Southern Rhodesia in World War I
Southern Rhodesia contributed more manpower to the British war effort than any other dominion or colony. The Rhodesia Regiment, the Rhodesia Native Regiment and the British South Africa Police served in the African theatre of the conflict. Over 800 Southern Rhodesians of all races lost their lives on operational service during the war.
About Southern Rhodesia in World War I in brief
Southern Rhodesia contributed more manpower to the British war effort than any other dominion or colony. White troops numbered 5,716, about 40% of white men in the colony, with 1,720 of these serving as commissioned officers. The Rhodesia Regiment, the Rhodesia Native Regiment and the British South Africa Police served in the African theatre of the conflict. Over 800 Southern Rhodesians of all races lost their lives on operational service during the war. The territory’s contributions during the First World War became a major entry in many histories of the colony. It played a part in the UK government’s decision to grant self-government in 1923, and remained prominent in the national consciousness for decades. When the colonial government unilaterally declared independence from Britain in 1965, it deliberately did so on Armistice Day, 11 November, and signed the proclamation at 11: 00 local time. Since the territory’s reconstitution and recognised independence as Zimbabwe in 1980, the modern government has removed many references to the war, such as memorial monuments and plaques, from public view, regarding them as unwelcome vestiges of white minority rule and colonialism. The Zimbabwean cultural memory has largely forgotten the First world War; the country’s war dead today have no official commemoration, either there or overseas. This was more permanent than Southern Rhodesia’s police force, first raised in 1889 and reconstuted into a paramilitary force in 1896, which operated along military lines in the First and Second Wars of 1890s Matabeleland.
It operated on Britain’s side in the Anglo-Boer War of 1899–1902, and by 1914 comprised about 1,150 men. By 1914, an all-white amateur force with a paper strength of 2,000 intended for mobilisation against local skirmishings, most agreed they would be useful in a bushish skirmish. Few doubted the Volunteers’ enthusiasm, but they were not extensively trained or equipped; perhaps perhaps not equipped to match the most useful bushish observers, most of whom would be observers of the bush. Some of the colonies’ men served in Royal Flying Corps, one of the two predecessors of the Royal Air Force, and created homogenous Rhodesian platoons, which were renowned for their marksmanship, a result of their frontier lifestyle. The colony’s white population in Southern Rhodesian stood at 23,606 in 1911, while Northern Rhodesia had about 3,000 white settlers. The settlers were split between those who backed continued administration by the Chartered Company and those who advocated responsible government, which would make Southern Rhodesie a self-governing colony within the British Empire. Still others favoured the integration of Southern Rhodesy into the Union of South Africa, which had been formed in 1910. Following the intervention of the war in 1914, the Company’s charter was renewed for 10 years in early 1915, and it was renewed again in 1915, with the charter being renewed again after the outbreak of World War I.
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This page is based on the article Southern Rhodesia in World War I published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 30, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
