TOPIC:

In this article I've documented the life and times of an Edinburgh man serving with the Scottish Horse in the ABW, Alfred Begbie. His life narrative provided exploration of the British volunteer reaction to counter-insurgency, the reasons for post-AB war emigration, the Scots-Canadian connection, and revealed intergenerational service and sacrifice.

Please note: This article includes contemporary accounts of farm destruction during the Boer War.

Your time is precious, so I hope that this account stimulates interest – and that my humble submission keeps alive the story of those that served.

From Edinburgh to Ontario via SA – Alfred Begbie, 2nd Scottish Horse

29117 Tpr Alfred Vernon Begbie, 2nd Scottish Horse
QSA : Cape Colony / Orange Free State/ Transvaal / SA01 / SA02
Roll Number : WO-100-269_01 p. 39

Topics: Edinburgh / 2 Scottish Horse / Counter-Insurgency, Drives and Farm burning / British Volunteer Reaction to Guerrilla War / Scot’s Emigration / Canada / Intergenerational Service & Sacrifice

An Edinburgh Upbringing

Tuesday 29th November, 1881 brought calm to Edinburgh's cobbled streets, following the 2 days of hurricane force storms that had ravaged Britain, felling more than 500 trees.

On this day in Edinburgh, Alfred Vernon Begbie was born to parents, Samuel Begbie and Fanny Bell. Ten years earlier Samuel had worked in Edinburgh’s jewellery trade, but by the time of Alfred’s birth was making his way in Edinburgh’s (still horse-drawn) tram company, progressing from Clerk to Superintendent.

Alfred would have had to learn to stand up for himself, arriving after siblings Frances and Alice, and Thomas and Samuel. He would later be joined by 2 more siblings - Louisa and Charles.

1891 sees him at school and the family living in St Cuthbert's district, just off Princes St and beneath the imposing volcanic rock and grandeur of Edinburgh Castle. The 10-year-old Alfred may have been excited to occasionally see the Royal Scots, who were garrisoned in the castle at that time.



1890s Edinburgh, Prince St, St Cuthberts; Princes St gardens beneath the castle.
Long-held tensions between Britain and Boer republics erupted into the violence of war on 11 October 1899 with initial Boer military success being overturned by June 1900, when both Boer capitals came under British control and the war entered a new phase of guerrilla insurgency.

Recognising the need for mobility and resourcefulness in guerrilla warfare, the Marquis of Tullibardine founded the Scottish Horse in early 1900, specifically drawing on men of Scot's heritage in the UK, South Africa and Australia who could ride and shoot well. A more detailed account of its purpose and founding can be found on this forum (search for 'Peter Brims', if curious).

In February 1901 we find Alfred, age 20, living in Stockbridge, Edinburgh, and having completed a 5-year apprenticeship as an iron turner - a skilled lathe machinist shaping iron into precision parts. Turners were skilled craftsman, earning around 6s per day.

On the 18th of that month he presents himself for attestion to the 2nd Battalion Scottish Horse (2SH). He has already served in the Queen’s Edinburgh Rifle Volunteer Brigade – a volunteer unit of clerks, tradesmen, professionals and students who trained one evening per week and weekends. The QRVB was closely affiliated to the Royal Scots who may have so impressed the young Alfred.

Scottish Horse and Counter Insurgency in South Africa

By the 9th March 1901, Alfred has arrived in South Africa with the SH where he was to spend the next 15 months engaged in counter insurgency across the Cape, Orange Free State and Transvaal. 2SH built a formidable reputation ‘speedily becoming one of the best corps in the country that never degenerated’.

From the outset he would have experienced intensity of operations.

The 2nd Scottish Horse were engaged at Roodekrantz in April, with 1 killed and several wounded; in July at Elands Hook with 3 killed and 9 wounded; and later that month capturing prisoners, 40 horses and 24 vehicles from Viljoen’s commando; then again 4 days later at Wagen drift with 4 men wounded.

This intensity continues month in, month out, including actions at Brakenlagate in September 1901 when 2SH were material in holding the ridges and saving the guns.

We know that 2SH were involved in drives - large-scale British counter-guerrilla operations designed to trap and capture Boer commandos between blockhouse lines, barbed wire, and sweeping columns of troops to push the Boers into confined areas.

These were part of Kitchener’s ‘scorched earth’ and containment strategy. Controversial, even at the time, it aimed to break Boer resistance by systematically hunting and capturing commandos, while simultaneously undermining their rural support base.

Scottish Horse on a drive.

We don’t have first-hand account from Alfred of what he thought during these 15 months, but we do have accounts of other yeomanry showing this was far from the imperial adventure of GA Henty novels.

Private accounts show mixed feelings to the work. A member of the 10th Company Imperial Yeomanry (IY), complained bitterly about having to search houses and 'push around families.'

In June 1901, Lt. Gen. Rundle ordered Captain Burnaby of the Wiltshire IY to seize and slaughter Boer herds. Burnaby wrote that killing thirty thousand sheep was the 'most disgusting thing I had to do. What brutes the Boers must think us.' (Miller, 2007 p.127)


Not Scottish Horse - but evidence of farm burning. Second photo attributed to City Imperial Volunteers at Frederickstrad.

G. Reece of the 48th Coy IY wrote 'The farms and villages in this part of the Transvaal are something grand. I have never seen anything equal to it at home. They grow fruit of all kinds…oranges, quinces and figs. After we have passed through, you look back and then you can realize the horrors of war. The place that looked so peaceful before is nothing now but a heap of burning ruins. We shoot every animal we can see. It seems a bit off but it is the only way to end the war.' (Miller, 2007)

But the experience was not all tragedy and shame.
Other accounts find inspiration in the beauty of the landscape they were fighting across.

Moeller, of the CIV, was moved to write ‘It was a lovely morning - clear, bright as crystal, and a magnificent sunrise. The whole veldt was covered with a white dew, and the tips of the distant hills were a rosy red. The life is unbeatable, and I am enjoying every moment of it. One lives day and night in the open fresh air, perhaps the freshest and best one can get in the world. One sees Nature in her best and truest colours, and the more one sees of her the more one loves her.’ (Miller, 2007)

Many found reassuring echoes of Scotland in the landscape. In May 1900, J. W. Milne awoke to ‘the cold and clear frost air of a typical Scottish spring morning' along the banks of the Zand River.


Morning under Canvas - Soldier of one of the Scottish mounted regiments. Source (IWM / William Skeoch photographer)

For John Gilmour, Table Mountain looked like Buachaille Etive Mor, and a valley near Stellenbosch was ‘very like the view from Corries in Fife looking over to the Mount.’ The people living there, looked like ‘what the Scottish farmer must have been a hundred years ago.’

Godfrey Smith wrote of the landscape 'it is no exaggeration to say, runs Scotland very close, hills and dales, covered on the lower slopes with beautiful foliage, being the main features in the landscape for the first fifty miles inland'.

J. P. Sturrock, of the Fife and Forfar IY, marched toward Pretoria, with ‘the scenery becoming every moment more Scottish in its character, the long valley through which the column had been wending became a rugged highland glen, and at every sharp turn in the road the wagons were in danger of falling over the edges into the mountain stream below’ (Miller, 2007).

Such was the contribution made by the SH during the campaign that after the peace treaty of May 1902, the Scottish Horse, along with the ILH, Johannesburg MR and Kitchener's Fighting Scouts, were honoured by selection for march past of Lord Kitchener in Pretoria on 17th June.

With the end of war 700 SH men choose to remain in South Africa. The remainder, including Alfred, returned to the UK from Cape Town on the SS Goth, where they were disbanded on 3 Sept 1902 at Aldershot, after marching through the town.

Returning, Leaving / Emigration to Canada

'In the ae door an' oot the ither'.

Alfred wasn’t to remain in Britain for long. In 1903 we find Alfred, age 21, gripping the guardrail, and looking out at the grey Atlantic swell from the ship SS Sardinian, which he had boarded in Leith on Friday 12 June, to head west, having made the decision to emigrate to Canada.


SS Sardinian

I've written previously about Scottish migration, and whether the experience of imperial adventure in the ABW brings a restlessness and confidence to emigrate, or whether it’s those who are more likely to embrace risk by joining an imperial venture, that are later more likely to emigrate.

Bueltmann et al (2013) found that in the decade around 1900 male Scots were choosing to migrate overseas for improved pay for their industrial skills, rather than straightforward unemployment. Wages at home were rising, but there was a sense still more could be got elsewhere.

Imperial connection, transport and a long cultural tradition of Scottish emigration meant many countries of the Empire looked favourably on a Scots presence. Trollope, in 1873 said that 'the Scotch have always been among the best, or perhaps the very best, colonisers that the world has produced'.

In the United States in 1880, the entrepreneur Neal Dow, wrote 'of all immigrants to our country the Scotch are always the most welcome. They bring muscle and brain and tried skill and trustworthiness, to our greatest industries, of which they are managers of the most successful ones.’

The Canadian Connection

Whilst popular histories claim the Scots 'invented" Canada, Bueltmann (2013) finds Scots did enjoy a disproportionate influence in Canadian affairs.

Writing about Canada in 1881, Berton says 'the Irish outnumbered them, and the English, but the Scots ran the country. Though they formed only one-fifteenth of the population they controlled the fur trade, the great banking and financial houses, the major educational institutions, and, to a considerable degree, the government’.

The Dictionary of Canadian Biography is strewn with high-achieving Scots.

The country’s first prime minster was a Macdonald; McGill and several of the leading Canadian universities were founded by Scots. Another Scot, Donald Smith, was pivotal to the Canadian Pacific Railway. Bueltmann (2013) finds despite making up 3% of the population, Scots accounted for 20% of the 1880s Canadian industrial elite.

Migration was enabled by two levers - chain migration (where an associate has earlier settled in a region, making later immigrant's integration easier); and by cultural associations.

Where Scots moved, they took the very same culture and identity that had led to the creation of the Scottish Horse in 1900.

In Canada, the earliest Scottish society was founded in 1768, 'for the benefit of ourselves and assistance of each other, who may be afflicted with casualty or misfortune’. By 1900, most cities had a St Andrews or other Scottish cultural fellowship association, and Highland games and Burns night’s suppers were an annual fixture. In 1900, Ontario had at least 7 Scottish societies, with many Burns/Highland clubs making it one of the strongest Canadian centres of Scottish association.

With an Edinburgh heritage and SH service, it would have been easier for Alfred to connect and navigate this new environment.

There is one more consideration in Alfred’s decision. In 1896 the Liberals came into power in Canada. Sifton, the minister for immigration, instigated a business-like approach with Government agents promoting Canada as a destination.

Significantly for Alfred, five agents targetted Scotland, attending markets, shows and fairs, carrying out lecture tours and meeting prospective immigrants, ensuring that Canada maintained a positive, prominent presence in the press.

Fifty thousand pamphlets were distributed, and 50 lectures were presented by agents throughout the Scotland.

This activity brought results - Scottish Canadian emigrants increased between 1900 and 1902, from 1,733 to 3,811 and, in the year of Alfred’s departure, 1903, numbers exceeded 10,000, only to double again by 1906.


Canadian immigration advertising

The SS Sardinian’s passenger list records Alfred is a machinist, and that he is heading to the town of Brockville, on the shores of Lake Ontario, at least a 9-hour train journey from his entry port of Quebec.

This tell us Alfred is not casually seeking opportunity when he lands - but is following a plan, and heading to a specific town. He may be taking advantage of chain migration, and already knows of a colleague, perhaps from the SH, that resides there.


Brockville, May Day parade, 1905 - is Alfred in the crowd? (Source: oldbrockvillephotographs.wordpress.com/category/stores )

Originally settled by Empire Loyalists after the American Revolution, Brockville sits on the banks of the St. Lawrence River, where in 1903 its c.8,000 people, of mostly British descent, lived among streets filled with the sound of horse-drawn carriages, and shopfronts displaying goods for a growing middle class.

The influence of the river was everywhere—fishing, shipping, and industry tied the community together. Alfred may have calculated that where water and land meet there is always need for someone skilled in making precision metalwork. Local churches, schools and libraries reflected a well-organised, civic-minded community.

Later Life and Challenges

Four short years later, Alfred is obviously settled in this environment.

On Tuesday 26th June 1906 we’ll find him in the Presbyterian church, anxiously awaiting his bride, Mary Louise Kendall, aged 26, born in Brockville from an Irish family.

His parents cannot travel from Edinburgh, though one marriage witness is Marion Begbie, likely to be the wife of Alfred’s brother, Samuel.

Two days later, the newly married couple will leave Montreal on the SS Corinthian, for the 9-day Atlantic crossing east, arriving in Glasgow and travelling on to Edinburgh to meet his wider family, for what may have been the first occasion in 3 years.

It is a privilege to be able, occasionally, to put a face to a researched person, and finally see someone with whom, however fleetingly, we’ve travelled. In this case we have both Alfred and Mary’s image.

A photo from 1906 shows Alfred hamming it up as the hunter of the plains. Interpretation is dangerous, but I see a wry smile on his face.



The couple return to Ontario, where their daughter, Alfreda Amoret Begbie, is born in Brockville in August 1909, followed by Mary Vernon Kendall in December 1913 and finally, a son, Kendall Bell born June 1917.

In 1911, when Alfred is 31, the family is living with in-laws in Brockville, where Alfred is a machinist in a factory, putting the skills he learned as an Edinburgh apprentice to good use. We next see him in 1938, living in Gliddens Ave in Riverside.

With the arrival of the Second World War, Alfred and Mary’s son, Kendall, possibly imbued with the same sense of service that motivated Alfred, volunteers to serve in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) from April 1940.

By August 1942 Kendall requests a transfer to aircrew, is accepted and commences the 6+ months training needed. In September 1943 he is posted as an air bomber to 427 Squadron RCAF, flying Halifax aircraft out of RAF Leeming in Yorkshire.

On the night of 15 Sept 1943 his crew were tasked with a 1100-mile round flight to bomb the Dunlop rubber factory in Montulcan, 170 miles south of Paris. Described as a ‘textbook raid with accurate marking and skilful bombing’ where ‘every building of the works was hit’ (427 Squadron Ops books, 1943). It was Kendal’s first bombing mission.

Kendall’s aircraft returned to the UK, though a ‘hang up’ by one of the bombs impacted the controls. Sadly, Kendall’s aircraft crashed at West Drayton, just outside present-day Heathrow Airport, killing all crew.

A memorial now stands on the site.

Kendall’s remains were taken to his father’s home town of Edinburgh, for cremation, by members of the Begbie family. He has a memorial in Warriston Cemetery, Edinburgh. He left behind a wife and a 5-month-old son, Alfred’s Grandson, also called Kendall.



The crew of Halifax DK253, 427 Sqdn RCAF. F/O Kendall Begbie seated far left. (Source : aircrewremembered.com/chibanoff-alexander.html )

It’s difficult to imagine the aftermath in the Begbie household, and to all those impacted. Thankfully, after this tragedy at the age of 62, all Alfred’s remaining children were to survive him.

His wife Mary lived until 1962, age 83, enjoying 54 years of marriage. Alfred lived on in Peterborough, Ontario until 1970, dying at the fine age of 90.

The RCAF interview notes for Alfred’s son state ‘he appears to have been of a good family‘.

I’d like to think that Alfred’s life journey from Edinburgh to Ontario, via counter insurgency in South Africa with the Scottish Horse, provided rich experience for him to go on to create a good family, and live a full and meaningful life.

Thank you for your service, Alfred.



Thank you for reading this life narrative.

All corrections / builds or insight on Alfred, or any topic raised, are warmly welcomed.

Select Bibliography

• Aircrew remembered: aircrewremembered.com/chibanoff-alexander.html
• Bomber Command Losses Database : losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/201809/
• Squadron Operations books : 427 RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force) Summary of Events ; Sept 1943: discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D8404541
• Bueltmann, T., Hinson, A., & Morton, G. (2013). The Scottish Diaspora. Edin University Press.
• Miller, S.M., (2007). Volunteers on the Veld: Britain’s citizen-soldiers and the South African War, 1899–1902.
• Tullibardine, Marchioness of (1908): A Military History of Perthshire 1899-1902.

Another exceptionally well researched and written post. Thank you very much!
ATB John