Plumer’s Column: The Northern Front in the Anglo-Boer War, July 1899 – May 1900

ABSTRACT / SAMEVATTTING

The North West Frontier campaign has unfortunately been dominated by Colonel Baden-Powell and the siege of Mafeking, to the near exclusion of his subordinate, Colonel Plumer and his field force. Tensions ran high along the frontier territory of British Bechuanaland (Botswana), Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and the Transvaal Republic [ZAR]. The Transvaal Boers, due the Jameson raid of 1896, feared another back door ‘invasion’ and British settlers feared a repeat of the bloody tribal revolts of 1896/7. Baden-Powell raised two regiments of mounted rifles, The North West Frontier Force, in preparation for a raid from Southern Rhodesia into the Northern Transvaal, in the event of war. Reminiscent of ‘a la Jameson raid’. The Force was to defend British borders and contain a sizeable force of Boers in the north, keeping them away from their main forces, and ‘keeping the natives in order’ should hostilities break out. Probably the first act of the war took place in Bechuanaland when Boer troopers severed British communications with the Cape Colony.

When Baden-Powell moved into Mafeking, Plumer crucially remained in the field with his Rhodesian Mounted Rifles and members of the British South African Police, to defend the 500 mile long borders of British territory from Boer incursions. Captured Kruger telegrams highlight the anxiety raised by Plumer’s column, commenting ‘Watch Plumer at all costs’ and questioning, ‘Where is Plumer’. Plumer moved to Fort Tuli on the Transvaal border where his forces were bested in a number of small actions; although ultimately frustrating any further Boer incursions across this border. Moving his force to the Gaborone region, he was engaged in a number of actions mainly around the strategically important railway line from Mafeking to Bulawayo. His force was again bested at Ramathlabama close to Mafeking, before taking part in its successful relief in May 1900.

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