The Slouch Hat & The Spurs
(Huddersfield’s Boer War Memorial...)
A chafing chinstrap pulls taut
At his jaw, nudged by a thick, cultivated
Military moustache as he stands at ease,
Perhaps staring across the veld where he has fought;
The slouch hat headgear had been created
To combat the South African heat,
In which Boer militias’ guerrilla warfare
Had been engaged and renegades sought;
A bandolier sash slashes across his tunic,
A rifle is clutched upturned, puttees are tight to his knees
And tucked near his left hip is a bayonet, sated…
Spurs, like gargoyles protrude from the heels of his boots,
His horsemanship confirmed and demonstrated…
Pete Ray
November 2020…
Seems the soldier might just have been Yeomanry, from a cavalry unit, judging by his spurs…
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