TOPIC:

John Davidson

Sergeant, “F” Troop, Bulawayo Field Force – Rhodesia 1896
Guide/Agent, Field Intelligence Department (F.I.D.) – Anglo Boer War
Corporal, Natal Light Horse – WWI

- British South Africa Company Medal, Rhodesia 1896 reverse to SERGT. J. DAVIDSON. “F” TROOP. B.F.F.
- Queens South Africa Medal (Transvaal) to GUIDE OR AGENT J. DAVIDSON. F.I.D.
- 1914-15 Star to CPL. J. DAVIDSON NTL LIGHT HSE.
- British War Medal to CPL. J. DAVIDSON NTL LIGHT HSE.
- Victory Medal to CPL. J. DAVIDSON NTL LIGHT HSE.



John Davidson was born in Durban, Natal in about 1867 the son of Scottish immigrants Alexander Davidson and his wife Catherine, born MacIntosh. The couple had married in Greenock, Renfrewshire on 18 September 1863 and had emigrated to South Africa soon afterwards, settling in the Colony of Natal.

Davidson’s mother passed away from Phthisis in Durban on 20 October 1883 at the age of 48 when he was a boy of 16, leaving him and his sister Anne Jane, born 20 September 1874, to be raised by his father. This gentleman, an Engineer by profession, had medical problems of his own and shuffled off this mortal coil on 27 October 1886 from Exhaustion consequent upon Paralysis leaving two teenage children to fend for themselves.

At some point, imbued with the Victorian man’s sense of adventure, Davidson headed north and, having passed through Johannesburg and Pretoria, crossed the border into the exciting new territory of Rhodesia. Rhodes’ British South Africa Company, having extracted concessions from the Ndebele Chief Lobengula and from the British Government, went about colonising the territory with gusto much to the chagrin of the tribes whose land and way of life was being steadily eroded.

Problems arose in 1893 and, Rhodes and his men, having subjugated but not vanquished the native tribes, saw a modicum of peace return to the land with prospectors and settlers continuing to arrive.



1896 saw a fresh outbreak of hostilities - the causes of the 1896 Matabele War are numerous but, suffice it to say, the fact that Rhodes hadn’t delivered the death blow to his foe three years earlier meant that they were able to rise once more and, on this occasion, Ndebele impis went about the land murdering isolated traders as they encountered them.

This obliged the authorities to take immediate action and scattered residents outside of the two major centres of Salisbury and Bulawayo were called into defensive laagers for their own protection. The existing Rhodesia Horse Volunteers were disbanded and a new force recruited from all the men in the town capable of handling a rifle. The Bulawayo Field Force (BFF) was made up of fourteen Troops with Col William Napier in command and Jack Spreckley as second in command. The force included an Artillery Troop, an Engineering Troop, the Grey’s Scouts, the Afrikaner Corps, Dawson’s Scouts and one hundred and fifty Cape Volunteers under the command of Johann Colenbrander. Numbers totalled about six hundred and fifty; but as various patrols were always out, the numbers left guarding Bulawayo was much smaller.

Davidson was appointed as one of only five Sergeants in “F” Troop, under the command of Captain James Dawson. On 25 March 1896, James Dawson took a patrol of sixteen men from Bulawayo about 73 miles to rescue those at his store at Manzi Munyama, in the Gwanda area. Everything was normal when they arrived at Spiro's store, thirty-seven miles out of Bulawayo. The Africans in charge had gone to Bulawayo, taking the coach mules, but leaving the cattle. On reaching Dawson's store, they found a bloodstained shirt, belonging to Dawson’s storekeeper Munsberg and a sock soaked with the blood of Stracey. Next morning when they reached the Blue Hills, they met a small force of men under Inspector Southey, out to investigate the reason a Zeederberg coach had not arrived. Dawson had not seen the coach, so it was agreed that it must have turned back to Tuli. They all returned to Bulawayo, arriving a few hours before the coach miraculously arrived too.

On 4 April 1896 in what was later termed “Gifford’s Patrol to Shiloh”; a patrol made up of thirty men from F Troop of the BFF under Captain Dawson, seventy-seven men from Gifford’s Horse and eleven men of the Grey’s Scouts under Lieut Crewe and forty-nine Cape Volunteers under Captain Bisset, a total of one hundred and sixty-seven with two wagons and one ‘galloping’ carriage Maxim headed out. Their instructions were to clear the Khami river area and then move north-east to Inyati before looping back to the Gwelo road at the Bembesi river and return to Bulawayo. However things did not work out as planned. The force left Bulawayo on 4 April going west and had not gone far when two farm workers reported a large amaNdebele impi about fourteen miles away at Holm’s Farm on the Umguza river. They turned north and shortly before the main force reached the Umguza the sound of firing on the right of the column indicated the scouts had come into contact with the rebels. Soon afterwards the rear-guard came into contact with a strong force of about three hundred who were only beaten back after some fierce fighting lasting about an hour.

With the sound of firing Captain Dawson’s F Troop were ordered forward to the fighting to cover the Cape Volunteers and to deliver a counter-attack; whilst B Troop under Captain Fynn took up positions in some kopjes on the right flank of the main body. The fighting now became widespread, the amaNdebele showing a very determined opposition with the brunt of their attacks on the Cape Volunteers and F and B Troops. Dawson and the Cape Volunteers were forced to fall back on the main body; the Maxim gun finally checking the rebel advance and then forcing them to retreat. About 2am messengers brought news that a relief force was just five miles away and in the late afternoon these reinforcements under Captain Macfarlane arrived at the laager. The return journey to Bulawayo began the next day and Bulawayo was reached by nightfall without any further incidents.

The Ndebele were finally routed and a temporary peace returned once more to Rhodesia only to be rudely interrupted by the Mashona tribe taking up arms against the white settlers in 1897. Davidson did not play a part in this phase of the war and was awarded the BSAC medal Rhodesia 1896 reverse for his part in the Matabele conflict.

As time marched on Davidson appears to have headed back to South Africa. As the end of the 19th century approached war was declared between the two Boer Republics of the Orange Free State and Transvaal and Great Britain on 11 October 1899. Davidson, now 33 years old and, arguably, a seasoned “African” in the prime of his life, enlisted for service as an Agent and Guide with the Field Intelligence Department. Having been in southern Africa for almost a decade and having been exposed to the machinations of some of the indigenous tribes, he was an ideal choice for the role which included acting as an interpreter and guide for the Imperial forces as they negotiated their way through the war in what was to them, alien country.

According to the medal roll off of which his Queens Medal was awarded on 27 September 1901, he was operational in the South-Eastern Transvaal. This fits with what we know of his later movements where he was resident in Heidelberg which is in the same geographic location. The length of time he spent with the F.I.D. is not known.

Things went quiet on the Davidson front for the next while and it wasn’t until twelve years later, when hostilities commenced on 4 August 1914 between Imperial Germany and Great Britain, that he was heard from again. With the Great War having commenced, South Africa was requested by the British Government to carry out an Urgent Imperial Service – that is to enter and occupy the neighbouring territory of German South West Africa and destroy the powerful radio transmitter mast erected there as, it was felt, it could be used to interfere with Allied shipping in the Atlantic Ocean.

On 1 September 1914 Davidson attested for service with “D” Squadron of the Natal Light Horse for service. Assigned no. 454 and the rank of Rifleman, he provided Mrs H Robertson of Harrismith in the Orange Free State as his next of kin. The N.L.H. was 500 strong and served on the southern frontier along the Orange River forming part of the Central Force. Initially, the O.C. of the Natal Light Horse was none other than “Galloping Jack” Royston, a man known more for his courage than his intellect but he was later replaced by Lt Colonel William Park Gray.



The N.L.H. participated in what is widely regarded as the seminal action of the entire German South West campaign – that which took place at Gibeon on 27 April 1915 and I leave it to Gerald L’ange in his book “Urgent Imperial Service” to recount the event itself and the actions leading up to it. But first there is a need to contextualise it – a large section of what remained of the German army had retreated to a small railway siding known at Gibeon and were intent on boarding the train there along with all their men and supplies in order to travel north and away from the advancing South African forces. They were under the impression that they had plenty of time and wholly underestimated the speed at which a determined S.A Brigade took to get there before the train departed and blow up the track to the north of the station in order to block any escape attempt.

“Royston had deployed three squadrons of the Natal Light Horse on the railway embankment with a fourth squadron in reserve. Because Royston had placed his men so near the station it wasn’t long before they were encountered by the patrols that Von Kleist had been sending out continually ever since learning that the line had been blown up. In fact Royston was still getting his men into position at 2 a.m. when a patrol arrived on the scene and the Natal men were forced to open fire, alerting Von Kleist to the arrival in his rear of more than a sabotage party.

The Germans quickly brought up reinforcements with artillery and machine guns and, from the cover of the culvert and the draining ditch, they poured a heavy fire into the Natal men. Caught out in the open they were soon being cut up by shrapnel and machine gun fire.

Shortly before dawn they found themselves surrounded and had to surrender. Royston withdrew his force three miles to the east of the railway to await daylight. When Royston withdrew and the trapped N.L.H. men surrendered the Germans assumed that they had defeated the main South African force and celebrated joyously. But their joy was short-lived as McKenzie was already moving up with his main force…….” The battle then raged and “shortly afterwards, however, the 1st Natal Carbineers and Lieutenant Colonel Park Gray, who had collected a handful of his men – the N.L.H. – released about 70 of these prisoners.”

Davidson survived this ordeal without being wounded. He had been promoted to Corporal on 1 February 1915 and served until 16 June 1915 when the unit was disbanded and the war in that theatre almost over – the Germans surrendering at Otavi on 9 July 1915.

Having “done his bit” in three wars Davidson elected not to follow some of his comrades into German East Africa or, indeed, the slaughter fields of the Western Front. His war over he was awarded the normal trio of WWI medals to go with his Matabele War and Anglo Boer War ones.

In the 1920’s the Rhodesian Government placed adverts in the various newspapers in South Africa to the effect that, should anyone still alive have been one of the 1890 Pioneers who were credited with opening up the country, they were eligible to return their BSAC medal for a new 1890 version specially authorised for them.



Davidson must have applied although there is no record of him having been a Pioneer in the archives. He received a reply from the Chief Staff Office, Defence Force, Salisbury dated 27 March 1926, addressed to him at P.O. Box 201 Heidelberg, Transvaal which read as follows:

“Mashonaland 1890 Medal

With reference to your letter dated the 20th instant. I forward you a form on which you may submit your application for the above – When completed please return the form to me.

Kindly do not surrender your 1896 medal until you are notified that the 1890 medal is available for issue.

Yours faithfully

Staff Officer for War Records”

Davidson, presumably, was either found to have not qualified for the 1890 medal or the matter was never pursued.

John Davidson passed away in Heidelberg, Transvaal on 15 March 1934 at the age of 67 from Chronic Nephritis, Coronary Disease and Myocardial degeneration. He was an Overseer with the Heidelberg Municipality living at Marais Street at the time of his death. He had never married.

Acknowledgments:
- Zimbabwe Field Guide for Dawson and the B.F.F.
- Familysearch for Death Notice and family history
- Ancestry for medal rolls