The son of a Crimean war veteran and doctor, Neville Reginald Howse was born in Stogursey, Somerset, in 1863. Qualifying as a doctor in 1886, he migrated to Australia in 1889 for health reasons ('weak lungs') and set up his own medical practice in the New South Wales (NSW) city of Newcastle, then in the town of Taree. Deciding to become a surgeon, he returned to Britain to attend the Royal College and returned to Australia in 1899, setting up a practice in the central NSW town of Orange. When Britain declared war on the Boer Republics in October 1899, launching the Second Boer War, Howse volunteered for military service with the second contingent, New South Wales Army Medical Corps. Commissioned as a lieutenant, he departed for South Africa on 17 January, arriving in Capetown on 18 February. He contracted typhoid and was hospitalised for eight weeks.
In May, fighting near Doornkop, about 11km west of Johannesburg, a recovered Howse was mentioned in dispatches for his work treating casualties in the field. Two months later he was attached to a column of the 4th Brigade of Mounted Infantry commanded by General lan Hamilton under Brigadier-General Charles Parker Ridley, chasing the formidable and mosteagerly sought Boer general, Christiaan de Wet.
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
COUPS & CHAOS
How the French armed forces lost the war in Algeria and almost destroyed French democracy in the process
BATTLE OF ALGIERS
When the Front de libération nationale FLN) took its war to the streets of the capital, France’s military responded with merciless wrath
THE RISE OF ALGERIAN RESISTANCE
How the anti-colonialist struggle around the globe helped inspire Algeria’s liberation movement to organise and fight back
ROOTS OF REVOLUTION
A century of French occupation led to a genocide in Algeria that provoked one of the bloodiest showdowns of the modern age
DWIGHT W BIRDWELL
In the opening hours of the North Vietnamese Tet Offensive, this Specialist Five led his armoured cavalry detachment in repulsing a fierce communist assault against Tan Son Nhut Air Base near Saigon
THE FIVE STRATEGY AND LEADERSHIP
Phillips O’Brien discusses how this quintet of national leaders impacted the course of the Second World War
Great Battles FLODDEN
On the morning of 9 September 1513, King James lV of Scotland stood atop Flodden Hill with what seemed an insurmountable advantage over the English. Yet by the day's end he would lay slain and his army shattered
FERDINAND 'THE BLOODY'
Known for his brutal martial punishment and execution of his own men, Ferdinand Schérner’s ruthlessness was matched only by his devotion to Nazi ideology
AIRBORNE UNDER SIEGE ARNHEM
For nine days the heroic 1st Airborne fought desperately, waiting vainly for relief that never came
SCANDINAVIA UNDER ATTACK
Hitler’s forces smash through Denmark and Norway ina grim foretaste of the terrible fate awaiting the rest of Western Europe