Cape Colonial Forces

They included: In 1858, the FAMP was mobilised to restore order in the Transkei, after a wave of cattle-killing and crop-destruction by the Xhosa, following a prophecy that this would make the Whites disappear.

A degree of independence from Britain was achieved in 1872, when the Cape Colony attained "Responsible government" under the leadership of its first Prime Minister, John Molteno.

The administration foresaw unrest across the border in the Transkei and, in the case of a war with the Xhosa, it hoped to minimise British Imperial interference by resolving any conflicts locally.

The Cape Colony Government was also of the opinion that small, highly mobile, mounted commandos, recruited from local people (such as the white farmers, Mfengu and Khoi who lived in the border regions) were best suited to the more irregular warfare in the mountainous frontier.

For all but the largest conflicts, such mounted gunmen with their local knowledge were thought preferable to the long, slow and cumbersome columns of British Imperial troops.

In 1897, the Colonial Forces were deployed in the Bechuanaland Campaign in the northern Cape, to apprehend three fugitive Tswana chiefs.

From 1899 to 1902, South Africa was ravaged by a war between the British Empire – including the Cape Colony and Natal – and the Boer republics in the Orange Free State and Transvaal.

The Cape government mobilised the Colonial Forces to guard railways and other lines of communication, while the British Army struggled to relieve the besieged towns.

Later, units were assigned to British formations in the field, and one was detailed to escort Boer prisoners of war to Saint Helena and Ceylon.

For a few months in 1900, a Colonial Division, consisting of the Cape Mounted Riflemen and several volunteer units under Brig Gen Edward Brabant, served with the British forces in the Orange Free State.

In January 1901, after a second Boer incursion, the government formed the Colonial Defence Force (CDF), under Brig Gen Brabant.

It consisted of dozens of town guards and district mounted troops, for local defence, and a few mobile units, which were placed under British Army command.