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Neville, many thanks for solving the Sgt Oliver, Royal Warwickshire Regiment puzzle.

Below another paper knife with a story produced in Diyatalawa.


This ebony example (38,5 x 2,8 cm) is engraved with the text “A souvenir from Diyatalawa, The Boer Camp, Ceylon 1900-1901” with the initials J.T.B. on the extremity of the handle.



The initials on the handle potentially make this otherwise run-of-the-mill example rather interesting. After trailing through the lists of all Boer prisoners on Ceylon in the database of the Bloemfontein Museum, only one name matched all the available information: James Thompson Bain, a member of the Heidelberg Commando who was captured on May 31, 1900 in Johannesburg and subsequently shipped off with the Mohawk to the Diyatalawa Camp on Ceylon.

A quick search on the internet unearthed that J.T. Bain was a well-known man: An engaged trade Union militant according to some, a socialist pest according to others.
James Thompson Bain was born into a poor family in Dundee (Scotland) in 1860. To escape poverty he enlisted in the British Army at the age of 16 and was deployed to the recently Annexed Transvaal in 1878. During his time in South Africa, Bain participated in the battles against the Zulus in Natal. In 1880 he was sent to India where he served until retirement from the Army in 1882. Bain then returned to Scotland and trained as a fitter (or engineer according to other sources). During this time he became active in socialist circles and joined the Scottish Land & Labour League.
In 1890 Bain moved back to South Africa. He first settled in Cape Town, then Kimberly to end up in booming Johannesburg where he became involved in the Labour Union, a trade union launched in 1892.

During the entire 1890’s Bain remained politically active on the left side of the spectrum as a leading figure in the Johannesburg Trades Council and Editor of the Johannesburg Witness. Bain had a strong dislike for the British and the Rand Capitalists and that explains why he agreed to act as a spy for the Kruger Government, both in- and outside the Transvaal. At the outbreak of the war, he joined the Boer forces and fought until his capture in Johannesburg on May 31, 1900. Bain, with his Scottish roots and British Army background, faced potential charges of treason. He was imprisoned but wasn’t charged for treason as he was able to prove he had become a naturalized Transvaal citizen well before the war had broken out. The British Authorities reluctantly recognized that fact and sent him to Ceylon as a common Boer POW. Bain returned to South Africa in 1903.

From about 1905 Bain gradually became a prominent political figure in South Africa, as President of the Transvaal Independent Labour Party and through his involvement in the South African trade union movement (Trade Union Federation). He was the initiator of the mine strikes of 1913 which sent him back to jail and led to his deportation. Bain returned to South Africa in 1914, got his hopes up for the future during the Soviet Revolution in 1917 but died from natural causes in October 1919 in Johannesburg, 75 years before his communist dreams for the country became all but reality.

Professor Jonathan Hyslop dedicated an entire book to J.T. Bain: “The Notorious Syndicalist: J.T. Bain, a Scottish Rebel in Colonial South Africa”

Another Ceylon (Diyatalawa) Ebony paper knife, this time without doubt made to order for a guard or a camp visitor with pro-British leanings as it celebrates General Buller’s ultimately successful effort to relieve Ladysmith. This knife is damaged as well as a bit unusual as it has been engraved on both sides. Most of its gold fill on the obverse has disappeared.



The reverse:



This second paper knife was a standard example produced in Diatalawa. Because of the clearly different (quality of) lettering, it looks like it was subsequently personalized by POW P Heyns in his own hand.




The Bloemfontein Museum database gives two possibilities for P. Heyns of which the following is the most likely candidate:
Pieter Johannes Heyns, born June 7, 1880, in Harrismith. Heyns joined the Harrismith commando under Kommandant Cornelis de Villiers in October 1899. Under this brave commander he must have fought a.o. at Rietfontein and Platrand, before being taken prisoner. Although the database lacks details, Heyns’ POW number 11712 suggests that he was taken prisoner during the mass surrender of the commandos under General Prinsloo on July 29, 1900 at the Brandwaterkom. Heyns was shipped off to the Diyatalawa camp in Ceylon, most likely on the Bavarian. Heyns is listed in the veteran’s section as having married a Miss J. Laai in 1909 and, according to Geni, died in 1964.

My final contribution to this thread concerns three examples produced on Ceylon in the final year of the Boer War. As can be seen the POW’s had apparently gotten a bit bored with the traditional rectangular design and started to experiment with alternative shapes and materials.

The first is a paper knife in the form of a Turkish or Middle Eastern scimitar. It has the same length as the traditional, rectangular shaped knifes (about 33 cm) and features a (8cm) cross guard covered with bone on both sides and a single cutting edge.


This second example also is based on the scimitar design but is shorter (28 cm), lacks a cross guard and is profusely decorated. The mention “Remembrance” may indicate that it was produced very late in the war or even thereafter for or by a POW who was awaiting repatriation or a POW who was stuck in the camp for refusing to sign the Oath of Alliance.


This last example is a short (24 cm) paper knife, unusually based on the standard household utensil.

It seems J.T.B. was a prolific artisan.

Here is another example, inscribed: "Dundee Octr. the 20, 1899 / Prisoners Taken 331 / Casualties 143 / Force Engaged 3500 / Ceylon, / 1901 / J.T.B."
354mm long. Chalked, to highlight lettering.



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Some enterprising POWs took the production of these carvings to a new level by establishing businesses or co-operatives with their own trademarks. The style of the inscriptions on the two page turners below seems to indicate that they are the work of different craftsmen, yet they both have the JCR / CJR trademark. Vicky Heunis, in her excellent book "Krygsgevangenekuns in die Anglo-Boereoorlog" (2022), documents the partnership set up by Johannes De Vries and Johan Daniel Claasen, which made and sold bone brooches under the name of "De Vries, Claasen & Co." A photograph in J.N. Brink's "Recollections of a Boer Prisoner-of-War at Ceylon", shows that this company had a workforce of at least five.

The first example pictured below is of particular interest in that it was made for Captain W. Roberts, the Master of Transport No. 60, S.S. Englishman. The Englishman was involved in the repatriation of Boers at the end of the war, and is recorded as having arrived at Colombo, Ceylon, on 14 July 1902. “Eleven hundred Boer prisoners, mainly from Madras, and 400 from Ceylon will sail by the Golconda and the Englishman at the end of July for Cape Town.” The date of 20 August 1902 on the back of the page-turner suggests that Captain Roberts acquired this piece during a second voyage to the island.

Carvings chalked to highlight the inscriptions.




Page turner decorated with the arms of the Transvaal and Orange Free State, and inscribed: "GREAT BOER WAR / 10-10-99 / PEACE 31-5-02" "TRADE MARK / JCR (of CJR?) / P.O.W." "CEYLON 1900-02". Reverse: "CAPT ROBERTS / S.S. ENGLISHMAN / 20-8-02". 367mm long.








Civil & Military Gazette (Lahore), 26th August 1902

THE REPATRIATION OF THE BOERS.

The Times of Ceylon says: –
The second batch of 400 Boer prisoners-of-war left Ceylon for South Africa by the “Englishman” today (7th August), and, as on the previous occasion the embarkation was carried out as quietly as possible. The arrangements were precisely the same. Compared with the first batch of prisoners, they presented a more healthy and cheerful appearance. Our representative was given to understand that most of them were “well off”, and this was more or less apparent from the character of the kit that each man carried, photographic cameras and kodaks being greatly in evidence. A large number of men had red puggarees on their headgear, and this proved to be a distinguishing mark of the officers. A notable fact is that the batch includes as many as 26 officers, and one of them, chatting to our representative, said that he had followed the remarks in the press regarding the unwillingness of the Boers at Diyatalawa to sign the declaration of allegiance, and he believed that nothing would do more to induce the rest of the prisoners to accept the inevitable, than the knowledge that 26 of their officers had signed the declaration and were going back to South Africa.







This second example again carries the JCR/CJR monogram, though here it is not within the triangular "TRADE MARK". Could this indicate that it is an earlier carving, from a period before the more formal trademark was adopted? Note, also, the style of lettering, which seems to indicate that this was made by a different craftsman to the one that carved the Captain Roberts page-turner.













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