Casualties of the Boer War - British
Forces - 1899-1902Back
Dutch, Huguenot and German immigrants first came to settle the
Cape area of South Africa in 1652. In 1814 Britain took
control and 10,000 Boers (Dutch for farmers) left the Cape
area to embark on the “Great Trek of 1835-1842”. They first
moved north to Natal and then to the interior highlands to set
up two independent republics, the Orange Free State and the
South African (Transvaal) Republic. After several unsuccessful
take over attempts Britain declared war on 11 October
1899.
The Second War,
commonly known as the Boer War, between the British Empire and
the two independent Boer republics lasted three years,
1899-1902, and involved a large number of troops from many
countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Canada, and the
Boer people, with a high casualty rate on both sides. Two
factors that contributed to the large amount of casualties
were that many British soldiers were physically unprepared for
the environment and poorly trained for the conditions they
faced. As a result, British losses were high due to both
disease and combat. The Boer War was concluded with the
signing of the Treaty of Vereeniging in May
1902.
Further
information may be gained by searching other online sites,
such as the Naval and Military Press Ltd, see their website at
www.military-genealogy.com.
Also use your search engine to do research on the Boer War and
to find indexes such as that on www.ancestry.co.uk.
The data
contains the following information on over 54,000 soldiers who
either died or were wounded during the Boer
War:
Name
Force
Regiment Battalion
Battery/Corps
Rank
Name
Casualty
type, date, and place
This index contains
data extracted from the original records Boer War Casualties
1899-1902 data. All sept names were searched. Thomas has not
been included as there were 155 entries. It could be that some
Thomson soldiers had no connection with the Clan. Although
care was taken in extracting these entries, errors may have
occurred.
