BFI

This beautifully composed image of a steam train crossing a railway bridge has a tranquillity completely at odds with its subject. Shot on 8 December 1899 by Warwick cameraman John Benett-Stanford, it was taken ten days after the Battle of the Modder River on 28 November, in which British troops led by Lieutenant General Lord Methuen repelled a Boer advance, albeit not without heavy casualties on both sides (despite being ultimately victorious, British losses were greater).

Like many battles in the early stages of the Boer War, Modder River graphically underlined how inadequate British military tactics developed for previous conflicts (such as the Crimean War nearly half a century earlier) were becoming in the face of sophisticated modern weaponry such as that enjoyed by the Boers. For all the formal beauty of Benett-Stanford's image, it is unlikely that the men on the train (identified as Seaforth Highlanders) would have been as appreciative.

Michael Brooke

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