BOER-WAR-L Archives

From: "John Wilson" <>
Subject: [BOER-WAR] Cycle Corps
Date: Sat, 26 Jan 2002 19:20:17 +1300

Cycle Corps and Cyclists

The use of cyclists in the war in South Africa is mentioned in:

"The Times History of the War in South Africa" (1900-09) ed L.S. Amery:
When Plumer was advancing to Mafeking, March 16-23, he had a camp at
Sefetili
communicating with the base at Gaberones (later at Ootsi) by cyclist's posts
at
Mashupa, Kanya and Moshwane (Vol IV page 207)
The Boers had a Corps of cyclist despatch riders (Vol II page 85)

H.W.Wilson's books "With the Flag to Pretoria" & "After Pretoria the
Guerilla War"
(Harmsworth Bros, Associated Press) have photos:
"With the Flag to Pretoria":
A cyclist orderly at Mafeking (page 603)
"After Pretoria the Guerilla War":
A cyclist telegraph engineer on a bicycle with a reel to pay out the wire
(page 166)
Cyclist scouts (Rhodesian volunteers) of Plumer's column (page 350)

Somewhere I saw a Boer War photo of two cycles with 3 or 4 cyclists each
coupled
side-by-side and used on railway lines. But how useful was it??

And generally, while Cyclist Corps were common at the turn of the century,
read somewhere that the Swiss army had a Cyclist Corps until quite
recently.

Yours, John Wilson (Wellington, New Zealand)

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