Kwazulu-Natal

The Bergville area, in the foothills of the Drakensburg mountains, today the gateway into the Northern Drakensburg on Route 74 between Johannesburg and Durban, is steeped in history, so I should not have been surprised to discover its involvement in the World War of 1914 to 1918.

Bergville developed from a village founded in 1897, although its recorded history goes back 3,000 years to when the San first settled in the area. The first white man to record passing through was in 1837 (click here for more history and some fascinating personalities and a timeline).

Local historians no doubt have much more to say about Bergville’s past and the many encounters which took place in the neighbourhood. However, my interest is World War One and its military connection.

Not too long before the Great War of 1914-1918 broke out, during the Anglo-Boer or South African War of 1899-1902, one of the many blockhouses erected across the country, was to be located at Bergville. Today, it is the only known remaining blockhouse in KZN, and can apparently be found in the town’s courthouse grounds. While the 1899-1902 war took place on home ground, directly impacting the inhabitants, the war which erupted just over a decade later, although fought on foreign soil also had a direct impact on the community.

Bergville Blockhouse (Wiki Commons)

By August 1916, the Union of South...

Most scholars, historians and authors have concentrated on the battle for the British camp that was fought on the eastern slopes of Isandlwana, Mountain on 22 January 1879, attempting to analyze it ad nauseum every which way possible. What most ignore is that much, if not most, of the action actually took place on the western and northern sides of the mountain on the Rorke’s Drift or Fugitives, side.

Such actions include the loss of the two remaining artillery pieces of N5 Battery when they fell into a donga; Colonel Durnford’s Last Stand; the graves of Captain George Shepstone and his men of the fleeing Natal Native Horse on the western slopes of the mountain and the battle for the aManzimnyama Drift.

The British are very sensitive about two things above all else – losing (or, in Army-speak, misplacing) their artillery pieces and secondly, losing their Colours to the enemy. Both of these horrendous disasters occurred at Isandlwana. To put it in perspective, the Regiment’s favourite sport of the seduction of the Colonel’s wife by one of the other officers, for example, comes way down on the list of priorities.

The Diehard re-enactment team on site with the colours

Two of the 7 pounder RML cannon of N5 Battery had been left behind in the camp that...

In 1962, the leader of the newly formed Mkhonto we Sizwe (MK) was the apartheid government’s most wanted man and Nelson Mandela was moving around the country in secret. He was so elusive that the media had dubbed him the “Black Pimpernel”. Mandela had recently returned from a visit to newly independent African countries, and to the United Kingdom, aimed at sourcing funding and rallying support for the ANC as well as scouting training opportunities for MK.

He entered South Africa secretly from Botswana (then the British Protectorate of Bechuanaland) and met the leadership of MK at Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia, north of Johannesburg. He briefed his colleagues on his trip and his discussions and it was agreed that he should travel to Natal to report back to the leader of the ANC, Chief Albert Luthuli. There were considerable risks involved because the police were on full alert and warnings had been issued across the country. There was also the danger of betrayal from within the organisation.

Old photo of Liliesleaf (Liliesleaf Trust)

Part of Mandela’s cover was that he was the chauffeur to Cecil Williams, a Johannesburg theatre director, secret communist and ANC supporter who was also gay. Cecil could plausibly pose as being on theatrical business as they travelled around the country and claim that the extent of...

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...

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...

What are the chances of two unrelated strangers living on different continents discovering that they have some identical photographs of common ancestors in their old family albums?

Annie Goodhead, Kitty and friend - ie The Lady in Black (Margaret Addis)

This photograph of a mature lady dressed in black, which was taken over 100 years ago, was the key to two people with a common interest in genealogy finding each other, not only enabling both of them to fill in missing bits of their respective family trees, but also to give to one the gift of photographs of her great-grandmother she would otherwise never have seen.

If you are researching ancestors who emigrated from Europe to settle in one of the new colonies, take inspiration from this story of how family documents, letters and beautiful portraits can turn up in the most unlikely places.

In 1890, two brothers, John and Frederick Goodhead from Manchester, England, set sail aboard the Duart Castle for the new colony of South Africa, a move instigated by their father because John had TB and had been advised, on medical grounds, to move to a drier and less polluted climate. On arrival, the brothers initially stayed together, first going to Pietermaritzburg and then to Barberton, where they ran a general store. Then, for...

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...

It lies in the darkness where it has been entombed for over 140 years, barely inches under the hard, stony soil of Zululand surrounding a curiously sphinx-shaped hill known to the locals as Isandlwana.

It is just a little piece of metal. Bronze, to be exact. Less than an inch and a half across. Shaped as a “cross pattee”, so the experts call it. The front displays a rather jaunty looking lion, bright eyed and particularly bushy tailed, trampling on a flattish-looking crown with pointed ears. Slightly dented from where its original owner’s chest was slashed to ribbons by a huge Zulu stabbing spear, the blood long since washed away, one can just make out the inscription “For Valour” written in a scroll beneath the crown.

The back is not so impressive. Merely a date, “7 May 1867” and along the top suspender bar “Pte. W. Griffiths 24th. Rgt.” The bar is bent and the piece is encrusted with the debris of a century, but the metal is still in surprisingly good condition.

Years of wind and rain have eroded the ground around it, dragging it reluctantly closer to the surface. Another couple of rainy seasons from now and it may well work its way out in a muddy torrent into the donga in front of Mahlabamkhosi, its face once again to be warmed by the harsh African sunlight.

Maybe, with a bit of luck, the right kind of human will be fortunate enough to find it. Someone who appreciates the...