Current Information:

Born-Clerkenwell

Enlisted-London

Voi Cemetery, Kenya

Far from the Western Front, the war was also fought in East Africa where there were German colonies in Tanganyika, present day Tanzania, which lay next the British possessions in Kenya and Uganda. Fighting here and in neighbouring Portuguese controlled Mozambique lasted for the entire duration of the war and although the British greatly outnumbered the Germans they were consistently thwarted by the enemy’s superior tactics and leadership in a war of movement across a very wide area. Most of the fighting was undertaken by local African soldiers, recruited by both sides and there were only two British infantry battalions engaged in this theatre of the war, the 2nd Loyal North Lancashire and the 25th Royal Fusiliers, backed up by a few artillery, medical and logistical support units. This meant that the fighting here was largely overlooked, not surprising given the magnitude of events elsewhere. However the death toll, mainly as a result of disease, among the Africans soldiers, porters and civilians alike amounted to over 105,000 by the time the fighting ended.

On the morning of 3rd September, 1915 near Maktau, a settlement in Kenya’s coast province, the Germans fired at and hit a steam engine. A short, sharp action involving a company from the 2nd Loyal North Lancashire battalion then took place about five miles from the settlement. That afternoon another force ventured out and discovered eight dead some of whom had evidently been killed off and all practically stripped. Three dead Askaris (German) were also found. One of those killed was Frederick Ward.