Delville Wood

by Ian Uys

  “After the German advance in April 1918, the South African Brigade was being heavily shelled as they retreated to Rinningholst. Jackie was seen frantically trying to build a wall of stones around himself, to serve as additional protection from the flying shrapnel from the shells that were bursting all around. In this he was merely copying the actions of soldiers he had seen going through similar motions. The wall was never completed. A jagged piece of shrapnel wounded him in the arm and another in the leg. At first Jackie refused to be evacuated by the stretcher-bearers trying vainly to continue with his wall, hobbling around in excruciating pain, on the bloody stump that had been a leg.

  “The incredible story is best told in the words of Lieut-Col R N Woodsend of the Royal Army Medical Corps, who wrote of the incident as follows: ‘It was a pathetic sight; the little fellow carried by his keeper, lay moaning in pain, the man crying his eyes out in sympathy. “You must do something for him, he saved my life in Egypt. He nursed me through dysentry.” The baboon was badly wounded, the left leg hanging with shreds of muscle, another jagged wound in his right arm.’

  “‘We decided to give the patient chloroform and dress his wounds. If he died under the anaesthetic perhaps it would be the best thing. As I had never given an anaesthetic to such a patient before, I thought it would be the most likely result. However, he lapped up the chloroform as if it had been whisky, and was well under in a remarkably short time. It was a simple matter to amputate the leg with scissors and I cleaned the wounds and dressed them as well as I could.

  “‘He came round as quickly as he went under. The problem then was what to do with him. This was soon settled by his keeper: “He is on the strength.” So duly labelled, number, name ATS injection, nature of injuries, etc., he was taken to the road and sent by a passing ambulance to the casualty clearing-station. It was several days before I could visit the CCS. “Oh yes” said the commanding officer; “he was pretty bad when he arrived, but we put him to bed and that night when I was doing the rounds he sat up in bed to salute me. He went down to the base hospital the next day.” This hospital was on the French coast and it was a common sight to see Jackie frolicking on the beach with the other patients.’

  “With the war drawing to a close, it was the end of active service for Albert and Jackie. They received much publicity in newspapers such as The Times. September 28th saw the two friends at Inkermann Barracks, on the occasion of the 2nd SAI Reserve Battalion’s sports day. During the course of the afternoon, Major-General Sir H T Lukin KCB, DSO, who had commanded the SA Brigade in France, introduced Jackie as the mascot of the 3rd SAI. Private Marr went round the ring of curious onlookers and collected funds for the Red Cross.

  “Jackie had many other momentous occasions of a similar nature to look back on — surely his proudest moment came with his participation in the Lord Mayor’s Day procession of the Right Honourable Sir Horace Brooks-Marshall, the then mayor of London. In the printed programme of the Order of Procession of Saturday, 9 November 1918, appears the following note: ‘77mm German Gun captured by SA Troops, with Jackie the baboon (twice wounded in action).’ So from that vantage point, Jackie rode through the streets like royalty and saw London.

  “From early September to 14 February 1919, Jackie and Private Marr had been lent to the Red Cross by the War office and the South African Government for the purpose of collecting money for sick and wounded soldiers. Between them they raised over R2,000. At one Red Cross fete in Leicester, for example, Jackie charged 25c for a handshake and 50c for a kiss. Much of the money the pair made was from postcards depicting Jackie and Private Marr, which were sold.

  “On 5 May 1919, Jackie and Albert were on the last leg of their long journey home to Pretoria and Cheshire Farm, Villeria. That day, a Sunday, Jackie dined at Johannesburg’s Park Station Restaurant. Sitting on a chair next to Albert, he demolished the excellent fare provided for him by the buffet. As a reporter on the spot wrote: ‘Jackie is endowed with a lot of intelligence. He had an affectionate countenance and seems to understand all Marr said — “Now shake hands with the gentleman” and there was no hesitation about doing it.’

  “Jackie had been officially discharged at Maitland Dispersal Camp, Cape Town on 26 April. On his arm Jackie wore one gold wound stripe and the three blue service chevrons indicating three years’ frontline service. At Maitland he received the usual parchment discharge paper, a military pension, plus a ‘Civil Employment Form for Discharged Soldiers’, which had been filled in, signed and witnessed like any other such document.

  “After their arrival home, Jackie was again feted and the centre of attention on occasions as the parade to officially welcome back the 1st SAI Brigade and the Peace Parade on Church Square, Pretoria, on 31 July 1919, where he received the Pretoria Citizen’s Service Medal.

  “Jackie was able to live out his days in peaceful retirement. To have gone to war was one thing, but to actually return home was quite another. Life on the farm continued until his death on 22 May 1921, the day after a fire destroyed the Marr home, the shock and perhaps unconscious reminder of the war was too much for Jackie. He was buried in an unmarked grave on Cheshire Farm, Villeria. Thus died the loveable Jackie, an unsung hero, yet he had made a unique contribution to the tapestry of South African military history.”

  *

  In 1917 Nancy suffered a broken horn during the shelling at Armentieres. She bolted in panic and collided with a tree trunk. As no doctor was prepared to set the broken horn, it then grew downwards at an angle. Nancy’s tartan coat thereafter carried a gold wound stripe.

  In April 1918 Nancy was at the forefront of the proceedings when memorials were erected at Delville Wood. In November she developed a growth in her neck and did not respond to treatment. The delicate springbok died on 26 November 1918, 15 days after the armistice.

  Nancy was buried with full military honours in the cemetery of Hermeton-sur-Meuse, Belgium. Her skin was sent to a London taxidermist. The mounted springbok was then sent to Sir William Dalrymple and stood in his Parktown home for a number of years. He then presented it to the Transvaal Scottish Officers’ Mess at the Drill Hall, Johannesburg. In the early 1950s Nancy was placed in the SA National War Museum in Johannesburg.

  Chapter 12 — Memorials

  The largest and most moving memorial is Delville Wood itself. The whole wood has been set aside as a cemetery, for more than 600 South Africans lie in its trenches and shell-holes. In addition we shall never know how many brave British and German soldiers lie there.

  The glades follow the original rides and the street names are indicated on concrete blocks at intersections. Many paths follow the lines of trenches. Large hollows bear mute testimony to the fury of the shelling.

  Other battlefields on the Somme such as Beaumont Hamel have had their trenches restored and have been turned into parks. Delville Wood differs in that, other than for the pathways, no restoration has been attempted and the ground is consecrated. No picnicking or games are allowed within its confines.

  South Africa very nearly lost the opportunity of erecting a monument at Delville Wood. The military attaché at South Africa House, Col Herbert, was struck by the battered and desolate wood in which no one appeared interested. He sought out the owner and obtained an option to purchase the ground for £1,000, in the hope that the South African Government would buy it in order to erect a memorial there to the South African dead.

  There was no response from Pretoria, however, and the option was about to lapse when he met Sir Percy Fitzpatrick (1862-1931) and told him of it. Sir Percy is most famous for his book, “Jock of the Bushveld” and for suggesting the two-minute pause on Armistice Day each year. Sir Percy, whose eldest son, Nugent, was killed in France in 1917, was horrified at the thought of losing the option so immediately took it over.

  Soon after Sir Percy’s return to South Africa he took the matter up with the Prime Minister, Gen Smuts, who wrote as follows to him: “I honour your feelings and thank you for what you were prepared to do …
I should esteem it a favour if you will consent to take the lead in this matter of organising our voluntary effort to make Delville Wood a place in some small manner worthy of the memory of our great dead.”

  Sir Percy was appointed chairman of a Delville Wood Memorial Committee; the president was the Governor General and the vice-presidents were Gen Smuts, the four Provincial Administrators and the mayors of the four principal cities.

  In 1920 Delville Wood was bought by the South African Government. During the following years poachers were attracted to the wood by the proliferating rabbits. As the gendarmes had no authority to enter South African sovereign territory it was agreed that France repurchase the wood. In accordance with policy the French Government bought back the land for one franc and granted South Africa its use in perpetuity. The South African Government is responsible for its upkeep.

  The wood is fenced off with diamond-mesh wire, the only entrance being at the caretaker’s cottage and the memorial area. The wood was replanted with indigenous trees.

  Only one tree survived the battle, a hornbeam. A metal detector when placed against its gnarled and twisted trunk indicates that it is riddled with shrapnel, shell splinters and bullets. The tree is close to the present Voortrekker Cross of Consecration. Cuttings from this tree have found their way to South Africa and been planted at a number of places, among others General Smuts’ home at Doornkloof, Irene, and the Garden of Remembrance at Pietermaritzburg.

  *

  Public subscriptions were raised for the erection of a memorial. Sir Herbert Baker designed the cemetery and memorial. He decided to use the southern portion of the wood and to separate the cemetery from the memorial by using the existing road.

  The following description of the memorial was published in October 1926:

  “The design was entrusted to Sir Herbert Baker ARA, who appropriately included in one scheme the Memorial and the Imperial War Graves Cemetery, in which are buried the recovered bodies of those who fell at Delville Wood, and which lies adjacent to the wood itself, where the unrecovered bodies rest.

  “The Longueval-Ginchy road separates the cemetery from the wood. At the far end of the cemetery stand little chapel-shelters, linked with a half-backed seat in the form of an apse; in the middle the Stone of Remembrance; and nearer the gate, the Cross of Sacrifice; the two latter being built in the centre of a grass path which separates the headstones.

  “A broader path on the same axis leads through an avenue of young South African oaks up to the Great Arch of the Memorial, which is placed on the highest contour of the wood. Through the arch the grass path leads on again to the Cross of Consecration.

  “The Memorial faces south; thus, southwards from the arch, is seen, through the avenue of oaks, the symbols and headstones of the cemetery; and northwards, a second Cross silhouetted against the position and the distant hill, which were held by the enemy.

  “The arch is flanked on either side by a flint and stone semi-circular wall. These flanking walls terminate in two covered buildings, designed in reminiscence of the Summer House built by Simon Van der Stel on the slopes of Table Mountain above Groote Schuur.

  “These buildings contain the Roll of Honour of the South African dead commemorated by the Memorial. Steps lead up to the flat top, as in Van der Stel’s building, and on the balustrade, dials indicate the memorable places of the surrounding battlefields.

  “The central monument thus has its larger arches facing up and down the vista of the two Crosses; smaller arches at its side lead, by stone paths in front of the walls, to the flanking buildings. Above these side arches are the dedicatory inscriptions in English and Afrikaans:

  To the Immortal Dead from South Africa, who at the call of Duty made the Great Sacrifice on the battlefields of Africa, Asia and Europe and on the Sea, this Memorial is dedicated in proud and grateful recognition by their countrymen.

  Aan die onsterflike, Suid-Afrikaners wat op die Slagvelde van Afrika, Asië, en Europa en op See die Groot Offer op die Altaar van Plig gelê het, is hierdie Gedenkteken deur hul landgenote in trotse en dankbare herinnering gewy.

  “On angle panels, in large letters, are graven the names of the eight greater battle areas where South Africans fought. In the centre, over the great arches, are the shorter inscriptions.

  Their ideal is our legacy. Their sacrifice our inspiration.

  Vir ons is hul ideaal ’n erfenis, hul offer ’n besieling.

  Above these are the words ‘Aux Morts’.

  “The stone dome which crowns the Monument supports a group in bronze of two men representing Physical Energy, and the two races of South Africa, between them leading a war horse into battle, and with one hand clasped over the horse’s back.

  “The group was inspired by the Greek sculpture of the twin gods Castor and Pollux and their horses guarding the steps of the Capitol at Rome, and by the legend of the great twin brethren who came overseas to fight in the ranks of Rome.

  “The whole of the sculpture is the work of Mr Alfred Turner ARA. The oaks, planted in a double row, framing the avenue were gathered from the old oaks at Franschhoek in the Cape Province — whose parent acorns were taken out from France by early colonists about 150 years ago.

  “Behind the avenue, and stretching far away on all sides round the site of the memorial is the forest — now replanted and covered by brambles and other undergrowth.”

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  The memorial was unveiled by the widow of Gen Louis Botha on 10 October 1926. The South African Prime Minister, Gen J B M Hertzog addressed the gathering, and said in part:

  “This monument dedicated to these our sons, will stand here in remembrance of that great sacrifice — an inspiration and a warning, a warning against human passion and national folly, an inspiration to all that is good and noble in human action and devotion, and in national unity of heart and endeavour.

  “The part played in the war by our dead will ever be an inspiration to us. It will be recorded with pride in the pages of our history, so that future generations of South Africans, in the quiet of the evening can turn over these pages and hear the distant footsteps of men marching to their fate one in the proudness of their hearts they will claim them as their dead. And so once more may there be sanctified unto us the sacrifice of our dead who nobly surrendered their lives in the services of peace.”

  Field Marshal Earl Haig, commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Force in 1916, said in his speech: “In erecting your national memorial here at Delville Wood … no one will say that you have not chosen rightly. It was here that South African troops first gave proof on the Western Front of the splendid dash and energy of their attack; it was here that they first showed with what dogged, unflinching resolution they could hold on to what they had won.

  “It was here that the manhood of South Africa first paid on the Western Front its contribution in blood and suffering … to preserve those noble traditions and ideals of liberty and justice which are the common heritage of all members of the British Commonwealth of Nations. I am proud … to acknowledge the deep debt of gratitude I owe as their commander to the South African Brigade.”

  A scale model of the monument may be seen at the Houses of Parliament in Cape Town. The sculpture of the twin gods and the war-horse is also atop memorials before the Union Buildings in Pretoria and in the Gardens at Cape Town, the latter close to the statue of Gen Tim Lukin.

  The custodian of the memorial until 1940 was Mr Beckwith, formerly of the SAI. From November 1947 Capt C E Norman acted as caretaker. Delville Wood was re-dedicated on 5 June 1952 to include the South African dead of the Second World War.

  It is proposed to build a museum at Delville Wood. The visitor will then be in a position to understand what happened there and perhaps learn something of the men who fought there. The museum will be modelled on the Cape Town Castle, with rooms at each of the five corners, and will encircle the present Voortrekker Cross of Consecration.

  During his last illness Marshal Foch was to write: “The h
eroic dead of South Africa, whether Dutch or British by origin, France will never forget what she owes to them.”

  If the French will never forget their debt to these men then neither should the South Africans.

  *

  The cemetery contains 5,493 graves and is the second largest in the Somme area. Of these only 151 graves are of South Africans killed at Delville Wood. Among the latter are Major Harry Gee, Lieuts Jack Hollingsworth, J G Connock, A H Brown, C T Litchford, F H Somerset and 16-year-old Pte Eric Beeton. One of the Britons interred is Sgt Alfred Gill VC, of the Kings Royal Rifle Corps.

  Gill was 36 years old, married and came from Birmingham. His Victoria Cross citation reads: Date of Act of Bravery 27 July 1916.

  The London Gazette dated 24 Oct 1916, records the following: “For most conspicuous bravery. The enemy made a very strong counter-attack on the right flank of the battalion, and rushed the bombing post after killing all the company bombers. Sergeant Gill at once rallied the remnants of his platoon none of whom were skilled bombers, and reorganised his defences, a most difficult and dangerous task, the trench being very shallow and much damaged. Soon afterwards the enemy nearly surrounded his men by creeping up through the thick undergrowth, and commenced sniping at about twenty yards’ range. Although it was almost certain death, Sgt Gill stood boldly up in order to direct the fire of his men. He was killed almost at once, but not before he had shown his men where the enemy were, and thus enabled them to hold up their advance. By his supreme devotion to duty and self-sacrifice he saved a very dangerous situation”.

  The names of the South Africans buried in the Delville Wood cemetery are listed in the appendix “Roll of Honour” and in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s booklet, one of which is available at the cemetery.

  The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is responsible for the maintenance of the cemetery. The beautiful flowers and manicured lawns pay tribute to their competence. At present the caretaker’s cottage is occupied by their district manager.