TOPIC:

Mike, just use the insert button and click the cursor within the message box at the point you wish the image to appear.

Thanks, Frank. I'll try that with the next post.
Regards
Mike

Hi everybody
My next contribution is another group to one of the “Captors”, again a Hollander;



Jan Willem van Genne (born approximately 1860) came to the ZAR from the Netherlands in the early 1890’s as an employee of the railway line to Lourenco Marques.











His family could not recall that he ever mentioned anything about his time in the Johannesburg Vrijwilliger Corps but they confirmed that he was a keen chess player who was very proud of his St Helena PoW Chess Certificate. After the passage of some 120 years his JVC activities are virtually impossible to unravel: what is known is that he was still a member of the JVC in June 1898 and was listed (slightly miss-spelt) in Van Diggelen’s handwritten register of members. However, as he did not sport a second bar on his JVC medal, he was not in the group of JVC members that took part in the Swaziland Expedition.
Van Genne’s Boer War service, on the other hand, was quite easily ascertained. He enlisted in the Hollander Corps as a “Wachtmeester” or Sergeant towards the end of September 1899. The Corps entrained for Sandspruit near Volksrust on 3 October 1899 and 10 days later was the first Transvaal unit to cross the border into Natal.
On 21 October 1899 Van Genne had his first and last taste of battle when he was wounded and taken prisoner at Elandslaagte. He got off fairly lightly: a lance wound in the left arm. With his comrades he was taken to Durban by rail and from there by sea to Simon’s Bay where they were kept on board various ships till April 1900. After a few weeks in Bellevue Camp in Simon’s Town, Van Genne was transferred to Deadwood Camp in St Helena.
Life in a PoW Camp was far from exciting and the men found and pursued many pastimes to keep them occupied. A number of clubs and societies were formed, one of them being the “Society for Usefulness and Amusement”. Jan van Genne was awarded a Diploma as 2nd Prize for Novice Chess Players in a competition held in July and August 1901 in their Club Building, which was most likely built out of timber and corrugated iron.
He was repatriated to the Transvaal late in 1902 and in a Pretoria Directory of 1913 he is listed as a “Contractor” resident at 55 Market Street. In 1925 he was one of the men who raised funds and eventually saw to the building of a Memorial to Hollanders who fell in the Boer War.
Jan van Genne died in Pretoria in 1935
Henk

Hi
I neglected yesterday to post the photo of Van Genne taken in St Helena


It comes from the Transvaal Archives
Henk

Simply magnificent Henk.

You ought really to have published cameos of all your recipients (at least the most noteworthy of which there are many) in some or other format for the world at large to enjoy.

There's still time...

Regards

Rory

Hi everybody
Herewith images of the medals to another Jameson Raider who was some 6 years later a casualty in the Boer War.



Alfred Bernard Forsyth (the Bernard got phonetically corrupted to Burnet in the initial list of Raiders) earned his 1893 medal as a Trooper in the Bechuanaland Border Police, the 1896 bar as a Corporal in the Mashonaland Mounted Police and the 1897 bar as a Trooper in the Mount Darwin Volunteers.
On 18 Oct 1897 he attested in the Matabeleland Division of the BSAP, seeing initial Boer War service in Rhodesia and the Transvaal. He left the Force on 4 December 1900: "Time Expired".
Over the next 11 months, before he enlisted in Damant’s Horse on 13 Nov 1901, he seem to have been involved in Intelligence activities, but the details are not clear. On the QSA Roll for Damant’s Horse there is a Marginal Note in ink “In.tece (Intelligence?) & BSAP” with a pencilled addition “Scout Cape Colony 134”. On the Nominal Roll for Damant’s Horse there is a note in red ink “D/c shows this man as having served with Col Plumer in Bechuanaland and Transvaal”. The QSA roll for the FID has an entry for an “Agent/Guide A Forsyth”, but with an entitlement to the Relief of Mafeking bar in addition to OFS and Transvaal. The entry is not marked as “Issued” as are others on the page.
Tragically, a mere five weeks after joining Damant’s Horse, he was killed in Col Damant’s famous action at Tafelkop (VC to Shoeing-Smith Ind, Pom-Pom Section, RHA : 20 Dec 1901).
Alfred Forsyth and 6 other men were MiD, in the LG of 25 April 1902, p2775 as
“Some of the men who in Damant’s action on 20th December charged with Brevet Major Webb, took the ridge and held it, thereby in great measure saving the guns”
Henk