TOPIC:

The last bark of 'Long Tom': An incident in the campaign in the Transvaal.

A Correspondent writes: ' A party of Kitchener's Fighting Scouts narrowly missed capturing the original Long Tom the other day. They were out scouting the country north of Pietersburg when they were fired on by the Boers. The 6-inch shell fired at them was the last polite attention from Long Tom for within 5 minutes it was destroyed by the Boers with dynamite'.

The Graphic 15 June 1901

The leading soldier on the righthand side of the illustration from the Graphic appears to have something in his right hand, another sword perhaps?

I'll try to find a picture from The Graphic that doesn't include a sword next time They have been quite prevalent of late

Or according to Bruce Bairnsfather……

I am struggling to understand why a member of either regiment of KFS would be waving a sword whilst being the attention of enemy artillery fire.

Since Frank mentioned it, I now have a heightened awareness of swords in pictures.

This from Cassell's, volume I. The Imperial Yeomanry out for a scamper.