The York and Lancasters
IN France last week 15 British solders were reburied at Bois-Grenier, 100 years after
they died in World War I. Their bodies had been found buried in a nearby field five
years ago, and astonishingly advanced DNA methods made it possible to positively
identify 11 of them.
All were members of the York and Lancaster Regiment and some of their
descendants were there to honour them at the poignant ceremony - a firing party, the
Last Post, all the military honours.
The York and Lancasters had strong links with KwaZulu-Natal. They were the last
British regiment to be stationed at Fort Napier, in Maritzburg. They left soon after
Union in 1910, at which the new South Africa took responsibility for its own defence.
That would have been not long before the Great War broke out in 1914.
The York and Lancasters had been very much part of the sports and social fabric of
Natal in the colonial era. They played rugby against the local clubs and, just before
leaving, presented the York and Lancaster Cup, for which the Maritzburg clubs still
compete.
They also presented their tortoise mascot to the Victoria Club. The tortoise was
named Orlando, after a man who won the marathon at the Olympics back in those
days, details of the presentation inscribed on a silver plate screwed on to his shell.
The Victoria Club has moved from the Maritzburg CBD to Montrose, out of town,
where it has attached itself to the Country Club, though it maintains its identity and
still flies the Union Jack. Presumably Orlando is still boss.
It's surely quite possible that at least some of those York and Lancaster fellows who
were reburied last week had been part of the Maritzburg sports and social scene just a
couple of years before they fell. Fifteen men – a rugby team. Tantalising thought.
World War I – the war to end all wars – was a century ago. The commemorations
are a melancholy reminder of that carnage; of what little progress has been made in
eliminating conflict. Some of the issues in the Middle East today are directly traceable
to World War I.
And the reminders of the human beings who were butchered for no good reason – like
those York and Lancaster men who had played rugby and socialised in our part of the
world – are just too sad to dwell upon.
Black Horse
THE York and Lancasters, and other regiments before them, used to patronise the
Black Horse, a pub near Fort Napier that had become virtually a museum of military
memorabilia from all corners of the British Empire – badges, medals, bits and pieces
of weaponry,
The Black Horse was presided over in my time by one Barney Froomberg, a man with
a taste for erotic humour. The walls were festooned with explicit artwork and ribald
verse. The hat rack consisted of carved wooden phalluses (It was, of course, a men
only place). The Black Horse was an institution.
Among the military memorabilia was a bayonet hanging on the wall near the bar. The
bar counter had in it a deep groove into which the bayonet fitted perfectly.
The story went that one night a drunken sergeant ran an officer through with the
bayonet, pinning him to the bar counter.
One never knows how true such stories are, but that's how it went. Then, next
morning, the sergeant was court-martialled at the fort and executed by firing squad.
A heck of a way to cure a hangover .
Fort Napier is today a mental hospital. The Black Horse is no more – the building is a
radio repair shop or something of the sort. But they still play rugby for the York and
Lancaster Cup. Not quite everything has disappeared.
Tailpiece
AN 82-year-old has his annual medical check-up. A few days later the doctor spots
him walking down the street. He has on his arm a glamorous young woman.
A couple of days later, the doctor again encounters his patient, this time on his own.
"Hey, you're doing really well, aren't you?"
"Doin' just what you said, Doc. 'Get a hot momma, be carefree!'"
"I actually said: 'You've got a heart murmur. Be careful.'"
Last word
The only winner in the War of 1812 was Tchaikovsky.
Solomon Short
.
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