Estimated 27,000 died due to the harsh conditions. Approximately 10% of the Boer population perished in the camps. Lord Kitchener responded by torching the farms and rounding up 100,000 Boer women and children, transporting them to concentration camps often without rudimentary necessities of life. The Boers under General Botha armed themselves with the Norwegian Krag-Jørgensen and Mauser long rifles and were often able to outshout and out maneuver British forces. They fought like a people fighting for their homes, farms, and their families. Alleged mistreatment of British citizens in the Kimberly Mines was the pretext for invasion. In the second Boer War, using 16,000 Australian mounted infantry, the British forces were often outmaneuvered and outfought by the Boers who had nowhere livable to retreat to. With the discovery of gold and diamonds at Kimberly the deserts were valuable again. In the First Boer War, the British forces pushed the Boers out of Johannesburg and into the dry Transvaal. He was so angry about what he saw, he never went back to Aussie, stayed and married a local woman.Įngland has traditionally used its Colonial armies to fight to enlarge its Empire. The paternal grandfather was an Aussie who was sent to fight in the Boer war. They were put on a train and sent to a concentration camp in Kimberley The maternal grandmother was 3 when she told her kids of being chased down in the corn fields by “tommies” British soldiers in red uniforms on horseback after they were found hiding in a cave.
I know a family where 2 sides of the family were affected They also put black people in such camps–those who lived on the farms of white people-20 000 died When the British saw they were losing they instituted a scorched earth policy by burning down farms and rounding up women and children and putting them in tented concentration camps The Boer war was to fight the Boers and take the Transvaal so the British could take the gold that had been discovered in Johannesburg and elsehwere The British govt sent Australian soldiers to fight the Boers in South Africa in the Anglo Boer War 1899-1902īecause Australians were a hardy stock, used to rough hot terrain and could ride horses like no other
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