An example to be followed or a warning to be avoided? The British, Boers, and guerrilla warfare, 1900–1902

Abstract

This article examines the British response to the onset of guerrilla warfare launched by the Boers in March 1900. It argues that although Britain had signed the Hague Convention in July 1899, the two commanders, Lords Roberts and Kitchener, combated this unprecedented challenge with their own notions of what constituted ‘civilised warfare’ or ‘the usages of war’. They did not concern themselves with winning ‘hearts and minds’, and both commanders used destructive measures against the civilian population, either to punish them for helping the guerrillas, or to turn them against those still fighting. Kitchener implemented a thorough strategy based on the destruction of farms and livestock and on imprisoning Boer and African families in what became known as ‘concentration camps’. Although the ‘collective punishment’ of civilians was against the Hague Convention, the British utilised such methods to destroy the independence of the Boer republics. The article also suggests that the nature of the guerrilla war undermines any claim that it was fought in a ‘gentlemanly’ manner, and shows that in British Cape Colony, rebels were dealt with by martial law and the use of African collaborators, to the detriment of civil governance and the racial hierarchy.

Keywords:

• Lord Roberts
• Lord Kitchener
• Hague Convention
• Boer civilians
• farm burning
• guerrilla warfare
• Orange River Colony
• Transvaal
• concentration camps
• Cape Colony
• martial law
• Africans

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Justine Taylor for reading and commenting on an earlier draft of this article.

Notes

 1. War Office [WO], Manual of Military Law, 290–1, 291, 296–7, 297.

 2. See Pretorius, Scorched Earth.

 3. Convention with respect to the Laws and Customs of War on Land (Hague Convention), 29 July 1899, Yale Law School, The Avalon Project, Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy, at http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/hague02.asp; Spies, Methods, 10–15.

 4. Quoted in Spies, Methods, 14.

 5. Quoted in Spies, Methods, 14, 296–7.

 6. Wessels, Lord Roberts, 90.

 7. Spies, Methods, 28–9, 34–6, 40; Parliamentary Papers [PP], Proclamations Issued by Field-Marshal Lord Roberts in South Africa [Proclamations by Roberts], 1900, Cd. 426, LVI, Proc. I, February 1900, 2; Proc. III, 15 March 1900, 3; Proclamation, 15 March 1900, Roberts Papers War Office [RPWO], WO 105/26/3/182, The National Archives [TNA].

 8. Quoted in Spiers, Victorian Soldier, 184.

 9. Morris, Canadian Rifleman, 24–5, 31, 49, 110.

10. Roberts to De Wet, 27 June 1900, Roberts Papers [RP], 7101/23/111/3, National Army Museum [NAM].

11. Roberts to De Wet, 10 July 1900; Roberts to Kitchener; to Methuen, 14 and 15 June 1900, RPWO, WO 105/27/65/716; WO 105/27/65/16/28 and 29, TNA; PP, Proclamations by Roberts, Proc. XIX, 16 June 1900, 10; Spies, Methods, 102–3.

12. Spies, Methods, 44–6.

13. 15 May 1900, Diary of 2699 Pte. W. Sykes, C. Company, 2nd West Yorkshire Regiment, Natal, South Africa, 7607–48, 13, NAM.

14. 18 and 25 June 1900, Diary, Bellew Papers, 5707–8, NAM.

15. Hunter to Roberts; Roberts to Hunter, 26–28 October 1900, Journal of Principal Events Connected with South Africa. 1 September to 31 October 1900, WO 108/374, 113–20, TNA; Spies, Methods, 119–23.

16. Lansdowne, the Secretary of State for War, to Roberts, 13 September 1900, RP 7101/23/34, NAM.

17. Broadwood to Stanley, 12 November 1900, RPWO, WO 105/27/65/25, TNA.

18. Stanley to all GOCs, 18 November 1900, RPWO, WO 105/27/65/10 and 24 TNA.

19. PP, Proclamations by Roberts, Proc. XXVIII, 1 September 1900, 15–16. Spies, Methods, 60–3.

20. Fiddes to Roberts, 23 July 1900, RPWO, WO 105/25/Index no. 66/4–6, TNA; PP, Proclamations by Roberts, Procs. XIII and XX, 31 May and 19 June 1900, 7 and 11; Spies, Methods, 103–8.

21. Salisbury to the Queen, 23 November 1900, CAB 41/25/30, Brodrick to Roberts, 23 November 1900, CAB 37/55/234, TNA.

22. Roberts to Brodrick, 26 November 1900, RP 7101/23/110/5, NAM.

23. For more, see Surridge, Managing the South African War, 105–9. The South African Constabulary eventually became a 10,000-man force that Kitchener absorbed into the military effort.

24. Wessels, Frederick Roberts, 179.

25. Spies, Methods, 110–11.

26. Lansdowne to Roberts, 13 September 1900, quoted in Surridge, Managing the South African War, 90.

27. Kitchener to Brodrick, 20 December 1900, Kitchener Papers [KP], KP PRO 30/57/20/Y9, TNA; to Roberts, 21 December 1900, RP 7101/23/33/7, NAM.

28. Wessels, Kitchener, 60–1; Pretorius, Scorched Earth, 21.

29. Kitchener to Roberts, 4 December 1900, RP 7101/23/33, NAM; See also Kitchener to Brodrick, 7 March 1901, KP PRO 30/57/22, TNA.

30. Quoted in Spiers, Victorian Soldier, 171.

31. Bradford, ‘Gentlemen and Boers’, 49–50.

32. Stowell Kessler's argument in Pretorius, Scorched Earth, 134; see also Krebs, Gender, Race, and the Writing of Empire, 59–68.

33. Quoted in Farwell, Great Anglo-Boer War, 353.

34. Quoted in Spiers, Scottish Soldier, 193.

35. Quoted in Pretorius, Scorched Earth, 43.

36. 8 January, 2 April, and 2 July 1901, Diary, Crossman Papers, 6306/24/4, NAM.

37. Quoted in Anglesey, British Cavalry, 217.

38. Pretorius, Life on Commando, 306–9; Spies, Methods, 260–2.

39. See Mohlamme, ‘African Refugee Camps’ and Kessler, ‘Black and Coloured Concentration Camps’.

40. Chapter by Hattingh, ‘The British Blockhouse System’; Judd and Surridge, Boer War, 214.

41. Warwick, Black People, 19–27. For the transport aspect, see Nasson, Abraham Easu's War, ch. 5.

42. Nasson, South African War, 214–17; Surridge, ‘Herbert Kitchener’, 210–17.

43. See Kessler, ‘Black and Coloured Concentration Camps’, 135.

44. See Fuller, Last of the Gentlemen's Wars.

45. Quoted in Pretorius, Life on Commando, 75.

46. Journal of the Principal Events Connected with South Africa, September to October 1900, 113; Part 8, 1 January to 28 February 1901, 34, WO 108/374, TNA.

47. Letters to Henrietta Haig, 22 and 30 September 1901 in Scott, Douglas Haig, 196–7.

48. Hancock, Smuts, 139–40.

49. Kitchener to Brodrick, 3 November 1901, Confidential Telegrams, WO 108/399/708/333, TNA.

50. Kitchener to Brodrick, 16 March 1902, WO 108/399/1019/418–19, TNA.

51. Pretorius, Life on Commando, 71–7.

52. Kitchener to Brodrick, 14 July 1901, Journal of Principal Events, 1–31 May 1901, WO 108/374/32–33. Judd and Surridge, Boer War, 233.

53. Kitchener to Brodrick, 11 December 1901, Confidential Telegrams, WO 108/399/ 790 and 357, TNA.

54. Judd and Surridge, Boer War, 233–4; Brodrick to Kitchener, 24 January 1902; Kitchener to Brodrick, 26 January and 23 February 1902, Confidential Telegrams, WO 108/399/854, 858 and 946/376–77, 398, TNA.

55. Nasson, South African War, 196.

56. Kitchener to Brodrick, 28 July and 1 August 1901; Brodrick to Kitchener, 1 August 1901, Journal of Principal Events, 1 July–31 August 1901, WO 108/374/33 and 39, TNA.

57. Judd and Surridge, Boer War, 234–6.

58. Miller, ‘Duty or Crime’, 318–22.

59. Wilcox, Australia's Boer War, ch. 14; Judd and Surridge, Boer War, 229–32.

60. WO Telegram, 28 March 1901, Journal of Principal Events, Part 9, 1 March–30 April 1901, WO 108/374/26, TNA.

61. Miller, ‘Duty or Crime’, 329; PP, Papers Relating to the Administration of Martial Law in South Africa, 1902, Cd. 981, LVII, 122–4; Krebs, Gender, Race and the Writing of Empire, ch. 4.

62. Judge-Advocate General, 27 August 1901, WO 92/10, TNA.

63. This section is based mostly on Surridge, ‘Rebellion, Martial Law’, 35–60; Townshend, Britain's Civil Wars, 176–79.

64. See, for example, De Groot, Douglas Haig, 88; Scott, Douglas Haig, 188.

65. Nasson, Abraham Esau's War, 142–9.

66. Nasson, Abraham Esau's War, 142–9, 149–57.

67. Nasson, Abraham Esau's War, 142–9, 144.

68. Judd and Surridge, Boer War, 232; Holmes, Little Field-Marshal, 114; Kitchener to Brodrick, 27 July 1901, CO 48/556/27024, TNA.

69. Surridge, ‘Rebellion, Martial Law’, 56.

70. Salisbury to Brodrick, 19 December 1900, Midleton Papers, PRO 30/67/6, TNA.

71. Fiddes to Roberts, 23 July 1900, RPWO, WO 105/25/Index no.66/10, TNA.