-
Frank Kelley
-
-
Offline
-
Senior Member
-
-
Posts: 6739
-
Thank you received: 954
-
-
|
What a really superb pair, I should be absolutely delighted with those if I were you.
Brett Hendey wrote: Captain H B Andreasen, Border Mounted Rifles
CIVILIAN LIFE
Hans Brittanus Andreasen was born in Norway in about 1860, and he emigrated to Natal in 1882 with the first organised group of Norwegians to settle in the Colony. The group, which came mainly from Aalesund, was made up of 229 people from 34 families. The men were mainly artisans and farmers. They took advantage of a free passage and an allocation of land in a largely undeveloped area. Their destination was Marburg, near Port Shepstone, close to the border with Pondoland in the Cape Colony.
The new settlers arrived in Port Shepstone at the mouth of the Umzimkulu River on 29/8/1882. The next day they were taken by ox-wagons to the land allocated to them. Each family received 100 acres on which rudimentary accommodations had been built, with some basic tools and supplies also provided. The land was to be paid off over 10years. Andreasen and another bachelor shared Lot No. 46.
The settlement was soon in trouble. Developing the land was difficult, especially for those who had no farming experience. The land had to be cleared of vegetation, the soils were often stony and infertile, and there was a lack of fertiliser. It took time to harvest their first crops, and the larger markets for produce were far away. The transport infrastructure of roads and bridges was poor, and the railway line to Port Shepstone from Durban was only completed years later. Families soon began leaving their land for an easier life elsewhere.
Andreasen, who had been a farmer in Norway, was one of the men who stayed on his farm, although he moved from his shared property to Lot 36. He received the title to this land in 1894, and the property was still in his possession when he died nearly 50 years later. Nevertheless, he also needed to supplement his income. After gold was discovered in the Transvaal in 1884, men from Marburg, including Andreasen, sought employment on the new mines. Andreasen was one of the fortunate ones who did not stay long on the mines, so he avoided developing Miner’s Phthisis, which killed at least seven of the Marburg men after they returned home, and others who settled elsewhere.
Andreasen later managed his farm with the assistance of tenants, to whom he sold off 1-2 acres plots for their own use. In 1898, he purchased two adjacent residential properties in Port Shepstone, and, in 1935, he added another house in the town to his property portfolio. This house was in Townlands, and he was living there when he died in 1941. At the time of his death, he was also the owner of 64 acres of land at Oslo, which is today the holiday resort township of Oslo Beach on the southern outskirts of Port Shepstone.
After Andreasen moved to Port Shepstone in1898, he joined a group of Norwegians to form the Port Shepstone Fishing Syndicate. They had a fishing boat, the ‘Enterprise’, built in Norway. This proved to be the only successful fishing venture started in Port Shepstone, and the investors earned good dividends until the boat was sold in 1919. It fetched £4200, which repaid their original investments.
Andreasen was also employed in the Resident Engineer’s Department. There is a record of him working as a Foreman at the Harbour. In 1909 and later he was employed by the District Veterinary Surgeon as an East Coast Fever Guard on the border with Pondoland, and as a Dipping Inspector for the Umzimkulu and Alfred Divisions.
Andreasen married Gurine Jacobson, and they had three sons and two daughters. Gurine died in 1932. He later married a widow, Emma Wettergreen, who outlived him.
Andreasen died on 19/12/1941, aged 82 years and five months. He had by then left the Lutheran Church and joined the Berean Christadelphian Church. He was referred to as “Brother H B Andreasen” in an article about him in the ‘The Berean Christadelphian’ of January 1943. In that year, his estate was valued at £4384, which was an appreciable amount at that time. He was clearly a comparatively wealthy and respected resident of Port Shepstone, and he was one of the successes amongst the 1882 Norwegian settlers.
In 1967, Andreasen’s eldest son, Arthur Hjalmar Elliott, translated into English the book, ‘The Norwegian Settlers – Marburg, Natal 1882’ (Marburg Norwegian Lutheran Church, Port Shepstone, 1932). This book, together with a Centenary Supplement, is an invaluable record of Natal’s Norwegian community. Some of the information used in this report was gleaned from its pages, including the section on the Anglo-Boer War that was written by Sergeant Edward Haajem of the Border Mounted Rifles.
MILITARY SERVICE
The Colony of Natal’s militia system was made up of volunteer regiments representing cities or regions. There had been a steady increase in mainly English and Irish settlers in the far south of Natal since the 1850’s, but it was the influx of Norwegian and German settlers in the Port Shepstone district in the early 1880’s that prompted the establishment of this region’s own regiment, the Umzimkulu Mounted Rifles (UMR) in 1884. Its initial enrolment was about 60, of whom 29 were Norwegians, including Andreasen (Goetzsche 1971). Also included was the Commanding Officer, H T Bru-de-Wold, a Norwegian who had settled in Natal in 1862. He became a successful sugar and coffee farmer, first near Umzinto and later near Port Shepstone. He was a Captain in the Alexandra Mounted Rifles (AMR), which was established in the neighbouring region centred on Umzinto in 1865. He had been the AMR’s Sergeant-Major during the 1879 Anglo-Zulu War.
Although it was to be short-lived, the UMR enrolment soon rose to 100. It shared the uniform of other Natal mounted regiments, but it did have its own distinctive cap and helmet badges.
The UMR was closely associated with the AMR, and when the Natal Mounted Rifles (NMR) was founded in 1888 through an amalgamation of Natal’s coastal mounted regiments, the UMR and AMR formed the Left Wing of the new regiment. It had its headquarters at Port Shepstone.
This incarnation of the NMR was also destined to be short-lived. In1894, the Left Wing became a new regiment, the Border Mounted Rifles (BMR), with its headquarters at Ixopo. The first Commanding Officer was Major Bru-de-Wold, and he was later succeeded by Major J F Rethman, a Member of Natal’s Legislative Assembly, and a prominent member of southern Natal’s German community. Since the BMR was a regiment that recruited over the wide area between the Umkomaas River and the border with the Cape Colony, it was divided into four squadrons with subsidiary troops to facilitate its management.
At the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War in 1899 Andreasen’s name appeared on published nominal rolls as an officer for the first time. The roll for the subdivisions of the regiment was then as follows:
No. 1 Squadron .................................................... Captain J R Royston
No. 1 Troop ......... Highflats ....................... Lieutenant J B Stuart
No. 2 Troop ......... Umzinto ........................ Lieutenant R G Archibald
No. 2 Squadron .................................................... Captain R Vause
No. 1 Troop ......... Polela & Underberg ...... Lieutenant R W Wilson
No. 2 Troop ......... Harding ........................ Lieutenant L Trenor
No. 3 Squadron ................................................... Lieutenant F L Thring
No. 1 Troop .......... Ixopo .......................... Lieutenant J Gold
No. 2 Troop........... Umzimkulu .................. Sergeant-Major J Hayes
No. 4 Squadron ................................................... Major W Sangmeister
No. 1 Troop........... Port Shepstone ........... Lieutenant H B Andreasen
No. 2 (Maxim) Troop.. Port Shepstone ...... Sergeant A Ringo
(Adapted from Goetzsche 1971)
The Officers of the Port Shepstone Squadron reflected the prominence there of German and Norwegian settlers. The other squadrons were overwhelmingly made up of English and Irish settlers.
There were also a Regimental Quartermaster, two Medical Officers (seconded from the Natal Volunteer Medical Corps), and a Veterinary Officer (seconded from the Natal Volunteer Veterinary Corps).
The BMR was mobilised on 28/9/1899, and the regiment was posted to Ladysmith, where it arrived on 2/10/1899. In the weeks that followed, the BMR was mainly employed in patrolling west of the town towards the border with the Orange Free State.
The Natal Volunteer Record (1900) records that on 21/10/1899 Lieutenant Andreasen’s No. 1 Troop, No. 4 Squadron, was ordered to accompany the NMR to Elandslaagte, where the British and Boers were to meet in battle later that day. The NMR played a peripheral part in the attack on the Boer positions, which ended in a decisive victory for the British. The men first guarded the rear, and later they assisted in clearing the wounded from the battlefield. The NMR and the Newcastle Troop of the Natal Carbineers, which had also joined the NMR at Elandslaagte, were awarded the Elandslaagte clasp on their QSA’s. For an as yet unexplained reason, Andreasen’s BMR Troop did not receive this clasp.
The BMR took an active part in the next meeting with the Boers, which was on 24/10/1899 at Rietfontein (also known as Modder Spruit or Tinta Nyoni), north of Ladysmith. This attack by the British was in part to distract the Boers from General Yules’ Dundee garrison, which was retreating from the town and approaching Ladysmith from the north-east. The British attack at Rietfontein was repulsed and they soon withdrew to Ladysmith. The BMR was positioned on a hill covering the British retreat, and the Port Shepstone Maxim Troop under Sergeant Ringo “did effective work at a range of 1400 yards” (Goetzsche 1971). It was in this action that the BMR suffered its first casualties; two men killed and 10 wounded. One of those killed was the Norwegian Trooper Nikolai Nilsen from Port Shepstone, who died while bringing up ammunition for the Maxim. The wounded known to be from this Squadron were Troopers J Dehrmann, H Norden and O Strauss.
The next day, the BMR was ordered out to meet with General Yules’ column. It was the first regiment to do so, and it escorted the defeated Dundee garrison into Ladysmith.
On 30/101899, the BMR again played a minor part in trying to stem the Boer advance on Ladysmith, this time at Lombard’s Kop. It had no casualties.
On 2/11/1899, the Boer encirclement of Ladysmith was completed and the long Siege began.
On 3/11/1899, the British tested to Boer line south-west of Ladysmith by way of Long Valley towards Lancer’s Hill (Bester’s Kop). The Imperial Light Horse (ILH) led the attack supported by Natal Volunteers, including the BMR. Their advance was halted by heavy fire from the Boers. The ILH had the most casualties, while the BMR had four men wounded, including its Adjutant, Captain W Arnott. Major Rethman and Lieutenant Andreasen were fortunate to escape unscathed when a shell burst close to them.
The BMR next took part in the successful raid mainly by Colonials on the Boer position on Gun Hill on the night of 7-8/12/1899. The BMR protected the left flank of the attacking force, which reached the gun emplacement undetected. The Boers abandoned their posts, and the attackers succeeded in damaging a 6” Creusot (Long Tom) and a 4” howitzer. The breech block and ramrod of the Long Tom, and a Maxim machine gun were captured. There were few casualties amongst the attackers, and none amongst the BMR.
On 6/1/1900, the Boers launched their only large-scale infantry attack on Ladysmith. It was directed at a hill south of the town known to them as Platrand, and to the British as Wagon Hill in the west and Caesar’s Camp in the east. The NMR and BMR, the latter including the Port Shepstone Squadron with its Maxim, were despatched to assist in the defence of Caesar’s Camp. A Royal Artillery Battery took up a position east of Caesar’s Camp, and shelled the Boers whenever possible. The Port Shepstone men remained guarding the Battery, while No. 1 Squadron, BMR, joined a detachment of Gordon Highlanders on the hill, and kept the Boers off its most south-easterly corner throughout the battle, which lasted all day. Although the British suffered heavy casualties, the Boers eventually abandoned their attack and retreated. The BMR lost four men killed and several wounded.
When the Siege was lifted on 28/2/1900, a picket from No. 2 Squadron, BMR, was the first to greet the Relief column.
Many of the BMR’s casualties during the Siege, 16 men, were caused by disease, mainly enteric (typhoid). Goetzsche (1971: 83) recorded that while “No fewer than 180 members of the Regiment were in hospital at one time during January, [strangely] enough only No 4 [Port Shepstone] Squadron remained fairly well up to strength.” Sergeant Haajem reported that, at the end of the Siege, only 26 men were fit, of whom eight were Norwegians.
Most of the regiment was besieged in Ladysmith, and these men received the ‘Defence of Ladysmith’ clasp on their Queen’s South Africa Medals. However, there were at least eight, and probably ten men who received the ‘Relief of Ladysmith’ clasp instead. These men had been away from Ladysmith when the Siege started, some because they had been wounded at Rietfontein, and others for reasons unknown. For the duration of the Siege, these men were attached to the Composite Regiment of the Mounted Brigade. At least four of them were from the Port Shepstone Squadron, and two were Norwegians, Corporal J Andersen and Trooper A G Andersen.
After a period of leave, the Regiment reassembled and joined the British advance to drive the Boers out of Natal, which was achieved in mid-June. Since the Natal Volunteer Regiments were permitted to serve only within the borders of the Colony, the BMR spent the rest of their service in Dundee on picket and patrol duty.
The Natal Volunteers’ war ended on 23/9/1900 when Lord Roberts signed their release from military duty. The BMR men arrived back in Pietermaritzburg on 9/10/1900, from where they dispersed.
For those men who wished to continue the war outside of Natal, a new regiment was formed, the Volunteer Composite Regiment (VCR). Fifty-one members of the BMR joined the VCR. Those known to be from Port Shepstone were the Germans Troopers G Bakeberg, H Buhr, C Gottschalk, and H Rasmussen, and the Norwegian, Trooper G Oie. The latter was later listed as a Sergeant by Haajem, so presumably he rejoined the BMR after the war.
Another man who stayed on was the Port Shepstone Squadron’s Commander, Major W Sangmeister, who in June was seconded to the newly-arrived Canadian regiment, Strathcona’s Horse, to assist with its settling in. On 13/7/1900, Sangmeister and four of the Canadians were captured by the Boers. He was released two months later. He later served at Barberton, first as Assistant Provost Marshal and then as District Commissioner. He rejoined the BMR after the war, and retired as a Lieutenant-Colonel in 1906.
Sangmeister was the only member of the BMR to be decorated for his services during the Boer War. He was Mentioned in Despatches (London Gazette, 4/12/1903), and awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO), “in recognition of services in operations in South Africa, 1899-1900, the reward to bear the date 29 November 1900.”
All the men who served with the BMR during the war were awarded the Queen’s South Africa Medal (QSA), while only Sangmeister and those who went on to serve with the VCR are known to have received the King’s South Africa Medal (KSA).
After the end of the war, there were rewards for those men who were founder members of the Umzimkulu Mounted Rifles in 1884, and who remained with the BMR until 1904. Their 20 years of service qualified them for the award of either the Colonial Auxiliary Forces Officer’s Decoration or the Long Service Medal. The men of the Port Shepstone Squadron who received these awards were:
Officer’s Decoration:
Lieutenant-Colonel J F Rethman
Major F A W Sangmeister DSO
Long Service Medal:
Captain H B Andreasen, Squadron Sergeant Major H Rethman, Sergeant B Klusener, Troopers F Hufft and H Norden.
Andreasen was promoted to Captain with effect from 20/9/1903, and was placed on the Supernumerary List as a Captain from 3/1/1906.
Captain Andreasen was not recalled for service during the 1906 Natal Rebellion, but his sons, Arthur and Edwin, served with the Port Shepstone Squadron during the Rebellion. Since this Squadron spent much of the time in reserve in case of trouble on the Pondoland border, its men received the Rebellion Medal without the 1906 clasp.
REFERENCES
Goetzsche, E. 1971. The Official Natal Mounted Rifles History.
Published by the Regiment in Durban.
Natal Volunteer Record. 1901. Robinson & Co, Durban.
The National Archives, Kew. WO100/Border Mounted Rifles QSA medal roll.
Various files in the Pietermaritzburg Repository of the South African National Archives.
Brett Hendey
21/3/2016
Lieutenant Andreasen during the Siege of Ladysmith
|
