Private Arthur Cree Mitchell
Number: 9468
Company: 46th (Belfast) Company, 13th Battalion, First Contingent
ENLISTMENT
Date: 28 December 1899
Place: Belfast
Age: 26 years 6 months
Trade or calling: Accountant
Place of birth: In the Parish of Belfast, in or near the Town of Belfast, in the County of Antrim
Address: Water Office, Royal Avenue, Belfast
Family: Father Andrew Mitchell, salesman and house furnisher, mother Mary Jane Mitchell (nee Cree), of 48 Packenham Place, Belfast.
Previous military service: No
Description: Height 5' 9 1/2". Complexion fresh, eyes grey, hair brown. One scar back of head.
Religion: Church of England
ACTIVE SERVICE
Date to South Africa: 3 March 1900
Date home: 8 June 1901
Service medal, clasps and other awards: Queen's South Africa Medal. Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, 1901 clasps.
DISCHARGE
Date: 15 June 1901
Place: Belfast
Reason for discharge: The termination of his engagement
Intended place of residence: 21 Eglantine Street, Belfast
Conduct: Good
Special qualifications: Good horseman and groom
Mitchell was among the 400 men captured by Boer forces at Lindley in May 1900. He was released on 30 August with the other members of the 13th Battalion when the British captured Nooitgedacht. A letter he wrote home while in captivity, dated 13 July, was reported on in the Northern Whig:
He refers with the deepest regret to the death of George McLaughlin and of the other troopers who fell at Lindley, and pays a generous tribute to the memory of the dead. The tone of the letter is, all the same, cheerful, and, having inquired how the "Twelfth" passed in Belfast, Trooper Mitchell relates that on that day Trooper Alfie Johnston was successful in securing a bottle of gin, and drank with a number of other Orange bretheren to the "glorious, pious, and immortal memory of William, Prince of Orange." "The day," the writer proceeds, "passed quietly, all sober, and no disturbance." The afternoons, Trooper Mitchell further relates, were devoted to sports, and, there being plenty of company, the time did not weigh too heavily on their hands.
On the 50th Anniversary of the outbreak of the Boer War the Belfast News-Letter carried an interview with Mitchell:
I had a talk yesterday ... with Mr. Arthur Mitchell, of Linden Gardens, Belfast, a retired official of the Belfast Water Commissioners and formerly Trooper Mitchell, of the 46th Troop of the Ulster Imperial Yeomanry, [and ] I found that, while the years have dimmed his recollection of dates, his memory otherwise remains vivid.
He could recall clearly the days of training at Victoria Barracks, which culminated in a march through the streets lined with cheering, flag-waving crowds, and a Mayoral garden party in the Botanic Gardens, before the unit marched to the railway and journeyed to the Curragh for further training.
The voyage to Cape Town occupied 21 days in the transport Cornwall, which, redolent of past cargoes of meat, offered little on the way of comfort or food to the 18-year-old soldier.
But the confidence so buoyant at the Curragh and at Maitland Camp, outside Cape Town, was bound for rude shattering. At Lindley the Belfast boys, sent to join General Colville, found themselves cut off and, helpless under the shells of the Boers' ox-drawn artillery, were forced to surrender.
The years have still not blunted the memory of the trials of the month's trek which followed capture – nor the nostalgia with which the prisoners passed the towns of Belfast and Balmoral on their route from Pretoria to Delagoa Bay.
As though it were yesterday Trooper Mitchell can recall the conditions of the prison camp at Nooitgedacht. The young soldiers found themselves within barbed wire, without huts or canvas.
"The Boers did not treat us badly, but we had to sleep in the open, which meant that on wet nights there was nothing for it but to walk about in soaking clothes until the sun came up to dry us," said Trooper Mitchell.
Release did come eventually, and after it a happy meeting. First man to welcome the Ulstermen in Pretoria was Lord Craigavon (then Captain James Craig), who already, in Africa, was showing the gift of leadership which later was to help to lay the foundations of Ulster's independence. The Ulstermen later saw service under the command of General Sir Charles Knox, K.C.B., son of Bishop Knox, of Belfast. They served in flying columns and on half rations in pursuit of the elusive De Wet.
Further information about Mitchell's life after the Boer War, including his service in the North of Ireland Imperial Yeomanry and the North Irish Horse from 1903, can be found here.
Image from the Belfast Telegraph, 17 March 1900.
This page last updated 2 January 2025.