6569 Private Nolan, Edward of Nolan's Shop 77 & 78 Tullow
Street, Carlow, the shop was well known to generations of Carlovians as
"Nannie Nolans". Michael Purcell bought a box of letters that had been
wrote by Ned during his Army service days, along with his Boer War
Diary from his sister Nannie in 1969 for 10 shillings. Edward Nolan
joined the Royal Irish Fusiliers shortly before the outbreak of the
Boer
War. From his letters
and other records, we will attempt to re-construct his service and
experiences during the war. However before we do
this it will be useful to take a brief look at the background to this
conflict.
Towards the
end of the 19th Century South Africa had two
Boer Republics; The Transvaal and Orange River. They were
surrounded on the north, west, south and south-east by the British in
Rhodesia, Cape Colony and Natal. Further west lay German South-West
Africa and the Portuguese in their East Africa colony. Relations between
Britain and the Boer Republics were never very
good. The Boer president Kruger had tried to
exclude the British from Boer territory. However
by 1895 this had become impossible as large numbers of "Uitlanders" (i.e. British) had entered the Transvaal to operate the Rand mines. The
Boer policy towards the "Uitlanders" was one of
discrimination, with no political rights and high taxes. Britain had two
choices, to try to listen to the "Uitlanders" appeals for help or leave
them to their fate. Negotiations at Bloemfontein ended in deadlock and
Britain started to reinforce the garrison in South Africa. The Boers
called for this to halt and when this did not happen the
Boer Republics declared war on 11th
October 1899.
The 1st
Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers were stationed in Alexandria and they
reached South Africa on October 12th 1899. Edward was in the
2nd Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers. The 2nd
Battalion, 944 strong and commanded by Colonel Reeves, left Colchester
by train for Southampton on 23rd October and sailed for
Africa on the same day aboard the "Hawarden Castle" along with
other reinforcements. The ship refuelled with coal at Las Palms on the
28th.
Meanwhile
the war was going badly for the British. The
towns of Mafeking and Kimberley were under siege and Ladysmith was also
under threat. The 1st Battalion of the Royal Irish Fusiliers
had been caught in an ambush on October 30 th and almost the
entire regiment had been either killed, wounded or taken prisoner. Those
that managed to escape were formed into two companies.
The
"Hawarden Castle" refuelled in Cape Town on 11th November
and on 15th arrived in Durban where the 2nd
Battalion disembarked and were ordered to join General Buller in Natal.
The Battalion travelled by rail in coal trucks arriving at
Pietermaritzburg on the railway between Durban and Ladysmith, late in
the evening. On the 17th they joined Major General Barton's
Fusilier Brigade at Mooi River, a small station on the line, south of
Estcourt. Over the next two days earthworks and other defences were
constructed in case of attack. On 22nd November
Boer artillery shelled the camp at 1.30 pm and at
around 4pm some 300 - 400 Boers advanced to within 2000 yards of the
camp but they were soon forced to retire with some loss due to
concentrated artillery fire. The following day the Boer
artillery shelled the camp at 6 am and the British artillery deployed to
Faugh Hill their counter battery fire silenced the Boer
guns. On the 24 th the Boers cut the railway line and shelled
Estcourt. The Boers proceeded to retire towards Colenso. On November 27
th the brigade marched 21 miles to Estcourt. On December 9th
they marched 12 miles to Frere. Here they were joined on the 10th
by General Buller. On the 12th the Fusilier Brigade marched
with six Naval guns to Cheivley. The Boers had dug in on the high ground
across the Tugela mountains from Colenso.
General Buller decided to
launch a frontal attack on the Boers on December 15 th. The
Fusiliers Brigade was in reserve except for four companies of the 2nd
Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers, which were to escort the Naval Guns,
along with three companies of the Scots Fusiliers. However the battle
began badly for the British as an overconfident artillery officer
brought his guns within rifle range of the Boers and the entire battery
was pinned down. Meanwhile the Infantry formed up for the advance with
the Irish Brigade on the left flank, Fusilier Brigade in the centre and
6 th Brigade on the right, with the 4th Brigade in
reserve. The advance came under heavy fire with the Irish Brigade taking
heavy losses as they were still in close formation when the Boers opened
fire. After about ten hours of heavy fighting General Buller ordered his
forces to retreat. The British lost 1,126 officers and men killed,
wounded or captured as well as 10 field guns. The 2nd
Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers lost 4 killed, 21 wounded and 11
captured. Shortly after the battle on the 22nd December
Edward wrote the following:
"I
suppose you have seen in the papers about the great battle fought here
at Colenso the 15 th December it was the
greatest England has fought yet. It started at 4 o'clock in the morning
and did not finish until 4 in the evening. Between killed and wounded
their was upwards of about 12 hundred, the Boers lost over two thousand
killed. We were in the firing line escorting the naval guns........our
regiment was very lucky as there are only a few killed and about 30
wounded and missing we are only about 1 1/2 miles from the Boers at
present. The naval guns is shelling them every day. We are getting some
very hard nights here on outpost duty we are out in all kinds of
weather."
General
Buller was now replaced as Commander in Chief by Lord Robert with Lord
Kitchener as Chief of Staff. On January 24 th 1900 General
Buller attacked the Boer positions on Spion Kop
but the attack failed. The Fusilier Brigade was in reserve and did not
take part in this action. The Brigade was in reserve until February 17th
when the Royal Irish Fusiliers captured a small hill on the extreme left
of the Boer positions. The next day the 18th
accompanied by the Scots Fusiliers they attacked the
Boer front line by scaling Green Hill, which they captured
suffering only a handful of casualties. The next day the Brigade
captured the feature called Hlangwane which had been abandoned by the
Boers during the night. However the brigade was under fire throughout
the day and the Boers attempted to retake Hlangwane but this
counterattack was driven of by the Royal Irish Fusiliers. Edward sent
another letter shortly after the battle and sounds an optimistic note as
regards the length of the war.
"...we
don't do any more fighting till Ladysmith is relieved again then the
war will be nearly all over..."
Edward now
comments on the relative strengths of the opposing sides;
"...there
was one big battle since the last battle I wrote to you 1,500 killed and
wounded, of the fight England is loosing a terrible lot and the Boers is
loosing twice as many as use but England can replace them but the Boers
cant'."
Despite the
tactical superiority of the Boer forces, they
could not replace their losses, whereas the British have an almost
limitless supply of men and materials.
On February
21st General Buller began to cross the Tugela and after
several days of heavy fighting several ridges north of the river were
captured though only after the British forces had suffered a large
number of casualties.
On the 27th
of February General Buller prepared to capture three key hills Pieter's,
Railway and Inniskilling. The Fusilier Brigade was ordered to attack
Pieter's. The brigade formed up with The Royal Irish on the left the
Royal Scot's on the right and the Dublin Fusiliers behind in support.
The order to advance came at noon and the brigade scrambled up 500 feet
of rocky hillside and emerging on a flat crest, they then fixed bayonets
and charged, captured the nearest Boer positions
with a loss of 13 killed and 63 wounded. The Royal Irish were the first
to occupy the captured position's. The Scot's came under heavy fire but
eventually they also managed to entrench themselves. A prolonged gun
battle ensued with the Boers still holding on to the north end of the
hill as nightfall approached by which time Railway and Inniskilling
Hill's were in British hands. At 6 p.m. three companies of the Royal
Irish led by Major F. F. Hill advanced to try and drive off the
remaining Boers. They came under a withering fire which resulted in
every single officer being killed or wounded. However the Royal Irish
hung on and at midnight the Boers retreated. General Buller had at last
destroyed the Tugela Line. The battle for the three hills had cost the
army 500 casualties, 100 of them were Royal Irish Fusiliers. Edward
wrote the following about the battle:
"...we
are after marching 90 miles in 4 days........1,500 Boers attacked us
they came within 15 yards of us shouting hand up and come out you
cowards........it is our turn for the hills we never left where we were,
when the Boers had the rocks they would't come out so we are getting our
own back. ...we went out to collect the killed we carried in 50 Boers
dead and buried them we lost 4 killed and 18 wounded."
Now Edward
tells us of an interesting fact about the battle:
"...was
part of the Boers Irish Brigade attacked, little new that it was the
Irish they had to meet."
The next day
the garrison at Ladysmith was relieved and the siege was over. The
Fusilier Brigade entered Ladysmith on March 3rd. Thus the 2nd
Battalion had rescued the remaining two companies of the 1st
Battalion. The situation in South Africa was now very promising. General
Buller in Natal now had an army 55,000 strong. In the Orange Free State
Lord Robert's forces had captured the state capital Bloemfontein on
March 13th.
Meanwhile
the Royal Irish had remained in Ladysmith and lost several men from
fever and dysentery. Lord Robert's now sent for General Hunter's
division which comprised the 5th Brigade and the Fusilier
Brigade. The division left on April 14th for Durban by rail
and then boarded a ship the "Yorkshire" for Cape Town. Edward in
his letters is unsure of the reason for this:
"...my
brigade is moving back to Cape Town and then we will go to Cape Colony,
but we don't know for what we are going as there is rumours about our
brigade going home."
Edward now
writes that he was wounded but gives no indication as to when it
occurred………
"I am
sure youse are glad to hear the wound was not much. I may thank God I
escaped so lucky the same shell killed a man of the Welsh Fusiliers. I
have seen 6 men carried far away with one shell........the wound I got
you can't see the mark of it but the least scratch the
War Office must let your people know about it."
…….and gives
us some idea of the conditions for the soldiers:
"...there
is a lot of fellows dying out here from enteric fever and dysentery
thank god I haven't got any sickness yet..."
[Both
Enteric fever (also known as Typhoid fever) as well as Dysentery are
caused by contaminated food or water.]
Edward's
brigade disembarked on the 23rd and began the train journey
to Kimberley. The plan of advance was a general move into the Transvaal
on a wide front. On the extreme right General Buller was to clear
northern Natal while General's Methuen and Hunter were to cross the Vaal
on the left and in the centre the main column was to march on Pretoria.
The 2nd Battalion now marched with the rest of General
Hunters division north from Kimberley and reached the Vaal. On the 4th
May they crossed up to their waists in water for 300 yards as there were
no bridges in the area. The next day May 5th as they advanced
through very thick bush at Rooidam the Boers opened fire on the lead
scouts. The British artillery opened fire on the Boer
position and the infantry came up as a firing line and eventually drove
them off after 10 hours hard fighting. The British lost 9 killed and 39
wounded while the Boers left 30 dead on the field.
On the 7th
General Hunter occupied Fourteen Streams where the railway crosses the
Vaal. The Boers now retreated for several miles. Having spent a week at
Fourteen Streams and rebuilt the destroyed railway bridge General Hunter
advanced on the 15 th along the north bank of the Vaal and on
the 16th he entered Transvaal. Meanwhile Mafeking was
relieved on May 17th and on the same day the division marched
north west out of Transvaal and back towards the railway, which had to
be repaired to open communications with Mafeking.
The division
spent two days at Vryburg and then marched back into Transvaal towards
Lichtenburg in the north east. The distance between Vryburg and
Lichtenburg was 116 miles and the terrain was barren and waterless.
Therefore General Hunter had to send his battalions off one at a time,
at half day intervals, in order to guarantee even a meager water ration.
Food was also scarce and the nights bitterly cold. Nevertheless by the
June 3 rd General Bartons Fusilier Brigade had reached
Lichtenburg where large numbers of Boer's
surrendered. Meanwhile Lord Roberts had captured Pretoria. The division
now march south east and by June 14 th was at Potchefstroom
having marched 360 miles in a little over five weeks. Edward describes
this period to us as follows:
"...I
couldn't answer you letter before this as we had rather hard times of
it........we were on the march from the 1st of
May till the 3 rd of July 3 months we only got
a couple of days when we had to go away again, we marched over 700 miles
now and a couple of fights with the Boers. The Boers last position is 50
miles from where we are now they can't go any further they are nearly in
the Portuguese territory at present."
The Brigade
was now sent to Johannesburg. From here the 2nd Battalion
Royal Irish Fusiliers along with the Royal Fusiliers were ordered to
join Major General Hutton at Pretoria. The plan was for General Hutton
to drive the Boers from the high ground south east of Pretoria. His
force consisted of an infantry brigade, which included the two fusilier
battalions, a mounted brigade and 22 artillery pieces. On July 4th
the Royal Fusiliers and Royal Irish Fusiliers joined General Hutton's
force. During the next week General Hutton's forces gained some ground
and by the 16th July about half his force including three
companies of the 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers held a
long ridge of high ground known as the Tigerpoort Range. The other half
of the force was in reserve. At dawn the Boers commenced an artillery
barrage which lasted for three hours, before they launched their attack.
The three companies of the Royal Irish were occupying two hillocks,
which together with a ridge manned by New Zealanders commanded the
Witpoort Pass. The Boers pressed home their attack and forced the New
Zealanders to retreat and at one point come close to surrounding and
overrunning the 2 nd Battalion's trenches. But the Royal
Irish were entrenched in strong positions and stubbornly stood their
ground and held on despite being outnumbered by 6 to 1. After six hours
of fighting Canadian reinforcements arrived and helped to drive off the
Boer attack. The battle had lasted thirteen hours
and the 2nd Battalion lost 5 killed and 22 wounded. General
Hutton came over the 2nd Battalions positions after the
battle to congratulate them on their gallant defence commenting that;
"…put an
Irish man in a tight corner and he will find a way out of it"
A week
later Hutton's force was ordered to take part in a sweeping movement
south of the railway. The advance began on the 23rd and by
the 25th had marched 68 miles. They were then held up for a
day by a storm. However on the 27th they occupied Middelburg,
100 miles from Pretoria. There was a lull in the fighting and the Royal
Irish spent a month at Middelburg. The advance was then resumed and by
the end of August Machadodorp and Nooitgedacht had been captured and the
men of the 1st Battalion had been freed. The 2 nd Battalion
now moved into Machadodorp which was to be its home for a whole year.
Meanwhile the British forces had completed the invasion of the
Boer Republics. However although the
Boer forces had been dispersed they had not been
beaten. The Boer leaders were determined to
continue the war. In January 1901 they launched a
series of attacks on the Pretoria-Delagoa line. The
2nd
Battalion in the Machadodorp area were responsible for the defence of
three hill positions. They had been reinforced by a small number of
artillery and cavalry.
On a dark
rainy night of January 7th-8th the Boers attacked
the 2nd Battalion's positions. However the Royal Irish held
their ground and threw back the Boers. The Battalion lost only two
killed and ten wounded. The war continued to drag
on with the British building block-houses at regular intervals,
Boer civilians were placed in concentration
camps, and farm houses were burned down to deny shelter to the enemy.
The Boers retaliated by sniping, blowing up railway lines and bridges,
and making occasional large scale raids.
In
September 1901 the 2nd Battalion moved out of Machadodorp
with a column. In December they were moved to Standerton 120 miles south
west of Machadodorp. Edward gives the following account of this
movement, the Bortha mentioned was one of the Boers principal
commanders:
"...we
have just left Maehadodorp we were there just over twelve months we left
it a month yesterday when we left it we joined a column at Wonderfontum
we marched from there to Emelo which we burnt down we stopped there a
day and then marched back it took us five days going and five days
coming back when we got back we were ordered down to Natal as Bortha had
got down there we trained it down to Newcastle we started on the march
from there but only got about 13 miles when we were ordered back we
trained from there to Dundee on our way we passed the famous Majuba and
Talana Hills we marched out here, Rooikop, from Dundee it is about
thirty two miles we are watching ahead in case Bortha tries to get
through again it is a very miserable hole. The trek that we are watching
is where our mounted infantry got a cutting up I expect you have seen
all about it in the papers, can't say how long we will be here but I
expect about six weeks."
The
war continued for a while longer and then in
March 1902 peace negotiations began and peace came on May 31st
1902. The war was finally over. The total losses
of the 2nd Battalion was as follows:
|
Killed
in action: |
|
2
officers |
|
40
rank and file |
|
Died
of disease |
|
1 |
|
41 |
|
Wounded |
|
9 |
|
148 |
Edward tell
us of his last few weeks in South Africa:
"We are
expecting to go in a very short time. We have started to pull up all the
barbed wire along the Blockhouse line and are expecting to pull down the
Blockhouses in a few days time........the Regiment is not going
home........we hear for a fact that we are going out to India."
Edward was
not the only Carlowman in the war. In his letters
he mentions the following:
"I met
Joe Green after the battle of Colenso....and Paddy Scully of Pollerton
and Bohanna too and Jim Bradey and George Murphy of Closh they were all
glad to see me."
EXTRACTS FROM
DIARY OF THE BOER WAR
by E. Nolan, D. Coy R.I.F.
The Batt. R.I.F. left Colchester on the
morning of the 23rd Oct., 1899 by train en route for Southampton,
arrived at Southampton and embarked on board the Hawarden Castle at 6
a.m. same date and sailed for South Africa, arrived at Las Palmas 28th …
15th Nov. 1899 … we received a good reception and some presents from
people of Durban, we entrained in coaltrucks for Pietermaritzburg where
we arrived at 8 p.m. and marched to barracks.
Dec. 15th – a day that will not likely be
forgotten by those that took part in this battle……….. 4 Coys going with
the Bde. and 4 with the Naval guns. We did not go far before the roar
of cannon told us we were in for a hot day's work – our Naval guns
opened fire first and the Boers replied from 3 or 4 different positions
and about 6 a.m. the infantry got into battle formation and advanced the
Irish Bde. in the left and the Fus. Bde. with Lord Dondonalds Bde. on
the right.
The Irish Bde. were the first to lose heavily as they were
in close formation when the enemy opened fire on them – the day was well
on by this time and the heat was getting unbearable and no water to wet
our mouths with and after 10 hours hard fighting our troops retired with
a loss of 1,147 killed wounded and missing and 10 guns captured – the
Boer loss was said to be 2,000.
We have now
come to the end of this account of Edward Nolan's service in the
Boer War . Below are the medals he received. The
clasps indicate the battles/campaigns he took part in.
- South Africa Medal.
- Clasps for above: Cape Colony,
Transvaal, Tugela Heights, Relief of Ladysmith
King's South
Africa Medal.
Clasps for above: South Africa
1901.
Letters of Edward
Nolan
Boer
War casualty lists.
Regimental History
Royal Irish Fusiliers.
Public Record
Office WO 100 245, WO 100 345
Footnote:
Edward Nolan of the Boer War letters came from the Tullow
Street family known as "The Darter Nolan's". They were
not related to the Nolan's, the Horse-Carrier firm, from
Burrin Street.
Edward Nolan survived the Boer War and came back to
Carlow to live with his sister Nannie in their shop on
Tullow Street.
Michael Purcell
Note from Angela Lawson:
My grandfather William Rice served in the Boer War and I wonder if
he was ever mentioned in these diaries mentioned above. He
was from Carlow. It is said that he took part in a ?
military propaganda film during the Boer war where he "wore
a bandage and used crutches to limp across a field. Part of
the "fee" for doing this was a "slap up meal". If you have
any information at all I would be truly grateful to hear
from you.
Angela Lawson
Edward Nolan SONG
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