Christmas in Ladysmith: Boer War 1899 3

BESIEGED

Sir George White

It’s strange that White didn’t send more people out of Ladysmith while the railway was operating southwards. As it was, he was left with about 22 000 mouths to feed. The Town Clerk of Ladysmith, George Lines, noted that there were 2 200 white civilian residents, 1 200 Indians and 1 500 Africans, probably a conservative estimate. 

There had been an influx of refugees from outlying areas prior to the start of the hostilities. White’s fighting force consisted of 572 officers and 13 000 men, including the regulars (infantry, cavalry and artillery), irregulars, Natal volunteer units and the Naval Brigade.

The biblical analogy of the loaves and fishes comes to mind, but the situation in Ladysmith at the beginning of the siege didn’t appear quite that critical. An immense number of stores had been stockpiled. True, some of these had been sent up to Dundee and subsequently lost. However, there remained 979 000 lbs of flour, 173 000 lb of tinned meat, 142 000 lbs of biscuit, 267 000 lbs of tea, 9 500 lbs of coffee, plus quantities of maize, oats, bran and hay, as well as wine, spirits and medical supplies. There were 9 800 horses and mules, 2 500 oxen and a few hundred sheep, and these animals could be eaten if necessary. Additionally, tinned and other provisions held by Ladysmith’s citizens were purchased by the Army.

There was no immediate prospect of relief. White’s army made some forays out of Ladysmith, including a night sortie on Gun Hill undertaken on 7 November and an attack on Surprise Hill on 10 November. It was fortunate that the big Naval guns had reached Ladysmith before the trap shut tight. Without these to match the might of the Long Toms, the story of the siege could have been a much briefer narrative.

Now it became a waiting game. As White said to his staff on 20 November, ‘We have two things to do – to kill time and to kill Boers – both equally difficult.’

Col. Royston C.O. Natal Volunteers and Staff, Ladysmith

THE BESIEGERS

 

Gen. Piet Joubert

Ladysmith and its defenders were all that stood between the Boers and the port of Durban. Commandant-General Piet Joubert allowed thousands of his burghers (whose real value lay in their mobility as mounted infantry) to be stuck outside Ladysmith, which proved to be a tougher nut to crack than expected. General Ben Viljoen in his later reminiscences remarked, ‘The whole siege of Ladysmith and the manner in which the besieged garrison was ineffectually pounded at with our big guns for several months, seem to me an unfathomable mystery…’.   

The truth is that Joubert thought Ladysmith would surrender. He couldn’t have been more wrong.

Boers firing during Siege of Ladysmith

Christmas in Ladysmith: Boer War 1899 2

THE BEGINNING

Penn-Symons

On the expiry of the ultimatum, Boer commandos swept over the mountain passes into Natal and on 20 October met British forces under General Penn-Symons at Talana hill near Dundee. The British won the day, but at great cost of lives including that of Penn-Symons himself. 

It was left to General Yule to abandon Dundee, plus a large number of stores, to fall back on Ladysmith. Yule’s 4 000 men made a valiant retreat, staggering wearily into the town on 26 October. Gunner William Netley of the Dundee garrison compared this feat to the gruelling march to Kandahar during the Afghan War. 

Four days after Yule’s column made it into Ladysmith, a naval brigade with two 4.7 inch guns, three long 12 pounders, one short 12 pounder and four maxims arrived. This fire power was to prove vital in defending Ladysmith.

Naval Brigade at Ladysmith

In the interim, British troops under General French successfully repulsed the Boers at Elandslaagte, but White abandoned the ground having had news of a strong Boer advance on Ladysmith. An action was also fought at Rietfontein on 24 October, primarily to cover the retreat of Yule’s column from Dundee. By 27 October, the Boer commandos were concentrated around Ladysmith, and starting to emplace their Long Tom guns on the hills overlooking the town. Martial law had been declared and the Natal Field Force was centralized under White. 

Boer Long Tom

The net was drawing tighter, and two attempts were made to prevent total Boer encirclement of the town. One was the debacle at Nicholson’s Nek on ‘Mournful Monday’, 30 October, where the Boers overran British positions and took 800 prisoners. The other engagement, on the same day, was in the vicinity of Farquhar’s Farm (the Battle of Ladysmith or Battle of Modder Spruit), where after some heavy artillery exchanges, the British were ordered to retire on Ladysmith.

On 2 November the last train steamed out of the town under enemy fire, carrying civilian refugees and also Generals Yule and French. In the afternoon, the Boers cut telegraph and railway communications and destroyed the waterworks. Ladysmith was surrounded and the bombardment of the town began.

Varieties of ammunition collected at Ladysmith

Boer artillery firing into Ladysmith

To be continued

Christmas in Ladysmith: Boer War 1899 1

‘It’ll be over by Christmas’ was the phrase on everyone’s lips as British Imperial and Colonial troops were mobilized for the Anglo-Boer War, officially declared on 11 October 1899.

Sir Alfred Milner

Two days earlier, an ultimatum had been received from Kruger’s Transvaal Government demanding the immediate removal of British forces on the borders of the Boer Republic, and the withdrawal of all Imperial troops which had arrived in South Africa in the course of that year, as well as any reinforcements then on their way to South Africa by sea. Should the demands not be complied with within forty-eight hours, this would be considered a formal declaration of war. Britain’s reply, couched by Sir Alfred Milner, was succinct: the conditions demanded by the Government of the South African Republic were such as Her Majesty’s Government deemed impossible to discuss.

After that, events swiftly gained momentum and in the ensuing surge of British patriotic fervour, there was no time to waste on idle speculation as to the outcome of the decision. It was impossible to predict that the might of the Empire would be challenged by ‘a handful of Boers’ to such an extent that a long, bitter and costly struggle lay ahead – and that for 22 000 people soon to be besieged in the Natal town of Ladysmith, the Christmas of 1899 would be one they would never forget.

WHY LADYSMITH?

Pakenham, in his book The Boer War, is less than complimentary about Ladysmith, describing it as ‘hot, dusty, disease-ridden and claustrophobic’. Nevertheless, it had been an important outpost since the 1840s. Lying among low hills at the foot of the Biggarsberg and Drakensberg ranges, Ladysmith was the last stop for wagons travelling north or south to replenish provisions before the long haul across the mountains. It was named on 11 October 1850 (exactly 49 years before the expiry of the Boer ultimatum in 1899), in honour of Lady Juana Maria, the Spanish wife of Sir Harry Smith, then governor of the Cape.

A decade later, a fort was built and the town expanded steadily. There was a significant milestone in 1885 when the railway reached Ladysmith. By 1890, a permanent military camp known as ‘Tin Town’ had been established: vast amounts of stores and ammunition were gradually accumulated, and Ladysmith became the main British supply base and military training ground in Natal. Strategically-speaking, it was also the junction of the railway line between the Free State, Transvaal and Natal.

On the eve of the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War, Ladysmith was the third largest town in the colony, with two main streets, shops and houses, a Town Hall built in 1893, a railway station, the Royal Hotel, several churches and a convent. Many of its buildings, including the Hindu mosque, were of wood under corrugated iron roofs. 

It’s doubtful whether the British Commander-in-Chief, Sir George White, entering Ladysmith on 11 October 1899, was impressed by what he saw. From a military point of view, he certainly wouldn’t have chosen it as a place in which to be besieged: it was practically indefensible, hemmed in and overlooked by the surrounding hills. But that Ladysmith would be forced to withstand a siege was the last thing anyone anticipated.

Ladysmith and the Klip River

To be continued

Passengers to Natal: Trent 1852

Natal Witness 13 February 1852

ARRIVED

February 6th

The barque Trent, Captain A. Collett, from London.

The following is a list of passengers:

CABIN

Mr. J. S. Steel and Mrs. Steel

Mr. and Mrs. Schwikhard

Mr. James Mack (Surgeon) and Mrs. Mack

Mr. W. J. Wilkinson

Mr. H. F. Paxton

Mr. and Mrs. E. Ratsey

INTERMEDIATE

Mr. Samuel Oxenham

Mr. and Mrs. Block

Messrs. Josh. and Charles Parker

Mr. Joseph Duncan

Mr. (Wm.) and Mrs. Brown and family (6)

Mr. James Wigg

Mr. Charles Shaw

Mr. E. Bellans

Sailed (from London) Nov 22nd, 1851

Feb. 7 - Rosebud, A. Murison, from Cape Town

Feb. 8 - Tryphena, A. Smith, to Mauritius

INSIDE

Devonian, E.P. Lamport, agent

Iris, J. Millar and Co. agent

Rosebud, H. Jargal, agent

OUTSIDE

Trent, J. Brown, agent

Wreck of the Annabella, Port Natal 1856

Annabella Bank

The ship Annabella, 200 tons, Capt. Louis Wilson, arrived on the 21^st January [1856]. She was unable to come inside until the 26^th, when she crossed the Bar in charge of a Pilot, with the Master at the wheel, and attended by a steady N.E. breeze. There was said to have been 16 foot of water on the Bar, but,  there being a moderate sea on, she touched between the swells, lost steerage way, and drifted on to the Lee Bank, where she was taken aback in an unsuccessful attempt to make a stern board (i.e. get off backwards), and so swing round head to sea. Notwithstanding attempts to move her, she hung on the bank all night.

The crew were landed, and next morning she was found to have 8 feet of water in her hold. Heavy seas had set in and her seams having opened, all hope of her floating again was abandoned, though efforts were made to discharge her cargo of general merchandise, the greater part of which was damaged and passed under the hammer of Mr. Auctioneer Acutt, who disposed of the hull and cargo left on board on the 4^th February.

Captain L Wilson eventually settled here with his wife and family, and became a Burgess of Durban on establishing a Ship Chandler’s business at the Point, where he has been succeeded by his son, Mr L J Wilson.

The Annabella, not so fortunate as the Princess, gave her name to that locality, and the Annabella Bank became, in all Harbour Board records and reports, synonymous with the earlier Lee Bank. The existing North Pier passes over the site of the disaster and marks the grave of the Annabella. The Lee Bank has, in consequence, asserted its prior rights, calls Nature to its aid, and continually obtrudes itself in unexpected places to the perplexity of Engineers and navigators.

[G.Russell's History of Old Durban]

Passengers to Natal: Princeza, Lady of the Lake 1858

Arrivals at Natal June 1858    

June 20 Princeza (schooner) 141 t, W Lee, from Liverpool

Passengers:

Rev W & Mrs Mason

Mr Atkinson

Mr Ward

June 21 Lady of the Lake (barque) 321 t, M Taylor, from London

Passengers

Cabin: Messrs

Carbutt

Burton

Ellington

Mrs I Taylor, Miss Taylor & Mrs M H Taylor

2^nd Cabin

Miss C Burton

W F Bloy

W R Bloy

Messrs

Kirkham

Crowder & Mrs Crowder

Mr Gavin

Miss Hillary

Mrs Hooper & 2 Misses Hooper

Mrs & Master Little

Miss Richards

Steerage

Miss Arnold

Mr Brickhill & 2 Masters Brickhill

Mrs Flemming

Mr Glenester

Mr & Mrs Gray

Messrs Hillary (17 in number)

Miss A Jenkins

L Jenkins

Messrs Inman and Long

Mr and Mrs Meldrum

Messrs

Marshall

Milne

Gawbee (illegible)

Gyles

Mr & Mrs Pugh & 2 children

Mr & Mrs Ramsay & 6 children

Jane Brunton

Maria Sydnell

Mary Wilson

Messrs Thompsit & White

Passengers to Natal: Sir Robert Peel 1854

The Sir Robert Peel was the first steamer to enter Port Natal, 1852

ARRIVAL OF THE SIR ROBERT PEEL Natal Mercury March 22 1854

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE

ARRIVED

March 16 - Sir Robert Peel, stm - Boxer, from Table Bay,

March 3; Mossel Bay, 5; Algoa Bay, 8; Buffalo, 12.

PASSENGERS

Dr Best (45th Regiment)

Rev Mr Campbell

Rev Mr and Mrs Cox

Rev Dr and Mrs Faure, child and servant

Messsrs

Steele

Hunter

Churchill

Lentick

Brockhouse

Rouse

Thompson

Miss Sargeuant

Mrs Woodrow

8 in Steerage

Manifest list

E Snell agent.

SAILED

March 21st - Candace, brig - Fisher - for Muscat.

March 22nd - Margaret Gibson, bgtne, 149 tons - G Hannaford - for Mauritius.

IN PORT

Sir Robert Peel, str. 240 tons - Boxer - for Cape

E Snell, agent.

VESSELS EXPECTED

Natal, stm. 680 tons - from London

E Snell, agent.

Jane Morice, bq, - from Liverpool

EP Lamport, agent.

Leontine Mary, schr. 29 tons - Baragwanath - from Algoa Bay

E Snell, agent.

Heath, - , from London.

The clipper-barque 'Clydeside', advertised in the English papers, and laid on for this port, is withdrawn, and the 'Heath' has taken her place.

BIRTHS

At Howards Vale, Umhlali, near Compensation, on Saturday, 11th March, the lady of Capt. JMK Chadwick, of a son.

On the 17th instant, the wife of Robert Acutt, Esq. of this place, of a daughter.

Passengers to Natal: Lady of the Lake Jan 1854

ARRIVALS AT  NATAL  JANUARY 1854 

January 7 ‘Lady of the Lake’ (barque) 329 t, R I Scott, from London

Passengers  Cabin:

Mrs & 2 Misses Mesham

Messrs Good & York

Mrs Boyne

Mr & Mrs Abbott

Master & Miss Spearman

Steerage

Mr, Mrs & 2 Misses Tedder

Mrs Ward & child

Miss Hillary

Miss Bell

Mr & Miss Woodhouse

(2 illegible names)

Mr Thornton

Miss Pearce

January 8 ‘Ampulla’ London

Brig, 149 t, John Daniel, from

Passengers:

Mr & Mrs Batcombe & 4 children

Natal settlers of the 1850s from 'My African Home'
 by Eliza Feilden

Passengers to Australia from Natal: Golden Age 1854

Golden Age departure for Australia Natal Mercury July 12 1854

The Natal Mercury announced on 12 July 1854 that the barque Golden Age (Captain W Jones) would at last depart for Melbourne after being unfortunately detained for several days - reasons for the delay are not given. She carried about 50 passengers, Natal settlers leaving the Colony for fresh opportunities in Australia.

The strongly negative comments published in the same paper on 1 February of that year apparently did not change the Golden Age passengers' minds about their destination. Under the heading 'Australia', an emigrant from Natal to that colony warns against considering the 'perilous adventure': he has nothing good to say about the climate, the health hazards, high rents, or the crime rate. Even the gold diggings, the main incentive for settlers removing from Natal to Australia at this period, are described in disappointing, even scathing, terms.* Nevertheless, the Golden Age did sail as planned, with several children on board. 

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE

SAILED
July 12 - Golden Age, bq [barque] 
W Jones - for Melbourne - 

Natal Mercury 12 July 1854

PASSENGERS 
W Gallians 
Mr Bayley and two children 
H Baker, wife and two children 
J Matters, wife and four children 
J McGully 
HJ Gale, wife and children 
G St. Paul 
J Forman 
E Standish 
Mrs Glover and three children 
R Short 
JS Erwood 
J Cuthbert 
E Dubois 
J Clark 
J Canning and wife 
W Fuller 
Charles Richards 
Donald McPhail 
R Mathew 
Mrs Williams and two children 
C Owen 
T Poynton, wife and child 
R Parker 
Whitaway 
Dineley


IN PORT 
Heath, bq. 307 tons, - W Wightman - for Colombo 
John Millar and Co. agents. 
Queen, schr. 104 tons - R Thomson - for Mauritius 
EP Lamport, agent.

VESSELS EXPECTED 
Natal, scr.-stm. 700 tons - from Table Bay 
E Snell, agent. 
Leontine Mary, schr. 29 tons - G Henwood 
E Snell, agent.

FOR MAURITIUS 
The A1 Schooner 'Queen', Captain R Thomson; in order to give Shippers to England time to collect cargo, will make an intermediate voyage to the above place, and will sail on Saturday the 15th instant. 
For Freight to and back from Mauritius apply to EP Lamport. 
Durban, 5th July 1854.


*From the Natal Mercury 1 February 1854:

AUSTRALIA
The following extracts from the letter of a Natal Emigrant to Australia, received by the last Mail, may supply useful cautions to those who meditate a like perilous adventure.

'So long as you can gain anything more than a living, I wouldn't advise any married man to come here. Illness has been universal and a doctor's bill is no joke, I have incurred £5 myself, besides awful rheumatics. You know of course that Byrne is here, a storekeeper at the diggings. I was at Geelong, in Court, the other day when he was called as a witness, but in coming down he broke his leg, and couldn't appear. Rents are frightful, £100 per annum, for one room, and I have to live besides three miles from town at another rent. 

Geelong is worse than Melbourne, nine inches in mud, in short the place and the climate is as bad as it can be, I have not met one who likes it. I believe you will soon have some of our people back again, some are at the diggings, but I have not heard of any doing well. The only persons who can ensure a living well, are carpenters, masons, and hard working labourers. Labourers who can stand any climate, - they get, - the former, £1 to £1 5s. and labourers 10s to 15s per day, but expenses are in proportion, nevertheless they do exceedingly well. Professional men are cheap enough and get cheaper every day.

'Trade is the way to make money. If I had capital I could double it every two months with safety. There is no comfort to be purchased. I send you a paper to show you the way we commit robberies here. We don't steal a few paltry pounds, but 2,300 ounces of gold. I may tell you that the escort from the diggings has been stopped, and 2,300 ozs of gold taken, the escort consisting of eight troopers, all shot dead but one; so says the report at present. They were attacked by 20 bushrangers, and shot from behind the trees. It is a common thing for one man to rob another of from £200 to £500. Last week £1,000 was taken from a digger. 

My room is a back room, 10 x 9, stinks like a p....y: the yard behind is full of green slush and the front little better. When you hear grumblers in Natal, ask they if they are gaining a living; if they are, they are better a hundred times than those who are doing the same here. As for houses and stores they are not to be got. Talking of winter and not requiring warm clothing, I have nearly perished of cold. All that they have written about this colony as to climate is lies, lies, lies, from beginning to end. Every imaginable disease rides rampant here, and a few extra ones to boot. Grown people die, and children won't live.'

The End of the Rainbow: Golden Square 1857 by George Rowe
Australian gold diggings

Passengers to Australia from Natal: Wee Tottie 1853

WEE TOTTIE departure for Australia Natal Witness 4 March 1853
plus other arrivals and departures:

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE
ARRIVED
Feb 24 - Margaret Gibson, brig, 148 tons, R Robinson from Liverpool 22nd Oct., to this port. 
Cargo sundries. 
EP Lamport, Agent.
Feb 28 - Anne, schooner, 99 tons, J Cameron, from Table Bay and Algoa Bay 20th, to this port. 
Cargo sundries. 
PASSENGERS 
Misses Loftie and Walker 
In the steerage 
Mr Jones 
J Brown, Agent.
SAILED
Feb 19 - Leontine Mary, F Fuller, to East London. 
PASSENGERS 
Mr Garbutt and wife 
Mr Trow, wife and 2 children 
Mrs Miles and 2 children 
Messrs 
Hawkins 
Tucker 
Clarkson 
Alexander 
Maitland 
Wilson

Natal Witness 4 March 1853

Feb 22 - Wee Tottie, J Roberts, to Australia. 
PASSENGERS 
Mr F Spring, late Postmaster General 
Mr and Mrs Schwikkard 
Mrs Warwick and 2 children 
Mr and Mrs Mullins and child 
Mr and Mrs McKeaney 
Mr and Mrs Trotter 
Mr Geddes, wife and 3 children 
Mrs and Mrs Greenaway 
Mr and Mrs O'Neil and child 
Mr and Mrs Bennett and 6 children 
Mr and Mrs Marianny and 3 children 
Mrs Blade 
Mr and Mrs Munro and child 
Mr and Mrs Fanning and child 
Mr and Mrs Hicks 
Mr and Mrs G Tomlinson 
Mr and Mrs Troy 
Mr and Mrs McKenna and child 
Mr Harris and 2 children 
Messrs 
Cope 
Milner 
Williams 
Kelley 
Hubbard 
Todd 
D Patterson 
Watt 
Jenkey 
Butler 
Fyvie 
Webber 
Taylor 
Barber 
Ashton 
Callain 
Thomas 
Strachan 
Holden 
Wilson


INSIDE 
Roscoe, 
Jackson and Co., agents. 
Margaret Gibson, R Robinson, for Mauritius. 
Lamport 
Anne, J Cameron, from Table Bay. 
Brown

VESSELS EXPECTED 
From London 
Louisa Maria, Trent, Vibilia, Augustus Schnader, Wanderer, and Lady of the Lake. 
From the Cape 
Sir Robert Peel, Steamer, J Boxer.

Wee Tottie A 1 at Lloyds: This vessel is now being
fitted up with superior accommodation for Passengers all this being in Enclosed
Cabins; and offers ... a most eligible opportunity for parties about to
proceed to Australia. An experienced Surgeon is engaged to
accompany the vessel, and every attention will be paid
to the comfort and requirements of the  passengers.