one of 4,000 applicants for the 626 positions allotted to Victoria. He was accepted for the Victorian Imperial Bushmen, and trained at Langwarrin, Victoria, before embarking for South Africa on 1 May 1900. In another aspect of his life, Elliott would join the United Grand Lodge of Victoria as a Freemason in the old and established Naval & Military Lodge No 49. Boer War service The Victorian Imperial Bushmen were initially based at Marandellas in case the Boers invaded Southern Rhodesia. In January 1901 they moved to the Cape Colony, where they were attached to a Coldstream Guards force under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Henniker. This sometimes formed part of a larger force under the command of Colonel Herbert Plumer. On 28 February 1901, a 16-man detachment of Victorian Imperial Bushmen under the command of Captain Joseph Dallimore tracked a party of Boers. During the night, Elliott, now a corporal, stole the Boers' 54 horses without waking them. At dawn the bushmen surrounded and attacked the Boer party's encampment, and compelled all 33 of them to surrender. For his part, Elliott was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, the British Empire's second-highest award for gallantry by other ranks after the Victoria Cross, and mentioned in despatches. He was given a British Army commission as a lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regiment on 20 November 1900, but he remained with the Victorian Imperial Bushmen as an attached subaltern. He embarked for Australia on 22 June 1901, reaching Melbourne on 12 July. His British Army commission was cancelled at his own request. On 24 August 1901, he sailed for South Africa again on the SS Britannic. There, he obtained a commission as a lieutenant in the Cape Colony Cyclist Corps on 18 October 1901. He then joined the Border Scouts, who patrolled remote and inhospitable areas. In December 1901, he distinguished himself in repelling a numerically superior Boer force under Commandant Edwin Alfred Conroy. For this he received a congratulatory telegram from General Lord Kitchener that read: "Please tell Lieut. Elliott that I am very pleased with his conduct and that of his men in driving off Conroy and saving horses." The war ended in May 1902, but Elliott remained with the Border Scouts until they were disbanded in September. In addition to his Distinguished Conduct Medal, Elliott was awarded the Queen's South Africa Medal with four clasps (Rhodesia,