The train to fame

One of the technologies used by the British during the Boer War was the armoured train. Mostly the British tactics were to do with locking down territory using barbed wire and blockhouses then sweeping it clean or Boer. On the other hand the Boer were all about mobility. The armoured train was one of the few technologies deployed by the British to help keep them mobile, but it was not the first time they had been used.

In 1882 Jackie Fisher, then a Captain, assisted by Lieutenant Richard Poore built an armoured train for use by the Naval Brigade that they had landed in Egypt to gain control of the strategically vital Suez Canal. Fisher had always been a technology nut so this was right up his street, and proved to be very useful. In fact that it was so useful that it gained quite a bit of publicity for him back in Britian, however the role that Poore played was generally understated in the press. According to biographies that I have read this is something that Fisher felt bad about, and is the only time that I have every heard of Jackie Fisher ever feeling bad about getting all of the limelight.