TOPIC:

With the current preoccupation with the "Siege of O'okiep" courtesy of the latest City Coins offerings I thought it opportune to post a medal to a chap who didn't qualify for the Cape Copper Company medal but did earn the QSA.

John Rowe

Private, O’okiep Volunteers

- Queen’s South Africa Medal (no clasp) to 183 Pte. J. Rowe, O'okiep Voltrs.

John Rowe was born in January 1851 in the small town of St. Blazey in the county of Cornwall, England. He was the son of John Seymour Rowe, a Miner and local Preacher, and his wife Elizabeth. On 31 March, at the time of the 1851 England census, the family were resident at Double Trees in St. Blazey with John junior the first born and only child at the tender of age of 2 months.



At the time of the 1861 census the family were still resident at the same address but with the addition of a number of children - John, now aged 10, was joined by sister Ellen (5), brother William (2) and twins Ann Jane and Mary Grace (6 months). John senior was reflected as a Copper Miner and “Bible Christian Preacher”.

At the age of 20 and now an unmarried Copper Miner, John was still resident under his parents’ roof. The family had, however, moved to Pensilva in St. Ive's, Cornwall and had grown considerably with the addition of Elizabeth (8), Emily (6) and Joseph (3).

It is not known when the young John Rowe decided to trek southwards but trek he did to re-appear, at the time of the Anglo Boer War, as an Overseer in the employ of the Cape Copper Mining Company resident in the Nabapeep area of Namaqualand in the North west corner of the Cape Colony. He was thus present by the time, in the final stages of the war, that the British forces had whittled down the Boer resistance to such an extent that the only resistance they could offer was sporadic guerrilla attacks.

On the eve of defeat, General Smuts decided to lead a commando down to the Cape Colony. It was during this campaign that his Commando, as the Boer military formations were called, laid siege to the mining town of Okiep. Okiep was a small copper mining town in the Cape Colony, that eventually became the headquarters of the Cape Copper Mining Company. This was after the neighbouring towns of Concordia and Springbok had surrendered. Springbok had put up quite fierce resistance, with British loses being four men killed and six wounded. Due to the small size of British forces in the region, Boer forces had free reign of the surrounding areas.

Thus, Smuts and his commando were able to force the evacuation of many outposts as well as blowing up a number of blockhouses (fortifications). The majority of the refugees fled to Port Nolloth, as two British gunboats were en route there on standby to provide assistance. On 4 April 1902, Smuts demanded the surrender of Okiep. The soldiers stationed at Okiep were made up of the fifth Royal Warwickshires and a number of Namaqualand Town Guard Battalion members, consisting of a sizeable number of Black and European miners. The garrison consisted of:

206 European miners
661 Cape coloureds
44 men of the 5th Warwickshire militia
12 men of the Cape Garrison Artillery

A total strength of 923.

It is claimed that Colonel Shelton, the Commander of the British garrison at Okiep, refused to surrender even though he only had enough provisions to hold out for three weeks.

On 4 May 1902, a relief column arrived from Port Nolloth and ended the siege. This was one of the last military actions by Boer forces, as the war ended in May of the same year. A point of interest is that the British had expected a protracted siege, and in preparation thereof had issued a number of siege notes. This being a form of government guaranteed credit note to keep the economy in a besieged town going until relief arrived.

For his efforts, Rowe was awarded the Queen’s South Africa Medal to no. 183 Pte. J.Rowe, O’okiep Volunteers.

Rowe and his family, he had married a Susannah Rhoda Bendell in Cape Town some years before, resumed their normal lives. According to the 1903 Namaqualand census he was recorded as being an Overseer and a resident or voter in the Field – Cornetcy of Springfontein “A” – Namaqualand.

The next occasion we encounter his name is in the journal of the Methodist Church for Namaqualand. This was in +/- 1904 and mention is made that John Rowe was a lay preacher in the congregation and had taken a leading roll in the collection of funds for the building of a church there.

The Cape Copper Company ceased operations in May 1919 and, with no employment to occupy him, Rowe must have taken the decision to ply his trade as a Miner on the Witwatersrand area of the Transvaal.

It is here, resident at 135 7th Avenue, Mayfair, Johannesburg that he passed away one month later on 2 June 1919 at the age of 68. He was survived by his wife and six children, Ethel Rowe, Amy Rowe, Maud Scott (born Rowe), Wilfred Bendell Rowe, Lilian Rowe and Florence Eunice Rowe.


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Hi Rory
I have the QSA to J Dembitzer of the O'okiep Volunteers with his Cape Copper Co medal. I think is more than probable that Rowe also got an O'okiep bronze.
The recipient of the QSA/CCC medal pair sold recently in Australia also had service in the O'okiep Volunteers
I also have the QSA to S Dembitzer of the Springbokfontein TG : that, according to the family via previous owner, did not come with the CCC medal.

Henk