NAM.2022-03-5-1-2

Photograph captioned as: ‘Sand bag dam on Klip River constructed by the Boers with the object of flooding out the British Army in Ladysmith - Boer War 1899-1900.’ Image taken by John Ernest Middlebrook. A large dam made of many layers of sandbags stretches half way across the river. A light railway line can be seen in the foreground and a hill rises up on the opposite side of the river. The image was collected by Sgt Leopold Duffy, who was serving during the Boer War with the 1st Battalion, Prince of Wales’s Volunteers (South Lancashire Regiment). Duffy had enlisted in the South Lancashire Regiment as a Private in 1893. After serving initially in England and Ireland he went to South Africa during the Boer War, where he was promoted to Colour Sergeant in the field in 1901, before proceeding to India in 1903. He remained in India through the First World War, becoming an officer and rising to the rank of Captain. He is the father of war artist Louis C Duffy (1908-1998). From an album of 91 photographs relating to the service of Sgt (later Captain) Leopold Duffy, South Lancashire Regiment, associated with the Boer War (1899-1902).

Boer War (1899-1902)