Wireless in the Boer War 1899-1902

The Anglo Boer War of 1899-1902, will be remembered as the last of the gentlemen's wars, the war that marked the end of the Victorian era. For military communications however, it commemorates a beginning, for it was during the Boer War that wireless was used for the first time by an army on active service. This paper discusses the reaction of both Boer and British forces to the new invention of wireless telegraphy. The Boers so often described by the British popular press of that time as being solitary uneducated, solemn people who were resistant to change, were eager to obtain "wireless" equipment which they saw as the answer to their military communications problems. The appearance of wireless into British military circles was to prove to be a stormy one, with many years passing before wireless was fully accepted by the British as the military necessity it is today.