Major-General Sir Edward Yewd Brabant, (31 May 1839 – 13 December 1914) was a British military commander in colonial South Africa. He served in the 9th Xhosa War (1877–1878), First Matabele War (1893–1894), and other campaigns. During the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic and ...

(1899–1902), he commanded the Colonial Division in 1900, and the Colonial Defence Force of

Cape Colony The Cape Colony (), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope. It existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with three ...

in 1901.

Early life

Brabant was born in Kinderton Lodge, in

Middlewich Middlewich is a town and civil parish in Cheshire East, Cheshire, England. It is located east of Chester, east of Winsford, south-east of Northwich and north-west of Sandbach. The population of the parish at the United Kingdom 2021 census, ...

, Cheshire, the son of John Thomas and Elizabeth Jane Brabant. He was baptised at a week old.

First Matabele War

Captain Brabant oversaw the Ndebele employed by the

British South Africa Company The British South Africa Company (BSAC or BSACo) was chartered in 1889 following the amalgamation of Cecil Rhodes' Central Search Association and the London-based Exploring Company Ltd, which had originally competed to capitalize on the expecte ...

forces in Fort Victoria,

Matabeleland Matabeleland is a region located in southwestern Zimbabwe that is divided into three provinces: Matabeleland North, Bulawayo, and Matabeleland South. These provinces are in the west and south-west of Zimbabwe, between the Limpopo and Zambezi ...

(now

Masvingo Masvingo, known as Fort Victoria during the colonial period, is a city in southeastern Zimbabwe and the capital of Masvingo Province. The city lies close to Great Zimbabwe, the national monument from which the country takes its name and clos ...

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

). He worked with "Matabele" Benjamin Wilson from

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...

, who was one of the twelve scouts for Allan Wilson's Victoria Column. The other column scouts were: Bob Bain (Canadian),

Frederick Russell Burnham Major (rank), Major Frederick Russell Burnham Distinguished Service Order, DSO (May 11, 1861 – September 1, 1947) was an American scout and world-traveling adventurer. He is known for his service to the British South Africa Company and to t ...

(American), Jack Carruthers, Art Cummings, Duncan Dollar, Pearl "Pete" Ingram (American), Harry Lloyd, Texas Long, Billy Lynch, Andrew Main, and Billy Reed.

Second Anglo-Boer War

As a Brigadier General of the Eastern Cape troops, his command included:

Cape Mounted Riflemen The Cape Mounted Riflemen were South African military units. There were two separate successive regiments of that name. To distinguish them, some military historians describe the first as the "imperial" Cape Mounted Riflemen (originally the ...

, the 79th Battery, RFA, the Kaffrarian Rifles, the Queenstown Volunteers, part of the 1st Battalion, Royal Scots, and Brabant's Horse. He occupied Jamestown and the Herschel district in February 1900. His units operated round the Queenstown/

Dordrecht Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Western Netherlands, lo ...

area and moved north to hold the Jammersburg Drift at Wepener, which they did under appalling rain and cold against a superior

Boer Boers ( ; ; ) are the descendants of the proto Afrikaans-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controlled the Dutch ...

force led by

Christiaan De Wet Christiaan Rudolf de Wet (7 October 1854 – 3 February 1922) was a Boer general, rebel leader and politician. Life Born on the Leeuwkop farm, in the district of Smithfield in the Boer Republic of the Orange Free State, he later resided at ...

Brabant's Horse

On 5 November 1899, Brabant raised the Light Horse regiment known as ''Brabant's Horse.'' The top strength of the unit was 600, all ranks, including South African colonials, Australians, British, Canadians. The unit saw much action against Boer commandos. Brabant's Horse was disbanded in Cape Town on 31 December 1901. In 1901 he was knighted as a

Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by King George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. Recipients of the Order are usually senior British Armed Forces, military officers or senior Civil Service ...

(KCB) for his services in South Africa.

Later career

Following the end of the war in May 1902, Brabant visited the UK to take the command of the Cape contingent present in London for the

Coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra The coronation of the British monarch, coronation of Edward VII and his wife, Alexandra of Denmark, Alexandra, as King of the United Kingdom, king and List of British royal consorts, queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, ...

, including men of the Cape Mounted Rifles and the Cape Police. He received the honorary rank of major-general on 22 August 1902, and returned to South Africa in the the following month. The next year, he served as Commandant-General of the Cape Colonial Forces (1903–1904).

Family

His son, Lieutenant Arthur Edward Brabant, served with the Imperial Light Horse during the Second Boer War. He was wounded at the Siege of Ladysmith and died two days later on 5 November 1899.

References

* by

Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Hol ...

, London, Smith, Elder & Co. (1902) {{DEFAULTSORT:Brabant, Edward 1839 births 1914 deaths People from Middlewich Military personnel from Cheshire Cape Colony army officers British military personnel of the 9th Cape Frontier War People of the First Matabele War British military personnel of the Second Boer War Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George