The Bushman at War: Gendered Medical Responses to Combat Breakdown in South Africa, 1899-1902

The Australians who enlisted in the South African War were representatives of the bushman ideal popularised in the late 19th century, and were thus associated with the masculine model connected to this ideal. Most men were literal bushmen, rural labourers unemployed due to widespread drought in the decade preceding the conflict. However, this model of masculinity created difficulties for soldiers who developed psychiatric disorders during their military service, as society's feminisation of mental illness meant that it was deemed a loss of manhood. This article examines the application of the masculine bushman ideal to Australians who developed war trauma during the South African War (1899-1902), initially arguing that the conflict served as a testing ground for the larger-scale militarisation of the ideal from the First World War. It explores the role of military doctors in shaping diagnoses of combat breakdown while operating within limited psychological understanding and their attempts to avoid the demasculinisation-and thus stigmatisation-of the traumatised soldier.