When Toitu, the Otago Settlers Museum, reopens in
December, it will have a permanent military exhibition
displaying items from the South's military heritage dating
back to the 1860s, reports military historian Don Mackay.
Earlier this year, an anniversary once keenly
observed came and went without much notice. May 31 marked the
110th anniversary of the end of the South African War.
On a cold Saturday afternoon on May 31, 1902, near the banks
of the Vaal River, a reluctant peace was reached between the
Boer generals of the Transvaal and Orange Free State
republics and their British adversaries inside a large
marquee at the town of Vereeniging. That was the end of a
bitter war that cost the lives of tens of thousands of
soldiers and civilians, including 230 New Zealanders.
Back in New Zealand, inflated pride was the order of the day
as the colony gushed about its troopers' performance on the
veldt, boosted in no small part from the fount of
exaggerating newspaper editors and the boastful accounts of
the men themselves. Celebrations and parades of all sorts
took place across Otago and Southland before each settlement
focused on ways to record its contribution.
In Dunedin, artist Robert Hawcridge was given the task of
illustrating the battles in which Otago men were prominent,
and the committee responsible for erecting Dunedin's war
memorial at the Oval in 1906 reproduced these drawings on a
special memorial print entitled Otago's Fallen Soldiers
during the Boer War, 1899-1902 for distribution to every
public school throughout Otago.
Four of "Bob" Hawcridge's works straddled corners of a St
George Cross listing those who died to remind the province's
youth of what was sacrificed, and perhaps that they too might
one day be called upon to protect the "one flag" of the
The Otago Settlers Museum retains three of these works by
Typical of the war art of the period, Hawcridge's work was
somewhat imaginative, often employing considerable licence to
both "accentuate" and "concentrate" the valour of his
subjects. His art nonetheless signposted the main battles in
which Otago soldiers took part, and these stirring images
were lapped up by a public hungry for any military heritage
it could call its own.
Easily the most rousing of Hawcridge's illustrations is his
drawing of New Zealand's first overseas blooding at the
remote military camp at Slingersfontein in northern Cape
Colony in January 1900.
The battle was a close-run affair as the attacking Boers
nearly overran the beleaguered British force defending the
crestline. But the day was ultimately saved by a small troop
from New Zealand's First Contingent who, realising the
severity of the situation, fixed bayonets and charged down
the hill for all they were worth at the Boers, who took
flight. Sergeant Sam Gourley - the son of Hugh Gourley, a
Dunedin undertaker and former mayor - was shot several times
before receiving an ultimately fatal concussion as he
plummeted headfirst into a boulder.
After refusing a tot of whisky to dull his pain, Gourley was
stretchered down the slope by his fellow troopers to the camp
below. The contingent's surgeon Dr Thomas Burns, the grandson
of Otago founder Thomas Burns, did what little he could to
comfort the dying man. Gourley has the unfortunate
distinction of being the first Otago soldier to die in battle
during the 20th century.
The dramatic charge at Slingersfontein generated immense
pride in the young colony and the battle-site was thereafter
known as "New Zealand Hill".
The next illustration (bottom right) depicts the First
Contingent's scrap at Koornspruit, the site of an
embarrassing reversal of arms when Boer commandos captured
large numbers of men and materiel in March 1900. The Boers
sprang a trap upon a British column retreating to
Bloemfontein, a force that had the services of the New
Zealanders as a rearguard.
Panicked by Boer shellfire, the column hastily took flight
without scouting the exit across a drift in the nearby river.
The Boers held up at gunpoint and captured each wagon as they
entered the drift, then unleashed a torrent of artillery and
rifle fire from the surrounding hills on the remaining
British force, described by one survivor as a "hellish
Two Royal Horse Artillery batteries were caught up in the
trap, but one, Q Battery, managed to extricate itself and
with their guns and limbers set off in mad career back across
the undulating landscape until forced to stand and fight.
Several mounted units, including the New Zealanders commanded
by Major Alfred Robin, of Dunedin, came to their rescue to
cover the withdrawal of the battery, Major Robin's men being
the last to cross the river still returning Boer fire. But 17
New Zealanders, racked with enteric fever (typhoid), were
captured in their wagon by the Boers after traversing the
A typically British response followed in the wake of this
disastrous rout in which more than 570 men were killed,
wounded or captured, with four Victoria Crosses being awarded
to members of the by then famous Q Battery.
Otago and Southland provided mounted troops for all
10 contingents to South Africa, but they had a special role
in raising and funding their own contingent of "Rough Riders"
in March 1900.
The southern companies of the Fourth Contingent were led by
former pupils of Otago Boys' High School; Harry Fulton
captained the Otago unit, and Balclutha bank manager Jack
(John) Harvey, the commander of the newly formed Clutha
Mounted Rifles, led the Southland-dominated company.
Arriving at Beira, the Fourth Contingent gradually made their
way through Rhodesia then south to Mafeking where they took
part in their first action at Ottoshoop in August 1900. The
Boers were defending several rocky kopjes (small hills)
northeast of the township, and the contingent, ordered to
chase them off, galloped to the battlefield then dismounted
and made their way towards the summit under fire.
Perhaps trying to emulate the heroics at New Zealand Hill, a
bayonet charge was ordered that was, given the circumstances
confronting them, foolhardy to say the least.
Fearlessly, Harvey left the shelter of large boulders beneath
the summit and led his company up the hill only to be shot
dead moments later when he turned to give an order.
Hawcridge's illustration (top left) depicts Jack Harvey's
last order, reputed to be: "Now, we will do or die, boys!"
Hawcridge's last illustration (bottom left) records the
plucky initiative by Dunedin soldier Sergeant Charles Minifie
at Langverwacht in Orange Free State in February 1902, a
deadly battle that cost the lives of 23 New Zealanders. These
men were part of the Seventh Contingent deployed in massive
lines of mounted men whose job it was to drive the Boers
towards defended lines of blockhouses in order to crush them
like a giant steamroller. But these ruthless tactics were
seriously flawed as the elusive Boer commandos could break
through British lines by concentrating superior force at one
Camped along the length of a low ridge overlooking a stream,
the Seventh Contingent dug piquets (small defensive outposts)
and settled in for the night, only to be woken at midnight by
the sound of the Boers frantically whipping a large herd of
cattle towards them. Pandemonium ensued in the darkness as
several hundred Boers swept up the ridge and overwhelmed one
outpost after another.
During the mayhem, the New Zealanders realised the Boers had
seized a rapid-firing Maxim gun and killed its English crew,
so Sgt Minifie led a party and stormed the redoubt then
successfully beat off another Boer attack with the gun until
it jammed. Ignoring heavy enemy fire, Sgt Minifie and another
trooper rolled the gun backwards and pushed it over a small
cliff and into swampy ground below. In saving the gun from
capture, they too were immortalised by Hawcridge.
Langverwacht - also known as Bothasberg - was the single
largest loss of New Zealand life in war until Gallipoli.
Bob Hawcridge died in 1920 but his war art remains a rare
example of Otago soldiers engaged in battle.
Nothing of note specific to the province's men fighting
overseas was produced in either pencil or paint for the
remainder of last century. Official New Zealand Army artist
Captain Matt Gauldie finally broke this drought in 2010 when
he completed a large oil painting depicting the Otago Mounted
Rifles' attack on their horses across no-man's land in 1917
at Messines on the Western Front - commissioned to mark 150
years of military endeavour in the South.
- Historian Don Mackay has written and published
books on a range of military topics, including The Troopers'
Tale: The History of the Otago Mounted Rifles.