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Duty or Crime? Defining Acceptable Behavior in the British Army in South Africa, 1899–1902

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 December 2012

Stephen M. Miller
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Journal of British Studies , Volume 49 , Issue 2 , April 2010 , pp. 311 - 331
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Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 2010

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References

1 For further reading on this incident, see Witton, George R., Scapegoats of the Empire: The True Story of Breaker Morant's Bushveldt Carbineers (Melbourne, 1907)Google Scholar; Davey, Arthur, ed., Breaker Morant and the Bushveldt Carbineers (Cape Town, 1987)Google Scholar; Bleszynski, Nick, Shoot Straight, You Bastards! The Truth Behind the Killing of “Breaker” Morant (Sydney, 2002)Google Scholar; and Woolmore, William, The Bushveldt Carbineers and the Pietersburg Light Horse (McRae, Australia, 2002)Google Scholar.

2 Wallace, Edgar, Unofficial Dispatches (London, 1901; repr., Cape Town, 1975), 134.Google Scholar

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4 Krebs, Paula, Gender, Race, and the Writing of Empire: Public Discourse and the Boer War (Cambridge, 1999), 80–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Fuller later changed his views.

6 See, e.g., Belfield, Eversley, The Boer War (Hamden, CT, 1975; repr., London, 1993)Google Scholar; Farwell, Byron, The Great Anglo-Boer War (New York, 1976)Google Scholar; Evans, Martin Matrix, The Boer War: South Africa, 1899–1902 (Oxford, 1999)Google Scholar; and Trew, Peter, The Boer War Generals (Stroud, 1999)Google Scholar.

7 For general studies that pay more attention to the war's latter stages, see, e.g., Pakenham, Thomas, The Boer War (New York, 1979)Google Scholar; Nasson, Bill, The South African War, 1899–1902 (New York, 1999)Google Scholar; and Judd, Denis and Surridge, Keith, The Boer War (New York, 2003)Google Scholar.

8 The roles of South Africa's black and colored populations and the participation of women in active service (on the Boer side) as well as in nursing are but two fields of study that have opened up to investigators. See, e.g., Lowry, Donal, ed., The South African War Reappraised (New York, 2000)Google Scholar; Nasson, Bill, Abraham Esau's War: A Black South African War in the Cape, 1899–1902 (New York, 1991)Google Scholar; and Cuthbertson, Greg, Grundlingh, Albert, and Suttie, Mary-Lynn, eds., Writing a Wider War: Rethinking Gender, Race, and Identity in the South African War, 1899–1902 (Athens, OH, 2002)Google Scholar.

9 See, e.g., Wiener, Martin J., Reconstructing the Criminal: Culture, Law, and Policy in England, 1830–1914 (Cambridge, 1990)Google Scholar; Gatrell, V. A. C., “Crime, Authority and the Policeman-State,” in The Cambridge Social History of Britain, 1750–1950, ed. Thompson, F. M. L. (Cambridge, 1990), 243–310Google Scholar; and Emsley, Clive, Crime and Society in England, 1750–1900, 3rd ed. (London, 2005)Google Scholar.

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12 Skelley, Alan Ramsay, The Victorian Army at Home: The Recruitment and Terms and Conditions of the British Regular, 1859–1899 (Montreal, 1977), 127–47.Google Scholar Also see Burroughs, Peter, “Crime and Punishment in the British Army, 1815–1870,” English Historical Review 100, no. 196 (1985): 545–71Google Scholar; Beckett, Ian F. W., “The Problems of Military Discipline in the Volunteer Force, 1859–1899,” Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research 56, no. 226 (1978): 66–78Google Scholar; and Spiers, Edward M., The Late Victorian Army, 1868–1902 (London, 1992)Google Scholar.

13 French, David, Military Identities: The Regimental System, the British Army, and the British People, c. 1870–2000 (Oxford, 2005), 108–14, 182–96.Google Scholar Also see Oram, Gerry, “‘The Greatest Efficiency’: British and American Military Law, 1866–1918,” in Comparative Histories of Crime, ed. Godfrey, Barry, Emsley, Clive, and Dunstall, Graeme (Devon, 2003), 159–77.Google Scholar

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18 British definitions of acceptable conduct in war were most likely altered as well by the experiences of Winston Churchill and other British observers during the Spanish war in Cuba. The connection between the two conflicts is a subject that requires further investigation. For a recent study of that war, see Tone, John Lawrence, War and Genocide in Cuba, 1895–1898 (Chapel Hill, NC, 2006)Google Scholar.

19 Best, Geoffrey, “Peace Conferences and the Century of Total War: The 1899 Hague Convention and What Came After,” International Affairs 75, no. 3 (July 1999): 622–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

20 Spies, S. B., “The Hague Convention of 1899 and the Boer Republics,” in Scorched Earth, ed. Pretorius, Fransjohan (Cape Town, 2001), 174.Google Scholar

21 Beak, George B., The Aftermath of War (London, 1906), 5 and 8.Google Scholar

22 Baty, Thomas, International Law in South Africa (London, 1900), 84–87.Google Scholar

23 Hobhouse, Emily, The Brunt of the War and Where It Fell (London, 1902)Google Scholar, introduction. Also see Holls, Frederick William, The Peace Conference at the Hague and Its Bearings on International Law and Policy (New York, 1900; repr., 1914)Google Scholar.

24 Stead, W. T., The War in South Africa, 1899–19-?: Methods of Barbarism (London, 1901), 16–17Google Scholar; and Spies, S. B., Methods of Barbarism (Cape Town, 1977), 12–13.Google Scholar For more on British soldiers’ views of the war, Surridge, see Keith, “‘All You Soldiers Are What We Call Pro-Boer’: The Military Critique of the South African War, 1899–1902,” History 82, no. 268 (October 1997): 591–94.Google Scholar

25 See Warwick, Peter, Black People and the South African War, 1899–1902 (Cambridge, 1983)Google Scholar; Nasson, and, Abraham Esau's War (Cambridge, 1991)Google Scholar.

26 Krebs, Gender, Race, and the Writing of Empire, 20; and Willan, Brian, “The Siege of Mafeking,” in The South African War, ed. Warwick, Peter and Spies, S. B. (Harlow, 1980), 150–55.Google Scholar

27 Callwell, C. E., Small Wars: Their Principles and Practice, 3rd ed. (London, 1906; repr., Lincoln, NE, 1996), 35–36.Google Scholar Callwell advised that where there was no king, no capital, and no organized army, the objective should be whatever the enemy prized most. In this case, Roberts should have immediately turned his attention toward eliminating the Boer supply of horses and livestock.

28 This article will not discuss the moral nor legal use of concentration camps in the South African War. For more on the concentration camps, see Spies, Methods of Barbarism; also see Pretorius, Scorched Earth.

29 Like Roberts, Kitchener also offered a variety of inducements to Burghers who remained in the field to turn in their weapons and return to their farms. He also made a number of threats.

30 For more on volunteer forces in the South African War, see Miller, Stephen M., Volunteers on the Veld (Norman, OK, 2007)Google Scholar.

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34 The National Archives (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), WO 83/11, Judge Advocate-General's Office, Minute Books, 18 December 1901, p. 421.

35 TNA: PRO, WO 92/8–10, Judge Advocate-General's Office, Court-Martial Records (w/Boer War register), 1900–1902.

36 Gunter, Outlines of Military Law and Customs of War.

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39 TNA: PRO, WO 93/41, Judge Advocate-General's Office, Court-Martial Records, Officers, Index, p. 1442. The units of the soldiers were not listed in the report.

40 Ibid., p. 1205.

41 Ross, Edward, Diary of the Siege of Mafeking October 1899 to May 1900, ed. Willan, Brian (Cape Town, 1980), 38–39.Google Scholar

42 The attack was led by Commandant Sarel Eloff. Edward Ross, the author of Diary of the Siege of Mafeking, ran into Murchison during the attack while Murchison, armed with a Martini rifle, was firing at the Boers from atop the prison. Ibid. Also see TNA: PRO, WO 108/374, Correspondence and Papers, South African War.

43 See, e.g., Witton, Scapegoats of the Empire; Davey, Breaker Morant and the Bushveldt Carbineers; Bleszynski, Shoot Straight, You Bastards! and Woolmore, The Bushveldt Carbineers and the Pietersburg Light Horse.

44 Judd and Surridge, The Boer War, 230.

45 TNA: PRO, WO 93/41, Judge Advocate-General's Office, Court-Martial Records, Officers, Index, Confidential Letter, 22 November 1901, p. 1024.

46 Stead, The War in South Africa, 23.

47 H. Hayes to Parfill, 15 November 1900, Hayes Papers 8102–32, National Army Museum (NAM), London.

48 Frank Stephenson to home, 14 April 1901, Stephenson Papers, NAM.

49 Diary entry, 12 April 1900, Lister Papers, NAM.

50 W. A. W. Lawson, later 3rd Baron Burnham, to Syb, 9 April 1900, Burnham Papers, Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives (LHCMA), King's College, University of London.

51 Frank Charge to his father, 8 May 1900, Charge Papers, Worcester City Museum.

52 W. S. Power to his cousin, 11 July 1900, Power Papers, NAM.

53 Diary entry, 14 August 1900, Brown Papers 7305–82, NAM.

54 J. G. Wrentmore to Price, 12 March 1902, Wrentmore Papers 6112-190-18, NAM. Wrentmore was later brought before a court of enquiry himself for surrendering at Concordia, an event that Kitchener described as one of the most disgraceful affairs of the war. Burke, Peter, The Siege of O’OKiep (Bloemfontein, 1995), 105.Google Scholar

55 TNA: PRO, WO 83/11, Judge Advocate-General's Office, Minute Books, 18 December 1901, p. 421. For a discussion of an incident that involved British soldiers and both Zulu men and women, see John Laband, “The British Way of War in South Africa, 1795–1902: New approaches” (unpublished keynote lecture, Britons at War: New Perspectives Conference, University of Northampton, 21–22 April 2006).

56 See, e.g., Hobhouse, Brunt of the War.

57 TNA: PRO, WO 108/240, Correspondence and Papers, South African War, no. 628, 13 July 1900.

58 Carolyn Conley's study of rape in Victorian Kent has shown that whereas the overall conviction rate for felonies was 85 percent, for rape it was around 40 percent; see her “Rape and Justice in Victorian England,” Victorian Studies 29, no. 4 (Summer 1986): 521, 536.Google Scholar

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64 Roberts was referring to General Louis Lazre Hoche's counterinsurgency campaign conducted against the forces of counterrevolution in the northwest of France in 1795 and 1796. Hoche drew up detailed instructions on how to “wage a war to the death” while respecting the rights of peaceful civilians at the same time. TNA: PRO, WO 108/399, Correspondence and Papers, South African War, no. 340, 24 September 1900. For more on Hoche, see North, Jonathan, “General Hoche and Counterinsurgency,” Journal of Military History 67, no. 2 (April 2003): 529–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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82 See, e.g., TNA: PRO, WO 91/51, Judge Advocate-General's Office, Court-Martial Records, 1892–1904.

83 Ibid., 28 May 1901, 29 June 1901, and 27 September 1901.

84 Ibid., 22 January 1902.

85 TNA: PRO, WO 93/41, Judge Advocate-General's Office, Court-Martial Records, Officers, Index, 1901–2, pp. 988 and 1086.

86 TNA: PRO, WO 83/11, Judge Advocate-General's Office, Minute Books, 28 December 1900.

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93 See, e.g., TNA: PRO, WO 81/135a, Judge Advocate-General's Office, Court-Martial Records, Letter Books, 20 May 1900; TNA: PRO, WO 86/50, Judge Advocate-General's Office, Court-Martial Records, Registers, 4 December 1899; TNA: PRO, WO 91/51, Judge Advocate-General's Office, Court-Martial Records, 19 December 1901; TNA: PRO, WO 93/41, Judge Advocate-General's Office, Court-Martial Records, Officers, Index, 1899–1902, pp. 931, 944, 953, 964, 976, 1148, 1191.

94 Burn-Murdoch's use of the pejorative “nigger” was quite common among British soldiers. It was applied to Africans and Indians alike. Burn-Murdoch, J. H., With Lumsden's Horse Agin the Boers (Taunton, 1901), 89–90.Google Scholar

95 The “Schedule of Surrenders in South African War, 1899–1902” lists several hundred cases. See TNA: PRO, WO 108/372, Correspondence and Papers, South African War, pp. 2–142.

96 Ibid., p. vi.

97 TNA: PRO, WO 91/51, Judge Advocate-General's Office, Court-Martial Records, vol. 7, 9 February 1901 and 28 October 1901.

98 TNA: PRO, WO 108/374, Correspondence and Papers, South African War, vol. 7, Army Order, South Africa, 31 December 1901, p. 255.

99 Many of the British official documents were destroyed by fire during World War II.

100 See Miller, Volunteers on the Veld, chap. 1; Beckett, Ian F. W., The Amateur Military Tradition (Manchester, 1991)Google Scholar; and Cunningham, Hugh, The Volunteer Force: A Social and Political History, 1859–1908 (Hamden, CT, 1975)Google Scholar.