NO 70778 PRIVATE WILLIAM WALLACE

On 16 February 1921, in accordance with Union Defence Force regulations, William Wallace registered for his military service with the 8th Infantry known as the Transvaal Scottish Regiment.

Wallace’s rank on enlistment in the regiment was that of a private and his allocated Union Defence Force service number was 70778.

John Murray, Marquis of Tullibardine, later became the 7th Duke of Atholl. In 1902, Murray established the Transvaal Scottish regiment after the end of the Anglo Boer War. The first members of the regiment were volunteers from the Scottish units who fought in the Anglo Boer war and who had decided to demobilise and stay in South Africa. Lieutenant Colonel the Marquis of Tullibardine, heir to the dukedom of Atholl, worked closely with local Caledonian societies to ensure that membership was strongly Scottish.

The tartan worn by the regiment was the “Murray of Atholl” while the pipers wore the tartan of the “Murray of Tullibardine”. Both tartans symbolise the regiment's connections to the Dukes of Atholl and the Atholl Highlanders. The regimental badge depicts a Scottish thistle on a scroll bearing the motto Alba nam Buadh that is Gaelic for “Well done, Scotland” or “Scotland, home of the virtues”. The motto is surrounded by a heraldic strap and buckle bearing the regiment's name on the Star of the Order of the Thistle.

and occupied Fordsburg. Active Citizen Force units had been reformed due to extended service regulations which enabled recruiting drives to take place. Private Wallace’s compulsory period of engagement was only for eighteen months. Wallace’s compulsory training was not very intensive and his musketry training and course was conducted as a parade under the auspices of his company commander.

During 1921 and 1922, Private Wallace reported and attended all the prescribed compulsory military training and duties. On 9 March 1922, when the 8th Infantry was mobilised, Wallace reported for active service. Private Wallace’s official service under the proclaimed Martial Law was noted as being from 10 February until 24 March 1922. Private Wallace participated in the assault on Brixton Ridge and was part of the force that attacked

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JOHANNESBURG 1922 “The 1922 Strike Workers of the World, Unite and Fight for a White South Africa.”

Approximately 25000 white and 200 000 black miners were employed in the goldfields on the Witwatersrand. White miners felt threatened by the black workers who often possessed the same skills and qualifications.

Due to these aspects and the other social differences prevalent at the time, the cost of maintaining a white employee was seven to ten times higher than his black counterpart. The price of gold had drastically fallen which had a major negative impact on the production costs and profitability of the mines.

The mine owners, known as Randlords, proposed a reduction in the miners’ salaries and a plan that would see many of the white miners being replaced by black employees. Tensions had still been simmering since the earlier miner strikes which had not seen some of the miners’ basic issues and grievances being resolved. In early January 1922, the miners grew increasingly militant and they confronted both the government and the mine owners. On 9 January, the 1922 Strike started. The miners had the support of the South African Communist Party who upheld their demands for the protection of white miners’ rights.

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“A strike teaches workers to understand what the strength of the employers and what the strength of the workers consists in: it teaches them not to think of their own employers alone and not of their own immediate workmates alone, but of all the employers, the whole class of capitalists and the whole class of workers. A strike, moreover, opens the eyes of the workers to the nature, not only of the capitalists, but of government and the laws as well.

Strikes, therefore, teach the workers to unite; they show them that they can struggle against the capitalist only when they are united; strikes teach the workers to think of the whole working-class against the whole class of factory owners and against the arbitrary police and government. This is the reason that socialists call strikes' a school of war', a school in which the workers learn to make war on their enemies for the liberation of the whole people, of all who labour, from the yoke of government, officials and from the yoke of capital.”1

Numerous public meetings were held where recruitment and the general public’s support was encouraged. Moderate strike leaders were soon replaced by the more militant agitators and aggressive actions were launched.

Tensions were drastically increasing, and black miners were attacked. The strike soon became violent. Mine management, non-strikers or so-called scabs, policemen, and civil servants were attacked and specifically identified and targeted buildings were occupied by striking mineworkers.

1 Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich. (1960). Collected works. vol. 1 - 30: 1891-1923. Moscow; Leningrad, 1926-1935. Leningrad: State Publishing House.

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Acts of sabotage were committed against strategic targets that included the railway lines where disaster was narrowly avoided on numerous occasions. General Smuts was not prepared to accept the situation as the strike was rapidly becoming an armed insurrection against his government. The acts of intimidation and escalating violence against black workers were rapidly turning the city and the suburbs of Johannesburg into a state of anarchy.

Groups of strikers, formed in mid-January and called commandos, were growing in strength and influence. Organised on semi-military lines, they had elected and appointed commandants, generals, and captains. The commandos were present and active in districts and sub-districts and in every town on the Witwatersrand. Although the commandos kept in touch with local strike committees, and some commandos were formed by trade unions, each commando acted autonomously. Some commandos were peaceful while others wanted to take militant action.

“As soon as commandos had learnt to march in columns, they eagerly showed their smartness to the public, and to other commandos. Soon they were marching through public streets to mass demonstrations, each commando headed by buglers, a mounted section on horses, and then the ‘infantry’ on column of route.

After the infantry came the cycle and motor cycle section, which formed the dispatch riding, scouting, and later, in some cases the dynamite laying section of the commandos.”2

2 https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/revhist/supplem/hirson/1922.html

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After being instructed by the Committee of Action, thousands of men from the commandos went into the city centre of Johannesburg.

They patrolled the streets, recruited workers, and removed shop assistants who had ignored the call to strike, out of shops and stores. The strikers commandeered rifles and revolvers. The intimidating weapons they wielded included bicycle chains attached to sticks, old swords and bayonets, spears, assegais, bludgeons, and poles barbed with spikes or hooks. The South African Police were reinforced by the South African Mounted Rifles and the Johannesburg Civic Guard.

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