The former Boer Commando

Trooper, Rudolph Philip Botha Visser, 7th Light Horse Regiment, AIF

Trooper Rudolph P.B. Visser, 7th Light Horse Regiment as he appeared in 1915 when the press announced that he had been wounded at Gallipoli (The Sydney Mail)

In February 1946, the now aged and weary men of the South African War Veterans Association in South Australia were pallbearers to a former combatant of the Second Anglo-Boer War; however, in this case, he did not fight for Queen and Empire but was a former Burgher of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek—then the enemy. This is the story of Burgher Rudolph Visser, who fought on at least three occasions under the ZAR Vierkleur and once under the Australian flag that took him to Gallipoli and the Western Front—a notion that in 1900 he would have hardly believed.

The son of Johannes Christoffel Visser, he was born Rudolph Philip Botha Visser on 11th February 1877 in Richmond, Cape Colony, during which period a series of frontier struggles took place in the Eastern Cape, soon followed by the Zulu War and BaSotho Gun War to name just a few.

Having moved to Johannesburg at the age of nine, he served on commando with the ZAR forces against Modjajie in 1890, of which this was common practice for boys to serve with their kin on commando, although life was tough, and boys grew up quickly. He then became an apprentice carpenter for three years, and in January 1896, when Dr. Leander Starr Jameson with 500 British South Africa Company policemen rode into the Transvaal with a view to taking over control of the riches of the Witwatersrand, he once again served on commando. On 2 January 1896, now almost 18 years of age, Rudolph joined a group of 15 cyclists who rode their solid-Tyre bicycles ahead of the main Boer forces. They arrived at Vlakfontein and Doornkop farms, south-west of Johannesburg, and could see Jameson’s raiders approaching, and at 1,200 yards, they opened fire. Not long after, when the main Boer forces arrived, Jameson surrendered.

At the outbreak of the Boer War, Rudolph, now residing in Pretoria, was called out on commando once more while his brother, Charles A.C. Visser, served as a Korporal in the Pretoria Commando. Rudolph later stated that during the battle of Magersfontein on 11th December 1899, when serving under Vecht-Generaal De la Rey, he witnessed Major General Andrew Wauchope being shot as he was about to blow his whistle. After the fight, he souvenired the whistle and gave it to his fellow scout, Joe Beir.

Rudolph Visser, looking quite dapper, about the time of the Boer War.

In July 1900, Rudolph was serving under 40-year-old Veldt Kornet Melt Marias, when he encountered the Colonial Division under Brigadier General Edward Y. Brabant. He was captured, and that night he was taken to Brabant’s tent to be interrogated when he dropped a piece of a cigar in Brabant’s whisky, who started to cough and splatter. As a doctor was called for, Rudolph made good his escape, although the horse that he stole died after it rode into a wire fence—he made it back to Generaal Christiaan de Wet’s laager six hours later.

Rudolph, as he appeared in the Boer Prisoners list in 1900 - Prisoner No. 3346 (Findmypast) 

On 3rd July, when being pursued by the columns under Major General Archibald Hunter, he was captured at Kafirsdorp in the Orange Free State, and on 7th August he arrived at Ceylon and was interned. Following peace in May 1902, he returned to South Africa and farmed for a while, although he became broke. About 1911, when in Kimberley negotiating a contract as a De Beer’s farm manager in Rhodesia, he met an Australian who persuaded him to give Australia a try.

In 1912, he sailed from Cape Town to Sydney, where he arrived with just three pennies in his pocket and described himself as being a farmer. The following year, he was a bridge carpenter in Coffs Harbour, and with the outbreak of war in August 1914, he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force at Liverpool on 5th January 1915. As a trooper, he embarked from Sydney to Egypt with the 3rd Reinforcements of the 7th Light Horse Regiment.

On 5th May 1915, he sailed for Gallipoli, where in the trenches he became known as 'Dutchie.’ Then, on 16th July, after two months at Anzac Cove, he received a bomb wound to the scalp that necessitated him being evacuated to Egypt. He rejoined the 7th Light Horse at Gallipoli on 28th September 1915, and the following month, he was charged for ‘disobedience of orders’ and was awarded 14 days of Field Punishment No. 2. Like with all soldiers at Gallipoli, disease eventually caught up with them, of which Rudolph was evacuated once more on 4th November and was evacuated to Malta, where he met General Paul Methuen, also a Boer War veteran who was the Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Malta.

In April 1916, he was transferred as a gunner to the 38th Battery, 10th Field Artillery Brigade, although soon after, he was admitted to the hospital again, this time for what was described as being an old leg wound that could have been from his Boer War days. It was not until August 1916 that he arrived in France and was posted to the 1st Divisional Ammunition Column. Dysentery got him in November, and having been evacuated to England, he only returned to France in June 1917, and the following month he was made a driver. Six months later, in June 1918, chronic rheumatism resulted in him being evacuated once more to blighty; then, in July he was returned to Australia. In May 1919, in New South Wales, he was discharged from the AIF, and the following year he moved to Minnipa, South Australia, established himself as a farmer, and married Alice Cannings in 1921.

While looking for horses at Karcultaby in the Eyre Peninsula, he met a Mr. A.J. Thomas, who, when he saw him mount a horse, said that he had seen those long legs before and asked him if he had served in the Boer War. He then recognized him and said, ‘By jove, you’re that man who shot my horse.’ Visser had apparently dropped Thomas’ horse in a fight, and soon after, he gave Thomas a cigarette and water.

Following his wife Alice's death in October 1942, he moved into the Myrtle Bank Soldiers Home and was made an honorary member of the South African War Veterans Association. At a gathering of South Africa War veterans in October 1945, he was introduced to the new Governor of South Australia, Sir. Willoughby Norrie, who took an interest in his story.

He died in Adelaide on 22nd February 1946, and with Boer War veterans acting as pallbearers, he was laid to rest following a long and interesting life. It is most probably that he was the only member of the old Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek to have served in the AIF.

References:

NAA: B2455, Visser, Rudolph Phillip Botha.

The Advertiser., 19 August 1936.

The Advertiser., 9 October 1945.