Extracts and Comments
(from Sources as shown) | |
Murray: 'B'Coy. Captain 11.9.1900, 3NSWIB CAIRNES H Queen's South Africa medal and 4 clasps.
B5204: engineer born 1867 Holywell Dorset England wife Agnes, Newtown NSW, ?Lieutenant CAIN, H surgeon Queen's South Africa Medal (Tvl & Rhod.).
URL1: ?Captain HC CAINES Australian Staff sailed for Eng. 27.8.1902 aboard the 'Ortona' on passage home.
URL2: Capt. H CAINES 3rd NSW Bushmen convalescent and resumed duty c23.2.1902.
URL3: Lieutenant CAINES, of B Squadron, NSW Imperial Bushmen, written to Mrs. C CAINES, of Enmore NSW, and dated Ottoshoep (near Rustenburg), 9.9.1900. - 'We have bad a very rough time for the past three weeks. My squadron has been acting as outposts for the brigade just three miles away from the main camp, and in touch with the sniping Boers, who watch every time we post a sentry, and then have a shot at us. We have to guard a front of two miles, which means six vedettes or Cossack posts - that is, six positions, where four men in each have to remain, and always one man on duty. I have to go around and see they are on the alert, and every twelve hours post new ones. During, the operations the Boers delight to have a few shots. Several men got wounded, and we have had a few horses killed. They fire from fully 2000 yards away, so it is not bad shooting on their part. The night work is not too good, being very dangerous - two hours visiting the posts, and over sharp rock and kopjes. There is not much excitement in the night work, it being very dismal. The weather has not been so good lately - heavy hailstorms, and such a wind. Our poor fellows lying out with no shelter but the saddle have found it very severe, and after this is over they are not taking any more on, they say. Our column is advancing to-day (Sunday) with two more brigades (Lord Methuen's and General Douglass's) stretching over a country of ten miles frontage. They are going to carry everything before them, and destroy the homes and farms, etc., of these wretches, who delight to fire at our sentries, which is not according to modern or civilised warfare. You would laugh to see the men now, with their ragged coats and torn pants, and in such a plight, advancing towards the foe. We look worse than tramps, with faces and beards thick with dirt, and can not get it off until we reach a town and can buy hot water. None of us are able to shave, only when in camp for a few days at a stretch. This country (the Transvaal) produces the most delightful oranges and lemons. They are the most delicious I have ever eaten - far better than the colonies produce. They are very thin skinned, and the lemons would be worth 6d each to the Italians for lemon squash compared with Sydney lemons. I am getting together a full collection of coins (Kruger's), viz., sovereigns, half sovereigns, crown, half-crown, two shillings, sixpence, threepence, and one penny. They are becoming very scarce in these parts. Some parts of the country here are very pretty districts, something like Australian country districts - only more water - I don't mean rains - but running springs, which the Dutch call spruits, which in the rainy seasons rise very high and hard to pass over on the tracks or roads. All the labor is done principally by the blacks; that is, the Kaffirs, who want £1 a month for their wage; that is, unskilled labor. With the exception of a heavy cold for a few days, I keep in good health, and am much heavier than when I left home, so I cannot complain, because a lot of our men have been invalided back; and no wonder - it shakes the best of them up.
URL5: Amongst the visitors to the [Shoalhaven] district during the last few days [c6.1904] were Major Herbert CAINES and his wife. The Major oame down on a visit to his cousin, Mr JD CAINES, of Pyree. He served with distinction throughout practically the whole of the South African campaign, gaining rapid promotion for his gallant conduct at the front, as can be judged from the fact that he left New South Wales as a Lieutenant and returned with the rank of Major. During the visit Major CAINES had the pleasure of renewing acquaintance with an old comrade in Dr. KANE, who had been on the medical staff with the troops in South Africa.
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