TASMANIANS IN THE ANGLO BOER WAR: second contingent
The following images are thumbnails only having been reduced to minimal size. If you wish to view the image in its original format, please refer to the Weekly Courier and Tasmanian Mail LINC.
No full size images are given on this website due to uncertain copyright restrictions. These thumbnails are intended simply as a preview indexed to the relevant Weekly Courier issue date and page.
No full size images are given on this website due to uncertain copyright restrictions. These thumbnails are intended simply as a preview indexed to the relevant Weekly Courier issue date and page.
Tasmanian Bushmen
Departed 5 March 1900, returned 14 June 1901
Sergeant William Henry BARWICK
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David Henry BEVERIDGE
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Lieut. Alexander McKenzie BOYES
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Eric Ethelbert BURGESS
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Hedley Salisbury BUTLER
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Walter Herbert CHANT
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Corporal Herbert DOWLING
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H H FACY
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Alexander HAMILTON
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Sergeant Alfred Frank JOHNSON
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George William KEMSLEY
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Robert LAWSON
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Richard LEE
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Alfred LETTE
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William Keverill McINTYRE
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Edward Thomas PHELAN
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William SWEENEY
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Alfred Gibbs TOLMAN
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Frank Edward BRAIN
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Robert CHANT
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J COOPER
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Harry COX
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Arthur Valentine DYER
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Albert George HILLIER
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Peter KERR
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Elvin Charles MITCHELL
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Charles PACKETT
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Louis PETERSEN
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Lance Cpl James St Clair RILEY
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John Douglas ROYLE
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Lance Cpl Arthur Edward SIMS
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Quarter Master Sgt Vernon SMITH
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Cpl James Benjamin STANWORTH
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Joseph SULLIVAN
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RONALD DOUGLAS
Twenty-four year old Mt Lyell miner, Ronald Douglas, was wounded near Ottoshoop on 22 August 1900. The bullet had entered his body at the shoulder and passed out near the loin.
While Douglas was laying there in the tall grass injured, a 17 year old Dutch girl came to him and asked him whether he had been shot. She tried to lift him up and even wanted to carry him but he was too big a burden. She then removed his haversack to make a comfortable resting place for his head. She left him and not long after returned with her mother and five aunts. They talked together in Dutch for a while and he wondered what were their intentions for he had heard tales of cruelty on the part of Boer women. Four of the women then stooped down, crossed their hands under him and then carried him to a farmhouse, where they handed him over to the girl’s grandmother. After examining his wounds, the old lady prepared some salve and for bandages, she used her apron which she tore into strips. Douglas stayed at the farmhouse five days, during which time the Boer menfolks often came to ask after him. They sent for a Boer doctor, but the doctor was too busy engaged in attending to their own wounded. Then General Lemmer sent a note the British camp requesting for an ambulance to be sent up to the farmhouse. The ambulance arrived in due course and Douglas was taken to Mafeking. At Mafeking, he was then sent in a hospital train to Deelfontein. It was not until the week before Christmas that he was able to get out of bed. It was a long road to recovery and only his strong constitution pulled him through. |
EDWARD ROGER JACSON
On 22 August 1900, Jacson was among a handful of scouts sent to the left and right flanks of the Boers’ position near Ottoshoop. Ronald Douglas who is mentioned above approached the other flank.
When Jacson’s party reached the top of the hill, they dismounted and Jacson alone advanced to the top. Three times he fired and then came in the reply like a shower of hail. Just one bullet struck him, behind the ear and passing clean through his head, killing him instantly. Jacson was 43 years of age and left behind a widow and two children at Invermay. John James Gardiner wrote: "No man in the contingent was so well liked as Jacson. Always ready to do whatever he might be called on and with a genial smile, he soon won all members of the contingent as friends, and it did not stop there for wherever he went or no matter whom he came in contact with, it was the same. It was the man's natural self that made him a gentlemen. It was next day that we missed him most. I and four others dug his grave and at 2 pm the contingent followed him to his last resting place, the usual 12 with reversed arms leading the way. After the service had been read and the grave filled in, everybody seemed to file off by themselves as if they wished to be alone. Such was the gloom cast over us." |
JOHN JAMES GARDINER
On 2 April 1901, Gardiner of Queenstown was honourably mentioned in Commander-in-Chief’s despatches for his conduct. At this time, Gardiner and his contingent had been in South Africa twelve months, having left Hobart on the transport Antillian on 5 March 1900 and arrived at Cape Town on the 31st.
Of his voyage, Gardiner wrote: “The day is hot. We are all huddled together like so many sheep on the top deck in the forecastle. There is no awning and the fellows are trying to find shelter in each other’s shadow. It can hardly be called natural heat since a good deal of it comes from the horses and again from the top deck which is all iron. Before going any further I must ask you to excuse this scrawl as I have my left arm in a sling and cannot keep the paper still. We were all vaccinated about 12 days ago and in consequence some of us are now laid up, I being one of the worst. None of the Coast fellows took but myself. The swelling went across my chest, down my side and down my arm. I had hard work to keep out of going into the hospital.” “For food we get pea and other soup four times a week. During the remainder of time our tea is made in the same cans, meat twice a day, fresh and tough one day and stinking the next. Bread four days a week and the rest of the time we get biscuits which were made before the ship was built. Any extras are supplied by ourselves.” “If I get through safe I hope to go back to Tasmania an officer and, if possible, with a VC.” Photo of Gardiner with two donkeys and a cart by V Smith (Australian War Memorial) |
JOHN COLEMAN
The Tasmanian Bushmen received their baptism of fire when half a dozen wagons loaded with rations and 19 Tasmanians and 11 South Australians who escorted the provisions were attacked on the road to Elands River. A party of Boers tried to cut off the column of about 2,000 men and about 100 Boers approached the rear of the column when they came into contact with the Bushmen. Jack Coleman with another trooper, Joe Sullivan, were scouting on the flank when the Boers fired on them. Coleman was wounded in the hand and shoulder and a bullet passed clean through Sullivan’s water bottle.
Two months earlier to the day, on 6 June 1900, Jack wrote to his father: “We are at Bulawayo and have been here a week. I think we are going down Mafeking way. We hear the Boers are coming north so we may meet them yet. We have had a grand trip round this way through Rhodesia. We were the first troops to come this way so that is a feather in our cap. I am glad to say I have been well since I left. Charlie Packet and all the Sheffield boys are quite well. I have enjoyed the trip splendidly and am glad I came.” |
JAMES SINCLAIR RILEY
Incorrectly listed in Nominal Roll as James St Clair Riley, this photo is from the Tasmanian Times with the caption: "Second son of Mr J Riley of Sorrell, one time Superintendent of Aboriginese at Flinders Island."
During an attack on the road to Elands River, Riley was captured by the Boers on 6 August 1900. Minutes earlier, about sixty shots were fired at him but not a single one hit him. He galloped off but his horse fell and got away and Riley was subsequently captured. The Boers offered Riley his liberty if he was prepared to sign a document on oath not to take up arms again against the Republic. This Riley refused and in less than 24 hours Riley escaped. He made his way to the Bushmen’s camp at Zeerust some 45 kilometres away. Later Riley related his experiences: “I duly arrived and gave them all the information I had learned during my happily short term of imprisonment. The officers complimented me on the good work I had done. If I told you all that happened on my trip it would sound like fiction and the boys would say Dicken, so will reserve it until my return, which I hope will be in a few months. Regards to the boys and success to the Herald, the few copies received being read with interest by the West Coasters.” |
THOMAS GOUCHER
Sergeant-Major Goucher of Ulverstone and Trooper Edward Thomas Phelan of Waratah were the only two Tasmanians caught up in the Elands River siege. The Elands River Siege “in the Boer War was Australia’s Gallipoli before Gallipoli itself.” [1]
The troops were encamped at Elands River when they came under fire by a large Boer contingent of 3000 men. The Elands River garrison comprised just 505 men, mostly Queenslanders, New South Welshmen and Victorians with several hundreds from British and Rhodesian regiments. The troops were transporting supplies and were encamped at the Elands River garrison. The camp itself became a veritable death trap with the Boers firing on the troops from the north, south, east and west. On the first day of the siege, no fewer than 1500 shells landed within the confines of the 12 acre camp. Around 1500 horses, mules and cattle were killed and those that remained alive were set free to avoid a stampede. On the third day the Boers demanded their surrender and in place offered them the chance to return to the British line with three days worth of rations. To this, Colonel Hore wrote back, “Even if I wished to surrender to you, and I don’t, I am commanding Australians who would cut my throat if I accepted your terms.” The battle continued until Lord Kitchener and 2nd and 3rd cavalry regiment finally and successfully came to the rescue, which occurred on the 13th day of the siege. Sixteen men were killed, eight of whom were Australians. Phelan later wrote: “Our losses were heavy, as you see, but we hung on all the same. All Australian Bushmen who came out first have made a name for themselves that of the land of their birth should be proud of.” [1] Peter Fitzsimmons, Sydney Morning Herald 2020 |
EDWARD BUSE ADAMS
Born at Pipers River in 1874, Edward Buse Adams left school at aged 13 and began working on his father's farm. At the outbreak of the Anglo Boer War, Edward joined the Tasmanian Bushmen and saw the campaign through.
In a letter to his brother not long after arriving in South Africa, Adams wrote: “I am just informed we start at 6 o’clock in the morning on our way to the front. We have had 100 rounds of ammunition issued to us, so it begins to look businesslike and they seem to think we are to have some mild excitement before long, so I may have something to write about.” Indeed he had something to write about in the following month. Before crossing the border from Rhodesia in May 1900, Adams wrote: “There are zebra and buffalo here and when we were on guard of a night we used to hear the lions roaring quite close to the camp. Some of the South Australians had three shots at one and hit it pretty hard but lost it in the long grass. The grass here grows higher and thicker than the heaviest crop of grain you ever saw.” Like many of his compatriots, Adams went on to serve in the First World War, enlisting as member of the 25th Battalion in 1916 and invalided home in June 1918. He returned to his farm at Jerusalem Plains and passed away in 1946. He was survived by his wife and a family of five children. |
ARTHUR HORTON RIGGALL
Captain Riggall who commanded the second Tasmanian contingent on the voyage to South Africa and afterwards the Tasmanian Bushmen, was awarded the Queen’s Medal with four clasps. He was also created Companion of the Distinguished Service Order in April 1901.
While in South Africa, Riggall contracted enteric fever at Mafeking and was invalided to England, arriving in London two days before the death of Queen Victoria. He subsequently left London for his home in Tasmania. Ever since his return to Tasmania, Riggall continued to take a keen interest in military affairs and on Anzac night every year since the Great War he tendered a dinner to the returned of the Ross district. |
Nominal Roll
The following link is an excerpt from the Official Records of the Australian Military Contingents to the War in South Africa compiled by Lieutenant Corporal Pembroke Lathrop Murray in 1911. It includes full names, rank, promotions, honours and deaths specific to the State of Tasmania for the Tasmanian Bushmen.
Please note that not all names are listed in the Australian Military Contingents to the War in South Africa. If you fail to find the person you're looking for, you can search the complete register by surname at the following website: Australians in the Boer War.