TOPIC:

Charles Rush wasn't your average Cape Government Railway employee - the medal roll attests to the fact that he was turned back by De la Rey when attempting to go to the aid of the wounded at Kraaipan on 13 October 1899. He was then a POW in Vryburg for a time as well. Here is his story:

Charles Rush

Station Master, Fourteen Streams, Cape Government Railways
Lance Corporal, Vryburg Town Guard – Anglo Boer War

- Queens South Africa Medal to 49 L. CPL. C. Rush. VRYBURG T.G.

Charles George Rush was born in Sydenham, Kent in 1875 the son of William Kent, a Coachman by occupation, and his wife Georgina. The 1881 England census, the first time in which we encounter Charles, records that he was a 6 year old in the family home at 29 Kent House Road in Lewisham. Aside from his parents, others in the house were his many siblings – Frederick (16 and unemployed), Annie (14), Harry (9), Herbert (7), Arthur (4) and Ellen (2). Also in residence was his maternal grandmother, Maria Barham, a 79 year old Annuitant.

Large families in working-class Victorian England were not at all unusual; employment was scarce, although there was plenty of menial labour to be had for the able-bodied and willing. The 1891 England census informs us that a 16 year old Charles was an Indoor Servant in the house of a retired Lt. General in the Royal Engineers – George Bent – at 54 Longton Grove, Lewisham.

At some point Rush decided that a bleak future awaited him were he to remain in England. Deciding that his prospects were brighter away from home, he set sail for South Africa where he was engaged by the Cape Government Railway as a Checker for Kimberley in March 1897. In 1898 he was promoted to Night Foreman and posted to Vryburg Station - almost commensurate with his arrival he contracted Dysentery, a medical complaint he suffered with for many years. It was whilst he was in Vryburg that the Anglo Boer War commenced.



Trouble in far away South Africa was brewing in the last few years of the 19th century. Long festering tensions between Paul Kruger and his Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek on the one hand and Great Britain on the other were bubbling to the surface. Kruger and his ally, President Steyn of the neighbouring Orange Free State, declared war on Great Britain after an ultimatum on 11 October 1899 had, predictably, gone unanswered. The Boers, who had been preparing for this eventuality since the abortive Jameson Raid of 1896, quickly crossed the borders into Natal to the east and the Cape Colony to the west.

Towns viewed by the Boer Command to be strategic to British interests were invested – these were Mafikeng on the border of British Bechuanaland, Kimberley, just over the border with the Orange Free State and Ladysmith in Natal. But the action credited with being the one where the first shot of the war was fired in anger was the train incident at Kraaipan on 12 October 1899.



A force of some 5000 men, comprising the Marico, Rustenburg, Potchefstroom, Bloemhof and Lichtenburg Commandos, under General Cronje had been laagered at Polfontein, near the Bechuanaland border, since they were mobilised. General De la Rey, with 200 Lichtenburgers left the laager before the artillery ordered from Pretoria had arrived, to be over the border by midnight on 11 October 1899. On reaching the railway station at Kraaipan, General De la Rey found that the British outposts had retired on seeing the approaching Boers. He and his men tore up the railway line going south to Kimberley and cut the telegraph wires.

The objective for crossing the border had been achieved but De la Rey remained for any possible developments from the direction of Mafeking. His scouts soon discovered an armoured train steaming from the south towards the railway station. This train consisted of an engine and two trucks lined with bullet-proof armour sheeting and armed with a Maxim and two mountain guns.

Evidently unaware of the damage done to the railway line, the officer in charge approached the station in the evening of the 12th October. The engine and trucks capsized on reaching the derailed spot, but not so completely as to prevent the surprised occupants from trying to place the train back on the rails. This the Boers succeeded in preventing by sustained rifle fire. The British were, however, able to get their Maxim and the mountain guns into action, keeping De la Rey at a respectful distance.

The official report sent by Cronje to Pretoria included the above but went on to add that, “The Burgers kept strict watch during the night. In the morning Captain Van der Merwe arrived with cannon. He directly opened fire with them, the white flag was hoisted, and the enemy surrendered. On our side there were no wounded. The enemy’s casualties were their Captain and eight men (slightly) wounded.” The train was the “Mosquito,” coming back from Vryburg with two guns and a quantity of ammunition under Captain Nesbitt.



But how is the above of any relevance to Rush? As we have already determined, he was stationed in nearby Vryburg as the Foreman of the Cape Government Railway at the commencement of hostilities and this is where he shot into prominence by volunteering “to go with the Doctor's coach to the relief of the wounded at Kraai Pan but was driven back by the enemy.”

Having been driven back into Vryburg, he was there eight days later when the town was occupied by De la Rey. It was then that “he was taken prisoner” The Vryburg Resident Magistrate’s Report provided more detail:

“In the evening of the same day (20 October), I received a letter from Field General De la Rey, stating that he intended to take possession of Vryburg in the name of the South African Republic next day, if necessary, by force of arms.

The following morning, 21 October 1899, he marched into the town with about 1200 men and, I believe, three field pieces. He dismounted at the office, at once raised the Transvaal flag, and made a speech proclaiming the Vryburg district as part of the South African Republic.”

The departing Magistrate, allowed by the Boers to leave the town, along with whichever civil servants of similar accord, then left for Fourteen Streams. Permission for the railway employees to leave was, however, denied and Rush found himself confined to the town until the Boers departed in early May with the impending arrival of Mahon’s column on its way to relieve Mafikeng.

Rush now joined the ranks of the Vryburg Town Guard as a Lance Corporal with no. 49. The Town Guard had been constituted with the intention of protecting the residents of the town from any future Boer incursions.

The British forces having reoccupied Vryburg, his movements were no longer fettered and, his Dysentery showing no signs of abating; Rush took himself off to his native England on a spot of Sick Leave commencing on 10 April 1901. Whilst abroad, he used the opportunity to wed 30 year old Cook, Maria Carveth on 15 June 1901 at St. Mary’s in Bryanston Square in the Parish of Marylebone. Aged 26, his occupation was provided as Night Foreman, Cape Government Railways. His address was given as 88 York Street and his father, William, was a witness to the nuptials.

Having returned to South Africa on the expiry of his Sick Leave on 28 August 1901, he resumed his duties, being transferred, on promotion as Station Master, to Fourteen Streams in 1902 where he served with distinction and was able to assist the military in many ways.

The station at Fourteen Streams is said to derive its name from the fact that the Vaal River divides at this point into a number of smaller channels. This little hamlet had also been in receipt of the Boers attentions - on 16 October 1899, a local force of 270 men under Police Inspector Snow had withdrawn from Fourteen Streams to Kimberley, and the following day a Boer force under field-cornet Bosman marched into the village. Following skirmishes at the Fourteen Streams bridge on 28 March 1900, the village was returned to the Cape Colony on 6 May 1900 when Boer troops under Gen SP du Toit retreated before a British force led by Maj-Gen Sir Archibald Hunter – this also paved the way for Rush to take up his post there later on during the war. Plenty of repair work was necessary, as evidenced by an article that appeared in the London Evening Standard of 2 March 1900. Referring to 28 February, it read, in part, as follows:

“The station master of Fourteen Streams, who passed through here yesterday, says the Boers under General Du Toit, are passing north with a 100 pounder gun. They have completely destroyed the bridge and station house at Fourteen Streams.”

The following year, 1903, acting on the advice of the Railway Medical Officer at Vryburg, he made an application for a transfer to a station near to the coast. After a lapse of 6 months, during which time his application was repeated, he eventually learnt that he had not met with success and his request could not be entertained.

In view of this and, because of his low health, Rush resigned as Station Master and left for England in April 1904. In 1905 he returned to Cape Town, his health completely restored, and was taken into the employ of the Cape Government Railways there. His career, interrupted owing to poor health, now blossomed - the Alfred Milner Lodge (Muizenberg) of the Free Masons informs us that he was a Railway Inspector living in Sea Point, Cape Town when he enrolled for membership on 15 July 1907. He was a fully paid-up member of this Lodge until he resigned on 20 May 1918.

In June 1912 he was transferred from the Assistant General Manager's Office in Cape Town, where he was a tablet foreman, to St. James as the Station Master. This was followed, in October 1914, with a transfer in the same role, to Vredenburg on the West Coast of the Cape Colony. He also proved himself as a good fund-raiser, the South African Railway magazine of September 1919 informed its readers that Charles Rush, Station Master, Merriman, "despite the influenza epidemic and other difficulties, succeeded in single-handedly realising a total of £81 19 shillings, on behalf of the "Big Push""

Rush's last known movement came in November 1919 with a transfer, on promotion, as Station Master, Porterville Road.

He passed away at the Volks Hospital in Cape Town on 22 April 1936 at the age of 61. His residence at the time of his passing was Myra Cottage in Bellville. He was survived by his wife, there being no children born of the marriage.

It's always a bonus to "discover" a photograph of one's medal recipients. It brings them alive so to speak.

This one of Charles Rush appeared in a 1919 publication. I have included it in my main account.

A rare survivor.

Cloth Vryburg Town Guard slouch hat badge. One of the curios brought home to England by Lieutenant Hugh Steuart Gladstone, K.O.S.B.
With label, inscribed: "Vryburg Town Guard badge, Vryburg".



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Hello Rory,

I found this old photo I took years ago in the Cape Archives when looking up CGR chaps. Your man is listed last on the page. Not the best quality but is what it is.

Hope it helps you.




Cheers