The men and boys sent across the ocean

During the Anglo-Boer War, about 28,000 Boer men and boys were taken prisoner of war. The majority, about 24,000, were sent overseas to camps in St. Helena, Ceylon, India and Bermuda.

Boys as young as 10 were included.

These camps are not to be confused with the civilian concentration camps into which the women and children were forced.

Initially, they were transported from the theatre of war to local port camps in Cape Town, Simonstown and Durban. After the 10-day battle of Paardeberg in February 1900, 4,000 Boers were taken prisoner of war by the British. It was a significant blow to the Boer forces.

On July 30, 1900, the largest single capture of Boer forces during the war took place, with over 4,300 men taken prisoner. 

The POW camps in South Africa were soon too small, and the presence of Republican Rebel forces in the Cape Colony was a threat. To decrease the possibility of escapes and increase the psychological effect, it was decided to ship the POWs overseas. It was also hoped that the Boers would capitulate.

Many Boers had never travelled by ship, and the long sea journeys were arduous. Most of the ships were dirty and infested with vermin, and many deaths occurred at sea.

On the Bermudas, camps were built on eight small islands, where the men were held in tents. These were not fenced with barbed wire like elsewhere. On the mountainous St Helena, they were located in the Deadwood and Broadbottom camps in tents so crowded that the men soon began building their own huts.

A third, smaller, separate camp was built on St Helena for Boers who had sworn neutrality to the British Crown during the war. Separating this group from the others was necessary as they aggravated political tensions.

Ceylon had five camps, some 300 km east of the capital Colombo, with the best largest known as Diyaltalawa. In India, there were 17 camps – from the far south up to the foothills of the Himalayas. Conditions in the Indian camps were the worst due to heat, dry spells and floods.

The men organised themselves by electing their corporals and captains to maintain discipline.

But the confinement under guard, far from home and the irregular post was challenging to endure, especially with many of their women, children, sisters and mothers in concentration camps. Their return was also uncertain.

Soon, the camps appeared as small villages with an organised way of life. They set up trade, shops, churches and schools for the boys. Many of these boys were taken POW during the guerrilla phase of the war.  Many of these boys were between 12 and 16, but some were younger and were with their fathers in the field, where they were herding stock. However, they were also taken POW, along with old men, of whom many were in poor health.

Free time was used to play rugby, cricket, and boxing. Music, choirs and debating societies flourished. And there were even camp newspapers and shops and chess was a popular pastime.

Handcrafts and arts

The POWs made various items from soft slate, wood, bone, and sometimes ivory – both in South African and overseas.

These items were not only made for daily use but also to sell and buy extra food with the income. Tobacco and stamps were another product they yearned for and purchased with the income. Others were so good with their art, they could save money, writes Vickey Heunis from the War Museum in Bloemfontein, South Africa.

Thousands of objects were sold to aid the widows and orphans in the British concentration camps back home. In the Netherlands, committees were organised to support the women and children and POWs on St. Helena and Ceylon made items to be sold in the Netherlands.

But these items were also an expression of the POWs' personal experiences and emotions. These items reflected the person who made them, and their personality.  Many knitted scarves and made brooches, others made walking sticks, chessboards and trinket boxes.

Escapes

Several exiles attempted to escape. The most famous incident was that of five prisoners of war – Lourens Steytler, George Steytler, Willie Steyn, Piet Botha and a German named Hausner – who managed to swim out to a Russian ship in the port of Colombo in Ceylon.

They then went to Odessa and travelled by back roads through Russia, Germany, the Netherlands and Germany again. They finally arrived in Walvis Bay, where they joined the Boer forces in the north-west of the Cape Colony.

On St. Helena, a prisoner, Cmdr. Andries Smorenburg attempted to escape by hiding in a large crate marked "Curios" and addressed to a merchant in London. Some of the crew discovered him after the ship had sailed, and he was sent back to St. Helena from Ascension. He was held in the military prison at Deadwood and tried by court-martial. From then on, he was held in the Fort High Knoll prison. After peace, he was sent back to South Africa.

The first prisoners returned to South Africa in August 1902, but the majority waited much longer.

This poem by Jan F.E. Celliers  (translated into English by Herman C. Bosman ) tells the story of the return.

That’s All

It's the yellow and the blue,
It's the veld and the sky,
And a lone bird above it
Flies slowly and high -
That's all.

It's an exile returned
O'er the ocean drear,
It's a grave in the grass,
It's a falling tear -
That's all.

Sources.

1. The Anglo-Boer War. 1899-1902. Hertigae Series. Don Nelson Publisher. Fransjohan Pretorius

2. Anglo-Boere Oorlog Krysgevangekuns, 1899-1902. Victorian Regina Heunis. Universiteit van Pretoria.