Basic Training
Heroes Remember - South African War
Basic Training
Transcript
Picture of six soldiers standing or on a fence.
Well I was 26 when I, when I started and the first, and the first time we, I tell you, well you know I started there from (inaudible) Station in Queensland and I come down to Brisbane with two other boys. One was a Scotchman, another was an Irishman and I was English. (What a mixture.) And when, when we landed in Australia we had two and six between us, half a dollar for the three of us. Well we was working on this here station where the cattle muster. Mustering cattle, wild cattle, branding and inoculating and general kind of aSoldier holding his rifle on horseback.
cattle station. And we come down to Brisbane on a holiday and we was on this holiday and we didn't know anything about this here war in South Africa. This was in the beginning of 1900. We didn't know anything about there was any war. We was all happy boys back in the wilderness and I says to Archie McFarlane and Jimmy Quirk, them was the two boys that, you know, I was acquainted with. I says, "Archie," I says, "I'm going up to see what to do about going out to this here war. What do you say?" Well, he says, "We'll go up anyway, no harm in going up." So weSoldier posing with rifle slung.
went up and they took me anyway. They strip me all naked and they had me all examined. I wasn't crooked. Interviewer: The old third leg inspection, yes I know. And, and so they took me in and sent me back with some more fellas. And eventually when after a few hours they took us fellas that was selected, took us down to Litton Camp, that was just outside Brisbane. Interviewer: Now Brisbane is in what part of Australia? Queensland (In Queensland?) Queensland, Australia. And uh, they took us down there to the camp. They put usPicture of man standing and woman sitting holding flowers.
through a riding test and a shooting test. And this is alright and they issued some uniforms for us. That was alright. Interviewer: Now you joined as a private is that right? Yes, joined a private. Well then, then after we got our uniform we got something to eat. And, and by jiminy cracker we were in the army. We were in the army. And then they give us next day we was on drill. We went through a pretty sharp drill in riding and shooting. We were down there a week carrying on this doing all kinds of sentry duty and one thing and another. Were downThree Veterans standing in front of war memorial.
there a week. By and by we got word that the transport was in waiting for us to go aboard with our horses, equipment, the whole lock, stock and barrel. Interviewer: How long did your basic training last? One week. Interviewer: And what's the most memorable thing that you remember there? Did you hate your sergeants your drill sergeants? No! By heck we thought it was great, by gosh we got a great kick out of it, but I tell yah, we, we thought we was going out there to South Africa and we got a lot of ninnies out there, and we were going to wipe them off the face of the earth. But nothing doing, when we got there. I tell ya, boys we had to dig backwater. Yessiree. When we landed, well they landed usBoer War Veteran talking with current service men.
there, and they put us in some old gawd darn old cattle trucks, or coal trucks or whatever. They was all open to the weather. Interviewer: So you weren't travelling in style. We wasn't travelling in style for sure. And we went up there and they took snaps of us. They took an old picture of the whole thing. The next day we were put right into action. Interviewer: So now where did you land in Africa? We landed in Durbin. Interviewer: And how long was this trip over from Austrailia? Well now I don't know. Tha'ts the thing I just forget, it couldn't be any more than a couple or three weeks.Boer War Veteran sitting on a chair, holding a document.
Interviewer: Was it a rough voyage? YES Iterviewer: Did a lot of people get sea sick and that sort of thing? I never was sea sick but there was a lot of them seasick and a lot of horses sea sick and we lost three horses. That's all the horses we lost onboard but we landed our horses and everything was all put in these here trucks and marched right up to the front. Interviewer: You were in the infantry right? ....You were in the infantry.... (?) Infantry, (?) infantry....... Yah....Description
Mr. Weaver recalls joining the army and basic training before going to Africa.
Frank Weaver
Frank Weaver was born in England, April 7th, 1881 and moved to Canada following his service in the South African War. At the time of this interview Mr. Weaver was 97-years-old. This interview was recorded in Saint John, New Brunswick on August 13, 1971 as part of the Living History Project completed by students and faculty of Military and Strategic Studies, Department of History, University of New Brunswick. This interview is used with permission of the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick. Mr. Weaver's interview was taped outdoors. VAC apologizes for the sometimes poor audio quality of these clips.
Meta Data
- Medium:
- Video
- Owner:
- Veterans Affairs Canada
- Duration:
- 05:23
- Person Interviewed:
- Frank Weaver
- War, Conflict or Mission:
- South African War
- Branch:
- Army
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