TOPIC:

Samuel Isaac Hulley was born in Somerset East on 19 April 1851. He was the son of Joseph Hulley who was born in Albany on 2 June 1823. His father Joseph married his mother, Mary Jackson, in Somerset East on 15 June 1847. Mary was born on 6 July 1824 and died in June 1907; his father Joseph having died in Maclear some 10 years previously on 2 July 1896. Joseph and Mary had ten children. Samuel was their third child and their second son. Educated at the Cathcart Academy in Queenstown he was engaged in business at Queenstown until at least 1871. It was at about this time that he was lured to the Diamond Fields where he employed as many as 60 natives at one time. It would seem that it was during this period that his military career commenced with the Diamond Fields Horse. After approximately 3½ years he returned to the district of Wodehouse where he farmed near the Stormberg Mountains. At that time his father Joseph Hulley was farming at the farm known as Hulley Hill approximately 7 miles north east of Maclear towards the Tsitsa River, a tributary of the Umzimvubu River which enters the Indian Ocean at Port St Johns.

It was here that he joined the Wodehouse True Blues at the start of the Ninth Frontier War. Having some experience through his service with the Diamond Fields Horse he was given the rank of Sergeant. The SAGS medal roll includes a marginal note that Hulley subsequently served as Captain with the unit referred to as “Lonsdale’s Fingoes” during 1878. Through references such as the 1879 publication “Kaffirland – A Ten Months Campaign” written by Frank N. Streatfield it is clear that the friendly Fingoe Troops raised in Keiskamma Hoek were commonly referred to as Streatfield’s Levies and Lonsdale’s Levies. These levies, sometimes also referred to as the Keiskammahoek Levies, were commanded by Streatfield himself and Commandant Rupert de la Tour Lonsdale
who was the Magistrate at Keiskammahoek.

As is well known Lonsdale was subsequently appointed as Officer Commanding of the 3rd Regiment of the Natal Native Contingent towards the end of 1878 and subsequently served in Zululand. Although Hulley is not listed on the SAGS medal roll for the Zulu War it is recorded elsewhere that he was appointed as a Captain and served with the 1st/3rd Battalion of the Natal Native Contingent. Samuel also took part in the assault at Sirayo’s Homestead on 12 January where several officers of 3rd N.N.C. Under Commandant George Hamilton ‘Maori’ Browne were mentioned in the press for their work on the flanks during the action. It would seem that his Company was not directly involved in the historical action at Ishandlwana on 22 January 1879 however records indicate that he accompanied the body of troops who subsequently recovered the bodies of Lieutenants Melville and Bromhead from Fugitives Drift. After the disbandment of the 3rd Battalion Natal Native Contingent Hulley served with Wood’s Irregulars, once again his service with this column was perhaps due to his acquaintance with Evelyn Wood who during the previous year had commanded the force during the fighting in the Pirie Bush with Lonsdale’s Fingoes in 1878.

From an examination of the SAGS medal rolls it is clearly evident that the medal rolls for the Natal Native Contingent (particularly the 3rd Regiment) were incomplete and it is therefore not surprising that the award of the SAGS medal for 1879 is not credited to him. (He should correctly have been awarded the clasp 1877-8-9 however in such instances a second and duplicated medal named to their Zulu War unit was invariably issued to colonial recipients).



Samuel Hulley and his wife Polly

Samuel Hulley is listed on the Cape of Good Hope Medal Issue Register as Captain S.J. Hulley of the Wodehouse Border Rovers (although the initial “J” could be a transcription error) whereas Forsyth records him as Captain S.I. Hulley combining the several and probably different Wodehouse units together, these being described as Wodehouse Rangers, Wodehouse Rovers, Wodehouse Border Rovers and Wodehouse Border Guard. It is clear that Samuel Hulley was not one of the members of the small force from Barkley East under Captain Muhlenbeck who initially rushed to reinforce the Magistrate Mr John Roger Thompson at Maclear and who styled themselves as the Wodehouse Border Guard. These volunteers fortified Maclear in support of Thompson and his few companions in October 1880 after Hamilton Hope, the Magistrate at Qumbu, and his two assistants Charles Henman and Robert Warren had been murdered by the native chief Umhlonhlo on 23 October 1880. Walter Stanford in his Reminiscences, as edited by J.W. MacQuarrie and published by the Van Riebeeck Society in 1958, mentions Hulley quite extensively and records that Hulley commanded “A” Troop of the Wodehouse Border Rovers which took part in the subsequent Relief of Maclear reaching Magistrate Thomson and his few defenders at Maclear on 5 December 1880.

Samuel married, his cousin, Mary Betty “Polly” Hulley at Cradock on 9 August 1879 and after a period of farming and trading in the Wodehouse district he was engaged in Transport riding between the Transvaal and the Cape Colony. In 1886 he joined the first rush to Barberton where he was employed as a native compound manager at the Sheba Gold Mine. He soon joined the staff of the Mining Commissioner’s Office of the Transvaal Government, assuming duties as Pass Officer in April 1897 a few years before the outbreak of the Anglo Boer war.


QSA medal rolls indicate that he, like many of his colleagues, joined the Barberton Town Guard – the QSA medal due to him subsequently being issued with his correct initials! After the War he re-joined the Mines Department under Thomas Casement before being transferred to Native Affairs Department and subsequently to the Law Department as a Justice of the Peace and Pubic Prosecutor for the Barberton District in April 1908. He was called to give evidence to the South African Native Affairs Commission held between 1903 and 1905 (My grandfather Matabele Thompson was one of the commissioners) and much of his story in addition to the clarification of his initials are confirmed in his opening statement to the Commission.

Records indicate that in 1914 he offered to raise a Native Contingent in support of South Africa’s war effort and it would seem that his offer was somehow later taken up as the London Gazette of 15 March 1917 records that w.e.f. 3 November 1916 that Samuel Isaac Hulley was appointed as a Temporary Lieutenant in the South African Native Labour Corps. He was already 65 years old and seemingly served in both the Union and France from 3 November 1916 until his release at Rosebank on 16 December 1917. He was seemingly only awarded the British War Medal.

He died while living at Stentor Farm in Barberton on 27 September 1928.

With many thanks to a fellow collector......

I also have his brothers medal to the same unit.....