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When British soldiers disembarked at UK ports, they carried with them a vast array of souvenirs of their time in South Africa. Anything that wasn’t firmly fixed down found its way into Tommy’s kit bag. In South Africa this became a major problem, with the additional weight of countless lumps of shrapnel, etc., playing havoc with the British transport system, and slowing the progress of mobile columns. Accordingly, commanders instigated a system of inspections, and, much to the chagrin of their owners, many a hard-won trophy was discarded along the route of march. In response, Tommy set about replacing his precious loot with renewed vigour, so that despite the authorities’ best efforts, almost every man still had a sizeable stash of “goodies” when he stepped off the gang plank at Southampton.


Portsmouth Evening News, 27th November 1900

THINGS THEY BROUGHT HOME.

Every man in the section has brought home mementoes of his visit to South Africa. Captain Fulton, for instance, has a couple of splendid Mauser rifles, one of which has Botha’s name inscribed upon it. This fell into his hands at Cape Town, to which place the section escorted Louis Botha’s brother from Durban. Others of the men have various specimens of shells, bullets, and other munitions of war, while several have preserved specimens of biscuits made with flour and water and fried in ordinary boot dubbin. These appetising trifles were a delicacy when men were having small pieces of bread and hard biscuits. Almost every man has brought home several birds, many of which kept the ship alive with song early this morning.







The craze for the acquisition of mementos was frequently described in the press, everything from cartridge cases to full sandbags from the Klip River dam being considered desirable souvenirs.


Sunderland Daily Echo, 4th August 1900

THE CRAZE FOR RELICS THAT POSSESSES SOUTH AFRICA.

South Africa is relic-mad. Never was their such an epidemic. Bodies are rifled, while yet warm, for a cigarette box or a love-letter. A homemade Transvaal bandolier sells in Cape Town for £5, and every English merchant South of the Zambezi is thriving in the curio trade. One would think the war had been a gigantic struggle for souvenirs instead of a world tragedy.
Zeal is equally intense with British and Boers, with combatants and non-combatants, and mementoes gain value in their gruesomeness. The Boers were the first to go at the business in a systematic way, as a State document issued at Pretoria shows so. It called attention, in the early stages of the war, to the opportunity that occurred for collecting mementoes and concluded thus: –
“Let no one consider any object too trifling to send to Pretoria. At the front all commandants will, without doubt, be very willing to receive such objects and send them to Pretoria to the State Museum.”

The Warrior, the Bullet, and the Nurse.

Professional dealers who have hoped to make a fortune in the trade in South Africa complain bitterly. To get a relic, they say, one must be right in the conflict, and, if possible, have a bullet buried in his anatomy. Even then success does not always crown one’s efforts, as instanced by a harrowing tale narrated by a member of the Natal Imperial Light Horse.
This young man, like many another, had an ambition to be wounded. At Spion Kop his ambition was satisfied. A Mauser bullet struck him in the thigh, and he had a very bad time of it. In spite of great pain, he refused to take chloroform when operated upon, because he feared someone would appropriate the bullet after it had been extracted. For weeks he clung to the bit of lead, trusting not even the Red Cross nurse, who hovered about him rather constantly and almost affectionately. When he awoke one day after the effects of a powerful opiate, he found that his suspicions had been correct. Both nurse and bullet were gone, and he has seen neither since. Now this soldier can show only a mark the size of a pinhead as an evidence of his bravery, and he is very sad.

Nothing despised.

The most homely objects have been considered worthy of preservation by the relic-lovers. In Pietermaritzburg, for example, one may see the shop windows decorated with bags of gravel taken from the famous dam over Klip River, bulky and waterlogged as they are. All have now been removed, and nothing remains of this example of Boer engineering but the photographs which were taken of it.


Sheffield Weekly Telegraph, 18th April 1908

THE COMIC SIDE OF THE BOER WAR.

A tale of the Tipperary Fusiliers.

The curio hunter is found in all walks of life, but in no place was he more in evidence than in South Africa. Practically every individual member of the British Army turned into a collector as soon as he set foot in the country, and everything that might serve as a memento of the war was promptly put into the haversack to be shown to admiring relations on the return. Boer rifles were of course largely in demand, as also were shells of all sizes from the huge Krupp gun ammunition to the small pom-pom projectile. Clips of Mauser cartridges, Boer hats, spurs, sheepskins, antelope horns, etc., etc., were collected indiscriminately till the men's kit contained far more curios than necessaries. This craze soon assumed such alarming proportions that drastic measures were employed to put a stop to it, and on many columns inspections of kits were held owing to the constant breakdown of waggons through excessive loads. In many cases several hundredweight of shell scraps, etc., were left behind on the veldt, while the lamenting owners went forward to look for more. The desire for possession of warlike mementoes, however, was not confined to shell scraps only, and, as the Boer shells frequently failed to explode, a Tommy did not rise to the height of his ambition till he had a complete projectile. It was therefore rather a matter for rejoicing when the Dutchmen shelled a British camp, and the men, directly they saw a puff of dust, promptly raced in that direction and fought for the shell, or, if by any chance it had exploded, scrambled for the pieces. One morning an English column, which had encamped at W_______, in the Northern Transvaal, was attacked by a Boer commando, who poured a heavy fire into them from two Krupp guns. As usual, quite fifty percent of the projectiles failed to explode, and in a very short time the Tipperary Fusiliers, who formed a part of the British force, had several very fine shells in their possession. One Tommy, who before joining the Fusiliers had served for about ten minutes in the Militia Artillery, was showing a crowd of admiring friends the method by which shells were exploded, and pointed out the fuse which had failed to do its work. One of his pupils, a wild uneducated youth from Comeragh Mountains, thereupon picked up a piece of red-hot wood from the camp fire and applied it to the fuse – “to see what would happen!” Immediately there was a terrific explosion, and the group of men was sent flying. Strange to say, no one was seriously hurt. The man who had the shell on his knee was badly shaken and singed, another lost two fingers, while the rest suffered contusions and loss of hair. In fact, the only person who got the full force of the explosion was an unfortunate Kaffir some forty yards away, and his head was taken completely off by a flying fragment. The Irish are a naturally light-hearted, careless race, and the next morning the majority of the same party were busily engaged in digging up another shell – probably with the idea of ascertaining whether this one would let them off as easily as the last.











The first mementos started to arrive in the UK in March 1900, and by the following month the United Service Institution was actively acquiring South African War relics for its collection. A number of highly significant pieces were gifted to the Institution, including the large coat of arms from the OVS Volksraad, the “Wolf” howitzer made in Mafeking during the siege, General Cronje’s Bible, and the flag of Montmorency’s Scouts. The contents of the Royal United Services Museum were sold through Wallis & Wallis Auctioneers in 1961. The “Wolf” is now in the Royal Artillery Museum collection, but what happened to all the other fabulous pieces?


Cornish Guardian, 26th April 1900

THE SCOUT’S FLAG.

Many curios, relics of the campaign in South Africa, have already reached London, but perhaps one of the most fascinatingly interesting is the flag of Montmorency's Scouts, which has just being deposited in the Museum of the Royal United Service Institution in Whitehall . This was worked by the loyal women of Sterkstroom in Cape Colony, and presented to the corps which was raised by the gallant but ill-fated Lieutenant the Hon. R.H. de Montmorency, who won his V.C. at the famous Lancers’ charge at Omdurman in attempting to rescue young Lieutenant Grenfell, who was fatally wounded. The flag in question, which would not disgrace the most dare-devil pirate ship that ever figured in the pages of a Henty or a Kingston, is of a black material, upon the centre of which is emblazoned a large white skull and crossbones. Above and below this lugubrious emblem are the words, also worked in white: “3rd Division Scouts”. A hat belonging to a member of this famous corps has also been added to the collection, the chief feature of the headgear being a black feather and a black band, on the front of which there is also displayed a skull and crossbones.


Hastings and St. Leonards News, 24th August 1900

AN ORANGE FREE STATE TROPHY.

An interesting historical relic associated with the occupation of Bloemfontein has reached London. It is the official “arms” of the late Orange Free State, taken down from the Volksraad after the entry of the British troops, and consists of a huge highly-coloured cast iron device, in which the Dutch flags are prominently displayed on either side of the Republican emblem. This trophy has been added to the magnificent collection of South African war relics which may be seen in the Museum of the Royal United Service Institution in Whitehall, its presence there, it is understood, being due to Major General Pretyman, the Governor of Bloemfontein.


Evening Irish Times, 1st April 1902

Lieutenant-Colonel R. Holden, Secretary of the Royal United Service Institution, who has recently returned from South Africa, where he was Commandant at Colesberg, Cape Colony, has just placed in the fine museum of the Institution in Whitehall a number of interesting mementoes of the war. These include a leopard skin tobacco pouch – which belonged to Commandant Lotter, executed by the British for high treason and murder, and a photo of the scarred back of a loyal young Boer who was captured by the enemy under a flag of truce, and flogged by order of Lotter.


Echo (London), 4th January 1901

WAR RELICS AT WHITEHALL.

Several notable additions have just been made to the unique collection of South African war relics in the museum of the Royal United Service Institution in Whitehall. Among these are a large portion of the muzzle of the notorious Boer “Long Tom”, the obturator from the breech of the same weapon; a 4.7 cylinder; a 50-pounder shell; a case shot, and some 12-pounder cylinders, all of which have been lent by Lieutenant E.P.C. Bach. R.E.
Perhaps, however, the most gruesome of the new arrivals is an English bayonet, which was taken from the body of a dead Boer, but how or why it became separated from its owner’s rifle can only be conjectured. This relic has been deposited by Major E.J. Caunter, of the Lancashire Fusiliers.











Meanwhile lesser trophies began to appear in shop displays up and down the country. Windows dressed with shell fragments, bullets, Queen’s chocolate boxes, etc., were seen by proprietors as a good way of attracting business.


Carrickfergus Advertiser, 23rd March 1900

MEMENTOES OF THE WAR.

There are at present being exhibited in the window of the “Advertiser” office a number of interesting mementoes of the war, which have been sent to Mr Andrew McCullough, Scotch Quarter, by Mr Alexander Stewart, of Durban. They consist of a portion of the shell which blew up the armoured train at the time of the capture of Mr Winston Churchill, the well-known war correspondent; two bullets, a Dum-dum and a Mauser, which were fired at this train by the Boers; a portion of the fuse which was used in the blowing up of Colenso bridge; and a piece of shrapnel which was fired at the Tugela bridge. The sender, Mr Stewart, formerly resided in the Masonic Hall, Lancasterian Street, and was well known in Carrickfergus. A number of years ago he emigrated to South Africa and took up his abode in Durban, as stated above.







Dundee Evening Telegraph, 24th April 1900

TROPHIES OF WAR.

SECURED BY A DUNDEE MAN.

There are at present on exhibition in the windows of Messrs Fleming Brothers’ premises in Cowgate several interesting trophies of the war in South Africa. These were brought home by Lance-Corporal G. Peters, of the Black Watch. Peters was on the city police force, and was stationed at Lochee before being called out. He has now been invalided home for a few months. The souvenirs which he has secured include a bandolier with a number of Mauser cartridges and a large slouch hat, which were taken from the body of a Boer on the battlefield of Belmont. A more touching relic, however, is the blood-stained portion of the drone of bagpipes which was picked up beside the body of Piper J. McLean at Bloemfontein.


Western Times, 24th May 1900

In the front windows of Messrs Harry Hems and Sons’ studios in Longbrook Street are exhibited a number of South African war curios just sent home by Mr William Hems, of Pietermaritzburg, in the s.s. Briton, which arrived a few days ago. Amongst them is the waterproof cape of Veldt Cornet M.C. Pretorius, taken from his corpse at Hoof Laager; some quaintly carved wooden figures by a Zulu chief at Umgeni; a Boer cattle strap of half-tanned leather; and Mauser and Maxim cartridges and bullets galore from the battlefields of Colenso. There are also fragments of “Long Tom” shells; a pair of iron stirrups said to be all that was to be found of a Boer and his mare after a lyddite shell had burst beneath them; a formidable sjambok of hippopotamus hide, used about the backs of the refugees during the exodus from the Transvaal, and many other most interesting if equally painful relics of the war.





By August 1901, the insatiable appetite of the British public for relics reportedly led to the appearance in shops of items that had never been anywhere near a South African battlefield. Mauser rifles, bandoliers and ammunition were said to have been imported from the Continent in large numbers to satisfy the demand. A warning in The Regiment read: “We can only advise the ardent collector to deal with firms whose business is so extensive as to be above fraud, for they have greater facilities for collecting genuine relics than those whose sole object is to prey on the public”.


The Regiment, 31st August 1901

STARTLING REVELATIONS ABOUT WAR RELICS.

HOW DISHONEST DEALERS CHEAT THE COLLECTOR.

The demand for souvenirs of the war in South Africa has been so great, and is, indeed, in the ascendant, bric-à-brac dealers have been at a loss to know how to cope with it. Soldiers returning from the campaign have had absolutely no difficulty in parting with their souvenirs, and despite the great number sold, the demand is heavier than the supply.

From information the writer recently received from a dealer, it appears that quite 50 per cent of the “war trophies” on the market are not war trophies at all, because a large quantity are made in this country or are imported from France and Germany.

No one need wonder why it is that so much Boer ammunition finds its way into the market, when it is stated that within the past eighteen months more than two hundred crates of so-called Boer cartridges have been shipped at Hamburg alone to satisfy the demands of the ardent collector. It is now an open secret that the first supply was on board ship before the first shot of the war had been fired, though the fact might never have leaked out had it not been that some of the cartridges were placed on sale before the first vessels had time to return from the Cape. They realised 2s 6d each then, while dishonest dealers were paying less than 2d each for them, and clearing the excellent profit of two-and-fourpence on each cartridge sold. The consequence was, that when the genuine cartridges actually arrived, they had to compete with those already foisted upon the public by dishonest dealers, and the price fell immediately. Relatives of soldiers at the front, and dealers who had genuine cartridges for sale, sold them, it is true, but they were compelled to accept a lower figure than they otherwise would have done.

Mauser rifles and bandoliers have likewise been heavily imported, and sold as battlefield relics, despite the fact that a large supply has been shipped by dealers’ agents at Cape Town. The former have been retailed at from £3 to £4 apiece, and those made specially for the purpose in Germany have been supplied to the dealers at a lower figure than those cast away as useless by our enemies in the Transvaal. Bandoliers are less easy to imitate, because the genuine war relics usually bear some mark upon them to distinguish them as such. Moreover, those made at home must have the new appearance taken from them before they can be declared marketable; for which they are soaked for some time in water and then purposely torn. Both Mauser rifles and leather accoutrements have been largely made in the Midlands towns at a price that seriously rivals that of the relics picked up in South Africa.
But the manufacture and sale of imitation war trophies is by no means a modern form of swindling the public, as the following will prove. Soon after Waterloo, a London of bric-à-brac dealer, Thompson by name, advertised that he had acquired the sword Napoleon war on the famous field, and had all the proofs in his possession that the sword was indeed a genuine relic. It was put up for sale in a certain auction room, and attached to it was a printed slip giving an account of the adventures and vicissitudes through which the weapon was supposed to have passed. It was sold for the sum of £300 to an ex-cavalry officer, who not long afterwards discovered how he had been swindled. The genuine sword was handed to the captain of the “Belelophon” by the “Little Corporal”, and was, we believe, ultimately returned to Paris. Of course, when this fraud was exposed, the dealer who had sold the weapon was nowhere to be found, and so the purchaser came down upon the auctioneer for damages.

In conclusion, we can only advise the ardent collector to deal with firms whose business is so extensive as to be above fraud, for they have greater facilities for collecting genuine relics than those whose sole object is to prey on the public.





The fact that many battlefields had already been stripped bare of relics by the summer of 1901 is noted in an article in the Cornishman.


Cornishman, 27th June 1901

A VISIT TO SOME OF THE NATAL BATTLEFIELDS IN MAY, 1901.

Our next stop was across the Colenso road bridge, a span of which was destroyed by our naval guns. We were now on the Boer position, and the trenches were a marvel. I can quite believe the Dutch loss was very trifling compared to our long list of casualties, for scarcely a Boer was seen for the day, while our troops were exposed to the enemy in every movement. Little is left today in the Boer trenches for the curio hunter. There are plenty of Mauser clips, cartridge cases, and fragments of English steel, but the Blacks have scoured the country well and taken their finds to the stores for sale. I managed to secure many an interesting specimen, such as shells, pom-poms, and copper bands from shells showing the rifling, which are much sought after for making serviette rings, bangles, brooches, &c.





The associated dangers of bringing home munitions from the front led to a number of fatal “accidents”. In December 1901, the Home Office released the following statement.


Two fatal accidents having occurred from the bursting of shells brought home from South Africa, the Home Secretary calls the attention of the public to the danger and illegality of handling war relics of this description. A shell which has been fired, and which has failed to explode, is usually in a very sensitive condition, and may be exploded by a light blow, or by the operation of screwing out the fuse. The danger is not so great in the case of an unfired shell or cartridge for quick-firing guns, but the opening of such shells and cartridges by unskilled persons is by no means free from risk. Moreover, under the Explosives Act, 1875, the keeping of filled shells or quick-firing cartridges is illegal; and the opening or manipulation of such explosives is an offence to which a heavy penalty attaches.

Any person having war relics of this kind in his possession should at once take steps to relieve himself of the serious responsibility which he incurs, by disposing of the explosives in a safe manner. The best method of carrying this out is to drop the shell or cartridge into deep water, but where this cannot be done the explosive might be buried to a depth of 8 or 10 feet in the ground at some place where subsequent excavation is not likely to be carried out. As a guide to what relics are, and what are not, dangerous and illegal, it may be stated that fragments of shells and other articles which could not possibly contain explosives are, of course, perfectly harmless. Rifle cartridges, which usually measure about three inches long by about half an inch in diameter at the base may also be safely and lawfully kept.

The smallest shell which might contain explosive is that for the so-called “pom-pom”, or 37-millimetre quick-firing gun. This is of iron, with a copper or brass band round it, and measures a little less than 1 1/2 inches in diameter, by nearly four inches long. These, as well as all larger sizes of shells, and all unfired cartridges containing such shells, are likely to be dangerous, and may not lawfully be kept in an unlicensed place.





As early as 1903, it was recognised that some items should be returned to South Africa. The Society of Friends put out an appeal in July, asking that Boer family Bibles should be sent to them so that they could reunite them with their original owners. This was the start of a process that continues to this day.


Morning Leader, 4th July 1903

THE BOER BIBLES.

SOME VOLUMES ALREADY WITH THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

Among right minded soldiers there will be no difficulty in responding to the Commander-in-Chief's appeal, published yesterday, for the return of the family Bibles of Boer families, which may have been carried off as more or less legitimate spoils of war.

Mr W.H. Alexander, 12 Bishopsgate Street Without, E.C., who will be the medium for the transference of those cherished volumes to their former owners, showed to a “Leader” representative one or two of the Bibles.

The pathos of the circumstances can only add a feeble word to urge the return of family books; books which, quite apart from their religious interest, are dear, as family records, to those who staked their all – and lost it – in the South African war.

One bulky quarto volume, bound in leather, with brass clasps, was published in Amsterdam in 1814, and the pedigrees of two families are carefully inscribed upon its fly-leaves.
Another handsome Bible, dated 1660, also published in Amsterdam, has now inscribed on a fly-leaf: “Found during the Boer War near Ermelo, Transvaal, May, 1901. – Captain Warnford, of the 44th Gorkhas”.

From Ladybrand.

The following extract from the letter of a lady, living near Ladybrand, and vouched for by the Society of Friends, runs: “My house was looted when the military commanded all families living in the district to go to protected towns. I should feel extremely grateful to you, if you could trace my and my father's Bibles, which were taken from my father's house in 1901. My father's, in particular, is very dear to us; and his widow, my mother, feels the loss of his personal chronicle of the births and deaths of his children deeply”.

The regiments believed to be near at the time are the 76th Yeomanry and the 2nd Black Watch. The Bibles themselves, however interesting as mementoes of the war, cannot possibly mean as much to their present possessors as to their original owners. Therefore, anyone who has come into possession of a Boer family Bible is urged to return it – they have lost so much – to the Society of Friends, 12 Bishopsgate Street Without, which undertakes to return such Bibles to the families to which they belong.







Labels from one of a pair of cabinets containing a collection of war souvenirs brought home by Lieutenant H.S. Gladstone, K.O.S.B., and displayed at Capenoch House, Dumfries, Scotland.

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Good Morning Neville

They could also be called "Spoils of War"...... LOL
As mentioned in your first paragraph much was left behind or confiscated (except the Officers) and it makes you wonder how much actually made it home especially for the collectors of 2026......

Mike

I think the first illustration is an excellent candidate for Rob D's new "Humour" thread - but definitely not the second illustration.