South African Collectors’ Society

Anglo-Boer War Society Meeting

Anglo-Boer War Philatelic Society Meeting: 8th April 2025

Once more, it was a privilege to join the ABWPS (Anglo-Boer War Philatelic Society) meeting in the Union Jack Club, London. It is hard to understand why more do not attend this delightful venue. So far, it has been one full of historic surprises.

The first to arrive had been Nick Harris who not finding his comrades in the bar decamped for the nearby Waterloo Pub. As Nick has an important collection of Battle of Waterloo collectables we must conclude that his trip to the pub was as much about research as it was about any need to wet his whistle. Tony Stanford duly arrived, followed shortly after by Ian Shapiro. Slowly a small gang of us built up. As we were were noisily occupying part of the foyer it was decided we should retire to the optional restaurant.

Just what the belligerants of the ABW / SAW (South African War) would have made of the Union Jack Club’s superb cuisine I do not know. It is over a century and 5,000 miles from their wartime bully beef, ‘chevril’, biltong and mielie pap. After a very good lunch we made our way in fine fettle to the 2nd floor Cowap room, a bright, comfortable, modern business-like environment that seats up to 16 people around a boardroom table.

Unlike the previous meeting where postal history items were passed around the table from hand-to-hand, on this occasion we had two display frames available to us. In my opinion this is better for those displaying material despite the logistics problem it introduces. It also allows the attending members to concentrate on the presentation of the display rather than distractedly studying belatedly circulating sheets.

Tony Stanford kicked off with ‘Army Telegraph Cancels (Johannesburg ) used on Telegraph Forms of the IMR (Imperial Military Railways), Transvaal Telegraphs and ZAR Telegram Department’. Ian Shapiro picked up a similarly-shaped ball with his ‘Post-War Telegram Forms from Various Areas including IMR and OHMS Transvaal Government’. Ian had bought along several Telegram Forms for sale, one of which is shown above. He made the point that as the official communications of arms of government telegram forms are and should be worthy paper collectibles on a par with postal history.

Steve’s contribution began with a letter written by Sir Henry Strakosch at the Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town in 1900. He believes that it was here that Strakosch first met Winston Churchill. During the 1930s, Churchill was bankrupt and warning against German rearmament while Strakosch feared growing German anti-semitism. As Chairman of SA’s Union Corporation, Strakosch was wealthy enough to gift Churchil £20,000. This lead Nazis and anti-Semites to claim that Churchill was controlled by Jewish bankers and Zionists. Steve’s display is based on a statement which Strakosch’s makes in his letter – “it remains to be seen how General Kitchener will deal with the Boers.” This allowed Steve to describe Kitchener’s military strategy including the various “methods of barbarism”, (Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, leader of the Opposition), that he employed.

Among the various actions that Kitchener authorised were the burning and dynamiting of farms and homesteads; the slaughter of livestock; the placing of women, children and old men made destitute by these acts in Refugee Camps (later called concentration camps); indifference to the well-being of these civilians while in the care of the British Army, resulting in the deaths of 26,000+ Europeans, mostly children, and 16,000 displaced Black people; martial law that executed those who revealed the death rate; the erection of some 6,000 blockhouses; the conscription of some 100,000 black labourers and auxiliaries for British Army projects; vast ‘drives’ that scoured the countryside for guerillas; and the amalgamation of different railway systems into the IMR, a telegram of which above is an example of Kitchener assuming control of the railways to win the war.

There were several types of blockhouse. The first was the expensive and slow to build solid masonry Wood pattern blockhouse, also known as the Orange River pattern, of which some 450 were built at bridges and strategic locations. When these proved impractical 1000s of cheaper Rice pattern ones were built, mostly along the lines of the railways. These were erected in days from an early ‘flat panel kit’ of pre-fabricated wooden frames enclosed by corrugated iron sheets filled with sand or stone. They could not withstand artillery fire but by this late stage of the war the Boers had lost their guns. Many Wood pattern blockhouses remain as an enduring reminder of the war.

Nick Harris who had made such an impression with his British POW Mail at the first ABWPS meeting which Steve had attended now continued to produce more gems of postal history. These included Mafeking and Ladysmith siege mail and Australian Contingent postcards that some can only dream of. Members were also entertained by Nick’s unrelenting banter with David Milsted who shared his collecting interests and gave as good as he got. David showed a miscellany of postal history and ephemera including Mafeking siege mail and very unusual pro-Boer propaganda stamps from Germany.

Richard Berry’s presentation, a collection of mail to Boudewijn Gerrit de Witt Hamer with various cachets, came as a pleasant surprise to Steve who had included a letter to him in his display and who was pleased to see it more fully described by Richard. See below.

A Hollander, de Witt Harmer arrived in SA in 1885 and spent time in Natal as the editor of a Dutch language farmer’s newspaper. He went to the ZAR where he was the elected member of the Volksraad for Barberton in 1897. When the ABW / SAW started in October 1899, de Witt Hamer raised the Hollander Corps to fight for ZAR. He was captured at the Battle of Elandslaagte, held on HMS Penelope in Simonstown and sent to St Helena. HMS Penelope can be seen as the white ship in the foreground of the postcard below.

John Jacques, the editor of the ABWPS journal, the Anglo-Boer War Philatelist, concluded the meeting with his display on ‘Troopship Mail’. Again, this came as a pleasant surprise to Steve who had included a cover on Boer Transporation in his display. See below. John is researching this field and has so far detected approximately 117 (?) ships used to transport soldiers and POWs to and from South Africa and back again. Many special thanks to John for contributing his notes and photos to this report.

Too soon it was time to go. The only one excited by this prospect was David Milsted who was off to the Emirates to see Arsenal play Real Madrid in the Champions League Quarter Final. None of us knew what a treat awaited him! David would go home a happy man after the Gunners trashed Real Madrid 3 – 0. He would be even happier a week later when his team won the second round in Spain 2 – 1. This was a great result for David, Arsenal and English football. Let’s hope they lift the Champions League Cup. Let’s hope we hear David crowing about this at the ABWPS for years to come! It will be worth it!

This was a really good day. I enjoyed everything about it.

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