Condolences from the King, Queen, Kitchener, Viscount Buxton and Jan Smuts

Alexander Wedderburn died 27 January 1916.

In September 1914, the government of South Africa under the leadership of Prime Minister Louis Botha and Defence Minister Jan Smuts joined forces with Britain against Germany. Parliament supported this decision by 92 votes to 12.

Lex was in the B Company, 2nd South African Infantry. The Second Regiment was made up of men from Natal and the Orange Free State.

He died after the battle at Matruh, Egypt.

The letter below is from Jan Smuts, the Minister of Defence, dated 9 February 1916, writing on behalf of the Governor-General of South Africa, Viscount Buxton.

Letter signed by Jan Smuts, Minister of Defence

Background, this could be what Lex experienced in his last month of battle before dying of his wounds:

WFF moved back to Mersa Matruh, having lost 14 other ranks killed, and 3 officers and 47 other ranks wounded.
Torrential rain throughout January created a lull in activity.

An enlarged force breaks Senussi camp, in deep mud

On 19 January 1916, aerial reconnaissance revealed a large enemy camp - 100 Eurpean and 250 Bedouin tents - 25 miles from Mersa Matruh, at Hazalin (this was a mis-spelling on British maps of the actual place name of Halazin). This was a large enough force to make Wallace wait for reinforcements before striking out again. The South African Brigade arrived in Egypt from England, and their 2nd Regiment was immediately moved to join his column. For lack of railway transport, they moved from Alexandria by boat, landing at Mersa Matruh on 21 January. Two days later, Wallace once again split his force into two mobile columns for an attack. On his right, the column consisted of 2nd South African Regiment, 15th Sikhs, 1st New Zealand Rifle Brigade, and a squadron of the Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry, with the 1/6th Royal Scots in reserve. The left column included squadrons of the Dorset and Hampshire Yeomanry, the Royal Buckinghamshire Hussars and the Australian Light Horse, A Battery HAC and the Mounted Brigade Machine gun section. The attack was again successful in breaking the enemy positions, going through deep mud to do so. It was not without problems: the Train was left at Bir Shola and blankets and supplies could not be brought up; all vehicles had to be dragged by hand through the mud; the armoured cars could not operate.

British casualties on this oaccasion were heavier: 1 officer and 30 other ranks killed, 13 officers and 278 other ranks wounded. A conservative estimate of the enemy's losses put the figure at 200 killed and 500 wounded. Prisoners revealed that Senussi morale was declining fast, as they saw the British force increasing in size and becoming properly equipped for the task.

'This is where I went to young Wedderburn, but he had died before I arrived."

Unknown writer, a post card in the Wedderburn Book

This extraordinary little post card seems innocuous at first, it is addressed to Dear Winnie on the 4th May 1916 and sent from Egypt. The photo is from the Egyptian Health Resort at Helouan, just south of Cairo. I am assuming these thermal baths were used as a hospital and convalesce home during the Great War.

It is the 'x' marks the spot on the photo as well as the last sentence just fitting in below the signature that takes my breathe away.

Young Wedderburn had died of his wounds. 

In Active Service and a Post Card

Mom typed up this list of the family members that have been involved in the different war efforts here in South Africa.

Starting with Christopher Wedderburn, the 1820 Settler who was involved in the Frontier Wars of 1835 and 1846.

Fred and I found George Wedderburn's name on a memorial in the grounds of St. John's Church in Bathurst when we visited a week ago. He died of his wounds in 1851.

Further down the list are what she calls:
Some of the Settler's Great-grandson's

On the list is Alexander Wedderburn, the second son of Alexander John Ennis and Alice and older brother of my Grandpa Percy.

Alexander, was born in 1888.
As a handsome young sergeant in London and in active service, he drops a post card to his mother Alice Wedderburn at 32 Monument Road in Bloemfontein on the 8 August 1915.

'I spent the day at London Tower, St Paul's and Westminster Abbey. It is colossal. '

He writes that it would have been more exciting to have spent the holiday in Bloemfontein.

A poignant post card, less than six months later he will have died of his wounds somewhere in Egypt.

Heartbreaking for Alice.

Documenting certificates - Ina Moodie Philips

The oldest certificate for Nanny Ina, 1908.

My grandmother.

I am looking at a Trinity College of Music, London certificate. Elementary Pianoforte Playing. Umtata. October 1908.

She is 10 years old and she is the pupil of Miss Tooke.

This is the oldest certificate among the documents Mom has in her Wedderburn Book.

I can track Nanny Ina's movements through this wonderful collection of old certificates.

She does a second year of music with Miss Tooke in Umtata and passes the Junior Division.

From 1911, Nanny Ina in is Leicester at the Stoneygate College, doing Music; English; French; Algebra; Freehand, Model and Memory Drawing.

And at age 16, in 1914, she has received her final certificate from the College.

She spends time at the Eastgate College in Northampton, which is not far from Leicester, refining her drawing skills through the Royal Drawing Society and has three certificates dated June 1915.

To round off her education she has Pitman's Shorthand too, there are certificates from 1914 and 1917.

A beautiful sepia photo that we have now makes sense to me.

It is Nanny Ina with her Aunt Flo Phillips, which would be her father, William Phillips relative, they are beautifully outfitted for winter, fur hats, coats, fur mitten, leather boots. Aunt Flo looks sternly to camera while the young demure Ina has a lovely smile.

The black and white photograph of Aunt Flo's Drawing Room in Leicester is a period piece classic. A late Victorian drawing room, it is quirky, eclectic, cluttered, but charming.

I assume Nanny Ina stayed with Aunt Flo during these years of learning in the United Kingdom, before heading back to South Africa and the looming First World War.

Nanny Ina with her Aunt Flo Phillips, in Leicester, Britain, early 1900's

Aunt Flo Phillips Drawing Room, Leicester

A Post Card to Nanny Ina

Front of the Postcard, Umtata Club

A Postcard from Nanny Ina's father William Phillips.

William Henry Boothby Phillips, Nanny Ina's father

What a little gem.

This faded photo turns out to be a Post Card sent on the 3 August 1910, from the Umtata Club by Nanny Ina's father, William Phillips.

He does not write much, just 'Dear Ina, Do you know this place? it is the Club. I am standing at the gate.' 

We do not know much about Nanny Ina's father beyond the page of photos Mom has in the Wedderburn Book.

No birth or death dates. His father was Major CR Phillips.

There is something wonderful about the photo of the card players at the Umtata Club with William in his formal striped smoking jacket.

Fred and I drove through Umtata just before Christmas and this is truly a bygone era.

Umtata is no longer genteel, it is a bustling, vibrant, noisy African retail centre and totally chaotic with traffic congestion, chickens, goats, cattle and the pavements overflowing with goods and people.

A photo from the Umtata Club in the Wedderburn Book that Mom put together

Seeing Mom's Wedderburn Book with new eyes

The Wedderburn Book made by Estelle Wedderburn, 1970-80's

At last I can appreciate the work Mom put into her mammoth Wedderburn Book.

It is physically huge, heavy, the pages are thick sheets of card, it is loaded with original photos and letters as well as her typed notes, photocopied pages, documents, reprints of old family photos and her handwritten family trees.

There is nothing quite like crawling around on the carpet, putting my nose into the letters, deciphering old handwriting and enjoying the wonderful old photos.

I need to buy a magnifying glass.

I was drawn to a letter with its envelop on Mom's page about our Grandfather, Percy Wedderburn.

The small grey envelop is addressed to Right Honorable WP Schreiner, the High Commissioner for South Africa in London and it says:
"To introduce Mr Percy Wedderburn".

( William Philip Schreiner (30 August 1857 – 28 June 1919) was a barrister, politician, statesman and Prime Minister of the Cape Colony during the Second Boer War. Schreiner was on holiday in England at the outbreak of the First World War and was asked by Gen. Botha to fill the post of High Commissioner for South Africa in London. He died in office on 28 June 1919, the day the Treaty of Versailles was signed.)

The letter is sent from Bloemfontein on the 21 September 1918 and Percy would have been 29 years old.

 I cannot make out who is sending the letter though, the signature is quite magnificent with its flourishes but not decipherable. 

Anyway, he writes that Percy is well known to him and leaving for Britain with the next draft for service overseas 'and is now anxious to join the Officer's Training Corps in order to qualify for a Commission in the Artillery.'

The writer mentions that Grandpa Percy served the Union as a Volunteer in the Kimberley Regiment during the Rebellion in 1914 and also through the German West African Campaign and is in possession of good bodily health. I love the turn of phrase too - 'I have no hesitation in commending him to your favourable notice and guidance'

Seeing that this original letter is in the Wedderburn Book, I wonder whether he left for London,  'like so many others of our South African young men prove himself competent and worthy of confidence in his service'?

It would seem not, he marries Nanny Ina and Alexander William Wedderburn (Uncle Bobby) is born on the 9 July 1922.

Ou est les carottes?

This postscript to my letter has me smiling.

I was ever so intimidated by the staff at the Halte Garderie and having such a poor grasp of the language I was always on the back foot with them.

Barry was four months old, on formula only, doing quite fine but each time I dropped him off, I would get scowled at with the question thrown at me 'Ou est les carottes?' 

It took me a few weeks to even understand what was being asked of me.

The French start their babies eating solids early and mostly in those days it was blended carrots. The staff would be riffling through the baby bag I brought looking for some food for Barry.

I acquiesced eventually, cooked carrots and he flourished.