Life in a Blockhouse

Many viewed the Blockhouse System as a ‘sledgehammer to crack a nut’ and General De Wet criticized the Blockhouse System, viewing it as a prolonged war tactic. Nevertheless, over 17 months of the guerrilla phase, the system played a role in wearing down Boer Commandos. It required a large logistical system to sustain 50,000 soldiers and 20,000 black troops.

Life in a blockhouse meant focusing on fortifying defenses, enduring a monotonous diet of cold rations like meat, fish, and biscuits. Photographs from the period reveal garrisons striving to make their blockhouses homely, painting regimental badges, creating furniture, and adopting blockhouse pets. While monotonous, blockhouse life allowed for small vegetable patches and rainwater harvesting, creating a semblance of normalcy amid the turmoil. Most blockhouses saw little to no action during their 6-12 month occupation on the line.

A typical Rice Pattern Blockhouse, showing the living condition of the British and Native Guard contingents, note the telegraph line and make-shift outside dining area!. (Photo: Toby Brayley)

Many of the distinctive corned beef tins, supplied as the staple diet in a blockhouse can still be found littering the veldt close to blockhouse ruins. (Photo: Unknown)

One of the irregular shaped blockhouses also built and the men have excelled at making it recognisable at the 64th blockhouse along the line and belonging to the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment. (Photo: Unknown Source)

Probably an Officer’s bed space in one of the larger masonry three-story blockhouses, note the quantity of blankets on the bed.  Blockhouses were notoriously hot in the summer and cold in the winter and had no internal source of cooking or heating. (Photo: King’s College London)

The blockhouse system not only tied down 50,000 soldiers and 20,000 back troops, but also needed a large logistic system to keep it fed and watered and provided with ammunition. Life in a blockhouse initially was about making all the defences such as trenches and wire fences as strong as possible and linking these up to the next two other blockhouses in the chain.  Thereafter life on cold ‘hard tack’ tinned rations, like cold meat, fish and biscuits was a dull and monotonous one.

Photographs of the period show that many blockhouse garrisons were very keen to make their little stone and tin fort as homely as possible.  The process of ‘beautification’ often involved making painted white stone-work regimental badges, and making furniture and having a blockhouse pet, usually a dog, but sometimes a baboon!

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