The A to Z Challenge: M is for Malcolm

Malcolm is the oldest son of a father who is immensely proud of him, while being obstinately determined not to show him any sign of that pride. The two of them have something of a mutually destructive relationship.

Eager for adventure and the chance to see the wider world, Malcom joins up for the South African War, back then more familiarly known as the Boer War.

This conflict was the first time New Zealand was formally involved in an overseas war. Our Prime Minister of the day, Richard John Seddon, was eager to show New Zealand's willingness to accompany Britain into battle—so eager that he offered troops before war had actually been declared.

He certainly had no difficulty in making good the offer. All 6,500 New Zealand troops who served in South Africa were volunteers, and there was a steady supply of them, despite the requirement for each soldier to provide his own rifle and equipment, and preferably his own horse; a total cost of around £25, which was a substantial sum in those days (over $4,000 in today's money). The New Zealand troops were mounted riflemen, and the volunteers had to pass riding and shooting tests as well as medical ones. 8,000 horses went with them from New Zealand.

Group of soldiers departing for the South African War. Ref: 1/2-030101-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/23016278

 

 

Somewhat romanticised images like this one probably did recruiting no harm:

Montbard, G, fl 1900. Montbard, G :A tight corner, a New Zealander [ca 1900]. Ref: A-256-002. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/22382878

 

 

Albert Park, Auckland. New Zealand soldier of the South African War.

New Zealand horses in the Great War

Between 1914 and 1918, New Zealand sent more than 10,000 horses to Europe to serve in the Great War. Only four of those horses ever returned to New Zealand, and of that group only one served with New Zealand forces for the whole of the war, in the Middle East and later in Western Europe: Colonel Guy Powles’ horse Bess. Bess stayed with Colonel Powles for the rest of her life, eventually dying quite peacefully in 1934 while out for a ride with the Colonel.

Horses were also sent to South Africa with New Zealand troopers in the Anglo-Boer War (I send an imaginary trooper with his horse in Settling the Account), and at least one of those horses is known to have made it home.

More on the New Zealand warhorses, including photographs of Bess, here (warning: sad accounts of the fate of most of them).

This week in New Zealand history: NZ troops in the Boer War

The first contingent of New Zealand troops embarked for South Africa on the 21st of October 1899. On the 9th of December that year, the New Zealanders had their first engagement with enemy troops.

By the end of the war in 1902, New Zealand had sent almost 6,500 troops and 8,000 horses in ten contingents. To that total I've added one more soldier: in Settling the Account, a young lad's desire for adventure and loathing of home make him long to sail off to South Africa.

It's no easy task for him; not only is he underage, but would-be soldiers had to come up with the daunting sum of £25 for their equipment. My boy does find the money, from a source he would never have thought of. And then there's the question of whether or not he'll manage to smuggle out the horse he thinks of as his own, but about which his father feels quite differently.

Most of the soldiers came home again. None of the horses did.