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Military History – South Africa – Europe – England 19th Century
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Rooiwal, Battle of,
11 April 1902
The defeat suffered by the Boers at Rooiwal, as the result of an ill-considered charge, contributed to
the pressures for them to enter peace negotiations, in spite of the resistance of the bitter-enders.
After Assistant Commandant-general Koos De la Rey defeated Lieutenant-general Lord Methuen
at Tweebosch on 7 March 1902, Major-general Lord Kitchener poured troops into the western
Transvaal to catch the Boer commandos. On 11 April three columns working together under the
command of Lieutenant-general Sir Ian Hamilton discovered their enemy at Rooiwal (Roodewal)
Farm, south-west of Delareyville. De la Rey himself was not there and Vecht-general J. C. G. Kemp
led his men, some 1,500 of them, in a wild charge on the positions the British hastily took up at the
orders of Lieutenant-colonel Robert Kekewich. From the field of mealies (maize) in which they had
taken cover, the British poured their fire on the galloping Boers. Some, among them Commandant F. J.
Potgieter, came within 100 yards (915m) before they were shot down. Hamilton ordered a counterattack and the remaining Boers, about 2,000 men, were forced away to the south. These drives were
wearing the Boers down and tentative talks about peace negotiations already taking place amongst the
Boers in Klerksdorp were stimulated by this defeat.
See also:
Bitter-enders; Peace Negotiations; Tweeboch, Battle of.
Reference:
Jones, Huw G. and Meurig G. M. Jones, A Gazetteer of the Anglo-Boer War 1899–1902 (Milton
Keynes, The Military Press, 1999); Pakenham, Thomas, The Boer War (London, Weidenfeld &
Nicolson, 1979; Abacus, 1992).
Rundle, Lieutenant-General Sir Leslie,
1856–1934
Henry MacLeod Leslie Rundle joined the Royal Artillery in 1876. He served in the Zulu War of 1879
and with the Field Artillery in the First Boer War, when he was besieged in Potchefstroom. He was
Chief of Staff to Sir Horatio (later Lord) Kitchener with the Dongola Expeditionary Force and was
given the command of the 8th Division in South Africa in 1900.
Russian Volunteers
The war in South Africa against the English, as the conflict was widely perceived in Europe and the
Americas, attracted foreign volunteers who were tolerated, rather than welcomed, by the Boers. It is
difficult to establish a figure for the number of Russian volunteers, but it is generally accepted that
about 225 volunteers came from Russia.
Some came as combatants while others offered medical assistance. The Russian Red Cross in
fact made offers to both sides; the British declined, while the Transvaal government accepted. Six
doctors, four medical assistants, nine nurses, twenty hospital attendants and two adminis-
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