The baboon who battled the Boche
JACKIE was a chacma baboon who was the pet of the Marr family on the farm “Cheshire” at Villeria near Pretoria. He clearly bonded closely with son Albert, because when Albert “attested” at Potchefstroom in August 1915, he brought Jackie with him.
The baboon became so popular he was taken on as a full member of 3 South African Infantry, with the rank of private and a pay book and rations, as well as a uniform with buttons and regimental badge.
After his courageous act in helping rescue his comrade, Private Marr, under fire, for which he surely deserved a medal (no baboon has ever been awarded a VC in the British army, which surely implies some kind of discrimination), Jackie went into the frontline in France, involved it seems, in Delville Wood, and Passchendaele and Kemmel Hill. He saw much active service in the trenches.
He was good at sentry work — his eyesight was excellent and his alarm barks must have confused the German attackers no end. More importantly, he learnt to salute the officers, always a wise thing to do in the army. He also used a knife and fork at table impeccably.
But on April 1918 the German “Georgette” offensive threatened to sweep around Ypres to the sea and the South African Brigade was in the centre of the critical fighting to halt it. This was the Battle of the Lys. In three days of fighting, the Brigade lost 89 killed, 270 wounded and 280 missing. This casualty list does not include one baboon.
Jackie was caught in heavy shelling near Reningelst, northeast of LaClytte (Klijte). He was spotted desperately trying to build a stone shelter against the incoming projectiles. A piece of shrapnel hit him in the arm, another in the leg. But, brave to the last, he wouldn’t allow the stretcher-bearers to deflect him from his task. He only gave in when his shredded leg would no longer support him.
At the dressing station LieutenantColonel Woodward received his patient, “a pathetic sight”, the little fellow moaning in pain, and the man who brought him in (Albert Marr?) in tears. His leg was amputated and he was sent on to the clearing station. Jackie’s three years of active service were over.
Jackie’s life as a celebrity after his wounding was chronicled in the English newspapers and he raised money for sick and wounded soldiers.
Back in Cape Town he was formally discharged and proudly wore on his jacket three blue chevrons indicating three years of frontline service, and one gold stripe for the wound. He was given his discharge paper, military pension and a Civil Employment form for discharged soldiers.
He was photographed at Park Station in Johannesburg, in transit home, eating a meal with a faraway look in his eye.
He died on the farm on May 22 1921, a day after the farmhouse burned down.
I do not know if there is a marked grave. If there isn’t, there should be.
And, as a posthumous stand-in for all the animals who served and died in the Great War, when the President’s Order of Mendi awards for bravery come around . . .
This is an edited extract from ‘The Great Silence: From Mushroom Valley to Delville Wood, South African Forces in World War One’, which is published by Sunday Times Books and will be available in book shops next month