Empire Cricket Booklet

•

JEREMY LONSDALE

officers, men and local guides left Cape Town for the Modder River camp, and Poore was preoccupied with organising the pitching of tents and transferring the baggage prior to Roberts's arrival. He said goodbye to his wife, little expecting that they would not see each other for almost two years. 29 Poore's job as provost marshal in the South African Field Force was a taxing one, but one which brought him into regular contact with Roberts and Kitchener. In a detailed letter he outlined his duties and responsibilities, pointing out that 'the functions of the Provost Marshal are very numerous and have never been officially defined, nor do I know of any work to which to refer to for guidance or general information concerning them, so that I have had to gather experiences for myself as I went along and to find out, not only what properly came within my province but how best to deal with it, with the means at my disposal'. Poore classified his work under five headin gs , namely, duties relating to police, custody of prisoners of war, guarding important places on the march or in town, granting of permits and passes, and the collection of arms. He was, he wrote, 'primarily the Chief Police Officer of the Army', and had the onerous task of maintaining order as the army moved into Boer-held territory. 30 After moving out from Cape Town, the British forces found it relatively easy to advance into the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. Poore saw action in the operations at Paardeberg between 17 and· 26 February, and then on 13 March Roberts made his formal entry into Bloemfontein, where he was received with decorated streets and cheering crowds. Poore supervised the passage of the headquarters' baggage into the town, and set up his own office in government buildings in the centre. He immediately began to collect arms and, with Roberts proclaiming that all who desired peace could come to the town under British protection, also had the task of coping with the crowds of people who wanted to sign the declaration not to take up arms again. On 6 April, Poore was given added responsibility when he was made a Justice of the Peace for the Bloemfontein district, and a few days later was put in charge of the local police, who were scattered about to ensure maximum coverage. 31 Although fighting continued

nearby, and the task of catching people without passes or those thought to be conveying information to commandos was demanding, Poore still had time to play cricket in mid April. He also took the opporhrnity to return home the copy of Wisden sent to him by the editor. He wrote to his wife every day, and k ep t a piece of paper in his jacket pocket all the time so that he could jot down his thoughts. During the campaign in early 1900, he also sent home hand-drawn maps of the area so that Flora could follow where he had been, and on occasions even made copies of documents he thought would be of interest. At the beginning of May, Poore left with Roberts in one of four columns marching north. He busied himself inspecting jails, removing ponies, cattle and wagons from inhabitants on the way, and supervising the vast amount of baggage which Roberts insisted on taking everywhere with him. There were also hundreds of prisoners to deal with as they marched via the Vet and Zand rivers, where they were involved in furious bombardments. Bridges had been destroyed, making crossing difficult, but within a few days they had marched into Kroonstad, and Poore had the usual task of arranging for numerous precautionary arrests. At the end of the month, Roberts moved on to Johannesbur g, and on 4June they reached the hills overlooking Pretoria. The next day, Roberts invited the town to surrender and the army marched in The work was never ending; by 13 June, over 4 000 rifles had been confiscated , and all horses commandeered. Poore, for once, did have a chance to relax, and on 18 June, he, Haig and other officers had a 7th Hussars dinner in honour of Waterloo Day. The following day he saw Baden-Powell, who told Poore he wished he had been in command of one of the relieving columns after his experience in Rhodesia. In the evening they dined with Abe Bailey, the business man, politician and cricket lover. Roberts moved out of Pretoria at the end of July, but Poore stayed behind. The commander-in-chief visited him in his office before he left to see how work was progressing, but whatever Poore said to him in person, he was not impressed with the way things looked. 'I would never have believed that such chaos could prevail in a civilised army in the present times as it does in ours', Poore told his wife, remarking that he wished