Wessels, Commandant, 393; in raid into Cape Colony, 519, 526
West Riding Regiment, 336, 348, 362
Weston, Maj. Hunter, in dynamite party, 430
White, Bobby, of Welch Fusiliers, with Jameson, 3, 39; as Lt-Col., attached to Plumer’s column at relief of Mafeking, 416
White, Lt-Gen. Sir George: appointed GOC Natal, 96, 97–8; lands at Durban, 107; allows Symons to remain at Dundee, 108–9, 113, 122; hears news of Talana, 134–5; watches at Elandslaagte, 137; unable to help Yule, 144; at Ladysmith, and reasons for not retreating from, 148–50; gambles on ‘knock-down blow’, 150–3, which fails, 153–5, 169; Buller hears of his position, 160; Buller on, 178; Wolseley decides to dismiss, 161; keeps cavalry in Ladysmith, 212; Buller’s messages to, 215, 239–40; in Ladysmith, 268, 270, 271, 272, 273, 275, 350, 352, 355; his messages to Buller, 277, 278, 281; at relief, 365, 366, 367–8; invalided home, 369, 370; Governor of Chelsea Hospital, 574
Whiteley, Mayor, of Mafeking, 465–6
Wilford, Col E. P., CO Gloucester, 151
Wilhelm II, Kaiser, 30, 564
Wilkinson, Spenser, of Morning Post, 32, 88, 369
Williams, Maj., CO of detachment at Tweefontein, 542-3. 544
Williams, Maj., staff officer to Ross, 475
Willis, G. W., farmer near Ladysmith, 268
Willoughby, Col Sir John, of Horse Guards, with Jameson, 2, 3, 88; at Ladysmith, 119, 268; at relief of Mafeking, 416
Willow Grange, near Estcourt: action at (21 Nov. 1899), 174
Wilson, Fleetwood, of War Office, friend of Milner, 84–5, 86, 162
Wilson, Maj. H. (later Field-Marshal Sir Henry), Brigade-Major to Lyttelton, 345, 367
Wilson, Lady Sarah, in Mafeking, 404, 412, 414
Wilson, Surgeon-General W. D., PMO under Roberts, 383, 422
Winchester, Maj. Marquis of, of Coldstream Guards, 206
Witwatersrand, discovery of gold in (1886), 20; see also gold-mines
Wolseley, Field-Marshal Lord, C-in-C, 18; proposes mobilization of Army Corps (negatived by Lansdowne), 72–3, 74; and Lansdowne, 75, 76, 78, 95, 97, 250; wants to send 10, 000 troops to South Africa, 76, 81, 82; at decision to send troops, 95–6; at Kruger’s ultimatum, 110; opposes Chamberlain’s idea of advancing troops in Natal, 112; decides to dismiss White, 161; on Methuen, 177; and Roberts’s son, 214; and replacement of Buller by Roberts, 245; and expansion of army, 252; suggests abandonment of Ladysmith, 307
Wolseley Ring, see Roberts and Wolseley Rings
women and children: shelter in diamond mines in Kimberley, 326–7; of Boers, in Pretoria, sent to Botha’s laager, 449–50; Kitchener decides to remove from farms to concentration camps, xvi, 493-4 (see also concentration camps); of surrendered Boers, driven from their homes by official Boer policy, 494; Kitchener orders mobile columns no longer to bring in, 548; in reports of Boer delegates at Vereeniging, 566
Wood, Lieut., of North Lancashires, 179
Woodgate, Maj.-Gen. E. R. P., CO Lancashire Brigade, 285–6, 287, 293, 296, 297
Woolls-Sampson, Col A., leader in Uitlander army, 108, 121; Maj. and then CO, Imperial Light Horse, 134, 540; at Elandslaagte, 138, 140, 141; as Intelligence Officer, 536, 540, 541, 556
Wybergh, engineer with Consolidated Goldfields, 55, 122; Commissioner for Mines, in British Johannesburg, 430, 501
Wyndham, George, Parliamentary Under-Secretary, War Office (1898-1000), 87, 96, 166; and Imperial Yeomanry, 252–3
Wynne, Col A. S., left by Buller at the Cape, 213; Maj.-Gen., CO Lancashire Brigade, 356
Wynne’s Hill, near Ladysmith, 356, 359
Xhosa Africans, 15, 16
Yatman, Capt., of Northumberland Fusiliers, 478
Yeomanry Hill, Nooitgedacht, 478, 479
Yorkshire Light Infantry, 115, 188, 336
Yule, Brig.-Gen. J. H., CO infantry brigade at Talana, 130; replaces Symons at Dundee, 142, 143–4; retreats to Ladysmith, 144–5, 146, 147, 148, 169, abandoning code-books, etc, 147, 239
Yzerspruit, De la Rey swoops on Von Donop’s wagon convoy at (25 Feb. 1902), 549, 556
Zand River, 420, 422; Hamilton’s column in action at (10 May 1900), 423
Zarps (Johannesburg police): and Uitlanders, 44, 45, 50, 51, 53; hold kopje at Bergendal, 455, 456
Zilikat’s Nek, De la Rey’s success at (11 July 1900), 448, 472
Zoutpansberg Commando, 220, 222
Zulu War (1879), 18, 452-3 Zulus: in Natal, 108, 150; refugees from Rand mines, march to Natal, 120–1; ready to repel Boers, 532
* In spelling South African place-names I have used the contemporary forms adopted by the Official History, not the modern Afrikaans forms.
* Standard history books give the wrong date for the annexation. It was formally proclaimed on 28 May – not 26 May (as in Lord Roberts’s official despatch), nor 24 May, when it was issued in Army Orders.
* In June 1970 I talked to the officer, Lieutenant (later Colonel) Thompson, who had commanded the firing squad. He described Handcock as a ‘charming young man’. I was shown the cigarette case he gave Thompson before he was taken out to be shot.
* In the official War Museum at Bloemfontein, recently refurbished, there is an exhibition of concentration camp relics, including the ground glass supposed to have been put in the camp food by the British authorities.
The Boer War Page 111
