TOPIC:

Natal Native Scouts During the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) - 5

Stephen Molife

Recommendations by Stephen Molife in respect of men who served under him in the late Anglo-Boer War, and under the commands of Colonels Benson and McKenzie, and Marquis Tullibardine.

Jack Keretloea, James Molife and Thompson Ngcobo at Enkulungwe, near Amersfoort, while many Boers were besieging Marquis Tullibardine, who had with him only 50 soldiers, sat in a valley and kept firing on the approaching Boers and at the same time sent messages back [indicating] where soldiers should be placed to be effective against the Boers. This action puzzled the Boers very much as they did not know where the fire came from. I was eventually sent to call them in as they were quite near the Boers and might fall into danger. The Marquis thanked these men very much for their work.

Johannes Khubeka, Stephen Xaba, Thompson Ngcobo, JamesMolife and I were on the Swaziland border and I having reported to Colonel McKenzie the presence of 15 Boers and a waggon, it was arranged to capture them. Major Jones sent me ahead with the Scouts and, having got far ahead of the troops, we found that the Boers were lying down. I divided the Scouts into two groups on either side of the Boers and we rushed them. They fired at us and we fired at them. Most of the Boers had left by the time the troops arrived. Thompson Ngcobo, S Xaba and I captured three Boers with their waggon and arms. James Molife was in the path of the fleeing Boers and he shot and killed the horse of one of them, capturing the rider and his arms. All these were handed over to Colonel McKenzie.

John Nkomo, Stephen Xaba, Bennett Ntyingila, and Jack Keretloea, at Amersfoort, chased Boers out of their position and tried to secure the carriage of Commandant Botha but, being too hotly fired at, they managed to secure and hand over to Colonel McKenzie only the 4 mules belonging to the carriage.

At Lindley, ORC, John Nkomo and I were far ahead of troops under Colonel McKenzie during a drive. 300 Boers broke through the drive and we raced into a donga where they were headed. When they got near to us, we fired and rolled over 3 of their horses. Many of the Boers had got beyond where the horses fell and escaped, but others stopped, which enabled 12 soldiers to catch up and we captured 40 armed Boers.

At Bakenlaagte, Transvaal, I being alone in a hole as a sentinel and under the command of Colonel McKenzie, a Boer and a Kaffir, both armed, came to spy out the camp and I shot both, the Kaffir dead and wounded the Boer, who was subsequently taken over by the ambulance.

On parting with Marquis Tullibardine he called the Scouts up and thanked us very much for our work.

(Signed) Stephen Molife

Robert Samuelson added the following to this deposition:
Note, this man is the eldest son of Jabez Molife [and he served from the start] of 1901 …. to the end of the war, [firstly] with 11 of his own Scouts and latterly, for 10½ months , he had charge of his own Scouts and those who had been under Stephen Mini, who had to return to his duties at Edendale as Chief.

Brett Hendey
20/2/2013

While Robert Samuelson worked tirelessly to obtain the award of the QSA to the Natal Native Scouts, another white Colonist who deserves to be remembered in this connection is Joseph Forsyth Ingram (1858-1923). Ingram was a remarkable man, who made his mark on the Colony of Natal, but who has since been largely forgotten. His military history included service in the Zulu War, probably in the Durban Volunteer Artillery, but relevant here is his role in the Boer War and an extract of a short biography of Ingram is included below. Since he served with many of the Native Scouts, he provided testimonials and made representations to the Government on the matter of their entitlement to the QSA.

1893 – 1899 Natal

This was a remarkable period in Ingram’s life, which saw the publication of five books dealing with Natal and its two major towns (see Appendix A). This achievement may well have been facilitated by Ingram’s friendship with the Prime Minister, Sir John Robinson, and other prominent figures in Natal.

The 1895 book, The Colony of Natal: An Official Illustrated Handbook and Railway Guide, was commissioned by the Natal government and it may have been this book that secured for him his first civil service appointment. In 1894, Ingram had failed to secure a post as a Criminal Investigator with the Natal Police, but in 1995 he was appointed as Chief Locust Officer. In 1896 and 1897, he served as Chief Border Inspector.

It is not known how he spent 1898 and much of 1899, but the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War in October 1899 disrupted his life, as it did the lives of most residents of Natal.


1899 – 1902 The Anglo-Boer War

Ingram was 41 years old and probably not in the best of health when the war started. Nevertheless, he secured a place in uniform and he may well have used his connections with the Natal Government to do so.

An influential member of the Natal Legislative Assembly was the Honourable T K Murray CMG. According to Tylden (no date), in October 1899, Murray raised a force of 150 men near Mooi River and, from 2 to 16 November, these men (Murray’s Horse) scouted the country ahead of the Boers as they advanced into Natal. The arrival of increasing numbers of British troops, the deployment of Natal’s volunteer regiments and of several irregular regiments, led to the disbandment of Murray’s Horse. However, some men remained to serve in what became known as Murray’s Scouts and additional men were recruited, one of whom was Ingram.

Ingram’s age and ill-health would probably have prevented him from being accepted by conventional military units, but he possessed one attribute that made him invaluable in an intelligence or policing role and that was fluency in Zulu and other local languages. It seems likely that T K Murray arranged for Ingram to be appointed as Lieutenant (Interpreter) in Murray’s Scouts, a unit over which he had complete control. However, while Ingram was kept on the Murray’s Scouts pay sheet, he was “employed elsewhere” (Murray’s Scouts medal roll). The “elsewhere” was with the Provost Marshal for Natal, who later wrote of Ingram as follows:

Ladysmith
7th March 1900.

Mr Joseph Forsyth Ingram has served with me as interpreter since November 1899 until the relief of Ladysmith. He has been most useful and has spared no time or trouble to thoroughly carry out his duties and generally assist me in every way.

(signed) Alan Chichester, Major
(18th) The Royal Irish Regt
Provost Marshal for Natal.

On 26 June 1900, Ingram sent a letter from his home address (369 Loop Street, Pietermaritzburg) to the Colonial Secretary of Natal requesting his return to the civil service as an ‘Administrator of Native Law’. He ended the letter as follows:
“My previous record of service to the Colony is I think well known to yourself & the other Ministers.”
Ingram’s letter was followed up on 7 July 1900 by one from his wife, Harriet, in which she revealed that he was in Ladysmith and, presumably, still serving in the uniform of Murray’s Scouts. Evidently, nothing came from these two letters and Ingram’s war service took a new direction.

As the war progressed, the British high command came to realise how important military intelligence was to their cause. Much of it depended on the various locally raised corps of guides and interpreters. As a result, all these groups, some numbering only small numbers of men, were brought together in the Field Intelligence Department (FID), and it was as a member of this department that Ingram saw out the rest of the war.

Ingram was awarded both Boer War service medals as follows:
Queen’s South Africa Medal with Tugela Heights, Orange Free State, Relief of Ladysmith and Belfast clasps.
King’s South Africa Medal with South Africa 1901 and South Africa 1902 clasps.
The medals are named to ‘Interpreter J F Ingram FID’.

The latter medal, which is missing, is an indication that Ingram served until the end of the war on 31 May 1902.

1902 – 1904 Orange River Colony and Transvaal

The details of Ingram’s service in the FID are not known but, when the war ended, he was a Field Intelligence Officer stationed at Harrismith, Orange River Colony. It was from Harrismith in July 1902 that he made yet another application to the Colonial Secretary’s Office for employment in Natal. In his letter he wrote:
“For the past twelve months I have practically acted as Military Magistrate in this district, and have had to deal with both Dutch and Native cases, thereby gaining considerable experience in legal work.”

Good morning Brett,
That is a really superb QSA, to actually have a medal to the FID, impressed "Interpreter" is both wonderful and very rare indeed.
Regards Frank

Hi Frank

Thanks for the assessment of Ingram's QSA, and thank you also for providing the information on his service in Murray's Scouts, which is what made me determined to acquire the medal. Only after I had received the medal did I discover that Ingram had made a name for himself, not as a soldier, but as an explorer, artist and author. Also, it was during the research on Ingram that the saga of the non-award of the QSA to the Native Scouts of Natal was revealed to me, as were the records of these Scouts that are in the Pietermaritzburg Archives.

Regards
Brett

Hello Brett,
Many members of the FID were very execptional people, I have no doubt that Joseph Forsyth Ingram falls into this category, I know from much time spent researching seemly uninteresting medals, one or two state clasps and perhaps a date clasp, to the FID, this is, indeed, often the case, its members were accepted because of their special skills, those were often unique within the Regt/Corps/Columns that they might be attached to as scouts, guides and intelligence officers etc and of course in Ingram's case, interpreters.
I have a good collection of medals to the FID, but, I don't have an interpreter, nor in fact, have I ever had the opportunity to buy such a medal, you are very fortunate in my opinion.
Perhaps we should start an specialist intelligence post on here?
Kind regards Frank

This is an exceptional thread. Some thoroughly new insights into a previously unknown, and wrongly disregarded (by historians) aspect of the Boer War.

Thanks to all for bringing this to light. I hope that David can drag it all together as a separate part of the website.

At the end of the war certain of the Natal Native Scouts were indeed recommended for awards to Lord Kitchener in the submissions for his final despatches and awards including Simeon Kambula and Molife.

They're in WO 105 or WO 108 at the TNA under final recommendations for the FID. I'm not close to London and can't find my notes from some twenty years ago but I hope someone can and will add them to this thread.

Best,

Justin