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Military History – South Africa – Europe – England 19th Century
.Article – Online Historic Information | Military
.Page 52
Commander-in-Chief of the British Army. Buller was commanding Aldershot District when
appointed Commander-in-Chief, Army Corps, South Africa.
He was troubled by the poor relationship between the War Office, headed by Lord Lansdowne,
and the army and frustrated by the lack of clarity in policy and in his functional powers. The position
of Commander-in-Chief had, at that time, more to do with ‘jollying-the-chaps-along’ than with
actually commanding. The Commander-in-Chief in the field had no staff and no office organisation,
deficiencies that were revealed by the experience of the war and rectified after it by the reforms of
1906. Buller warned of the dangers of advancing too far north in Natal, but was ignored and the need
to relieve Ladysmith resulted. He pointed out the consequences of under-manning the war effort, but
was again ignored and a long war was the consequence.
On arriving in South Africa he was subjected to political pressure to raise the sieges at
Kimberley, where Cecil Rhodes was crying out for rescue, Ladysmith and Mafeking, while
simultaneously preventing any incursions into Cape Colony. He was forced to divide his forces and
attack on three fronts, taking command of one of them himself. On the Tugela River, south of
Ladysmith, he was ill-served by maps and intelligence and wary of operating too far away from the
railway, his vital supply line. Attempting a frontal attack at Colenso in December 1899, he called off
the action and withdrew, losing Colonel Long’s guns in the process. He was severely criticised not
only for this, but for the losses at Magersfontein and Stormberg which, taken together, gave the period
the name of Black Week. In London the decision was taken to replace Buller as Commander-in-Chief
with Lord Roberts. In fact, the influence Buller could have had on battles on other fronts was
negligible, and his own actions had been intended to spare his men futile loss and sacrifice. A case
can be made for the view that Buller’s disgrace in these circumstances encouraged the hardening of
the commanders’ hearts in the First World War.
The British forces at the Battle of Spioenkop were under the control of Lieutenant-general Sir
Charles Warren, who was slow and clumsy, but who was also poorly supported by a British artillery
unable to neutralise that of the Boers. Buller took personal
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