The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (58) Private Albert Edward Smith, 1st New South Wales Mounted Rifles, Boer War.

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Chris Widenbar, the story for this day was on (58) Private Albert Edward Smith, 1st New South Wales Mounted Rifles, Boer War.

58 Private Albert Edward Smith, 1st New South Wales Mounted Rifles
Died 31 May 1900

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Albert Edward Smith, who died while fighting in South Africa during the Boer War.

Albert Smith was born in Penrith, to the west of Sydney in New South Wales, on Christmas Day 1877, the son of Thomas and Annie Smith. He was a keen horse rider and an excellent rifle shot. He and his horse, named “I’m Sure”, won seven prizes for jumping at the Liverpool and Camden Shows.

Albert enlisted in the first contingent of colonial Australians sent to the war in South Africa. His unit, the 1st New South Wales Mounted Rifles, sailed from Sydney on board the Aberdeen on the 4th of November 1899, arriving at Cape Town in early December.

In February 1900, the 1st New South Wales Mounted Rifles were involved in the last large-scale battle of the Boer War, the Battle of Paardeberg. The Imperial troops had surrounded the laager, or armed camp, of the renowned Boer strategist, General Piet Cronje. On 27 February 1900, Cronje surrendered and more than 4,000 Boers were taken prisoner.

The capture of Cronje’s laager was a turning point in the war, and the Boer armies now decided to carry out a guerrilla war against the British Imperial forces rather than attempt any more set-piece battles.

After the battle, Albert’s unit was reinforced with the second contingent of colonial New South Wales soldiers. In March 1900, the enlarged 1st New South Wales Mounted Rifles joined the column of Field Marshal Lord Roberts, the commander of British forces in South Africa.

Lord Roberts’ army column had the objective of capturing the capitals of the two Boer republics. The men and horses of the 1st New South Wales Mounted Rifles struggled through sudden thunderstorms as they crossed the veld. The cold and wet weather, and skirmishes with Boers, took a toll on the horses, too, with only 150 of the 500 horses sent with the second contingent surviving to the end of March.

In April, Albert wrote to his brother back home in Liverpool, noting the heavy rain and his engagements with the enemy, saying, “it is a mystery to me how any of us are here to-day, for we have had some narrow squeaks”.
On 13 March, Lord Roberts’ forces captured Bloemfontein, the capital of the Orange Free State. Albert and the other New South Wales Mounted Rifles did not participate in the occupation, but were stationed at a camp about ten kilometres from the town.

Conditions in the camp were poor, and outbreaks of dysentery and typhoid fever were becoming common among the Australian and Imperial forces. The effects of heavy rain were made worse by the fact that the men had not been issued with tents, meaning that they were constantly wet and suffering the effects of exposure.

In April, Australian war correspondent and poet Banjo Paterson wrote, “the men are dying like flies from [typhoid] fever … and fatigue parties can hardly dig the graves fast enough”. This situation was exacerbated by the fact that Bloemfontein’s waterworks were held by the Boers for more than a month after the city’s capture by the British Imperial forces, meaning that only poor quality water was available for the troops.

Albert and his unit were involved in the action at Karee Siding on 29 March, but mainly saw action in flying skirmishes against Boers rather than large-scale battle. By this time, the Mounted Rifles were the northernmost of the Imperial troops, and their scouts were fired on almost every day by Boer patrols. As a result, Albert and his comrades spent their time building defensive trenches around their camps in case of sudden attack.

It was not all rain and drudgery. On 16 April, Easter Monday, the men of the 1st New South Wales Mounted Rifles enjoyed an afternoon of sports. This involved horse races, blindfolded footraces, and a tug of war. Yet the rain continued, and without shelter, men continued to sicken and die. In mid-May the commander-in-chief Lord Roberts wrote about the difficulty of procuring food for the men, other than meat from local farms. Albert was one of those who became sick. He died at Bloemfontein on 31 May of typhoid fever.

Private Albert Edward Smith is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, among more than 600 Australians who died while serving in the Boer War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Private Albert Edward Smith, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Thomas Rogers
Historian, Military History Section