Episode 122 - The dishonourable ex-fiancé Karel de Kock & the Witwatersrand Rifle Regiment

The Anglo-Boer War

This is episode 122 and we will take a close look at the love-life of a Boer spy – who’s tale is laced with an unusual irony that involves a regiment called the Witwatersrand Rifles. The nature of the war had shifted again by January 1902 with the British system of blockhouses and drives beginning to create a major problem for the Boers – pushing the small number of commandos left into areas of the country that could hardly be called strategic. The guerrilla tactic has morphed again from hit and run, to a lot more running and far less hitting. The policy of no-longer forcing women and children into the Concentration Camps had also begun to pose a problem for the Boers in a way. While they were used to tough conditions, drought and poor crops returns in lean years, the increasingly volatile regions on the frontiers meant they were isolated and in danger from other forces. Near Swaziland the kiSwati chiefs had made it clear that they felt the need to launch revenge attacks on the nearby Boer homestead, so too in the North Western Transvaal, in the northern Transvaal, and along the border with Zululand. The basutho had not actively entered the Free State but there were real fears by the Boers that vast tracts of empty farmland would entice their traditional foe who had made it clear their interests lay with the British. In Pretoria, sitting at her desk was Boer Spy Johanna van Warmelo. After the war she was married and was known as Johanna Brandt, but that was later. WE have heard many stories from her as she kept three diaries, a personal, a public, and a secret spying diary. The Historian Jackie Grobler published these in one volume in 2007 – it’s a great read because she wrote as a young woman – and her point of view was mixed. She wrote also in English, while despising the English. Its January 1902 and Johanna has applied for a permit to travel between Pretoria and Johannesburg. Small parties of Boers have repeatedly attacked the railwayline between these two cities which are 43 miles or 62 kilometers apart. In 1902 that was a whole day by slow moving train, now the Gautrain travels the route in 35 minutes. There is an unusual connection between van Warmelo and her ex-fiancé Karel de Kock which involves the Rand Rifles. The deserve a special mention because like with many things about the Anglo-Boer war, their importance resonates to this day. After the Boer war, the Rand Rifles were absorbed with members of the Railway Pioneer Regiment into The Witwatersrand Rifles in 1903. This new regiment was to play a major role in South Africa’s military history over the next century. It saw action during the the Bambata Rebellion of 1906, when it deployed a contingent to Zululand. In 1907 the regiment was strengthened when it absorbed the Transvaal Light Infantry Regiment and was mobilised again when World War I broke out. The first action that it took part in was the South African invasion of German South-West Africa (now Namibia). After the successful conclusion of this campaign, virtually all members volunteered for overseas service. Most of the volunteers were consequently assigned to the 3rd South African Infantry Battalion. Unfortunately for these men, they ended up in the terrible Battle of Delville Wood during the Somme offensive where 3433 men went in and only 750 came out alive.