Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Rustenburg August 6 1900.

Dear Mother Father and Brothers,

Hoping this letter finds you all in the best of health as it leaves me at present. Our men have just left camp at sunrise to have another slap at the Boers, and we came hear their big guns firing already. We left Pretoria last Wednesday and we got here alright about 10pm last night. We had some smart fighting on the way here, I am walking now, and that is why I am in camp while our chaps are out fighting and I am lucky at that, for I reckon I ought to be as dead as my horse, and I have to stop and think whether I am still living or dead, for if ever a man gave up hope of getting out of a scrape alive I did, and if you hear anybody say that the Boers are good shots just tell them they dont know what they are talking about, for if ever the Boers had a chance to make a gap in the Queenslanders ranks, they had it last Thursday. They properly ambushed us and Bulimba nearly lost two of its representatives. When we left camp last Thursday morning the Queenslanders formed the advance Scouts and we had travelled about 3 miles when we came to some koppies , and the two right hand groups and Sergeant McLeod were sent to examine them, as we went along and we passed one big long koppie on our left , then we came to two big koppies running parallel to one another on our line of march with a sloping valley of about 500 yards between them, well we stopped when we were about a mile away from them, to have a good look to see if we could see any Boers about them for we knew they were somewhere not far away, but we could not see any sign of anybody, so we advanced up to the hills and started to go through between them and we came to a barbed wire fence running right across the valley, and we only had one pair of wire cutters with and we only cut the fence in one place . The rest of us got our horses over where the top wire was down. My horse, I only got on Tuesday night, she was a Hungarian and had not been ridden before and knew absolutely nothing about wire fences, and had no mouth at all , on Wednesday she galloped into a wire fence but did no damage. Well we advanced along this valley and we were extended to about 50 yards between files, so as to cover the whole of the valley the left flank was resting on the left koppie and we on the right were, right up against our koppie and Corporal King and myself were right at the edge of our koppie so as to examine a bit of a ravine and we had come to the conclusion that there was no one there, so we rode along the end of the koppie and halted, and were looking to see if we could see anything in the bush in front of us, when all of a sudden I heard the crack of a rifle behind us and then another one a fraction of a second afterwards and I saw a bullet hit the ground about 12 feet to my left front, it had been fired at my head from the top of the koppie only 60 yards away and the other one had come from the same place at Corporal King. As soon as our horses heard the shots they wheeled at once and bolted as hard as they could lick, and you may be sure we helped them all we could. Talk about a Melbourne Cup Race you should have seen those nine horses getting along, and my word they had every inducement to make them shift, for as soon as we wheeled about 50 rifles opened up on us with their magazines and we had to run the gauntlet for we had passed the Boers on the way in. I did not think any of us would get out alive then, but there was worse to follow as far as I was concerned, for I did not know where to strike the fence where it was cut, and I had to chance finding it, for the fence was only 250 yards from the Boers and there was no time to stop looking for it. Several of the chaps had the luck to find the gap, and others managed to strike where there was only one wire up, and their horses being used to it either jumped it or fell over it. One horse and its rider turned a complete somersault over it, and that rider was mounted and his horse racing again in about 3 seconds. I had the luck to strike the fence where there were the two wire up. I could see the wires were up when I was getting close, and I tried to guide my horse to the gap but vi might as well have tried to fly, for she bolted straight into the wire and then the fun became fast and furious for about 10 Boers devoted the whole of their attention to me with an earnestness and vigour that was worthy of a better cause, and which I am sorry to say, I did not at all appreciate. My horse reared and jumped about perfectly mad with fear and got completely tangled in the wire, she was jumping about so much that I could not get off her. I lost my rifle and was expecting every second lose my life. The Boers were using explosive bullets and they were zipping past and striking the ground around me in scores. I was tangled in the fence for about 3 minutes and was thinking of pretending to be killed and lay down as if I was dead, when my horse made a jump and got clear of the fence but she was in a awful condition and ripped to pieces with the wire, well when she made her jump I was half in the saddle and half on my back on the ground. I grabbed her mane with both hands and pulled myself back into the saddle and as soon as I saw she was free I set her going once more. I had a hard struggle to keep on her as she was rolling about like a ship in a storm. I had to hold her up from falling with one hand and hold on by her mane with the other, for I had lost both my stirrups and would not get them again for a while. I managed to get about 800yards out of her and then got off and walked her up to the rest of the lads and there we shot her. for she had no chance of getting over her injuries. Her shoulders were torn to pieces and the main arteries in her legs were both torn clear out, and she was rapidly bleeding to death so Mr. Harris decided to shoot her, and that was the only damage we suffered from that ambush for which I think we can honestly thank God. Some of our chaps who were about a mile in rear of us could see everything and were enjoying the sport. They thought we were men of another Corp. but when they found out who it was that were racing for their lives, they very quickly changed their tune and they all got fright for they never expected to see all of us again alive, they said everyone of the nine seemed to be a ??????????? for they could see all the bullets striking all around at ever man, and they made sure when they saw me tangled up at the fence that both horse and me had been shot down. They were too far away to see the fence and knew nothing about it. They are fighting now
12 miles from here I believe the Boers are strongly entrenched. I can see a lot of wagons coming in now, I think they must be ambulance wagons with wounded, there 8 wounded men here of this Contingent, they were wounded 2 weeks ago. The Contingent is camped about 7 miles from here, so I expect to see Archie Spence soon. I heard of him this morning and he is alright, and so is Jack Glass. Baden Powell is out here as well. I must draw to close now to be able to get this letter into the envelope . I thought Summary Post at Waterworks disaster at Bloemfontein was a bit ???? but I would sooner do a week like that than go through another 5 minutes like I had last Thursday. Remember me to all friends and give my love to Aunts Polly and Lizzie hoping to hear from you soon.

Your affectionate Son and Brother, Willie.