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Military History – South Africa – Europe – England 19th Century
.Article – Online Historic Information | Military
.Page 124
memorate the bravery shown by the Irish regiments in the recent operations in South Africa, has
been graciously pleased to command that an Irish regiment of Foot Guards be formed. This regiment
will be designated the Irish Guards.”
In South Africa the Boer Irish Brigade was recruited from Irishmen who were living and
working in the Transvaal. They were not citizens of the South African Republic and indeed it was
partly in order to attain such status that they volunteered. The formation of the Brigade was the idea of
John MacBride who had been involved in Fenian activity in Dublin before coming to Africa in 1896.
President Kruger gave his approval to the creation of the unit but forbade the solicitation of recruits in
Ireland and America. The membership of the Brigade was not exclusively Irish; there were also some
French and American volunteers among them. MacBride declined to take up the office of commander
of the brigade, believing that he lacked the experience required. The post was filled by an IrishAmerican resident of Johannesburg, Colonel J. Y. F. Blake, who had graduated from the United States
Military Academy, West Point, and had served in the Apache wars. This, the First Irish Brigade,
served at the siege of Ladysmith, and the battles of Colenso and Spioenkop. Reinforced with new
recruits from Massachusetts and Chicago, they then took part in the resistance to Lord Roberts’s
advance from Bloemfontein in May 1900. At this time their chief activity, under Major MacBride,
was the blowing up of bridges and they succeeded in wrecking all the rail crossings of the rivers
between Bloemfontein and Johannesburg. Their last action in the Boer War was at Bergendal in
August 1900.
A second Irish Brigade was raised by an Australian, Arthur Lynch, in January 1900. Lynch had
graduated in engineering at Melbourne University and then worked as a journalist in England. It was
in this capacity that he went to Johannesburg in 1899. When he failed to get clearance to cover the
Boer campaigns he instantly quit journalism and offered instead to form another Irish Brigade. Kruger
approved and the newly designated Colonel Lynch led his men, many of them, especially the officers,
German and French, into Natal early in 1900. Their principal service was in the resistance to Buller’s
advance after the relief of Ladysmith (28 February 1900), under Louis Botha at Waschbank and under
Christiaan Botha at Helpmakaar. After Buller outflanked the Boer position at Langs Nek by way of
Botha’s Pass, Lynch’s unit took part in the defence of Johannesburg, facing the 2nd Victorian Mounted
Rifles at Vereeniging and the Australian scouts on the Klip River. The Brigade disbanded after the
fall of Pretoria (June 1900) and Lynch departed to promote the Boer cause in the United States and in
France.
See also:
Blake, J. Y. F.; Lynch, Arthur; MacBride, John.
Reference:
Davitt, Michael, The Boer Fight for Freedom (New York, Funk & Wagnalls, 1902); Jeffery, Keith,
“The Irish Soldier”, Boer War: Direction, Experience and Image,ed. J. Gooch (London, Frank
Cass, 2000);
Lee, Ema-
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