AUSTRALIA’S COMMUNITIES AND THE BOER WAR John McQuilton Australia’s Communities and the Boer War John McQuilton Australia’s Communities and the Boer War John McQuilton University of Wollongong Wollongong , New South Wales , Australia ISBN 978-3-319-30824-1 ISBN 978-3-319-30825-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-30825-8 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016941863 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the pub- lisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Any author owes a debt of gratitude to many people. Mine includes Karl James, Linda Wade and Jen Roberts who read the manuscript and pro- vided constructive feedback, the peer reviewer who alerted me to a source that, much to my shame, I should have checked more thoroughly, and John Kwok. I also owe thanks to the staff at the National Archives of Australia and the Public Record Offi ce of Victoria for their assistance, and to the good people at Palgrave Macmillan. The research was funded in part by the University of Wollongong. The book is dedicated with love to my son, Alexander. v ABBREVIATIONS NEWSPAPERS AO Alpine Observer B&BA Bogong and Benambra Advertiser BMM Border Morning Mail and Riverina Times C&HT Chiltern and Howlong Times and Ovens Register CC Corryong Courier FS Federal Standard MI Murray Independent O&MA Ovens and Murray Advertiser RS Rutherglen Sun and Chiltern Valley Advertiser UM&MH Upper Murray and Mitta Herald WC Wangaratta Chronicle W&TS Wodonga and Towong Sentinel YT Yackandandah Times OTHER AMA Amalgamated Miners’ Association ANA Australian Natives Association AWM Australian War Memorial ION Inspector of Nuisances NAA National Archives of Australia PROV Public Record Offi ce of Victoria VMR Victorian Mounted Rifl es vii CONTENTS 1 Introduction: “Dot” Briggs 1 2 Portrait of a Region 5 3 “Skyrocket Patriotism”: October 1899 to December 1900 17 4 Exploring Disloyalty 33 5 Our Boys 45 6 From the Veldt 59 7 Removing the Stain: Wilmansrust 71 8 The Occasional War: January 1901 to August 1902 83 9 Obligations, Monuments and Moving On 97 10 Conclusion 109 ix x CONTENTS Appendix: Nomenclature and Sources 113 Index 125 CHAPTER 1 Introduction: “Dot” Briggs Abstract In October 1901 in the village of Cudgewa, Rev. Campbell Lahore conducted an in memoriam service for Walter Briggs who was killed in the Boer War. Lahore praised Briggs for his sacrifi ce for empire, and he savaged the men in the Fifth Victorian Mounted Rifl es (VMR) for their apparent cowardice at Wilmansrust. This was of some interest to those attending the service because the Fifth VMR had accounted for the largest intake of regional volunteers for the war. In Cudgewa, in the Upper Murray valley, a small obelisk stands in an empty paddock. It is dedicated to Corporal Walter Briggs, who, at the age of 30, had died “fi ghting for his country” in South Africa. When built, it stood in the school reserve and in the centre of the village. The site had been chosen to remind future generations of what sacrifi ce in war should mean. Walter Briggs was a big man, over six feet in height, hence his nickname “Dot”. In February 1900, he had driven his brother, and other successful volunteers for the Fourth Victorian Contingent, from Cudgewa to the Tallangatta railway station in his “express wagon” after a farewell attended by over 200 people. In late 1900, he volunteered for the Fifth Victorian Mounted Rifl es (VMR) with his mate, Robert Carlisle, from Granya. 1 Carlisle was accepted, but Dot was rejected because he was overweight. He paid his own passage to South Africa and enlisted in the South African © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016 1 J. McQuilton, Australia’s Communities and the Boer War, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-30825-8_1 2 J. MCQUILTON Constabulary, one of the imperial units set up in the subcontinent to fi ght the war. He was killed at Heidelberg in Cape Province on 30 August 1901. The local paper reported that a “pall of gloom” had descended on Cudgewa with the news of his death. 2 He was the youngest in the fam- ily and a “general favourite”. The district’s Presbyterian minister, Rev. Campbell Lahore, conducted a memorial service in October before a packed congregation. The pulpit was draped in black and partly covered by the Union Jack. Lahore claimed it was noble to love one’s country and those without such affection suffered a “serious defect”. Cudgewa was not alone in its loss, he said: there were vacant chairs in homes across an empire that mourned for “those brave soldier lads who will never return”. Briggs, he told the gathering, had been an exemplar of what it meant to be a British soldier and had died “one of the noblest, most glorious deaths a man can die”. He then turned to a matter that was of some interest in the region: whether the men in the Fifth VMR had been cowards when they fl ed before, or surrendered to, the enemy at Wilmansrust in June. The Fifth’s defeat was a “painful and humiliating shock”, Lahore claimed. Its men had violated the best traditions of the British Army and had tarnished the recognition that Australian soldiers had garnered during the war. 3 For the district, Lahore’s attack on the Fifth meant Robert Carlisle. For the region, it meant the reputation of its largest single intake of volunteers for the war. The school has gone, as has the memory of Briggs, his sacrifi ce and his war. Even less is remembered of the reasons behind Lahore’s savaging of the Fifth. Dot’s war was the Boer War. Laurie Field described it as the “forgotten war”, 4 and the study of the social history of war in Australia bears out the claim. In current historiography, there are only occasional reminders of that war—dissent at home, “Breaker” Morant and monuments that draw little recognition. It has, as Craig Wilcox argued in his masterful analysis of the confl ict in South Africa, been “has been lost to sight” 5 in histories of Australia. The celebration of the centenary of federation in 2001 made the point rather neatly. Although it was acknowledged that Australia had men fi ghting in South Africa in 1901, federation was achieved by peaceful means. The nation, however, was “born” in 1915. Yet, the Boer War was Australia’s fi rst experience of a sustained imperial war fought beyond its shores. But what did the war mean at a community level? Using North Eastern Victoria as a prism, this book looks at Australia’s “forgotten war” at home. INTRODUCTION: “DOT” BRIGGS 3 NOTES 1. National Archives of Australia (NAA) B5179, Muster (Nominal) Rolls of Victorian Contingents. 2. UM&MH , 12 September 1901. 3. CC , 10 October 1901. 4. L.J. Field, The Forgotten War: Australian Involvement in the South African Confl ict of 1899–1902 (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 1979). 5. Craig Wilcox, Australia’s Boer War: The War in South Africa 1899– 1902 (Melbourne: Oxford University Press in Association with the Australian War Memorial, 2002) 87. CHAPTER 2 Portrait of a Region Abstract The regional economy of North Eastern Victoria was a mixed one. Rifl e clubs, initially formed to defend the colony, also fi lled a social function. The prevailing political orthodoxy in the region was liberalism that found its quintessential expression in the Isaacs brothers, Isaac and John. A mistrust of the metropolis, whether it be Melbourne or London, was part and parcel of regional politics. Two groups were marginalised, the Chinese and the immigrants from northern India and Afghanistan. Sectarianism was an integral part of regional life. The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria’s reign was a red letter day for many in the region although not for all. In 1899, Victoria’s North East had little notion that the empire would soon call on its men to volunteer for war. Its citizens were far more pre- occupied with the ins and outs of regional life, a growing mistrust of the politicians in Melbourne and the upcoming referendum on federation. It was a typical regional community in one sense. Regions sometimes march in step with the national picture: yet more often they refl ect accommoda- tion, mediation and sometimes a rejection of external forces because a region is a place where national and international matters intersect with notions of community and identity.