DTD; ABO (Veldkomet J.H. Wiggett). City Coins August 2008.
Joseph Hugh Wiggett joined Ward 2 of the Vryheid Commando as a Burgher early in October 1899. He had his first battle experience at Talana and he blamed the leaders for the Boer’s lack of success. On 15 Nov 1899 he was in the commando that attacked the armoured train at Chievely. "Our gun quickly wrecked the train and we took the famous man Winston Churchill prisoner because he was armed with a revolver”
Shortly afterwards he was elected “Veg Korporaal of Ward 2 with 25 Burghers under him.
At Colenso (15.12.1900) he claims to have been the man who initially apprehended Col Bullock (2nd Devons): his account differs in some respects from that given in the Times History, vol. II. He then took part in the fighting around Ladysmith until the Commando withdrew to the Vryheid District. In March 1901 he was appointed Assistent Veldkomet of Ward 2 and in 1901 Veldkomet. He was present at the engagement at Fort Itala (26.9.1901), but did not record details of the action.
The latter part of the war was spent in the Vryheid vicinity: his memoirs mentions various minor engagements in detail and also gives much information about problems where the black population, apparently abetted by some British officers, killed a number of whites. His active (and successful) opposition to harsh retaliatory measures by the Boers is noted in detail. The memoirs end with Wiggett quoting an eyewitness account by a young Boer survivor of the Holkrans Massacre. The brief details on Wiggett’s Vorms “A” & “B”, completed by his C/O General Cheere Emmett, confirm his presence at Talana, Modderspruit, Platrand (Wagon Hill). His memoirs, which were taken down before his death in the 1940’s, were edited in 1999. It is in Afrikaans and gives a first hand account of his participation in numerous other well known incidents and actions, making this a very well documented Boer Officer’s group.
