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Bertie Sumner of the Fort Beaufort D.M.T. 6 years 7 months ago #55203

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Herbert Alwyn Stuart Sumner

Private, Fort Beaufort District Mounted Troops – Anglo Boer War
Private, 7th South African Infantry – WWI


- Queens South Africa Medal to 43 Tpr. H. Summer, Fort Beaufort D.M.T.
- British War Medal to Pte. H.A.S. Sumner, 7th S.A.I.
- Victory Medal to Pte. H.A.S. Sumner, 7th S.A.I.


Bertie Sumner was born in the rural hamlet of Arries Hoek near Fort Beaufort in the Eastern Cape on 26 July 1884. Baptised on 1 November 1884 he was the son of Eli Sumner, a farmer in the area, and his wife Jessie Elizabeth, born Flowers. Among his siblings were Syfret Flowers Sumner, Rose Alice Jemima Sumner, Hilton Adden Sumner and Olive Ivo Purvis Sumner.

Life for a young Bertie would have consisted of a obtaining a rudimentary education at the local school preparatory to following in his father’s footsteps as a farmer. At the age when most adolescent boys were dreaming of adventure a 16 year old Bertie enlisted with No. 1 Troop of the Fort Beaufort District Mounted Troops for service in the Anglo Boer War.

Very few in the small out-of-the-way community of Fort Beaufort had considered that this war would ever reach their doorstep. It was, after all, primarily a conflict between Boer and Brit with its origin in the far-away Transvaal, Orange Free State and Natal. Commencing in October 1899 the war had spread rapidly west, south and east leading to the Siege of important towns like Mafeking, Kimberley and Ladysmith and, at first, the Imperial reverses were many and severe in their intensity but slowly, as more British troops took to the field and Colonial outfits joined the fray, the Boers were beaten back.



Bertie with his father Eli behind him

Their capitals fell, first Bloemfontein and then Pretoria but the Imperial authorities hadn’t reckoned on the indomitable spirit these hardy farmers possessed – the formal fighting over the Boers resorted to guerrilla-style warfare attacking small isolated British columns plundering their supplies and disrupting their Lines of Communication. An added attempt was made to bring the Cape Boers into the fracas on the side of the Boers and, to this end, Smuts and other Boer Generals crossed the Orange River into the southern and Eastern Cape working their way inexorably towards the coast.

Town Guards and District Mounted Troops in the small towns and settlements dotted around the area had been called into existence some time before but were now called up and called upon to do their duty in defending their towns and its peoples from any harm. Fort Beaufort was no exception raising both a Town Guard for internal defence and a District Mounted Troop whose task was more demanding – to go outside into the district and take the fight to any Boer incursions there may be.

An 18 year old Sumner (written as Summer on his attestation papers) was among those who enlisted with No. 1 Troop of the D.M.T. completing his attestation on 20 February 1901 he was assigned no. 43 and the rank of Trooper with the Fort Beaufort District Mounted Troops under Captain Fred Ainslie. There’s would have been to patrol the district around the town and the farms in search of any marauding Boer Commandos who were known to be active in the vicinity.

After the conclusion of hostilities Sumner and his comrades were discharged on the dissolution of the various local outfits – services no longer required. For his efforts he was awarded the Queens Medal, issued off the roll in Cape Town dated 1 July 1905.

Returning to his farming pursuits Sumner’s tranquillity was again disturbed in 1914 albeit on a much larger stage. The Great War between Germany and her allies and Great Britain and hers was a conflict which commanded world-wide attention and participation. Even South Africa, so lately at loggerheads with the British Empire and so far away from the source of it all, was called upon to do her bit as part of the Empire. Louis Botha, erstwhile Boer General and now Prime Minister of the recently formed Union of South Africa, finally prevailed in carrying a motion through parliament to support the Empire and, on 4 August 1914, South Africa was at war with Germany.

After initially supressing an internal revolt against the decision to go to war, Botha and his Minister of Defence, Jan Smuts, invaded German South West Africa. After a dusty and gruelling campaign that theatre was carried ending with the German surrender on 9 July 1915. Men were now free to either return home or volunteer for service in either German East Africa or the Western Front.

Sumner, who had remained on his farm all this while, threw his hat in by attesting for service in German East Africa as a member of the 3rd South African Infantry Brigade. He provided his wife, Lily Susan Sumner of Arries Hoek, P.O. Lower Blinkwater, Cape Province as his next of kin and, at the age of 32, was assigned no. 13280 and the rank of Private with effect from 14 August 1916. After an initial period of training he embarked at Durban aboard the “Professor” on 26 September 1916 destined for East Africa.

Like so many Sumner’s was not a happy war. Almost all troops of European origin succumbed to one or more of the many tropical sicknesses rife in the tropics. Malaria, Black Water Fever and Dysentery were to take their toll on the white man’s fighting ability leaving thousands decimated by sickness and very often death before Smuts took the decision to return all European troops to the Union. Sumner was no exception – on 15 February 1917 he was admitted to the 1st Field Ambulance with Malaria being transferred to the S.A. General Hospital at Dar-es-Salaam on the same day for treatment. This was soon after he had been transferred to the 7th S.A. Infantry on 25 January 1917.

On 19 March 1917 he disembarked at Durban ex His Majesty’s Hospital Ship “Guildford Castle” and was immediately admitted to No. 3 General Hospital at Springfield before being transferred to Roberts Heights outside Pretoria on 30 March. From then on followed a succession of hospital treatments – both at Roberts Heights and Potchefstroom before, on 3 December 1917, Sumner was granted his discharge, Temporarily Unfit, from the service. He had, whilst in uniform, overstayed his leave only once – that where he was scheduled to return to Pretoria on 10 October 1917 and didn’t make it on time earning for himself a forfeiture of 7 days pay.

Bertie Sumner was awarded the British War and Victory Medals to go with his Queens Medal – they were despatched to him on 3 February 1923










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