by Ian Uys
After the war when Mr Tate-Connor was commissioned to sculpture the SA Scottish memorial, which stands in Joubert Park, Johannesburg, he modelled the face and figure of the statue on Capt Ross, as someone who typified those who had gone through the horror of the First World War. The memorial was unveiled on 1 April 1923. Capt T H Ross MC, is buried at Faubourg D Amiens cemetery at Arras, France.
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“Mac” Rousseau, reputedly the youngest Delville Wood survivor, was wounded at Arras in April and Ypres in July and September 1917. He was appointed as a second-lieutenant and wounded again at Cambrai in March 1918. In the 1920s he served with the SA Railways and was married in November 1939. He was mentioned in despatches for gallant and distinguished services from July to October 1941 and was promoted to temporary major the following year. Rousseau was also awarded the efficiency decoration. He retired from the Permanent Force in January 1954 and in 1966 attended the Delville Wood 50th Anniversary celebrations.
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Ryan was evacuated with shell-shock. He returned to the brigade after recuperating. He was severely wounded on 21 September 1917 at Ypres by gunshot and shrapnel in the right arm. Ryan was demobilised on 10 January 1919.
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Douglas Sampson was evacuated to Tooting and Richmond Hospitals. He left hospital in February 1917, then returned to South Africa where he was discharged as permanently unfit in March 1918.
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Gerard Saunders was repatriated on 11 December 1918. He returned to Durban to complete his articles and qualify as an accountant. In 1927 Saunders married Celia Rankin, a teacher from Naboomspruit. He continued in public practice as Saunders Haynes & Stewart in Durban and died there in February 1969, aged 72 years.
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William Shapcott received a gunshot wound in his right elbow at Delville Wood. He was awarded the DCM for his bravery in Capt Tomlinson’s raid. After convalescing he returned to France where he was wounded again in March 1917. In July 1917 he was promoted to sergeant in the SANLC. Another wound followed in June 1918. He sailed for South Africa six months later.
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After being wounded in the shoulder on 16 July, Henry Sherman was inoculated against tetanus and sent to England as a stretcher case. On 20 September he returned to France and fought at the Butte de Warlencourt where he was the chief battalion runner. Despite being buried in a trench during a bombardment on 18 October, Sherman brought back vital intelligence to Dawson, for which he received the MM. He was promoted to corporal in January 1919 and sergeant in November 1919.
Sherman was demobbed in January 1920. Six years later Sherman and two others represented Port Elizabeth at the Delville Wood Monument unveiling. During the Second World War he served as a special constable in the Walmer Civilian Protection Services. He was a member of the Eastern Province branch of the 1st Infantry Brigade Association. Sherman died at Port Elizabeth in May 1971, aged 74 years.
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James Simpson was evacuated as walking wounded. He became a 1st class Lewis-gunner in January 1917. He was killed at Arras on 12 April 1917 and is buried at Brown’s Copse British cemetery, four miles east of Arras.
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Charles Slade was mentioned in despatches for Delville Wood. He died from wounds received on 11 May 1917, and is buried nine miles northwest of Arras.
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Ernest Solomon was taken prisoner and sent to Gef Friedrichfeld prison camp. He was repatriated in October 1918 and reached England a week after armistice. Solomon returned to Johannesburg where he joined Hutchinson, Bowen and Sersel, attorneys. His book Potchefstroom to Delville Wood describes his war experiences.
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Walter Stewart was awarded the MM. On 15 September 1916 he was promoted to lance-corporal. On 13 October 1917 he was shot in the head and died soon afterwards. Stewart is buried at Duhallow, the advanced dressing-station cemetery at Ypres.
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Charlie Stuart was taken to the Dulmen Camp and in February 1917 to the Sprottau POW Camp. He embroidered the flags of all the allied nations on the seat of his underpants which he later had framed. His brother, Walter, had meanwhile joined the 2nd SAI and was promised a battlefield commission by Lieut Garnet Green the day before Green was killed. Walter was taken prisoner at Marrieres Wood.
Stuart was discharged in May 1919 and went to work at the ABC Bank in Durban, where as a keen sportsman he rowed, played rugby and tennis. From 1925 he was the bank’s branch accountant at Mooi River, where he married Norah Patricia Lawrence.
On the outbreak of the Second World War Stuart enlisted as a second-lieutenant in the Natal Reserve battalion. He became manager of the Umzinto branch of the bank where he was re-united with old Delville Wood friends Howard Brice-Bruce, Paul Richards, J Stewart and D Davey. Stuart transferred to Port Shepstone and then retired at Pietermaritzburg in 1954 where he joined the Natal Provincial Administration.
He died-there on 22 May 1972, aged 77. On his deathbed he told his nephew, Bob Stuart, how much he regretted having killed the young German in the shell-hole at Delville Wood. Another nephew, Kelsey Stuart, was president of the SA Red-Cross and chief legal adviser to the SA Associated Newspapers.
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Garnet Tanner was evacuated to England. After his recovery he was introduced on a blind date to his future wife, Molly, who was assisting with catering for soldiers at the time. He was awarded the DCM in June 1917 for his bravery at Delville Wood. Tanner was married on 7 August 1918 and returned to South Africa in April 1919. After 63 years of happy marriage the Tanners live at Bergvliet, Cape Town.
His brother, Douglas, was awarded the MM for bravery in getting an ammunition train through at Ypres. Douglas served in Egypt during the Second World War. His brother, Stanley, went to live in London where he served as a stretcher-bearer in the Home Guard during the Second World War. Stanley’s two sons attended Sandhurst. Stanley Tanner died in London in February 1946.
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For his leadership at Delville Wood William Tanner was awarded the CMG and promoted to temporary brigadier-general. He led the 2nd SAI at Arras. In October 1917 he left the brigade to command the 8th Brigade in the 3rd Division.
After the 1st SAI Brigade was lost at Marrieres Wood, Gen Tanner returned to command the re-formed brigade. He fought with them at the Battle of the Lys, the advance and capture of Le Cateau and was with the advanced guard when the war ended. For his services he was awarded the CB, DSO, Croix de Guerre (Belgium), Order de Leopold Officier (Belgium), and Croix de Chevalier Legion d’Honneur (France) and mentioned in despatches six times.
Between 1919 and 1933 he held several important posts in the UDF, inter alia, adjutant general, commandant of the SA military college, OC at Roberts Heights (Voortrekkerhoogte) and chief of the general staff on four occasions. In 1926 Tanner attended the Imperial Conference and the Unveiling of the Delville Wood Memorial. He retired in October 1933 with the rank of brigadier-general.
Tanner was a staunch Anglican, whose hobby was carpentry. He imported oak from Delville Wood for making the Delville memorial crosses at South Africa’s main centres. His son, flying officer Erskine Tanner, RAF, was killed in a flying accident at Northold in April 1934.
Tanner developed his fruit farm at Elgin Valley and served on several committees. In 1938 he led the SA Battlefields Pilgrimage to Europe as organised by the BESL. During the Second World War Tanner was recalled as OC of the Pietermaritzburg and Ladysmith areas, in August 1940 OC Wit Command and in October OC Cape Command. He retired on 30 April 1942 as a major-general. General Tanner died at Elgin, Cape, on 29 September 1943, aged 67.
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Harold Tayler was badly shell-shocked and evacuated via Rouen to the 3rd London General Hospital at Wandsworth. He was discharged on 23 August. In April 1917 Tayler transferred to the Royal Flying Corps and was commissioned as a temporary second-lieutenant on 14 July 1917. The following day he was shot down over the German lines, wounded in the leg and taken prisoner. His condition deteriorated so much that he was repatriated on 15 Jan
uary 1918. Tayler’s right leg was amputated a week later. His award of the MM was gazetted on 16 November 1918.
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Edward Thackeray commanded the 3rd SAI at the Butte de Warlencourt, at Arras and at Third Ypres. He was awarded the CMG and DSO for his services. In September 1919 Thackeray was appointed as a general staff officer and in February 1923 posted to the SA Staff Corps, Permanent Force, and headed the Witwatersrand Command. He retired with the rank of colonel on 1 April 1926. He then became Transvaal Commissioner of the Boy Scouts, Provincial Secretary of the 1820 Settlers Memorial Association and served on the Johannesburg Committee of the Governor General’s Fund from 1926 to 1937. Thackeray was Dominion President of the BESL.
Col Thackeray was in England when the Second World War commenced. He immediately offered his services but was turned down on account of his age of 69, so enlisted in the Home Guard as a private. His bearing and skill came to notice, so was promoted overnight to colonel, and headed a youth training battalion.
Thackeray was a familiar figure at veterans’ day parades in Johannesburg. “A straight-backed man with a white moustache and blue eyes …”
He died at Johannesburg on 8 November 1956, aged 86.
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Leonard Tomlinson was wounded and evacuated on the 15th. At the time his wife was living in London, so visited him at hospital. He rejoined his unit before his DSO award was gazetted in November 1916. He was also mentioned in despatches in January 1917. Tomlinson commanded D Coy in the 20 September 1917 Ypres battle and briefly commanded the battalion during Col Thackeray’s absence two months later. When the battalion was disbanded Tomlinson transferred to the 4th SAI. In October 1918 he commanded one of their companies in the fighting at Reumont. After the armistice he was an acting major at the HQ and relinquished his commission in July 1919.
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Cecil Trenam was taken to Tooting, then Richmond hospital. His right arm became gangrenous and he was not expected to survive. The surgeon, Capt E A Leviseur, saved his arm from amputation. Trenam studied accountancy and learnt to write with his left hand. After recovering the use of his right arm he could write with both hands simultaneously. While at hospital he met a distant relative, Isabel Gardiner, his future wife.
Trenam was repatriated to South Africa early in 1918. Isabel followed in March 1923 and they were married shortly after her arrival. At the time he was accountant at the Dept of Irrigation, Cradock. They had two sons, Frank born in 1924 and Robert born in 1927. Cecil Trenam died on 5 December 1962, aged 71, and Isabel in April 1980.
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Dick Unwin’s real name is Richard Postlethwaite. He learnt to knit in the Ohdruf POW camp in Saxony. He made a jersey from 14 pairs of socks with knitting needles cut from a wire fence. He was to wear this jersey in various POW camps and after the war, on the West Rand Consolidated Mines where he worked as foreman electrician.
In 1920 he married Hilda Hulbert and had a son, Leslie. Postlethwaite had to swear an affidavit in order to receive the medals issued to his alias, Unwin. He won the Transvaal bowls championship twice running in the early 1930s. His son served with the Jocks during the Second World War.
His grandson, Ian, was a sergeant-major in the Natal Carbineers and was tragically killed when pretending to rob a friend and was shot. Richard Postlethwaite has retired to Amanzimtoti on the South Coast. His jersey has been donated to the MOTHS Warriors Gate Museum in Durban.
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Captain Vivian had served in the Rand Light Infantry and Railway Regiment during the Rebellion and SWA. He was wounded at Delville Wood on 15 July. He won the MC before being killed at Ypres on 20 September 1917.
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Nicholas Johannes Vlok was awarded the DCM for his bravery at Delville Wood and was mentioned in despatches. When the Boer medals were awarded in 1921 for the South African War, Vlok received the “Dekoratie Voor Trouwe Dienst”, the Boer officers’ decoration. He returned to farming, after which he retired to live at Beaconsfield, Kimberley. Vlok appears in the South African Who’s Who of 1926.
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Lionel Walsh was awarded the DCM for Delville Wood. He was commissioned as a second-lieutenant on 26 April 1917 and transferred to the 7th Bn London Regiment.
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Capt Walshe was the Roman Catholic chaplain attached to the 2nd SAI. He originally came from Tipperary in Ireland. He was attached to the 2nd Reserve Battalion in January 1918 and promoted to temporary major three months later. Father Walshe was awarded the MC in September 1918. He returned to South Africa a year later and was appointed a chaplain in the Union Defence Force in 1920.
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George Warwick was evacuated to Etaples Hospital where shrapnel was removed from his thigh, then he was sent to England to recuperate. He returned to Bordon Camp in September 1916, then rejoined the brigade at Arras in December. He took part in the Battle of Arras in April 1917.
At the Third Battle of Ypres in September 1917 Warwick was wounded in the spine by shrapnel and paralysed. He was evacuated to the SA Military Hospital at Richmond. He returned to Durban in October 1918.
In January 1926 Warwick married Marjorie Leadbetter at Durban. He was to be disabled throughout his life, yet by 1931 had learnt to walk for short distances. He obtained a B Comm degree, then studied theology at Edinburgh and was ordained as a minister in the Presbyterian Church in 1934.
The Rev George Warwick served at Dannhauser, the Bluff (Durban) and Vryheid. He studied part-time to graduate as a BA in 1939. He was forced to retire because of ill health in 1957 and was given the status of a Minister Emeritus of the church. His book We Band of Brothers was published in 1962.
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Capt Tom Welsh, previously a mine doctor, was awarded the MC in January 1917. He died of wounds received at Arras on 12 April 1917.
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Francis Wiley was evacuated to England. After recuperating he attended a bomb-throwing instructors’ course in September, and was commissioned in November 1916. He was wounded in the left wrist and head at Ypres on 20 September 1917. In May 1918 Wiley attended a bombing course at Aldershot. On 3 July he died at Woking Barracks and is buried at the Brookwood cemetery.
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Francis Wilkie was evacuated to England. After his left wrist healed he returned to his regiment as CSM. He was wounded in action on 15 October 1917. At Marrieres Wood on 24 March 1918, Wilkie held up the enemy with a Lewis gun while his regiment retired, for which he was later awarded the DCM. He was taken prisoner and repatriated on 18 December 1918. Wilkie was discharged at Bloemfontein in June 1919. He was awarded the French and Belgian Croix de Guerre medals and the Coronation Medal for 1937.
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Sandy Young was invalided to England and hospitalised at Brighton. He returned to France in September 1916 and fought under Capt Ross at the Butte de Warlencourt on 18 October. He was killed early the following morning when the Germans counter-attacked with flammenwerfers. Young is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial and on the Bulwer (Natal) War Memorial.
Roll of Honour 14-20 July 1916
Possibly in no other area have exaggerated reports perpetuated a myth so consistently as in the case of Delville Wood fatalities. Their figures varied annually. The heights were reached in one report of the battle “… in which about 3,000 South Africans lost their lives.”
The losses sustained by the 1st South African Brigade sent a shock-wave through South Africa. It is not necessary to exaggerate them. Lieutenant-Colonel Albert Cilliers MC, of the South African Agency of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission spent many years compiling a record of the battle’s fatalities. The difficulty of providing a complete record of casualties need not be emphasised.
The Delville Wood fatalities commencing on 14 July are:
1st Battalion (192) … 105 killed in action, 59 death assumed, 28 died of wounds
2nd Battalion (181) … 104 killed in action, 51 death assumed, 26 died of wounds
3rd Battalion (225) … 123 killed in action, 77 death assumed, 25 died of wounds
Total (766) … 444 killed in action, 218 death assumed, 104 died of wounds
Notes
1 These figures exclude the SA Light Trench Mortar Battery, SA Medical Corps, 64th Field Company RE and 28th Brigade Machine-gun Company who were attached to the brigade.
2 The men who died of wounds include those who died up to October 1916 of wounds sustained at Delville Wood. Generally those who died after this date, being of next engagement, have not been included as it would be impossible to tell from the First World War Roll of Honour when they were mortally wounded.
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(Name Age Rank Date of death)
1st Battalion
Allen P J L/Cpl 19.7; Allsop F Pte 16.7; Anderson B E Pte 22.7; Anderson V 19 Pte 17.7; Appleton R 29 L/Cpl 16.7; Bailey W E Pte 18.7; Baker H R L/Cpl 16.7; Bentley G E Pte 18.7; Bicheno W Pte 18.7; Bleasby J R 30 Sgt 16.7; Botha D Pte 17.7; Bothma S A Pte 18.7; Breakey L W Pte 18.7; Brodie E J Pte 18.7; Brookstein A W J Pte 18.7; Brown A E (H) Sec-Lieut 16.7; Brown H Pte 16.7; Burges E T Major 18.7; Burton C F S L/Sgt 18.7; Butler S Pte 17.7; Callaghan G Pte 16.7; Capper W F Pte 17.7; Carlisle A D Pte 16.7; Carlson W E Pte 14.7; Carter A Pte 18.7; Carter R C Pte 16.7; Castle H B Pte 17.7; Chaney W Pte 18.7; Clarence W H Pte 18.7; Clews A J L/Cpl 16.7; Clews W E 26 Pte 17.7; Colling N 20 Pte 15.7; Colvin J A 19 Pte 20.7; Conway T P Pte 17.7; Cook C F Pte 20.7; Cussack J Pte 18.7; Dania A J Pte 18.7; Davids W G Pte 18.7; Davis H Pte 18.7; Davis R W Pte 18.7; Davis T Pte 18.7; Dignam J L Pte 18.7; Dillon J B Pte 17.7; Downey T A Pte 18.7; Doyle D D Pte 18.7; Doyle N 22 L/Cpl 16.7; Dryer L L Pte 14.7; Dunneen M J Pte 18.7; Dusting L Pte 18.7; Elliott EF Pte 18.7; Elms T Pte 15.7; Enke F Pte 18.7; Ewan C Pte 18.7; Eyden F Pte 18.7; Faure E Pte 18.7; Feast F L/Cpl 17.7; Ferguson W Pte 14.7; Findley C J L/Sgt 18.7; Fisher A C Pte 14.7; Fraser J Pte 18.7; Fourie J J 22 Pte 17.7; Foxcroft T H Cpl 14.7; Francklow J T J Pte 17.7; Furmidge C A 25 Pte 18.7; Glazebrook F L/Cpl 16.7; Going E B Pte 18.7; Goodacre W H Pte 18.7; Greenwood G F Pte 14.7; Gregory E W Pte 18.7; Gurney F Pte 18.7; Haarhoff A C Sec-Lieut 17.7; Hagell A Pte 16.7; Hahn E A L Sec-Lieut 16.7; Hall E L L/Cpl 18.7; Harris C A Pte 18.7; Harrison C A Pte 18.7; Hawkins W Sgt 18.7; Heathcote C E Pte 18.7; Hetherington W Pte 22.7; Hewett W H R Pte 18.7; Hinton E J L/Sgt 18.7; Hollingsworth J M 21 Sec-Lieut 20.7; Hopper E W Pte 18.7; Howell J L L/Sgt 16.7; Hume P R Sgt 18.7; Hutton J W Pte 18.7; Immelman L G Pte 18.7; Ireland J Pte 19.7; Isemonger L W 20 Pte 18.7; Jackson M H 19 S-bearer 21.7; Jansen F J Pte 18.7; Jenkins C R A Pte 17.7; Johnson A Pte 18.7; Jones V A Pte 17.7; Jowett P J Capt 20.7; Kaber J Pte 18.7; Kalis H J P Pte 20.7; Kallis C D Pte 18.7; Keating E W Pte 17.7; Kensit EG Pte 18.7; Keys A E Pte 18.7; King G A Pte 18.7; Kirkham W J 39 Pte 17.7; Knight J H Cpl 17.7; Krige J Pte 18.7; Kuys A G J Pte 16.7; Laerman L C Sgt 18.7; Lang F H W Pte 18.7; Larson E E Pte 18.7; Laubscher J J Pte 18.7; Lavender O C Pte 18.7; Leak G A Pte 18.7 ; Ledbury V E Cpl 16.7; Lloyd R C 32 Pte 17.7; Madden C Pte 18.7; Marles A G Pte 18.7; Martin I L Pte 18.7; Matheson J R Cpl 18.7; McDonald P Pte 18.7; McGregor W Pte 18.7; McGregor J G Pte 18.7; McKenzie W A Pte 18.7; Miller G J Capt 16.7; Mills F Pte 18.7; Mocke F Pte 18.7; Moller C N 17 Pte 21.7; Momsen H J Pte 18.7; Morgan W J Pte 18.7; Morrison R W Pte 18.7; Munro D 35 Pte 16.7; Nash J Y 26 Pte 14.7; Needham W Pte 18.7; Newell C F W Pte 16.7; Newell G H Cpl 17.7; Nowell A J Pte 18.7; O’Connor S J Pte 16.7; Padden E E C L/Cpl 18.7; Paisley S N Pte 17.7; Palphramand G H Pte 18.7; Palphramand R H Pte 18.7; Parker LT Pte 24.7; Parkes T Pte 20.7; Parsons C B Lieut 16.7; Patterson T E 22 Pte 16.7; Pattison V R Pte 18.7; Pearce A 27 Pte 18.7; Playsted J Pte 18.7; Potgieter G D Sgt 18.7; Prodehl H C Pte 18.7; Quinn J H Pte 14.7; Raphael H C Pte 18.7; Raphael S F 25 Cpl 19.7; Roberts R F Pte 17.7; Ross C S Pte 14.7; Ryden F Pte 18.7; Ryder J Pte 18.7; Schafer C W Pte 14.7; Schon C J Pte 18.7; Schooling A G Sgt 16.7; Selby C O Pte 18.7; Seller A G Pte 18.7; Semark S C Pte 18.7; Slatem T R Pte 18.7; Smith A E Pte 18.7; Smith E J O Pte 18.7; Smith F A Pte 17.7; Smith W C Pte 18.7; Soderland C D Pte 18.7; Sparkes A J Pte 18.7; Stoffberg C M F Pte 18.7; Strutt A Pte 18.7; Stuart C H Pte 18.7; Sturrock P L/Cpl 17.7; Sutherland J W Pte 26.7; Sullivan C Pte 18.7; Swanepoel G Pte 18.7; Thomas S Pte 19.7; Thomson H C G Pte 18.7; Trent E G Pte 18.7; Turner H Pte 14.7; Van Blerk C L/Cpl 18.7; Van der Spuy J H Pte 18.7; Walker J B Pte 18.7; Wallace E Pte 18.7; Walters F Pte 14.7; Ward P Sgt 18.7; Weldon C G Pte 18.7; Whitter R J Pte 14.7; Wiles H Pte 18.7; Williams W Pte 18.7; Willson W E CSM 18.7; Wise T H Pte 18.7; Wright H B 18 Pte 18.7