Boer foreign volunteers Boer foreign volunteers were participants who volunteered their military services to the Boers in the Second Boer War . Origin . Although there was a lot of sympathy for the Boer cause outside of the British Empire , there was little overt government support as few countries were willing to upset Britain , in fact no other government actively supported the Boer cause . There were , however , individuals from several countries who volunteered and formed Foreign Volunteer Units . These volunteers primarily came from Europe , particularly the Netherlands , Germany , France , Italy , Ireland ( then part of the United Kingdom ) , and restive areas of the Russian Empire , including Poland and Georgia . Recruitment . The influx of foreigners into the country began simultaneously with the war , and it continued thereafter at the rate of about four hundred men a month . These volunteers would have come for a number of reasons , not necessarily because of any sympathy with the Boer cause including soldiers - of - fortune , professional soldiers and adventurers . Some of the more famous volunteers were : Ernest Douwes Dekker , Camillo Ricchiardi , Niko the Boer ( Niko Bagrationi ) , Witold Rylski , Alexander Guchkov , Leo Pokrowsky , Major Baron von Reitzenstein , Viscount Villebois - Mareuil and the men of the two Irish commandos , the Irish Transvaal Brigade of John MacBride and John Blake , and the Second Irish Brigade of Arthur Alfred Lynch . None of the foreigners who served in the Boer army received any compensation . They were supplied with horses and equipment , at a cost to the Boer Governments and they received food , but no wages . Before a foreign volunteer was allowed to join a commando , and before he received his equipment , he was obliged to take an oath of allegiance to the Republic . A translation of it reads : Second Anglo - Boer War . Table of foreign volunteers in the Second Anglo - Boer War In the early stages of the war the majority of the foreign volunteers were obliged to join a Boer commando . Later they formed their own foreign legions with a high degree of independence , including the : Scandinavian Corps , Italian Volunteer Legion , two Irish Brigades , German Corps , Dutch Corps , Legion of France , American Scouts and Russian Scouts . However the free rein given to the foreign legions was eventually curtailed after Villebois - Mareuil and his small band of Frenchmen met with disaster at Boshof , and thereafter all the foreigners were placed under the direct command of General De la Rey . The Italian Volunteer Legion of Camillo Ricchiardi carried out the capture of an armoured train near Chieveley , Natal . Among the passengers who were taken prisoner was the young journalist Winston Churchill , whose life Ricchiardi spared by pretending not to see him dumping his pistol and dum - dum ammunition which had been declared unlawful on pain of death . While the vast majority of people involved from British Empire countries fought with the British Army , a few Australians fought on the Boer side . The most famous of these was Colonel Arthur Lynch , formerly of Ballarat , who raised the Second Irish Brigade . Lynch , charged with treason was sentenced to death , by the British , for his service with the Boers . After mass petitioning and intervention by King Edward VII , he was released a year later and pardoned in 1907 .