TOPIC:

Historians often celebrate the Victorian era for its transformative impact—an age when restless ingenuity and bold ideas forged much of the framework we still recognise in the modern world.

The Anglo-Boer War, erupting at the twilight of this long period of scientific confidence and imperial ambition, stands as a pivotal moment: a junction between nineteenth-century certainties and the emerging technologies, methods, and mindsets of the twentieth—and even the twenty-first. Here, advances in medicine, communications, organisation, and transport were tested or developed within the realities of war.

Lately, I’ve been drawn to the Victorian hunger for innovation, and to how this conflict—through the lens of individuals caught up in it—mirrored key technological innovations.

The Prussian strategist Carl von Clausewitz captured this phenomenon in his stark observation that 'War is the father of all things.' Few conflicts illustrate that truth more vividly than the struggle in South Africa at the century’s turn.

Innovation in the Boer War #1: The Bicycle, Cape Colony Cyclist Corps and Edward Richard Howes

39870 Pte Edward Richard Howes, Cape Colony Cyclist Corps

QSA - Cape Colony, SA1901 (entitled SA 1902 clasp)
Roll Number : WO-100-239_01 p.48 & WO-100-239_01 p.75

Late Duke of Edinburgh’s Own Volunteer Rifles; Also Cape Peninsula Regiment
Entitled Cape of Good Hope General Service Medal ‘Basutoland’ clasp

Topics: Innovation / Basutoland Gun war 1880 / Bicycle History and Victorian impact / Cape Colony Cyclist / Bicycle in ABW / Cape Town

Read time : 12 Mins

Edward Richard Howes, born 1861, first appears in the record as a 19-year-old in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Own Volunteer Rifles – a Cape Town Rifle regiment originally formed to supplement the British garrison stationed in Cape Town.

His story will go on to illustrate how the Boer War reflected late Victorian context, exploited one of the most important technologies of the nineteenth (and twentieth) centuries, and deployed what Saroyan (2002) was later to call ‘the noblest invention of mankind’.

Basuto Gun War

First, to our 19-year-old Edward, and the Basutoland Gun War of 1880–1881, which pitted the Cape Colony against the Basotho in the mountainous territory now called Lesotho, and along its borders with the Cape Colony.

The war's origins lay in the Cape Colony government’s attempt to disarm the Basotho people after annexing Basutoland in 1871. Cape authorities wanted to ban Basotho possession of firearms, to reduce resistance and consolidate colonial control.

The Basotho fiercely resisted, seeing firearms as essential for defence, hunting, and cultural identity. When this resistance escalated into armed conflict a colonial force of 3000, including 300 men of DEOVR, and the youthful Edward Howes, were engaged in Battles at Qalabane, at the Basotho stronghold of Thaba Bosiu, and skirmishes around Mafeteng, with the Volunteer Rifles fighting in mountainous terrain and testing their skills against fierce resistance.

The conflict ended in 1881 with a peace agreement allowing the Basotho to retain firearms, whilst placing Basutoland under direct British Crown protection instead of Cape Colony rule, preserving Basotho autonomy.

Establishing the Howes Homestead – 1880 & 90s


We next find Edward three years later, in January 1884, age 23, marrying Wilhemina Sophie Hart, age 20, at St John’s Church in Wynberg, Cape Town. Known as ‘Minnie’ to friends, her family had resided in Cape Town at least since Dutch East India company rule of the 1790s.

Their first son, Edward, is born three and half months after the marriage. It appears the couple’s family plans were well underway sometime before the ceremony.

1885 sees the birth of a daughter, Lucy, and then Veronica in 1887. In both birth registrations, Edward is described as an attendant and caretaker in the South Africa museum in Cape Town. From 1892 he has taken up his tools and works as a Carpenter.

Edward and Minnie’s family continues to expand. Arthur William Howes is born in 1889, followed by Percival in 1891, Alice in 1894, Marjorie in 1895 and William in 1896.

In 1898 Edward is initiated into Freemasonry in Wynberg Lodge, taking his place among Cape Towns’s clerks, merchants and managers.

The family live in Wynstead, a thriving, leafy suburb that blended the charm of garrison-village origins with the sophistication of a rapidly modernising Cape Colony. Oak and myrtle lined avenues, elegant Victorian villas, and thatched Cape cottages mixed with shops, inns, bakeries, and blacksmiths’ forges. The arrival of the railway firmly linked Wynberg to Cape Town, and the introduction of electric street lighting and tram services in 1893 made it one of the most progressive suburbs of its time.


Wynberg in 1890s

This setting may have been disturbed in 1899, not only by the birth their fifth son, Alfred, delivered in May, but by the growing tension between the Dutch-speaking Boer Republics and Britain, culminating in declaration of war on 11 October 1899.

We can’t know if there were tensions across the dinner table in the Howes household between Minnie’s Cape Dutch background and Edward’s colonial military background, or whether all was harmony. It is known that the Boer Republics anticipated a rising of the Cape Dutch, that thousands from the Cape did join Boer forces as volunteers and many of the Cape Afrikaner population were sympathetic to the Boer cause.

The first few months go badly for the British followed by the capture of the Boer capitals by mid-1900 and the commencement of a more protracted Guerilla phase.

As much as Edward may have followed the progress of the conflict, it is only late in the war, in November 1901 that, aged 40, he attests with the Cape Colony Cyclists Corps.

This meeting, between Edward and the humble bicycle, is representative of a significant driver in late Victorian social evolution, and a demonstration of how the ABW field-tested innovation in warfare.

To explore this, we need to explore the revolution that the bicycle brought to Victorian society.

The Evolution of the Bicycle

If Edward, in 1900, were to pause from his work amid the sawdust as a carpenter, and reflect on any passing bicycle in the Cape sunlight, he may have seen a machine representing the full force of Victorian zeal for scientific improvement and commercial experimentation.

The bicycle’s origin lay in 1791 with the invention of the ‘Velocifere’ by Comte de Sivrac – a simple wooden hobby horse with 2 wheels and iron tyres. The machine's popularity increased following the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies which impacted the atmosphere, caused a fall in global temperature, a reduction in human and fodder crops and meant horses across Europe were slaughtered - directly leading to increased use of the hobby horse.

The invention of treadle power (by Kirkpatrick Malcolm 1839), of pedals and cranks (Michaux brothers, 1865), of wire spokes (Starley, 1874), and patent pneumatic tyres (Dunlop,1887), and the spoon brake (Browett and Harrison, 1876) made the bicycle easier to ride and more accessible as the century progressed.

By 1878 bicycles in Britain obtained legal status as carriages, and the bicycle touring club was founded.

Late Victorian Cycling

By 1882 late Victorian society was in the furious grip of a cycling fixation underpinning 534 clubs across England and 22,000 members of the cycle touring club. Clubs were predominantly male and involved riding out to a hostel for ‘smoking, singing, jovial companionship and sufficient liquid to combine these together in fellowship’ before returning the following day (Manners, 2019).

The design of cycles was predominantly the ‘ordinary’ with a large front wheel - that had the side effect of launching the rider over the handlebars. The 1885 invention of the safety bicycle - with equal sized wheels - was the point at which innovation moved from niche to mass market adoption. The bicycle was now seen as accessible and safe, notwithstanding its fixed pedals and 20kg weight.


The ordinary bicycle and the safety bicycle in advertising

By the mid 1890s there were 1.5 million cyclists in Britain (Woodforde, 1970). Second hand cycles cost around £2 - around two week's wage for a clerk – and the number of cycling schools bloomed to meet demand from adult learners.

The Bicycle's Impact

The impact on Victorian society was significant:

Social mobility – Bicycling provided independence and an affordable means of transport for working and middle classes, and cycling tours became a common pastime.

Political impact - It energised female liberation with rational dress movements bringing changes in women’s dress to accommodate cycling. The clarion cycling club stimulated the growth of the independent labour party.

Infrastructure and communications - Roads, neglected since the arrival of the railways, were upgraded under pressure from cycling clubs and hotels accommodated the new cycle touring clientele. The Post office introduced bicycles for letter carriers, extending daily delivery range and efficiency.

Gene pools- The bike had an impact in gene pool diversity with parish records showing a greater volume of people marrying outside of their home parish consistent with the arrival of the safety bike.

The biologist Steve Jones, stated the ‘most important event in recent human evolution was the invention of the bicycle' (Manners, 2016).

South Africa as a Victorian Cycling Powerhouse

Imperial connection meant that innovation and cultural trends in one location were more easily carried elsewhere across the Empire.

Port Elizabeth Bicycle Club, founded 1881, was the first cycling club in Southern Africa, followed by the Cape Town Cycling Club in1884, and the City Cycling & Athletic Club by 1891.

By 1897 SA had 39 cycling clubs and cities started to construct cycling tracks. Races, and social rides, fostered a growing community. In 1898 South African Jack Rose established a world 1-hour distance record of 29.7 miles. The South African Lourens Meintjes, won five world titles and established sixteen world records in the 1890s.


Cape Town : City Cycling club in 1891

The first reference to the Springbok in South African sport was in cycling, with the Cape Town firm of Donald Menzies & Co. manufacturing the Springbuck bicycle in 1898.

Cycling was as much a part of South African life and culture as it was in the UK.

The Bicycle and the Road to War


Something with such revolutionary - no pun - potential for rapid troop movement, reconnaissance, and communication drew the attention of the world’s military.

In France, testing of bicycles for scouting and messaging began in 1886, with the Corps of Cyclistes established by 1887. The German Army formed a Bicycle Corps in1884 with 1,200 cyclists. In 1896, the British Army established the Army Cyclist Corps, with cyclist companies attached to infantry units, and the US army used bicycles during the Spanish-American War of 1898.

The bicycle also appears in the events leading to the Boer war when Sir Alfred Milner, Governor of the Cape Colony, visited Britain in November 1898 after privately concluding the Transvaal government would never concede to British demands for franchise for British Subjects in the Transvaal.

In a neat historical symmetry, he is known to have hopped into the saddle and slipped away for a, potentially scandalous, six-day cycling tour through the secluded country lanes of the South Downs, accompanied by aspiring actress Cécile Duval.

Following this he returned to London to obtain the backing of the Secretary of State and Prime Minister for a more assertive policy position against the Boer Republics, setting parties on the course to war.

It's interesting to speculate whether the Anglo Boer War is the only conflict in history were the decision to fight might have crystallised whilst on a cycling holiday.

Less than ten months after Milner and Duval had cruised through the hedgerows of Hampshire and West Sussex, the Anglo Boer war, characterised by distance and need for mobility, was to be a proving ground for innovation and mounted warfare – but not only the equine variety.

The Bicycle in the Anglo Boer War


Both sides of the conflict were to make use of the new two-wheeled technology.

On the Boer side Daniel Thoerons’ 100+ strong Wielrijders Rapportgangers Corps was commissioned in September 1899 going on to supply important information regarding grazing, watering places, and other intelligence for the Boer forces.

We know several specialist British units were created – The Scottish Cycling Corps, the Composite Cycling Corps and the Cape Colony Cycling Corps. Maree (1977) argues its use was much more widespread, with City Imperial Volunteers, Royal Dublin Fusiliers, Durban Light Infantry, Rand Rifles, POW Light Horse, Southern Rhodesian Volunteers and Town Guards all having cyclist sections.

Marree (1977) states at one stage 3% of the British forces were cyclists.

The BSA company produced a specialist military version of the bicycle for use in South Africa. These bicycles allowed troops to cover ground more quickly than infantry and with greater endurance than mounted units, making them invaluable in guerrilla warfare.


BSA Mark 1 Military Bicycle 1901

British cyclist units were primarily tasked with:

Dispatch Riding: Carrying mail, telegrams, despatches, money, stores, swiftly between units, ensuring timely communication across vast distances. Cyclists provided a key part of the communication network, where telegraph or signalling were not available.

Reconnaissance: Conducting patrols to gather intelligence on Boer positions, suitable roads for transport wagons, reconnaissance of camping grounds and sometimes transfer of injured.

Rapid Deployment: Moving quickly to reinforce threatened areas or respond to emerging threats. Numerous accounts exist of cyclists in combat including Winberg, Spion Kop and the capture of mounted Boers by New Zealand cyclists.



The bicycle was recognised as needing less maintenance than horses.
Echoing the bicycles’ early utilisation in the absence of fodder in 1816, the Boer commander Jooste pointed out that a horse must sleep and eat, while a bicycle needed only oil and a pump before it was ready for action.

A British report on the use of the bicycle in the war stated, ‘considering the difficulty the British experienced in supplying remounts one would think that more use would have been made of bicycles, thus releasing horses which were being used for incidental transport and despatch riding’ (Maree, 1977).



The bicycle also acted as strategic enabler for innovation and experimentation with other technologies.

Specially adapted bicycles were used for laying of telegraph lines, and even experimentation with wireless.

Maj B.F.S. Baden-Powell of the Scots Guards had a collapsible bicycle carrying a kite, used at first for taking photographs by a remote-controlled camera, and later for raising an aerial for wireless telegraphy experiments between Modder River Station and Belmont (Maree 1977).


Experimental Cycle with Wireless ; Telegraph cable laying attachment

The bicycles significance as a quiet, relatively fast, and cheap mode of transport was such that martial law controlled civilian use of bicycles. Marree (1977) identified regulation that ‘no person may ride or have in his or her possession a bicycle, unless the machine has been duly registered at the Commandant's Office’.

The Cape Colony Cycling Corps and Edward’s Motivation

Taking advantage of this new technology, and the strong SA cycling culture, the Cape Colony Cycling Corps had been raised at the end of December 1900. In the first week of January 1901, when the enemy were within easy distance of Cape Town, they were active in skirmishes losing 4 killed and 23 wounded.


Source: The Telegraph, Brisbane Mon 18 Feb 1901

Understanding the impact of cycling might help us understand Edward’s attestation for the CCCC in Nov 1901.

Having served in the Cape military 20 years previously, we can assume that he retained a loyalist outlook and politics.

We’ve seen that the bicycle expanded mobility for tradesmen. Adverts recovered by Ian Bowes of the ABW Forum show CCCC members could keep their bike, after 3 months service. Edward might have thought that travelling around Cape Town to carpentry jobs would have been much easier after the war, if a bike was available.


Advert for cape colony cyclist recruitment ; Rand Rifles cycle section.

Alternatively, its plausible Edward may have already been a member of one of the Cape Town cycling clubs in the 1890s. Records in Britain show one result of the safety bike introduction was the age range in clubs expanded from predominantly 20-year olds to those in their thirties and forties (Manners, 2019).

Economics may also have played a part - with child number 10 due in a fortnight, five shillings a day was all the motivation needed. Though this salary was equivalent to a carpenter’s salary, service in the CCCC provided a guaranteed income.

It may have been that with a house of 11, the thought of child number 10 provided sufficient motivation to get away from the family home…

The CCCC’s value was widely recognised - ‘They were much split up, sections being attached to many columns, both in Cape Colony and the Orange River Colony. The fine work of those with De Lisle and Bethune, when they were in Western Cape Colony and afterwards in the north-east of the Orange River Colony, was several times spoken of’.

‘The comprehensive manner in which the country has been scouted by Colonel De Lisle is largely due to the mobility and enterprise of the Cyclist Corps, who have done excellent work as scouts and despatch-riders’ (Maree,1977).

We can assume that Edward would have travelled many miles and seen a fair share of ballistic risk whilst with the CCCC in the late guerrilla phase of the conflict.

Later Life

His termination of service with CCCC in April 1902 (with time expired) was not the end of his commitment to serve, as he immediately enlisted with the Cape Peninsula Regiment - a protectorate Town Guard for Cape Town.

Edward and Minnie would go on to have 2 more children, bringing the siblings to a round dozen, with the addition of Gladys in 1904 and Olive in 1908, when Edward was 47 and Minnie age 44.

Rarely, for those times, all dozen children would live until adulthood.

Edward lived in Sussex Rd, Wynberg, Cape Town until 1939, age 78. Succeeded by Wilhelmina, who was to live until 1952, age 88, his death certificate records him as a retired carpenter.

He was to be buried in Plumstead Cemetery in the suburbs of a Cape Town he had risked his life on many occasions protecting.



Closing Thoughts

The use of the bicycle, by both sides of the conflict, demonstrates an openess to experimentation with a technology that, in the two decades prior to war, had had a significant, arguably, revolutionary impact on social relations and mobility.

The Boer war's application of bicycles marked a symbolic turning point: bridging between the nineteenth century’s reliance on cavalry, already obsolete by the time of the First World War, and the twentieth century’s emerging vision of mechanised infantry.

This conflict demonstrated the cycle's value in speed, endurance and stealth.

In joining the Cyclist Corps, Edward embodied a quintessential Victorian innovation—one that signalled the gradual end of humanity’s millennia-long dependence on horses for long distance travel, and foreshadowed the new age of personal mobility in the modern world.

Select Bibliography

Baker, D. (2014) How the Victorians Took Us to the Moon.
Manners, W (2019) Revolution: How the bicycle reinvented modern Britain.
Maree, DR (1977) Bicycles in the anglo-boer war of 1899-1902. SA Military History Society
Saroyan W. (2002). Where the Bones Go.
Trove: trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/
Wilson, H.W, (1902). After Pretoria: The Guerilla War.
Woodforde, J (1970) The Story of the Bicycle. Routledge and Kegan

Thanks for reading this far.
Any corrections/builds or further information on Edward would be welcomed.

Jo, you write
"Numerous accounts exist of cyclists in combat including ... Spion Kop ..."
I for one would love to read about this - can you point me in the right direction?
Rob

Hi Rob,

Thanks for your interest.

Yes - the reference was in Maree (1977 )

“On the Natal front, at the Battle of Spioen Kop, Boer cyclists diverted the fire of five British batteries from a hill overlooking the Tugela (where Major Wolmarans was setting up a pom-pom) by raising the Transvaal flag on the summit of another hill. They stayed there under heavy artillery fire until their tactics had achieved their object.”

This is referenced by Maree from Davitt, M.: The Boer Fight for Freedom,

It was certainly not something id encountered before embarking on this research…

Hope this helps,
J

The incident certainly happened and involved Slegtkamp, Hindon and de Roos of Edwards Verkennerkorps, but they were horsemen. Or so I have always thought.

The incident certainly happened and involved Slegtkamp, Hindon and de Roos of Edwards Verkennerkorps, but they were horsemen. Or so I have always thought.

Hi Rob

Thanks -it’s a reasonable challenge.
Maree is firm that this was an example of cyclist activity.

Being curious, Ive gone back the source Maree indicated (Davitt) - the incident is in chapter XXVII. The account doesn’t state that they were horses, but does claim all three individuals were part of the scouting corps raised by Daniel Theron. We do know from Breytenbach this was a cyclist unit.

Hopefully this debate indicates the value of the research.

Before researching for the article, I shared the reasonable assumption that mobility in the ABW was near exclusively four legged - someone on a Basuto Pony or unacclimatised Argentine horse.

By setting the ABW in a context of a late victorian preoccupation with the new technology of the bicycle, combined with Maree's findings on extensive use of the bicycle, it provides a space to think and test our assumption that mobility in ABW is automatically four legged (vs two wheeled). Hope this acts as driver for further research !

J