Description
Africa General Service Medal, GV, bar Nyasaland 1915, Sydney Gordon Bartlett, Nayasaland Volunteer Reserve, Zomba Section.
A scarce award for the 1915 Chilembwe Uprising, the first nationalist uprising in what is now Malawi against British Colonialism, although unsucessful, once they gained independence almost 50 years later a National Holiday was instituted in honour of Reverend John Chilembwe.
Officially impressed: “S.G. Bartlett. Nyasaland Vol: Res:”
Confirmed on the medal roll, which notes it was issued on 12th April 1917.
Sydney Gordon Bartlett, was born during October 1884 in Paddington, London and baptised at Westminster on 26th October 1884.
He was the son of Dental Surgeon Edward Bartlett, and Lydia Sarah Weston.
Initially raised in Paddington, he was sent as a Boarder to Camborne in Cornwall to a Boarding School to finish his education circa 1901.
Notably absent from the 1911 Census it looks like he was already overseas in Nyasaland, after he died it was noted in 1924 he had spent 13 years in Nyasaland lining up with this.
He is then mentioned a few times in the journals of the Royal Commonwealth Society “United Empire” as a member residing in Nyasaland from 1913 onwards.
He would serve throughout the First World War as a Volunteer in the Nyasaland Field Force and Nyasaland Volunteer Reserve, earning the additional 1914-15 Star Trio.
His medal index card recalls his entrance into the war in Theatre 4a (East Africa) from 5th September 1914.
This medal was earned for his service in the Chilembwe Uprising of 1915 in Nyasaland.
After the end of the war he briefly returned home to England where he married, the notice in the Richmond Herald of 20th Dec 1919 reads:
“Bartlett – Cottrill, on the 20th December at Prompton Parish Church, by the Rev Pebendary Gough, Sydney Gordon Bartlett, of Zomba, Nyasaland, fourth son of Edward Bartlett of Connaught Square, to Edith, elder daughter of Mr and Mrs George Cottrill of Rosslyn House, Kew Gardens.”
Having returned to Nyasaland, he died at Zomba on 4th August 1924.
At the time of his death the overseas register of British Deaths notes he had spent 13 years in Nyasaland was working as an English Planter in Nankumba, Zomba.
During 1915, the “Chilembwe Uprising” broke out in the country now known as Malawi.
Reverend John Chilembwe was from Nyasaland but spent years in the USA where he became a Baptist Pastor, being brought over there by the Radical Minister Joseph Booth, leading to his later return to the country where he became a Revolutionary hero.
The Chilembwe Uprising was a short-lived but significant rebellion against British colonial rule in Nyasaland (modern-day Malawi) in January 1915, led by the American-educated Baptist minister John Chilembwe. The revolt was driven by African resentment over forced labour (especially the thangata labour-rent system on European estates), racial discrimination, land alienation, and the heavy demands placed on Africans during the First World War, including compulsory porter service.
On 23 January 1915, Chilembwe’s followers attacked the A.L. Bruce Estates at Magomero, killing several European settlers, before attempting unsuccessfully to seize weapons at Blantyre. The colonial government quickly mobilised the King’s African Rifles (KAR) and the Nyasaland Volunteer Reserve, crushing the rebellion within three days. Chilembwe was killed while attempting to escape into Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique), around 40 rebels were executed, and approximately 300 imprisoned. Although militarily unsuccessful, the uprising became a symbol of African resistance and is regarded as a milestone in Malawi’s nationalist history.
After the end of the uprising, many of the leading followers were executed it is unclear how many as rather than wait for trials, some of the British took matter into their own hands it was recorded that “extrajudicial killings were carried out by European members of the Nyasaland Volunteer Reserve.”
The campaign left a large mark on the country, once they gained their independence from Britain becoming “Malawi” as they stand today, they instituted a new National Holiday, “John Chilembwe Day” every year on 15th January in honour of the first nationalist uprising against British Colonialism, one of just 12 National Holidays in the country.
