THE CASE OF SERGEANT-MAJOR JOSEPH GINGER

WHEN the British invaded the Cape for the first time in 1795, the Dutch garrison made way for British regiments.

Military discipline, which was strict in most European countries, was administered by district, regimental or general courts made up of panels of officers who were advised by military lawyers.

The most common crimes – drunkenness, bad behaviour and theft – were punished by “running the gauntlet” (flogging the culprit as he ran between two lines of soldiers from his own regiment). Desertion was a more serious crime and could result in painful and humiliating punishments in front of comrades or – in cases of serial desertion – death.

In May 1802, a general court martial of 14 members assembled in the Castle in Cape Town under the presidency of Brigadier-General JO Vandeleur (who was Irish, despite his name) to consider the appeal of Sergeant Joseph Ginger of the 34th Regiment of Foot, which had been posted to the Cape in 1800.

The rest of the panel consisted of a lieutenant-colonel and a flurry of majors and captains.

The prisoner, Ginger, was appealing the sentence of a regimental court martial which had been held the previous month in Stellenbosch under the presidency of Captain Fenwick of his own regiment.

He had been charged with “disobedience of orders, being out of his barracks after hours, and unsoldier-like behaviour to Lieutenant Dawson, on the night of April 18”.

He was found guilty and sentenced to be reduced to the ranks, to serve as a private soldier, and also to receive 500 lashes.

Ginger believed that this sentence was irregular because he had already been punished for his offence by Colonel Dickens of his regiment, who had degraded him from the rank of sergeant-major to that of sergeant.

This was done without convening a court martial and was therefore not valid according to military law. He was still mustered as a sergeant-major when he was tried as a sergeant.

Ginger’s case was submitted to the commander-in-chief, LieutenantGeneral Francis Dundas, who ordered a more intensive inquiry into the affair. Dickens tried to explain himself by claiming that he had acted for the good of His Majesty’s service and the discipline of the 34th Regiment.

The general court martial confirmed the irregularity and revealed that two field-officers and the senior captain on the spot at the time of the incident had made inquiries and suggested that the matter should be settled privately as they had strong grounds for supposing that Lieutenant Dawson “was much in liquor, and had acted with unbecoming violence.”

Dundas cancelled Ginger’s excessively severe punishment and ordered him to be released and return to his duty as sergeant-major of His Majesty’s 34th Regiment.

He had been charged with ‘disobedience of orders, being out of his barracks after hours, and unsoldier-like behaviour to Lieutenant Dawson on the night of April 18’