KAWARTHA LAKES-In 1899, a war began between Great Britain and two small republics in South Africa—the Orange Free State and Transvaal. The Dutch Cape Colony was founded in 1652, and was taken over by the British during the Napoleonic Wars, including about 26,000 Dutch colonists. Boers were farmers, who followed their herds in the pasturelands on the boundary of the colony. Conflict followed the British occupation, particularly after the world’s largest gold deposit was found at Witwatersrand in 1884. Who would control the gold extraction?
The Second Boer War (called Tweede Vryheidsoorlog or the “Second Freedom War” in Afrikaans) occurred in an era when many English Canadians were proud to be part of the British Empire, but French tended not to share the same sentiments. In local schools, children grew up seeing maps marked in red showing how the sun never sets on the British Empire. Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier authorized a volunteer battalion to fight for the empire. Perhaps no Canadian was more eager to enlist than Lindsay newspaper publisher and Member of Parliament Sam Hughes.
Throughout his adult life Sam loved the military and the British empire, so he was not going to wiss out on a war. He demanded that Canada send 5,000 soldiers with himself as commander, even before war was declared. Sam was included in the Canadian continigent, but the British General commanding Canada’s militia specifically warned his British comrades about Sam. Sam brought his own colonel’s uniform from the Victoria Regiment and was in his glory, ordering around the soldiers on the ship as they travelled. Once the contingent arrived in South Africa, Sam got to work writing letters, eager to find a role in the military. Persisting through many disappointments, he landed himself an appointment as a supply and transport officer. He showed a lot of cleverness as he defended transports against Boer attacks.
Sam earned a promotion, becoming an intelligence officer, who scouted ahead of Lord Roberts’ advance north into Boer territory. As a ranger, Sam was fearless, galloping headlong to attack stronger Boer forces. Once he single-handedly captured eight Boers. At the Battle of Faber’s Put, his commander General Sir Charles Warren ordered the contingent to camp below a hill. The Boers occupied the hill and their snipers opened fire. Hughes roused a small contingent of men to scramble onto their horses and counterattack—some in their underwear or without boots. They rode down the enemy. Sam became openly critical of General Warren, and was soon on his way home from South Africa. But Sam believed that he was a war hero, and that he had earned a Victoria Cross or even two (at the time no one had yet won two Victoria’s Crosses—only one soldier has twice been awarded the Victoria Cross in combat, plus two medical officers for treating wounded soldiers under fire).
After the British sent 180,000 soldiers, Boer politicians went into hiding and Great Britain annexed the republics in 1900. The Boers then launched a guerilla campaign, which the British countered by creating concentration camps. 100,000 Boer civilians were interred and 26,000 died, mostly from disease and starvation. Boers surrendered to end the atrocities. Thinking little about the scorched earth tactics employed and humanitarian cost, many English Canadians felt proud of the British victory in the Boer war, as a little more of Africa was painted red on imperial maps—few were prouder than Sam Hughes.
When Lindsay residents gathered around the bandshell on Kent Street to reflect on the latest British victory, the town’s self-proclaimed war hero was there to address the crowd—he was great at exciting his followers. He would go on to lead Canada’s military in the first half of the Great War, where his enthusiasm helped to rapidly create a Dominion army. But as the war became a bloodbath, his bombastic ways and questionable decisions (rifles that jammed in muddy trenches, a shovel with a hole in it that was supposed to be both a digging tool and shield for soldiers to fire from behind) made him politically intolerable. For generations to come, the legacy of Sir Sam Hughes will be debated—hero or madman?
Lindsay’s Royal Canadian Legion was named in his honour, and within a block two monuments stand reflecting the legacy of Sir Sam Hughes and the British Imperialism that defined his career. Sam laid the cornerstone of Lindsay’s armouries in 1913 and on the other side of Victoria Avenue stands Lindsay’s monument fallen soldiers—very near the location where Sam stood to mark the end of the Boer War and the beginning of Sam’s controversial time at the forefront of Canadian military history.
This story is part of our partnership with Maryboro Lodge, The Fenelon Falls Museum and was written by Glenn Walker.
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