TOPIC:

Johannes Andries Kruger

Private, Cape Police (Special Police) – Bechuanaland Campaign
Private, Cape Police District II – Anglo Boer War

- Cape of Good Hope General Service Medal with Bechuanaland clasp to Pte. J.A. Kruger, Spl. Pol.
- Queens South Africa Medal with clasp Cape Colony to Pte. J.A. Kruger, Cape Police

Johann Kruger was born on 7 May 1874 in the remote town of Victoria West in the Cape Colony to Ockert Cornelius Kruger, a Farmer and his wife Catharina Margarieta Kruger, born Steenkamp. Being a son of the soil, Kruger would have been destined for the life of a Farmer like his father but, at the age of 22, decided to leave the land and enlist with the Special Police.

Not much is known of this body of men, certainly not in the infancy of their existence, it is supposed that they were a branch of the Cape Police whose District II was headquartered at Kimberley – then a town of increasing importance with the diamond mining industry at the centre of things. British Bechuanaland was soon the scene of the Cape Police's first military action. During the rinderpest epidemic which spanned from the 24 December 1896 to the 30 July 1897, C.P. District 2 was ordered to ensure that infected livestock were killed. Batswana leaders resisted the order, leading to armed conflict and a lengthy standoff in the Langberg Mountains. As the CP did not have the necessary resources, the government mobilised other colonial forces to end the resistance. Units of CP District 2 were attached to the military Bechuanaland Field Force for the eight-month-long operation one of these were the Special Police, a unit numbering no more than 67 men.

The cattle disease referred to, a serious epidemic of rinderpest, broke out in Bechuanaland affecting many herds. The government took drastic measures and issued regulations to combat the outbreak that included the slaughtering of infected herds. The Bataplin tribe from the former Crown Colony land objected to the regulations and refused to implement them. Also a minor Bataplin chief named Galishiwe fired on a Cape Police party that came to arrest him at Pokwani in connection with the murder of a German trader living nearby.

The police then sent 600 men to arrest Galishiwe but as they arrived the Chief’s men dispersed and he escaped in the confusion. These “rebels” then killed another European trader and looted his store. Once again the police party sent to deal with the matter failed to apprehend Galishiwe; this led to a troop of Cape Mounted Riflemen under Captain Woon riding in support of the police, but by now the Batlaro natives had also risen in revolt. Woon decided that the rebels were too strong and so he withdrew. Finally in mid-February 1897 the Cape Government decided to form the Bechuanaland Field Force and despatch it to deal with the rebellion. Meanwhile the rebels, about 2,500 in number and armed with good rifles and plenty of ammunition, had fortified very strong defensive positions in the Langeberg mountain range that runs in between Kuruman and the German South West Africa border. Large herds of cattle had been driven into these hills. The uprising was eventually put down.

The role the Special Police played in this conflict is best described through the eyes of one of its members. The Scotsman newspaper of 1 February 1897 carried his account under the banner heading:

“The Native Uprising in British Bechuanaland

A letter from a member of the Special Police Force, dated from Vryburg, 10 January 1897 says: -

At 5 a.m. on 24th we were warned to be ready to start at a moment’s notice, but as we waited for reinforcements from Barkly, it was about 6 o’ clock at night before 40 Cape Police with about as many Volunteers, started by special train for Phokwani siding at 2 a.m. on Christmas Day. We slept there that night and were up before 5. That day we remained at the siding pending an answer from Galishiwe to the Commissioner’s ultimatum, and the arrival of a seven-pounder from Kimberley. The latter arrived later that night.

At daylight on the 26th, the column fell in and marched in half-sections up the road towards the store we had come to relieve, our number being 80 Cape Police (mounted) and about 60 Volunteers D.F.H. and Rifles (all dismounted), and the seven-pounder, one waggon following. We marched for about half an hour, when our scouts were driven in by a heavy fire from a sluit and kopjes on the left. The column was halted and dismounted, the infantry advanced to the front, and with the police skirmished through the bush and cleared the Kaffirs out of the spruit which they occupied the rest of the day.

About 20 Cape Police rushed up the kopje on the right, and meeting some Kaffirs coming up the other side on the top, after some sharp firing, cleared them out. From there they opened fire on the sluit and kopjes on the left and rear. The hottest fire was received by the men who took the spruit on the left. From there in good cover they opened fire on the kopjes. The fire was very hot for four hours, and lasted desultorily all day. From the kopjes in the rear on right and left (especially the latter) a fire was kept up for some time on the waggon, to which the rear guard replied. I was left holding horses and was in the pleasant position of being fired on and never getting a chance to fire in return.

We had very little water and no food all day (the spruit, of course, was dry), and we got nothing to eat till after dark. Till it was quite dark one fellow kept dropping shots into the camp, but his only “hit” was the waggon, though he dropped half a dozen shots right in the middle of us. From the accounts of prisoners, there were about 600 armed natives engaged on the first day, and their own estimate of their loss is over 100 killed. Of course most of them had old muzzle loaders and weapons better adapted to kill the firer than anyone else but some had Martinis and Mannlichers. The difference in the sound of the bullets was very noticeable, the Martinis making a sharp “bizz” and the Potlegs a sort of “burr”. The latter would ricochet several times, being round, and one could almost see them bounding along. At night I as one of six sent back to the siding to guard the ammunition etc. and we spent the night in barricaded cattle trucks.

That night 300 infantry Volunteers arrived from Kimberley, and the column started after breakfast to march on the store. I was left behind but was able to see all that happened from the top of the hill. The fighting was short and decisive, a shell or two, a little desultory firing, and a couple of Cape Police charges clearing the niggers out and scattering them to the winds. The infantry marched up to the store to find it deserted. Then the looting and the firing of the huts began. I was sent up with despatches about 1 o’ clock and found the stadt in flames and the three poor murdered whites being dug out of the hole into which they had been thrown. They were dreadfully battered about. Fortunately they had managed with great difficulty to get their wives and children away before. The sore, curiously enough had not been looted.

The following day I was one of a patrol of 70 men who were out burning and looting. We located the Kaffirs posted in a kopje about eight miles off on the Transvaal border but fearing Dutch complications – the Kaffirs were said to have got arms and ammunition from the Transvaal – could not engage them. That night we shifted camp to the position of the Police Camp Schaapfontein, two miles off. This had been abandoned on the 24th, having been cut off from the store, and we found it looted.

For the next few days we were out patrolling every day having from ten to twelve days in the saddle, and the horses were getting knocked up. We burned all the huts we came across, and brought in 100 prisoners; but they were scattered and offered no resistance.

We also drove in all their sheep and goats, horses and cattle. There were very few of the latter through rinderpest. Our food supplies were bad and insufficient, and we had no tents. We started at about six every morning, and did not get back till after dark, having had no food all day, and then had to make our own firs and cook our rations.

On the 29th it rained all day and we got wet through. We left Schaapfontein on the 8th, and about 100 Cape Police, with two maxims, are warned to start at a moment’s notice for the native districts east of this, where there have been more murders, and a rising is feared. Everything is uncertain at present.”

The rebellion quelled Kruger must have opted to leave the Force. He was awarded the Cape of Good Hope General Service Medal with Bechuanaland clasp. This medal was only authorised and distributed around the time of the Boer War.

It wasn’t long before he was caught up in yet another conflagration – this time on a much larger scale and of a more serious nature – the Anglo Boer War. War between the two Boer Republics of the Orange Free State and Transvaal was declared on 11 October 1899 and, in one of the first actions of the war, commandoes from the Orange Free State headed for Kimberley with the objective of capturing that town deemed, in their minds, to be of major importance and significance. The added bonus was that Cecil John Rhodes was known to be holed-up there and what a prize his capture would be!

Kruger, according to his papers in the Cape Archives, had enlisted with District II of the Cape Police on 28 March 1899, six months before the Boer War broke out, at Kimberley. He was 24 years of age, 5 feet 11 ½ inches in height and had brown hair, brown eyes and a tanned complexion. He was unmarried, a member of the Dutch Reformed Church and a Farmer by occupation. Appointed with no. 726 and the rank of 3rd Class Private, Kruger set to work.

With the outbreak of the war he was part of a force that was so ubiquitous, and its services throughout the whole war so varied, that to give a connected account of its work is impossible. It must suffice to mention the districts and occasions when these services were of outstanding value. At the commencement of the war the force was distributed as follows: Kimberley district 226, Mafeking 103, scattered over Colony 430. Kruger, with his single Cape Colony clasp to his Queens Medal, might have been one of those deployed in the Vryburg area of the Cape Colony. He was certainly not in Kimberley otherwise he would have been recognised with the award of the Defence of Kimberley clasp.

All through October, November, and December detachments of the Police were doing all the work of regular mounted infantry, and much besides, as when they provided the crews of armoured trains. Apart from their duties in regular warfare the Police had throughout the campaign to look after the numerous rebels and suspects, very many of whom they captured and brought in during January and February 1900.

Again we turn to the newspapers for an account of what Kruger’s outfit was up to. The Doking and Leatherhead Advertiser December 1901 edition carried the story, borrowed from the Bechuanaland News of a skirmish in the Vryburg area:

“Hannan’s Farm, New Grennan, about 15 miles eastwards of Vryburg, has been the scene of a sharp skirmish between some irregular British troops and the Boers who have been giving trouble along the border for some time. The Boers got considerably the worst of it, losing 7 men killed 2 wounded and several prisoners against our 1 killed and 5 wounded. The place is garrisoned by about 50 of the newly raised special police recently sent up from Kimberley to do police duty. The Boers put in an appearance in strength on Saturday morning, and surrounded the farm, firing from a distance of about 2000 yards. The police horses were in a stone kraal a little way off the homestead, and here the men took up their position and returned the fire, having three of their number slightly wounded during the day.

The Boers kept up a hot fire making it impossible to pass from the kraal to the house, which, although the Boers must have known it to be the women’s shelter, was well spattered with bullets. News of the attack reached Vryburg in the night and early on Sunday morning a party of 60 Cape and Special Police rode out to New Grennan with all haste. The firing had commenced again at daybreak. Lt. Spencer extended his men into skirmishing order, and then charged up the bushy slope on the west side of the homestead where the Boers were in force. In face of this determined attack the Boers vacated their position without delay. The enemy subjected our men to a very hot fire from their positions on either side. Having driven the Boers off the Police returned to Vryburg under cover of darkness bringing the occupants of the farm with them.”

Throughout his career Kruger suffered, intermittently, with bouts of rheumatism and diarrhoea. He was promoted to 2nd Class Private on 1 May 1903 by which time the war was over. Despite having served throughout the war, thus qualifying for the Kings as well as Queens Medals, there is an annotation on the medal roll confirming that his Kings Medal was returned to Woolwich on 2 March 1909. He was transferred to the dismounted branch in August 1903.

At the age of 31 years and 7 months he took his discharge from the Cape Police at Kimberley on 2 January 1906. His conduct was described as “Fair” and his sobriety “Good.”

Kruger returned to civilian pursuits – he had married in 1901 but his wife must have passed away at some point. He wed again, at the age of 44, on 1 October 1918, when he took for his wife Maria Aletta Susanna Meyer, a 27 year spinster. Both gave their address as Longlands, Barkly West which is where the wedding took place. Kruger had swapped his uniform for the working clothes of a Diamond Prospector.

Johannes Andries Steenkamp (he had adopted his mother’s maiden name) Kruger, passed away at the age of 68 years and 7 months at his farm Deelpan in the district of Lydenburg on 15 December 1942. He was survived by his wife and seven children.

Another great piece of research Rory and another fine pair of medals.

Thanks George - with these medals I also acquired his son's WWII group - he was a POW with the SA Artillery in January 1942 - a short while after "Totten Sontag"