of Empire were strong and public pressure mounted. As a compromise, Laurier agreed to send a battalion of volunteers to South Africa.

Over the next three years, more than 7,000 Canadians, including 12 women nurses, served overseas. They would fight in key battles from Paardeberg to Leliefontein. The Boers inflicted heavy losses on the British, but were defeated in several key engagements. Refusing to surrender, the Boers turned to a guerrilla war of ambush and retreat. In this second phase of fighting, Canadians participated in numerous small actions. Gruelling mounted patrols sought to bring the enemy to battle, and harsh conditions ensured that all soldiers struggled against disease and snipers' bullets.

Imperial forces attempted to deny the Boers the food, water and lodging afforded by sympathetic farmers. They burned Boer houses and farms, and moved civilians to internment camps, where thousands died from disease. This harsh strategy eventually defeated the Boers.

Of the Canadians who served in South Africa, 267 were killed and are listed in the Books of Remembrance. The Canadian government claimed at the time that this overseas expedition was not a precedent. History would prove otherwise. The new century would see Canadians serve in two world wars, the Korean War, and dozens of peacekeeping missions.