‘Dirty Angel’ to undergo a colonial cleanse
Newcastle council to add fresh interpretation of tribute to 370 soldiers killed in Second Boer War
A BOER War memorial paying tribute to 370 fallen soldiers will be given “suitable interpretation” after the conflict was deemed a “colonialist enterprise”.
The 113-year-old monument in Newcastle upon Tyne was assessed after Black Lives Matter protests in a council review of “colonial abuses” commemorated in the city. Council documents say that the Second Boer War, fought from 1899 to 1902, “does not reflect well on the history of Britain”.
The monument, known locally as the “dirty angel”, was unveiled in 1908 and paid for by the public, but has been singled out in light of “current concerns about the appropriateness of commemorating” certain historical figures and events.
An assessment of links to slavery and colonialism cited war-related imagery on the 24m-tall memorial at the Haymarket as a reason for planned new information panels giving context about the conflict and the memorial’s local connections. The review stated: “It has been argued the Boer war was a colonialist enterprise and so does not reflect well on the history of Britain.
“The monument contains much symbolism, but also contains a motif showing helmeted British soldiers storming a Boer-held kopje or small hill and so consideration is being given to suitable interpretation near the memorial.”
The war was fought between British troops and the Boer forces of the Republic of Transvaal and the Orange Free State, and was controversial at the time for the use of scorched earth tac- tics and concentration camps.
But the war also left 22,000 British soldiers dead in a foretaste of mechanised warfare, and the fallen were honoured with hundreds of memorials across the UK, often paid for by public subscription. There are fears the plans to reinterpret the Boer War memorial in Newcastle could set a “dangerous precedent” for other monuments across the country. Dr Spencer Jones, a military historian, said it would be “crass” to alter these tributes to brave soldiers “simply because their cause no longer suits the cultural zeitgeist”.
He added: “Taken to its logical extreme, it would eventually be necessary to remove memorials to the First World War and Second World War as these were also imperial conflicts. Many of the Boer War memorials in the country were paid for by public subscription to recognise the courage of the volunteer soldiers who joined the colours.”
The singling out of British “colonialist” actions against the Boers has also been criticised, with the ultimately defeated republics themselves guilty of martial and social misdeeds.
Dr Jones said: “The Boers were far from saints. They were a slave-holding society in all but name, and their virulent racism towards the black population shocked British observers.
“The Boer conduct in the guerrilla war was as ferocious as that of the British. Boer fighters brutalised civilians, especially black Africans, executed prisoners and caused widespread destruction.”
The monument close to Newcastle’s main shopping street depicts Nike, goddess of victory, atop an obelisk listing the names of the fallen from local units, including the Northumberland Fusiliers, the Newcastle Royal Engineers, and the Northumberland and Durham Imperial Yeomanry.
The Newcastle city council review acknowledges that the monument “of course commemorates the dead of the war not the war itself ”. The local authority said it will continue to look into the interpretation of the memorial, but has to “identify a suitably informed academic that can support this process”.
Two panels will be installed at the monument officially titled South African War Memorial.
A council spokesperson said: “To widen public interpretation of the South African War Memorial at Haymarket we intend to install two information panels, one to interpret the statute and the other to shed light on its local connections in the city.”