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Military History – South Africa – Europe – England 19th Century
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when the Platrand was attacked on 6 January 1900 during the siege of Ladysmith.
In the field matters were rather different. Morse code, used for the telegraph, could also be
employed in the medium of light, using either a lamp or a heliograph, a device that used sunlight
reflected from a mirror to flash the message. Fortunately sunshine was not rare in South Africa, but
nonetheless it was not a mechanism on which one could rely absolutely. Nor was the lamp; it is said
that the men who took the signal lamp up on Spioenkop during the battle ran out of oil to light it. Both
these methods risked interception if messages were sent “in clear”, i.e. uncoded, and codes took time
to uncode. Searchlights were used to convey messages from the besieged Kimberley to the relieving
force by reflecting the light beam off the cloud base and the besieged forces of Ladysmith
communicated with a heliograph, using direct line of sight.
Semaphore flag signals were also used, but they exposed the signaller to enemy fire. Written or
verbal messages required a galloper or messenger who would also be vulnerable to enemy fire.
Black African messengers, risking their lives, carried messages in and out of besieged towns.
Colesberg
A town in Cape Colony on the railway line between Cape Town and Bloemfontein in the Orange Free
State, south of Norval’s Pont on the Orange River. Colesberg was annexed by the Orange Free State
in November 1899 and the town was occupied by Boer forces under Vecht-general H. J. Schoenman.
After the Boer defeat at the Battle of Paardeberg, Schoenman was recalled to help in the defence of
Bloemfontein and the town was occupied by the British under Major-general Clements.
Reference:
Jones, Huw M. and Meurig G. M. Jones, A Gazetteer of the Anglo-Boer War 1899–1902 (Milton
Keynes, The Military Press, 1999).
Colley, Major-General Sir George,
1835–81
George Pomeroy-Colley joined the 2nd Regiment of Foot in 1852 and, with an interval in which he
served as a magistrate in South Africa, served in China and then in Africa. He was selected by Sir
Garnet Wolseley to become a member of his staff in the Ashanti wars and served under him again in
the Zulu War of 1879. As commander-in-chief in Natal in 1880 he made the error of holding the
Boers in contempt and was surprised by the outbreak of the First Boer War. He led the British forces
to their defeat at Langs Nek and Majuba, where Colley himself was killed.
See also:
Boer War, First.
Reference:
Castle, Ian, Majuba 1881 (London, Osprey, Campaign Series No. 45, 1996;
www.battlefields.co.za/history/1st_war_of_independence)
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