....He was born at Clenze, in the Kingdom of Hanover (now in Germany) on 16th February 1846, and later studied at Luneberg University, becoming a pharmacist, then serving in the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian War as a medical orderly. After the war's end, he emigrated to South Africa, arriving in Durban in 1872. After marrying, he returned to Germany, completed his medical studies, and qualified as a doctor, before returning to South Africa. "In 1880, he became doctor to the Boer forces fighting in the First Anglo-Boer War (1880-1881). "According to his daughters, he was hijacked by the Boers and forced to serve under them . . . but his daughters were fully Anglicised by then and that he had been on the Boer side was not acceptable. In fact he responded to a call from International Red Cross to assist the Boers because they had no doctors attached to their forces." Von Mengershausen was present at the battle of Majuba, where the Boers defeated the British in a victory that led to the end of the war and the retrocession of the Transvaal."
....Julius died at sea, returning to South Africa from Ceylon, on 11th October 1920; there's a plaque to his memory in St Luke's Church, Howick, KwaZulu-Natal.
www.pressreader.com/south-africa/the-wit...1124/283850095172660
