Queensland Light Horse troops pay tribute to Boer War volunteers

Reputed to be the words of British officer Lieutenant Colonel Charles Hore when his force of 500 men, mostly Australians, was asked to surrender after five days defending a garrison in the Boer War, they are an indication that the Battle of Elands River could well be where the spirit of the Anzacs was born.

The contributions that men from the six colonies that were soon to become Australia made in the second Boer War between 1899 and 1902 is often overshadowed by the deeds of their sons in the world war that followed a dozen years later, but over the last few days, Light Horse re-enactment troops in Queensland have been honouring them.

Coming from Jandowae, Darling Downs, Woombye, Gympie, Plainland, Lockyer Valley, Warwick and the Australian Army Veterinary Corps, they joined the Queensland Mounted Infantry Historical Troop in conducting services at some of the rare memorials for the war that exist in the state, at Allora on the Southern Downs, the first to be erected in Queensland, and at Gatton in the Lockyer Valley.

The commemoration concluded on Tuesday morning at Anzac Square in Brisbane, which holds the state's third memorial to fallen soldiers from that war.

This is the day, 120 years earlier, that the war in South Africa concluded, with the loss of the lives of 67 Queenslanders.

Eight of those are recorded on the heritage listed memorials at Allora and Gatton, four men from each small town.

The Brisbane Courier reported in 1904 that when the memorial in Allora was unveiled by Brevet-Lieutenant Colonel Harry Chauvel, whose Queenslanders had been the first unit from the Australian colonies in action in the war, it took place in front of a huge crowd.

A crowd of hundreds turned out again in Allora on Saturday, which organiser Jed Millen of the Queensland Mounted Infantry Historical Troop, said he was ecstatic about.

"Accolades usually always go to the bigger centres so I think it was very special for a little town," he said.

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Speaking at Gatton on Sunday, Lockyer Valley Mayor Tanya Milligan said the Boer War was uniquely Australian in character, like no other in Australia's history because it was made up of colonial volunteers at the start.

"They volunteered to help many," she said. "They demonstrated that spirit of service, and I say that as an army mum."

She said the memorial at the town's railway station was unique to the town's history, an "historic touchstone, enabling us to remember and respect".

Around 16,000 men volunteered to fight for Britain against the Dutch-Afrikaner, or Boer, settlers in South Africa, six of them receiving the Victoria Cross for their bravery.

Lieutenant M Luhtasaari, representing the 12/16 Hunter River Lancers, told the crowds at Allora and Gatton that the soldiers who answered the call to support the British lacked formal training but were natural horsemen and could live in the bush.

"They gave the British a force that could match the Boers, and the climate matched their own," he said.

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The conditions they fought under were arduous, resulting in as many dying of disease as from action or wounds sustained in battle.

The war remains Australia's third-worst conflict in terms of casualties.

"If you think about Australia's military history, we wouldn't have had an army as good as it was in the first World War without the Boer War experience," Mr Millen said. "For soldiers like Harry Chauvel, the Boer War was their grounding."

He said it was important for commemorators to remember that the men went away as colonials and returned as Australians.

Michael Cody of the Woombye troop added that the war was significant in Australia's history.

"These men and women were the first to serve us in battle, and they did us proud," he said. "They gained us respect from people all over the world."

As Lieutenant Luhtasaari said, while on a tactical level the Australians denied Boers much-needed supplies - "they lost eight men defending a mountain of beef, jam and rum" - on another level, Australia could point to the Battle of Elands River as the place where the Anzac spirit was born.

"There was no finer fighting in the war," he said.

And as Mr Cody concluded, by their deeds in the Boer War, the soldiers there could be regarded as the 'fathers of the Anzacs'.

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