Attached to the Suffolk Regiment, the CURV men reported for duty on 20 January 1900 in Bury St Edmunds. On 11 February, they sailed from Southampton on the SS "Doune Castle", arriving in Cape Town on 7 March. Initially the Cambridge Volunteers worked as guards on the railway lines around Cape Town, but then marched with the Suffolk Regiment as part of General Bryan Mahon's column to attack a Boer position in Barberton in September 1900. With a large welcome home awaiting them, including a service in Great St Mary's Church, the volunteers were back in Cambridge on 6 May 1901. All the Volunteers were made Honorary Freemen of the Borough of Cambridge and on 21 December 1904, three years later, CURV was granted the battle honour "South Africa 1900-01". Cambridge is the only UOTC to have earned a battle honour.