Extracts and Comments
(from Sources as shown) | |
Murray: Queen's South Africa medal and 1 clasp.
Source:# 476 letters.
Source:# 969 born in Cork Ire., family emigrated to Aust. from Ire. in 1885 and Lawrence qualified as a vet from Melbourne Veterinary school. He married and had a son in Adelaide in 1903. The family moved to Fremantle in the early 1900s where he worked as a Veterinary Stock Inspector for the WA Dept. of Agriculture until his death in 1927. He is buried in Karakatta Cemetery Perth.
URL3: returned to Adelaide SA from second trip to Capetown, received offer to stay with Remounts.
URL5: resumed veterinary practice as usual at Victoria Sq. East & Eastwood Tce. Eastwood [c4.1902].
URL6: died aged 60 in 1927 at Fremantle WA, obituary.
URL7: Veterinary-Lieutenant JL BURNS has left Sydney with 850 remounts for South Africa [12.1900].
URL8: returned per 'Tagus' & 'Wollowra' c7.1901.
URL9: JL BURNS (Lieut. Vet. Surgeon, SA Bushmen's Corps) has returned from South Africa (second voyage), and RESUMED PRACTICE as usual. Address, Victoria-Square east; also, Eastwood Terrace. Eastwood. Telephone 713.
URL10: The undermentioned officers, who served in South Africa with various contingents from this State, have been gazetted as entitled to the honorary rank mentioned - To be honorary major, Captain FW HURCOMBE; to be honorary captains, Lieutenants (medical staff) FD JERMYN, GJR WALTER, FM ROWELL, JRB O'SULLIVAN, W DE PASSEY, and EJF LANGLEY DSO; to be honorary lieutenants, LH LOVELY and F LAYCOCK. Officers who on appointment were not serving, and who are not now serving in the military forces of Australia - To be honorary captains, Honorary Lieutenants AE COLLINS DSO, HJ RUSSELL, SC MCFARLANE DSO, EA ROBERTS and HA REID DSO; to be honorary lieutenants, M IVES, FJ DOUGLAS, AW JOHNSON, SA WHITE, WJ PRESS, JT DEMPSEY, HA TOLMER, JH SHEARER, F MUIR, DW BROCK, N CAMPBELL, HL KEKWICK, HJ RUSSELL, FO THORN, GG AYLIFFE, TW GLIEMANN, WCN WAITE, WA NUNNELEY, S BLUE, GH COSSINS, AK HARVEY, NW STIRLING, HE FRANCIS, JD TOLMER, RA HAMILTON, GE CATCHLOVE, CFM JOHNSON, HLSB OGILVY, FC SEIKMANN, WW WATSON, J DOWNER, G DE REYHER, BT WARD, RCH WALKER, WF SPENCER and LL REID. To be veterinary lieutenant, JL BURNS.
BorderW: H0RSES FOR SOUTH AFRICA. Mr JL BURNS, the well-known veterinary Surgeon, who returned to Adelaide early this month [c3.1902] from South Africa, by way of Hobart, writes - My last voyage was on the steamer Norfolk, with nearly 1,000 remounts. We had nothing but good luck from start to finish, only a few horses being lost. The condition of those landed at Durban was considered so good by the military authorities that they marked their appreciation by awarding me a nice bonus - the first paid to
any veterinary officer in charge of Government remounts from these colonies. I have heard of Lord KITCHENER's complaints in respect to remounts from Australia, and I agree with him as to the very disgraceful condition of a percentage of these horses. It must be remembered, however, that a great number of the animals were private shipments, and these were selected any how, and sent over on the chance of being sold when they arrived, which they often were, owing to the great scarcity of horses to carry on the war. But I believe horses selected and passed by the Government Remount Commission in Australia were as good as could be got at the price paid. No doubt they were often put on board not in the best condition, and in some instances not suitable for the purposes for which they were required. But when perhaps as many as 1,000 horses had to be got together in a few weeks it was not to be wondered at that they were not all perfect. It is not easy at present to obtain in Australia the class of animal required. A great number of good horses have been sent away, besides some of the very worst, from various sources. We do not possess in large numbers the class of horse suitable for remounts. This we must admit straight out. It is an old proverb "that you cannot make a silk purse from a sow's ear." It is equally true, I think, that you cannot get a first-class horse from rubbish. Under the system on which the breeding of our horse stock has proceeded of late years it would be nothing short of a miracle and against the laws of nature if we had the correct type of horse. I notice that Colonel BIRKBECK, inspector of remounts at the Cape, and other British officers complain that many quite untrained and unbroken Australian cavalry and artillery horses arrived in South Africa. I most certainly agree with these
gentlemen on this point, and it would be impossible to say otherwise. I say solemnly that the Australian horse is about the most awkward animal arriving in South Africa. What else can we expect. Our horses have not in the vast majority of cases received the merest rudiments of an education for any purpose whatever, and are simply in a wild state, quite unbroken, and not handled in any way, unless putting a saddle and bridle on them once and taking it off
again can be called "breaking them in." How can it be expected that our horses can compare for a moment with a well broken and educated English horse. The thing is impossible. When at Durban two months ago I saw at the remount depot 800 Russian horses. Well, all I can say is that they were a revelation to me in
horseflesh. For downright ugliness they beat everything I ever saw in the way of horses. Whether they are good or not, I can't say from experience, but their appearance would be sufficient to condemn them anywhere. I singled out what I took to be a few of the most typical of the entire number and photographed them, so that I am enabled to bring back with me a few examples, which I shall be happy to show to anybody who takes an interest in these matters. Ninety thousand horses from all parts had been landed at Port Natal up to the time of my visit a few weeks ago. I could not find out exactly how many have come into South Africa by way of East London, Port Elizabeth, and Cape Town. It takes a good horse to last six months in South Africa. The greater number die long before that. It cannot be otherwise. Everything is against them. The long sea
voyage for a start does them no good, and then the conditions they are surrounded by from the moment they land all tend to destroy them. It has been an expensive war in horse flesh. I spent nine days in Durban this time, four
days in East London, and a week in Cape Town. Adderley Street, Cape Town, contains all nations at present, and they are nearly every color of the rainbow. A more busy city than Cape Town it would be hard to find. The hotels are all full up. When I landed from the Norfolk I could not get a bed at any price in the city, and as a last resort had to go back to sleep on the ship that night. This war has been a godsend to Cape Town, or at any rate to hotel and boarding house keepers. It is a good city to be out of just now, for there is absolutely no comfort to be had there. The whole place is head-aching labyrinth. Expenses are very heavy and ruinous to a poor man, and the prospects of obtaining work are not bright. I hear that wages in Natal are coming down,
which is only a taste of what I expected to happen. When it is remembered that
Europe, Asia, and America, not to mention Australia, are all in South Africa after good billets, it is not surprising to hear that the supply of hands is greater than the demand for them. Here is one fact, which speaks for itself. Out of nearly 90 men on the Norfolk, all smart fellows, who came in attendance upon the horses on the voyage, not more than six could get a job of any sort in Durban in a private capacity, and the remainder had to join the various corps at 5s. per day or leave the colony. I have now been five voyages to South Africa, and have visited every port from Biera to the Cape, besides being as far as Johannesburg and Ladysmith inland, and I say once again to those in Australia, who sometimes feel dissatisfied with their lot, "Have sense, and remain where you are, and do not be so short sighted and foolish as to leave a white for a black man's country." The old song says "There is a happy land, far, far away." South Africa is certainly not that land.
Ad. Observer: Lieut. JL BURNS MRCVS, of Parkside, who is announced as on his way back from South Africa, was veterinary officer to the third South Australian contingent, and has since made several trips to the Cape with horses for remount purposes.
|