The 6th Battalion, The Worcestershire Regiment in the Boer War 1901-2

The 5^th and 6^th Battalions were Militia battalions. The Militia consisted of volunteers who on enlistment received two months training before returning to their civilian occupations and were then required to attend a camp each year for a further twenty eight days training. They were liable to be embodied in the event of riot, invasion or the threat of invasion but they were not required to serve overseas unless they volunteered to do so.

The 6^th Battalion was embodied and based at Aldershot from March to October 1900 and most men volunteered for service in South Africa but were not selected at that time. Some individuals did however reinforce the 2^nd Battalion there. Eleven 6^th Battalion men died there mostly from disease.

On 9 December the 6^th Battalion was again embodied at Norton Barracks and approximately 60% of the men volunteered for service in South Africa. 250 veterans, young soldiers and men who were unfit were left behind when the battalion marched to Norton Junction to entrain for Aldershot. The Bands of the Battalion and the depot played them to the station.

On arrival at Aldershot they underwent a course of training before embarking on the ship Manila. They arrived at Cape Town on 26 January and were sent to Burghersdorp where they occupied a blockhouse line.

During this final phase of the war when the Boer commandoes were scattered and on the run blockhouse lines were established along many railway lines to prevent them from joining up and posing a threat. Wire was stretched between the blockhouse lines to limit the Boers’ ability to manoeuvre.

The following is a description of the blockhouses:

“There are two different types; tin ones which can be erected in a day and stone ones which cost £300 and are a week to construct.

The tin are the usual kind. They are round, with walls of double corrugated iron, the space between being filled with stones. The walls stand six feet high, and have eight loopholes near the top. Four feet from the ground is banked with earth, forming a glacis. The roof is a flattened cone of corrugated iron, with ventilators. The door is a low down hole through the earthwork and two tin walls. Going in is easy – getting out is not. Inside there is a good wooden floor, but no furniture. The garrison of eight men put their ‘pillows’, folded waterproofs, round the wall, and sleep toes in the middle.

Ten yards outside the blockhouse is the barbed wire fence, with an entrance which zig-zags in, and has trip wires and head wires at every turn. The outer part of the fence is a curtain of barbed wire, interwoven from the top, on a slant to the ground. Twenty yards out from this is a trip wire (barbed), two inches from the ground with tins hung all along, which jingle when touched. The men usually build, within the wire, a wooden frame with a rush roof, to shade the table and benches where they mess. Here too is an oven, and some shelter pits in case of shell fire. The line passes just outside the wire, where there is a tank, filled each day by the ration train. There is also supposed to be a small tank in the blockhouse. A black boy is attached to each blockhouse. There are forked stumps arranged near the line, so that in case of alarm, and there is nothing obvious to fire at, a rifle is laid over two of them and the shot sweeps the line.

The larger blockhouses are square, three floor towers, built of solid stone and loopholed (One of ours here has a maxim in the top storey). You enter by a ladder into the second storey, and then by steps and trapdoors, up or down. The top storey is divided into two oblong rooms, one of which is usually occupied by an officer, the other being battlemented and unroofed. The sentry stands in a steel box, slotted on three sides and in the floor, which projects from the corner. There are two of these in opposite corners. The height of this type of blockhous4e is about 40 feet. The wire enclosures, are much the same as those of the smaller blockhouses”.

Apart from a brief move to another blockhouse line they remained there until returning to Southampton on the liner Greek on 9 October. One man was killed in action during the tour, three were accidentally killed and three died of disease. On return to Norton Barracks they were welcomed home with a smoking concert before dispersing to their homes. They were entitled to the Queen’s South Africa medal with clasps Cape Colony, SA 1902.