Post by BereniceUK on Apr 5, 2017 20:36:50 GMT
A RAINFORD LADY'S RETURN FROM THE TRANSVAAL.
One of the very few English ladies who have been in the Transvaal during the war and have returned home is Miss Hettie Bridger, daughter of the Rev. J. Bridger, vicar of Rainford. On Friday the representative of a contemporary obtained from Miss Bridger, who retuned home a few days before, an interesting account of her experiences of the Transvaal and of the war. "I went out to South Africa in the month of May two years ago, and reached Ermelo about the beginning of June. I stayed there with Dr. Maxwell, my brother-in-law. During the campaign," added Miss Bridger, "we had to be very careful. There were few English people there - a few storekeepers at first - and the Boers, knowing we were English, kept telling us some most wonderful things about the British soldiers. They said our soldiers would not fight, and prayed that they should not fight the Boers, of whom they were afraid. We were told also that the English officers had to use whips to make our soldiers fight. Dr. Maxwell had been commandeered by the Boers, and my sister and I were quite alone. If we were upset by the stories told us by the Boers they were quite glad, so we always looked cheerful - pretended we were indifferent when we weren't. The Boers could not forget Majuba, and quite thought our side could never win." In speaking of her brother-in-law, Miss Bridger said that Dr. Maxwell was with the Boers four months under the red Cross flag. He was at Colenso, and all the Boers wounded there passed through his hands. "After all that fighting, only 27 Boers were put out of action, 11, I think, being killed."
At one time Ermelo was the headquarters of Louis Botha, the Boer Commander-in-Chief, whom Miss Bridger describes as a charming man outside of politics. De Wet also she has seen. She does not esteem the redoubtable guerrilla chief very highly. Incidentally Miss Bridger stated that General French once remarked he would not fire at the town because it was so pretty.
"I left on February 11th," continued Miss Bridger, "Provisions were getting scarce, and we lived on ground mealies, the diet of the natives. We had no tea, or sugar, or soap. Oh no; the Boers do not like soap. An English officer told me, on coming into the town, that he knew I was English because I was washing. I had a birthday while I was there, and the only presents I had were so much sugar (sixth of a pound perhaps), this much tea (indicating a canister containing but an ounce of tea), a bit of sugar, and a small piece of scented soap. So we left with a convoy of 260 wagons on the way to Standerton. All the way we were coming across burnt and desolate farms. Sometimes a little maize had been left to keep the women and children, but generally the crops were destroyed."
(St Helens Reporter, 28 May 1901)
One of the very few English ladies who have been in the Transvaal during the war and have returned home is Miss Hettie Bridger, daughter of the Rev. J. Bridger, vicar of Rainford. On Friday the representative of a contemporary obtained from Miss Bridger, who retuned home a few days before, an interesting account of her experiences of the Transvaal and of the war. "I went out to South Africa in the month of May two years ago, and reached Ermelo about the beginning of June. I stayed there with Dr. Maxwell, my brother-in-law. During the campaign," added Miss Bridger, "we had to be very careful. There were few English people there - a few storekeepers at first - and the Boers, knowing we were English, kept telling us some most wonderful things about the British soldiers. They said our soldiers would not fight, and prayed that they should not fight the Boers, of whom they were afraid. We were told also that the English officers had to use whips to make our soldiers fight. Dr. Maxwell had been commandeered by the Boers, and my sister and I were quite alone. If we were upset by the stories told us by the Boers they were quite glad, so we always looked cheerful - pretended we were indifferent when we weren't. The Boers could not forget Majuba, and quite thought our side could never win." In speaking of her brother-in-law, Miss Bridger said that Dr. Maxwell was with the Boers four months under the red Cross flag. He was at Colenso, and all the Boers wounded there passed through his hands. "After all that fighting, only 27 Boers were put out of action, 11, I think, being killed."
At one time Ermelo was the headquarters of Louis Botha, the Boer Commander-in-Chief, whom Miss Bridger describes as a charming man outside of politics. De Wet also she has seen. She does not esteem the redoubtable guerrilla chief very highly. Incidentally Miss Bridger stated that General French once remarked he would not fire at the town because it was so pretty.
"I left on February 11th," continued Miss Bridger, "Provisions were getting scarce, and we lived on ground mealies, the diet of the natives. We had no tea, or sugar, or soap. Oh no; the Boers do not like soap. An English officer told me, on coming into the town, that he knew I was English because I was washing. I had a birthday while I was there, and the only presents I had were so much sugar (sixth of a pound perhaps), this much tea (indicating a canister containing but an ounce of tea), a bit of sugar, and a small piece of scented soap. So we left with a convoy of 260 wagons on the way to Standerton. All the way we were coming across burnt and desolate farms. Sometimes a little maize had been left to keep the women and children, but generally the crops were destroyed."
(St Helens Reporter, 28 May 1901)