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As soon as the South African War threatened in September 1899, the imperial army decided to operate a major offensive via Queenstown and the Stormberg. East London was chosen as a point of disembarkation for the troops and stores. The port was also to be used as the base for the 3rd Division which meant that considerable bodies of troops would be stationed there for short periods.
The Town Council, which maintained an unquestioning loyalty to the British cause throughout the conflict, spared nothing in co-operating wherever possible. The entire commonage was at first placed at the disposal of the troops for camping purposes, and subsequently the Recreation Ground was granted as a permanent camp.
Soon after the onset of hostilities, the British forces sought to supplement their ranks with local recruits and so, by January 1900, a flood of notices filled the local papers which called for enlistment to the various branches of the military.
Indeed, one page of the Daily Dispatch carried adverts for the Railway Pioneer Regiment, the Commander-in-Chief's Body Guard, Kitchener's Fighting Scouts, the Imperial Light Horse, the Colonial Defence Force, the South Eastern Districts Local Defence Force, the East London Town Guard and Cambridge Village Guard, the Cyclist Corps, the Colonial Corps, Brabant's Scouts, the South African Constabulary, the District Mounted Rifles and Robert's Horse.
Of greater consequence to the men of East London, however, was the formation of the Town Guard, a body that was created in many of the towns throughout the Colony at the request of the imperial authorities, ostensibly to act as a home guard in case the conflict escalated further but its exact purpose was never fully clarified to the East London residents.
Indeed, when a public meeting was called in January 1900 to establish the organisation, the aims were kept vague. Even so, one objective was clear, namely that the Town Guard would boost loyalty to the British cause and reduce support for the Boer republics. The Guard would therefore muster as many men under arms as possible and they would devote time to marching, with rifle drill twice a week, and so acquire a sense of common cause with the imperial designs.
The general feeling aroused at the organisational meetings was that "he who was not with them, was against them". A letter in the Dispatch summed up the attitude in the comment that, although the men would probably never be called into service, such was not the question.
It sufficed to know, the correspondent wrote, that the imperial authorities had asked for the formation of a Town Guard and an immediate and ready compliance with the request would serve to show the enemy that they were "only too willing to fall into line" when called upon.
"In the formation of a Town Guard," he concluded, "we all meet on one common ground. Rich and poor, old and young, we all enjoy the same liberties and blessings under the good old flag."
Despite the calls for loyalty, East Londoners generally gave the issue a luke-warm initial reception. Attempts were made to enlist volunteers by means of public notices and adverts but the response was poor.
Even the public meeting and subsequent ward meetings proved relatively unsuccessful in rallying the townsmen to the cause and the numbers who attended were low except for the predominantly English-speaking West Bank and at the Beach where a substantial number of Uitlander refugees were already camped.
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Numbers slowly rose, however, until the official sources listed the total of volunteers at 761 members, with officers elected for each ward and the Civil Commissioner serving as Commandant of the unit.
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