smith was surrounted by the Boer Army,
all troops in Northern Natal having re-
tired there. Eighty five of the police were
in the siege and Col. Dartnell was attached
to the staff of General Sir George White,
who achieved great fame for his heroic
defence of Ladysmith during the four
months’ siege. As well as the Police in
Ladysmith a field force of seventy men was
at Nongoma on the Zulu border, eighty
at Tugela Ferry and one hundred and
twenty at Pietermaritzburg. One troop
acted as bodyguard to General Buller dur-
ing the operations which finally relieved
Ladysmith and a troop of the Police under

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WINTER EDITION

Inspector Abrahams were among the first
soldiers to enter the beleagured town.

The South African War is a subject far
too large to deal with in an article such
as this, so I must confine my observations to
a brief account of the part the Natal Po-
lice took in it. The fighting which took
place during the siege and relief of Lady-
smith was the fiercest of the whole war.
The 12,000 British troops that were be-
seiged were on the shortest rations and
could not have held out much longer. They
were greatly handicapped by the large
number of refugees that had fled from their
homes in Northern Natal before the ad-
vancing Boer army and had to be cared for
during the siege. Of the Police that took
vart in the defence of Ladysmith eleven
lost their lives and several sustained wounds
and sickness from fever. Their horses sut-
fered severely and very few of them had
their original mounts when the siege was
raised.

A gallant exploit of the siege was the
destruction of two heavy guns on a hill
overlooking the town, from which the
Boers kept up a steady shell fire. The
attack was made by a sortie of six hundred
troops, chiefly Colonials including the
Police, on the night of December 8th, 1900.
The Boers guarding the guns were routed
and the two guns blown up with the loss
of only seven of the attackers. Throughout
the siege the Police were on picket and out-
post duty and played an active part in all
the fighting.

When the Boer Army retreated from
Natal the Police Field Force was stationed
in Zululand on the Transvaal border. Col.
Dartnell was promoted to the rank of
Major-General and given command of a

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an old man but he lived for many years to
enjoy his pension in retirement. General
Dartnell had an unusul understanding of
men and, though a strict disciplinarian,
was always fair; he was really liked and
respected by his men and I never heard an
uncomplimentary remark made about him
by anyone.

In April, 1901, a commando of Boers
attacked the magistracy of Mashlabatin in
Zululand, which was guarded by a troop

Natal Police Maxim gun crews in 1897.

mounted brigade, and Col. G. Mansel took
charge of the Police, who were actively
engaged on the Transvaal border through-
out the rest of the war.

GENERAL DARTNELL KNIGHTED

For his distinguished service to the Em-
pire General Dartnell was knighted by
King Edward VII, and in 1903 he retired
from the Police force he had founded thirty
years previously. The General was now

of the Police, who drove off the enemy,
killing eleven of them and wounding sev-
eral others. In this engagement the Police
lost five killed and three wounded. Two of
their number were awarded the Distin-
guished Conduct Medal and the troop was
commended by Lord Kitchener for their
gallantry.

The conclusion of the Boer War brought
little rest to the men of the Natal-Mounted
Police. The Field Force was sent to Vry-

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