British Forces in the Anglo-Boer War

Organisation of British Armed Forces

Rank of Commanders
Division Commanders had the rank or local rank of Lieutenant-General. Brigade Commanders usually had the local rank of Major-General.

The Infantry Division
This usually consisted of Headquarters, an Engineer Company, and a Brigade Division of Artillery of 18 guns in three batteries, each having six 15 pounder guns and an ammunition column. Most of the troops were in the two (sometimes three) infantry brigades, each of four battalions. A battalion contained eight companies and its strength varied from 800 to 1100 men.

Keen’s Mustard advertisement from the War.

Mounted Infantry
When Lord Roberts took command, all battalions that had arrived from Britain were ordered to provide a mounted infantry company. Some complied by converting one of their eight companies, others made it a ninth company. All of these companies were formed into 8 MI Bns. In April of 1900, a reorganisation of MI took place and they were formed into two Brigades.

Cavalry
Cavalry consisted of Headquarters, a Field troop of Engineers, two Brigades each of three cavalry regiments, and a Battery RHA. There were two 1st and 2nd Cavalry Brigades, one pair in the Cavalry Division under French, and the other operating under Buller in Natal. Except for the 15th Hussars and the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards, every regiment or corps in the British Army served in South Africa; in the case of some infantry regiments, only one of their two battalions was sent there.

Naval Brigades
These were drawn from sailors and marines stationed in South African waters and mostly served the guns removed from the naval ships. The brigade with Methuen was over 400 strong and a small detachment with the large guns continued with Roberts to Pretoria. In Natal, the force was split and 283 went to Ladysmith, whilst 310 manned the naval guns during the battles that led to the relief of Ladysmith.

British Regiments
This is a relatively comprehensive list of the British Army at the time, however, a number of units listed here were not involved in the South African War. Pleasecontact me if you know which units these were. Please also contact me if you know of any regiments/units which are not listed here.

Units are listed in order of precedence as of July 1881. Pre-1881 infantry regiment numbers are shown in the right margin.

	Recruits with no previous military experience	Recruits from the Militia	Recruits from the Volunteers	Imperial Yeomanry	TOTAL
1899	23 259	16 396	3 045	—	42 700
1900	43 992	23 165	20 962*	10 242	98 361
1901	28 516	15 662	14 221**	17 252	75 651
1902	30 507	18 994	8 300	7 239	65 040
TOTAL	126 274	74 217	46 528	34 733	281 752