14 November 2024
It’s pleasing to see how traditional boys’ schools in KZN continue to recognise the sacrifices made by their past pupils in service of South Africa in world wars, and how these schools continue to teach their current learners about those who paid the ultimate price for their patriotism.
Over recent days, Remembrance Day ceremonies, which pay respect to those who gave their lives in the First World War, have taken place at various schools. On Wednesday, it was the turn of Clifton, with representatives of military units, who looked resplendent in their uniforms, attending to show their respect and to lay wreaths. It was the latest of many ceremonies they had recently attended.
During the ceremony, a noteworthy address was delivered by Clifton school boy Mnqobi Mthethwa, which reflected on the role and the sacrifice of black South Africans in times of war, and he focused specifically on the SS Mendi, which, just two days earlier, Maritzburg College Headmaster, Dr Chris Luman, had spoken about at College’s Remembrance Day service.
The SS Mendi was sunk in February 1917 after being struck by a large cargo steamship, the Darro, in the English Channel. A total of 646 people, mostly black South Africans, who had never been to sea before, and who couldn’t swim, lost their lives. Faced with certain death, they accepted their fates with dignity and as warriors.
The sinking of the Mendi remains one of the greatest losses of life at sea in South African history.
In 2017, a century after the Mendi was swallowed up by the sea, the ship’s bell was anonymously handed to a BBC reporter. The following year, British Prime Minister Theresa May returned it to South Africa while on an official visit to the country in August.
There are monuments to the SS Mendi in South Africa, Great Britain, France, and The Netherlands. The administrative building in the Port of Ngqura, northeast of Gqeberha, is named the eMendi Admin Building, while a South African naval frigate now carries the name.
Many of the Clifton boys who gave their lives for their country were barely older than the current class of matric learners.
Reverend Kevin Robertson recalled the brothers, Malcolm and Harold Ironside, whose names appear on Clifton’s Roll of Honour, near the Helen Joseph Library. After completing their primary schooling at Clifton, they went on to DHS. Later, both became lieutenants in the South African Air Force.
Malcolm lost his life in an aircraft accident in North Africa in June 1942. Harold’s plane was shot down in September of that year. Malcolm was 21 at the time of his passing and Harold only 19.
The Head of Clifton Prep, Jason Brown, reflected on what it means to be courageous and shared the story of James Richardson, a Canadian solider, aged 20, who served with the 16th Canadian Scottish Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1916 in the Somme.
When his battalion became pinned down by intense enemy fire and their morale began ebbing, Richardson marched in front of his comrades, playing the bagpipes. His example inspired them to attack, and they were, ultimately, victorious. Richardson, who was born in Scotland, was awarded the Victoria Cross, the British Empire’s highest medal for bravery and valour.
Richardson, unfortunately, never got to receive it. After realising he had left his bagpipes in a trench, he returned to the battlefield to retrieve them and was killed.
It was not included in the address, but it is worth mentioning that Richardson’s bagpipes were believed to have been lost in the Somme. In 2002, though, a Pipe Major of The Canadian Scottish Regiment (Princess Mary’s) discovered that a school in Crieff, Scotland, had a set of bagpipes with the unique Lennox tartan on them, the same as used by the pipers of the 16th Battalion. The pipes had been found by a British Army Chaplain, Major Edward Yeld Bate, in 1917, and he had brought them to a school, where he was a teacher.
After extensive investigations were conducted into the origins of the bagpipes, it was confirmed that they had belonged to James Richardson. In November 2006, troops from The Canadian Scottish Regiment placed them at the British Columbia Legislature to serve as a reminder of the valour of the generation that had served in the Great War.
Richardson’s Victoria Cross and war medals are on display at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, Canada.
After the laying of the wreaths, the guests were invited to the Ken MacKenzie Hall‘s foyer where the Centenary Poppy Project installation was unveiled. It’s a towering, illuminated display, highlighting the poppies which serve as symbols of remembrance and hope for a peaceful future.
In front of the poppies, on rectangular Perspex, which both protects and highlight the display, the words of “In Flanders Fields”, by the poet John McCrae, are displayed.
Clifton’s Executive Headmaster, Clyde MacDonald, shared the history of the poppy and thanked the teachers and the boys, from both the Prep and the College, who were involved in the making of the poppies and the building of the installation.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
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