Old soldier recalls the South African War

Press, 24 August 1976, Page 14

Old soldier recalls the South African War

By

D. W. Hodge

In 1897, a school cadet Corps was formed at the Titnaru Main School — one of the oldest in the city — and when the South African War broke out on October 12, 1899, the then Mayor on occasions led the boys, beating kerosene tins with sticks, through Stafford Street in patriotic enthusiasm over British victories. One of the school’s first-decade pupils who fulfilled a long-cherished ambition to “answer the roll” at the school’s centenary on October 7, 1974, Mr T. Vincent, of Timaru, became a member of the 600-strong Sixth New Zealand Contingent, formed in January, 1901, which sailed for South Africa in the Cornwall on January--30 of that year. The doyen of the South Canterbury Returned Services’ Association — he is

touching 98 — Mr Vincent is the oldest surviving member in the district of the South African War Veterans’ Association.

The Sixth Contingent landed at East London on March 13, 1901, and went up by train to Pretoria, where it was organised into four squadrons.

Mr Vincent, who served with rhe contingent at Cape Town, and in the Orange Free State and Cape Colony — where he was wounded, and from where he was taken out to Basutoland — has recollections of the investment by British and New Zealand troops of a large area of the Northern Transfaal. To clear this area, which had not been entered by British troops, Lord Kitchener assembled a force at Pienaar’s River during March, 1901. The Sixth Contingent became part of a mobile column which left on March 29 on the trek to Pietersburg.

Mr Vincent — a “comparatively young man"

when the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles, and Princess Anne spoke to him during their visit to Timaru, the Duke having quipped that Mr Vincent, then 90 was “just a boy” — has memories of the skirmish at Warmbaths, where some Boer prisoners were taken, before the occupation of Pietersburg on April 8, 1901.

He has recollections of engagements at Paardeplaats and in the Modder River area.

His final glimpse of veldt and kopje was on April 10. 1902, when the Sixth Contingent sailed from Durban. On May 11, 1902, it was disbanded. The war ended on May 31, 1902 — 14 years before the formation of the South Canterbury Returned Services’ Association. The association is celebrating its sixtieth anniversary, and will hold an

anniversary ball . next month in recognition of its diamond jubilee and the fact that it has occupied its new clubrooms in Wai-iti Road for almost 12 months.

Mr Vincent is failing in health, but generally visits the association’s administrative headquarters once a week.

Last Anzac Day. for the ninth successive year, he laid a wreath at the foot of the South African War Memorial. It is a truism that old soldiers never die, they only fade away. Mr Vincent’s personality is ingrained in the very fabric of the South Canterbury R.S.A. He is indestructible.

He is a reminder of the birth of a nation, of the Rough Rioters, and of other young men who boarded’ the troopships with the words and music of “Dolly Gray” ringing in their ears.