The Anglo-Boer War

The Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902 saw the British Empire at the height of its power facing a small band of highly mobile Boers in South Africa. The war introduced the world to the concentration camp and is regarded as the first war of the modern era where magazine rifles, trenches and machine guns were deployed extensively. British losses topped 28 000 in a conflict that was supposed to take a few weeks but lasted three years.

Occasionally English South Africa Education Desmond Latham

143 Episodes

20 – 40

Episode 123 - Major Vallentin eats his last lunch & General Botha fights his last Transvaal battle

This is episode 123 and its January 1902. The war has four months to run, and there are still a few big shocks. One would be Lord Methuen’s capture by General Koos de la Rey. More about that in just over a month. But in the Eastern Transvaal, the last…

26 Jan 2020 18 min

Episode 122 - The dishonourable ex-fiancé Karel de Kock & the Witwatersrand Rifle Regiment

This is episode 122 and we will take a close look at the love-life of a Boer spy – who’s tale is laced with an unusual irony that involves a regiment called the Witwatersrand Rifles. The nature of the war had shifted again by January 1902 with the British system…

19 Jan 2020 19 min

Episode 121 - – The Kenyan Trek Boers of Eldoret & Smuts goes swimming

General Jan Smuts is making merry in the Cape, trying to stoke uprisings, while Lord Kitchener’s been more successful in clearing the Eastern Transvaal, forcing General Louis Botha to shift towards Vryheid and along the border between the Transvaal and Natal. General Christiaan de Wet is active in the Free…

12 Jan 2020 22 min

Episode 120 - Reitz meets a Swiss Family Robinson & Kitchener rethinks the Concentration Camp system

Its new year – the first week of January 1902 and we continue to ride, or rather walk, with Deneys Reitz as he and seven other colleagues have been separated from General Jan Smuts who is on a mission to raid the Cape – and possibly – cause an uprising…

5 Jan 2020 18 min

Episode 119 - A shoot out at Mr Guest’s farm after Deneys Reitz meets his English cousin

Its summer – December 1901. General Jan Smuts is on the run in the Cape Colony being chased by tens of thousands of British troops who are fixating on the fact that they don’t seem to be able to pin down this mercurial general. With him is one of our…

29 Dec 2019 19 min

Episode 118 - Rawlinson surprises the Boers at Bethal & de Wet receives a Christmas present

This episode takes us to Christmas 1901 and the battle of Groenkop near Bethlehem in the Free State where General Christiaan de Wet catches the British offguard on the top of a two hundred foot high kopje. We will also hear how the opposition party leader Lloyd George narrowly escapes…

22 Dec 2019 21 min

Episode 117 - General Kritzinger is captured and Marconi sends a radio message

So its December 1901 Christmas is a fortnight away for the combatants and Christiaan de Wet was tracking his arch enemy, brother Piet. It was revenge he was after and as we all know – it’s a meal best eaten cold and unfortunately Christiaan was overheating. While he stewed on…

13 Dec 2019 18 min

Episode 116 -The Fawcett Commission reaches a chilling conclusion

This week its all about the scandal of the Concentration Camps which breaks across Great Britain as the Fawcett Commission releases its initial report. We also continue to monitor General Christiaan de Wet who has a large commando of 700 men and is beginning the move towards the Cape once…

8 Dec 2019 19 min

Episode 115 – Sarah Raal rides into a trap but the dormant General de Wet awakens

This week General Christiaan De Wet who has been largely dormant for November awakens and begins to leer in the direction of the Cape once more while Sarah Raal continues to ride with Commandant Nieuwoudt and her three brothers but for how long? The presence of a woman fighting alongside…

1 Dec 2019 17 min

Episode 114 - Sarah Raal "the lady who fought" is bloody but unbowed

This week’s episode is dominated by a young woman who we heard about last week called Sarah Raal. While some of her exploits have been exaggerated for Nationalist reasons years after the Boer War, there’s no doubt that she was extraordinary by any measure. Remember she is in her early…

24 Nov 2019 20 min

Episode 113 - We meet Sarah Raal “the lady who fought” & Reitz wakes up to the threat of khaki

Episode 113 covers events happening in November 1901 with six months of the war and this podcast left to run. This week Deneys Reitz and his fellow Boers suddenly realise they should not be wearing British uniforms which they donned after running out of clothing. Lord Kitchener has issued a…

17 Nov 2019 19 min

Episode 112 - Kekewich’s bloody battle against General de la Rey where Boshof crawls to his death

The first week of November 1901 shipping records published in the Times of London featured regular updates such as this one: “The Armenian left Port Natal for Bombay on Nov 3 with Boer prisoners, 36 officers and 981 men. They were escorted by the following: 67 th Battery RFA –…

10 Nov 2019 18 min

Episode 111 - Lord Kitchener and the Brat hunt a starling while de Wet broods at Blijdskap

The scenes have shifted recently between the war in South Africa and the effect of the war in England. The press has begun to turn against the government with vitriolic attacks on war hero Sir Redvers Buller as we heard last week. There’s more bad new for the government in…

3 Nov 2019 20 min

Episode 110 - General Buller flayed by the press as Botha pulverises Benson at Bakenlaagte.

It’s time for reflection - and to talk about General Louis Botha who’s invasion into Natal fizzled out leading to his commando being forced to flee Lord Kitchener’s columns back to the Eastern Transvaal. But all is not lost for the man who would one day become South Africa’s first…

27 Oct 2019 20 min

Episode 109 - Borrius loses an eye and Smuts is forced to split his force

This week we pick up where we left General Jan Smuts and his commando as they writhed about in pain having eaten from a plant that they failed to prepare properly and had poisoned about half the 250 men riding with the general. Worse, they were forced to fight off…

20 Oct 2019 19 min

Episode 108 - The Commando laid low by "Hottentots Bread" within striking distance of Port Elizabeth

This is an important week - it is the 120 anniversary of the start of the Boer War - which formally began on 12th October 1899. This week saw the Anglo-Boer War Museum in Bloemfontein host a conference as part of the commemorations. Amongst the topics discussed were how all…

13 Oct 2019 18 min

Episode 107 - Churchill doubts Kitchener & Colonel Scobell butchers Lotter in a sheep shed

It's early Spring 1901 and in England there are now serious doubts about how the British Army is going about its campaign in South Africa. Winston Churchill had been elected as an MP for Oldham partly because of his fame as a survivor of a Boer prisoner of war camp…

6 Oct 2019 20 min

Episode 106 - The 17th Lancers survived the Charge of the Light Brigade but not the Rijk Section

This is September 1901 and it's been a wet Spring so far. The weather has caused trouble for both Jan Smuts and Louis Botha - but things are about to improve for Smuts after his daring raid into the Cape Colony almost ended before it started as you’ve heard. The…

29 Sep 2019 19 min

Episode 105 - General Louis Botha stumbles & sleet causes chaos for Jan Smuts

An incredible turn of events was taking place after a few icy months of winter - the Boers were waking up like hibernating bears and there would be a sudden escalation in incidents across south Africa. General Jan Smuts led a commando of around 400 men. He had survived three…

22 Sep 2019 19 min

Episode 104 - A hunchback leads Smuts to safety & Captain Gough's fatal cavalry charge

It’s mid September 1901 and Jan Smuts is about to face one of the most challenging moments in his illustrious career. He was only 28 at this point, yet was to achieve so much in the next few weeks and would forever be remembered as the remarkable soldier who led…

15 Sep 2019 20 min