The South African War 1899-1902

Maritzburg College's memorial to Old Boys who lost their live in the South African War of 1899-1902

Trooper J.W. Howes V.C.R.

Trooper Howes' graves in Vryheid cemetery

A map of the battle in which Howes was wounded in the arm.
 He was wounded attacking the hill known as Tinta Inyoni  (Inintanyone on the map)

Indian streacher bearers at Rietfontein. Streacher bearers like these would have removed Howes from the battlefield. 

Trooper Julius Antonius Schulz 

(Schultz found elsewhere)

On March 31, Colonel Plumer was within 6 miles of Mafeking, and a portion of his force, consisting of about 200 mounted men, came into collision with the Boers who were investing the town. The engagement lasted from 3 to 6 o'clock in the afternoon, and Colonel Plumer, who was himself slightly wounded, and who lost 10 killed including 3 officers, about 25 wounded, and 7 missing, was compelled to retire to  Ramathlabama.

Press report of the action in which Julius Schultz lost his life.

An ambulance like this would have rushed Julius Schultz from the battlefield outside Ramatlhabama to Colonel Plumer's camp at Sefetili.

Highlighted in red is the path taken by Julius Schultz and the rest of Colonel Plumer's relief force.

The following biography comes from a post on the ZULU WAR 1879 Discussion & Reference Forum by 'Littlehand':




Julius Schulz was born at Westville outside Durban on 22 March 1866, the third son of Dr Schulz MD to study medicine at the University of Berlin, the Alma Mater of his father, grandfather and great grandfather, all of whom were doctors. He was expelled for participating in duelling contests and never completed his studies. He joined the Victoria Column on 4 October 1893 as a Corporal. In the later 1896 war in Rhodesia he served firstly as a gunner with the Bulawayo Field Force and then as a Trooper in the Gwelo Burghers. Schulz was one of 49 men of the Victoria Column as part of Major Forbes’ reduced force of 94 men who retreated to Bulawayo after Major Wilson and his brave band of 34 men of the same column fought to the death on the opposite bank of the Shangani River. The retreating Column was attacked on 8th, 10th and 12th December and finally met up at the Longwe River on 14th December with a relief force sent out from Bulawayo. Schulz wrote a 19 page report, which is included in full, on his experiences in this war and in particular of the Shangani Patrol and his escape. In it he states that if it was not for Commandant Raaff’s intervention, they would have not escaped. He comments on Major Forbes’ poor leadership. A few paragraphs are now quoted.



“Now comes the most dramatic scene of the whole war. Moving on after the fighting, we found
ourselves in dense bush and among huge rocks and boulders, and then as night fell, and when it
was still raining heavily, a very difficult passage faced us, placed as we were – two guncarriages,
men failing for want of food, and ammunition running short.
Our officer in full command Major ------ expressed his desire to rest in that spot for the night,
and thereupon Captain Coventry came to me with the order to pick out the sick horses, which,
together with the gun-carriages, the latter’s linchpins being withdrawn, were to be left behind,
and place them in the centre of the laager. But then, with the lightning flashing most vividly, and
the thunder rolling continuously, Commandant Raaff mounted a stone, and with his features
discernible only in the flashes of lightning, spoke these words:
“Men, I feel that I am called upon by God to speak, and to get you out of the nest we have been
brought into, and now to take command into my own hands. Therefore, we shall march twenty
miles tonight, and in silence. All bits to be taken out of the horses mouths, there must be no
jingling and no smoking, and the two Maxims must be carried”.
We were ready to follow him gladly, for we had full confidence in him, and we proceeded to clear
from the laager we had built. But it was now found that we were all too weak to carry the guns,
and so we mounted them on what available animals there were, and then, in the dead of night,
left, the only occupants of the deserted laager being the gun carriages, left standing as they were.
We fought our way down, through days of suffering, until we reached safety. During this time
Major -------- had been silent, but now, when we reached SAFETY, the voice of the martinet
sounded forth once more, and amongst other things, he tried to belittle Commandant Raaff. But
allow me, as one who fought under him, and who saw, together with my comrades, what the
actual position was, to say that Commandant Raaff was the man who led the Patrol on the
retreat down the Shangani, and that he was kindness and consideration itself not only to the
wounded but also to the others. As regards the former, he often denied himself, to give to them.
He was, indeed, one of Africa’s most famous soldiers – one who fought for England in nearly all
the Kaffir wars in South Africa.”



Schulz attested for Boer War service in ‘A’ Squadron of the Rhodesia Regiment on 15 February 1900. His occupation is given as mining. He was killed in action at Ramathlabana six miles south of Mafeking on 31 March 1900. Colonel Plumer’s losses that day were 8 killed, 29 wounded including him and 11 made prisoner. Nearly all of these were of the Rhodesia Regiment.


In July 1899 Colonel Baden-Powell had been sent to South Africa to raise two regiments in order to protect the borders of Rhodesia and the Bechuanaland Protectorate in the event of war. Recruiting began on 10 August 1899, and the two regiments, namely, the Rhodesia under Colonel Plumer, and the Protectorate under Colonel Hore, were raised, trained, and equipped before war broke out in October. This is clear evidence that Britain anticipated the war well ahead of the declaration. Hibbard states that only the S.A. Light Horse, Kitchener’s Horse and the Rhodesia Regiment were awarded single bar Relief of Mafeking to the QSA. The Rhodesia Regiment roll only reflects 29 names, all of ‘A’ Squadron.

Members of the Rhodesian Regiment marching for to War sometime in 1899

After Schulz’s death, his sister, in a letter to Major Everest, claimed that her brother had a 6,000 acre farm at Thaba Induna. This may well have been a fact. In Dr Jameson’s letter to Captain Wilson of 14 August 1893 (L.O.5/2/34), he states that each member of the force would be entitled to mark out a farm of 3,000 morgen in any part of Matabeleland. A quitrent of 10 shillings a year would be charged. Members would be allowed four clear months after the end of hostilities to mark out their farms. The letter furthermore refers to gold claims, stating that a volunteer would be entitled to 15 claims on reef and 5 alluvial claims. The fact that Schulz gives his occupation upon enlistment in the Boer War as “mining”, may indicate that he had exercised his rights to both a farm and to mining claims.

The mustering of Plumer's volunteers at Bulawayo.  Colonel Nicholson (mounted centre right) is seen reading instructions to the men. The mounted troopers in front belong to the British South Africa Company's force (BSAP).

His name appears, spelt as Schultz, on the roll of Rhodesians who fell in the South African War 1899-1902 in the Memorial Shrine next to the Bulawayo Post Office.”




Julius also attended Durban High School and according to the school's history, Julius received seven gunshot wounds and finally succumbed to these wounds after riding back to Ramatlhabama. 



Did a little research and there is a grave of Sergeant Schulz (A Squad RR; mortally wounded at Ramatlhabama 31 March 1900, died in ambulance) at a town called Sefhikile. I am currently planning an expedition to locate a photograph his grave.

Tom Blaikie

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