FOOTNOTES:
[6] This corps (the 6th New Zealand Mounted Rifles) greatly distinguished itself in many ways. On one occasion (the 16th September) Lieutenant Tudor, with only twelve men, crossed the Caledon and kept in touch with 200 Boers for three days, afterwards holding a position for three hours against fifty Boers with exceptional gallantry. A young hero, Lieutenant Caskey (5th Queensland Imperial Bushmen), lost his life during the dashing exploit. Captains Findlay (The Buffs) and Knight with the New Zealand Mounted Rifles, also performed notable service in command of detached troops during this period.
[7] Colonel the Hon. Andrew David Murray was the brother of the present Earl of Mansfield, and was born in 1863. He entered the army in 1884 as second lieutenant in the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders, became lieutenant in 1893, and brevet-major in 1898. He served in the Nile Expedition, 1884-85, with the Soudan Field Force, 1885-86, with the Nile Expedition, 1898, and was present at the battles of Atbara and Omdurman, for which he was mentioned in despatches. He was appointed commander of Lovat’s Scouts last year.
CHAPTER XIV
PROGRESS IN OCTOBER 1901
It may be remembered that on the 15th of October Colonel Colville pounced on a convoy that was moving after the Boers in their flight towards Swaziland. On that border he remained while General Plumer’s force (released, as we know, from the south-east of the Orange Colony owing to the state of quietude there) acted on the, by now, almost impassable blockhouse line between Wakkerstroom and Colonel Colville’s column. Meanwhile General Walter Kitchener’s troops, with those of Colonels Campbell, Garratt, and Stewart, moved like a big broom sweeping up the stragglers south of the line, till news came in that Botha, instead of taking the Swazi direction, had veered north and was with a small column hanging around Amsterdam. To catch the Boer general Colonels Rawlinson and Rimington pushed on from Standerton on the 19th of October. They reached Amersfoort on the 21st, and on the 25th, after a perilous night march over ground seamed with small posts of protecting Boers, he succeeded in surrounding the farm near Schimmelhoek, where the Boer chief was reported to be. Colonel Rimington’s men were ordered to make for the farm, avoiding the main laager and posts, while those of Colonel Rawlinson moved between Ermelo and the farm—but though the movement was admirably carried out and Colonel Rimington’s troops rushed the farm, the enemy had been forewarned and was on the alert. Botha had but a moment to bolt in, but that moment he used. Though he and all but four of his men got away in safety, his personal property and some papers, very enlightening to the British, fell into their hands. The main laager having retreated north towards Lake Chrissie, pursuit was abandoned, and Colonels Rawlinson and Rimington returned at the end of the month to Volksrust and Zandspruit respectively.
General G. Hamilton and Colonel Pulteney were meanwhile moving, in continuous torrents of rain, around Utrecht and Vryheid in order to block all Boer attempts to break through northern Natal into the Orange Colony; and further south General Bruce-Hamilton, with the troops of General Spens and Colonel Allenby, hunted the Vryheid and Ngomi region with incessant activity, despite all the impediments of fog and bog and downpour. Scrimmage and skirmish varied the monotony of the hard work, and in the end 21 killed, 11 wounded, and 160 unwounded Boers, together with carts, ammunition, cattle, and foodstuffs, bore testimony to the pluck and endurance of the troops engaged.
THE FIGHT AT BRAKENLAAGTE: BOERS CHARGING
Drawing by John Charlton