Josef Hammar (1868–1927) – a Swedish physician in the Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902)

Abstract

It is well-known that the Anglo-Boer War attracted support and sympathy for the Boer cause from all over Europe. One topic that has not received much scholarly attention, however, is the contribution of Scandinavian medical doctors and nurses in the conflict. One of them was the Swedish surgeon Josef Hammar. This article argues that his participation was for both idealistic and pragmatic reasons. Further, it presents new sources for understanding the day-to-day work in military medicine in the Boer war from an outside perspective and discusses the issue of medical neutrality in a conflict that has been called the rehearsal for the First World War.