Dr Conan Doyle and The Friend
Dr Conan Doyle and The Friend is an article written by John D. Crouch published in the A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (Vol. 3, 1992).
This article examines Arthur Conan Doyle's brief but significant association with The Friend, the British army newspaper in Bloemfontein during the Boer War, highlighting his contribution "A First Impression." It situates his writing within the wider military, political, and journalistic context of 1900, showing how the piece became the seed of The Great Boer War.
Dr Conan Doyle and The Friend
No account of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's experiences in Bloemfontein would be complete without mention of The Friend, the official army newspaper edited and produced by the war correspondents with Lord Roberts' forces during March and April 1900.
The British occupied Bloemfontein, capital of the Orange Free State, on 13 March. and remained there for six weeks until 1 May when the advance on Pretoria was resumed. This enforced halt had been brought about by the depletion of every sort of material and equipment: the uniforms and boots of the soldiers were in tatters, and thousands of mules and horses had been worked to death, particularly the cavalry chargers which were lost through bad horsemanship on the part of General French's cavalry division in its 'epic' charge to relieve Kimberley. With material and equipment in such poor shape, it was imperative that the British army rested and re-equipped. It was not apparent at first that the soldiers, encamped for the most part on the open veldt, would be vulnerable to the enteric fever which was endemic in the country.
Two days after the arrival of the British in Bloemfontein, Lord Stanley, the Press Censor, at the instigation of Lord Roberts, called into his office four of the principal correspondents: Perceval Landon of The Times, H.A. Gwynne of Reuter's Agency, F. W. Buxton of the Johannesburg Star, and American Julian Ralph of the Daily Mail. There were two newspapers in Bloemfontein at the time. One, the Express, was suppressed and its equipment confiscated; the other, the Friend of the Free State, was run by the son of its English owner, a Mr Barlow. Though less virulently pro-Boer than the Express, it was somewhat ambivalent in its attitude, probably through a sense of self-preservation on the part of its principals, who were brought out by Lord Stanley for a guarantee of £200, or £50 a week, for the time the British expected to stay in the town. The money was raised by private donations from Stanley, Lord Derby, and the Duke of Westminster.!.
The first issue of the reconstituted Friend was published on 16 March and consisted of four pages, each twenty inches long by fifteen wide. The editors were Gwynne, Buxton, and Landon, Ralph being incapacitated by a leg injury at the time. All the professional correspondents were obliged to fulfil commitments to their individual newspapers, and it followed that the paper contained a mixture of fact and whimsy. extemporised ad hoc Official Proclamations printed in English and Dutch Taal, news reports, and local items on such subjects as horse-stealing, which was prevalent in Bloemfontein. The second issue, published on 17 March, contained a short poem, 'St Patrick's Day. telegraphed from the Cape by Kipling. Ralph contributed a rather patronising article, 'Miss Bloemfontein. A Love Letter', which he addressed to the ladies of the town in general. The piece attracted a clever riposte from a local banker's daughter, Miss Elsa Leviseur, who was generally considered to have got the better of the exchange.
Lord Roberts telegraphed Kipling on 17 March and requested him to join the staff of the Friend. Kipling arrived in Bloemfontein on 21 March. The editors of the paper seem to have been somewhat overwhelmed by him, not only on account of his literary fame but also because his circle of acquaintances included such men as Cecil Rhodes. Lord Roberts, and Sir Alfred Milner, the British High Commissioner for South Africa. Kipling stayed in Bloemfontein for two weeks only, during which time his contributions to the paper included: 'The death of General Joubert' (30 March), 'Fables for the staff' and 'Kopje-Book Maxims' (24-31 March), and 'A Song of the White Man' (2 April). Lord Milner and his entourage paid a flying visit to Bloemfontein on 28 March and were entertained by the journalists at a banquet. Contributions to the Friend at this time began to reflect the extreme discomfort suffered by the troops: the short rations, the lack of drinking water, and the exorbitant prices charged by the local population for bread, butter, and other produce, and even for services such as haircuts and shaves. Roberts sent out military columns to the neighbouring towns and villages to post proclamations, receive surrendered arms, etc.. in the belief that the Orange Free Staters were thoroughly beaten. However the latter, under the more vigorous leadership of De Wet, adopted guerilla tactics in place of their previous direct confrontation in the field.
De Wet planned to seize the waterworks at Sannah's Post, some twenty miles from Bloemfontein. This pumping station on the Modder River provided the main supply of water to the town and was held by two hundred mounted infantry. De Wet placed 1,600 men in two detachments in position on each side of the waterworks on 31 March. However his original plan was upset by the news that 5,000 men supporting Olivier, another Boer leader, had disturbed Major-General Broadwood and his 1,800 men at Thaba Nchu, some thirteen miles away, and that the latter was returning to Bloemfontein,3
The Boer forces united and ambushed Broadwood's transport and guns as they were crossing the Koorn Spruit at a drift three miles west of the waterworks. Broadwood neglected to send out scouts before letting his wagons and guns descend into the river hollow. Out of a total of 1,800 men. 12 guns, and 92 wagons involved that day. 159 men were killed or wounded, another 421 men were taken prisoner, and 7 and 83 wagons laden with stores were captured by De Wet.
Lord Roberts sent out relief columns to rescue Broadwood, but their actions were uncoordinated and confused: Roberts withdrew the main portion of his men to Bloemfontein on 2 April. This left the waterworks, with its vital supply of pure water, in Boer hands, a move which greatly contributed to the spread of the enteric fever epidemic through the army. The waterworks were not recaptured from the Boers until 19 April.
Further mishaps befell other British columns sent out from Bloemfontein and the situation was uncertain. Lord Milner left Bloemfontein for Cape Town on the night of 1 April, and Kipling travelled with him on the same train. Ralph explained it: 'The High Commissioner's intention to leave a day or two later had already been declared but started at once in order to avoid giving the Boers notice to prepare mischief.'
Kipling's departure almost coincided with Conan Doyle's arrival in Bloemfontein at 5 a.m. on the morning of 2 April. Learning that there was trouble afoot. Conan Doyle borrowed a horse from an artilleryman and set off in the company of Gwynne and another man to see what action he could find. He commented: 'Save for good company, I got nothing out of a long hot day.' (5)
The editors of the Friend welcomed Conan Doyle to dinner at the Free State Hote! and used the opportunity to request a contribution for their paper. This was not very convenient to him as his first duty was to get the Langman Hospital set up. organised, and ready to receive the rapidly increasing numbers of wounded and sick. (6) Conan Doyle located the missing portions of the hospital's equipment which had been lost amongst the endless railway sidings and, whilst he was supervising the unloading of the railway wagon, Smith Dorrien's Brigade passed him: the column had been recalled to town by Roberts two days previously. This incident on 4 April gave Conan Doyle the inspiration to write A First Impression'. Somehow, despite the chaos of setting up his hospital, he found time to pen a sturdy eulogy of the British soldier, moreover one that was patriotic without being jingoistic.
The issue of the Friend published on 6 April contained an editorial written by Ralph, and to which Kipling had given assistance before his departure, entitled 'To the people of the Free State'. The paper had moved to an eight column layout and to the right of the editorial appeared a translation Aar het Volk van den (2-Orange) Vrij-Staat. This was the first such editorial to be printed in the same bilingual format as Lord Roberts' proclamations. The custom was to set out type so that one started on the right-hand column and read the page top right hand column through to bottom of left-hand; thus the latest item is on the left of the page. The paper was set out in this way so that the printer could set out his print in the quickest time possible. Below the main editorial appeared the following news item prepared by Ralph:
- A. Conan Doyle
- Today the Friend publishes an article from the gifted pen of him whom all the world knows as A. Conan Doyle but who has taken an important place among us as Dr Conan Doyle, chief medical officer of the Langman Field Hospital, now established on the grounds of the Rambler's Club.9
- We welcome him to the British Army. We had hoped to welcome him. to the staff of the Friend but, in view of the humane and philanthropic work which busies him night and day, we cannot betray the selfishness to express any disappointment over this loss.
- Such a talent as his compels him to write whether he will or no and he has promised us a thought or an observation, now and then, out of his golden store.
- Perhaps at the end of the war he may give to the world a companion book to his undying White Company. If it is called 'the Khaki Company' and deals with the exploits of Englishmen of today, there will be, thank God, no lack of deeds of valour as stirring, courage as calm and warfare as enthusiastic as he found to electrify the paper of the earlier work.
Conan Doyle's article, 'A First Impression', was printed in column five of the editorial page, immediately below a news item announcing the death of the French General Villebois and the capture of his commando. A humorous poem, 'That V.C.', by the Australian correspondent A. B. (Banjo) Patterson filled the bottom half of column eight.
Whether Conan Doyle needed any encouragement to embark on The Great Boer War is debatable. He was to acknowledge his obligations to Ralph and the other war correspondents in his preface to the seventeenth edition of the book. A First Impression is the seed from which Conan Doyle's history grew. Its style recalls certain passages in The White Company, such as the description of the chivalry of England pouring down through the dark pass of Roncesvalles to the plains of Spain.
- A FIRST IMPRESSION (10)
- It was only Smith-Dorrien's Brigade marching into Bloemfontein, but if it could have been passed, just as it was, down Piccadilly and the Strand it would have driven London crazy. I got down from the truck which we were unloading and watched them, the ragged, bearded. fierce-eyed infantry, straggling along under their crowd of dust. Who would conceive, who has seen the prim soldier of peace, that he could so quickly transform himself into this grim, virile barbarian? Bulldog faces, hawk faces, hungry wolf faces, every sort of face except a weak one. Here and there a reeking pipe, here and there a man who smiled. but the most have their swarthy faces leaned a little forward, their eyes steadfast, their features impassive but resolute. Baggage wagons were passing, the mules all skin and ribs, with the escort tramping beside the wheels. Here are a clump of Highlanders, their workmanlike aprons in front, their keen faces burned black with months of the veldt.
- It is an honoured name that they bear on their shoulder-straps. 'Good old Gordons!' I cried as they passed me. The sergeant glanced at the dirty enthusiast in the undershirt. What cheer, matey!' he cried, and his men squared their shoulders and put a touch of ginger into their stride. Here are a clump of Mounted Infantry, a grizzled fellow like a fierce old eagle at the head of them. Some are maned like lions, some have young, keen faces, but all leave an impression of familiarity upon me. And yet I have not seen irregular British cavalry before. Why should I be so familiar with this loose-limbed, head-erect, swaggering type; of course it is the American cow-boy over again. Strange that a few months of the veldt has produced exactly the same man that springs from the western prairie. But these men are warriors in the midst of war. Their eyes are hard and quick. They have the gaunt. intent look of men who live always under the shadow of danger. What splendid fellows there are among them!
- Here is one who hails me; the last time I saw him we put on seventy runs together when they were rather badly needed, and here we are. partners in quite another game. Here is a man of fortune, young. handsome, the world at his feet, he comes out and throws himself in the thick of it. He is a great heavy-game shot, and has brought two other dangerous men' out with him. Next to him is an East London farmer, next to him a fighting tea-planter of Ceylon, next to him a sporting baronet, next to him a journalist, next to him a cricketer. whose name is a household word. Those are the men who press into the skirmish-line of England's battle.
- And here are other men again, taller and sturdier than infantry of the line, grim, solid men, as straight as poplars. There is a maple-leaf, I think, upon their shoulder straps, and a British brigade is glad enough to have those maples beside them. For these are the Canadians, the men of Paardeberg, and there behind them are their comrades in glory, the Shropshire Light Infantry, slinging along with a touch of the spirit of their grand sporting colonel, the man who at forty-five is still the racquet champion of the British Army. You see the dirty private with the rifle under his arm and the skin hanging from his nose. There are two little stars upon his strained shoulders, if you could see them under the dirt. That is the dandy captain who used to grumble about the food on the P and O. 'Nothing fit to eat,' he used to cry as he glanced at his menu. I wonder what he would say now? Well, he stands for his country, and England also may be a little less coddled and a bit more adaptive before these brave, brave sons of hers have hoisted her flag. over the 'raad zaal' of Pretoria.
- A. Conan Doyle
The Friend for 4 April contained a request from the Military-Governor of Bloemfontein, Major-General Pretyman, for beds, mattresses and pillows for use in the hospitals: an army surgeon wrote a warning on enteric fever, which he said was rife in the town obviously no-one could visualise the proportions which the outbreak was to assume. One reader wrote recommending the transfer of enteric patients to a building put up to house lepers six miles outside the town! The next few weeks were to be a time of trial for all involved.
The strain told upon the war correspondents who ran the Friend, and only the displaced staff of the Johannesburg Star could devote their whole time to the production of the paper. Mr F.W. Buxton had rejoined the Friend and it was arranged with the authorities that he and his colleagues from the Star should take over the running of the Friend. The last issue of the paper, after which it was turned over to him, appeared on 16 April 1900. Ralph and Landon were invalided back to England; Buxton remained in South Africa, and Gwynne stayed with Reuter's. Probably the greatest newspaper man of all, Gwynne eventually became editor of the London Standard and Morning Post.
Lord Roberts and his army moved on to Pretoria where he set up a similar paper entitled the Pretoria Friend, which published seventeen issues between 26 June and 14 July 1900 and carried official proclamations and notices in English and Dutch: news of the war (including military railway timetables), county cricket scores, and commercial advertisements. The paper closed when arrangements were made to deliver the Bloemfontein Post to Pretoria.
REFERENCES
1. Ralph, J.: War's Brighter Side; C Arthur Pearson Ltd., 1901, Chapter 1.
2. Ibid., Chapters II to XV.
3. Amery, L.S. and Williams, B.: The Times History of the War in South Africa. 1900; Vol. IV, Chapter II: 'The Revival in the Free State'.
4. Ralph, J.: Op. cit., Chapter XVI.
5. Conan Doyle, A.: Memories and Adventures; Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1924, Chapter XVI, p. 161: 'The Start for South Africa'.
6. Ralph, J.: Op. cit., Chapter XX: 'Dr A Conan Doyle contributes'.
7. Smith-Dorrien, Sir H.: Memories of forty-eight years service: John Murray. London, 1925. Chapter XI. pp. 179-180: 'Sannah's Post'.
8. Ralph, J.: Op. cit., Chapter XX
9. Unger, F. W.: With Bob's and Kruger, Henry T. Coats and Company. Philadelphia. 1901. Includes a reproduction of the Friend for 6 April between pp. 210-211. A photograph of Conan Doyle in front of his tent at the hospital is shown on p. 200. Regarding Conan Doyle's account of the taking of Brandfort, as described in Memories and Adventures, Chapter XVII, Unger related: As I reached the town an incessant pop-popping to the north from a kopje convinced me that the scouts were drawing fire, so I edged away from them and rode in alone. The Transvaal flag was still flying over the Red Cross Hospital. A hearty American 'Halloo, there!' greeted me, and I found myself face to face with Charley Ross, the Canadian scout. second-in-command of Remington's 'Tigers'. He solemnly assured me that I was the first correspondent in Branfort.(sic) After loudly boasting of the fact all afternoon and evening. I was confronted with the humiliating fact that Dr Conan Doyle and two other correspondents had quietly watched my triumphal entry from a comfortable hotel piazza whilst sipping whiskey and soda ordered ten minutes before. (Ibid., pp. 263-264)
10. Ralph, J.: Op. cit., printed a page of Conan Doyle's 'Copy' between pp. 306-307. The contrast between Conan Doyle's clear flowing writing and Kipling's scrawl is evident. The letter caused much discord between Kipling and the Dutch compositors of the Friend.
- Article courtesy Christopher Roden, founder of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (1989-2003).
