Royal Irish Rifles Militia volunteer for Boer War

Regimental Silver, 5th Battalion The Royal Irish Rifles, Boer War.

When the South African, or Second Boer War, broke out in 1899, the struggle against the Boers proved to be a major test for the Regular Army. It became necessary to reinforce the troops sent to South Africa with units from the Dominions and with reserve forces from the UK.

Among the latter was the 5th Battalion The Royal Irish Rifles, the former South Down Militia. Eleven officers and 424 other ranks (ORs) of the Battalion volunteered for service in South Africa, together with four officers and 110 ORs of the 3rd Battalion and three officers and 107 ORs of the 4th Battalion. The composite battalion, commanded by the CO of the 5th Battalion, Colonel R H Wallace, arrived in Cape Town on 28 April 1901. By then the war had moved into a new phase with the Boers adopting a policy of guerrilla warfare and striking at targets such as railways, storage depots, telegraphs, and military columns.

To counter the Boers’ small commando groups, which operated in their home areas where they could expect support, a scorched-earth policy was implemented. Boer farms were destroyed and civilians concentrated into camps while lines of blockhouses, or strongpoints, were created, radiating out from the main towns and linked by barbed-wire fences. In total, about 8,000 blockhouses were built. Each blockhouse was manned by six to eight soldiers and they proved their value as not a single vital point defended by a blockhouse was destroyed by the Boers.

The role assigned to the 5th Battalion was to man such blockhouses, although initially they had mounted patrols to counter Boer operations. On 17 May, one such patrol fought off a Boer commando of 100 men for 45 minutes until the Rifles’ ammunition was exhausted and three men had been killed or wounded severely. Six Boers had been killed and five wounded. The patrol was then forced to surrender but was mentioned by the GOC in District Orders and Corporal Heron was promoted to sergeant. On the same night another Rifles patrol prevented the blowing up of a railway line. Thereafter the Rifles took over some of the newly-built blockhouses. Although blockhouses manned by the Rifles came under frequent and often heavy attack, none was ever taken and in only one instance did a Boer party infiltrate past the Rifles under cover of darkness. There were several successes for the Rifles, including the capture of 168 remount horses from Kemp’s Commando, when the Battalion was congratulated by senior officers for its service.