by Allan Gordon | May 22, 2020 | Deaths, South African War 1899 - 1902
Lieutenant-General French died on 22 May 1925 at the age of 72. On entering the ‘military’ he saw brief service in the Royal Navy, before becoming a cavalry officer. He took part in the Gordon Relief Expedition in 1845 which arrived two days too late to save the...
by Allan Gordon | May 20, 2020 | Battles, South African War 1899 - 1902
In early May 1900 Lieutenant-Colonel Bethune was sent with his column to clear the area around Nqutu (about 60 km east of Dundee) of Boers. On 18 May he heard that the town of Vryheid (north of Nqutu) was unoccupied and he decided to occupy the town. On 20 May, on...
by Allan Gordon | May 18, 2020 | Anniversaries, South African War 1899 - 1902
Colonel Pulteney, who featured in our blog on 14 May, was born on this day in 1861. He died on 14 May 1941 – four days short of turning 80.
by Allan Gordon | May 18, 2020 | Battles, South African War 1899 - 1902
The British forces were on the move northwards and Lieutenant-Colonel Pilcher had engaged a Boer commando on 16 May at Hofman’s Drift, about 35 km north of the Free State town, Hopetown. In this engagement the British suffered a number of casualties, and they decided...
by Allan Gordon | May 17, 2020 | Battles, South African War 1899 - 1902
The siege of Mafeking lasted seven months from when the town was surrounded at the outbreak of the South African War in October 1899. The British garrison which was in the town was commanded by Colonel Baden-Powell and totalled about 2 000 men. The Boer forces under...
by Allan Gordon | May 16, 2020 | Anniversaries, Deaths, South African War 1899 - 1902
Lieutenant-General Bindon Blood died on 16 May 1940 aged 97. He was in Zululand in 1879 where he saw service in the Anglo-Zulu War. He also saw service in the South African War. He wasn’t in South Africa at the outset, only arriving in the country in March 1901 at...
