In the DNW auction of June 2008 was a QSA awarded to a recipient who
had fought on the Boer side and then on the British side. The
British awarded him with QSA. There is no record of his
application for the ABO.
My thanks to DNW for allowing the information from their catalogue to
the reproduced here:
Mark Samuel Thring had the unusual and dangerous
distinction of having fought on both sides during the Boer War.
First in Natal in 1899 and 1900, as a member of the Swaziland
Commando at the battles of Colenso, Pieter’s Hill and Alleman’s Nek.
Then, as a Trooper in Steinaecker’s Horse from March 1901 to July
1902. He was fired on by the Boer Commando that captured Bremersdorp
on 23 July 1901 but unlike some of his comrades, he managed to make
a fortuitous escape. There is no doubt that a violent fate would
have befallen him had he been taken prisoner - of four hensoppers en
joiners captured at Bremersdorp one was executed and the other three
flogged.
Thring was born in Stanger, Natal on 24 May 1865,
part of a British family that had emigrated to South Africa in the
early 1800's and established “Thring’s Post” in Natal, a trading
station that featured in both the 1879 Zulu War and the 1906 Zulu
Rebellion. He is recorded as being involved in Swaziland, which lay
between the Eastern Transvaal and Northern Natal, as early as
November 1887 when he obtained a land concession. Swaziland was an
independent country with an administration provided by the South
African Republic (Z.A.R.) from 1895 to October 1899 when it was
withdrawn. Under Boer regulations Thring was eligible for service on
Commando and when the South Africa War commenced he was called up
for compulsory service in the Swaziland Commando, which was composed
of resident burghers and members of the Swaziland Police. He took
part with them in the invasion of Natal and fought in the early
stages of the Natal campaign. On 28 October 1899, the 200 burghers
of the Swaziland Commando climbed the steep face of Lubombo in the
north of Zululand and attacked the police post at Kwalileni manned
by a Sergeant and 17 Zululand Police with two white police. At the
battle of Colenso on 15 December 1899, it was the withering fire of
the Swaziland Commando, amongst three others, dug in on the other
side of the Tugela River that destroyed Hart’s Irish Brigade in the
loop between Bridle and Pont Drifts. It was part of the besieging
force at Ladysmith and fought at the battles of Pieter’s Hill on 27
February 1900 and Alleman’s Nek on 11 June 1900.
It is not known at what stage Burgher Thring extricated himself from
his service with the Swaziland Commando, which was withdrawn into
the Eastern Transvaal as Buller’s Natal Army continued its advance
northwards in August 1900, surrendered or was captured by the
British forces. A Swazi spy kept the British informed of the Boers’
movements in Swaziland, and the records show they included those of
M. S. Thring. It is recorded that the Natal authorities considered
him to be a Boer spy (Steinaecker’s Horsemen by Bill Woolmore and
“Neutrality Compromised: Swaziland and the Anglo-Boer War”, by Huw
M. Jones in the S.A.H.M.S. Military History Journal Vol. 11, No. 3/4
refer). It is probably no coincidence that Thring enlisted in
Steinaecker's Horse at Koomati Poort rather than at Durban, where
the majority of enlistments took place, given that the Natal
authorities thought he was a spy and he would most likely have been
arrested. Steinaecker’s Horse, raised and commanded by the Prussian
Baron Von Steinaecker on Kitchener's instructions at the end of 1900
was Head Quartered at Koomati Poort on the border with Portugese
East Africa and it was there that Thring enlisted on 14 March 1901.
Though Steinaecker’s Horse was described as ‘rough lot’ by General
Pole-Carew (Woolmore refers), they were an aggressive and mobile
unit in an increasingly bitter and vicious guerilla war. Swaziland
was an independent kingdom during the Boer War but its neutrality
was not respected by either side. In late 1900/early 1901,
Steinaecker's Horse started operating there. As a long standing
former resident of Swaziland and fluent in Afrikaans, his knowledge
of the territory would have made Thring an ideal scout. The area
over which they operated was notoriously hostile, with constant
threat from Boers, lions and disease, and Steinaecker’s were
consequently the best paid corps in South Africa, with a daily rate
of 8 shillings for Troopers compared to 5 shillings in most of the
other South African Mounted Irregular Force units - the Bushveldt
Carbineers, operating not far from Steinaecker's Horse, being the
other exception.
However, men such as Thring were derided as hensoppers en joiners by
the Boers. The British called them “National Scouts” and eventually
raised a unit from surrendered Burgers titled the same. They were
often viewed with grave suspicion within their own units and ran
risks from both sides. Such suspicion sometimes led to extreme
measures, as witnessed by the shooting of Trooper Van Buuren of the
Bushveldt Carbineers by Lieutenant Handcock, one of the acts for
which he was subsequently executed alongside his brother officer
Lieutenant “Breaker” Morant. The hatred of the Boers still serving
on Commando towards these hensoppers en joiners was fierce and the
risk to a captured “National Scout” was great. Retributions were
reported to have ranged from summary execution to castration and
flogging.
At the beginning of July 1901 a detachment of 110 men of
Steinaecker’s Horse under Von Steinaecker’s command was based at
Bremersdorp, the former administrative capital of Swaziland. The
Swazi Queen-Regent was unhappy with the British troops being there
and informed Commandant-General Botha who ordered the Ermelo
Commando to take the town. ‘The commando had surrounded the town
during the night, only to find that the bulk of the detachment [of
Steinaecker’s Horse] had moved eastwards. Scouting at daylight near
the Transvaal residency on the eastern side of the town, M. S.
Thring was the first to notice burgers riding up from the river. He
was fired at ... ’ (Jones refers). In the fight that followed
Steinaecker’s Horse suffered four killed in action and four
seriously wounded, with an unknown number taken prisoner. The town
of Bremersdorp was captured, looted and burned by the Boers.
Assistant Commandant-General Smuts, who led the Boers at the action,
reported to General Botha that he had captured four hensoppers who
had previously served with the Ermelo Commando and he believed that
a further sixteen former burghers with the Steinaecker’s Horse
detachment had escaped. The four prisoners were taken back into the
Transvaal where they were court-martialled. One was shot in front of
the Ermelo Commando, one received 25 lashes, another 15 lashes and a
fine, and the last 10 lashes and a fine. Thring obviously escaped
from Bremersdorp and continued serving with Steinaecker's Horse
until he was discharged time expired at Koomati Poort on 7 July
1902.
With a precarious post-war future ahead of them, only a handful of
the “National Scouts” or hensoppers en joiners ever bothered to
collect their Queen’s South Africa Medals and it is doubtful,
understandably, whether any applied for the Anglo-Boere Oorlog Medal
on its inception in 1922. Certainly, the double award of QSA and ABO
has never been recorded. It has long been rumoured that Jan Smuts
ordered the destruction of many of the records pertaining to these
men owing to the bitterness and hostility amongst the Afrikaners
caused by their actions. The QSA medal rolls and unit enlistment
forms never indicate whether a man was a surrendered Burgher and
therefore, it is very rare to find a QSA that can be so definitely
attributed to, and with such history, to a man who fought for and
against both Boer and Briton.
