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Daniel William Lamb Voges

Prisoner of War - near Vryburg – 19 January 1901

Private, Special Cape Police
Trooper, Western Province Mounted Rifles – Anglo Boer War
Sergeant, Kalahari Horse and 2nd Military Constabulary – WWI

- Queens South Africa Medal (C.C.) to 1128 TPR: D.W.L. VOGES. W.PROV: M.R.
- 1914/15 Star to SJT. D.W.L. VOGES, KALAHARI HSE.
- British War Medal to SJT. D.W.L. VOGES, 2ND M.C.
- Victory Medal to SJT. D.W.L. VOGES, KALAHARI HSE.

Dan Voges was probably chided, if not derided, by those who knew him well for the first part of his Boer War service. Why you may ask? The answer is that he was one of 20 new Special Cape Police who, according to press reports of the day, gave up without a fight when surprised by a small British patrol outside Vryburg in early 1901.

Born in the Western Cape of South Africa in about 1870 he was the son of William Peter Voges and his wife Maria Adriana Petronella Voges, born Smit. The Voges were farmers and it was in the blissful surroundings of the Cape winelands that a young Voges would have been raised. Despite their Dutch heritage, the family laid claim to a number of English Christian names – something not uncommon in the Cape Colony where Dutch-speakers and those of British descent lived harmoniously side by side.

When the Anglo Boer war broke out on 11 October 1899 the majority of Dutch speaking subjects of the Crown remained either neutral or threw in their lot with the Imperial forces, joining any number of hastily raised units to combat the threat of Boer invasion into the Western Cape- as was to be seen as the war dragged on – this was a very real possibility with the Boer Command desperate to arouse the sympathies of the Colonial Dutch with a view to joining their struggle. Another reason for the frequent Boer incursions into the west of the Cape Colony was to find food, mounts and other supplies necessary to continue the fight.

One such body of men were the so-called Special Cape Police – in reality there was nothing “special” about them in terms of competence or qualifications. What they were was a body of men put together in rather a hurry to augment the normal Cape Police, who were so ubiquitous that they were everywhere to be found but thinly stretched on the ground in consequence. It was to this makeshift police auxiliary unit that Voges gravitated. Joining their ranks with the rank of Private and with no. 144.


Map detailing Devondale in relation to Vryburg

Put to work without much in the way of training the Special Cape Police soon found itself out of its depth. In the now infamous surrender that took place on 19 January 1901 a few miles north of Vryburg, at a place called Devondale, they were involved in an incident which made the headlines and raised not a few eyebrows in the corridors of power. The Edinburgh Evening News of 28 January broke the news to its disbelieving readers under the banner “Discreditable Surrender of Police” – the article read as follows: -

“A Press Association telegram dated Vryburg, Tuesday, says: Yesterday was an exciting day here. In the morning news was received here that a body of special police, most of whom were recruited recently at Kimberley by the Colonial Government to replace the Cape Police, sent elsewhere, and who were well mounted, and getting 10/- a day, all found, had surrendered to the Boers at Devondale, fourteen miles north of this town.

The patrol captured at Devondale numbered 20. The Boers had followed them unnoticed all the morning. The patrol off-saddled at midday and were saddling again at four in the afternoon when a Boer envoy rode up, and informing them that they were surrounded, demanded their surrender. This was given without a shot being fired. The Boers took all the horses, saddles, rifles and ammunition, and then released the men, who walked here. There are a few bushes at Devondale, but otherwise the country is open and flat.”

Whether or not there were actually 20 men who surrendered is a moot point. Research by Meurig Jones has found the identities of 14 of these men which could well have been the full complement – given the inaccuracy of reporting in remote areas. These men were, Voges among them, as listed in the table below: -



Raw recruits or not, the fact that they surrendered without a shot being fired would not have sat well with the military authorities.

Having recovered from the embarrassment of capitulating, Voges soldiered on until his time was up with the Special Cape Police. His war was, however, not yet over. At Malmesbury on 10 October 1901he enlisted for six months service with the Western Province Mounted Rifles. Confirming his previous service with the Special Cape Police, he added that he was 31 years old and single and a Carriage Painter by trade. His father was his next of kin and his residence was given as Somerset West. Assigned no. 1128 and the rank of Private, Voges took to the field with his new regiment.

The W.P.M.R. had been raised when the second Boer invasion of Cape Colony took place in December 1900 and was one of several new bodies of volunteers or irregulars who were raised at Cape Town. They eventually reached a strength of over 500. As soon as a squadron was ready it took the field because the enemy in the first week of January 1901 had reached within a day's ride of Cape Town (it was soon after this that Voges had cloaked himself in ignominy with the Special Cape Police).

Throughout 1901 and 1902 the corps did an immense amount of arduous work in the extreme south-west of the Colony. They were often far from support and in a district much favoured by the enemy, and one almost impossible for regular troops. The corps had endless little engagements, frequently involving sharp casualties, and if they had a good many patrols captured this may be attributed to their being more than usually split up into little detachments at the request of the officer who commanded the district. A part of the corps were for a time in Colonel Capper's column. The corps were for a time commanded by Major R C Master of the King's Royal Rifle Corps, and afterwards by Captain C H Rankin, 7th Hussars, the officer who signed Voges’ attestation form.


Map denoting Tontelbosch Kolk

Having signed on for six months Voges could well have been involved in the siege of Tontelbosch Kolk which took place from the 28th November to the 5th December 1901:

“The farm Tontelboschkolk, some 80km north-east of Calvinia, was used by the British as a remount and grain depot. It was garrisoned by 90 men of the Western Province Mounted Rifles and more than 100 Bushmanland Borderers, dispersed in 6 small forts, with the British Officers quartered in the 4 farmhouses on the property. It was surrounded on 28th November 1901 by Cape Rebels under Malan, Maritz, Van Deventer and Lategan. Vice, the Intelligence Officer at Calvinia, reported to Colonel du Cane at Clanwilliam on 1st December 1901, as follows:

“TBK (Tontelboschkolk) was heavily attacked on morning of 28th at 2am by a force of enemy estimated at 600 strong. They have succeeded in getting possession of the houses and outbuildings and have consequently cut off the water. They kept up a heavy fire all that day and during the night again attempted to take our position, but were easily driven back, and our men succeeded in getting a limited supply of water from the dam. Friday, the firing continued throughout the whole day, but not so heavy as on the previous day, water was also got into the forts that evening. Yesterday ‘Saturday’ continuous fire was heard till about 11am when runner was too far off to hear.”

During the siege, although the Boers managed to capture over 400 horses and mules, the main object of their attack, they could not capture the depot, which was solidly held by the small garrison. The Boers retreated on 5th December and the British withdrew the garrison shortly afterwards.”

Maurice in his History of the War in South Africa, Volume IV, page 363 reported thus:

“Little more was seen or heard of Maritz until in the last week of November it was reported that, in company with Malan, Bouwers, Pypers, Van der Venter and Van Reenan, he was closely investing the post at Tontelbosch Kolk, on the Zak river, fifty miles north-east of Calvinia. All these commandos were now under the orders of Smuts, who had assumed command of all the Boer forces in Cape Colony. The garrison at Tontelbosch Kolk consisted of only four officers and eighty-six forces, men, of the Western Province Mounted Rifles and Bushmanland Borderers, under Captain R. M. Bertram, disposed in six small forts, and was of so little tactical importance that Wynne was in the act of withdrawing it when it was shut up.”

The war over on 31 May 1902 Voges returned to his civilian occupation. There was time now for romance – on 27 January 1905 at Postmasburg in the district of Hay in the Northern Cape Voges wed Catherina Maria Susanna Sherman who, like himself, hailed from the farm Vlakfontein in the district.

The date clasps to his Queens Medal with Cape Colony clasp were issued to him on 26 March 1909 to an address, Noord Noor, Kakamas, district Kenhardt.

Settling down to life in the far northern Cape, Voges would have been far removed from the machinations afoot which occasioned the Great War which burst onto the international stage on 4 August 1914. South Africa, as recently as 1910 unified into one state as the Union of South Africa was asked by the British Government to seize the radio station in German South West Africa. This was no easy task – firstly Botha, the Prime Minister and Smuts, his Defence Secretary, had to forcibly quell an internal rebellion by thousands of Boers who were opposed to the very idea that South Africa could enter any war on the side of their arch foe.

On 28 October 1914 Voges enlisted with his nearest unit – the Kalahari Horse – with the rank of Sergeant and no. 74. Originally known as Van Zyl’s Kuruman Cdo., they were reorganised into Kalahari Horse in January 1915 and were part of Military District .No. 13. During the aforementioned rebellion they were known as Van Zyl's Commando and included a small body known as Kruger's Special Police. As part of the Eastern Force to invade German South West Africa they were under the command of Colonel Berrange. They consisted of 4 Mounted Brigades and a section of 12 pdr Heavy Artillery together with a special Motor Transport and Water Supply Service. On establishing contact with the Southern Force in March 1915 it was combined with the latter to form the 2nd Division of the Southern Army.


Advance into German South West Africa by the Eastern Force

This force with its base at Kimberly, had a line of Communication more than 500 miles long with waterless stretches of more than a hundred miles. The transport was by motor vehicles and mule wagons. On the long waterless stretches tank stations were established that were filled with motor cars carrying 60 gallons each, these cars of which about 40 were allotted to each tank station, worked in pairs, the drivers having to fill and empty the drums themselves.

The German South West Africa campaign was characterised by its gruelling long marches through the desert in hot pursuit of the fleeing Germans, who rarely stopped to put up a fight (with a few notable exceptions). The men were almost always parched and, because of the lack of water and the fast pace of the advance, food and other necessities for survival were often left far behind, taking several days to catch up with the men. The retreating Germans also, notoriously, poisoned the water wells as they went and rolled up the railway line further hampering the South African advance.

The Eastern Force was constantly engaged in advance guard and patrol affairs. It had no defensive actions of any magnitude and had four offensive engagements: -

Offensive action at Rietfontein.
On the 19th March, Captain van Vuuren of this force with 1 command squadron (about 100 rifles) attacked about 200 enemy rifles at Rietfontein. The enemy retired with the loss of their transport and supplies at this place and left 4 killed, 20 wounded and 2 captured in the field. The Union casualties were 1 killed and 2 wounded. In view of the importance of the water at Rietfontein and the enemy superiority in numbers, Captain van Vuuren may be considered as having operated in a highly creditable manner.

Offensive action at Koes
On the 5th April, Colonel van Zyl with 2 commando squadrons attacked the enemy at Koes. With a loss of one man wounded, Colonel van Zyl captured one prisoner and several hundred head of cattle.

Offensive action at Kiries West
On the 16th April the enemy with 2 guns and about 300 rifles was attacked at Kiries West by Colonel Berrange who had 1 Regular Regt. (5th Regt. South African Mounted Riflemen) and 2 Commando Regiments. The enemy retired with a loss of 4 killed, 1 wounded and 8 captured. The union loss was 1 killed and 1 wounded.

Offensive action at Kabus
On the 20th April Colonel D. van Deventer of the Southern Force had commenced an attack on this place at dawn. Later in the day he was reinforced by 300 rifles from Colonel Berranges Eastern Force. This reinforcement largely assisted in the success of the operations on that day, the enemy retiring with a loss of 2 killed and 16 wounded. The Union casualties being 10 wounded.

Voges took his discharge from the Kalahari Horse on 31 May 1915 – five weeks before the campaign ended with the German surrender at Otavi on 9 July 1915. His war was, however, not yet over, on 10 January 1916 he enlisted with the 2nd Military Constabulary with no. 327 and the rank of Constable. On 6 March 1917 he was found to be Medically Unfit and discharged in order to return home. His war medals were sent to him at “Delen” in the Kuruman district on 26 September 1922.

It was time for something new and, in August 1917, he took up employment with the South African Railways as a learner truck repairer in Klerksdorp, gaining promotion to truck repairer in February 1918. In February 1933 he was transferred from Klerksdorp to Pretoria as a Cleaner in which capacity he retired.

Daniel William Lamb Voges passed away at the age of 81 years and 5 months on 27 May 1946 at his home, 146 Burger Street, Pretoria North. He was survived by his wife and six children – Wilhelm Frederick Jacob Christiaan Voges; Joel Johannes Voges; Elsie Margrieta Rheeders; Sarah Maria Cloete; Catharina Maria Susanna Van Jaarsveld and Francis Daniel Voges. His seventh child, the one that bore his own names in the Afrikaans tradition, had passed away before him.

Acknowledgments where not recognised in the body of the work above:
- SANDF Documentation Centre for WWI cards
- Meurig Jones for list of Devondale POW’s
- The Campaign in German South West Africa 1914/15 by General J.J. Collyer