Boer War Page 74c

Boer War Past "News" 3

A library of past announcements previously published on our Boer War News Page.

The Peace of Pretoria

Signed on May 31, 1902 - Ending the Great Anglo-Boer War
"They have made a Desert, and they call it Peace": A war that had begun as a Gentleman's War in October, 1899 - at Elandslaagte, Briton and Boer sang and partied together, the night before meeting on the battlefield - ended as the first Great - Total War - of the 20th century. At the beginning of the war, civilians at Talana had ridden out to watch the battle unfold between the combatants. At the end of the war the civilians were all in concentration camps.

The generals had transformed warfare from a fight against their professional opponents, to an attack on their civilian dependents, against the houses and farms in which their families lived, the livestock which sustained them, the crops which nourished them, and then had penned up their womenfolk, their elders, and children in concentration camps. It was an evil model that others would copy with devastating effects in the decades to come.
Norman Builder 20, of Brantford, Ontario was one of 55,000 white people who died during the Anglo-Boer War. The large number of Blacks who died is still being tallied.
This rare commemorative Peace jug (found in Calgary, AB) expresses the hope of all peoples that Briton and Boer would pound their swords into ploughshares, shake hands, and build a peace based on mutual respect.

In a sense, Britain had won the war though at a fearful cost to all sides. But it had not beaten the Boers, who had simply decided to quit, just too worn down to continue fighting.

The Boers won the Peace.

By 1907 the two former Boer Republics won self-government, and in 1910, all Britain's South African colonies were united in a Union of South Africa with Boer General Louis Botha, the victor of Colenso, and Spion Kop, as the first Prime Minister.

Eight years after the war - with a former Boer general ruling not only the old Boer Republics but the British colonies as well - people were asking, just what had the British army been fighting for? For what had so many people died?

Many Canadians celebrated King Edward VII as "the Peacemaker" as noted on this horse brass which jingled for years on a workhorse ploughing fields near Milton, Ontario.

But no one could have foreseen that within a few short years it would get worse, much worse. The same generals would be allowed to practice their military arts on a much bigger canvas.

War: the Game of Men

Within two years of the end of a war that cost thousands of children, women, and men, their lives, the men were already glossing over the horror in which so many died. This ultra rare antique program, from the World's Fair, held in 1904, at St. Louis, Missouri, featured a recreation of the battles and brave deeds done in South Africa not two years before. And the featured guest reenactor on the Boer side, was General Piet Cronje who had surrendered 4,000 Boers at the bloodiest battle of the Boer War, at Paardeberg.

Update:

Anglo-Boer War News - About Our Television Series

The Television Program

 We are pleased to announce that in mid December, we received approval to extend, "The Great Anglo-Boer War: The Canadian Experience" - a program originally commissioned as a series of two one hour programs - to four hours. The programs will be:
Part 1: The Great Adventure, Part 2: The Heroes of Paardeberg,
Part 3: Marching to Pretoria, Part 4: To the Bitter End.

The programs aired on HISTORY TELEVISION during June 2002, and won great viewer acclaim from across Canada. See Feedback on Menu Bar.


Mar. 12, 2003

More International Awards for Our Television Series
We are pleased to announce that our Canadian Television History Series, "The Great Anglo-Boer War: The Canadian Experience," has been awarded several coveted "FINALIST NOMINATIONS" at the prestigious Houston "Worldfest" international Television Programming Awards, hosted for the past 36 years in Houston, Texas.

We are honoured that American festival juries have, once again, selected programs from our "low budget cable series" to be among the few selected to advance - along with the best "mega budget" programs from the best producers around the world - to the final "Medal Round." At Worldfest Houston - the world's largest television competition - only Medal Winners are nominated; we are pleased that our "hard-core" Canadian programs have been selected for one of these top awards for each of:

BEST TELEVISION DOCUMENTARY SERIES
BEST DOCUMENTARY HISTORY & ARCHAEOLOGY PROGRAM
BEST NEWS & DOCUMENTARY WRITING
BEST ON-CAMERA TALENT: JOHN GOLDI
Not Just "Sausage" Thank You: We note with pride that one of our "series" programs (Part 1) has been nominated in an "individual" History program competition category with top "one-of" program specials from around the world.

No Mean Craft: We are pleased that jurors, once again, selected our Canadian History series not only for overall program excellence, but also, nominated it for medals in two of the hotly contested "craft" categories that honour the individual skills and workmanship that go into the making of a program.
Award-Winning Team: The team of Joan Goldi and John Goldi was nominated for a medal for the skill in research and writing for Part 4 of their series, in a competition category that included "top flight" "News and Documentary" writing entries from around the world.

Award-Winning Performance: In the "Individual On-Camera Talent" category, director and historian John Goldi csc was honoured with a medal nomination for the excellence of his numerous battlefield demonstrations. Below, performing his hosting duties at the battlefield of Colenso, which were doubly difficult because he was also the cameraman!!! How did he do it? Read his interview on Page 49 of the Boer War Museum.
Proud: Joan Goldi and John Goldi csc, are most gratified that a series, for which they did all the research and writing, were the entire shooting crew (locations and archivals), and did all the off and online picture, sound, music, and FX editing, has been so honoured at top American international television festival competitions.

We believe our programs have been selected to receive such a wide cross-section of awards because of the many innovative techniques we tried to introduce to make the program subject attractive to a wide cross-section of viewers. (See Innovations Pages 42 to 46.)

Feedback: #77: Calgary, AB - "I really enjoyed your video series. I only managed to catch two episodes but boy did I enjoy them. Even my wife, who has absolutely no interest in military history, enjoyed them."

America the Beautiful!
Feedback: #70: New York, NY, USA - "Superb job! Just a quick line of thanks for the job you did on the Boer War Videos. Poignant ..but not maudlin. Loved the on-site shots and "local experts". The sunrise opening and close with "Last Post" are very evocative. I showed these to several of my friends who were marginally interested in the war. They are now devouring my books related to it. Thanks again for the super job."

c Goldi Productions Ltd. 1996 & 2000