Anglo-Boer war began 11 October, 1899

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

https://www.facebook.com/CanadaRemembers/photos/a.186987155662.160435.177183000662/10154201574560663/?type=3&theater

[RattlesnakeJack]

Troops of the First Canadian Contingent .... the 2nd (Special Service) Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry .... disembarking in Cape Town on 30 November 1899 -

[Oregon Bill]

Long Lees, right Grant?

 

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[RattlesnakeJack]

Yes .... .303 "Rifle, Magazine, Lee-Enfield".  The Canadians were actually the only contingent armed exclusively with Lee-Enfield rifles. A good portion of the British Army and other Empire forces were still armed with Lee-Metford rifles, or even single-shot .303 Martini-Metford or Martini-Enfield rifles. However, Canada had only begun to replace its very obsolete .577 Snider-Enfield rifles in 1896, with the state-of-the-art Lee-Enfield.

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

Actually, each of the three Canadian artillery batteries deployed to South Africa had a handfull of Lee-Enfield cavalry carbines. There was only one infantry contingent, the RCR as posted above. All contingents after that, a total of 7, were mounted rifles armed with the long Lee.

P.S: The third contingent in time, Strathcona's Horse was a "Royal Regiment"and thus not counted as a Canadian contingent. It was raised and equipped by Lord Strathcona, aka Donald Smith, a financier of the Canadian Pacific Railway. After the regiment arrived in South Africa it was an entirely British proposition and served in the East with Buller's column. Similarly to the "Rough Riders" it was recruited from westerners and Mounties. Lt. Col. Sam Steele was seconded from the NWMP to be its commander.

http://www.canadiansoldiers.com/regiments/armoured/lordstrathconashorse.htm

When it was disbanded on completion of its tour of duty it disappeared, sort of. Canadian Militia cavalry squadrons were coalescing into regiments and one of them, formerly "A" Squadron became the Canadian Mounted Rifles (Adding "Royal" in 1903). By now it was serving as a school of mounted infantry. In 1909 the name "Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians) was adopted to perpetuate the Boer War regiment.

[RattlesnakeJack]

Yes .... I ought to have specified infantry (regular and mounted) ....