TOPIC:

Thomas Henry Brokensha, J.P.

Private, Dundee Town Guard

Leader, Dundee Ambulance Section – Anglo Boer War

- S.A.General Service Medal (1879) to CONDUCTOR T.H. BROKENSHA. TRANSPT DEPT (renamed and not entitled to)
- Queens South Africa Medal (Talana) to TH BROKENSHA. DUNDEE TN. GD. (Colonially-named)
- Natal Rebellion Medal (Bambatha) (1906) to T - H – BROKENSHA – INTELLIGANCE OFFICER (renamed and not entitled to)

Tom Brokensha, one of Dundee (Natal’s) leading citizens was not about to let fact get in the way of fiction. A man with his finger in many a Dundee pie, he felt that, despite not being eligible for the award of the “Zulu” war medal and the “Bambatha Rebellion” medal, he was going to have them named up to himself and wear them with pride. No photographic evidence exists where he is shown with the medals adorning his right breast but, it can be safely assumed, that wear them he did. The Queens South Africa medal which he was entitled to is another matter which we will get to in due course.


Tom Brokensha

Born in St. Just, Cornwall, the nearest town to Land’s End in England on 13 June 1856 he was the son of Samuel (Sam) Brokensha, a Stone Mason by trade, and his wife Elizabeth Carne Spargo. The 1861 England census revealed Tom to be the last born in a long line of children.

His parents, 55 and 51 years old respectively, had provided him with siblings Samuel (24), Joseph (20), Mary (18), Nathaniel (16), William (15), Elizabeth (13), Francis (11), and Phillip (9). Tom, at age 4, was perhaps an unexpected bonus to the family.

Ten years later, at the time of the 1871 England census, only William and Phillip still lived with 15 year old Tom and his parents in Queen Street in the village of Bosorne, St. Just – the others had grown up and gone their separate ways. Not uncommon in working-class Victorian families, Tom had already left school and was employed as a Grocer, helping no doubt, to swell the family coffers.

At the age of 18 the intrepid Brokensha set sail for South Africa to make his fortune. Landing at the port of Durban, Natal on 14 February 1875, after a four month trip, he set about finding employment for himself. Early in 1876 he joined a party of other young men including a J. Buckley on a hunting and trading expedition through Zululand, a territory little travelled by white men in those days. He met King Cetshwayo and was present, with Messrs. Shepstone, Rudolph and Taylor when the boundary between Utrecht and Zululand was discussed.

In early 1879 the political landscape in Natal had changed. Late the previous year the British and Colonial authorities found themselves at loggerheads with the Zulu King Cetewayo. Matters boiled to a head in January 1879 and several columns left from Pietermaritzburg and Durban with the objective of subjugating the Zulu King in battle. Brokensha, it is claimed, joined Sir Evelyn Wood’s column as a Transport Officer and later, in the Commissariat. It is also claimed that he served as a Volunteer under Major Clery and Lieutenant Smith (90th Infantry) at Utrecht during the war as well as that he conducted a column from the Intombi River to the relief of Luneberg, for which he was complimented and promoted. He later joined General Crealock’s column on the Lower Tugela, serving in the Commissariat Department under Captain Smith and Lieutenant Stanley.

In the first invasion of Zululand, the British rout at Isandhlwana on 22 January was partially offset by the gallant stand at Rorke’s Drift a few days later and Wood's victory at Kambula on 29 March. Colonel Wood was placed in command of the 4th column to operate in the north from Bemba's Kop with instructions to contain the Zulus in that area so that they did not reinforce the impi operating near Isandhlwana . He had 2,000 men which included the 1st Battalion 13th LI and his own regiment, the 90th LI. In the second invasion he commanded the Flying Column which had a large number of mounted troops as well as the 13th, 80th and 90th. After the final battle at Ulundi, news came through that Chelmsford was to be replaced by Garnet Wolseley. After the handover Chelmsford sailed back to England taking Redvers Buller and Evelyn Wood with him.


Map of Dundee and surrounds

Under normal circumstances, were this to be true (Brokensha’s role in the Anglo Zulu campaign), he would have been eligible for and would have been awarded the “Zulu” War medal with 1879 clasp. Despite the medal rolls being incomplete and, in some instances missing or incorrect, no evidence can be found that Brokensha was awarded this medal. He did the next best thing – obtained an example of the medal and had it carefully engraved with his particulars in a style unlike any known official examples.

During 1880 he was reputed to have travelled for a while through the Transvaal and Orange Free State – the First Anglo Boer war raged at that time with the infamous defeat of Sir George Colley at Majuba – although Brokensha appears to have played no part in this conflict. Back in Pinetown, then a village on the outskirts of Durban en route to Pietermaritzburg, he wed 17 year old Sarah Wilhelmina Brillianso in the house of Mr. E. Owens, St. George’s Street, Durban on 19 October 1881 (Owens was Sarah’s legal guardian). He was a 26 year old Storekeeper at the time of his nuptials.

Brokensha next entered the employment of the Colonial Civil Service – in 1882 he unsuccessfully applied for a position as Gaoler or Constable in the County Magistracy. This was followed by a, this time successful, application for employment as Postmaster in the Pomeroy area of Umsinga – deep into Zulu territory – in 1883. Not content with his lot there, he applied for and was awarded the post of Deputy Sheriff for Dundee in 1885. This was to be the beginning of a long and rewarding relationship with that town.

On 9 September 1885 he joined the Umvoti Lodge of the Free Masons in Greytown. Now 30 years old he was a Storeman at Umsinga. In 1891 he was admitted to the side-bar as an Attorney of the Supreme Court on 3 September and moved from Umsinga, where he had been practicing as a Law Agent (and Storekeeper) to Dundee proper where he called his residence “Penwith.” From 1894 until 1897 he was Clerk of the Peace (the old title for Public Prosecutor) – a position he had applied for, unsuccessfully in 1891).

Whilst in this role and that of independent Attorney, Brokensha had a number of run-ins with the Government of the day. In 1892 he was allowed access to an awaiting trial prisoner being held in Dundee Gaol “under certain circumstances.” In the same year he wrote a letter of complaint to the Colonial authorities complaining of the bad treatment he received at the hands of the Clerk of the Magistrate’s Court, Dundee, Mr. J.J. Jackson.

By 1893 he was already an established figure in Dundee society and the Secretary of the Dundee Building Society. By 23 July 1894 he was Deputy Sheriff for Dundee. In 1896 he was at it again, on this occasion he lodged a complaint against the Magistrate, Dundee Division, for attributing a statement which he denied having made. 1896 was an auspicious year for Brokensha for other reasons as well – he was elected to the first Local Board of Dundee – a forerunner of the Town Council which would follow. He was also appointed Deputy Mayor on two occasions.

All the while he maintained close ties with Cornwall - The Cornish Telegraph of 2 May 1895 carried a letter from him under the banner “Mining in Cornwall and South Africa” wherein he empathised with ‘the great distress existing in Cornwall with the closing of several mines’, and suggesting that a move be made to South Africa where opportunities abounded and where, ‘To Cornish mine adventurers and others, the amount of money made by numbers from our county, by their own exertions, particularly at Johannesburg, is astonishing.” It is doubtful that his advise was taken seriously by large numbers of the unemployed who would not have been able to afford the passage out.

Living among the Boers (there was a large community of Dutch-speaking farmers in and around Dundee and Northern Natal) for 20 years Brokensha was said to find them “somewhat brotherly.” Civic-minded he was largely responsible for Dundee being declared a township with a Local Board.


Brokensha

As has been amply illustrated above, Thomas Brokensha had embedded himself into the public and private life of Dundee but, despite the successes he was enjoying in the public domain, he was not to know that, as the 19th century wound to a close, the powers-that-be in the neighbouring Boer territory of the Transvaal, together with their Orange Free State allies, were about to go to war with the might of Great Britain and Dundee was in the direct path of the Boer approach to the sea.

The second Anglo Boer War broke out on 11 October 1899 and the Boer Commandos, already massing at Sandspruit on the Natal border, crossed over and made a bee-line for Dundee which, defended as it were by a mere 4000 men under Sir William Penn Symons, wasn’t expected to put up much of a fight. The main Boer army to invade Natal was that of General Erasmus that came down the main north-south road through Newcastle. Simultaneously, General Kock took a smaller force on a parallel route to the west of Erasmus, while Commandant Lucas Meyer entered Natal via its eastern border from Utrecht.

On 20th October 1899 at around 5am on a cold and misty morning, the Boer commandos, under General Meyer appeared on Talana Hill to the east of Dundee, following a night approach march. The British spotted figures moving on Talana Hill. As it was expected that the first Boer incursion would arrive from the direction of Newcastle, it was assumed that these figures were members of the Dundee Town Guard.

At 5.40am the Boer artillery opened fire from Talana Hill on Dundee and the British camp. There was a delay before fire could be returned, the British artillery horses being at water. The batteries harnessed up and hurried through Dundee, coming into action in the open ground beyond the town, quickly silencing the outnumbered Boer guns. As his artillery bombarded the Boers, Penn Symons, prepared to attack their positions on Talana Hill with his infantry, forming with the Dublin Fusiliers massed in the front rank, the Rifles in support behind them and the Royal Irish Fusiliers in the third rank. Penn Symons insisted his regiments attack in conventional close order, an unrealistic tactic against an enemy armed with modern magazine rifles.

While his deployment of the infantry is considered to have been conventional, Penn Symons use of his mounted troops was imaginative and daring. He directed his cavalry force, the 18th Hussars and Mounted Infantry, to advance around the western end of Talana Hill. Lieutenant Colonel Möller, the commanding officer of the Hussars and in overall charge of the mounted units, was instructed to await directions there, unless he saw a good opportunity to cut off the Boers’ retreat from Talana Hill.

The infantry assault went in on Talana Hill, the first lines reaching a wood at the base of the hill where in the face of heavy fire the attack stalled. Penn Symons arrived at the wood, dismounted and led the advance himself, until he was mortally injured, receiving a bullet in the stomach.

After a lull, the British infantry attack regained its momentum and continued up Talana Hill in the face of heavy fire, gathering below the peak for the final assault. As the troops stormed the top of the hill the Boers retreated. One of the British batteries, firing from the open ground outside Dundee, failed to identify the troops on the top of Talana as British and continued to fire on the crest, inflicting unnecessary casualties and hindering the assault. Several senior British officers were killed or seriously wounded by British artillery fire.

The Boers could be seen mounting their ponies and streaming away across the valley on the far side of the hill. Penn Symons had sent the 18th Hussars and Mounted Infantry around Talana Hill to take advantage of just such a situation, but there was no sign of them. The loss of Penn Symons prevented the main British force from taking advantage of its success in storming Talana Hill. The British batteries came forward but due to a misunderstanding of their orders or a failure to identify the Boers, did not open fire on the retreating commando.


Members of the Dundee Town Guard

But what of Brokensha? He and his fellow townsmen had been formed into a Town Guard, tasked with aiding and assisting the Imperial effort. Brokensha himself had been appointed Leader of the Dundee Ambulance Corps at the outbreak of war. A well-known Dundee resident, S. B. Jones, had described the members of the Town Guard as a really hard working and reliable set of men, who were all heart and soul in the work that they did. “There were some men who could not possibly take a gun through some personal defect, such as lameness or defective eyesight. These men, who were formed into an ambulance corps by Brokensha and did good service in carrying the wounded from the field to Oldacre’s Store, and even worked late on in the night of the battle in carrying refreshments to the wounded.”

According to the Dundee and District Courier dated Wednesday 25 September 1901, Thomas Brokensha confirmed this stating that: -

“I formed an ambulance corps, which I placed at the disposal of the British forces. We rendered service at the battle of Talana Hill under Major Daly R.A.M.C. and remained at the hospital until after our troops were evacuated on 31 December 1899 then we went to Pretoria with our wounded.

The Boers took me prisoner, and placed me in a room in the town office at Dundee. A guard placed a Mauser under my nose and …I was cross-examined for half an hour by a Dutch Magistrate. I refused to give anything and was allowed to go back to the hospital. I was again arrested, and underwent a similar experience, but Major Daly got me off, and for some time afterwards I was on the sick list.”

The Church of England Vicar in Dundee, Reverend Gerald Bailey, kept a diary detailing events as they happened in the war and Brokensha warrants several mentions. On page 78 he records that “The buildings (of the Swedish Mission) were very suitable (for a hospital). There are in the compound a church and some half dozen cottages. This hospital was initiated, I understand, by Dr. Galbraith, Messrs. Brokenshaw (sic), Arnot, and others. I must not forget the Rev. J. E. Norenius, the missionary in charge; he placed his buildings at the services of the military and worked hard to make the hospital a success. The officer in charge of the hospital was Major Daly, R.A.M.C., and he had an admirable assistant in Dr. Galbraith of Dundee”

That Brokensha was a leading light in occupied Dundee is beyond doubt – what is a mystery, however, is the naming style on his Queens Medal with Talana clasp – that he earned the medal is beyond dispute but, it is engraved in a manner unlike any other awarded and impressed to Town Guard members (on whose medal roll he appears.) Could it be that he was treated as an officer and that his medal was awarded by the Natal authorities and named up by them – very much like those medals named up by the Cape Government from a batch of unissued medals sent to them by the Mint? We will, most likely, never know as no records appear to have survived. The medal itself is not skimmed or tampered with in any way.

With the Boers expelled from Natal by the ponderous advance of Buller’s Army, Thomas Brokensha resumed the active role he had been playing in the community. He was elected Deputy Mayor of the first Town Council in 1902. He was a Committee Member of the Dundee Institute in 1900 and a member of the Coronation Festivities Committee in 1902. He was also Chairman of the Dundee Fire Brigade, and laid the cornerstone of the Methodist Church on 29 November 1902. He visited England in 1901 and called on Lady Penn-Symons, the widow of General Sir William Penn-Symons, whose photograph she presented to him. While touring England he was present at a banquet to the Mayor of Penzance and responded to the “Toast of the Colonies.

On his return from England he attended the reception to the late Joseph Chamberlain, and on the occasion of Utrecht and Vryheid being given to Natal in exchange for the war losses expenditure of £3 000 000, he purchased a farm in the Utrecht district on which laid out the township of Kingsley. He was honoured in May 1902 for his services to the Swedish Mission and purchased coal options and formed the Natal Navigation, St. George’s and Hattingspruit Collieries.

According to the Dundee Courier, in March 1902 Thomas Brokensha commissioned Mr. R. Harvey (architect) to draw up plans for 3 handsome stores in Dundee. The contractors were Harvey and Retallack. The same publication, on 18 June 1903, reported under headline – TOWN COUNCILLORS AT LOGGERHEADS: - “It appears that the Deputy Mayor (T. H. Brokensha) was conversing with another gentleman, when Mr. Jones (S. B. Jones previously referred to) allegedly heard him say something to this gentleman, which Mr. Jones considered to be derogatory. Mr. Jones expostulated, and words led to Mr. Jones striking Mr. Brokensha in the face.” No charges appear to have been levelled.

After a period of relative calm, Natal was, once more, thrust into a cauldron of violence. On this occasion, in early 1906, the young Zondi Clan chieftain, Bambatha, took it upon himself to violently oppose the imposition and collection of the new Poll Tax on him and his subjects. This tax, an attempt by the Natal Government to bolster its empty coffers, was levied at all males in the Colony over the age of 18 and was payable at the rate of £1 per head. Bambatha went about Zululand fomenting dissent which led to the murder of a number of innocent civilians. The Natal Militia were called out and, after cornering Bambatha and his followers in the remote Mome Gorge, decimated them with rifle and machine gun fire. Bambatha’s head was severed and shown to the public as proof that he was dead. The rebellion fizzled out and those Militia men and volunteers active in the suppression of the rebellion were awarded the Natal Rebellion Medal.

Brokensha, who appears not to have played any role in the fighting, awarded himself the medal with 1906 clasp as an “Intelligence Officer.” Again, as with the “Zulu” medal, the naming is not in any recognised style, the spelling is incorrect and, to cap it all, Brokensha’s name appears on no medal roll despite his entry in the South African Who’s Who claiming that, “During the late Native Rebellion was at Pomeroy, Umsinga, while a detachment of the Natal Royal Rifles under the command of Captain McKenzie and a detachment of the Durban Light Infantry under the command of Captain Henderson, were stationed there.” He courted controversy in the same year with the Magistrate of Umsinga claiming that his conduct as an Attorney in court had been unprofessional. Of course it must be remembered that Who’s Who entries were submitted in the words of the individual to be featured.

As time wore on, Brokensha continued to play the part of prominent citizen - he also played the role of Good Samaritan - an article in the Courier dated 10 August 1916 records – “A NASTY SPILL” wherein “Mr. T. Mitchell, Inspector of the Native Township, had a nasty accident on Tuesday morning. While passing Mr. T. H. Brokensha’s residence he was thrown from his horse and was picked up unconscious. Mrs. Brokensha acted the part of Good Samaritan and took him in, sending for medical help. Mr. Mitchell was unconscious for about 2 hours but seems fortunately to have escaped further injury other than a very severe shaking.”

This interesting man passed away from the effects of Diabetes Mellitus at the age of 67 years 11 months at his home in Wilson Street, Dundee on 27 May 1924, survived by his wife and ten children. Why did he feel the need to award himself additional medals? That is a question to which we will never know the answer.

Acknowledgements:
- SA Whose Who
- Cornish Telegraph June 25, 1924
- Cornish Telegraph May 2, 1895
- Colonials in Dundee – Pat Rundgren
- Ancestry for census data and medal rolls
- FMP for marriage and death certificates
- Anglo Boer War Forum for Map of Dundee and Surrounds

Rory
Thank you for such a fascinating account of detail and research on one individual, who certainly had a very full life and all the background information provided a very interesting personal story. What a character !
Clive

It helps to have friends in the right places! These photos of Brokensha in full Mayoral garb, come courtesy of Pam McFadden, the semi-retired Curator of the Talana Museum. She unearthed these photos, along with a number of other interesting Brokensha documents, in the Talana archives. Thank you Pam.





With Robert Fyfe King, this brings to two the number of Dundee Mayor's I have in the collection www.angloboerwar.com/forum/5-medals-and-...-dist-engineer#78750

Another gem from the Talana Museum Archives iro Brokensha is this hand-written letter (2 pages) from one of his daughter's - she clearly mentions his alleged Zulu War service so this must have been something that he shared with his children and circle of friends.

Hi Rory,

It's a nice letter and made for good reading.

FYI - the only thing that struck me was that it was written in ballpoint pen (I think) in a steady hand writing and Irene Whittekar passed away in 1981 at 91 years old so I think one of her children must have been kind enough to transcribe her fathers experience or else it would have been lost forever.

You are spot on Sturge! Irene Whittaker was either a remarkable woman for any number of reasons including her hand-writing or, as you surmise, a family member transcribed the letter, either from an original she jotted down or as she dictated (reminisced) it.

I place it in the public domain only because it bears reference to the Zulu War medal alluded to in my article for which there is no medal roll and which has, clearly, been renamed, albeit in an attractive contemporary style.

Regards

Rory