You have only to glance at any local newspaper of the time to be caught up in the excitement and patriotic fervour which spread everywhere, across the county.  The catalyst, of course, was General Sir Redvers Buller whose home was at Crediton, just outside Exeter - a national hero who had been awarded the VC for bravery under fire at the battle of Hlobane during the Zulu War of 1879. In a single day, General Buller dragged onto his own horse an injured Captain  and took him to safety, then, in the same fashion, saved a young lieutenant whose horse had been shot from under him, and, finally, snatched a trooper, whose horse was dropping with exhaustion, from certain death by pulling him too on to his own horse. Fine actions, all of them, but what made him such a powerful local hero here in Devon was the saving, without any regard for his own safety, of the life of an ordinary man from the ranks. The men of Devon never forgot that single deed and would gladly have followed him to the ends of the earth; none of the events of later times or the criticism levelled at Buller from above ever changed that view.

So when war broke out in 1899, Devon pulled out all the stops and backed him to the hilt. Reservists were recalled, hundreds of young men volunteered to fight with him, men from the Post Office gave their services to go out and create communications systems for him, men from the Fire Brigade went out as ambulance and rescue squads, people donated horses, private individuals provided themselves with Maxim guns (a serious weapon) and learned to fire them, ladies gave endless coffee morning and sales of work to raise money for comforts for the men at the front, farmers donated carts for the baggage trains and farm lads who could ride offered their services as drivers - you can see from the press accounts of all these activities how, gradually, pretty well everyone who lived in the county became drawn in.

So please - will you donate any information you have tracked down about a Devon ancestor who became involved in this war? The extract below shows the kind of information we're looking for but please - don't worry if you can only supply partial information - it could well turn out to  be the missing piece of an entry in our database.

Please e-mail us with any information you may have at

boer.war@devonheritage.org

Every e-mail will be acknowledged. Please let us know too if you have a photograph of the person or a photo of a grave or memorial so we can discuss possible publication and, most important of all, please tell us  if any information included by us is not correct.

Exeter's statue of General Sir Redvers Buller

© Richard J. Brine