Empire Cricket Booklet

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JEREMY LONSDALE

in which H. T. Stanley, the Somerset cricketer, also appeared, and Poore made 34 out of 190 in front of a big crowd. A few weeks later, he called a meeting of local military cricketers at which they established a club. At the end of August, they played Pretoria, Poore winning the toss, putting the other side in and then leaving the ground to see off prisoners of war by train for despatch to Ceylon. By the time he returned, his side were almost all out and he was only able to bat at 11. In September, Poore scored a fine century and had time to appear on a number of occasions, including with Alfred Lyttelton, the England wicketkeeper from the 1880s; Dr Barrett, who had been in the 1890 Australian team; and Dr Thornton, who had played for Middlesex. Work responsibilities restricted cricket in early 1901, although he made another fine century against Pre toria and took 4/50 in February. This was to be his last appearance for some time, and in June he told his wife: 'I do not get any cricket now. I do not get out of my office till long after dark so I do not get the chance.' 3 8 Poore's next appearance came in October when, short of practice, he reluctantly played for an officers' team against Ordnance Department and actually made 100 not out, out of 170/7, having arrived on the ground with the score on 34/5. A number of other cricketers kept in touch with Poore including Russell Bencraft and F. S. Jackson, who unexpectedly walked into Poore's office one day in June 1900 and took Poore for dinner. H. T. Stanley and Captain Spens were stationed in the same area for some of the war and Poore came into contact with them, just as he did with people with whom he had been at school many years before. More of a surprise was the receipt of the court martial papers for T. W. Routledge, with whom Poore had played Test cricket for South Africa in 1896, and who was now charged with disobeying orders. Back in Pretoria, Poore returned to the task of processing prisoners of war who were now being captured in large numbers. He oversaw the arrest of more people who were known to be harbouring Boers. In the first week of September 1901 alone, 550 people were brought before him and then passed on to camps.

Poore and the Breaker Morant Controversy Poore's last months in South Africa saw him play an important role in one of the more controversial events of the war, which is still remembered, analysed and debated with passion. 39 These events - which led to the execution by firing squad of Breaker Morant and Peter Handcock on 27 February 1902 - remain highly controversial in Australia, where they have been seen as defining moments in the development of the national consciousness and continue to be commemorated. Morant was born in England but emigrated in 1883, spending much of his life as a horse drover and breaker, as well as writing popular bush ballads. He volunteered for military service in 1899 and went to South Africa the following year. For many in Australia, Morant's death has taken on the status of martyrdom 'and his story mutated into a cautionary tale of what can happen when Australian solders' lives are given over to foreign wars and foreign generals'. For others, he was a war criminal. 40 Either way, 'there is still plenty of passion left in this issue a century on' . 41 In 2002, the Australian government was asked but turned down a formal request to review the case.42 The background was the development under Kitchener of irregular corps to combat Boer commando units and protect British interests. In February 1901, Poore was asked to establish a corps called the Bushveldt Mounted Rifles (or Carbineers). According to his diaries, many were British subjects who had been turned out of Pietersburg; others were Australians who decided to stay in South Africa, and there were some Boers recruited from the internment camps. The aim was to have a mobile garrison force patrolling the northern parts of the Northern Transvaal, a remote and inhospitable area. Poore's role was important. He spoke at a dinner at which the creation of the corps was announced and at which he set out the objects of the corps and its proposed composition. 43 He then chaired a meeting at which funds were raised to be used to help anyone injured in the course of the work. Subsequently, his diaries indicate that he enrolled men and maintained interest in the unit's activities, visiting them in March 1901 and reporting the following month that they were