TOPIC:

William Paul Elmes

Private, 3rd Battalion, Middlesex Regiment – Anglo Boer War
Sergeant, 8th South African Horse – German East Africa – WWI
Bombardier, 4th Heavy Battery, South African Artillery – WWII

- Queens South Africa Medal to 7344 PTE. W. ELMES. MIDD’X REGT.
- British War Medal to SGT. W.P. ELMES. 8TH S.A.H.
- Victory Medal to SGT. W.P. ELMES. 8TH S.A.H.
- War Medal 1939-45 to 91289 W. ELMES
- Africa Service Medal to 91289 W. ELMES

William Elmes was born in the Parish of Finchley, London on 21 December 1879 the son of Henry John Elmes, a Railway Clerk by occupation and his wife Emma. Our first sighting of William comes courtesy of the 1881 England census when, as a 1 year old babe in arms, he was at home in 33 Roderick Road, St Pancras – the last born of six children. His siblings were Emma (12), Minnie (10), Ada (7), Henry John (6) and Harriet (4).

Ten years later, at the time of the 1891 England census, a 9 year old William was a Visitor in the house of one James E Matthews of 19 Montrave Road in Lewisham. It is not known in what way, if at all, William was connected to the Matthews’ family.

At the age of 20, on 13 March 1901, William completed attestation papers for Short Service with the Colours in Hounslow, London. Having been passed as Fit by the Doctor, he was assigned No. 7344 and the rank of Private with the Middlesex Regiment. Physically he was described as being 5 feet 4 ½ inches in height, weighing 118 lbs and with a fair complexion, brown hair and blue eyes. He had a scar on his right check and was a Wesleyan by way of religious persuasion. He had been a Parcel Porter by occupation – one assumes with a Railway concern.



Initially posted to the Depot he was transferred to the 3rd (Militia) battalion of the Middlesex Regiment on 1 April 1901, before being posted to the 1st Battalion on 19 December 1902. It was whilst with the 3rd Battalion that he saw his first overseas posting – to the island of St Helena in the midst of the Atlantic Ocean where Boer prisoners of War were being incarcerated. Having spent almost a year at home he was sent to St Helena on 11 March 1902 and was on the island until being sent to South Africa on 18 December 1902. His duties for the 190 days he was a Prison Guard would not have been very onerous. There was little incentive for the Boer prisoners to escape. They were reasonably well looked after and, being on a remote island far from any mainland, unable to make a break for it.

Elmes’ stay in South Africa was a transitory one – after 93 days he sailed with the 1st Battalion, Middlesex Regiment for India where he was to spend the next 6 years before returning to England on Christmas Eve 1908. From then on it was strictly home service for another four years before he had discharged his duty to the Crown and was transferred to the Army Reserve on 25 February 1909. His father’s address in 1908 was 91 Grosvenor Road, Lower Edmonton, London. He had used his time back in England well – qualifying for a Third Class Education Certificate on 29 March 1906 and, before that, obtaining his Mounted Infantry Certificate on 16 March 1904.

Whilst in India he earned no less than four Army Temperance Medals showing the world at large that his habits and vices, such as they were, did not run to drink.


The Elmes group with Temperance Medals

At some point thereafter Elmes decided to take the plunge and emigrate to South Africa. Perhaps the three months he had spent there, before embarking for India, had left an indelible impression on him. No matter what the case, he sailed for the southern tip of Africa to start a new life. Making his way to Durban he sought and was rewarded with employment with the recently constituted South African Railways – an amalgamation of the Natal, Cape and Central South African Railways into one – after the creation of Union in 1910.

By February 1915 he was a Checker at Esperanza down the South Coast and was transferred to Durban Goods. Now 32 years old and no longer in the first flower of youth he wed 26 year old Mary Cecelia Boyce at St Paul’s on the Durban Berea on 9 June 1915. Under a year later, in May 1916, he resigned from his employment in order to join the fight against the Germans in German East Africa.

Completing the attestation forms at Roberts Heights (Pretoria) on 17 April 1916 he confirmed his address as 216 Brand Road, Durban and his next of kin as his wife, Mary. Claiming to be a Barber by occupation he confirmed that he had 12 years prior service with the Middlesex Regiment and 9 months, in the current conflict, with the Railway Rifles. Assigned no. 4373 with “C” Squadron of the 8th South African Horse, 2nd Mounted Brigade, he set sail for East Africa aboard the H.M.A.C. “Armadale,” on 22 May 1916 and, having disembarked at Kilindini on 28 May, was deployed to the front.

The 8th South African Horse with whom Elmes served was one of ten special service mounted irregular regiments raised in the Union for service in German East Africa. The unit was raised in Durban in May and June 1916 and consisted in the proportion of over fifty percent, of men from the Natal Mounted Rifles. The regiment consisted of four squadrons each of four troops. Members assembled at Roberts Heights where the unit was formed, organised and brigaded and underwent a six week training course, on foot, as horses had not yet been allotted. These were drawn after arrival in East Africa.

The regiment embarked at Durban and disembarked at Kilindini, thence by rail via Voi to Mbuyuni, where their horses and mule transport were taken over. From Mbuyuni the force proceeded to Shell Camp beyond which place animal transport could not travel. It was therefore left there and the force pushed on with native porters as transport to the point in the track where it branched off to Mahondo Mission after engaging en route in sundry skirmishes and small affairs with the retiring enemy. At this place severe fighting took place over several days and the regiment sustained a number of casualties.

The enemy was driven back and followed to the neighbourhood of Kisaki by the 8th SA Horse, via Wami River where a severe engagement ensued at the river crossing which lasted about 36 hours. There the 8th SAH made contact with other South African mounted units.

In the meanwhile, Elmes had been promoted to Sergeant on 13 April 1916 but had reverted to Private rank at his own request on 9 June 1916.
On 2nd September 1916 the 2nd Mounted Brigade (of which the 8th SAH was part) suffered a setback in lively fighting and retired to Wigs Hill the following day. Two days later the whole force again advanced on Kusaki, which was found to have been evacuated by the enemy the day before. They eventually arrived after occasional skirmishing, at the Rufiji flats via the Pangani River. Here the whole force was held up for several weeks before being relieved by an Indian force.

By this time, in common with other mounted units, the strength of the regiment had been severely decimated and reduced in effectiveness by the ravages of malaria and dysentery, assisted by the ill effects of shortage of food, bad weather and other hardships of the campaign. To this was added the loss by tsetse fly and malignant horse sickness of most of the horses of the regiment. The brigade was in fact a practically non-effective force.

It was therefore sent back to Morogoro on the railway line for rest and recuperation. Here a large percentage of the personnel was medically boarded out as unfit for further service, but a small remnant of about 50 comparatively fit members were drafted into a composite regiment which returned to the Rufiji River. The boarded members were sent from Morogoro to Dar-es-Salaam where they embarked for the Union reaching Durban in the last few days of 1916 and were disbanded with in the next fortnight.

Elmes did not escape unscathed – he too succumbed to tropical sickness ere long and was treated at the 52nd Casualty Clearing Station at Handeni on 9 July 1916 with Malaria. Having just recovered from this attack he went down with dysentery on 3 August 1916 and was treated at the same facility. Malaria, which never quite goes away followed him doggedly and, having been treated at the S.A General Hospital at Dar-es-Salaam, he was brought aboard H.M.T. Aragon on 10 November 1916 for transfer back to the Union where he was boarded – like so many of his comrades after disembarking on 15 November.

On 3 October 1917 he was admitted to No. 3 General Hospital in Springfield, Durban with Malaria and, on 29 October 1917 sent to the Convalescent Camp at Congella. His Proceedings on Discharge Form, completed at Durban on 3 December 1916, states that his final destination was Somerset East in the Eastern Cape – this was, perhaps, a clerical error as Elmes had no connection to that part of the country. Having served for 295 days his final discharge date was 3 February 1917 and he returned home with a Military Character rating of Good.

By April 1917 he was back in Railway employ, a Checker at the Point in Durban.



All fell quiet on the Elmes’ front until, thirteen years later the unimaginable happened – the world woke up on the morning of 6 September 1939 to find itself at war once more. On this occasion with the old foe, Germany, and her Allies. South Africa was, initially, slow to respond to the war effort. As was the case prior to WWI, there was a strong internal faction that opposed siding with Great Britain and who insisted on neutrality or fighting on the German side. Smuts, the Prime Minister narrowly carried the day in the House of Assembly and, from April 1940 onwards volunteers started to flood in to the Recruiting Centres around the country.



William Elmes, now a veteran of two wars and at the age of 60, attested for service with the 4th Heavy Battery of the South Africa Artillery at Durban on 29 May 1940. Still as a Checker with the South African Railways, he confirmed both his Boer War and WWI service. He also confirmed that he and his wife had one child, a daughter aged 16 and that they were living at Escombe in Durban. Other than his weight which was now 130 lbs and the fact that his hair was greying, his physical description was the same as it was in 1901.

Initially assigned to the Support Company of the Royal Durban Light Infantry with no. 91289 and the rank of Private, he was promoted to Bombardier and posted to the 4th Heavy Battery which manned guns on the Bluff, pointing out to sea and covering the harbour entrance – a crucial defence mechanism should either the German Navy or, later, the Japanese, have decided to try and enter the harbour Elmes’ guns would have come into play.

But Elmes’ health was to have the last word, having been admitted to hospital on 7 March 1941 he was reclassified “C2” and discharged “Medically Unfit” on 31 April 1941. His address on discharge was 8 Hope Road, Overport, Durban. His WWII medals were posted to him on 22 September 1951.



His war over, and having retired from the S.A.R.& H. before he attested for service, he went home to enjoy the last few years of his life in peace. The staff magazine, in October 1956 informed their readers that he had passed away on 19 September 1956. His death notice corroborated the date and provided the cause of death – Mesenteric Thrombosis and Severe Cystitis. He was a Widower and retired Checker on the South Africa Railways.

Acknowledgements:
- The Volunteer Regiments of Natal and East Griqualand – Godfrey T. Hurst
- Familysearch.org for Marriage Certificate and Death Notice
- SANDF Archives for WWI & WWII files and service cards
- The South Africa Railways & Harbours Magazine for Railway employment details
- Brian Cunningham for photo of 4 Heavy Battery, SAA