wounded,
but the town was taken. Frank’s company was unscathed and their contribution
mentioned in a despatch sent by Lord Roberts to the Lord Mayor of London. ‘ The
City of London Volunteers under Colonel Cholmondeley came under fire for the
first time yesterday at Jacobsdal and behaved most gallantly .’ The despatch
was widely reported in the British press.
A few days later, Frank’s company found themselves to be
part of the main British force surrounding an army of 13,000 Boers under
General Cronje at Paardeberg. They were held back in reserve, but still able to
witness the British artillery bombardment directed from observation balloons.
The barrage continued periodically for seven days.
One night during the bombardment, a Boer relief convoy tried
to break through, but it was destroyed by fire. Ordered to remain where they
were, the CIV troopers could only watch the flashes of shells in the distance
against the darkness. The following morning, a substantial group of miserable,
bedraggled Boer prisoners was escorted under guard, past their camp.
‘Did you see the age of some those prisoners?’ Frank
remarked to Charlie Mills. ‘One of them was not much more than a boy, and at
the other end of the scale there were a couple of them who looked well over
seventy.’
‘Yes, and all volunteers too, they reckon,’ replied Charlie.
‘I hope I don’t feel the need to take up arms when I’m an
old man. Would you want to? Surely, they must have been forced into arms, not
as volunteers?’
‘Who cares,’ said Charlie. ‘Doesn’t matter what age they
are. If they can hold a rifle, then they can kill us, simple as that. All I
know is, we’ve got a job to do down here. Those Boers are going to toe the
line. They’ve got too big for their boots and we’re here to teach them a
lesson.’
A series of heavy thunderstorms followed over the next few
days, soaking both armies, but more importantly, further sapping the morale of
the entrapped Boer forces. Their situation was desperate.
Finally, on 27 February, Cronje surrendered, giving the
British their victory at Paardeberg. Frank’s company was ordered to escort Boer
prisoners to the town of Modder River. From there, the captives were forwarded
to a specially constructed camp, where they were processed and contained,
before transportation to St Helena, Bermuda, or Ceylon.
Frank and his victorious comrades then enjoyed more than a
week of relative calm, with scouting duties during the day and sentry duty at
night. The men were issued with extra blankets, kit and most welcome of all,
mail from home. Frank was delighted to receive a letter from his mother. She
described the particularly rough crossing on the journey home after the
wedding, and the time John and Louisa had passed at the hotel. He wished he
could have had word from Rose, but he calculated that at best, she would only
have just received his letter, the one he had written during the voyage south.
He wondered about her reaction to the sentiments he had expressed, and whether
she would reciprocate.
He decided, that he would continue to write to her in a
similar vein, unless she indicated to him that she did not feel the same way.
Thus, it was, that during the respite after Paardeberg, he wrote once again to
Rose. With luck, he hoped that she would receive his letter sometime in early
April.
6th March 1900
Dearest Rose
I want you to know how much I
have been thinking of you. I hope you are well.
Things are going well here. I
can’t tell you too much because of the censors, but we are camped by the
Modder, a river, and we have been bathing in it. The fighting for the moment
has diminished and we have been scouting and doing sentry duty. We escorted a
lot of Boer prisoners last week, when Cronje surrendered. If things continue
like this, I am sure that we will be coming home in the autumn, maybe even
before that. I hope you wish to see me when I return.
We received mail today, the
first since we
but the town was taken. Frank’s company was unscathed and their contribution
mentioned in a despatch sent by Lord Roberts to the Lord Mayor of London. ‘ The
City of London Volunteers under Colonel Cholmondeley came under fire for the
first time yesterday at Jacobsdal and behaved most gallantly .’ The despatch
was widely reported in the British press.
A few days later, Frank’s company found themselves to be
part of the main British force surrounding an army of 13,000 Boers under
General Cronje at Paardeberg. They were held back in reserve, but still able to
witness the British artillery bombardment directed from observation balloons.
The barrage continued periodically for seven days.
One night during the bombardment, a Boer relief convoy tried
to break through, but it was destroyed by fire. Ordered to remain where they
were, the CIV troopers could only watch the flashes of shells in the distance
against the darkness. The following morning, a substantial group of miserable,
bedraggled Boer prisoners was escorted under guard, past their camp.
‘Did you see the age of some those prisoners?’ Frank
remarked to Charlie Mills. ‘One of them was not much more than a boy, and at
the other end of the scale there were a couple of them who looked well over
seventy.’
‘Yes, and all volunteers too, they reckon,’ replied Charlie.
‘I hope I don’t feel the need to take up arms when I’m an
old man. Would you want to? Surely, they must have been forced into arms, not
as volunteers?’
‘Who cares,’ said Charlie. ‘Doesn’t matter what age they
are. If they can hold a rifle, then they can kill us, simple as that. All I
know is, we’ve got a job to do down here. Those Boers are going to toe the
line. They’ve got too big for their boots and we’re here to teach them a
lesson.’
A series of heavy thunderstorms followed over the next few
days, soaking both armies, but more importantly, further sapping the morale of
the entrapped Boer forces. Their situation was desperate.
Finally, on 27 February, Cronje surrendered, giving the
British their victory at Paardeberg. Frank’s company was ordered to escort Boer
prisoners to the town of Modder River. From there, the captives were forwarded
to a specially constructed camp, where they were processed and contained,
before transportation to St Helena, Bermuda, or Ceylon.
Frank and his victorious comrades then enjoyed more than a
week of relative calm, with scouting duties during the day and sentry duty at
night. The men were issued with extra blankets, kit and most welcome of all,
mail from home. Frank was delighted to receive a letter from his mother. She
described the particularly rough crossing on the journey home after the
wedding, and the time John and Louisa had passed at the hotel. He wished he
could have had word from Rose, but he calculated that at best, she would only
have just received his letter, the one he had written during the voyage south.
He wondered about her reaction to the sentiments he had expressed, and whether
she would reciprocate.
He decided, that he would continue to write to her in a
similar vein, unless she indicated to him that she did not feel the same way.
Thus, it was, that during the respite after Paardeberg, he wrote once again to
Rose. With luck, he hoped that she would receive his letter sometime in early
April.
6th March 1900
Dearest Rose
I want you to know how much I
have been thinking of you. I hope you are well.
Things are going well here. I
can’t tell you too much because of the censors, but we are camped by the
Modder, a river, and we have been bathing in it. The fighting for the moment
has diminished and we have been scouting and doing sentry duty. We escorted a
lot of Boer prisoners last week, when Cronje surrendered. If things continue
like this, I am sure that we will be coming home in the autumn, maybe even
before that. I hope you wish to see me when I return.
We received mail today, the
first since we
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