Abraham Barend de Villiers Kotzé

Abram Barend de Villiers kotze

 		     AB de Villiers Kotze

The photograph on the left is from the group cricket team photograph 1903/4 when AB, aged about 12, was the youngest member of the team. The other is from the family group photograph. He was born in Hopefield in 1892.

His wartime address is given as c/o De Beers, Kimberley.

Most of what we know of this member of the Kotze family comes from records from the Military Archives in Pretoria, and war records in the NA London:

Description on Enlistment AB seems to have had quite a career in the army. He had 2 service numbers – 3677 and 4096 - and the following regiments are mentioned in his records:

The South African Horse The 5th South African Mounted Rifles The East African Forces, The 1st and 2nd Mounted Brigade The East African Labour Corps (as 2nd Lieutenant)

As a farm boy, he would have honed his horse-riding skills, which he obviously put to good use during the war. His military records show that he served in German South West Africa and also in East Africa.

From 1914-1915 he was with the 5th SAMR in the German SWA Campaign. In May 1916, the record shows him leaving Durban on board the HMS ‘Laconia’ bound for Kilindini port, Kenya.

Pay Form

In August 1916, he was made Acting Regimental Sergeant Major. The form (above) mentions that this was done on orders from (the famous) Captain Bloomfield, under whom AB served in the Scouts.

In 1917, he returned to Durban on board the HMS ‘Guildford Castle’ and was immediately sent home to Malmsbury, where he spent some months recovering from malaria and ‘debilities’. In May of the same year, he was medically boarded for another month at the Castle.

By the end of May 1917 he was ready for service again and left Durban on the SS ‘Kyaria’ bound for East Africa. After a short time back in SA, he again left Durban in the July of 1918 aboard the ‘Ingoma’, bound for Dar es Salaam. In the February of 1919 he was treated for malaria in the No 1 Wynberg General Hospital and was released from service on 27/02/1919.

Attestation form

The pink medal record card (below) has 2 interesting abbreviations on it: LGS and MID, which stand for ‘London Gazette Supplement’ and ‘Mentioned in Despatches’ – which show that young AB performed some meritorious action in the face of the enemy. He was mentioned on 8 February 1917 in volume 29933, page 1355.On page 1355, he is listed as one of 17 members of Van Deventer’s Scouts who received a mention. The scouts, led by Capt WA Bloomfield were active at this time in British and German East Africa. Bloomfield, who is mentioned in the list with Kotze, won a VC for his heroic act of going into enemy fire and carrying out one of his wounded men, after the corporal that he ordered to do so had refused. (From SA Military History Website)

 Medal Record

Not much is written about Van Deventer’s Scouts, but in a book titled “The South Africans with General Smuts in German East Africa” by Brig Gen JJ Collyer, the foreword, written by Smuts himself, sums it up:

“To these, one and all, officers and men, I would respectfully pay my grateful tribute. Thousands of them sleep in East African soil. But to me the real hero of the East African campaign is the South African Citizen soldier. I know my other comrades will not mind my saying so. They were mostly young men, civilian volunteers from the veld and the towns, from the open country and unrivalled climate of their native land, with scanty military training, with no knowledge or thought in any quarter of what awaited them in East Africa, either in the manner of fighting or in the climatic or biotic conditions of nature. Immediately on arrival they were flung against military positions skilfully prepared for more than a year; they had to face a well-led army, skilled in bush-fighting; they had to make acquaintance with unknown devastating tropical diseases. As they fought their way through, and lines of communication rapidly lengthened, hospital equipment, transport, and supply arrangements proved inadequate, reduced rations became an effective ally to malaria and the host of other tropical diseases. Bush and forests, mountains, rivers and deserts proved far more formidable than the enemy army. The Equatorial sun blazed on them from above, disease and hunger sapped them from within. All around spread the endless bush, cutting off vision, full of lurking invisible danger, fear-inspiring, heart-breaking. With this went hard labour in long marches, in road and bridge-making in cutting their way through endless obstacles. And all this immense exertion under conditions of intolerable lassitude, and weakness from disease. It was their greatness of spirit, the high tension of their effort that kept them going, kept them from faltering. And supporting them there was the immense drive which was necessary to keep so great a machine from slowing down in the face of such obstacles. They kept marching and fighting on. From the Lumi to the Rufiji, from the Indian Ocean to the Great Lakes they fought their way through, and in eleven months had mastered a huge stretch of primeval Africa. They stood a test almost beyond human endurance. East Africa is in line with the effort of the Great Trek and of the Boer War. They have received scant recognition. After all, was East Africa not one of the little side-shows of the Great War? The honours have gone to those of their comrades who went to the Western Front. Delville Wood, Marrieres Wood and other battle centres in France are the highlights in the South African War record. Let us not grudge the heroes of the Western Front the glory that is theirs, and that is South Africa's. But equally, let us not forget that there was no less heroism in East Africa, no less endurance to the utmost limits of human nature, no less a contribution to the heroic record of South Africa.” (Jan Smuts)

London Gazette Supplement 1917

The medal record card (left) shows that he was the recipient of the ‘Victory’ and the ‘British’ medals and that he was “granted temporary rank of 2nd Lt. on 23 June 1917 for services in East Africa”.

Medal Record card

One last record found in the MA, Pretoria, is this letter (below) written by AB. After faithfully serving his country, he is indignant at the inefficiency of the administration staff. Quite right too! The letter is dated 1916.

On 13 April 1918 AB married a Miss Maria Petronella Sleigh at the DRC in Cape Town. He died in May 1964.

DRC Marriage Index