Boer prisoner of war

Boer prisoners on HMS Penelope	Prisoner camp at Simon's Town	Breakfast in Green Point camp	From Green Point to Bermuda
Airing tents at Green Point	Green Point camp

The battle of Elandslaagte on 21 Oct 99 resulted in the capture of 188 Boer prisoners.  No provision had been made to house prisoners and ships were initially used.  As the number of prisoners grew, for example at Paardeberg, the decision was taken to hold the prisoners away from South Africa.  Why overseas?  There was nowhere that was suitable in South Africa.  There was the problems of transport, the possibility that prisoners might be freed by their comrades and the burden of feeding the men.  Of the 28,000 Boer men captured as prisoners of war, 25,630 were sent overseas.  The approximate numbers of prisoners by camp was:

	St Helena	5,000	The first camp to be set up
	Ceylon	5,000	Second location to be used for camps
	Bermuda		The third location for camps
	India
	Portugal	1,443

Location of the camps

A map showing the camps

The total number of prisoners
Transvaal prisoners of war	12,954
Surrendered during the war	13,780
OFS prisoners of war	12,358
Surrendered during the war	8,318
Rebels convicted, awaiting trial and disposed of	7,587
Left Transvaal via Delagoa Bay	400
Left for German South West Africa	200
Made prisoners of war in error	700
Foreigners - prisoners of war	160
	56,457

 

Prisoner numbers
Jan 01	15,182
Aug 01	35,000

 

When prisoners were taken, the British recorded full details under the following headings

        Prisoner Number
        Surname
        Christian names
        Nationality
        Age
        Home address
        Town or district
        Field Cornetcy or Commando
        Where captured
        Date of capture
        Date of receipt

Some of this information was published after the war.  Click here for a sample page (400k).