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1st Battalion
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The 1st Battalion sailed from Halifax, and arrived at the Cape about 10th
May 1900. Along with the 2nd Grenadier Guards, 2nd Scots Guards, and
2nd East Yorkshire Regiment, they formed the 16th Brigade under Major
General Barrington Campbell, and part of the Vl11th Division under General
Sir Leslie Rundle. The work of the brigade and of the division has
been briefly sketched under the 2nd Grenadier Guards.
In May, June, and July 1900 the battalion was chiefly about Hammonia, on
extremely low rations for most of the time. Sir Wodehouse Richardson
points out that the VIIIth Division was the only one without an Army Service
Corps officer on the staff. Certainly it cannot claim to have been
decently fed, even after making all allowances, and it is a question whether
a general is justified in putting such a strain for so many months on his
men. In the proceedings of the War Commission Sir Leslie Rundle's
difficulties regarding supplies are mentioned, and he stated that he was
told the division must live on the country. He went on to say, "You
will understand that the British soldier is taught in England that he is not
to touch anybody's property, and is brought up in the right way of going
about people's grounds with game and so on, and it took a little time to
teach him that he was to look after himself and take anything he saw".
Apart from the question whether men are not entitled to look to their
general to feed them, there seems to be most abundant evidence that General
Rundle's men were not allowed "to look after themselves" until the campaign
was a year old, and the generals had become convinced that to denude the
country was the only way to end the war. Mr Corner in his 'Story of
the 34th Company Imperial Yeomanry', speaking of a farm in the Hammonia
district where the people had ample provisions which they refused to sell,
and which were being kept as stores for our enemies, says: "Yet by reason of
general orders touching these matters, if any man is caught commandeering or
even molesting such stores he is very severely dealt with. It is a
policy which must undoubtedly hinder a speedy cessation of hostilities.
Quite recently I have seen men ordered to give up chickens which had been
paid for, and that at a round price. A preposterous sort of warfare
this which makes troops fight upon a hungry stomach when plenty is around".
The Leinsters kept wonderfully cheerful amid their hardships, and Mr
Corner has many humorous tales showing how the Irishmen managed to replenish
the larder and keep fit for fighting in spite of these "general orders".
In September 1900 the battalion formed part of a column under Campbell,
based on Harrismith.
In October 1901 the battalion was left as garrison at Vrede, in a
neighbourhood they were long to operate in.
Eight officers and 12 non-commissioned officers and men were mentioned in
Lord Roberts' final despatch.
In the ' Household Brigade Magazine' for December 1901 an officer of the
Guards, writing from the Brandwater basin in October 1901, says: "The Leinsters garrison the blockhouses; they are splendid fellows; just as Irish
as they can be, and work like slaves; it doesn't matter whether it's a fort
or an earthwork or a cask of rum, they'll go on till it's finished.
They generally manage to get a pig from somewhere, and if there is no room
for it in the blockhouse, they just make a pig-sty of an ant-heap".
Before October 1901 British generals had acquired saner views about the
enemy's live stock.
During the first five months of 1902, while the series of great drives
were taking place in Rundle's district, the battalion had heavy and
responsible work, holding lines and assisting columns. They had
fighting about Bethlehem on 8th April, losing 14 wounded. In Lord
Kitchener's despatches during the campaign about half-a-dozen mentions came
to the battalion, and in the final despatch the names of 2 officers and 5
non-commissioned officers were added.
The 2nd Battalion arrived in South Africa from the West Indies in January
1902.
In February they were holding the Heilbron branch line during the big
drives. They were moved to the Wilge River to hold a line there, and
on 27th February had 10 casualties. They were afterwards taken to
Pretoria and the Central Transvaal.
