Christopher Sykes - The Man Who Created the Middle East - A Story of Empire, Conflict and the Sykes-Picot Agreement

After a few days the regiment were sent to guard an important railway bridge, Barkly Bridge, an isolated spot right in the middle of the bush. Here Mark received a letter from his old tutor Alfred Dowling – ‘Doolis’ – fantasizing that he was in the thick of the action. ‘It is rather provoking’, he replied, ‘reading your inspiriting [ sic ] account of what I may be doing

and what I am doing …

My business is to guard a bridge with 50 men, sleep 10 hours, read 8 hours and eat drink and smoke the rest of the twenty-four. This at least is what I might be doing, but a sudden fit of unwonted energy has seized me and I keep my men well employed and the bridge well guarded. I really in the last fortnight have achieved a good deal, made a rifle range, constructed a mud fort capable of holding all my men, practised the alarm twice by night and three times by day, and produced a very efficient guard.’ 17

With his boundless enthusiasm, he appears to have knocked his fifty men into an extremely effective fighting unit. ‘I can now man the trenches and have all ammunition served out in 6 min at night, and 4½ by day, which is creditable as the men have to cross a bridge 290 yds long on a narrow footplate with 2000 rounds of ammunition.’ 18The men of the militia impressed him enormously, and he described to Doolis their spirit and temper as being ‘marvellous and interesting … these men are not soldiers, they are not educated bank clerks … they have no sense of glory, but an immense sense of humour, an inordinate love of liquor, and a vast conceit of themselves’. Even the few troublemakers among them came in for praise. ‘I would trust these same men anywhere, all they want is handling and tact, with that you can accomplish wonders, I have only had two drunks the whole time, and they are as keen as mustard, they take everything as an excellent joke, and laugh, whistle and sing all day.’ 19Of the officers he did not hold such a high opinion, referring to most of them as being ‘wretched and contemptible creatures not worth talking to or about’. 20

Mark also gave Doolis his opinions on the war:

1. Boers are beasts.

2. British colonists are liars or Jews.

3. British soldiers are splendid.

4. African farmers who wanted to rise but didn’t dare are skunks.

5. South Africa is a desert.

6. The war was necessary to maintain prestige in other quarters.

People may blame Generals and Heads of Departments however much they choose, but as far as mortal men could work, everyone in the Army from highest to lowest has worked splendidly and successfully. Against a European force in England of half the size again, the S.A. Field Force would have proved the most splendid and unconquerable army ever beheld.

He ended the letter by telling Doolis, ‘I do not suppose I shall see any fighting, and have hopes of returning in October, if all goes on as it is doing now.’ 21

Unfortunately for Mark, just as he was beginning to feel that he was actually doing something useful in the war effort, he was sent back to Port Elizabeth, where he found himself guarding the harbour, ‘a most unpleasant duty which recurs every four days,’ he wrote to Edith. ‘It lasts 24 hours in which time one does not go to bed. I am surrounded with putrefying meat and dead horses.’ 22

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