THE SIERRA LEONE GRAMMAR SCHOOL (CMS) CELEBRATES 176 YEARS: A LOOK AT THE ANTICIDENTS BEFORE ITS ESTABLISMENT AS A SECONDARY SCHOOL ON 25TH MARCH 1845 AND ITS VERY CLOSE CONNECTION WITH THE FOROUBAY INSTITUTION (Now COLLEGE)

Native agency in British West Africa: the development of an idea 1835-65, with special reference to Sierra Leone Farro

w, Jill 1974 -Durham Theses, Durham University.

                            

Native agency in British West Africa: the development of an idea 1835-65, with special reference to Sierra Leone Farrow, Jill 1974 -Durham Theses, Durham University.

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Israel Ojekeh Parper Snr (Author)

This theses by Jill Farrow (1974) explains the very close and tangible relationship between the two (Christian) Church Missionary Society (CMS) Institutions  - The Fourah Bay Institution (now Fourah Bay College) and the Regent Christian Institution for Boys, which culminated into The CMS Grammar School in 1845. (There was one also for girls at Charlotte - which became The Annie Walsh Memorial School). Although the primary purpose of this theses was a focus on the CMS River Niger Expedition - "...the development of an idea 1835 - 65...," of  "NATIVE AGENCIES",  Jill Farrow explained the ANTECEDENTS to the formation of CMS GRAMMAR SCHOOL BEFORE 1845 AND ITS  CLOSE  CONNECTIONS with The Fourah Bay Institution in Chapters two (2) and three (3). I was going to limit this post by re-printing just these two chapters which directly dealt with this 'hidden history'. The question as to why Regent Square is referred to as such and how the secondary school came to start on foundation day 25th March 1845, in that "Great and massive Building" is not quite known to many and has not been properly explained by those writers who have touched briefly on the subject. Jill's theses added a small piece of information in that the Building was not only occupied by the then Governor ( who had moved to Fort Thornton now State House - but not its current building) but, was occupied by the then Chief Justice after the Governor had left. At the time of the decision to create the New Secondary School, to ease the pressure of the cramped Fourah Bay Institution which teaches a wider curriculum other than to meet Church demands, the Government was to put Regent Square up for sale to raise much-needed revenue. There were negotiations going on as to replacing the building at Fourah bay which rebuilding was very costly (There was a building before the famous IRON building which is popularly shown. There was also the debate to raise the standard of the Regent Institution to Secondary level with a stronger Grammar school type curriculum. For both Institutions, the Officials at the CMS in England were fully engaged and there was also the link with The ISLINGTON INSTITUTION where Christian training of a higher quality was provided. 

 A few other writers like Magbaily Fyle and Christopher Fyfe have touched on the inauguration of the Grammar school and named the first fourteen pupils who were registered on that Foundation day 25th March 1845. ALL fourteen were junior students transferred from the Fourah Bay Institution/College which was founded in 1821. Of these fourteen students,  five (5) were from the Gallhinas. Two (2) out of these 5 were second-year students and Fourah Bay college then.  One was the son of the Ruller (King) of the Gallinas and their last name was GOMEZ! Three (3) out these five were liberated Africans secured by the CMS  having been captured from the slave ships and brought to Freetown with the approval of the Gallhinas King. Of the other nine (9) pupils, three (3) were Krio boys - Joseph Flynn, Charles M'Cauley, and Charles Nelson from Kissy.  Also, one Danial Carrol from Freetown, Robert Cross who was said to be Thirty (30) years old from Fourah Bay in Freetown (But Fourah Bay was seen at that time as an 'outbound' area). Then there were two more from KENT Village - Thomas Smith and JAMES QUAKER ( who became an Ordained Priest, Tutor and the Third (3rd) Principal (First Black Principal 1861-1882). The 14th was one Frederick KARLI from Port Loko). It can be seen from this list of initial pupils that the Grammar school did not start with just FREED KRIOS - whether Settlers, Liberated Africans, Maroons, or other but with open arms embraced students from the Interior of Sierra Leone (43% of these initiates)  and West Africa. This became apparent over the following few months when by November of 1845 it had 34 pupils and by 1863 there were 87 on the Roll divided into Preparatory and upper school. As Magbaily Fyle puts it > "The Grammar School could be thus said to have pioneered the way towards a much forceful movement to NATIONAL INTEGRATION even at its very inception" (see Fyle's "Grammar School and Education in Sierra Leone 1845-1942")

Jill Farrow in these few chapters touched briefly on some of the subjects taught and the initial arguments as to what will suit the 'African learner' and the attention paid to producing future qualified Priests whilst freeing the Fourah Bay Institution to produce Administrators that will have little supervision by white/ Europeans. The language, vocabulary, perception, and attitudes of some of the discussants and the messages and dispatches in Journals produced are mind bugling. One would say there were 'NEGATIVES in the line of DOING GOOD for the Africans. It would appear that the impact of what some of those in charge injected in the process was not even recognised by them as cruel or at least intolerable gestures. It did not mean a thing to them as in today's world, we see even now such unadulterated discriminations and racism but one would say that era was the transition from the Slave Trade and its dedication. These issues come out from this literature cited by Jill Farrow in her theses in 1974. 

In Farrow's theses we read: 

The Committee at home, and particularly Henry Venn, became increasingly concerned at the lack of practical education in Sierra Leone. In Freetown, there was employment in the merchants* office s and government establishments for those from the Grammar School. I n the villages, where nearly three-quarters of the population lived, there was nothing. Sierra Leone needed model farms, savings banks, reading rooms, and libraries. There should be loan clubs, benefit clubs and a free warehouse where native merchants could store their goods rather than selling at a low price to the first bidder. There were a great many semi-skilled jobs that Africans could be trained to do, both in Freetown and the villages, creating an artisan class of Africans, educated by the missionary societies and ultimately taking their place below the Grammar School-educated Africans in a wellordered native society. A committee to oversee all this, sending out agents and encouraging both farming and industry, would unite all those interested in Africa . They would supply farming implements, pay for libraries, organise the English side of a local savings bank and give general financial l support. Many of these ideas were expressed in pamphlets, written at the time, almost certainly by Venn himself. He saw clearly, perhaps because he received the opinions of so many in Sierra Leone, that the continuation of a purely academic education as the focal point o f C.M.S. educational policy would lead ultimately to a 'top-heavy' society, with too many Africans considering themselves above manual work and too few prepared or trained to do the more menial jobs in the developing colony.

 A great many Europeans who knew Sierra Leone in the nineteenth century, would, of course, have seen his aims as hopelessly idealistic. The African was lazy. "Idleness is the highest ambition of the African"  was a commonly held view. Some blamed C.M.S. for spoiling the African for manual work by offering him an education in the first place. Caroline Norton, who published her views on Sierra Leone under the pseudonym 'A Lady'* in 1849, believed that  " a striking error in the judgment of the negroes is the opinion that anything in the shape of work is not compatible with even the slightest degree of education". 

 As far back as 1798, Governor Macauly had referred to the "long-acquired habit of indolence by going to school. It was a common complaint that C.M.S. education was too narrow and that it afforded status only to those who went into white-collar jobs with the government, merchants or C.M.S. itself. There is no doubt that the mission had created a problem for itself in the founding of the Grammar School, for its popularity and success made it the goal of Africans who might otherwise have gone straight into the C.M.S. industrial schemes. The only answer appeared to be to set out an energetic practical training programme, in co-operation wit h others in the colony, and hope that initial successes would attract t more Africans to this type of work. Essential to the development of industrial training was an industrial committee such as Venn suggested. In 1848, the Afric a Native Agency Committee (A.N.A.C.) decided to stop supporting the school education of children in Sierra Leone because C.M.S. had enough support from other sources. The members agreed to continue their subscriptions for three years and to devote the money to the development of native industry and agriculture in West Africa.   

The first Principal Rev Thomas Peyton was transferred from the Fourah Bay Institution to the Grammar School. The Principal of Fourah Bay was Rev. Edward Jones a Blackman of the Caribbean descent.  Under Rev. Thomas Peyton, subjects taught were English Grammar and composition, Greek,  Mathematics, Geography, Bible History, Astronomy, DOCTRINE,  English History, Writing, and MUSIC!  Latin was later introduced but was voluntary. EUCLID and Algebra were later added to the curriculum.  As Christianity was the KEY emphasis, ALL PUPILS had to become Christians in those early days. Records show that two pupils were baptised on 14th September 1845, nine were candidates for Holy Communion at that time.  The Grammar School set the tone and for the first Twenty years the ONLY Secondary School in West Africa.  By 1849, pupils were being enrolled from all parts of West Africa. Their fees and support funding were paid through CMS scholarships and the African Native Agency. It is recorded that 1850, 55 pupils were attending the school: Fees collected amounted to a whooping £187pounds,16 Shillings and 2 pence. (£187:16s:2p). By 1856, the number enrolled had reached 250 pupils. Below is an example of the spread of  students and the location from where they originated from in addition to the first fourteen foundation pupils mentioned earlier:

LIST OF PRINCIPLES OF THE CMS GRAMMAR SCHOOL FREETOWN SIERRA LEONE 1845 T0 2021+
1st	REV. THOMAS PEYTON	1845 -1852	European: Ex FBC.  Died 14 June 1853 at the School. Buried in Freetown
2nd	JOHN NULWARD	1853? -1859	European – from UK. Although appointed 1853 – he arrived 1855. No substantive Principal between 14 June 1853 to - 1855. Rev Edward Jones (African American) Principal of FBC (1840-1858) superintend the Grammar School.
	REV JAMES QUAKER	1861 – 1882	From Kent Village. One of the first 14 initiates at the school – was among the first “Native Priests” to be Ordained Reverend in 1870.  Died in 1882. Principal Quaker encouraged the pupils to Start and run a Printing Press – DEMOCRACY AND FREEDOM PRESS. The Press Instructor was James Millar from Waterloo. By 1871, the press printed TEICE MONTLY Newspaper “THE ETHIOPIA” edited by the Principal. In his time also, the School had a FIFE BAND with FLUTES being a special treat – a purely Scottish influence. Records show that the Band led the pupils on a match past to the grounds of Fourah Bay college at Cline Town on School Anniversary days and other places. He negotiated with the REGIMENTAL BAND (Army) to regularly go and teach pupil members of the School Band to play the FIFE and other instruments. Such was the start of a long-term relationship between the Grammar school and the Army Bands.
4th	REV CANON OBADIAH MOORE	1882 - 1805	A former pupil. Enrolled on 29 May 1863 Registration number 463 under the name of OBADISH PUNCH from York Village. After three years was transferred to FBC in Jan 1867 studied for 3 years then returned to the Grammar School as a Junior Tutor. In 1871 he replaced the Senior Teacher John Tilly Asgill as Senior Tutor. He was later sent to England together with Canon Spain in 1875 – spent 18 months at MONKTON COOMBE COLLEGE at BATH in Somerset. He obtained a Certificate of the Senior Oxford Local Examinations. Returned to the Grammar School at the end of 1876 to carry on as Senior Tutor. In 1877, Rev Moore was ordained Pastor attached to Christ Church Pademba Road. He left the School again in 1880, to take up the Pastorate at St. Mathews Church Bonthe Sherbro.  But he returned to the school once more to assume the Principalship on the death of the Principal Rev James Quaker in 1882. He was a friend and Classmate of Rev James Holy Johnson who also was a Teacher at the Grammar school with Rev Moore. He introduced a BRASS and REED Band with a diversity of instruments. The band was well known by the beginning of the 20th Century but faded away in 1915
5th	REV GEORGE G GARRETT	1906 -1912	When GGG took over as Principal; he had 7 African Tutors, all graduates of Durham University through Fourah Bay College. He was ne of the “Native Pastors” ordained in 1870. Principal Garrett was a ‘hands-on’ man. In 1908, only one year after the Parent body of the BOYS SCOUT MOVEMENT had been formed in England, by Lord Baden-Powell he introduced the BOYS SCOUT at the Grammar School. He was also the person who composed the so much famous and popular School Song – Music and words.
6th	HENRY DALLIMORE	1914 -1920	Principal Dallimore took over after a gap of two years. During this period even the Brass Band lost strength and by 1915 had faded away.
7th	REV CANAN T C JOHN	1920 -1933	Canon John revived the Brass Band in 1924 with the help of the Old Boys -the Alumni. Influenced as a past band player when he was pupil at the school, he gave his absolute support to the old boys in raising the funds through a subscription list to collect money to revive the band. Also his Vice principal had introduced weaving and spinning in their social education in 927 but, this was not very appealing to the academic type of learning of the Grammar school.
8th	RT REV BISHOP T S C JOHNSON	1933 -1936	The Nephew of Rev James Holy Johnson. He tried to revive Carpentry and Basket weaving in the school curriculum. He Introduced CLUBS – for Agriculture, Carpentry, Poultry into the Social Education programme. These efforts did not hold on “as the Grammar school type of education had by then         become DEEPLY ROOTED in the curriculum and in the psyche of the majority of those who supported the school”
9th	REV P HYCY-WILSON	1937 -1947
10th	REV E D C CLERK	1947 – 1952	He retired and served the Anglican Archbishop of Sierra Leone former Principal and Archbishop of West Africa Rt REV J L C Horstead as Chaplain. He supported the Old Boys Association UK in the Chaplaincy until his death
11th	Mr Frank Wood (MA Oxon. - Lay Preacher & former Secretary to the CMS Sierra Leone prior to being Principal of the School)	1953 -1964	Frank Wood was a very dynamic Principal, strong and energetic. He transformed the school and moved it from Fourah Bay Road campus to its current location at Murray Town.
12th	VERY REV G L O PALMER	1964 - 1970	A reformist, disciplinarian previously at Koyama Secondary School Bo District. Died 19 February 1982.
ACTING PRINCIPAL	REV H G B DAVIES	1970-1971	Long term Tutor

13th	REV CANN VICTOR HASTINGS-SPAIN	1971 -1985	A former Principal of the West African Methodist Collegiate secondary School. A Canon of St Georges Cathedral
14th	AKINWANE JOSIAH LASITE	1985 - 2018/9	Former pupil, tutor Vice Principal and a graduate of FBC. He holds the record as the longest serving Head of the Sierra Leone Grammar School. He ran the school at the most difficult of times with all turbulences like Land Issues and return the School ta its original Private Institution status. He is a Lay Canon of St Georges Cathedral
15th	REV CANON LEONARD KEN DAVIES	2019 ->>>>	The current Principal. A former Teacher at the school.  He had spent some time in the priesthood in England and a Canon of St Georges Cathedral in Freetown.

Israel Ojekeh Parper Snr  (Author)

PLEASE CLICK THIS LINK TO ACCESS THE THESES OF JILL FARROW  (1974)  (DURHAM UNIVERSITY).

FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS 176 CELEBRATION AND THE ANTECEDENT TO STARTING THE CMS/SIERRA LEONE GRAMMAR SCHOOL, READ THE INTRODUCTION AND CHAPTER 1 TO GET THE BACKGROUND/PREAMBLE.  THEN READ CHAPTERS 2, 3, (AND 4 WHERE THERE ARE INTERESTING BITS). DEPENDING ON YOUR  INTEREST IN CMS  CHURCH HISTORY, AND THE  NIGER RIVER EXPEDITION INVOLVING BISHOP AJAYI CROWTHER, THE DEVELOPMENT, BUILDING AND GROWTH OF THE ANGLICAN (CMS) CHURCH  IN WEST AFRICA THE REST OF JILL FARROW'S THESES WILL BE OF INTEREST.

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THANKSGIVING SERVICES HAVE PLAYED A PIVOTAL ROLE IN THE LIFE OF THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL AND THE PIONEERS - CMS - HAS MADE THAT PART OF OUR TRADITION FROM INCEPTION. WE ARE FULLY EMBEDED IN THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION FOR WHICH THE ST GEORGES CATHEDRAL HAS BEEN THE PILLAR OF THE SUCCESSES OF REGENTONIAN! WE PRESS ON!

 Click Link for Thanksgiving advert.

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Click this link for slgs rap music click link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37b3xbHbj78

THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL HAS PRODUCED MEN (and some women too) OF ALL OCCUPATIONAL LEVELS AND ABILITE ENGRINED IN UNALDULTRATED TRADITIONS. 

                      The school Band performing the School Song

   Post Thanksgiving Reception 2019 - SLGS OBA UK (FOUNDED 1985) - SUPPORTED BY 

   Ex Pupils of Annie Walsh  and Bishop Johnson Secondary Schools led by The SLGS UK Brass Band

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: BLOG (2) -BAI BUREH CHIEF OF KASSE.

                           HUT TAX WAR

A photo graph of Bai Bureh under Police guard 

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This piece starts with a brief historical background  to the abolition of tge Slave Trade and the emergence of the Creole people/ KRIO and the beginning of colonism in Sierra Leone plus how the British landgrab the  Protectorate interland, imposed taxes and alianated the Chiefs, leading to the HUT TAX WAR. Note the special MEDALS for bravery, given  to Army personnel who fought against the uprising against the HUT TAX.

“The Hut Tax War” in Sierra Leone 1898-99

• Posted by Peter Duckers

“The Hut Tax War” in Sierra Leone

… a forgotten colonial campaign.

by Peter Duckers

The “East and West Africa” medal with clasp for “The Hut Tax War”

Following the American Revolution (1776-1783), many British “loyalists” fled from the new USA. Many went to Canada or the West Indies and included thousands of black settlers and workers. More than 3,000 “Black Loyalists” settled in Nova Scotia, where they were granted land and founded Birchtown. But they found the climate and conditions there unworkable and pressed the British authorities for relief and aid. As a result, the British abolitionist John Clarkson and others founded “The Sierra Leone Company” specifically to relocate black loyalists who wanted to return to West Africa. In 1792, nearly 1200 such people from Nova Scotia crossed the Atlantic to found the colony of Sierra Leone, with its capital, the pointedly named “Freetown”. It was a harsh environment, with few facilities or much money and the continual threat of illegal slave raids and re-enslavement. From 1807, when Britain abolished the seaborne trade in slaves (and tried to force other nations to do so!) Britain maintained a naval squadron in the Bight of Benin aimed solely at intercepting slave vessels and freeing their “cargoes”. It was an expensive and (for the crews) dangerous and unpopular policy – service in “the white man’s grave” might earn higher pay but the death toll from tropical diseases and heatstroke was appalling. Over the next eighty years, British ships rescued and freed thousands of captured Africans, liberating them at Freetown. Although they came from all over sub-Saharan West Africa, most chose to remain in Sierra Leone. As the century progressed, they were joined by freed black Americans, refugees from the American-founded territory of Liberia, and particularly by West Indians. The new settlers were known as Creoles (or Krio).

The conquest of tropical empire – many African and West Indian soldiers saw a lot of service, but surviving examples like this are now uncommon

As a colony, Sierra Leone existed only as a small coastal enclave for most of the 19C. Like other British settlements along the West African coast, it was not until the 1890s that it was enlarged, during the greatest era of Britain’s expansion in tropical Africa, when all her coastal holdings were greatly increased in size. The urgent motive for this development was an aggressive French expansionist policy across the Sahara and in West Africa which threatened to cut off and limit Britain’s coastal territories unless steps were taken to seize territory inland. Under the determined Conservative Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain, a deliberate policy of “land grabbing” was begun after 1895, the idea being that Britain should annex territory in the hinterlands of its existing West African territories not on the basis that they had any immediate economic value but on the basis that they might have in the future – the “undeveloped estates” theory. Stake 

It was this policy which saw, for example, rapid expansion inland from the Niger Delta (what became the colony of Nigeria), along the Gambia and into the Ashanti Empire in 1896. Throughout the period 1895-1900, the British established by treaty, annexation or force a series of much larger colonies in West Africa, following the 1885 Berlin Conference’s requirement to demonstrate “effective occupation” of claimed territories. In 1896, a large swath of territory inland of the existing Sierra Leone frontier was annexed by Britain to form a much larger Protectorate. However, somewhat understandably, this was not popular amongst many local leaders and chiefs, since it interfered with their sovereignty and local standing as they simply became units within a new British colonial government.

It was a long-established principle of British colonial administration that colonies should contribute as much as possible to their own government, defence and development – hence the imposition of taxes; it was this policy which had alienated the American colonists and fomented their Revolution in 1776. It was also a good way to get local people to work for their new rulers (e.g. on plantations or road making) since they would need cash to pay the taxes.

A Sierra Leone village – Panguma, besieged during the rebellion; here seen with defensive stockades. Two armed columns came to its relief.

The new Governor of Sierra Leone, the experienced soldier Colonel Sir Frederick Cardew KCMG, followed exactly this policy. In January 1898, he imposed a new tax on dwellings (the “hut tax”), which was immediately unpopular not simply because no such imposition had ever been levied before but also because the taxes were deemed to be far too high – at between five and ten shillings per hut (depending on size), the annual assessment was often deemed to be greater than the value of the dwelling. Almost immediately, 24 leading chiefs petitioned Cardew, to convince him that the tax was unfair. The failure of Cardew and the colonial government to respond sympathetically was the immediate cause of the Temne-Mende war, known to history as “the Hut Tax war” of 1898-99. This turned into one of the largest-scale anti-colonial revolts West Africa ever saw and fairly quickly drew in just about the whole of the new colony. The British authorities found themselves almost overwhelmed by the scale (and spread) of the opposition and what followed was a very fragmentary series of operations, largely relying on small columns of West African troops under British officers, operating in different districts and trying, with varying degrees of success, to keep the lids on several boiling pots at once.

The rebellion against the new Hut Tax began in the Karene district, which became known as “the northern front”, where officials had been visiting Temne villages trying to raise the new tax in full, in part or in kind, but with little success. To provide a back-up to the process, a small force of the Sierra Leone Frontier Police (SLFP) under Major A. Tarbet was sent to support the District Commissioner Capt. Sharpe and try to arrest Bai Bureh, chief of Kasse, and regarded (unfairly as it now appears) as the leading instigator in the non-payment of the tax in that area. Interestingly, Bai Bureh and his men had fought on the British side during the 1892 Sierra Leone operations. Bai Bureh, who unsuccessfully tried to make peace overtures throughout the spring of 1898, quickly gained the support of several prominent chiefs, including the powerful Kissa chief Kai Londo and the Limba chief Suluku. Both sent their own warriors and weapons to aid Bai Bureh, who felt he had to defend himself against what he saw as unprovoked aggression. Other leaders who soon rose to the fore were chiefs Niagu of Paguma, chief Guburu of Bompe and Bai Sherbro of the Yonni tribe.

Bai Bureh in captivity

The 61-year old Bai Bureh was a powerful and well-regarded chief, not prepared to sit back and await arrest. Mobilising his followers, he fought the progress of the SLFP from the start, to the extent that Tarbet’s force was virtually isolated within Karene, since all the roads to Port Loko and Freetown were blocked by Bai Bureh’s men and passed through hostile territory. After two weeks of struggling to find Bai Bureh, and frequently attacked en route, they were joined by a company of 1st West India Regt. under Major Richard Norris DSO, who had reached them via a circuitous route to avoid potential ambushes.

On 3rd March, the combined force under Norris made a determined attempt to find and arrest Bai Bureh but from the moment they set out towards Port Loko, they came under continual harrassing attacks in the dense forest tracts and suffered considerable casualties; volley firing into the trees had little effect. Eventually reaching Port Loko, Major Norris took up a defensive position and summoned reinforcements from Freetown. On 6th March 1898, Norris was joined by 94 officers and men of the 1st West India Regt. under Major W. B. Stansfield who came up from Freetown. In the meantime, Bai Bureh’s supporters began to construct blockhouses, manned by only a few men, but skilfully constructed out of banana wood and hidden in the forests; from these almost invisible stockades, they could fire on passing columns and then flee into the woodlands before they could be surrounded and attacked. It was becoming clear that the “rebels” were gaining the upper hand – British firepower and superior armament was of little advantage in forests which completely hid the enemy – and the rebellion began to spread.

Group to a naval recipient – naval awards are not common

As the situation seemed to be worsening, naval forces from the Cape Squadron were brought into action, with brigades (amounting to about 250 men) landed at Bonthe from HMS Fox (Capt. F. H. Henderson), Blonde (Cdr. P. Hoskins) and Alecto (Lt. A. F. Holmes); these ships also conveyed reinforcements in the form of the 3rd West India Regiment, shipped from St. Helena, while a small detachment of Royal Artillery and other specialists (e.g. Royal Engineers) was sent from England. In   total, including the Sierra Leone Police and “odd” detachments, some 2,500 men were immediately available to take the fight to Bai Bureh. It is believed that the timely arrival of these reinforcements was actually what saved the colony from being completely overrun; they were able, for example, to relieve Major Norris’s heavily-pressed column and get him back to Freetown. Bai Bureh was finally captured in October 1898 by “A” Company of the newly-formed West Africa Regt. under Col. E. R. P. Woodgate. Bai Bureh and two colleagues were exiled to the Gold Coast, though he was allowed to return in 1905 and reassumed the chieftaincy of Kasse.

However, the success of Bai Bureh encouraged others to rise against the government. The central Mende (or Mendi) tribe, under Momoh Jah, and tribes in the south of the colony (the “southern front”) showed a particular willingness to take on the British, aiming to drive them out of the country; merchants and civilians, both Europeans and those of mixed race deemed to be “westernised”, were attacked, with over 1000 estimated to have been killed. From April 1898, beginning from the district of Imperri, armed bands of Mende overran the coastal area, taking control of smaller ports as far as the Liberian frontier. Other rebel groups operated further inland and many SLFP posts and bases were attacked or besieged; even major towns like Bonthe and Waterloo were attacked.

Mende tribesmen during the campaign

Throughout the country, people were under arms and out of (government) control. Captain C. B. Wallis with only 28 men of the SLFP was attacked at Kambia, forcing him to fall back to Bonthe, with all his ammunition gone. Lt. Col. Cunningham, DSO, serving with the West Africa Regt., re-took Kambia in May, then proceeded along the Jong river to Mafwe, whose civilian post had been attacked and destroyed. Here, he was attacked by over 1000 Mendes, driven off with heavy casualties, as was another attack soon afterwards. Cunningham then captured two solid, well-hidden stockades – impervious even to artillery fire – near the town of Bumpe.

One of the besieged government posts was the town of Panguma in the eastern central area of the country. Sir Frederick Carew ordered that Panguma be relieved immediately by a column from Badajuma, itself defended by only 50 SLFP under Capt. Eames and a good four days’ march away. Accordingly, on 9th June, a force of only 45 SLFP – far too few – set off to reach the town. Under attack from the start, they got as far as Doja, 30 miles from Bandajuma, before the refusal of their porters to continue forced them to turn back. Another attempt at relief was made on 12th June when a column of 75 men of the SLFP with 300 “friendly” natives under Major E. D. H. Fairtlough set out from Kwalu. This force also had a 7-pounder field gun, manned by the artillery section of the SLFP. The column came under serious attack at Gagboro, but succeeded in driving off their attackers, capturing three stockades and entering the town. Fairtlough came under continual harrassing attack as he edged towards Panguma, but defeated another major assault at Dodo and finally reached the besieged town on 23rd June. They found the defenders under Capt. J. E. C. Blakeney in a bad way – they had defended their stockaded position for over two months, under almost daily attack from over 2000 rebels and had just about run out of ammunition and food (down to meagre rations, chiefly of rice) when relieved.

However, this particular ordeal was not yet over. The combined column now had to fight its way out, under ambush and passing (and usually capturing) many hidden blockhouses. The largest action took place at Yomundu on 6th July. This sizeable town was well-defended by a triple stockade but the 7-pounder gun made a world of difference. Three columns attacked different points – Captain H. de L. Ferguson to the right, Major Fairtlough on the left and the third, comprising largely the “friendlies”, attacked the centre. When the stockade was breached, hand-to-hand fighting took place in the town, the end result being being the death of three local chiefs and 115 of their supporters.

By this time – early July 1898 – a complex military operation was underway; six separate SLFP and WIR columns were criss-crossing the country, burning “rebel” villages, trying to reimpose order, and some chiefs were beginning to offer their submission. Though a number of raiders and marauding bands remained at large for some time, no further large-scale opposition developed and graduall, and with difficulty, units of the SLFP were able to round-up rebel leaders and re-establish government authority. Officially, the operations were not deemed to be over until as late as 9th March 1899.

The campaign in Sierra Leone was one of the largest fought during the early days of Britian’s conquest of a new West African empire. The extent of the rebellion, in terms of the territory it affected and the number of people who rose in rebellion, was far greater than in other colonial uprisings other than that in Ashanti in 1900-01. The colony’s slender military resources were stretched to the limit and only the involvement of outside forces, like the small RN and RM brigades, with reinforcements, landed from warships enabled the government to suppress the uprising. Colonel Marshal, the British commander-in-chief, said that the operations in 1898, involved “some of the most stubborn fighting that has been seen in West Africa. No such continuity of opposition had at any previous time been experienced on this part of the coast.”

Army Order 152 of 1899 authorised the award of what was then called “the West Africa Medal” with clasp Sierra Leone 1898-99 to the following units, the figures taken from Magor’s African General Service Medals and British Battles and Medals” which differ only slightly from each other.

Misc. civilians, surgeons, officials etc 109

Misc. British officers 9

Royal Garrison Artillery 85

Sierra Leone RGA 184 (Magor = 177)

Royal Engineers 56

Army Service Corps 29 + local labourers

Army Medical services  44

Army Ordnance Corps 16

Army Pay Corps 4

1st West India Regt. 1123

2nd West India Regt. 594

3rd West India Regt. 159

West Africa Regt. 895

Sierra Leone Volunteers 126

Waterloo Volunteer Corps 61

Sierra Leone Frontier Police 553

Colonial steamer Countess of Derby 19

HMS Blonde 124 (Magor = 117)

HMS Alecto 51 (Magor = 34)

HMS Fox 95 (Magor = 87)

The differences for the naval issues may simply reflect the inclusion of awards to native kroomen. Interestingly, there is no record of medals to personnel from HM ships Blake, Phoebe and Tartar which landed men in May 1898. These ships are mentioned in the official dispatches – as are some of their officers – published in The London Gazette; perhaps they were not deemed to have complied with the award regulations, which stipulated that medals were only granted to naval personnel who actually took part in shore operations or in boat expeditions which came under fire along various rivers; these included the River Lokko on March 5th 1898, in the Sherbro hinterland 1-15th May, in the expedition along the Boom-Kittam river, 16th May, and along the Bumpe River, 11-14th May.

In all, about 4,000 men were eventually involved, mostly in the small columns which ranged around the colony restoring order. This is quite a large number for this sort of campaign, but the medal is still quite scarce. As can be seen, medals will be more common to the West India Regiment and to the SLFP, with awards to some of the smaller detachments being rare. With 66 killed and 186 wounded (mostly in Karene district) casualties were significantly high for a colonial campaign:

Imperial forces – 4 officers 17 men killed; 16 officers and 94 men wounded

The Sierra Leone Frontier Police – 46 killed and 76 wounded.

In addition, among locally-hired porters and bearers, there were 50 killed and 96 wounded.

Medals to a soldier of the 3rd West India Regt. – the WIR saw extensive service in West Africa

Medal for Sierra Leone with clasp for previous service in the Gold Coast

Medal rolls are in series WO.100/92 for military personnel and ADM.171/45 for the navy. The London Gazette of 29th December 1899 has the main dispatches on the campaign.

Officers and Men mentioned in Dispatches :

Col. E. R. P. Woodgate (appointed CB and KCMG)

Bvt. Col. G. G. Cunningham, DSO, Derbys. and West African Regts.

Lt. Col. W. J. A. Marshall, West India Regt.

Capt. N. J. Goodwyn, West India Regt. (awarded DSO)

Capt. F. M. Carleton, West African Regt.

Major C. B. Morgan, West India Regt. (awarded DSO)

Lt. H. D. Russell, West India Regt. (awarded DSO)

Major A. H. Thomas, ASC att’d West India Regt. (awarded DSO)

Major R. Crofts, RAMC. (awarded DSO)

Lt. W. R. Howell, 1/ Glamorgan Arty. Vols. att’d Sierra Leone Vols. (awarded DSO)

Major H. G. de L. Ferguson, 4/ Norfolks and SLFP. (awarded DSO)

Major E. C. D. Fairtlough, DSO, 4/ Ryl Dublin Fus.; District Commissioner. (appointed CMG)

Capt. W. S. Sharpe, 4/ Ryl. Irish Rifles; District Commissioner. (appointed CMG)

Major A. F. Tarbet, 3/ S. Lancs; Inspector General, SLFP. (appointed CMG)

Major A. R. Stuart, RA; commanding RA.

Major E. S. C. Kennedy, Brigade Major, West India Regt.

Major H. C. Buck, West India Regt.

Lt. H. T. Eckersley, West India Regt.

Lt. N. E. F. Safford, West India Regt.

Capt. O. H. E. Marescaux, Shrops. L. I., att’d West African Regt.

Capt. C. Dalton, RAMC.

Capt. J. M. Harrison, RAMC.

Corpl. Greenidge, 1st West India Regt.

Pte. Grant, 3rd West India Regt.

Sgt. A. G. Wells, ASC.

Sgt. B. Thomas, West African Regt.

Capt. A.L. Winsloe, HMS Blake.

Capt. F. H. Henderson, HMS Fox (appointed CMG)

Capt. R. L. Rolleston, HMS Phoebe

Lt. F. K. C. Gibbons, HMS Fox.

Cdr. P. Hoskyns, MVO, HMS Blonde (appointed CMG)

Lt. Cdr. Holmes, HMS Alecto.

Lt. E. O. Gladstone, HMS Alecto.

Lt. W. F. Benwell, HMS Fox.

Lt. G. H. Welch, HMS Blonde.

Chf. Engr. W. W. Hardwick, HMS Blonde.

Categories: Medals Articles

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DESPACHES BY GOVERNOR CADEW IN 1899 TO COLONIAL OFFICE. From The London Gazette December 29, 1899.

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Predecessor 

See also this post:

PIGEONS IN THE HUTS IN SIERRA LEONE

    Pigeons of War

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Pigeons in the Hut Tax War of Sierra Leone, 1898

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When did the British Army first use pigeons in combat? World War One?  The Boer War?  The answer is the Hut Tax War of 1898, a relatively obscure colonial uprising in Sierra Leone.  This week, we take a look at how the British Army, for the first time ever, relied on pigeons to communicate with a distant headquarters.

On August 31, 1896, British colonial authorities in the Crown Colony of Sierra Leone unilaterally declared the interior surrounding Freetown a Protectorate. Divided into five districts, the Protectorate encompassed numerous chiefdoms, many of which had no direct treaties or relations with the British government.  To consolidate British rule over them, the colonial government issued the Protectorate Ordinance that same year, aimed at encroaching upon the chieftains’ sovereignty.  The Ordinance transferred much of the chiefs’ traditional judicial powers to British District Commissioners.  It undermined the internal slave trade—a primary source of income for chiefs—by granting enslaved persons the opportunity to obtain freedom by petitioning British officials in Freetown.  Finally, the Ordinance implemented a tax on dwellings within three of the Protectorate’s districts, Ronietta, Bandajuma, and Karene.  Dubbed the Hut Tax, it required all residents to make payments based on the size of their residence at the start of 1898.

The British also installed Frontier Police posts across the chiefdoms, composed of indigenous men led by British officers.  Tasked with ensuring safe passage over roads and keeping the peace, members of the Frontier Police occasionally overstepped their jurisdiction and “interfered in local disputes,” acting as “little judges and governors.”  Moreover, much of the Frontier Police had been runaway slaves who had obtained their freedom in Freetown.  Chiefs bristled at the prospect of being arrested by their former slaves.

Many chiefs within the Protectorate opposed these measures, the most notable of whom was Bai Bureh.  A member of the Temne ethnic group, Bai Bureh had been appointed chief of Kasseh, “a small chiefdom on the left bank of the Small Scarcies River,” in the Karene District in 1887, thanks to his military prowess.  While Kasseh was a tiny chiefdom, Bureh possessed considerable authority owing to his status as a kruba or war chief.  “There were very few war chiefs,” a historian has noted, “and only they possessed the right to request permission from other chiefs to travel though their chiefdoms to collect armed followers.”  Karene’s District Commissioner claimed that war chiefs “were the only ones who possessed any ‘real authority’ and that one of them was worthy fifty ordinary chiefs.”

Bureh had a complicated relationship with the colonial government. He’d been arrested in 1891 for defying a British official, escaping while en route to Freetown. The next year, though, he joined in a colonial expedition against the town of Tambi.  After another arrest attempt in 1894, Bureh largely ignored the British until the enactment of the Protectorate Ordinance.  In 1897, he joined 24 other chiefs in submitting petitions to the Colony’s governor, Sir Frederick Cardew, protesting the Hut Tax.

Disregarding the chiefs’ opposition, colonial authorities set out to collect the tax in the Karene District in January 1898.  They encountered resistance in Port Loko, “the largest and wealthiest town” in the area, and arrested the primary chief and his sub-chiefs in response.  Rumors soon emerged that Bai Bureh was planning an attack on Port Loko, resulting in most of the town’s inhabitants fleeing.  On February 16th, a detachment of Frontier Police set out from Port Loko to Karene to find and arrest Bai Bureh.  On the road to Karene, the unit was continually harassed by Bai Bureh’s warboys, who jeered at the Frontier Police and pelted them with stones. At one point in the expedition, the parties exchanged gunfire.  The Frontier Police found Karene safe, but remained concerned over the safety of the Port Loko-Karene route; most of the surrounding towns and villages had cleared out in support of the revolt.  

Upon receiving word of the Frontier Police’s plight in Karene, Cardew opted for a demonstration of British power. On February 22nd, Cardew ordered a company of the 1st Battalion West India Regiment (WIR)—an Army infantry unit composed of recruits from British Caribbean colonies—to head to Karene.  Commanded by Major Richard Joseph Norris, the WIR company’s primary mission was to set up a garrison at Karene, allowing the Frontier Police to pursue Bai Bureh.  If necessary, the company was authorized to support the Frontier Police in case of an attack, but Cardew hoped that “once the troops arrived, resistance to the administration’s authority would collapse.”

A particular challenge facing the WIR at Karene would be maintaining contact with Freetown, which was 60 miles away.  All lines of communication between Port Loko and Karene had ceased on February 19th after supporters of the rebellion stole the Frontier Police’s canoes.  Cut off from Porto Loko, the Frontier Police in Karen had no way of communicating with Freetown, absent a circuitous, northwestern route.  Fortunately, Thomas Chadwick, a merchant with the trading firm G.B. Ollivant and Company, came up with a solution.  Having represented the firm’s interests in Freetown since 1891, Chadwick had been frustrated that “communication with the interior could be conducted only by runners.” He’d imported a loft of homing pigeons from England and trained the birds to deliver news from the interior to Freetown.  The pigeons had allowed Chadwick to be “always better informed than any of his competitors regarding the position of produce stocks and merchandise requirements.”  Seeing the administration was in a bind, Chadwick turned his pigeons over to the government for use in Karene.

The WIR company departed Freetown on February 25th aboard a government steamer up the Great Scarcies River and disembarked at a nearby village on the 26th.  Norris and his troops marched to Karene, reaching the town unopposed on the 28th, although they were monitored by warboys. The company found the Frontier Police besieged on all sides, with three of its members in the hospital.  As the situation in Karene escalated, on March 2nd, the District Commissioner requested that Norris declare martial law and assume responsibility for the administration of Port Loko and Karene, to which Norris assented.  The next day, the company marched to Port Loko to restore communication between the two towns.  Throughout the 25 mile march, the soldiers encountered intense opposition from Temne warboys, both sides suffering casualties.  On March 4th, Norris, fearing that Port Loko would soon be attacked, released a pigeon with a message requesting two additional WIR companies from Freetown.  Cardew received the message that same day, but, believing that Norris “could easily hold his own,” sent only one company. 

On the evening of March 5th, the second WIR company arrived at Port Loko, only to find the town had earlier been the site of a fierce, four-and-a-half hour battle between Norris’s troops and Temne warboys.  As hostilities mounted, Norris continued badgering Cardew for additional WIR companies over the ensuing days until the governor ultimately acquiesced and sent two more.  Each unit departing Freetown received twelve pigeons.  

By mid-March, the WIR companies had coalesced into a force of 700 troops under the command of a colonel. Now known as the Karene Expeditionary Force (KEF), the forces made Port Loko their headquarters and focused on keeping the road to Karene open.  Throughout these patrols, the KEF kept Freetown apprised of developments via pigeon. “[A]uthorities at Freetown knew the position of matters at Port Loko, which is twenty-five miles off, within half-an-hour’s time,” a newspaper reported.  On the evening of March 25th, a pigeon brought news to Freetown officials of a reversal suffered en route to Karene:

Things very serious; fifty of the West India Regiment and twenty-seven carriers missing; many wounded, including four officers; Lieutenant Yeld is dead.  

Following an attack two days later resulting in 35 casualties and the death of the colonel from “heat apoplexy,” officers concluded that the KEF’s frequent patrols between Port Loko and Karene had resulted in excessive casualties, while the original mission of locating Bai Bureh languished.

On April 1st, the uprising took on a frenzied pace, as a new colonel, John Marshall, took command of the KEF.  Under his direction, the troops set up two intermediate outposts along the Port Loko-Karene route to cut down traveling time between the towns.  Marshall then implemented “a scorched earth policy in Kasseh country.”  “Taking out a flying column each day,” writes one historian, “he razed every village which offered resistance to his advance.”  Meanwhile, the KEF continued relying on pigeons to support its operations.  “This is our daily means of communicating with the outside world,” a British medical officer noted in an April 4th letter. His letters indicate that the KEF’s pigeons kept Freetown abreast of setbacks and requests for supplies and manpower throughout the month.  On April 19th, a pigeon notified Freetown that a major had been shot through the lungs while traveling between Port Loko and Karene.

For supplying pigeons to the troops, Chadwick received an official thanks and payment from the colonial government.  However, it was soon revealed that Chadwick had in fact supplied some of Bai Bureh’s forces with 100 lbs gunpowder! Many merchants had actually preferred robust chiefdoms, because they could curry favor with individual chiefs. Incensed at this apparent betrayal, the Secretary of the State for Colonies Joseph Chamberlain initially pushed for the prosecution of Chadwick.  But after identifying weaknesses in the case and noting that the Colony had already thanked Chadwick for his services, Chamberlain deemed it prudent to drop the matter.

Marshall’s campaign of destruction paid off—by the end of May, he reported that “[t]he whole of the disaffected areas of the Karene district had been overrun, and the power of the rebel chiefs utterly broken.”  The KEF established permanent garrisons in Karene and Port Loko, while the remainder of the forces returned to Freetown on July 10th.  The Frontier Police continued their pursuit of Bai Bureh, but he managed to evade capture for months until November 11th, when he was found in “swampy, thickly vegetated country.”  Colonial officials spared his life, but exiled him to the Gold Coast, where he remained until he was permitted to return to Kasseh in 1905.  

The Hut Tax War of 1898 soon faded from memory—it was just one of many colonial uprisings against the British Empire.  But the British Army’s successful use of pigeons in the conflict remained a part of the Army’s institutional memory. During the Boer War, the Army, inspired by Sierra Leone’s example, relied on pigeons for communications during the Siege of Ladysmith in 1899 and 1900.  Throughout World War I and World War II, British troops routinely employed pigeons when other mediums of communication were lacking.  This long-forgotten war, therefore, merits our attention for conclusively demonstrating to British military officials that pigeons could facilitate communication under wartime conditions.

Sources:

• Abraham, Arthur. “Bai Bureh, The British, and the Hut Tax War,” The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 7, No. 1, at 99-102 (1974).
• Altham, E.A. Major, The Ladysmith Pigeon Post, The Journal of the Royal United Service Institution, Vol. XLIV, No. 273, November 1900, at 1231.
• Clodfelter, Michael. Warfare and Armed Conflicts, at 210 (2017).
• Crowder, Michael, and Laray Denzer. “Bai Bureh and the Sierra Leone Hut Tax War of 1898,” Colonial West Africa, at 61-62, 64, 67, 69, 70-73, 83-88, 91-92, 94-95 (1978).
• Fyfe, Christopher, A History of Sierra Leone, at 579 (1962).
• Marshall, John. “Report, 30 August, 1898, Lt.-Col. Marshall, Commanding Karene Expeditionary Force—Operations in Timini County.” Report by Her Majesty’s Commissioner and Correspondence on the Subject of the Insurrection in the Sierra Leone Protectorate, 1898, at 613-16, 621 (1899).
• “News from West Africa,” The Standard, Apr. 13, 1898, at 3
• Pedler, Frederick, “British Planning and Private Enterprise in Colonial Africa,” Colonialism in Africa 1870-1960: Vol. 4, at 96 (1969).
• Pedler, Frederick. The Lion and the Unicorn in Africa: A History of the Origins of the United Africa Company 1787-1931, at 95-96 (1974).
• “The Disturbances in Sierra Leone,” The Times, Apr. 9, 1898, at 4.
• “The Sierra Leone Revolt,” The Birmingham Post, May 6, 1898, at 10.
• “The Troubles in Sierra Leone,” The African Review, Vol. XV, Apr. 16, 1898, at 96.
• Tobin, Richard.  “A Memoir of the Late Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Dalton, R.A.M.C,” BMJ Military Health, Vol. 24, at 76-78, 1915.
• “West African Operations,” The Morning Post, Mar. 24, 1898, at 5.
  

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July 18, 2024

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British Army, Hut Tax War of 1898, Thomas Chadwick

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Pigeons of War

Copyright 2022-2024 by Justin Craig, all rights reserved. Do not repost or republish without permission.

OTHER ARTICLES FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ON THE HUT TAX WAR

A recent painting of Bai Bureh as opposed to the box scetch in olden days Text books.