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Military History – South Africa – Europe – England 19th Century
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.Page 121
was given by Dr Lancelot Parker Booth, superintendent of St Aidan’s Mission Hospital, Durban.
The need for the Corps was not long in presenting itself. In December, with much of the Indian
Medical Service besieged in Ladysmith, the army asked the Natal government for help in raising a
volunteer Indian Ambulance Corps. Many of the men came from the sugar plantations and some were
refugees from Boer-held territory in the north. On 14 December 1899 some 600 bearers and twentyfive leaders, Gandhi amongst them, arrived at Estcourt and went on to Chieveley the next day. They
had not even been able to set up their camp when, in the failing light, the wounded began to arrive
from the battle at Colenso. They set to work at once to carry men the five and a half miles (9km) from
the field hospital to the station hospital at Chieveley, working until midnight and starting again at six
o’clock the next morning.
The Corps was disbanded temporarily on 19 December, but kept in readiness to serve once
more in January. Now called the Indian Stretcher Bearers Corps, the 1,100 bearers and thirty leaders
arrived in Estcourt on 7 January and, two weeks later, moved to support the proposed action at
Spioenkop. They marched twentyfive miles (40km) from Frere to Spearman’s Farm, the British base.
After the battle on 24 January the wounded had been brought down from the hill to a field hospital
north of the Tugela River and had to be brought south to Spearman’s. Major Bapty was in charge and
explained that as the field hospital was within Boer shell-shot they were under no obligation to cross
the river. To a man they agreed to go. Once the wounded had been brought to Spearman’s, those fit to
be taken were moved on to Frere and the Indian Stretcher Bearers Corps toiled back and forth across
the twenty-five miles.
Red Cross units arrived in South Africa soon after the relief of Ladysmith in February and on 15
April the Corps was disbanded. Buller mentioned the Corps in his despatches and the first Prime
Minister of Natal spoke in its praise. This gratitude did not, however, go as far as the repeal of
oppressive legislation or the granting of political rights. Like the black Africans, the Indians had no
reward from the British.
See also:
Colenso, Battle of; Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand; Spioenkop, Battle of.
Reference:
Tichmann, Paul, “We are Sons of Empire after all”, Soldiers of the Queen,no. 87, 1996; Treeves,
Frederick, The Tale of a Field Hospital (London, Cassell, 1900); Warwick, Peter, Black
People and the South African War 1899–1902 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press,
1983).
Indian Participation
As a matter of policy the British government decided not to use Indian troops in South Africa in order
to avoid racial problems. They did bring medical units from India and also used men of the Indian
Transport Corps. About 1,000 men served as grooms and farriers in the Remount Section. Various
menial roles such as
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