The Spirit of Ulster in the Cape of Good Hope - The South African Anti-Irish Home Rule Movement, 1910–1914
At a Glance
Section titled “At a Glance”| Metadata | Details |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 2022-10-02 |
| Journal | South African Historical Journal |
| Authors | Samuel Gary Beckton |
| Institutions | University of Ulster |
Abstract
Section titled “Abstract”ABSTRACTAs the third Irish Home Rule crisis intensified, Ulster Unionists began searching for allies across the British Empire, including in South Africa. This article highlights the important role and influence of the South African anti-Home Rule movement from 1910 to 1914. It investigates a number of questions: Why did the Loyal Orange Institution publish sympathy resolutions? Who were the benefactors who donated funds to the Ulster Defence Fund or enlisted in a South African Ulster volunteer contingent? Most importantly, how widespread or organised were these Ulster sympathisers? This article uses extensive British, Irish, and South African newspaper archives, including the Belfast Weekly News that provides unique information on the Grand Orange Lodge of British South Africa and rare photography.KEYWORDS: IrelandDiasporaUnionismUlsterEmpireOrangeism Funding and volunteersThe earliest record of a South African donation to the Ulster Defence Fund (UDF) in Belfast was in July 1913, from LOL No. 21 (King William’s Town) with a donation of one shilling.Footnote30 This was just a start. District Master of LOL No. 3 (Johannesburg), E. W. Cullen, wrote to the Belfast Weekly News that a shilling fund was being started in South Africa and that it would send all donations collected to the newspaper for them to be recognised.Footnote31 LOL No. 21 donated a shilling each month until April 1914, with two exceptions in December 1913 and February 1914. This was made up, however, as a two shillings donation was made in March 1914 and two donations were made in April 1914. In total, 10 shillings were donated to the UDF.Footnote32 Other South African Orange lodges made their own donations to the UDF through the Belfast Weekly News from February to May 1914. These include LOL No. 3 donating £2 2s 6d, LOL No. 14 (Germiston) giving £1 15s 9d, and LOL No. 17 (Norwood) contributing £5. LOL No. 21 was inspired by these larger sums and decided to end the monthly shilling fund and made one final donation of £1 1s. The local black chapter became involved as well. The Kaffrarian R.B.P. No. 84 (East London) held a meeting on 20 May 1914 with Sir Kt. W. McCreight presiding and Sir Kt. Jackson as the vice chair. There was a lively discussion on the issue of Irish Home Rule, and the chapter resolved to contribute £5 to the UDF. The only regret of most members present at the meeting was they did have the privilege to assist with unloading arms for the UVF from the Mountjoy, a ship that was involved in the Larne gun-running and brought 25,000 rifles to the UVF. This showed evidence that some South Africans wanted to provide material aid to Ulster Unionists during this period.Footnote33Outside of the Orange Institution, other South Africans also made contributions to the UDF. In November 1913, the Belfast Weekly News that four individuals who identified themselves only with their initials - J. C., C. A. T., T. R., and E. R. T. - each gave a shilling to the UDF; they wanted only their families and friends to recognise their contributions.Footnote34 A donation of 10 shillings in July 1914 was from W. J. McCahon in Johannesburg.Footnote35 Some of these individual donations surprised and intrigued certain people, including the Ulster Unionist leadership. One report of such a donation is a letter written by the honorary secretary and treasurer of the UDF, Robert Morris Liddell, to the Belfast Weekly News editor in September 1913: Dear Sir, I have today received the sum of £1 as a donation to the above fund from Mr. John Harty, N. Cera, No. 11 P.O., East London District, Cape Province, South Africa. Mr. Harty writes that he is a South African farmer, and is 84 years old. He has never been in Great Britain, but has been a reader of the ‘Belfast Weekly News’ for 30 years. - Yours faithfully, R. M. Liddell Honorary Secretary and TreasurerFootnote36In May 1914, the Transvaal Ulster Fund (TUF) was set up by men and women originally from Ulster who now resided in Johannesburg.Footnote37 Its formation was announced via a telegram sent to Sir Edward Carson on 8 May: Sir Edward Carson, Westminster, London.Newly-formed Ulster Committee, Johannesburg, passed unanimous resolution whole-heartedly support you in the gallant struggle to maintain the Union. May complete success crown your noble and unflinching efforts. Now organising funds.Dr. Wilson, secretary; Holdcroft and Cuthbert, treasurers.Footnote38Just three weeks later, on 28 May 1914, the TUF sent their first letter to Liddell: Garlick & HoldcroftWholesale MerchantsJohannesburg28 May 1914Dear Sir,I enclose you draft on Standard Bank, London, for £100 (one hundred pounds) from ‘a few Ulstermen in Johannesburg’. We expect to raise some more, and as it comes along I will remit it to you. With very best wishes for your ultimate success.Yours faithfully,J. HoldcroftFootnote39In June 1914 they sent Sir Edward Carson a telegram informing him they had donated £100 to the Ulster Unionist Council on 28 May and another £100 on 13 June.Footnote40 The latter came following a TUF meeting on 10 June at the YMCA in Johannesburg, with over 60 members being present and chaired by John Holdcroft. The TUF had support from the local Protestant clergy, as Rev. T. R. Ballantine was one of the speakers, showing that some Protestant clergy in South Africa played a role in the local anti-Home Rule movement. The reverend claimed that he, like the other attendees, was proud of the men of Ulster. And he, as the other attendees, was determined to stand by them in this crisis as they were their kith and kin. For a long time past those that did not know the spirit of Ulstermen thought they were engaged in a great game of bluff, Rev. Ballantine argued, but at last, and not a moment too soon, the civilised world came to know that the men of the North would stand or fall by the solemn Covenant they had taken. He admitted that they were far away from their Ulster places of origin, but their hearts still beat for their old land, as absence had made their hearts fonder. Now that their families and friends had their ‘backs to the wall’ in defence of their Unionist beliefs, it was their duty to let the men of Ulster know that the latter had their full sympathy. Rev. Ballantine informed those present that £100 had already been sent and that he hoped they would raise the same amount at that meeting, which they evidently did.Footnote41At the following meeting on 24 June at the same location, again chaired by Holdcroft, it was reported that the meeting was the largest gathering thus far, including prominent figures within the Orange Order attending. Rev. Ballantine was the first speaker and dwelt on the question of Ulster. Though the Home Rule Bill had just passed its third reading in the House of Commons, the situation of the Ulster Unionists remained unaltered. They waited with considerable anxiety as the debate continued in amending the bill, and he expressed that he had faith it would lead to a real message of peace to create a compromise. However, if Ulster was to be brought into accepting Home Rule, their support would need to be won. Rev. Ballantine claimed that approval would not occur while ‘calling her people names and mocking the Ulster volunteers’; they should be proud not just of their Irish descent, but also of their Ulster roots. Rev. Ballantine then urged all attendees to help the men and women of Ulster, claiming that all they, the attendees, had and were, they owed to the province. He was followed by Hugh McAlister, immediate past the GOLBSA Grand Master. McAlister informed the attendees about the work the Orange Order had done in the past and was continuing to do, and why it was necessary to continue this work. He contrasted the establishment of the Union of South Africa with the attempt by Home Rule to break the union between Great Britain and Ireland. McAlister believed that, if necessary, Ulster Unionists would prove their unwavering loyalty to both the monarch and their place within the UK, just as their ancestors had done on many other battlefields in the past. Holdcroft then announced that £50 had been donated by the local Orange lodges and, following further subscriptions since the previous meeting, they were able to raise £100.Footnote42 The third £100 instalment from the TUF reached Ulster by mid-July, sent by John Holdcroft, and all donations were reported in the Belfast News-Letter and the Belfast Weekly News.Footnote43Over time the TUF became bolder and it published adverts for its meetings in Johannesburg-based newspapers such as the Transvaal Leader, the Rand Daily Mail, and the Star.Footnote44 All were published on the day of the meeting, such as 10 June, 24 June, 8 July, and 29 July 1914.Footnote45 The number of adverts published in multiple newspapers reveals the large financial backing for the TUF and potential support from these newspapers; thus the Transvaal Leader noted that it contributed to the TUF donation of 10 June 1914.Footnote46 In addition, there were internal developments. The TUF meeting of 8 July 1914, at which the TUF tried to organise another bank draft, the Orange Institution was well represented, thus showing that the GOLBSA became increasingly involved in the organisation. But more importantly, there were a number of female attendees as well. In a general discussion the TUF decided to establish a Ladies Committee, which would implement a scheme for selling 5000 badges to raise funds and identify South African Ulster sympathisers.Footnote47 From 24 June onwards, TUF newspaper adverts added the line ‘Ladies Welcome’, suggesting it wanted to widen its support base.Footnote48 Related to this, in the preceding February the GOLBSA published an advert for an ‘Institution of Female Lodges in the Union of South Africa’ and for any women interested to join to contact the Grand Secretary.Footnote49 By July, it was reported that a number of Orangewomen were in attendance at the Twelfth celebration in Johannesburg, though they were not mentioned in a resolution telegrammed to Belfast: ‘South African Orangemen are with you today in spirit. Congratulations on splendid fight. No surrender. - Grand Lodge British South Africa.’Footnote50 It is possible some of these Orangewomen became members of the TUF’s Ladies’ Committee, owing to their sympathies for Ulster Protestants. The TUF’s final meeting took place on 29 July 1914, but no record remains of what was discussed.Footnote51In addition to offering financial support, South Africans planned to send volunteers to help the UVF. There was an expectation, even in early 1912, that South Africa would send volunteers to help Unionists in Ulster. This was seen amongst Ulster Unionists during a large anti-Home Rule rally in Balmoral, South Belfast, on 9 April 1912. The North Belfast Member of Parliament, Robert Thompson, spoke at one of the four platforms at the rally. He made an estimate of the strength of the Unionist movement in Ireland, discussing the members of the Orange Order, the male and female Unionist clubs, and then discussed the help they could expect from overseas. He claimed that Canada had promised a large measure of support, that Australia would send a contingent, and that they would receive ‘a few from South Africa’.Footnote52There are reports that plans were made for raising a South African UVF contingent following the establishment of the TUF committee, with the 24 June TUF advert inviting ‘all interested in giving practical support to Ulster’.Footnote53 Unlike volunteers from Canada or Australia, South African volunteers would potentially have been more likely to have had combat experience, including in guerrilla warfare, gained during the Second Boer War which had ended in 1902.Footnote54 It is unknown how large this South African detachment was, but news of its formation was utilised for propaganda purposes by Ulster Unionists in both Ireland and the Empire. For example, a letter to the editor of the Thames Star in New Zealand in June 1914 encouraged local men to enrol their service to help the UVF. The author included the following passage to show that any volunteers would be part of a worldwide call to arms to protect the interests of the Protestant faith and the rights of Ulster’s loyalists: Trusting the men of this district will show that they are loyal and true Britons as we have done and are doing from the Bluff to North Cape, from Sydney to Perth, from San Francisco to New York, from East to West.Footnote55There were reports of British army officers throughout the British Empire, including in South Africa, handing in their notice or considering desertion in protest to any orders to move against Ulster Unionists. One of these officers would, twenty years later, become the third prime minister of Northern Ireland, Sir Captain Basil Brooke, who at the time was serving with the 10th Hussars. He considered desertion to return to his native county of Fermanagh to help lead the local Ulster Volunteers, as he felt a deep loyalty to his home and people.Footnote56Challenges and comparisons within the British EmpireIn comparison to other organised efforts overseas to aid the anti-Home Rule movement in Ireland, South Africa’s was one of the weakest. For example, fundraising for Ulster Unionists in Australia was at a completely different scale, with reports coming from different states. The Ulster Defence Fund of Victoria based in Melbourne, for example, had by 27 November 1913 raised £600 in three separate £200 bank drafts to Sir Edward Carson.Footnote57 In New South Wales, the Loyal Orange Institution had raised up to £400 in two instalments by 5 July 1913, and another £500 during the Twelfth in 1914.Footnote58 In fact, the largest donation to the UDF was £25,000 by an anonymous Australian donor.Footnote59What factors affected South African efforts to help Ulster Unionists? The first was local demographics. Unlike in the dominions of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, in South Africa the indigenous population remained the overwhelming majority.Footnote60 In the first census for the Union of South Africa in 1911, white settlers numbered 1,276,242 (21.4 per cent) out of a total population of 5,973,394.Footnote61 White South Africans were in control of the land but were culturally divided between English speakers and Afrikaners, descendants of Dutch settlers.Footnote62 This divide was still raw as the Second Boer War had only been concluded in 1902.Footnote63 The Union of South Africa had just been established in 1910 and was still trying to establish a united South African identity. To further exacerbate matters, Afrikaners constituted 54 per cent of white South Africans at the time the Union was formed, as Newell M. Stultz estimates. This had a severe impact on South African politics as the Pro-British Unionist political party that developed was unable to gain power without some level of support from the Afrikaner community. In time, two ideologies began to emerge in South African politics. The first was Afrikaner nationalism, aiming to preserve Afrikaner culture and to further economic needs. The other was conciliatory, to bring harmony between the different political interests among the largely white electorate.Footnote64 The only issues that united the two sides was the fear of a rebellion from the indigenous population and the desire to see South Africa develop economically.Footnote65Amongst the English speakers, first generation Irish settlers in South Africa numbered 13,778 by 1911, down from 17,899 in 1904 — 6531 in the Transvaal, 5260 in the Cape, 1775 in Natal, and 976 in the Orange Free State. They thus made up about 3.7 per cent of the white population, a figure that, as Donal McCraken points out, helps us understand how meagre the Irish community was in South Africa. During the same period, the Irish community made up 25.7 per cent of the Australian population and 18.7 per cent of that in New Zealand.Footnote66 Local Irish associations were established in South Africa in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, such as in East London, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, and Johannesburg. These associations tended to be non-political and non-sectarian in character, welcoming all faiths and backgrounds and emphasising ‘Irish birth, parentage or heritage’.Footnote67 Their objectives were to support the Irish community and promote Irish identity and culture. However, despite the Irish being a small minority in the country, serious sectarian tensions arose within it during the Third Home Rule crisis as the Irish community split into opposing opinions. Regional for example, in Cape the Irish had a in the Irish community tended to be loyal to the British and of the objectives of Irish 1912, the British and Irish published reports on the held in the dominions of Australia, Canada, and South Africa the Third Irish Home Rule Bill that showed and to the large Afrikaner population and their in the Orange Free The the bill, it was the overwhelming of South Africa for Ireland to The of in the The that the were while the felt the scheme was as it would the Irish to have a in without a in Ireland. The thought Home Rule would lead to in Ireland through from a Home Rule The only was the of that felt the had many felt the British prime measure was more was more divided in the Transvaal and the In Johannesburg, both the Rand Daily and the Transvaal Leader the bill, while the Star it ‘a of In Cape Town, the Cape thought Irish Home Rule would the and the Cape that it would between and London, in of the financial The it would be for Ireland to for the of the general in the Empire. The South African Daily News the but felt the for Ulster were and would the However, all the newspapers British that Irish Home Rule would be like South Africa’s of as and There were other newspapers that the British and Irish to including the that the Home Rule Bill and the and that was of the of is the of newspapers other in South Africa. The felt the would lead to as Ulster were a determined not to to The (King William’s Town) believed the was political for the British we the debate has and of those which would lead to the up of the of the into the of for two This of in South African and politics had an on the Orange Institution in the as the GOLBSA was still and only in the of For example, if we were to its strength to other Orange the largest was the Grand Orange Lodge of British with over lodges and over The Loyal Orange Institution of Australia had lodges in with In the Grand Orange Lodge of New Zealand had lodges and In the GOLBSA had just 27 in Johannesburg, 3 in East London, in and each in William’s Town, Cape Town, and this is down by had the Cape and the Transvaal these it is not that the of fundraising for Ulster Unionists in the M. the Order had between to but not The only lodges that had figures during this was the Loyal Orange Institution of which reported while the of reported had an on political In Canada, for example, the and to all of up to being members of the In Orangemen made up of the in the and per cent in the of Canada and had four prime who were In South Africa in Grand Master Hugh McAlister was to the Council in This was the first time a of the Orange Order had been as a in It is of this and and of that South Africans never tried to an anti-Home Rule as had in Australia and No anti-Home Rule meetings took place in South Africa as had in Australia, New Zealand, and to support for Ulster Unionists was the that the GOLBSA could be with its political we were to estimate the strength of a potential South African UVF contingent, by the GOLBSA as a of the and Unionist in South Africa, it would have been no men and largely from the This would have made it the UVF detachment promised from overseas. There are no reports of a South African detachment or trying to a to to Ulster. It is likely that their efforts were of a of funds and the volunteers came from all across South Africa. volunteers with combat experience, the contingent would have been for propaganda issue that the South African fundraising efforts was the economic of the white to South Africa had only a small of white and in comparison to the dominions of Australia, Canada, and New and that at the time had in South African and was on which was the local and some of South Africa’s anti-Home who sent Sir Edward Carson a telegram were Irish at The of the local was in how the British and Irish reported news from South Africa. The from the Northern on the establishment of a UVF contingent in South Africa was and the showing how some still South Africa more as a a within the British In fact, during this the British and Irish Ulster with South Africa. white on in South Africa in 1913 and 1914, for the to be members of the of the South African was for the and the During the same time, Sir Edward Carson was the UVF in Ulster to the British Home Rule in the no was against him or his he was for his The these of and within the British as and it will be seen is a and in South Africa, then it a at their in the of and the if a small and in Ulster the of the Unionist and to Parliament, then and sides and over to the 1910 to 1914, South Africans tried to help Ulster they from Ulster they the impact of Irish Home Rule on Irish and the British Empire. However, they were unable to the same level of support to the anti-Home Rule movement as was seen in the dominions of Canada or Australia, or even in the There were multiple for One was that the Irish community in South Africa was that the GOLBSA had only few lodges across the and political was that in South Africa tended to be in a financial situation their in Canada or The that South African efforts was the divided and the and political issues this However, despite these South Africans raised more for the The first were also to raise a South African UVF if this was not the news of South Africans to was great propaganda for Ulster Unionists for it showed that men from the of the British were to for their the they had to South Africans made a to aid the anti-Home Rule movement. The help they gave Ulster Unionists was their which the anti-Home Rule propaganda in Ireland and Great Britain to the British In a this was more the funds the South Africans were able to in May 1914 the TUF Honorary Secretary received a letter from Sir Edward Carson in which the author and the for their 5 1914 Dear Sir, I very by your of May and very to an Ulster has been in Johannesburg. I you for the and for the work which is being done in support of the Union. I encouraged by the of sympathy and support which I receive from friends of the in part of Yours very Irish Home Rule crisis was only by the of the which the of South Africans across the A planned TUF meeting for 13 1914 was further to the and the TUF South African Orangemen and the LOL had to a large number of its members in the Some lodges a in the of the such as the LOL in to support from their in However, the GOLBSA was the as many of its members were in By a was made to and owing to the of in an to continue to support in the by the only and continued to with the impact of the they to a to that were in Ireland. In March the GOLBSA telegrammed the following message to Belfast: The Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland have the support of the Orangemen and Orangewomen of this in your gallant for the of the of Ulster. We that will you strength to through this that your noble efforts are not for the of Ireland but for the loyal throughout the British to Ireland continued until the In Natal, which had been as the of South the spirit of Ulster Unionists also showed their Afrikaners power the was in the general a April the inspired by the Ulster Covenant in 1912, held a rally and established its own to a To further the to Ulster, the rally was held and the was the was to Belfast Some of the even the Ulster spirit of in that a would be to the