Rear Admiral Guy Hallifax in full Royal Navy ceremonial dress, circa 1935.
(Photo: SAN Museum)

Guy Waterhouse Hallifax was born at Southampton on 21 June 1884. He was the oldest of three sons, two of whom served in the Royal Navy. His father was Rear Admiral John Salwey Hallifax (9 March 1846 – 11 December 1904) and his mother, Charlotte Annie, was the daughter of Major General Thomas de Courcy Hamilton VC (20 July 1825 – 3 March 1908). Guy enlisted at the age of 15 and spent the first year of his service on the cadet training ship HMS Britannia (1899). Prior to the First World War, he served as Naval Advisor in Turkey and in 1914 received the Order of the Medjidieh (3rd Class) for his services there. Hallifax then served on the dreadnought battleship, HMS Ajax, for the duration of the First World War and was present at the Battle of Jutland. He was made a Commander of the Order of St Maurice and St Lazarus (Italy) in 1918. After the war he was sent to South Africa to conduct an inspection of wireless stations in the Union, a visit that probably Krygshistories Tydskrif Deel 19 Nr 2 Junie 2021  prompted his return to the country following his retirement many years later. He served on another battleship, HMS Valiant, (1921) and attended various disarmament meetings in Geneva during this time. In 1924 he was promoted to the rank of Captain and then took command of the light cruiser, HMS Carlisle, attached to the China Squadron from 1926 to 1928. Appointments as Naval Attaché in Paris, Madrid, Brussels and The Hague followed. He returned to active duty for another command at sea in 1932, this time as the Officer Commanding of the battleship HMS Malaya. In 1935 he became Director of the Signal Division of the Admiralty and was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral but retired in the same year. Following his retirement, Rear Admiral Hallifax left for South Africa as secretary to Lord Clarendon who was then the Governor- General in South Africa in 1936. He continued in this capacity for the first four months of the governor-generalship of Sir Patrick Duncan. He stayed on in Cape Town in retirement until he was approached by Smuts to take up the directorship of the newly formed SDF. The SDF was constituted on 9 October 1939 and Hallifax's first important task was to acquire ships and to train sailors in quick time. The Royal Navy assisted and released a number of retired RN personnel who were resident in South Africa, while members of the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve in South Africa were made available to the SDF. Only five members of the original (but failed) SA Naval Service, established in 1922, had remained in permanent service and these members were also transferred to the SDF, while the recruitment of full-time volunteers started in earnest.3 The Walvis Bay Detachment To assume the responsibilities for minesweeping duties and anti-submarine patrols in the approaches to South African ports, seventeen commercial whalers and trawlers were requisitioned and converted for war service. Additionally, the SDF took over control of the port war signal stations and merchant shipping examination services at Cape Town, Durban, East London and Port Elizabeth. When the SDF formally came into existence on 15 January 1940, it comprised fifteen minesweepers and two examination vessels that were manned by seventy-four officers and 358 ratings. By October 1940, Hallifax had managed to expand the SDF to twenty-four minesweepers and eight anti-submarine whalers, while the personnel complement had grown to 183 officers and 1 049 ratings. At the request of the Admiralty a flotilla of anti-submarine vessels was made available for service in the Mediterranean and the first of these arrived in Alexandria in January 1941.4 Rear Admiral Hallifax addressing the ships’ companies of the SDF Minesweeping Flotilla before they sailed for the Mediterranean. (Photo: Cape Argus, 13 January 1941) A detachment of the SDF was established in Walvis Bay in January 1941, even though the War Plan had originally not included it as a defended port. The RN Commander-in-Chief, South Atlantic, had, however, requested Walvis Bay to be made available as a bunkering point for merchant ships as an alternate to the busy port of Freetown. Hence, arrangements had to be made for the handling of ships there. The tender, HMSAS Clara, was sent from Cape Town and the minesweeping vessels HMSAS Aristea and HMSAS Goulding, followed soon thereafter and began routine sweeping of the bay. As part of the harbour defences there, the 7th Heavy Battery of the South African Artillery had been 70 Military History Journal Volume 19 No 2 June 2021  established on 1 September 1939, initially with 60-pounder medium artillery field guns. These were later replaced by two 12-pounders and two 6-inch guns on fixed mountings.5 Facilities at the isolated harbour town of Walvis Bay were lacking and arrangements had to be made to remedy certain shortcomings. The SDF had to share the rudimentary facilities with the 7th Heavy Battery of the SA Artillery. The Commanding Officer of the Walvis Bay Detachment, Lieutenant Commander Shannon, reported, amongst other things, that: Food at a place like this, where there is nothing much to do besides work, eat and sleep, assumes an importance which is perhaps out of proportion. Unfortunately, however, it has to be dealt with in regard to its importance. The food, as supplied by the battery, is reported to me by many of the ratings, to be very bad and badly served. This is a very delicate situation, as I am unable to tell the Battery Commander of the big difference between Naval and Army rations, but I have approached him gently. He tells me, after investigation, that he can find no reason for [my] complaint B.. The worst punishment I can inflict on any of the ratings from the ships is to bring them ashore and make them feed at the Battery. The only solution that I can see is for the SDF to have their own mess in the proposed accommodation.6 It was around these preparations and proposals that Admiral Hallifax visited the detachment in Walvis Bay. During the week of 24 March 1941 he flew from Cape Town to Walvis Bay for the inspection and was accompanied by Colonel Harold E. Cilliers, the director of the coastal antiaircraft and artillery forces, and Lieutenant Colonel Gordon P. Shearer, the deputy director of technical services in the UDF. The Ill-fated Flight To travel from Cape Town to the distant and desolate Walvis Bay, a South African Air Force De Havilland Dragonfly was Commander H.R. Gordon-Cumming, the Minister of Railways Mr F.C. Sturrock and Rear Admiral Guy Hallifax, Director Seaward Defence inspecting RNVR men in training in Durban during 1940/41 (Photo: DoD Archives) placed at their disposal. This was a twin- engine civilian luxury touring biplane that could carry a maximum of four passengers and had been impressed into South African Air Force service just a year earlier in March 1940. The flight from Cape Town8 to Walvis Bay must have been uncomfortably long and stressful as the Dragonfly, piloted by Lieutenant M.J. Mitchell, developed intermittent engine problems on the way to Walvis Bay. This left the senior officers with some reservation about its reliability. Lt Mitchell therefore ferried the Dragonfly back to Wingfield, while Hallifax, at the conclusion of the inspection, opted to return to Cape Town on the scheduled South African Airways flight from Windhoek.9 Hallifax, Cilliers and Shearer boarded the SAA Lockheed Lodestar at Windhoek on Friday morning, 28 March 1941, joining three civilian passengers on the flight. They were Mr Charles Patrick McMichael (47) of Muizenberg, the district manager of Dunlop South Africa in Cape Town, Mr Morris Kaplan (48), a general merchant from Windhoek, and Mr Alexandre Kendierski10 (33), a pelt buyer from Windhoek. Admiral Halifax and his passengers must have been pleased to return to Cape Town in the much larger, faster and more comfortable Lockheed Lodestar. In fact, the particular aircraft (registration ZS- Krygshistories Tydskrif Deel 19 Nr 2 Junie 2021  AST) was brand new and had been delivered to SAA just a few months earlier in December 1940. SAA was an early customer of the new Lodestars and ordered no fewer than twenty–nine of the type. However, when World War 2 broke out, these and several other civilian aircraft were impressed into military service. ZS– AST was, however, one of the exceptions and had been retained in SAA service11 to maintain a selected airline schedule. One of the newly established routes was the so- called ‘Luanda Run’ that connected Portuguese West Africa12 with the Union of South Africa by means of weekly flights between Luanda and Cape Town via Windhoek.13 A Lockheed Lodestar aircraft advertisement (Life 29 1941)September The Lodestar departed Windhoek, as scheduled, at 08:45 for the estimated three hour flight to Wingfield airfield near Cape Town. The crew flying on that day consisted of the pilot, Captain Fred W. Le Roux (28), and first officer (co-pilot), Lieutenant J.P. Meyer (21), together with the engineer, Air Sergeant John W. Shelly (27), and wireless operator, Sergeant Andries P. van Wyk (23). These men were all airways personnel but had been mobilised and transferred to the SAAF when the war broke out and, for that reason, were accorded military (air force) ranks. Fred Le Roux, a resident of Germiston, had, in fact, received his initial flying training in the air force before he joined South African Airways in 1938. John Shelly was a member of a well- known Sea Point family and had joined SAA in 1937. One can assume that the crew were relatively inexperienced regarding this particular type of aircraft as the new Lodestars had only arrived in the country a few months earlier. The Lodestar flew a direct route from Windhoek to Cape Town without incident until about two and a half hours into the flight when the crew became concerned about the deteriorating weather ahead. Coastal fog had moved in along the Lambert's Bay region, which on this day unfortunately extended up to a thick cloud bank that rose ahead of them, well above the normal cruising altitude of the Lodestar and obscuring the terrain below.14 Le Roux entered cloud without any visible landmarks to verify his position and now had to rely on instrument flying.15 At 11:21 the communication centre at Wingfield received a message from the Lodestar reporting that they were ‘flying due south in thick mist’. At 11:37 another short message was transmitted, providing their estimated time of arrival at Wingfield as 12:05.16 Finding all landmarks obscured, Le Roux adopted a procedure that was normal for these occasions. This would be to descend below the cloud and mist but some distance out to sea (to the west in this case) and to fly back towards the land to follow the coastline to Table Bay in order to land at Wingfield. After having been in IMC (Instrument Meteorological Conditions) for about 30 minutes, a short message was transmitted to Wingfield at 11:41: "Coast now visible, OK". The coastline that became visible to Le Roux was, in fact, just north of Elands Bay – still 120 miles away from Cape Town – where the coast runs north and south. However, at Elands Bay itself the coastline 72 Military History Journal Volume 19 No 2 June 2021  turns sharply to the west and consists here of a steep rocky ridge, 638 feet high, running west for some miles to a rocky point known as Baboon Point. Flying at low level in the foggy conditions, the coastline must have been barely visible to Le Roux but the obstructing bay, which was then only described as Baboon Point, was not. At 11h45, the Lodestar crashed into Baboon Point. In Elands Bay, which was then only described as ‘a bleak, wind-swept and sandy village consisting of a post office, a fishery and some houses’, Mr E.B. Smith, who assisted his father in the post office, heard the drone of an aeroplane at around 11:45. The drone grew louder and soon Mr Smith, now standing outside the post office, saw the machine looming large through the mist. It was flying extremely low as it passed over the village in a southerly direction. Soon thereafter they heard a tremendous crash and explosion and realised that the aircraft had just struck the high ridge above the village. Mr Smith immediately ran to the scene of the accident, which was obscured by the mist and halfway up the ridge. He found the blazing wreckage of the Lodestar but the intense A map of the air disaster from an original newspaper clipping (Cape Times, 29 March 1941) heat made it impossible to get nearer than 30 feet. Some badly mutilated bodies lay near the inferno but nothing could be done. “The fire blazed fiercely for about half-anhour, then it subsided, but the wreck was still glowing several hours later at 5 p.m. when only the red-hot metal framework remained.”17 The Aftermath A memorial service for the victims, which was attended by a large and representative congregation, was held in St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town on 3 April. The final resting place of all the deceased was a collective war grave (UL.131) in the Commonwealth War Graves section of the Plum- stead cemetery outside Cape Town.18 Guy Hallifax left a wife and step-daughter behind. He had married Madeleine Sumner Simms in 1930. His younger brother, Vice Admiral Ronald Hamilton Curzon Hallifax CB, CBE, also sadly perished in another air accident. The Royal Air Force Douglas Dakota, in which he was flying back to the UK, crashed at Sollum, Egypt, on 5 November 1943. His son David John Hallifax (3 Sep 1927 -23 Aug 1992) carried the family's naval tradition forward, rising to the rank of Admiral Krygshistories Tydskrif Deel 19 Nr 2 Junie 2021  Collective War Grave, Plumstead Cemetery (Author’s collection) during the 1980s. The "Union Airliner Disaster" and death of Hallifax made front page headlines and came as a huge shock to those in the SDF. Guy Hallifax was highly regarded and respected: "His naval and diplomatic ability, optimism, resourcefulness and fair degree of independence from the apron- strings of Pretoria, enabled him to ensure that the second attempt by South Africa to establish a navy did not fail, and his loss was therefore a blow to the Navy in its early formative years."19 The consequential appointment of Captain (later Commodore) James Dalgleish as director, however, allowed the important wartime work to continue and to be completed "in a manner which provided the best possible epitaph to his [Hallifax’s] memory."20 Dalgleish was a founding member of the SA Naval Service in 1922 and the most senior Permanent Force member in the SDF. He sub-sequently saw to the amalgamation of the SDF and RNVR (SA) and the ensuing establishment of the SA Naval Forces on 1 August 1942 and led the organisation to the end of the 21 war. In a sad turn of events, another Lockheed Lodestar accident also took the life of the prominent military commander, Major General Dan Pienaar, on 17 December 1942. The Lodestar carrying him and other officers crashed into Lake Victoria shortly after take-off from Kisumu airport in Kenya. The famed ‘Pienaar of Alamein’ and his fellow officers were returning to the Union at the conclusion of the North African campaign.22 Eighty Years Later On Sunday 28 March 2021, the curator of the SA Naval Museum, Commander Leon Steyn, and Warrant Officer (Ret) Harry Croome, both representing the Naval Heritage Trust, unveiled a small plaque near the crash site in honour of 74 Military History Journal Volume 19 No 2 June 2021  Admiral Hallifax, the crew and the other passengers who lost their lives in this tragic accident. Few remember the event but local Elands Bay enthusiasts, Mariëtte Louw- Capes and Emré Forster, have kept the local memory of Hallifax and the Lodestar accident alive. The small plaque at the crash site The aircraft broke up when it hit the rocky ridge and the post-impact fire consumed almost everything else. Larger aluminium pieces of the wreckage that remained, such as the tail plane, were removed by farmers and, as the story goes, later used to construct chicken coops in the village! However, even though the aircraft accident occurred more than eighty years ago, small pieces of wreckage can still be found strewn around the crash site on the rocky ridge high above Elands Bay. Mariëtte and Emré’s regular Sunday hikes up to the site have unearthed an interesting array of artefacts that are small but poignant reminders of the accident. Some of these artefacts have been recovered and are now on display at the Naval Museum in Simon's Town, together with other display items related to Admiral Hallifax. South African Airways continued to operate the Lockheed Lodestar after the war but retired the last of the twenty-nine Lodestars from service in 1955. Fortunately, two of the aircraft have been preserved as static exhibits for the public to see – one at the SAAF Museum in Pretoria and the other at the SAA Museum at Rand Airport. A handful of Lodestars are still maintained in flying condition by private collectors/ museums in the USA.23 Local enthusiasts Mariëtte and Emréat the crash site high above Elands Bay For some time now there have been talks about the possible establishment of a local history museum in Elands Bay itself. It is not just the Lodestar incident that features as a part of Elands Bay's Second World War history, but also the location of a 'Chain-Oversea-Low-Radar' station that was constructed against the southern slopes of Baboon Point in November 1943. The technological marvel of radar was still in its infancy, most famously utilised during the Battle of Britain. The radar site at Baboon Point was one of several along the South African coastline to detect enemy raiders and submarines, most notably the German U-boats that posed a real threat to shipping during the war. The site was dismantled in 1954 but the structures of the technical buildings remained largely intact.24 A Lockheed Lodestar (ZS-ASM) that was taken into SAA service in December 1940 and impressed into SAAF service shortly thereafter (serial 237). Seen here during the East Africa and Abyssinian campaign of 1940/41 (Photo DoD Archives) Krygshistories Tydskrif Deel 19 Nr 2 Junie 2021  The SA Naval Museum and Naval Heritage Trust have pledged their support to both the Western Cape Provincial Museum Service and the Cederberg Municipality Tourism office towards the creation of a museum in Elands Bay. Notes: 1 Gordon-Cumming, HR Official History of the South African Naval Forces during the Second World War: 1939-1945, Simon’s Town, Naval Heritage Trust, 2008, p.17; First offered the post of Deputy Director of Coast Defence and OC SA Naval Service, which he accepted, but legal problems concerning the transfer of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (South Africa) to his command necessitated the establishment of a new Active Citizen Force Unit, the Seaward Defence Force, with Rear Admiral Hallifax as Director. Also see . van der Waag, ‘Thin Edge of the Wedge: Anglo-South African relations, dominion nationalism and the formation of the Seaward Defence Force in 1939-1940’, Contemporary British History, Vol. 24, No. 4, December 2010, pp.427-449. 2 Anon. ‘Notable Career of Admiral G.W. Hallifax’, Rand Daily Mail, 29 March 1941, p.11; WM Bisset, ‘Admiral Hallifax Centenary’, Navy News, Vol. 3, No. 7, July 1984,p.6. 3 Gordon-Cumming op. cit., p.18. 4 Ibid., p.29. 5 Ibid., p.173; Crook, L: Island at War: 1939-45, Simon’s Town, Naval Heritage Trust, 2013, p.55. 6 DOD Archives, Seaward Defence, Box 48, File No SD10/5/4/5, ‘South African Naval Forces Progress Reports – Walvis Bay Detachment’, 14 January 1941 – 28 December 1942. 7 Colonel Harold Ernest Cilliers (40) was the brother of Colonel F. Cilliers, Officer Commanding of the Steel Commando that toured South Africa in 1940, and the son of Captain P.S. Cilliers, Member of Parliament for Hopetown; Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Pitcairn Shearer (33) was an officer in the British Army (Royal Engineers) and posted to the Coast Artillery Brigade in May 1939 to assist with the installation of facilities for the emplacement, mounting and installation of guns. See Anon. ‘Notable Career of Admiral G.W. Hallifax’, Rand Daily Mail, 29 March 1941, p.11; L Crook op. cit., p.31. 8 Wingfield Aerodrome was established in 1935 as the first Cape Town municipal aerodrome and at the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939 transferred to the SAAF, as Air Force Station Wingfield. After the war the airfield reverted to its commercial use, until 1954 when the new DF Malan Airport (the current Cape Town International Airport) was opened. 9 de Vries, G: Wingfield: a Pictorial History, Cape Town, 1991, pp.154-155. 10 Several iterations of the surname can be found in contemporary sources. The most common spelling of the surname is however ‘Kindziersky’, a Polish surname which today, is more prevalent in the United States of America. 11 ZS-AST was never allocated a SAAF serial number. 12 The latter-day Angola. 13 Anon. ‘SA Airways Liner Crashes: 10 Dead’, Cape Times, 29 March 1941, p.1. Also see Anon. ‘Union Airliner Disaster’, Cape Argus, 28 March 1941, p.1. 14 Young, M.: A Firm Resolve: a history of SAA accidents 1934 to 1987, Durban, Laminar Publishing, 2007, 43. 15 Instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) is an aviation flight category that describes weather conditions that require pilots to fly primarily by reference to instruments, and therefore under instrument flight rules (IFR), rather than by outside visual references under visual flight rules (VFR). 16 de Vries op. cit., 154. 17 See note 13. 18 Anon. ‘Memorial Service’, Cape Argus, 3 April 1941. 19 Harris, CJ: War at Sea: South African Maritime Operations during World War II, Cape Town, Ashanti Publishing, 1991, p.40. 76 Military History Journal Volume 19 No 2 June 2021  20 Gordon-Cumming op. cit., 173. katabatic wind condition that often affected Kisumu airport in the early morning. 21 Ibid. 23 ‘Lockheed Lodestar’. Wikipedia. 1 May 22 Lake Victoria claimed two more SAAF 2021. aircraft during the Second World War. A Douglas Dakota (6807) crashed on 11 May 24 Brain, Peter: South African Radar in 1945 with one casualty and another World War II, Cape Town, The SSS Radar Dakota (6812) crashed on 11 July 1945 Book Group, 1993, 51-52. with total loss of life (28 casualties). A contributing cause to the accidents at Kisumu was thought to be the so-called Rear Admiral G.W. Hallifax – Medals & Awards 1. Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) 2. 1914-15 Star 3. British War Medal 4. Victory Medal 5. War Medal (1939-45) 6. Africa Service Medal 7. King George V Silver Jubilee Medal (1935) 8. King George VI Coronation Medal (1937) 9. Order of the Medjidieh (3rd Class) (Turkey) 10. Commander of the Order of St Maurice and St Lazarus (Italy)

Durban, being one of South Africa’s main ports, was to play an important role during the First World War, while Pietermaritzburg, the previous capital and now administrative centre of Natal, was home to the biggest internment camp in the Union. Other Natal towns such as Dundee provided coal and other goods to support South Africa’s war effort. This is a summary of the role KwaZulu-Natal played in the 1914-18 war. A more detailed and referenced account, including names of individuals who served, can be found on the Society website at www.samilitaryhistory.org

On 31 July 1914 in anticipation of the declaration of war, the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) was put on alert, mobilising when war was declared on 4/5 August. Their role was to ensure the safety of the ports. Apart from German raiders threatening the sea lanes, enemy cargo became spoils of war and enemy ships could be taken over for used as transport and hospital ships. Neutral ships, too, needed to be monitored as they could carry messages and goods destined for enemy territories.

With the South African coast guarded, the interior of the Union needed to be put on a war footing. The Imperial Garrison, the British force left in South Africa at the end of the 1899-1902 war to help maintain peace, was to be recalled to Britain, all except a handful of men remaining after Prime Minister Louis Botha announced that South Africa would take responsibility for its own security. The South Staffordshire Regiment was based at Fort Napier in Pietermaritzburg. On the outbreak of war, they were on manoeuvres at Potchefstroom, returning to Pietermaritzburg on 6 August 1914. They were immediately granted leave pending further instructions but before they left on 17 August, they entertained the local community with the band playing at various patriotic gatherings. However, their departure was to have an economic impact on the city when the troops withdrew all their savings.

During this time, the German cruiser Königsberg was spotted 29 kilometres off the Durban coast. The Königsberg was of some concern as it had sunk the first British merchant ship of the war, the SS City of Winchester on 6 August 1914. Following this, the German cruiser moved south before heading for the Rufigi Delta in German East Africa where it was to remain, except for an excursion into Zanzibar Harbour on 20 September 1914 when it sank HMS Pegasus of the Cape Squadron. At that point Dennis Cutler, a Durban resident, was called to East Africa to track the Königsberg from the air in a Curtiss 90hp Flying Boat Type S. Cutler was recruited into the RNVR to make this official. Having located the ship, it was left to South African hunter Philip Pretorius (aka Jungle Man) to reconnoitre the ground. Meanwhile Cutler was taken prisoner in December 1914. The Königsberg was scuttled on 11 July 1915, making this the longest naval “battle” of the war.

In similar vein to the British Pals Battalions, South African education institutions record groups of alumni who served. Natal University College contributed 77 alumni, two being awarded Distinguished Conduct Medals and six Military Crosses. Thirteen were killed. Dundee High School also had a significant number enlist, the school Cadet Corps playing a role. Hilton had 371 old boys enlist of whom 47 were killed. Maritzburg College saw 91 deaths from those who served.

While it has not yet been possible to ascertain the numbers from Natal who served, it is easier to identify the deaths. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission Register lists 629 men and women as being from Natal. This number might well be higher as not all Natal links are recorded in the searchable items, such as that of Corporal 1630 Gysbert Johannes Roos of 3 SAMR (South African Mounted Rifles). It is in the additional information in the documents at the bottom of the CWGC record screen that one discovers he was the ‘Husband of Louisa Christina Roos, of Vryheid, Natal’. Unfortunately this level of record is not available for all who served in the Empire forces as it was not supplied to the War Graves Commission either by the family or the administrative bodies.

In addition to the numbers from Natal who served and died, Natal is the final resting place of 374 of the 4,159 First World War deaths buried in South Africa across 23 cemeteries. Durban (Stellawood) has the most burials with 196, Kokstad and Ladysmith both with two. The cemeteries, especially Stellawood, contain Nigerians, Gold Coasters (Ghanians), and Royal Navy as well as two of the German Navy. Specific cases and more detail can be found in the website article.

Close to the cemeteries were invariably military hospitals. There were also convalescent homes and camps. No 3 General Hospital had two bases, one in Addington and the other at the Drill Hall Section of the Durban Light Infantry while there was a ‘Native Military Hospital’ at Jacob’s. There were two convalescent hospitals, the Pietermaritzburg Hospital in the grounds of University College and Ocean Beach in Durban. Convalescent camps were based at Jacob’s for black Africans especially those returning from East Africa (EANative Labour Corps), and Ocean Beach on Marine Parade for white troops. Grey’s Hospital was responsible for the internees from Fort Napier who were hospitalised with enteric and typhoid. Sixteen were admitted of whom one died between February and May 1918.

There were other private homes in both Durban and Pietermaritzburg used for rest and housing of officers. A General Depot was to be found at Congella where local labour was employed, local labour also being employed in all the camps and hospitals as well as on the docks. The YMCA had a presence, providing entertainment and other services. Those who remained at home worked to raise funds and provide comforts for the men who were serving.

In addition to these activities, others who did not serve officially provided services which supported South Africa’s war effort. These included veterinary and medical practitioners, educators, manufacturers, farmers. While there were some who objected to the war as evidenced by the rebellion, others, including women, filled the gaps left by men who joined the colours. The war years were to see Mrs SA Woods voted into local office in Pietermaritzburg in 1915 and in 1917, two women were appointed Police Constables as part of an experiment. Yet others, such as the Padavatan Six, offered local support when floods hit the coast. While not all are specifically war related, the involvement of such individuals brings home the extent of Home Front involvement and the range of factors and conditions that had to be dealt with. These, which have not tended to feature in the historical accounts, include the impact of the environment on food provision, loading of ships, conditions in the camps and hospitals, and the health of the country.

Spanish Flu

In addition to the human cost of the war, the Spanish flu, which started spreading during the last months of the war accounted for 362 whites, 1,937 Indians/ Coloureds and 11,663 Black South Africans in Natal. This, together with the manpower loss caused by the war, was to impact on local economies, it being suggested that Pietermaritzburg had 34% of its population affected by the influenza outbreak. While Julie Dyer has looked at Health in Pietermaritzburg between 1838 and 2008, there is no doubt more to investigate concerning the immediate war years and their aftermath.

The war drew to a close on 11 November 1918, the date becoming the basis for the annual Remembrance Services. However, Natal has another event which few realise is a commemoration of those who gave their all, specifically in East Africa – the Comrades Marathon. This was set up by Vic Clapham who wanted to find a more fitting way of remembering fallen comrades than a memorial. The race between Pietermaritzburg and Durban covers 55 miles (89 kilometres) compared with the 1,700 miles (2,720 kilometres) he and his comrades covered over the East African veld and scrub between March and November 1916. To put this in context, a forced march would see men covering 20 miles compared with the usual eight to ten in one day. They would be carrying, if not the porter load of 40-60 pounds [30 kilograms], their approximate 8.8 pound or 4 kilogram rifle, and clothing, whilst on a reduced diet that was invariably unsuited to their condition of employment even if the full quantities arrived and suffering from malaria or some other debilitating bug through rain or shine. By the end of their march, few had helmets, greatcoats or uniforms left to offer any protection from the elements.(2)

To date, most South African accounts of the war are general, setting out the military contribution to the various theatres. Little has been written on the home front, the exception being Cape Town. It is therefore hoped that this provincial look at Natal’s multifaceted involvement in the 1914-1918 war opens up to a fuller view the extent of South Africa’s contribution to the conflict.

NOTES

1. Samson, Anne, Britain, South Africa and the East Africa campaign, GWAA 2020
2. ’Smuts vs 9SAI’ SAMHS zoom talk 8 April 2021 by Dr Samson. Available in Zoom library on web-site. The 1908 webbing load was calculated to be 32 kilograms or 70 pounds.

Return to Journal Index OR Society's Home page