Description
British South Africa Company, Rhodesia 1896, QSA, bar Rhodesia, 20 Trooper John Barrie, Rhodesia Regiment, enlisted very first day of the regiment, Murdered in Rhodesia during 1903 by a Matabele Man.
Drawing of John Barrie reproduced under the Copyright of the British Library Board for illustrative purposes and not for sale.
“THE MURDER OF A HAWICK MAN IN CENTRAL AFRICA –
Information has been received from Bulawayo giving details of the trial of the native man Gona, who shot Mrs John Barrie in august last, when he was a warder at Bulawayo Jail.
One witness was sent out along with other 2 under the charge of the guard Barrie.
They were employed in collecting stones from the road, and Barrie placed his gun behind a rock and took up a pick, and showed them how they had to do the work.
The accused picked up the gun and ran away. Barrie had followed him, and accused then stopped, turned round, and fired.
Barrie fell back and died immediately.
The Prisoner, who was found guilty and sentenced to death, said:-
“I did it because on several occasions when I have been sick in jail, they refused to allow me to go to the hospital. I am tired of my life, and want to go underground. I am sorry for what I have done, but as regards death, that is nothing. I want to die, and do not want to do any more work, that is all.”
Barrie, who went through the recent war with honour, was very much respected, and the Jail Officials have erected a memorial stone over his grave.” – Southern Reporter, 10th December 1903
“In loving memory of John Barrie, who died at Bulawayo, South Africa, on 27th August 1903.
Sleep on, Dear Son, we would not wake thee,
For Sorrow and trouble might darken thy brow;
Sweet is thy rest while the birds warble o’er thee,
No earthly trouble can harm thee now.
Inserted by his parents.”
The anniversary of his death in the Hawick News.
Mr John Barrie, was an adventurous Scotsman, from the town of Hawick in the Scottish Borders, Roxburghshire.
The Scottish Borders perhaps not providing much excitement for a young man, he first journeyed to South Africa about 1895, In 1896 he served in the locally raised Bulawayo Field Force under Selous during the “Rhodesia 1896” Campaign against the Matabele where he “saw a varied experience in the Matabale War.”
He was still working in Rhodesia afterwards when the “Rhodesia Regiment” recruiting began on 10th August 1899, the exact day that John Barrie signed up for service being an original and one of the first members recruited when the regiment was raised by Colonel Baden-Powell, after raising the regiment he passed it off to Colonel Plumer before heading to Mafeking with his Bechuanaland Regiment. (Only to be besieged in the town for Months as soon as the war began).
These Scotsmen from the Scottish Borders who ventured to Rhodesia titled themselves themselves: “The Bulawayo Borderers”.
He served through the early part of the war earning his medal and Rhodesia Clasp, with his discharge in 1900 he returned home to great applause in his home town, upon a local presentation to the volunteers he was 1 of 4 men stood in the “Place of Honour” of their finest men.
After his experiences in Rhodesia it would seem that he did not like to remain at home in quiet Hawick, so he went back there once more without wasting much time, and saw further war services in the Cape Town Highlanders
After peace was declared he found work as a Prison Warder, some heartbreak would be felt back home when the telegram came through in September 1903, that a Matabele Prisoner by the name of “Gona” had taken his rifle and shot him dead and escaped.
“MURDER OF A HAWICK MAN IN RHODESIA
Information has been received in Hawick of the Murder in Rhodesia on the 27th August of Mr John Barrie, son of Thomas Barrie, Spinner, Wellington Street, Hawick.
Mr Barrie, who was 31 years of age, was acting as a Prison Warder at Bulawayo and was in charge of a gang of Native Convicts.
He had laid down his rifle and turned his back, when a convict named Gona, said to be a Matabele, picked up the rifle and shot Barrie through the heart, death being instantaneous.
The murderer bolted, but was captured the next day by a couple of mounted constables.
Barrie had went out to South Africa about 8 years ago. He took part in the Matabele War of 1896, for which he held a medal, and also the Boer War.
We give a portrait of the Murdered Man.”
Jedburgh Gazette, 21st October 1899, recalls a lengthy protest letter sent from by the boys of the Scottish “Bulawayo Borderers” who were ready as the war was beginning to fight, they wrote home a protest letter to the MP Mr Thomas Shaw regarding his speech made at Hawick.
The end of the letter reads: Sir, ere this protest reaches you the first gun may have been fired. We fervently hope it has been. THere are already in this country men who hail from the Burghs you represent in Parliament, marching to the Crocodile River in Colonel Baden-Powell’s Column in readiness for the enemy.
They are – John Barrie, of Hawick; Thomas Oliver, Jedburgh; Ewan Sanderson, Galashiels; and James Scott, Selkirk, and their action, we think, is the strongest answer and repubke we can give to the remarkable utterances which you are reported to have recently spoken at Hawick.
Jedburgh Gazette, 8th December 1900:
“VOLUNTEERS RETURN – On Monday Night in Town Hall, Captain Haddon and his men from the front were presented with valuable recognition. The Captain received a Gold Albert and a Silver Medal. Each of his men received a Silver Medal and a sum of £5. The medals were suitably inscribed. Provost Mitchell Occupied the Chair, Charles John Wilson Esq of Deanfield made the presentation in a genial address of thanks and welcome.
Captain Haddon replied, The volunteers, he said, had marched on foot 1000 miles, equal to any Crack Corps in the British Army….
… There were also in the Place of Honour four Hawick Men who belonged to the Colonial Volunteer Corps in Mafeking – One of them, Private John Barrie, was in Colonel Plumer’s Force with a varied experience in the Matabele War.”
BSA Company officially engraved in usual style to this regiment: “Tpr John Barrie Bulaway Fld Fce”
QSA Officially Impressed: “20 Tpr: J. Barrie. Rhodesia Regt.”
Medal entitlements confirmed on the roll, near mint unworn conditions due to his death.
The QSA notes remarking on the medals recovery and issuing during 1905
