Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

When I first met Bruce Bird he was around 90 years old. He was the live-in caretaker of a 10 acre property in the Adelaide Hills. A thin, wiry old man with skin like leather. He told me his family was one of the prominent families of Western Australia, but he had always been the adventurous black sheep of the family.

When the Boer War broke out he enlisted, much to the disgust of his family, and headed for this new adventure. He never told me a lot about the Boer War, but he did mention that he thought the Boers were “good blokes”, and the “Poms” (especially their officers) were “stuck up bastards who thought they were better than anyone else”.

He told me a short anecdote of how he, and three other Aussies signed out six rifles from the store and took two Boer prisoners, who had given their word not to try to escape and “shaken their hands on it”, out hunting for the day. The Boers knew the best hunting spots, and they all had a great day. Then they all returned to camp and checked in the rifles with no one the wiser.

After the Boer War, he spent most of his life as a bush cook on outback stations. Every time I visited him, he would insist I stayed for a meal. It was always the same – a beef stew which he called “Hash Magandi”.

A great and colourful old digger!