Arthur Thomas Steward Part 1 (1923-1946)

Johannesburg, a city on the Highveld, a broad grassy plateau sweeping across the south African interior, was a town still recovering in 1923 from the trauma and effects of the Rand Revolt the previous March, an armed uprising of white miners in the Witwatersrand where the world's largest known gold reserves are buried. Wages had been decreased and cheaply paid black miners were being promoted to skilled and supervisory positions so the mine workers took over parts of the town's suburbs in protest. The uprising became violent so the Prime Minister, Jan Smuts, brought in 20,000 troops, artillery, tanks and bomber aircraft (at a cost of over 200 lives) to crush the rebellion. Johannesburg's gold mines were an ongoing source of tension between the English-speaking mine barons and the Boer government about who should control and benefit from the Witwatersrand gold. This and many other disputes, political maneuverings and the subject of voting rights eventually lead to the Boer War of 1899-1901, its shadow still being cast over the region even in the 20s. To make matters worse the black population were being forcibly relocated from the city center to areas on it's outskirts, inaugurating the principle of racial separation that became entrenched in the administration of Johannesburg. This mindset eventually lead to the system we know as apartheid. The sub-standard conditions in which most of the city's black majority now lived led to daily protests, strikes and the Rand uprising. Soweto, a temporary living quarter for the miners had been declared a ghetto for the black population of Johannesburg by the infamous Urban Areas Act of 1923 and it was during these turbulent times my father entered upon the scene. It was Christmas Day of that year and he was the second son born to Johanna Bronkhorst of Zululand and William Alfred Steward, formerly of Ireland who had immigrated to South Africa in March 1920 from England on the steamship Kenilworth Castle. Dad's brother Harry was a year or so older. At that time my grandfather was a porter at the Rand Club, the city's oldest exclusive gentleman's club founded by Cecil Rhodes in 1887. During the Rand Rebellion of 1922 the club members, for their safety, were briefly barricaded within the building. History doesn't tell us if Bill Steward was working there that day but, if so, perhaps it was just one more reason to think about leaving Jo'burg once and for all.



Harry and Arthur, Durban 1927

1927 finds my father, now 4 years old, living in Durban, circumstances surrounding the move to this busy coastal city on the Indian Ocean unclear. Here in the warm subtropical climate the two boys grew up. Whether or not he had any contact with his grandmother Eva Maria or Grandfather Samuel(his mother's parents) we don't know. Dad's mother had left the family, moving to London, England where she married a Mr Edgar Terry in 1930. Records show she often travelled to England and back to South Africa. She had a daughter, Dad's half sister, Eileen, who was born in Durban in 1932. Dad's father William, now working as a shoemaker, had also remarried in 1930 to A Beatrice May Day but neither boys had a good relationship with their new stepmother. He wrote a poem, "Memories",  to express his bitterness and anguish of the separation when she took the children, which I have copied below. Their uncle, William's brother Harry, was living on the Isle of Wight, in England, with his wife Dorothy, running a small corner store and post office. Their mother Johanna at this time was residing in Cowie Hill, a small upmarket residential suburb of Pinetown, Durban, 15 kilometers from the coast. She had a dog breeding business, the St Bernard Kennels, raised ponies and was often visited by her two sons. She eventually moved permanently to England around 1935. There is indication that Dad visited her at one time or another but after that never saw her again, finding out many years later of her death in 1968.

Four little shoes, now empty,
A childish garment hung on the back of a baby's wagon.
They tell of a mans heart wrung
To the depth, with bitter anguish,
With sorrow that sears the heart
Of a love that no words can picture,
Of a family forced apart.

Two little caps hung idly
On the back of a bedroom door
But the two little heads are missing
As they were never missed before.
There's a void in my heart that nothing but their
Presence can fill
And the heart of me, pent up with sadness like a bird's
Keeps a'fluttering still.

Two little memories golden
Bringing back eyes divine.
Memories of sweet and childish lips
Once lovingly pressed to mine.
Then - sin - in the guise of Adam
Crept shamelessly in one day
And she, whom we thought so perfect,
We found to be nought - only base potters clay.

But God, with His hands of justice
Will measure. as one and all,
Though the mills of God grind slowly
They grind exceedingly small
And whatever He mete out to others
'Tis but just to remember your due
Inasmuch as you've done to my children
The same shall be mete out to you!
 - William A. Steward




Dad's mother, now Mrs E. Terry, 1930, Durban



Dad's Uncle Harry and Aunt Dorothy, Isle of Wight, England, 1930s

Dad with his father William and brother Harry, 1930, Durban



Cowies Hill, 1932, age 9

Cowies Hill, Durban, age 11



Dad, age 15, Durban, 1938

Durban, like Jo'burg, had a tumultuous history, from the assaults and skirmishes by the Zulu tribes who claimed the area to be their tribal homeland, the arrival of the Boer Voortrekkers who defeated the Zulu to the British who eventually secured their own dominance over the Boers. It was the English, under the orders of the British High Commissioner for Southern Africa Sir Alfred Milner, who insisted instilling the English language and British cultural values to the schools. Here, probably taught by teachers brought over from England, Canada and Australia, Dad attained his Std VI level education. Meanwhile in Durban, following the failures as result of WWI, the whaling trade had again started to rebuild. The Union Whaling Company was founded with a fleet of nine catchers working in the southern Indian Ocean and processing the whales aboard a factory ship at sea. In 1937 the company acquired their own factory ship, the 9700 ton Uniwaleco. It was this ship that Dad and his brother joined as deck hands in May 1939. They would travel to the Antarctic with a number of catchers to hunt during the summer season. They also operated in the waters around Madagascar hunting humpback whales. It was a tough but exciting life for a pair of teenage boys 16 and 17 years old and a part of their youth Dad would often recall. But that year war was again looming on the horizon. Because the ship had been requisitioned by the South African Navy the two boys, after sailing for ten months, were discharged in March 1940. The Uniwaleco  met her fate exactly two years later off the Caribbean Island of St. Vincent, torpedoed by a German U-Boat U-161 with a loss of 18 lives.

Uniwaleco off the coast of Madagascar, 1939



Dad on the Uniwaleco, 1939

the Uniwaleco

Suddenly set adrift with a war on both Dad and his brother decided to join the Union Defence Forces of South Africa. Dad enrolled on the 5th October, 1940, Harry in January 1941. I discovered when I went over Dad's military service record he had given his date of birth as the 24th September 1922, his brother's. We can only assume as he was only 17 when he enlisted he gave them a false date to show he was 18 and eligible to volunteer. South Africa and its military forces contribution to the war consisted mainly of supplying troops, airmen and materiel for the North African campaign and the Italian Campaign, both theatres of war Dad was involved in.

I, Arthur Thomas Steward, do make oath and say that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to his Majesty King George VI and to his heirs and successors according to law, that I will perform to the best of my duties assigned to me as a volunteer member of the Union Defence Forces...so help me God

Unfortunately though, Harry was taken prisoner in Italy in 1941 and spent the remainder of the war as a POW. His division was captured by General Rommel's troops at the Battle of Sidi Rezegh, part of Operation Crusader and one which there was substantial South African sacrifice and bravery. The battle was primarily a clash between the Allied and German forces trying to relive the German Afrika Korp's siege of Tobruk in Libya. Although initially a German success this battle ultimately proved disastrous for the Afrika Korps as they lost 72 of their tanks to the hard fighting of the South African forces and this would ultimately turn the tide of the North African theatre of operations to the Allies. Captured on November 23rd Harry and his pals were shipped off to Camp 52 in Chiavari, Italy. The Italian Armistice, declared in September 1943 ended Italian administration of the camps and many, including Harry's, were resecured by the Germans. He spent the rest of the war in another POW camp in Germany. 

Harry, far right, POW Camp Chiavari, Italy

 

Dad in uniform, a new Springbok, Durban, early 1941




troopship Dunera

Dad began his service as a signalman with the 5th Mounted Commando Brigade in 1940, ending up in Egypt in 1941 with 1st South Africa Division Artillery in North Africa. Records show he was initially transferred as a rifleman to the 5th Mounted Regiment (Ladysmith) then sent on temporary duty to Sonderwater for training with the 12th Brigade Signal Company in August 1941, awaiting his draft to Egypt. I'm unsure what his duties were there as Sonderwater was a big detention camp built in 1941 by the Allies, 43 kms from Pretoria in the Transvaal. In September 1941 he travelled to Durban where he boarded a troopship, the MS Dunera, for Egypt. He disembarked two weeks later in Suez where he was posted to 1 Div Arty Sig Coy. The 1st South African Division was involved in November in The First Battle of Bir el Gubi, near the town of the same name in Libya, one of the opening engagements of Operation Crusader. Dad was wounded there on the 30th of November by a gunshot to his left thigh and was evacuated to the 5th South African General Hospital in Cairo where he was discharged in January 1942, then posted back to 1 Div. Arty Sig Coy.  He seemed to have moved around a lot after that, from 1 Div to the 2nd Mtd Com Regt, the 12th Bde Sig Sqdn, then the 7th Fr Reg until his return to Durban in January 1943.



July 1942 near El Alamein, Egypt



 


July 1942, Egypt



 



HM Hospital ship Aba

  In September 1942 he was sent to a casualty Clearing Station in the field with pyrexia (high fever) and again for influenza and malaria the following month. He recalled being placed on the Hospital Ship Aba and sent to Haifa, Palestine to recuperate in No. 23 Scottish military hospital among fields of orange groves in Bir Yaacov. He returned to the 1st Div Artillery Sig Company for the next three months and during this time began correspondence with my mother June after finding her name in the pen pal section of an English movie magazine blowing across the desert. According to him, because he was not writing to anyone except his parents, he selected her name and sent off a letter. He received a reply from Mom and started a relationship with the girl he would eventually marry. In January of 1943 Dad embarked from Port Tewfik on the SS Felix Roussel, heading back to Durban and Sonderwater. The previous February this French ship was involved in the evacuation of over a 1000 women and children, RAF personnel and some survivors of the battleships Repulse and Prince of Wales from Singapore before the island fell to the Japanese a week later. Dad was transferred to the 7th Field Reg till July of 1943 when he ended up in Details Camp Hay Paddock in Pietmaritzburg, a tented POW and transit camp. During the war many Italian soldiers captured by the English in north and east Africa were sent by ship to Durban and loaded on trains to Sonderwater concentration camp, their final destination (Dad had been there in '41 as I had mentioned) located 75 km from Durban. It acted as a first aid, medical examination and disinfection station for prisoners before continuing on to Sonderwater.

Picture sent to Mom, Egypt 1942

SS Felix Roussel

The 6th Armored Division was the first armored division in the South African 

Army, established in 1943, based on a nucleus of men from the former South African 1st Infantry Division. They had returned to South Africa after the 2nd Battle of El Alamein for retraining and amalgamation with other units to form the nucleus of the 6th Army. Early in 1943 Dad took a new oath that had been instigated for service outside Africa for 6th Division to enable them to fight with the British Eighth Army under Lieutenant-General Oliver Leese in Italy. Thus in January of 1944 Dad embarked from Durban to Suez on the converted troopship SS Arundel Castle to begin training in Khataba, northwest of Cairo, Egypt. After months of training and indecisions relating to what role it would eventually play the Division was finally sent to Taranto, Italy, now forming part of the British 8th. Taranto, in the heel of the country and an ancient Greek city founded by the Spartans was always a military port with strategic importance, the home port for the Italian naval fleet before and during WW1. In November of 1940 the British bombed the naval base, preparing the way eventually for the Allied invasion of Italy here and in Calabria in September 1943. Mussolini had been disposed of and it was believed a quick invasion of Italy might hasten an Italian surrender.  

SS Arundel Castle, Durban

Egypt 1944, Dad standing at right

From Taranto Dad and his Division fought its way up through Italy, through Altamura along the Via Casalina to Orvieto and by June 1944 was advancing north to hold the heights of the Chianti range dominating the Arno valley and the city of Florence after covering over 600 miles. The 6th S.A. Division were then transferred to the US 5th Army under Lt-General Clark for the remainder of the Italian campaign, spearheading the Allied advance into Florence on the 4th of August, 1944. The iconic medieval bridge in central Florence, the Ponte Vecchio, was actually saved the fate of all the other remaining bridges crossing the Orno when the South African armoured regiments got to it first and secured it from the retreating Germans. On the 10th my father was injured after his jeep rolled down an embankment. He was admitted to the 59th British Military hospital in Orvieto with a fractured left clavicle but rejoined his division a week later.

  

Altamura, southern Italy 1944 - Dad is holding the dog

The war wasn't quite over for Dad and the South African 6th Armoured Division. They took part in the consolidation of the Arno bridgehead in September and prepared to assault the Gothic line, Field Marshal Kesselring's last major line of defensive along the summits of the northern parts of the Apennine mountains, advancing along Route 64 leading to Vertago  and Bologna to capture the twin peaks of Sole and Capara. The Division was then withdrawn for rest and maintenance and reassigned to the U.S. Fifth Army, clashing with the German 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division in October. By May of 1945 the South African Division was northeast of Milan when the German forces in Italy surrendered. With the war winding down it was obvious the Division would require repatriation back to South Africa for demobilization.

Dad, with his knee up left, during the riots, Helwan Camp, Egypt, 1946

But no plans had been made to get all men back. In addition to the 6th S.A. Armoured Division Dad served in there was also thousands of recently released South African prisoners of war who had been held in Italy since battles in the western desert and their numbers had not been factored into the demobilization plans. In June he was sent to Helwan staging depot, a desolate expanse of desert south of Cairo. Food was in short supply, as were cooks (Egyptian cooks had to be hired and the quality of the food declined) and the standard of discipline quickly deteriorated as men arriving at the depot were split up and not retained in their unit structures. By August there were over 9000 men in a space designed to hold 5000. A protest was held on the 20th August, becoming more violent as the crowd increased, and the men began trashing, looting and burning the Egyptian premises, shops, cars, book stalls (the South African soldiers felt they were being exploited by inflated prices charged by the Egyptian traders), as well as burning their own messes. General Poole, the General Officer Administration of all South African troops, flew in from Italy to address the men and promised that immediate steps would be taken to speed up the rate of repatriation. Exactly how involved Dad was in this unrest I never found out but on February 4, 1946 he was back in Durban after flying for 32 hours down the length of Africa in a Douglas aircraft. He was honourably discharged from the Service after 5 years and 123 days, having earned 5 medals - the 1939-45 Star, the Africa Star & "8" clasp, the Italy Star, the War Medal 1939-45  and the Africa Services Medal.

He was 23 years old. 

gws 

Dad on his harley, Dundee, Natal, S.Africa, 1946

Dad, Durban beach, 1946