TOPIC:

John Martin Blamyrus Zeiss

Bearer, Natal Volunteer Ambulance Corps
Bearer, Imperial Bearer Corps
Guide, Field Intelligence Department – Anglo Boer War

- Queens South Africa Medal (Tugela Heights, Relief of Ladysmith) to BR: J. ZEISS. NATAL VOL: AMB: C.
- Kings South Africa Medal (South Africa 1901 & 1902) to GUIDE J.M.B. ZEISS. F.I.D.



John Zeiss was born in Kimberley, Cape Colony on 28 November 1880 the son of a German-born immigrant, Wilhelm Johan Martin Leopold Zeiss, a Tailor by occupation, and his wife Elizabeth Ann, born Russell. Growing up in the diamond capital of the world must have been a heady experience for the many Zeiss children – all eleven of them – Thomas Julius William Zeiss born 1871; Amelia Sophia Zeiss born 1873; Edward Carroll Zeiss born 1874; Wilhelmina Zeiss born 1875; Joseph George Leopold Zeiss born 1876; Christina Adaeloanda Zeiss born 1885; Frederick William Jacob Zeiss born 1886; Henrietta Augusta Zeiss born 1887; Hannah Rebecca Zeiss born 1890 and William Jesse Zeiss born 1893.

As the end of the 19th century drew near the long simmering tensions between the two Boer Republics of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal spilled over into a declaration of war and the good citizens of both Republics and the Colonies that made up the broader South Africa awoke to war on the morning of 12 October 1899. Without delay the Boer Commandos cantered over their joint borders with the Cape Colony and Natal, laying siege to the towns of Ladysmith, Mafeking and the city of Kimberley.

By the time the Boer juggernaut hit Kimberley, John Zeiss and most of his family were long gone. Wilhelm Zeiss had moved his family to Johannesburg in 1896 and like most “Uitlanders” John and some of his family had made their way to Natal, where he enlisted on 9 December 1899 as a Bearer with the “Body Snatchers”, the Natal Voluntary Ambulance Corps, along with his brother Edward.

To best describe the work done by the N.V.A.C., I turn to an authoritative work by Brett Hendey who wrote on the subject as follows,

“After the earliest set-piece battles of the Natal theatre of operations had taken place during October (Talana, Elandslaagte), and November (near Ladysmith), it was realised that the British army had inadequate medical services in place, and better provision needed to be made for the timely and efficient removal of casualties from the battles that were still to come. Colonel T Gallwey, Principal Medical Officer of Natal, was tasked with raising an ‘Ambulance Corps’ with volunteers drawn from able-bodied men who had thus far not been taken up in Natal’s volunteer regiments (e.g. Natal Carbineers, Durban Light Infantry), and the various irregular units that had been raised locally (e.g. Imperial Light Horse, Thorneycroft’s Mounted Infantry, Imperial Light Infantry).

Although Natal had provided sanctuary to many refugees from the Boer Republics, by December 1899 the number of men who were best suited for military service must have been considerably reduced. While those remaining may have lacked previous military service, and may have been neither skilled horsemen, nor marksmen, there were still enough able-bodied men prepared to aid the war effort. In a matter of days, between one and two thousand had joined the newly-formed non-combatant NVAC. To the refugee volunteers were added some residents of Natal who were without other military obligations. The men came from all walks of life, from gentlemen to labourers. They were commanded by officers who were seconded from Imperial regiments already in Natal.

While the NVAC was charged with removing casualties from the battlefield, the NIAC under Mohandas Gandhi was raised to fill a complementary role in evacuating casualties to places of safety and field hospitals further behind the lines. A report in the Natal Advertiser, gave the numbers involved at the Colenso front as 1200 for the NVAC, and 600 for the NIAC. Soldiers named these men “the Body Snatchers”. They were to save the lives of many wounded men, and they also eased their pain by carrying them on stretchers, which were a more comfortable mode of transport than ambulances.



Atkins (1900) described the NVAC as an “oddly assorted body of men”, wearing an assortment of clothes, including “canvas shoes”, “yawning boots and clothes that must have seen service in the streets of a town”. Pakenham (1979) added that they “dressed in tattered khaki tunics, and a strange assortment of hats, helmets, bowlers and tam-o’shanters.”

Most of the NVAC enlistments took place in Durban on 9 December 1899, with other men joining up until 13 December. The first to join soon left for General Buller’s camp at Frere, arriving there on Monday, 11 December. At noon on Tuesday, the NVAC joined Buller’s advance on Colenso by way of Chieveley. The Natal Advertiser correspondent reported that at “sundown, at a picturesque spot, where a beautiful stream ran through a large, tolerably level, grassy expanse, we rested for the night.” This was the calm before the storm that was to give men of the NVAC their first experience of the tasks they had undertaken to fulfil.

On Friday, 15 December, the long-awaited assault on the entrenched Boer line along the north bank of the Tugela River took place, and the Battle of Colenso was fought. The attack soon ran into fierce opposition, casualties mounted, and Buller’s army was effectively routed in a matter of hours.

The Natal Advertiser carried the following report on the activities of the NVAC:

“Now our work began in earnest. At 10 o’clock the first ambulance arrived from the battlefield with wounded men, and shortly afterwards the sections of [the NVAC’s] different Ambulance Companies were ordered to advance, with their stretchers. It was a long walk, varying from three to four miles to the firing line. I went out four times to the front, superintending the removal of the wounded. Some of these were badly hurt, but the majority of those who fell to my lot to bring in were shot through the extremities, the arms and legs …..”

“My section carried off a number of Thorneycroft’s men, and a pluckier set of fellows it would be difficult to imagine. Although wounded badly, they never uttered a sound, and one splendid fellow, badly shot through the liver, insisted on sharing his water with the bearers. Thorneycroft’s wounded behaved with great fortitude.”

The defeated troops began to retire at 2 pm, “but it was not until far into the night that the ambulance and stretcher parties left off work.” Amongst the last to return was Lord Robert Manners, who commanded one of the NVAC companies.

In his account of the events of the following day, the Natal Advertiser correspondent wrote:

“I was instructed to take charge of a party to go to the field to bury the dead. A guide took us the shortest way to do our gruesome work. While we were busy at one spot a party of four from the other side rode up, comprised of a clean-shaven Englishman from Johannesburg, two Boers, and a doctor. I asked about the Boer loss, which he told me was very small, only four killed and twenty wounded.” These figures were later revised to eight killed and 30 wounded. By contrast, the British lost 143 men killed, 756 wounded, and 240 captured and missing.”

The Natal Advertiser later reported that the NVAC, “justified its existence at the battle of Colenso. Not only was it specially thanked by General Buller, but various military officers expressed their admiration at the courage and coolness displayed by the corps under fire.”

The NVAC returned to Durban, where it undertook a re-organisation of its ranks, and much of the equipping that had not been possible in the frantic week between its first enlistments and its first battle. Their commanding officer, Major Montague Stuart Wortley CMG DSO, “procured what looked almost like a pyramid of boots, from which any size from 6’s to 11’s could be selected by those needing them.” Time was also occupied “in the supplying of knives, forks, water bottles, etc.”

A smaller and better equipped NVAC returned to Frere, where their camp was “situated a few yards away from the scene of the armoured train incident, where Winston Churchill showed his bravery.” The men were kept busy with long marches, regular drills and stretcher exercises. They were told that in future battles each stretcher was to be accompanied by eight men, rather than the 12 used during the Battle of Colenso. Another innovation was to be the creation of a mounted ambulance corps to accompany mounted infantry and cavalry regiments. There were many volunteers for this unit. Recreation included games of football. A promise of a ration of beer disappointingly turned out to be two barrels to be divided between 1 000 men. The end of the 19th Century was celebrated relatively quietly, and the 20th Century started with stretcher drills at 6 am and 11 am.”

The NVAC went on to perform similar feats of endurance in the skirmishes that led up to the battle of Spionkop, and the battle itself on 24 January 1900. On this occasion they had the “kop” to climb and then descend, stretchers groaning under the weight of the wounded and the dying.

Having acquitted themselves well of their work the Natal Volunteer Ambulance Corps and the Indian Ambulance Corps were disbanded a month later at the end of February 1900 – the final relief of Ladysmith on 28 February 1900 indicating that the need for their services had come to an end. Most of the men, Zeiss included, were officially discharged on 12 March 1900.


The circled section shows where Zeiss was operational, both as a Bearer and a Guide

Whereto now for Zeiss? The war showed no signs of abating and there was still much work to be done. He now parted company with Edward who went off to join Steinaecker’s Horse and, at Pietermaritzburg on 21 March 1900, joined the Imperial Bearer Corps. Confirming that he was 20 years of age, he provided his mother, Mrs W Zeiss of Durban as his next of kin. Mustered as a Bearer once more, Zeiss and his comrades were called upon to mirror their previous efforts but, on this occasion, with Buller’s Natal Army as it worked its ponderous way from Ladysmith, across the Biggarsberg Mountain range to Dundee and then on to Newcastle and the invasion of the Transvaal via Newcastle and Wakkerstroom.

Despite much skirmishing with the retreating Boers the only actions of any considerable size were the battle of Laing’s Nek and Alleman’s Nek, fought in June 1900. Zeiss took his leave of the I.B.C. on 29 April 1901 and, once again, found himself at a loose end with the war still raging.

Not one to stand idly by, his next move was to join the ranks of the little-known Volksrust Civil Police. There is almost nothing written about this body save for a report dated 3 December 1901 from the clearly miffed Resident Magistrate, Volksrust to the Secretary of the Law Department, Pretoria. The report appears to have been in answer to a query from the Law Department and reads as follows:

“Regarding your query as to Civil Police here. There are 10 white Civil Police and one Sergeant in charge here at Volksrust, and 2 at Wakkerstroom. These were civilians before they joined the Police – none were on military pay when they joined though many had been in Colonial Corps.

At Wakkerstroom there are 24 soldiers, mostly Bandsmen and Drummers of the N. Staffordshire Regiment and on full military pay now, under military discipline and under the orders entirely of the military whom I pointed out as being paid by the Civil Government for doing entirely military work. There is absolutely nothing to do with these men beyond paying them monthly. They are changed when the military authorities desire for other men without any reference to me.”

Precisely how long Zeiss’s sojourn with the Volksrust Civil Police was is unknown but, being of an adventurous nature, he craved more action than that small body was able to provide and, before long, ended up as a Guide with the Field Intelligence Department. Guides were recruited (or appointed) from many of the Colonial regiments, specifically because of their local knowledge and, in many cases, because they were able to speak a black language or even Dutch, which came in very handy for intelligence gathering on the one hand and interrogation of prisoners on the other. Zeiss, having gathered local knowledge through his time with the Volksrust Civil Police and the Imperial Bearer Corps, would have been fit for purpose in the South Eastern Transvaal where he was deployed.

The war over on 31 May 1902 he was awarded the Queens Medal off the NVAC roll and the Kings Medal off the Field Intelligence Department roll.

Out of uniform and looking for employment he headed to the Witwatersrand and the City of Gold, Johannesburg, where he obtained employment with the Forges Gold Mining Company in the Randfontein district of Krugersdorp. It was whilst thus employed that he wed 29 year old Sarah Jane Adams. Sarah came from Cumberland in England and was living at the North Randfontein G.M.C. at the time of their nuptials in Krugersdorp on 22 January 1906. Zeiss, at 25, was four years younger than his bride.

It wasn’t long before the pitter patter of tiny feet were heard with Eric Adams Zeiss coming along on 30 October 1909 – at which time Zeiss was described as being a Tube Mill Foreman on the mines. The Krugersdorp Voters Rolls for the years 1925, 1927, 1929 and 1931 all place him at 69 Millsite Married Quarters, Randfontein Gold Mining Company where he was described as being a Tube Mill Foreman.

Sadly, as the years went by his wife’s health began to deteriorate and on 27 October 1949 at the Germiston Hospital, she passed away at the age of 72. Their address at the time of her death was “Kalkheuwel,” P.O. Broederstroom, District Pretoria.

Zeiss remarried on 7 June 1950 – exchanging vows with widow Madge Knott (born Talbot) at Germiston. He was 69 years of age and living at 38 Haley Close, Parkhill Gardens, Germiston whereas his wife was 50 years old. He soldiered on until he passing away in Pretoria on 7 December 1962 at the age of 82.

Acknowledgements:

- Data on NVAC from the Anglo Boer War Forum
- Volksrust Civil Police from Transvaal Archives ref: 1829/1901
- Familysearch and Ancestry for birth, marriage and death reports