Spion Kop - who was on the hill?

This aim of this article is to enable medal collectors to make an informed choice when purchasing a medal to one who was there.

Ask “the man in the street” to name a battle or word associated with the Second Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902 and they will probably answer ‘Spion Kop’ or ‘the Kop’. The battle of Spion Kop (24th January, 1900) holds similar familiarity amongst medal collectors. The reason why Spion Kop is so well known is because it was a very bloody battle for the British, it dominated the news of the day and the word ‘kop’ passed into the British language to describe a steeply banked terrace at football grounds – most notably at Anfield the home of Liverpool FC. The word ‘kop’ survives today in its footballing context and the battle continues to attract attention as one of those defeats the British Army finds itself saddled with.

Spion Kop has been the subject of a number of books and articles written in the last 110 years. The most recent published in October 2023 (right).  Generally the authors concentrate on two aspects; the casualties, from a high level number to detailed lists for a unit, and descriptions of what took place in that “acre of massacre”. The battle of Spion kop has not been researched from the point of view of the medal collector. An important fact the medal collector needs to know is if the ‘man behind the medal’ was actually present at a certain battle. The chance to buy a medal to a man taking part in a famous battle of the British Army is a must for most (if not all) medal collectors. Unlike many famous battles Spion Kop does not have a medal or clasp dedicated to it.

Spion Kop is covered by the 'Relief of Ladysmith' clasp that covers 14 weeks of fighting across a wide geographical area: "All troops in Natal north of and including Estcourt between 15th December, 1899, and 28th February, 1900, both dates inclusive.". Contemporary accounts and the casualty rolls also refer to "Spion Kop" not just as a battle but a series of battles that culminated in the battle on Spion Kop on January 24th, 1900. The Natal Field Force casualty roll uses Spion Kop for some casualties of the preceeding battles of Tabanyama (20th January),  Venter's Spruit (23rd January) and a gunner  on Three Tree Hill (20th January). This information can be used uncritically by dealers and collectors giving the false impression the soldier was on that "acre of massacre".

The table shows shows those troops actually enagaged on the summit of Spion Kop with their estimated strength, percentage of a complete unit involved and percentage casualties suffered. The exact number of troops involved is difficult to state. Davidson states there were 1,700 men in the first wave (p.160) and a further 1,900 reinforcements (p.201) making a total of 3,600 on the hill. This differs from my figure below of 4,248, highlighting the diffiuclty of this exercise. Apart from Thorneycroft's Mounted Infantry contemporary sources simply state numbers of companies of a unit that were involved. On campaign company strength varied due to deaths, sickness and sending men to be signallers or servants and grooms to Staff officers. Company strength is assumed to be 100 men. The percentage attempts to show how much of a unit was involved in the battle.

Numbers of companies sent into battle with approximate strength				Casualty %age
Army Medical Corps, Royal	?		-	0
Engineers, Royal, 17th company	half company	50	50%	10%
Imperial Light Infantry	8 companies	800	100%	16%
Lancashire Fusiliers, 2nd bn	8 companies	800	100%	40%
Lancaster Regiment, Royal, 2nd bn	6 companies	600	75%	30.5%
Middlesex Regiment	8 companies	800	100%	13%
Scottish Rifles	8 companies	800	100%	10.75%
South Lancashire Regiment, 1st bn	2 companies	200	25%	20.5%
Thorneycroft's Mounted Infantry		198	-	45.5%
Total:		4248

It is apparent most infantry regiments sent up a complete battalion. However, there is one piece of data that is missing so far; how many from each regiment earned the clasp 'Relief of Ladysmith', does the number approximate those on the hill or exceed it? Some regiments may have had access to reinforcements who still qualified for the 'Relief of Ladysmith' clasp. This will be a project for The Register as I compile the QSA medal rolls on a database.

Not every man on Spion Kop was there on 24th January. Early on the 25th Briton and Boer reconvened on the hill early in the morning to remove the wounded and bury the dead, the Boers took many of their dead away for burial in Pretoria. One British soldier was made a POW despite being a strecther bearer.

Pte 3541 H Adcock, 1st bn Leicestershire Rgt, was a stretcher bearer. The 1st bn Leicestershires were shut up in Ladysmith, re-called from the reserves Adcock was sent out and tagged onto an unknown unit. On his release from POW camp at Waterval on 6th June, 1900 he wrote to his worried parents as he had been posted as killed in a newspaper, "Just before daybreak on the 25th we were sent up the hill". They found a wounded man, placed him on stretcher, "when we heard a lot of shouting behind us. We looked round and saw lot of Boers. They made us put up our hands, and go to them." Having explained they were stretcher bearers the Boers "told us that they did not want us and told us to look after our wounded.". Tending to another wounded man, "...a Boer came up to me..."Where is your red cross?" I looked at my arm and, found I had lost it. I told him I had lost it, but he said; 'You will have to go with us'". (Leicester Chronicle 28 July 1900) Adcock was sent to Waterval Camp near Pretoria where he remained for over 5 months.

The Gurkhas and the War

The Second Anglo-Boer War involved every arm of the British Army except one: the Gurkhas. 

Gurkha regiments were first raised as part of the Honourable East India Company army in 1816 following the Anglo-Nepali war (1814-1816). They grew to become the Brigade of Gurkhas, a part of the (British) Indian Army, but maintained their distinct identity as they do today. The Indian Army was well represented in the war although employed in non-combatant roles. The West India Regiment guarded Boer POWs on St Helena.

However, six ghurka regiment officers and one ghurka NCO did serve in the war on attachment to other units. 

• Cpt William Cotton French, 3rd Queen Alexandra's Own Gurkha Rifles, served with the Refugee Camps Department.
  
• Cpt Harry Townsend Fulton, 2nd (Prince of Wales Own) Gurkha Rifles (Sirmoor Rifles) attached 4^th contingent New Zealand Mounted Rifles. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, his entry (with additional information) in The VC and DSO (O'Creagh and Humphris, The Standard Art Book Co, Ltd) reads:

Born 15 August 1869, sixth son of Lieutenant General John Fulton, Royal Artillery. He entered the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, from the Local Military Forces in New Zealand, 9 April 1892, becoming Lieutenant, Indian Staff Corps, 24 July 1894. He served on the North-West Frontier of India, 1897-98; Malakand; operations in Bajaur (Medal and clasp); in the Tirah Campaign, 1897-98 (clasp). He served in South Africa, 1899-1901, employed with the New Zealand Mounted Rifles, taking part in operations in Rhodesia in May 1900; operations in the Transvaal, west of Pretoria, 1900; operations in Cape Colony, north of Orange River, 1900. He was severely wounded at Otto's Hoop 16th August, 1900; mentioned in Despatches [London Gazette, 10 September 1901]; received the Queen's Medal with three clasps, and was created a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order [London Gazette, 27 September 1901]: "Harry Townsend Fulton, Lieutenant, Indian Staff Corps. In recognition of services during the operations in South Africa". The Insignia, Warrant, etc, were sent to the Commander-in-Chief in India, and presented by the OC in Chitral 22 March, 1902. Attended the Delhi Durbar in 1903. He was promoted to Captain 10 July 1901. He married in 1905, Ada Hermina, second daughter of John James Dixon.

Served WW1 as Brigadier-General 3rd New Zealand Rifle Brigade. Died of wounds 29-03-1918, buried Doullens Communal Cemetery Extension No. 1, Doullens, France. Awarded CMG, 1914-15 Star trio, Croix de Guerre.

• Havildar Bahadur Gurung, 2nd (PoW Own) Gurkha Rifles (Sirmoor Rifles), "arrived in Natal too late for clasps, i.e after June 1900. Awarded silver QSA and KSA medals. No indication what function he served in South Africa.
• Brevet Major C de M Norie, 2nd (PoW Own) Gurkha Rifles (Sirmoor Rifles), lines of communications Cape Colony.
• Ridgeway, Edward William Craufurd, 2nd (PoW Own) Gurkha Rifles (Sirmoor Rifles, attached 12th and 29th (Burma) Mounted Infantry. Son of Col EK Ridgeway VC, CB late 8th Gurkhas. Killed 1917 in Mesopotamia.
• Brevet Major WI Ryder, 1st Gurkha Rifles, supply and transport officer northern districts, Cape Colony.
  
• Cpt Gonville Warneford, 44^th Gurkha Rifles attached 14^th Mounted Infantry . From my own research Cpt Warneford did not have a decorated military career like Cpt Fulton but he had interesting, if short, life.
  

Gonville Warneford (his medal left) was born in 1871 in Limerick, Ireland to Cpt WJJ Warneford and his wife Mary. His father served in the Commissariat & Transport Corps, they had been stationed in Canada where their first child was born in 1864. It seems Gonville had one aim, to become an officer. In 1890 he qualified for the Royal Military College (RMC) coming third in examinations at a crammer school in Dublin. He spoke French and German. He attended RMC in 1891 gaining a commission in the Wiltshire Regiment. In December 1891 he was on his way to join the 2^nd battalion based at Jhansi in India where he applied himself to his career. In 1892 he passed a Mounted Infantry course. In 1893 he was promoted to Lieutenant, the following year he passed a course in Hindustani in Mandalay, Burma. He returned to England in 1895, but returned to India in 1896 having transferred to the 44^th Gurkha Rifles. In 1898 he was transferred to the Civil Department.

In December 1900 he arrived in Durban and was attached to the Johannesburg Mounted Rifles operating in the eastern Transvaal. He only spent a few weeks before transferring to the 14^th Mounted Infantry who served in the Transvaal, Natal and the Orange Free State. He was promoted Captain in July 1901 just before leaving for England. His QSA is named to the "I.S.C." - Indian Staff Corps, as is correct for most Indian Army officers serving on attachment in South Africa.

Gonville returned to India having secured a position as Assistant Political Agent, assistant to the Political Resident in Aden. Gonville was a true polymath adding Arabic (fluent - higher standard), Khasia (spoken in north-east India), Parvatia (colloquial, an Indian language, possibly from the north-west), Chinese (preliminary), Russian (preliminary) to his linguistic skills. In Aden he worked on the Boundary Delimitation Commission of England and Turkey defining the boundary between Aden (Yemen) and what is now Saudi Arabia. In Aden he indulged in his interest in antiquities and there are two items in the British Museum that he had “collected”.

In early 1904 he was in the border area when he was murdered by a local policeman at Am Rija on March 3^rd. His body was bought down and he is buried in Ma’alla (Maala) Cemetery, Aden City. This cemetery also contains 307 CWGC graves. His family erected a brass plaque in St Michael's and All Angels Church, Westrop, Highworth, Wiltshire where the family originated.

His father did not stop travelling with the Army. In 1878 he was in the eastern Cape Colony responsible for the Army’s supplies. He was involved in the action at Komhga. He remained for the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 and appears to have stayed on into the 1890s as “Captain, Colonial Office, Cape Town”. Gonville’s uncle is the Rev TLJ Warneford who served in the second Afghan War earning a medal and a mention in dispatches. Gonville’s cousin, via his uncle Rev TLJW, is Sub-Lieutenant RAJ Warneford VC who was the first to shoot down a zeppelin in aerial combat in 1915 over Belgium.

Googling “Gonville Warneford” brings up a connection to the battle of Rorke’s Drift in 1879. His younger sister Winifred compiled a “unique album of ephemera” which was sold in January 2014. Highlighted by the auctioneer was a letter from Assistant Commissary WA Dunne to “My Dear Warneford” dated 24^th January 1879 from Rorke’s Drift. This is a first-hand account of the battle. Unfortunately, the auctioneer states the recipient, “My Dear Warneford” was Gonville, then 8 years old. This is an error, the letter is too factual for an eight-year old, a number of casualties are mentioned by name; did the eight year old Gonville know these men? Given that Gonville’s father was a Commissariat officer in Natal at the time it is certain he was the recipient. No doubt the two Commissariat officers knew each other professionally.

In June 2014 the letter on its own was offered for sale. It appears not to have sold as the whole collection was offered for sale again in November 2014. Some more research was done and Winifred, Gonville’s sister, is now the wife of Cpt WJJ Warneford. Oh dear.

New Zealand Mounted Rifles in numbers

 In 1992 Richard Stowers, chronicler of the 1st Contingent New Zealand Mounted Rifles (NZMR), wrote:

"There is no accurate figure for the total number of New Zealanders who served in the New Zealand Contingents. This is mainly due to many men returning to South Africa in later Contingents and others joining Contingents in South Africa." (p. 275 Kiwi versus Boer)

Work by Colin McGeorge* published in 2003 on the question of "How many New Zealanders served" arrived at a figure of 6,080. He created a database from nominal rolls and resolved many duplications noted at by Stowers. I have used, perhaps for the first time, the medal rolls. 

As part of my work in creating an accurate QSA and KSA medal roll index with medal roll pages I have just finished the NZMR rolls. They are complicated, as Stowers points out, by the "many men returning...[or]...joining Contingents in South Africa.". I can add another complication, not every man serving in a subsequent contingent is mentioned on that contingent's roll, there is just a note on the roll for the first contingent he served with. 

But, using a database one can untangle much of this and identify men who joined in South Africa. Using nominal rolls for each contingent Stowers presents a figure of 6,495 men in the NZMR. I conclude a total of 6,164 men served in the NZMR, this includes 11 British officers and men attached. Medal rolls do not indicate nationality. Ideally medal roll data should be combined with nominal roll, social and geographical data.

The NZMR was composed of 10 contingents, the first leaving in October 1899 and the last in April 1902. The final three contingents, 8, 9 and 10 were divided into two regiments, North and South Island. In the medal rolls the men of the 9th are not shown by regiment, only the 8th and 10th contingents are sub-divided and shown in The Register as '1/8', '2/8', 1/10' and '2/10'. The war was the first time New Zealand had sent a military force overseas. The men were all volunteers and most had experience as civilian soldiers, they had no experience in warfare.

This table shows the figures for each contingent and how many men were returning for a second, third or fourth tour. Also included under "Rejoiners" are the 11 men, mostly officers, but all from the British Army to provide expertise in campaigning and liaison with the British army in South Africa.

I have included Stowers' figures for comparison, he does not split out the 8th, 9th or 10th contingents by regiment.

The table shows 6,080 men first enlisted in the NZMR while 6,164 men served. This discrepancy reflects those men who joined the NZMR having served in another unit in the war prior to enlisting.

The chart shows the Rejoiners in graphical form, the yellow line is the percentage of each contingent's strength made up by Rejoiners.

Returning for more service was not uncommon and accelerates from the 6th contingent with 14% peaking at 35% for the 9th contingent. The number of rejoiners "crashed" for the 10th because the number of available rejoiners had volunteered for previous contingents, also the 6th to 9th Contingents were on active service into 1902 when the 10th was raised. It is possible word was out the war was drawing to a close, indeed the 2/10th arrived five days before peace was signed. These men spent more time at sea than they did in South Africa. Six men served in four contingents and 84 men served in three contingents.

The Rejoiners provided valuable experience to the in-coming contingent, they occupied all ranks from Private/Trooper (both ranks are used on the medal rolls) to Major. The table (left) shows how many of each rank was a Rejoiner, many getting a promotion on re-enlisting. In John Crawford's assessment, The Best Mounted Troops in South Africa?* he wrote, "The later New Zealand contingents benefited greatly from having a core of South African veterans in their ranks."

Providing "new  recruits" with direct, relevant campaigning experience  contributes greatly to the success of a unit. This kind of injection of experience throughout the ranks was not available to most units deploying to South Africa.

The majority of Rejoiners were from the NZMR, but those who served in South Africa represented a wide range of 33 different units such as; Kitchener's Horse, Robert's Horse, South African Light Horse, Australian units, Imperial Light Infantry, and Thorneycroft's Mounted Infantry. Two of the most unusual units are the St John Ambulance Brigade (SJAB) and the Southampton Volunteer Ambulance Corps (SVAC).

Adolph Gricourt first served in the war with the SVAC, a very small unit of 22 first aid trained men. They were attached to various RAMC hospitals, in Bloemfontein they worked under Dr Arthur Conan Doyle. They only served in 1900. In August 1901 Gricourt set sail from London aboard the SS Paparoa bound for Wellington, the passenger list shows he was a 21 year old "Farm Cadet". The record of Military Pensions to members of the NZMR (1902 no. 54) shows his contact in New Zealand as "Friend: Harold Maffy, Post-Office, Palmerston". He enlisted for the 1/8th contingent in January 1902, number 5209.

The St John Ambulance man was Percy Growcott Hulme who served in Natal in 1900 with the SJAB. He was enlisted aboard the SS Cornwall on the 15th March, 1902. His enlistment form, digitised by the NZ Archives, is entirely handwritten on notepaper. He appears to have been working as an iron moulder in Sydney, New South Wales. How he came to be Trooper 5997 1/8th contingent NZMR and not a member of an Australian unit is a mystery. Hulme was a traveller, he received the clasps 'Transvaal' and 'South Africa 1902' in 1907 in Burma where worked as a locomotive driver.

The NZMR was not the only unit to receive significant numbers of rejoiners. It is common amongst the many South African raised colonial units. Continuing work on the QSA and KSA medal rolls will enable detailed statistics such as these to be produced.

* Colin McGeorge, The Social and Geographical Composition of the New Zealand Contingents, "One Flag, One Queen, One Tongue", ed. John Crawford and Ian McGibbon, Auckland University Press, Auckland, 2003.

* John Crawford's article was published in "One Flag, One Queen, One Tongue", ed. John Crawford and Ian McGibbon, Auckland University Press, Auckland, 2003.

Where exactly did that battle take place?

The war was fought across much of South Africa's 1.2 million square kilometres - a huge area, twice the size of France. Much of the fighting took place in rural areas with no roads, away from settlements, there was little in the way of sign posts to tell British troops where they were. Navigation was from farm to kopje to river to farm using maps created during the war by the Field Intelligence Department (FID). The next problem was that the British spelling of Afrikaans names was sometimes phonetic, or inconsistent leading to confusion. To compound that confusion many farms shared the name and there was no way of exactly locating a farm. Often times the best way to locate the farm was just "near town X", but to the north, south, east or west and how far away?

The recording of place names in official British military records reflects the imprecision. The official casualty rolls and reporting in the newspapers many times just gave the farm name with no clue as to where in that vast 1.2 square kilometres it was located. Researching casualties was frustrating and mostly impossible with the information at hand.

This situation led to my late Father and I starting a project in the 1990's to create a gazetteer of locations related to the war. We started with the contemporary histories, as many of the FID maps we could locate, lists of farms and settlements (including the fabulous four volume set The Encyclopaedia of South African Post Offices and Postal Agencies by Ralph Putzel, Hale & Putzel, Cape Town, 1986) and copies of the current topo-cadastral maps of SA. In 1999 we published A Gazetteer of the Second Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902 (Military Press, Milton Keynes) which listed 2,346 locations where military action took place. The work was very well received by researchers. Unfortunately we couldn't get any major military history publisher interested, so the small print run was quickly sold out.

I have continued adding to the Gazetteer with my work revising and adding to the casualty rolls published on The Register of the Second Anglo-Boer War. To date I have added 384 entries to the gazetteer, enriching the information available when researching casualties. These are locations not mentioned in the histories but are in the casualty rolls or other sources such as Soldier's Effects. They require far more effort to track them down on a map.

Today I worked on one new location which is illustrative of the problem mapping locations. I was looking for a farm called Tweefontein there are already four farms called Tweefontein in the Gazetteer.

The incident at Tweefontein was an action on 14th November, 1901 where Kitchener's Fighting Scouts (KFS) lost two killed and nine wounded. Four officers (including one who was killed) were mentioned in dispatches "For conspicuous gallantry in action near Heilbron" - note the imprecision "near Heilbron". The casualty rolls list the action as "Tweefontein", this is copied by newspapers. Fortunately there is only one "Heilbron", a town in the Orange Free State which narrows down the search area. This Tweefontein is not named in the contemporary histories.

However, in an example of how confusing the recording of the Guerilla Phase of the war can be. This incident is recorded in the Official History of the War in South Africa 1899-1902 (Maurice and Grant, 1906) vol 3 p.333 as occurring on 16th November at Jagersrust. Jagersrust does occur in the casualty rolls, for one soldier of the KFS who was wounded on the 29th November, 1901. Jagersrust is shown on map 64 (left) of the Official History south-east of Heilbron, Tweefontein is not. Crucially this map narrows down the area of search further and allows us to consult more maps. 

 

 

 

The next map to consult is the modern topo-cadastral map, sheet 2728 that covers Heilbron and the area to the south-east. Locating Jagersrust we can look about for a Tweefontein. Six kilometres to the north-north-east is a Tweefontein (right).

The next complication in trying to locate place names that existed 123 years ago is that place names change and disappear. We must find other evidence to corroborate this is the correct Tweefontein. The London Gazette carries the dispatches from Lord Kitchener, the commander of British forces in South Africa. In the dispatch published on the 17th January, 1902 on p.370 there is a description of this fight, neither Tweefontein or Jagersrust is mentioned. Critically the location is "some few miles to the south of Heilbron". This Tweefontein is approximately 26 kilometres or 16 miles south-east of Heilbron. The commando that attacked the KFS was drawn from men under General C.R. de Wet's command. Unfortunately he doesn't mention this episode in his Three Years War. Stirling's The Colonials in South Africa mentions the fight on the 14th November but does not give a location.

What did occur on the 14th November, a British column with "an unwieldy mass of cattle and vehicles"  was returning to Heilbron when it was attacked. The KFS formed the rearguard and were hotly engaged, the Boers were driven off "who left eight on the field and carried off many more" (Official History p.333).

The Gazetteer provide unique data to allow researchers to accurately locate where casualties occurred. In The Register 45% of casualty locations have been mapped and 81% of all casualties have been linked to a mapped location. The movements of British columns in the Guerilla Phase can be mapped very accurately using the Gazetteer providing a new view of the efforts track down commandos.

 

Uncovering a sleeper: The man who started a scandal

I was recently asked by a client to research a Queen's South Africa medal named "H.W. Penn" Imperial Military Railways (IMR). A fairly typical medal to a civilian organisation for which there is no official records beyond the medal rolls (WO100-252).

The medal had been sold with the following attribution from an unidentified newspaper:

"Having gone on to work on the railways in South Africa, in 1969 Penn is recorded as 84 years old, and having attended the the 30th Anniversary event for the Blue Train Special, he having presumably been a driver on this famous train service which travels the 1600 kilometre journey between Pretoria and Cape Town."

"Driver Penn" of the famous Blue Train. My client was concerned that given the year and age of Mr Penn, he would have been 15 years old in 1900. Could a 15 year old have been an engine driver? Additionally, and more concerning "HW Penn" could not be located on the medal rolls hosted by Ancestry. Resolving such issues is a speciality of mine. The Ancestry index is full of spelling mistakes for surnames, incorrectly transcribing initials and mangling unit names, all of which can hide names from a researcher. The issue in this case, and it is not an isolated example, is that Ancestry are missing medal roll pages for both the QSA and KSA medals. It appears that the copy of WO100 that Ancestry are working from is faulty in this regard, or they somehow omitted pages when creating the index.

I have the missing pages for the IMR and locating "HW Penn" was a quick job, here is the entry:

This is the only Penn on the IMR roll. Note the trade "Examiner", not "Driver". Of real interest is the faint pencil note, "? 51+415 Pburg LH", indicating possible service in the Pietersburg Light Horse (PLH). Checking their roll reveals a "John William Heartey Penn" number 51 and 415 who also served in the Bushveldt Carbineers (BVC). This roll has two contradictory remarks:

On the right it reads "Not identical with W.H. Penn/ I. M. Raily" and on the left "M & CC issued AG2/M/7379". The left hand reference is to the IMR roll on which "Examiner HW Penn" appears and is shown above. To resolve which remark is correct we are fortunate in that a biographical roll and history for the BVC and PLH was published by Bill Woolmore (Slouch Hat Publications, 2002). In compiling his roll Bill consulted the attestation papers (The National Archives, London - WO126) which supply details of former service, age and next of kin.

The entry for John William Hartley [sic] Penn, age 33 (in 1901 on attestation into the BVC), former service, Examiner, Imperial Military Railways. His calculated birth year is 1868, so he can't be "Driver HW Penn" of the Blue Train, that piece of circumstantial evidence is discarded. The former service links the men in the medal rolls and the left hand remark on the BVC roll is correct and the right hand "not identical" comment is incorrect. The difference in initials is frustrating, especially the lack of a 'J' on the IMR roll. But we know individuals drop forenames and clerks make mistakes. The next of kin is given as, wife Mrs ASA Penn, Fordsburg, Johannesburg, they had one son.

Using the excellent FamilySearch.com we learn that his wife was Angenesse Sussana Amarentie de Villiers (nee Buekes, baptised 1857 Cape Colony). They got married in 1893 in Molteno, Cape Colony, John was a butcher. Obviously butchering wasn't to his liking and he headed north to seek his fortune on The Rand. We assume he joined the railways prior to the war to learn his trade as an 'Examiner' - inspector of rolling stock, and remained on The Rand after war was declared. What prompted him to join the BVC is anyone's guess.

The scandal. The BVC became an infamous unit on account of the "Breaker Morant Affair". Cpt HH "Breaker" Morant and other officers were accused of murdering civilians and Africans. In a trial that remains controversial to this day Morant and fellow officers were tried by a military court, found guilty and executed. The spark to this affair was a letter of complaint alleging crimes by Morant and others to the commander of the Lines of Communication, Colonel FH Hall, RA. The letter was signed by 15 men of the BVC, one of those being John Penn. He is also listed as a witness at the trial.

John appears to have been issued one medal, that off the IMR QSA roll which should have a Cape Colony clasp. This may have been taken off by an ignorant dealer or collector believing all IMR QSAs were issued without clasps, which is patently untrue. The BVC/PLH roll is marked "address not known, P.A. (assumed Personal Application) till for appn.", there is a reference and a date in 1908 which could indicate the issue of clasps Transvaal, South Africa 1901 and South Africa 1902.

What happened to John after the war is not known, until his death in August 1931, long before the 1969 Blue Train reunion. He is buried in Grasmere Cemetery, Krugersdorp. His wife, Angenesse died in 1937 and is buried in Brixton Cemetery, Johannesburg.