The Union of South Africa: 1914
Occupation, War, Internment, Invasion and Rebellion
Steve Hannath with permission from Hugh Amoore RDPSA.
In September 2024 Hugh Amoore RDPSA gave an inspirational Zoom presentation to the South African Collectors’ Society on the subject of ‘Internment in South Africa during WW1’. Those who did not see it missed something special. This article on the events of 1914 has grown out of Hugh’s Zoom presentation. It is a work in progress.
The October 2024 issue of The Springbok includes a full report on the Zoom meeting. Rather than duplicate the report here I chose to combine the material which Hugh supplied to us with additional items in order to underline the pivotal events of 1914 whose consequences shaped much of ‘White South African’ politics for my generation.
If you have material that can expand this article to illustrate the social, political and postal developments in South Africa during WW1, please send scans and your comments to the Webmaster for his consideration. This article needs more items that cover the internment of Enemy Aliens, the withdrawal of the Imperial Garrison, the outburst of riotous public disorder known as ‘Germanophobia’ and, of course, more material on the Rebellion itself.
Contact Webmaster
To contact us about this article and or to submit scans, please email:
contact@southafricancollectorssociety.com
Postage Rates of the WW1 Internment Period: 1914 – 1919
Internment and rebellion are social, civil and political issues. In order to remind ourselves that this is a philatelic and postal history website, I start with a brief description of the postage rates of the time as they were applied to posted items seen in this article.
Under the Hague and UPU (Universal Postal Union) Conventions of 1907 mail from servicemen, POWs and Internees was free of charge. Registered and parcel post mail was treated differently by some countries who were signatories to the conventions. All international mail went by ship (surface mail) as no airmail service existed at the time.
Between 1910 to 1919 the postage rate in the Union of South Africa and SWA once conquered remained much without change. The domestic mail rate on a standard sealed letter was a 1d up to a ½ ounce or a part thereof, a postcard a ½d. Overseas letters to Britain and the Empire were a 1d per ½ ounce and 2½d to foreign destinations (like Germany or the USA). In the Union the registration of a Registered letter cost an internee 4d while the additional cost of postage was free.
Occupation – The Imperial Garrison
The defeated ‘Boer’ Republican forces surrendered on 31st May 1902. The SAW (South African War), one started by the Boers as a pre-emptory strike against a much superior foe, ended in the horror of a holocaust. Many had neither homes nor family to return to.
‘Refugees’ resulted largely from British Army scorched earth practices.
The rate of death among children peaked at 433 / 1000.
This fanciful image reveals the strength of anti-British sentiment.
‘From the Boer Camps’, Dutch pro-Boer propaganda.
Following the “Khaki Election” of 1900, Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Liberal MP and leader of the party, met Emily Hobhouse, a British anti-war activist most notable for bringing to the attention of the British public the appaling conditions and death rate within British concentration camps built to incarcerate ‘Boer’ and African ‘refugess’ during the South African War. Campbell-Bannerman was so shocked by what Hobhouse told him of the conditions in the concentration camps that he described them as ‘methods of barbarism’ in a speech to the National Reform Union in June 1901.
Victory in the SAW (South African War 1899 – 1902) saw Britain achieve its long-held imperial goal for southern Africa, the unification of its British colonies of the Cape and Natal with the defeated ‘Boer’ republics of the OFS (Orange Free State) and ZAR (South African Republic aka ‘Transvaal). In order to maintain Pax Brittanica while strong-arming the reluctant ‘Boers’ into accepting the creation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, Britain retained a large and powerful army, the Imperial Garrison, in South Africa.
The bitterness became a cornerstone of Republicanism.
The scarcest is ‘CANTONMENT PRETORIA’ which became ‘ROBERTS HEIGHTS’.
The ‘CANTONMENT PRETORIA’ postmarks was in use for less than six months.
‘TEMPE’ was outside Bloemfontein. Missing is ‘MIDDLEBURG TVL’.
All mail from Fort Napier in Natal was cancelled ‘PIERMARITZBURG’.
Minor camps included LADYSMITH (Natal) and Wynberg (Cape).
In South Africa the years following the SAW were not a Merchant Ivory movie.
For many ‘Boers’the Edwardian Era was a time of loss, occupation and oppression.
Curragh was a huge British Army camp in occupied Ireland.
Underpaid by ½d, this postcard was taxed double the deficiency in the Transvaal.
It has been cancelled by two different POTCHEFSTROOM CANTONMENT postmarks.
One datestamp receives the PC, the other cancels the 1d Postage Due.
The Imperial Garrison grew out of the most important British Army camps of the SAW. These were in Pretoria and Bloemfontein, the two old ‘Boer’ capitals, as well as camps in strategically located places, like Harrismith aka King’s Hill (OFS) and Standerton and Middleburg (TVL). The Cape and Natal respectively had British bases at Middelburg, the centre of Eastern Cape horse-breeding, and Fort Napier, outside of Pietermaritzburg, Natal. Famous regiments were stationed in these camps and rotated every two years.
These units served in South Africa at different times as a part of the Imperial Garrison.
Small B D V Cigarette Silks – Godfrey Phillips Pty Ltd: 1914-1918.
Below is a display sheet showing a fairly typical example of postal history from the years immediately after the end of the SAW.
Pretoria was the Headquarters of the British Army in South Africa.
After the collapse of Ottoman authority, British troops occupied Crete (1898 – 1909).
With the war won, it took Britain and the various ex-republican leaders and the extant colonial governments to conclude an acceptable agreement on Union. It was not easily achieved. Divisions existed within the ranks of the defeated ‘Boers’ and the victorious colonists. If they had to be a part of the British Empire, some ‘Boers’ preferred the country to be lead by an easily targetable Englishman rather than a divisive ‘Boer’ puppet.
Victory in the SAW left the country’s English jingoists cock-a-hoop. There was now no impediment to them running the country. For many, this was the natural order of things at that time. After all, God was an Englishman. They believed the Boers had to be made to speak English in school, the courts and the civil service. The imperial hubris that the English expressed after the Boer surrender was soon tempered by the fact that if Britain’s long-term goal of unification was to be achieved the defeated ‘Dutchmen’, ‘Japies’ and ignorant ‘back-velders’, had to be accomodated. As the ‘Boers’ were the largest European group in the country this meant that politically English-speakers would be made to play second fiddle in a Boer’ ‘tiekiedraai’. (Afr. a fast folk dance that turns on a tight circle).
The defeated ‘Boers’ made it clear that there could be no negotiations with Britain if Black South Africans were given political rights. For its part Britain felt that Black South Africans were yet not ready to run a rapidly industrialising country whose mineral wealth its Empire had fought an expensive war to acquire. When the negotiations finally concluded Britain decided to grant political power in the Union of South Africa to ‘Europeans Only’. The objections of Black South Africans were brushed aside as Britain concentrated on finding the right White man to lead ‘Boer’ and Brit in the new Union of South Africa.
The Imperial Handshake – ‘Hands Across the Sea’
It promised commerce and prosperity under the protection of the Royal Navy.
By 1914 the rise of Germany threatened this relationship.
General Louis Botha, the ex-commander of ZAR (Transvaal) ‘Boer’ forces, became the first Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa when it was formed on 31st May 1910. Almost immediately he introduced racist legislation that limited Black South African land ownership and their rights to be in ‘White South Africa’. However, with unfettered capital came industrialisation and the need for workers. The Black majority within ‘White South Africa’ grew steadily. Over time the unstoppable internal growth of the Black population became known as ‘The Native Problem’. ‘White South Africa’ need to accomodate Black South Africans politically would lead to the inequitable policy of Apartheid.
First Prime Minister of the Union of SA: 1910 – 1919.
Commander of ZAR ‘Boer’ Forces: 1900 – 1902.
Large B D V Cigarette Silk. Godfrey Phillips Pty Ltd: 1914-1918.
In 1912 legislation was introduced to create an all-White Union Defence Force. This needed to merge the Boer democratic commando tradition with the ex-colonies British regimental system. To accomodate both forces an Active Citizen Force was created. While the UDF was in the process of formation it was unprepared for war or civil disorder. As a result, when the Transvaal Miners General Strike broke our in 1913 units of the Imperial Garrison played a large part in suppressing it on behalf of Botha’s government. This was a reminder to many in South Africa, not just the ‘Boers’, that Britain kept an army in South Africa to secure international capital in the gold mines and to enforce its will.
The ‘Boers’ were divided into two broad groups, either unreconciled republicans who wanted the restoration of republican rule and those prepared to forgive-and-forget and join the English-speaking community in supporting Britain, the King and the Empire. Prime Minister Louis Botha believed ‘White South Africa’s’ interests were best served by allegiance to Britain and the Empire in a union of ‘Boer’ and Brit. Indeed, Botha’s wife was an Emmet, a South African Anglican of Boer and proud Irish republican stock. She was a distant relative of Robert Emmet (1778 – 1803) whom the British executed for treason. Botha accorded his brother-in-law, Boer General Cheere Emmet, the honour of collecting and bringing in the guns abandoned by the British at the Battle of Colenso in 1899.
remembers Robert Emmett
‘A (Irish) Nationalist Parliamentary Candidate’.
British South Africans feared republicanism of any sort.
This Irish Nationalist found disfavour in Natal among the occupying Imperial Garrison.
The sudden start of WW1 in August 1914 saw Britain withdraw its Imperial Garrison from South Africa for service in France. This was a tremendous boost to the unreconciled ‘Boer’ republicans who burned with hatred for all things English. For them, WW1 was a God-given opportunity that Botha, soon to be identified as a traitor to their race, failed to grasp. By remaining loyal to the Imperial cause, Botha and his deputy, General Jan Smuts, unleashed a bitter schism within Afrikanerdom that would last for much of the 20th c.
General of the ZAR & OFS forces invading the Cape: 1900 – 1902
South Africa’s second Prime Minister: 1919 – 1924 (after the death of Botha).
Wartime Prime Minnister of South Africa: 1939 – 1948
War – The Imperial Garrison is Withdrawn from South Africa
Great Britain, Australia, Canada and India.
Neither South Africa nor New Zealand are included.
Botha and Smuts gave Britain an assurance that they and the nascent UDF (Union Defence Force) would defend South Africa. Implicit in this assurance was a promise to suppress any ‘Boer’ insurrection. In deciding to fight on the side of the British Empire rather than adopt a position of neutrality as most ‘Boers’ favoured and or to restore republican rule, Botha and Smuts ignored a large section of ‘Boer’ opinion, including that of erstwhile comrades, now senior ex-SAW ‘Boer’ generals within their own power base. They also agreed to a British request that the Union invade GSWA (German SWA).
Louis Botha’s ‘United South Africa’ – A Pro-Empire Call to Arms.
The start of WW1 in August 1914 forced the Afrikaner people to decide which of the warring European powers they would support – or not. Many favoured neutrality while others saw in a German victory the chance to restore their lost republics. However, Botha saw the chance to expand the Union’s territory under the Empire’s umbrella and seize GSWA for the landless second sons of South African farmers.
Many South Africans resented Germany’s occupation of SWA in 1884. They believed that SWA was and should have been part of colonial Cape. Germany’s brutal suppression of the Herereo and Nama rebellions shocked many South Africans, even Manie Maritz, a hard man, a proto-Nationalist, anti-Semite and the future leader of the 1914 Rebellion. Within GSWA both British and Afrikaners, most especially those of mixed race, suffered from German notions of racial superiority. While the German colony was an annoyance, it represented little military threat to the Union until it built powerful radio-telegraphy masts capable of communicating shipping information to Germany and its high seas fleets.
Before the SAW Germany had sold arms to the ‘Boers’. During the conflict it had offered sympathy but no military support. Many ‘Boers’ believed Germany had let them down. The reality was that in 1900 Germany was unprepared for war with Britain but by 1914 this had changed. Germany had become a European powerhouse capable of delivering an industrial, commercial, maritime and naval challenge to Britain, the Ruler of the Waves. The pro-Empire British in SA, surrounded as they were by ‘Boers’ and Blacks, were dependent on the Royal Navy for their ties to kith, kin and the distant Empire. They now developed a greater fear of Germany than the Boers had a love of it.
The 1911 Union Census had registered 1,116,806 Whites and 4,697,152 Black South Africans. Of the White South Africans, 12,798 were born in Germany or Austria while 181,972 were born in Britain. After Britain entered the First World War on 4th August 1914 there was mixed support for war in SA. Many Afrikaners within Botha’s power base wanted to remain neutral while most British South Africans were for loyally rushing to rally around the flag. Unfortunately for the German and Austrian men living in SA any choice they had in taking or not taking sides was soon removed by government edict.
Internment of Enemy Aliens
In Germany all men were subject to compulsory military service. Those who emigrated to South Africa remained German military reservists. Two days after Britain entered the war, Earl Buxton, the British Governor-General in the Union, was shown alarming local newspaper advertisements which advised German and Austrian reservists living in SA to report for military duty in Europe.
Botha and Smuts were both aware of the steaming pot of republican resentment that bubbled and squeaked against all things English. While acknowledging the remote possibility of a republican rebellion, arresting its suspected ring-leaders, many of whom were in government and or holding senior positions in the UDF, was not yet an option.
There were 12,798 Germans and or Austrians in South Africa, enough for a division of infantry once armed. Add these to the potential rebel forces… The Governor-General demanded action. The very next day, 7th August, Botha’s government ordered all German officers and reservists between the ages of 18 and 56 to be arrested. Austrian reservists were initially exempted but on 13th August the same rules were applied to them.
Within a week of the declaration of war in Europe, most German and Austrian men at large in SA between the ages of 18 to 56 had been interned. Women and children were detained separately later. By 11th September many had been assembled at Milner Park (Agricultural Showgrounds). By October they were to be found at Roberts Heights (Army Camp); Beaconsfield, Kimberley, (Wesselton mine); Tempe, Bloemfontein, OFS and Fort Napier, Pietermaritzburg, Natal, (both army camps of the Imperial Garrison recently departed to fight in France ). The Roberts Heights internees would be transferred to Fort Napier which became the main internment camp for German civilian / reservists in SA.
“Needless to ask, how can a decent person be under these circumstances!“
Not all British South Africans – these were to sail to England – were jingoists!
Acknowledgement. Hugh Amoore.
Among the Milner Park internees was a Mr Lodemann, a photographer who was able to keep his camera for the duration of his internment. Thanks to him and Hugh Amoore we now have a record of the daily life of the prisoners at Milner Park, Roberts Heights and Fort Napier. The photo below shows the internee’s latrines at Milner Park Agricultural Showground. The primitive conditions in these ad hoc POW camps placed pressure on the authorities to move the internees somewhere more suitable, secure and salubrious.
On 31st October 1914, the Ottoman Empire formally entered the war on the side of the Central Powers. Turks living in South Africa became liable for internment also.
The toilets and urinals are said to be livestock feeding troughs.
Acknowledgement. Hugh Amoore.
Such public outcry and the need for a proper place of imprisonment saw the internees moved from Milner Park to Roberts Heights. As their numbers grew it was decided to transfer the internees to Fort Napier outside Pietermaritzburg, Natal, which had been vacated by the Imperial Garrison when it departed for France. The cover below shows that there were already internees at Fort Napier before the bulk arived from Roberts Heights. Some 2,000 internees were transferred to Fort Napier by 25th October 1914. For all but a fortunate few who won release or parole, it was to be their home until July 1919.
This shows internees were held at Fort Napier before the bulk arrived from Pretoria.
Those held at Roberts Heights were moved to Fort Napier on 23 – 25 October 1914.
Acknowledgement. Hugh Amoore.
No stamp required. Postage was free for POWS and Internees.
Trilingual ‘PRISONER OF WAR’ cachet and long one-line ‘PASSED BY CENSOR’
Sender on reverse: ‘B. Neubrock (?), POW, Roberts Heights, Pretoria.’
The cover above shows the use of a rectangular trilingual ‘PRISONER OF WAR’ cachet and a one line ‘PASSED BY CENSOR’ mark at ROBERTS HEIGHTS on ’19 OCT 14′. This was posted just a few days before internees were moved to Fort Napier from Roberts Heights.
Invasion of GSWA
On 7th August, the same day that Botha’s government ordered all German officers and reservists between the ages of 18 and 56 to be arrested, Britain requested that the Union of SA perform an ‘urgent imperial’ service’ to capture the harbours of GSWA and destroy the long-distance wireless transmitters based there. Botha agreed to invade the German colony but faced opposition from his ‘Boer’ allies in government and from the republicans who now saw war in Europe as a God-given opportunity to reclaim their lost republic.
Botha demanded and won a Parliamentary declaration of war on Germany on 14th September. This allowed him to proceed with the invasion of GSWA and occupy Luderitzbucht on the 18th. Botha had bought matters to a head, as had the accidental death of General de la Rey. The result was that many of Botha’s erstwhile comrades from the SAW now came out as rebels, including the renowned General Christiaan De Wet. Botha would spend the next three months suppressing an armed Republican Revolt. The troops who had landed in Luderitzbucht now had to sit it out while he fought the rebels.
The tensions created by the war in Europe and the Union and Germany’s early advance drove many insecure British South Africans to become antagonistic towards the country’s small German community, one which had enjoyed integration within the Dutch / Boer / Afrikaner language group since the earliest years of European settlement at the Cape. As a result, the great majority of Afrikaners generally remained nonpartisan, distancing themselves from the anti-German sentiment that convulsed many British South Africans.
South African English language newspapers followed Fleet Street’s lead.
Exaggerated and sensationalist British and Belgian press reports detailing the so-called German ‘Rape of Belgium’ were repeated in South African newspapers. The strength of anti-German feeling that developed can be seen in the two images below. The first, drawn in 1914, is presumably a response to the ‘Rape of Belgium’ while the second from 1915 probably results from the sinking of the Lusitania. Both images are taken from the contemporary scrapbook of Johannesburg schoolboy, George Jacobie of West Cliff Drive, Park View. Both images were drawn by him. They represent not only his opinion but also the sentiments prevailing across Johannesburg’s elite class of British South Africans.
(George Jacobie, Johannesburg).
With its black plumage, croaking call, and diet of carrion, a raven is a symbol of loss, catastrophe and damnation. As a ‘talking bird’, it was popularly believed to be a truth-seeker with the power of prophecy. In Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘poem ‘The Raven’, such a talking bird drove the narrator mad with grief for a dead, lost love. Here one is cawing “To Hell with the Kaiser!”
(George Jacobie, Johannesburg).
The imagery here is more straightforward. Germany and the Kasier will be crushed by the combined might of the Allies. Note that ‘England’ represents Great Britain and Ireland!
Rebellion
Pro-Empire South Africans responded to the perceived German aggression and atrocities in a variety of ways. Many eagerly signed up to fight, like the volunteer Prince Alfred’s Guard regiment from the Eastern Cape, an area with an established German community and a hotbed of anti-German sentiment. So eager were the Prince Alfred’s Guard to serve in GSWA that they mutinied in Cape Town when left behind with orders to defend the docks, a vital supply route for the invasion. Their punishment was to not serve at all.
Posted by a member of the Prince Alfred’s Guard in the Drill Hall, Cape Town.
This cachet suggests the high level of Germanophobia prevalent at the time.
The intense dislike of Germans was particularly strong in the Eastern Cape.
The Prince Alfred’s Guard was proud Eastern Cape ‘British’ regiment.
ZAR Field General: 1899 – 1902 (The Lion of the West Transvaal).
The chivalrous de la Rey defeated General Methuen twice, at the Battle of Magersfontein in 1899 (Cape) and capturing him at Tweebosch (ZAR) in 1902.
On 15th September 1914, General Koos de la Rey was travelling by motor car in company with General Beyers when he was shot and accidentally killed after failing to stop at a roadblock. It is generally believed that General Beyers was attempting to get the popular, pro-independence de la Rey to join the planned rebellion.
General of the Waterberg and Zoutpansberg Commandos: 1900 – 1902
Commandant General of the UDF: 1912 – 1914
In order to win the hearts and minds of the ‘Boer’ people for his Imperial cause, General Jan Smuts, Botha’s Minister of Defence, claimed that the ‘Boers’ shared the same blood as the Belgians and the French. (He omitted to say that many ‘Boers’ also had German blood.) Smuts stated that the cause at stake was the freedom of their European kin. Smuts’ comment caused the UDF Commandant-General Christiaan Beyers to remind his superior that “it is said that the war is being waged against the ‘barbarism’ of the Germans. We have forgiven but not forgotten all the barbarities committed in our own country during the war.” Beyers resigned to become the Republican cause’s most high profile rebel. He was shot while fleeing across the Vaal River and drowned.
The circumstances of de la Rey’s death were suspicious. Many believed he had been assassinated by the pro-Empire government. There is no proof of this, nor that de la Rey was yet a rebel, as suggested in The Springbok, (October 2024, page 368). Nevertheless, his death added further fuel to the republican flames. The Rebellion broke out very soon after his death which was the spur that caused the indecisive republicans to finally act.
The Reblican Rebellion was effectively over by December 1914.
The last rebels surrendered after the Battle of Upington in January 1915
Beyers was referring to the ‘barbarism’ of the British during the South African War, most especially the burning of farms and the incarceration of ‘Boer’ women, children and old men in ‘refugee camps’ aka ‘concentration camps’. For most Afrikaners the internment of enemy aliens raised the spectre of the ‘concentration camps’ of the SAW in which over 40,000 Blacks and Whites had died. The deaths of 26,000 ‘Boer’ Women and children had such a profound effect that the Mayor of Stellenbosch, Paul Cluver, wrote to Smuts in September 1914 warning that “Afrikaner internees and their children have been bitter enemies of everything British ever since” (the SAW). Cluver warned that if Germans now died in Union captivity like the Boer women and children had done under British authority in the SAW the Union government “would be blamed for many years to come”.
Sunk with all hands at the Battle of Coronel, 1st November 1914.
Her loss suggested British weakness at a time of Republican Rebellion.
During the Republican Rebellion the rebels took heart from a naval battle that took place on the far side of the world. The British Empire and the Union of South Africa was very dependent on the Royal Navy holding it together. Defeat the powerful Royal Navy and the Empire could not hold. The Battle of Coronel on 1st November 1914 reverberate across in Empire. It was a decisive German naval victory over the Royal Navy off the coast of central Chile. It was the first indication that the Royal Navy could be beaten. This German victory encouraged Republican rebels while dismaying Empire Loyalists.
What gave this defeat greater significance in South Africa was that one of the two British ships lost with all hands was the Good Hope, named after the Cape colony and the flagship of Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock. The loss of 1,660 British officers and men in two armoured cruisers created a not unreasonable fear in the Union that a German fleet might appear at any time to bombard coastal towns and interdict the seaborn invasion of GSWA which was soon to resume once the rebels were soundly whipped.
The destruction of the German squadron by the Royal Navy on 8th December 1914 at the Battle of the Falkland Islands and the crushing of the Republican Rebellion by Botha restored the pre-war staus quo and allowed the stalled invasion of GSWA to proceed at full-steam ahead. On 25th December 1914, a powerful UDF force re-occupied Walvis Bay. Botha would crush the Rebellion by January 1915 and conquer GSWA by July 1915. He would become Britain’s favourite ‘Boer’ but would remain a pariah to his people, despite recognising the need for reconciliation. Leading Boer rebels received light sentences but Jopie Fourie, a UDF officer and a rebel who did not resign his commission, was executed on a Sunday and martyred. Those who participated in the Rebellion and who wished to further its aims subsequently did so within the pro-republican National Party.
After German U-boats made their presence felt in North Atlantic, Germanophobia reached its peak in the Union when RMS Lusitania, a British-registered ocean liner, was torpedoed off Ireland on 7th May 1915 with the loss of almost 1,200 lives. Widespread public rioting occurred across ‘British South Africa’. Germans lucky enough not to be interned were now attacked and their businesses or homes set alight. Some £750,000 worth of damages were inflicted on German-owned properties in Johannesburg alone.
It would be wrong to imply that there was no sympathy within British South Africa for the plight of individual Germans. Postcards written in English to POWs can be found expressing sentiments of personal sadness at the unfairness of their internment.
No stamp required. Postage was free for POWS and Internees.
Trilingual ‘PRISONER OF WAR’ cachet and short one-line ‘PASSED BY CENSOR’
Sender on reverse: ‘Hermann Lindenberg 3380, Camp 2 C 6. PMB.’
The cover above was posted from FORT NAPIER on ’12 NOV 15′. Its ‘PASSED BY CENSOR’ mark is shorter but the cachet is the same as the one used at Roberts Heights, suggesting that it accompanied the internees from Roberts Heights to Fort Napier. The US Consul pressured the Union government to improve the conditions in which internees were imprisoned, both in the Union and SWA, as well as to release certain internees.
New style of Official ‘Prisoners of War. No Stamp Required’ cover.
Trilingual ‘PRISONER OF WAR’ cachet and long one-line ‘PASSED BY CENSOR’
Sender on reverse: Pastor Schneider.
Trilingual ‘PRISONER OF WAR’ cachet and thick long one-line ‘PASSED BY CENSOR’.
Acknowledgement. Hugh Amoore.
Over time, civilian internees were transferred to Fort Napier while some military POWs were sent to the now conquered SWA. The cover, below, suggests that Robert Schurig was transferred from Fort Napier, Pietermaritzburg, Natal to Kimberley, Cape. He would eventually be sent to Ludertizbucht, SWA, where he was paroled. Schurig’s journey from Fort Napier via Kimberley to SWA is not unique. At least one German reservist POW (wounded at the Battle of Sam Kubis fighting a Baster uprising and captured recuperating in hospital in Windhoek) was transported via Cape Town to Kimberley where he was held in the Wesselton Mine, Beaconsfield. He was subsequently returned to SWA and paroled.
The blue crayon at base suggest Schurig POW was transferred to KIMBERLEY.
Acknowledgement. Hugh Amoore.
Robert Schurig had a business in Luderitzbucht. He was probably unluckily on business in the Union or travelling through when war was declared. He was arrested and detained in Fort Napier. Later, as a paroled resident of Luderitzbucht, Schurig was the recipient of many letters from the German POW Camp at Aus. These date from at least as early as 11th Octoberr 1916, suggesting that he was one of the fortunates to receive an early parole.
Purple ‘Prisoner of War, Free of Charge AUS’ and ‘PASSED BY CENSOR’ cachets.
Addressed to the freed internee Robert Schuhrig (sic) in Luderitzbucht.
Another of the fortunates to be released from Fort Napier was Gustav Wiener, below, who took comfort at the Imperial Hotel, Aliwal North. One must wonder how welcome he was!
The blue crayon states that the addressee has been ‘Released’.
Acknowledgement. Hugh Amoore.
Messrs Werndle Bros (1, 2 & 3) were interned shopkeepers.
Acknowledgement. Hugh Amoore.
It appears that the Messrs Werndle Bros attempted to continue to run their business while confined to Fort Napier. This was in contravention of South Africa’s ‘Trading with the Enemy’ legislation. Mr F. K. Werndle, POW 401 (410 above) was sent the following Official OHMS postcard from Defence Headquarters, Pretoria, on 2nd June 1917.
Acknowledgement. Hugh Amoore.
During their incarceration in Fort Napier many of the internees wrote letters to their families and friends in Germany. These were sent free of charge except when the item was sent Registered mail. This required the internee to pay the cost of registration, as in the 4d Registered Letter to Berlin, Germany below.
No stamp required. Postage was free for POWS and Internees.
Trilingual ‘PRISONER OF WAR’ cachet and short one-line ‘PASSED BY CENSOR’
This mail was routed through London where it was again subject to censorship.
Britsh ‘POST FREE PC POW’ and ‘HOSTILE COUNTRIES’ CENSOR’ postmarks.
Acknowledgement. Hugh Amoore.
There is a wide range of internee mail from the camps to varying destinations, including Germany and Switzerland, both the Red Cross in Geneva and the International Peace Bureau in Berne, (see below). All mail was subject to censorship and the application of censor postmarks and sealing tape, not to mention Postage Due charges.
Underpaid by 1½d. Postage Due double the difference ie. 3d.
Passed Censor Label and 19/99 Handstamp.
Presumably sent from Boshof by the wife of an Internee.
The following watercolors painted by Friedrich Butzbach, an internee at Fort Napier, reveal some of the daily life in the camp. (Images Copyright Hugh Amoore.)
The tented camp is that of the SANLC (SA Native Labour Corps).
According to the caption they are in training for deployment to German East Africa.
The SANLC was formed in 1916.
Copyright. Hugh Amoore.
Copyright. Hugh Amoore.
Copyright. Hugh Amoore.
Copyright. Hugh Amoore.
The Milner Park photographer, Mr Lodemann, continued to take photographs throughout his internment. Many of these became camp-produced pictorial postcards that record the daily life and routine of the Fort Napier internees who did their best to keep their spirits up, even holding dances and plays where men dressed as women. Lodeman took the photo of Emil Neubert as saucy minx giving the come hither look, below. Presumably there was no question of any LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning or queer) agenda. Just chaps having good natured fun, eh?
‘Emil Neubert as Fraulein Gruschi’.
Acknowledgement. Hugh Amoore.
Adding a further human element to the misery of incarceration was a postcard sent by a young woman to Mr Lodemann at the start the of his interment. She expressing her sadness at not seeing him. He kept this postcard with him until he was released with other prisoners in August / September 1919 after the formal German surrender at Treaty of Versailles, officially signed on 28th June 1919. The war and internment was over.
The events of 1914 set White South Africa on a long and divided road. The success of creating new industries saw ‘White South Africa’ need to employ more-and-more Black workers. This lead to the Black colonisation of ‘White South Africa’. The Nationalists attempted to adress this in 1948 with the introduction of a political policy of formalised segregation known as Apartheid. This failed to satisfy Black political aspirations. As a result, ‘White South Africa’ no longer exists. However, the Nationalists’ establishment of the Republic of South Africa in 1961 remains their finest achievement.
