Anglo Boer War: Siege of Elandsriver Commemoration

Elandsriver / Brakfontein can be seen as the last of the conventional battles and the first in the guerrilla phase of the war. It was also the first of many fought for control of the Pretoria - Rustenburg route.

A British garrison under Colonel Charles Owen Hore had been occupying a post at Brakfontein for some weeks. Brakfontein was about to be evacuated and its 505 mainly colonial troops redeployed.

The Republican force comprised some 500 men from the Lichtenburg, Marico and Krugersdorp Commandos, commanded by General de la Rey, General Lemmer and Commandant Steenkamp. On the night of August 3 – 4, de la Rey’s forces surrounded the camp and at first light, opened fire on a detail going to water horses. The artillery fire caused carnage among thousands of animals and the stench of rotting carcasses eventually proved as much a discomfort during the 13-day siege as was the persistent Boer shelling and sniping.

British reinforcements led by General Sir Fredrick Carrington, were slow to arrive. When they did, the Boers laid down deadly accurate fire which caused Carrington to retire – a move which soon became a hasty retreat all the way to Mafikeng. De la Rey offered the British at Elandsriver surrender terms, which they refused. Meanwhile Lord Kitchener was ordered to divert three brigades from the hunt for General de Wet, to relieve Hore. On learning of Kitchener’s approach, de la Rey withdrew on August 16.

Despite the gallant conduct of the Rhodesians and Australians, the battle was a monument to British bungling and ineptitude. The Elands River garrison suffered 22 killed and 58 wounded. The Republicans lost 4 men.

Elandsriver Locality Map

by Rustenburg Military History Study Group

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File size = 97 kb

Elandsriver Battle Map

by Rustenburg Military History Study Group

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File size = 97 kb

Egbert van Bart (standing) with members of the Australian Delegation

For many decades the area surrounding Swartruggens cemetery concealed under a dense covering of bushveld scrubland, like some dark military secret, the remains of those dramatic events of the early days of a new century. Here a small agricultural republic found themselves resisting the resources of a vast empire ranged against them by disingenuous international financiers in their ongoing offensive to globalise the economic resources of the known world.

Eighty years later Peet Coetzee, a member of the Rustenburg Military History Study Group, recalls a valley thickly strewn with the sun-whitened bones of oxen, horses and mules at the foot of one of these ridges from which Swartruggens takes its name, when he first visited the site in the early 1980’s. At the beginning of August 1900, however, neither the bones nor the thick bush covering the area were yet discernable. A black and white photograph of the period reveals bare hills, white grass and a row of tall telegraph poles forebodingly marching in single file across the landscape.

For many years mr Lionel Wulfsohn, another member of the aforesaid Study Group, would regularly revisit the small military cemetery to tend to the graves of the fallen soldiers who had brought the ultimate sacrifice for their king and empire. He, like a latterday Old Mortality, kept burnishing the memory of these heroes, who had himself returned from other later bloodstained battlefields of global conflict and had perhaps glimpsed another, sounder meaning beyond the superficial manipulations for economic mastery. A native of the Rustenburg area, these interests would in time prompt him into writing an objective but sympathetic account of these events in a published work, Rustenburg at War, now in its second enlarged edition, with Lionel still probing, discovering, adding to the all-too-human story. It may not be far off the mark to recall an image of dead ashes which, in being blown upon by living breath, rekindles into a glow and may even be prevailed upon through some coaxing, to burst back into flame.

So it seemed on the morning of 5 August 2000 at the site of the main camp adjoining the military cemetery in Swartruggens, a modest little town mainly serving the farming community of the area. Loud explosions awakened echoes in the surrounding hills and billowing clouds of smoke indicated from where, a hundred years before, Delarey’s guns had blasted away at a company of colonials from the Australian mainland together with some Rhodesian men suddenly penned in with their British commander in one of the heaviest bombardments of the war and in what was for most of them their first action in this African conflict.

The opportunity offered them by genl. Delarey to surrender was rejected out of hand, and their stout defence under trying circumstances must be seen as one of the finest achievements of Australian forces in the Anglo-Boer war. It is therefore appropriate that out of the six memorials erected on the site at Elands River, half are dedicated to the men from the Australian colonies.

In Africa the departed are never dead. The three to four hundred people present were able to witness an assortment of ceremonial ranging from the strictly military with sentries in BSAP uniform going through the correct steps prescribed by contemporary regimental handbooks to the touching informal gestures arousing a myriad popular feelings, accompanying the spectacle of a small agricultural nation vanquished by an industrial world power; and ending with an unassuming yet proud ceremony of a people coming into their own after so long a time of neglect and at last receiving recognition for the role and sacrifice demanded from them in this war. For it was here at the military cemetery that we were to learn that unidentified graves marked “a British soldier” referred to the black participants who, having been drawn into the conflict, also had to bring the supreme sacrifice.

At an auditory level the participants were treated to threnody and lament as the bugle and bagpipes, concertina or kudu horn contributed their unique sounds to the commemoration.

A touching gesture was the laying of wreaths at the memorials and graves by different people but especially the children from Swartruggens schools. In this many of us were reminded of an unaccountable silence of perhaps more than 50 years surrounding the circumstances of this devastating and wasteful war. To suddenly encounter new roadsigns indicating Siege of Elandsriver; to see sanghars emerge from under dense bush, and shells and shrapnel surface among rusted bullybeef cans; to be confronted with the odd bandolier some ancestor had collected from a. hapless British soldier, or a tarnished bayonet, a handcarved tobacco pipe with dates of forgotten skirmishes inscribed on the bowl; this is to be reminded that time is also of some irrepressible substance, that what has once lived will not forever be denied; perhaps a lesson for politicians to heed, and those who regard their fellow human as a mere collective entity, a soulless herd living in some golden moment without past or future and upheld and manipulated by a credit system that is never to be questioned.

That the commemoration took place at all is due to the perseverance and dedication of a small group of committed people, among them the Rustenburg Military History Study Group, also the Anglo-Boer South-African War Provincial Committee under capable chairmanship of the Kgosi Lucas Mabelane, not to forget the Elands River Commemoration Committee with Koos Olivier and his helpers from Swartruggens who made it all accessible on ground level, grappling many long days with a physical environment that is unforgiving at best. Then the Rhodesian and Australian contributions that were two unhesitating shoulders to the wheel. Now there is this germ of new growth here in Swartruggens - this Garden of Remembrance - not so much the end result of much effort but only the first steps towards realising the dreams of a community.

The ceremony went pretty well with a turnout of around 350-400. Representatives of the Provincial Government were present and a sizeable group of Australians (about 30 in all) led by the redoubtable Bruce Ruxton. A lot of work went into the event. A stage was set up plus chairs and stalls serving food.

John Pennefather gave a potted history of the battle and the events surrounding it after which the assembled horde went to the battle site where the six memorials were located.

The SANDF let off some charges to simulate artillery fire. After that the Rhodesian memorial was unveiled. Then it was our turn. I delivered a short address which included references to the Queensland and West Australian memorials. Bruce Ruxton then spoke followed by Ross Bastiaan.

Ruxton and I unveiled the Australian memorial. Then Colonel Miles Farmer (from the 2/14th Light Horse) and I laid wreaths at the Queensland memorial. After that I laid a wreath at the West Australian memorial.

We then trooped off to see the Boer memorial unveiled. Two horsemen dressed as Boers were present. The ceremony was rather emotional but brief.

Finally the memorial to the blacks was unveiled. At the conclusion of the ceremonies everyone returned to the seats and the representative of the Provincial Government gave a speech. She made some pointed remarks about racism which did not quite sit with the mood of the day then referred to the suffering of the animals during the battle.

On that slightly bizarre note the proceedings came to a close. A small group visited the cemetary and laid some wreaths at a few graves.

Afterwards a select grou of guests were taken to Swartruggens High School for lunch during which we were serenaded by a chorus of black schoolgirls.

	Ross Bastiaan speaks at Eland's River ceremony 5-8-2000, other personalities are, with white hair, Bruce Ruxton, Australian President of R.S.L., Col. Farmer in uniform and the author Lionel Wulfsohn.		Dr. Koos Olivier at new West Australian memorial by Johan van As
	4 Sentries in period uniforms by Dave Panagos		WA Memorial with wreath
	Central Memorial Eland's River Post Siege Centenary Commemoration		Guards at Australian memorial by Dave Panagos
	The Rhodesian Memorial		Inscription on new West Australian memorial. by Johan van As
	Rhodesian Memorial		Inscription on memorial
	Ian Denholm for Rhodesians by Egbert van Bart		Luan & Danie Dreyer represented the Boer soldiers by Egbert van Bart
	Rhodesian BSAP by Egbert van Bart		Part of the exhibition by Egbert van Bart
	Flag pole by Dave Panagos		Black Memorial
	Australian Visitors by Egbert van Bart		Koos & Willemien Olivier at the Boer Memorial by Egbert van Bart
	Australian Delegation with Egbert van Bart standing		Moedwil cemetery by Egbert van Bart

I hereby wish to thank all people who knowingly or unknowingly contributed to the information contained in this webpage.

I would like to mention the names of Dr. Koos Olivier in Swartruggens who took a leading role in the organizing of the whole occasion and who did the hard work of preparing the venue and erecting the memorials, also of Midge Carter in Australia for the passing on of information and photo's.

The Anglo Boer War Centenary Commemoration:

The Siege of the Elandsriver Staging Post

4 - 16 August 1900