Pam McFadden

The Battle of Spioenkop in January 1900 is often cited as a remarkable convergence of three future world leaders - Winston Churchill, Louis Botha, and Mahatma Gandhi. While Churchill's presence as a journalist and Botha's role in the battle are well-documented, a fascinating historical question remains:  Was Gandhi actually present at Spioenkop itself? Thank you to Neil Cairns for posing the following question which inspired this article:

Please can you help me with a simple question which I can’t find the answer to? The reference to the three future world leaders Churchill, Botha and Gandhi’s presence in or around Spioenkop at the time of the battle abounds in many articles. Churchill and Botha are obviously easy to account for, but I have not found a reference that actually puts Gandhi himself there. Obviously his corps of stretcher bearers were there, but I haven’t found anything that puts Gandhi there at all. Do you know of any such source or is this merely an apocryphal “good story”?

In books, articles and even quiz questions, the story of Gandhi at Spioenkop continues to be repeated. The story even appears on the interpretation boards at the battle site. This specific question about Spioenkop, reminds us that it is important to challenge an existing view if it isn't supported by the evidence.

Gandhi as a...

It is with great sadness and a very heavy heart that I write this goodbye to my friend, my "go to" encyclopedia for information on military, cultural and Zulu history and customs of this region, a sounding board for events and new ideas and information on medals.

Pat Rundgren will leave a huge hole in our area - his passion for the history, his incredible breadth of knowledge, his willingness to always share his knowledge and for always being there when it came to tours, reenactments, writing articles and so much more.

Always ready for reenactments

For over 20 years he served on the Dundee Tourism committee. From the very early years he was part of the Battlefields Route committee and was a founder member of the professional association of Battlefield Tour Guides and served as secretary for many years. His wit and sense of humor was evident in all notices and minutes of meetings - and always drew a reaction and interaction from the guides - and his call sign as he ended his messages- Kambula Kid.

He served on the Talana Museum Board of Trustees for over twenty years and as Chairman for the past five years. Many was the time when he thought that I was really barmy especially when it...

On a recent trip to Vancouver, Canada I went off to visit Vancouver Island. The island is surprising large being 456 km long, 100 km at its widest point and has a total area of 32,100 km2. It is the largest by area and the most populous of the islands along the west coasts of the Americas. The capital of British Columbia, Victoria, is on the island and has some beautiful Victorian buildings.

The southern part of Vancouver Island and some of the nearby Gulf Islands are the only parts of British Columbia or Western Canada that lie south of the 49th parallel. The 49th parallel is the boundary between the United States and Canada.

Indigenous peoples have inhabited Vancouver Island for thousands of years, long before the arrival of Spanish and British naval expeditions in the late 18th century.

The Spanish and British conjointly named it Quadra's and Vancouver's Island in commemoration of the negotiations in 1792 between the Spanish commander of Fort San Miguel in Nootka Sound, Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, and British naval Captain George Vancouver. It is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, who between 1791 and 1794 explored the Pacific Northwest.

Map of Vancouver Island (Wikipedia)

It is separated from the mainland of British Columbia by the Johnstone Strait and Queen Charlotte Strait...

The wooden cross weeps annually close to the anniversary of the Battle of Delville Wood. All sorts of myths and beliefs abound as to why the wooden cross made from a tree from Delville Wood - standing in Pietermaritzburg - starts to weep at this time of the year.

Two other crosses also made from trees from the wood, were brought back to South Africa but they do not weep. One went to the Castle in Cape Town and the other to the Cenotaph in Durban.

Entrance to the Castle (The Heritage Portal)

Lithograph of the Durban Cenotaph by Charles Ernest Peers

Some believe that the wood weeps for the fallen heroes who fought for their country during the Battle of Delville Wood in 1916.

There was also the belief that when the last survivor of Delville Wood died then the Cross would stop weeping - well it hasn't. A total of 2 416 soldiers from the South African Infantry Brigades were killed, wounded or recorded missing as a result of the battle of Delville Wood over the period of July 15 to July...

A visit to this battlefield leaves an indelible memory. The long walk up the immaculately mown grass, the rows of oak trees and what seems like forever, to reach the memorial. Walking along the “streets” and allowing the silence and feeling of sombreness to envelope you; your imagination trying to understand the horror that happened in this quiet and now beautiful wood, is not easy to describe. As a South African it is a very special experience.

The Times provided the following description of the battle:

No battlefield on all the Western Front was more bitterly contested than was 'Devil's Wood', where fighting, practically uninterrupted and intense, went on for six consecutive weeks from mid July till August 26 of 1916. It was in the first week of the struggle that the South African forces won their imperishable fame — grimly hanging on against overwhelming odds and repulsing counter-attacks by troops five and six times their number.

As one of the most important battles it is possibly best summed up by John Buchan (Lord Tweedsmuir): "There were positions as difficult, but they were not held so long; there were cases of as protracted a defence, but the assault was not so violent and continuous... "

Between 15th and 20th July 1916, the South African Brigade consisting of 3153 men, entered Delville Wood, a tactically important salient protruding into the German second line. They had been given an order to hold the wood at all costs.

They were subjected to an onslaught...

Probably 30 years ago I was asked by Belgian visitors to Talana Museum, if I was aware of the Talana Farm cemetery outside the village of Boezinge in Belgium. At the time I wasn’t, but that started a long journey of research and discovery about this cemetery and its links with the Battle of Talana (20 October 1899). It led to a couple of visits to Belgium to see the cemetery for myself, talk to various people about it, and on 11 November 2014, to being one of the representatives to lay a wreath under the Menin Gate, in memory of the 4 Dundee men commemorated on the walls of that memorial. That evening and the subsequent 10 days at the centenary memorial functions at various cemeteries and memorials in Belgium and then being a guest speaker at an international conference at the Lewarde Mining Museum, on coal mining and the First World War, will remain with me forever.

Menin Gate (Wikipedia)

Pam McFadden at Talana Farm cemetery (Talana Museum)

Talana Farm was one of a group of farm houses named...

The glass factory in Dundee has a tremendous history going back to the 1880s and a wonderful bank of memories and esprit de corps among the people who worked there - some their entire lives.

In the late 19th Century there is evidence of glass being made in the Dundee area. Talana Museum has an invoice for the supply of glass bottles in 1889.

However, this production became properly business orientated in 1917 when Mr Cook moved his factory from Durban to Dundee. He had four glassblowers producing glass, but needed to find a source for sand. Rather than cart the sand from Malonjeni very close to Dundee to Durban, it was decided to relocate the glass business to Dundee which could supply the sand as well as the coal for firing the furnaces.

First Union Glass Factory (Talana Museum)

By mid 1918 the Dundee Coal Company had agreed to lease its old buildings to Glass Ltd. The pot furnace and glass blowers were relocated and a semi-automatic bottle machine arrived from Britain.

In 1918, to raise capital, the syndicate floated the glassworks as a small public company, named “Union Glass” as a tribute to the new Union of South Africa. Broken glass and bottles (known as cullet) were added to the mix to melt the ingredients – this came...

There are a number of myths around the formation, members, service and disbandment of the Natal Volunteer Indian Ambulance Service during the Boer War. Prompted by an enquiry by a fellow collector, I was lucky enough to find a wealth of information in the Talana Museum archives.
 
The Legend
 
"In 1893 an attorney-at-law, Mohandas K. Gandhi, arrived in Natal on a brief legal assignment. He decided to remain, on learning that disenfranchisement of Indians was intended. Together with influential others from the Indian community, he founded “The Natal Indian Congress” and became editor of “Indian Opinion”. He conceived of a new technique of political resistance based on the methods of “satyagraha” (“soul force”)  and derived from the teachings of the pacifist Jain sect of Hinduism, a technique of resisting an objectionable law, if need be by enduring suffering, but without resorting to violence or ceasing to respect those who governed the people or enforced the law.
 
During his sojourn in South Africa, two field units were raised and commanded by Mohandas K. Gandhi from amongst his fellow countrymen then resident in Natal; one in 1899 (Indian Ambulance Corps) and the other in 1906 (Indian Stretcher-bearers Corps).

Indian stretcher bearer corps. Gandhi centre 5th...

In 1899 at the outbreak of the Anglo Boer war, Johannesburg was the centre of the gold mining industry and Dundee the centre of the coal mining industry, while Durban was one of the major ports of entry into South Africa for British troops and supplies – and their ships needed coal, as did the railway industry that moved the troops and supplies throughout the country.

Coaling at Durban (Talana Museum)

Loading coal onto a ship in Durban (Talana Museum)

Coaling a transport at the Point, Durban (Talana Museum)

There were four ports of entry for British ships bringing troops and supplies to South Africa. Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London and Durban. Very early in the war Cape Town harbour was closed for some time as ships had brought infected rats to the city and there was an outbreak of bubonic plague. Port Elizabeth could not handle large ships and...

For those that want to find out more about this story, there is a special 'Relief of Ladysmith' anniversary tour happening on 25-27 February 2022. Click here for full details.

A notice appeared in the London Gazette of 5 February 1856 announcing the creation by Queen Victoria of Britain’s premier award for gallantry, for all ranks since the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1854. Its description and criteria for the award were:

• “The distinction shall be styled and designated the “Victoria Cross” and shall consist of a Maltese cross of bronze with our Royal Crest in the centre, and underneath which a scroll bearing the inscription “For Valour”; On the reverse of the cross is engraved the date of the act of bravery and the name of the recipient is engraved on the back of the suspender.
• The Cross shall only be awarded to those officers or men who have served Us in the presence of the enemy, and shall have then performed some signal act of valour, or devotion to their country”.

Victoria Cross (Wikipedia)

The award was open to all ranks and services. Where the act of bravery was performed by a group of men, officers and other ranks had the privilege of selecting, one of more of their number to receive the honour. This was the case for some of the VCs awarded for...