We’re just under 2 months away from the next Great War in Africa Conference.
The conference will be in London at the Africa Centre, near Southbank underground, 10.30am-3.30pm UK time.
The fee for attending is £35.00 to cover costs, which includes refreshments and a light lunch.
To book your place, you can make a payment to paypal.me/GWAA (or email me for other means of registering/paying).
If you would like to give a talk or present a paper, please get in touch. We’ve had a few come in already but there’s still space for more – all topics on the First World War in Africa, including legacy and links to other conflicts, are welcome.
Within the GWAA ethos, contributions are welcome from all researchers and do not have to be academic in nature. It’s an opportunity to share information and discover new aspects concerning the war in Africa.

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Since my September 2024 update, here is a little more…

Thank you to Deon Fourie for answering Matthias Schneider’s question in the July 2024 newsletter about a black officer or NCO in the German Schutztruppe who was awarded the Iron Cross for his participation during the Great War in East Africa. The answer is that this was a pre-WW1 award given to a man who had served in the German army and then joined the British Nigerian force with which he served between 1914-1918. The award was not the Iron Cross but rather the Kriegsverdienstmedaille for African soldiers. It is discussed on the Gentleman’s Military Interest Club.

If anyone has information on Daru and military movements around the area during the First World War, please get in touch.

Finally, another two journals of the Royal West African Frontier Force have been added to the site and a link to the page put under WW1 Topic Links.

The Legion of Frontiersmen’s August & September 2024 newsletters have a focus on the early days of the war including Driscoll. They can be accessed at https://frontiersmenhistorian.info/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/ha-newsletter-august-2024-final-draft.pdf and https://frontiersmenhistorian.info/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/ha-newsletter-september-2024-final-three.pdf

Dónal Hasset and a team have set out to “[build] a comprehensive comparative history of veterancy across the French, British, Italian and American colonial empires, this project will not only ensure that the experiences of colonial veterans are recognised in veteran history but will also draw on their stories to build a new conceptual framework that can better account for the diversity of veteran histories around the globe.” For more info, see https://colvet.eu/

We’re just under 2 months away from the next Great War in Africa Conference. If you would like to present a paper, please get in touch. We’ve had a few come in already but there’s still scope for more – all topics on the First World War in Africa are welcome.
The conference will be in London at the Africa Centre, near Southbank underground, 10.30am-3.30pm UK time.
The fee for attending is £35.00 to cover costs, which includes refreshments and a light lunch.
To book your place, you can make a payment to paypal.me/GWAA (or email me for other means of registering/paying).

Submissions for the next There Came a Time are also being sought. More detail will be posted on this after the conference but if you want to find out more in the meantime, please email me.

Don’t forget to take a look at the books available – there might be something that catches your eye, and if you have a publication on the Great War (or related), but are struggling to get it published, get in touch too.

The Great War in Africa Association will be at the OMRS Convention on 14 September 2024 in Milton Keynes and at the Britannia Medal Fair in London on 17 November 2024 to assist with research on African-related topics.

Matthias Schneider asks if anyone knows whether there was a black officer or NCO in the German Schutztruppe who was awarded the Iron Cross for his participation during the Great War in East Africa? As far as he knows the answer is no, but he is not certain.

If anyone knows of a German researcher with an interest in the novels/literature of the First World War in Africa, please could you let me or Sérgio Neto know asap.

For anyone interested in men from Africa who served as pilots in the First World War, the medals belonging to Thomas Sinclair Harrison were recently auctioned. You can read about him at https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/the-superb-great-war-22-victory-fighter-ace-d-f-c-200-c-7d34d728ac.

Wendy Urban-Mead has compiled a teaching resource on the First World War in Africa linking with the USA African diaspora – it can be found at https://www.history21.com/owit-module/africans-and-the-african-diaspora-in-the-first-world-war-new/

Thanks to Gerry van Tonder, there is now a fairly complete list of Rhodesian Native Regiment names on the List of Names of Survived and Died. One of the records gave insight to ethnic groupings (see Identity column) and where they enlisted. Unfortunately this information was not available for all men. This information has been integrated into the main list.
The beady eyed among you might notice a new list of SANLC men on the same speadsheet. Treat the spellings of most with caution until further notice as the handwritten lists these are taken from are not the best. Once the information on this list has been verified against other sources still to be included, the information will also be incorporated into the main list. This will take some time – there are 190 odd pages of names.

And a reminder that the next conference will be in London on 2 November 2024. If you would like to present a paper, please get in touch sooner rather than later. More information will be posted in September.
Articles for There Came a Time 3, should be emailed to me by the end of the year. Get in touch if you require submission guidelines etc.

Sadly Ian Uys died on 28 June 2024. He wrote numerous books on South African involvement at Delville Wood and awards to South Africans.

Finally, another two editions of the RWAFF Journal have been added to the site. They can be found at https://gweaa.com/royal-west-african-frontier-force-journals-contents/