Boer foreign volunteers

Boer foreign volunteers were participants who volunteered their military services to the Boers in the Second Boer War.

Origin Although there was much international sympathy for the Boer cause, there was little official support as governments proved mostly unwilling to upset the United Kingdom. As a result, no other nation actively supported the Boer cause. There were, however, individuals from several countries who volunteered and formed Foreign Volunteer Units. These volunteers primarily came from Europe, particularly the Netherlands, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Sweden-Norway. Other countries such as France, Italy, Ireland (then part of the United Kingdom), and restive areas of the Russian Empire, including Poland and Georgia, also formed smaller volunteer corps. Finns fought in the Scandinavian Corps.

Recruitment The influx of foreigners into the country began simultaneously with the war, and it continued thereafter at the rate of about four hundred men a month. These volunteers would have come for a number of reasons, not necessarily because of any sympathy with the Boer cause, including soldiers-of-fortune, professional soldiers and adventurers. Some of the more famous volunteers were:

Ernest Douwes Dekker, Camillo Ricchiardi, Yevgeny Maximov, Niko the Boer (Niko Bagrationi), Yevgeny Avgustus, , Alexander Guchkov, Leo Pokrowsky, Major Baron von Reitzenstein, Viscount Villebois-Mareuil and the men of the two Irish commandos, the Irish Transvaal Brigade of John MacBride and John Blake, and the Second Irish Brigade of Arthur Alfred Lynch.

None of the foreigners who served in the armies of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State received any compensation. They were supplied with horses, equipment, and food from the Transvaal government, but no wages. Before a foreign volunteer was allowed to join a commando, and before he received his equipment, he was obliged to take an oath of allegiance to the Transvaal Republic. A translation of it reads:

I hereby make an oath of solemn allegiance to the people of the South African Republic, and I declare my willingness to assist, with all my power, the burghers of this Republic in the war in which they are engaged. I further promise to obey the orders of those placed in authority according to law, and that I will work for nothing but the prosperity, the welfare, and the independence of the land and people of this Republic, so truly help me, God Almighty.

Second Boer War At the time of the outbreak of war, the Boers did not have the resources to record statistics about their forces. The statistics available were mainly collected by foreigners and by the testimony of the commanders. Table of foreign volunteers in the Second Anglo-Boer War:

NumberNationality2,000 Dutch (the unit included Belgians)1,200 Anglo-Irish (UK)550-600 Germans400 French300 Irish Americans (U.S.)230-300Scandinavians200+ Russians119 Italians14-60Greeksfew Australians7,400+ Known total*

In the early stages of the war the majority of the foreign volunteers were obliged to join a Boer commando. Later they formed their own foreign legions with a high degree of independence, including the: Scandinavian Corps (Skandinaviens Korps), Italian Volunteer Legion, two Irish Brigades, German Corps (Deutsches Korps), Dutch Corps, Legion of France, American Scouts and Russian Scouts.

Foreign volunteer units

Hollander Corps Dutch volunteers established the Hollander Corps in the South African Republic. A number of Belgians, under the chairmanship of Dr G.M.A. Heymans, also joined the unit in September 1899. Volunteers included Herman Coster, who became a celebrated figure in the Netherlands after his death in the war; Cornelis Vincent 'Cor' van Gogh, the brother of the artist Vincent van Gogh; and Willem Frederik Mondriaan, the brother of the artist Piet Mondrian. The Hollander Corps was involved at the Battle of Elandslaagte in October 1899. After that defeat, the Hollander Corps was disbanded and merged into other Boer units. A group calling themselves the Second Hollander Corps was founded in 1900 and joined the forces of the Orange Free State. The Dutch Corps Monument was erected by the citizens of the Netherlands in memory of their countrymen who died in the Battle of Elandslaagte.

Scandinavian Corps The Scandinavian Corps was founded by railway engineer Christer Uggla at the outbreak of the Second Boer War in 1899, and was part of the Army of the Transvaal Boer Republic. The Corps consisted of 114 men, including officers, of which 46 from Sweden, 13 from Norway, 24 from Denmark, 18 from Finland, 7 from Germany, 4 from The Netherlands, 1 from Russia, and 1 from Italy. Of the soldiers, none were professionals, but many were seamen. An ambulance unit was attached to the Corps consisting of 4 men and 4 women, led by the physician Wilhelm Biedenkap from Oslo.

The Corps was commanded by Captain Johannes Flygare (a Swede from Natal) and lieutenants Erik Stålberg (from Delsbo in Sweden) and William Baerentsen (from Copenhagen). Of these only Stålberg had any military background.

The Corps partook in the siege of Mafeking in October and November as well as in the Battle of Magersfontein 10–11 December 1899, where it suffered heavy losses, as it faced several Scottish elite regiments from the Highland Brigade, and was immensely outnumbered. The Boer soldiers were entrenched and inflicted a severe defeat upon the advancing British force; the Scandinavians however were positioned around 1500 meters in front of the main line. The fallen were buried on site, and several monuments were erected there. One reads "De kunde icke vika, blott falla kunde de. (They could not fold, they could only fall)", a reference to the poem by Esaias Tegner. Those Scandinavians who were taken prisoner were brought through the naval base Simonstown to Ceylon or to the prison island Saint Helena. After the battle the Corps was supplied with 20 men, and the Dane Jens Friis was appointed Captain and commander. The Corps was part of the Boer forces under General Piet Cronje who surrendered at Paardeberg in February 1900.

General Cronje reported after the victory in the battle at Magersfontein: "Next to God the (Boer) Republics have the Scandinavian Corps to thank for the victory".

German Corps Adolf Schiel led the German Corps and was one of the Boer leaders at the Battle of Elandslaagte. Schiel was wounded at the battle and taken as a prisoner of war.

Legion of France

However, the free rein given to the foreign legions was eventually curtailed after George Henri Anne-Marie Victor de Villebois-Mareuil and his small band of Frenchmen met with disaster at Boshof, and thereafter all the foreigners were placed under the direct command of General De la Rey.

American Scouts

The American Scouts were led by John Hassell.

Italian Volunteer Legion The Italian Volunteer Legion of Camillo Ricchiardi carried out the capture of an armoured train near Chieveley, Natal. Among the passengers who were taken prisoner was the young journalist Winston Churchill, whose life Ricchiardi spared by pretending not to see him dumping his pistol and dum-dum ammunition which had been declared unlawful on pain of death.

Irish Transvaal Brigade

Irish support for the Boers went back to 1877, when several Irish MPs, including reformer Charles Stuart Parnell expressed their opposition to laws which would annex the South African Republic to the British Empire. Although their efforts ultimately were unsuccessful, support remained high for the South African Republic in Ireland during the First Boer War; especially in 1881 following the decisive British defeat at the Battle of Majuba Hill where an Irishman, Alfred Aylward, served as an adviser to the victorious Boer General Piet Joubert during the battle. When rumours of a second war with the Boers began to surface, protesters led by James Connolly took to the streets in Dublin in August 1899 and public meetings were held across Ireland in support of the Boers. Several weeks later in Dublin a crowd of nearly 20,000 marched in protest against the planned invasion of the South African Republic.

The Irish Transvaal Brigade was established days before the outbreak of the Second Boer War and initially consisted of Irishmen who worked in the Witwatersrand. These volunteers were given full citizenship and became Burghers of the Boer republics. Under the leadership of John Macbride, the brigade was strengthened by volunteers travelling from Ireland via Delagoa Bay into South Africa.

Second Irish Brigade

The Second Irish Brigade was formed in January 1900 by former members of the Irish Transvaal Brigade. Former Le Journal correspondent Arthur Lynch was appointed as the unit's commander. The brigade consisted of 150 commandos from a variety of ethnic backgrounds. Including among others Irish, Australian, Greek, German, Boer and Italian members.

Polish volunteers

It is difficult to find out what was the number of Polish volunteers during the Second Boer War because Poles were treated in official censuses as Austrians, Germans and Russians. They were also limited by a considerable distance, and hence long and high travel costs. The Polish public sympathized with the situation of the Boers, and numerous Poles expressed a desire to aid their cause; in Poland, pro-Boer Poles collected donations to support Boers who were wounded in action and widows and orphans of those who were killed in action. Polish newspapers frequently published stories about Boer accomplishments in battles and stressed their peaceful attitudes, diligence and deep religiosity. All sectors of Polish society expressed hopes for a Boer victory, and carnival costumes of the uniforms of Boer generals proved immensely popular at carnivals. Numerous shop windows in Poland featured portraits of Boer leaders, with demand for these lithographs being so high that merchants who imported these portraits from the outbreak of the war supposedly gained immense profits from selling them. Because of the pro-Boer mood of the Polish public, one of the hotels in Warsaw, at 17 Zielna Street, was given the name "Pretoria".

Germany and Russia supported the Boers, supplying them with weapons, as well as sending military missions and medical assistance to the Boers republics. Among this crowd of people there were Poles. Many came individually to defend a nation that found itself in a similar position to Poland. One can also include to this, immigrants who came to South Africa just before the start of the war, while others appeared as part of projects organized by Germany and Russia. Polish names appear in the lists of German volunteers fighting in the unit they formed (deutsch-burischen Freikorps). Among about 800 known German volunteers, about 30 had Polish-sounding surnames. More is known about two of them. Robert Jutrzenka and Ludwik Zalewski arrived in the South African Republic a few years before the start of the Second Boer War and took an active part in the armed clash in 1895 during the Jameson Raid.

Other volunteers came as subjects of the Russian Tsar. Among them were two lieutenants, Leo Pokrowsky and Eugeniusz Augustus. Both were transferred to the reserve in December 1899, for the duration of their stay in South Africa; thus, neither was in South Africa as a soldier on duty. However, together with other Russian officers, they were in fact sent by their superiors to study the combat methods of the Boers and the British. Leo Pokrowsky remained in Africa, joining the guerrilla Bittereinder. His last reportage is dated April 1, 1900. Later he devoted himself to fighting for the Boers' cause, to the dissatisfaction of his superiors. He was so impressed by the Boers' courage that he made their cause his own. His comrades stated that "he had the goodness and progress of the Boers closer to the heart than [had] many Boers."

Russian volunteers