Rimington's Guides were a unit of light horse

Light cavalry

Light cavalry refers to lightly armed and lightly armored troops mounted on horses, as opposed to heavy cavalry, where the riders are heavily armored...

 in the British Army

British Army

The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

 active in the Second Boer War

Second Boer War

The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...

. They were led by Major M. F. (Mike) Rimington

Michael Rimington

Lieutenant-General Sir Michael Frederic Rimington, KCB, CVO, was a British Army officer who commanded cavalry forces in the Boer War and First World War. After early service with the 6th Dragoons, "Mike" Rimington was given command of an irregular cavalry force in South Africa, known as...

, later Colonel Rimington. He also led a column

Column (formation)

A military column is a formation of soldiers marching together in one or more files in which the file is significantly longer than the width of ranks in the formation...

 in the later stages of the war. The Rimington's Guides also had the name Rimington's Tigers due to the leopard skin hatbands worn on their slouch hat

Slouch hat

A slouch hat is a wide-brimmed felt or cloth hat with a chinstrap, most commonly worn as part of a military uniform. It is a survivor of the felt hats worn by certain 18th century armies. Since then, the slouch hat has been worn by military personnel from many nations including Australia, Britain,...

s. Rimington gave his Corps of Guides the nickname "catch-'em-alive-o's while other forces gave him the nickname "The Night Cats" because of their night marches and stealth like movement.

Composition

The unit was recruited from English speaking South Africans. Every man in Rimington's Corps of Guides was obliged to speak Boer

Boer

Boer is the Dutch and Afrikaans word for farmer, which came to denote the descendants of the Dutch-speaking settlers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 18th century, as well as those who left the Cape Colony during the 19th century to settle in the Orange Free State,...

 and at least one of the local African dialects, with many speaking both. They were armed with carbines and pistols, riding light ahead of the main army.