Dai Floyd, adventurer and all round good egg is currently having the wonderful experience of taking his son around the Western Front battlefields where two of his relatives from Neath - Fred Worth and Sam Floyd lie in Commonwealth War Graves. Sam Floyd was from the Latt, which prompted me to think of the one man from Neath - also from the Latt - from WW1 who is buried in Sub Saharan Africa - Morogoro Cemetery in Tanzania to be precise. It took me a long time to piece together this mans service for the book I am writing, including the interrogation of files in Pretoria and Nairobi. Its quite a story, and I set it out below. Please keep information on your relatives coming - particularly anyone out there who has a relative on a local memorial. Any detail will help. Jon. Allen, William John. Lieutenant Indian Army, Attached East African Intelligence Department. William John Allen had a most interesting life and military career. He was born at the Latt in Neath, in 1893, the son of John and Emilah Allen of Port Tennant, Swansea. William’s father John was a serving soldier in the Boer War and took his discharge when in South Africa. At the end of the conflict the family followed him there. John died in 1905. Four years later Emilah remarried Richard Howard, a ‘traveller’ originally from Liverpool but then resident in Johannesburg. Her son William moved to British East Africa (BEA) and became a settler farmer. When war was declared, Charles Joseph Ross DSO was appointed to form his own unit of Scouts. 40 men, including William were duly recruited and formed Ross’s Scouts -arguably the roughest and toughest group of lads ever to form a military unit in East Africa. Charles Ross was one of the great adventurers who spanned the 19thand 20th Centuries. Born in Australia he ran away as a child and lived with native Indians. He became a scout for the US Army in the Indian wars and then moved to Canada to join the North West Mounted Police. During the Boer War he won the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) with Roberts’ Horse and commanded the Canadian Scouts before settling in German East Africa. In November 1914 Ross took his new command west to secure the German East Africa (GEA) /BEA border. It was a perfect time for Ross’s Scouts to settle old scores on behalf of their commander. Ross had had his land in GEA seized by the German authorities in retaliation for his prolific poaching and ivory selling. Ross sent German District Commissioner Schultz, who had authorized the seizure of his land the genitals of a slaughtered male goat with a note telling him that this is what he could look forward to. Ross and his men conducted a series of raids towards Musoma, on Lake Victoria in GEA in conjunction with the Kings African Rifles, with varying degrees of success. More akin to licensed mayhem than formal military operations, the looting and killing got out of hand, even by East African standards. The British General Stewart interviewed Ross and his senior lieutenant on 13th January 1915. It would be safe to say that the meeting didn’t go well, as Ross’s Scouts were immediately disbanded. Lieutenant Drought took William Allen and 17 other men to join the East African Mounted Rifles (EAMR). They formed E Company of the Regiment, which became known as “Drought’s Company”. Most of the members of the EAMR were expert riders, crack shots and they had the huge advantage of knowing the country, the conditions and the language, Swahili. They knew little and cared less about formal soldiering and they were somewhat taken aback when they found themselves being issued with regulation uniforms and expected to undergo formal training. They had succeeded in holding the border with German East Africa during 1914 but the disastrous Battle of Tanga in November 1914 where a combined Indian and British force of 8000 was soundly beaten by 1000 German African troops had changed the complexion of the campaign. Throughout 1915 the EAMR combed the frontier to flush out German raiding parties emboldened by their success at Tanga. By November they were undergoing intense training before beginning the advance towards Arusha under the South African General Smuts. William would have seen action at Geraraguua and Soko before the Regiment arrived at Arusha in March 1916. By this time William had been appointed Corporal and when the decision came to select men from the EAMR for commissioning as officers in other units, he was a natural choice. Indeed William’s knowledge of the country and of Swahili must have been particularly valued as he was appointed an Honorary Lieutenant in the East African Intelligence Department. William had little time to enjoy his new appointment before be fell dangerously ill with Black Water Fever. The Governor of Nairobi wrote to the Governor General of South Africa on 30th June 1916: “Regret to inform you that William John Allen of the Intelligence Department dangerously ill with Black Water Fever in hospital at Karungu. Please inform his step-father Richard Howard, Fordsburg, Transvaal or his Step Brother Howard at the South African Turf Club, Johannesburg.” In early July he was transferred to Nairobi and began recovering from the deadly disease. He returned to active duties later that year and was attached to the 1st Battalion Cape Corps. When South Africa entered the war internal politics dictated that only white men would be armed; the Africans and Coloureds (people of mixed race) would be recruited in their thousands but only as unarmed railway labourers or transport workers. However the large Cape Coloured community wished to send men to fight, and after the conclusion of the successful campaign in German South West Africa (now Namibia) the South African government offered to raise an infantry battalion of Coloured men for overseas service. Britain accepted the offer and the Cape Corps was born. William was the Intelligence Officer to the 1st Battalion Cape Corps and the unit’s smartness and efficiency in dealing with isolated pockets of Germans in and around Kangata in July impressed General Smuts. In December 1916 the Cape Corps marched south towards the Rufiji River with four machine guns, a two-gun Section of the Kashmir Mountain Battery, and a detachment of the Faridkot Sappers & Miners with six collapsible boats. After a sharp action on 2nd January when 100 Cape Corps soldiers surprised German forces at Makalinso the British forces advanced on the retreating enemy. The German formation commander tasked with delaying the British was Captain Ernst Otto and he positioned his forces in the Kibongo area. On 20th January 1917 the Corps attacked the enemy position at Kibongo. The enemy troops withdrew from their first trench line but held their second, delivering counter-attacks on the Cape Corps flanks that were beaten off after heavy fighting. The key to the German position was a small hill which Lieutenant Hayton of ‘B’ Company successfully attacked with a section of his platoon. The enemy mounted two counter-attacks on the hill but both were driven off by the Cape Corps machine guns and the Kashmiri mountain artillery. By 1200 hours the Germans had withdrawn as their flank and rear were being threatened by the 1st Nigeria Regiment. The Cape Corps counted the cost which was 4 men killed, 2 other men dying of wounds and 2 officers and 6 men wounded. William Allen was also killed during the action at Kibongo, age 27. William John Allen is buried in Morogoro Cemetery, Tanzania. Grave Reference VIII. C. 12.
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 19:01:57 +0000
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