Dartnell VC an Aussie in the British Army

A hundred miles inland from the port of Mombassa on the East African coast lies the township of Voi where, in a small Commonwealth War Grave Cemetery, stands a headstone engraved with a Victoria Cross. This is the grave of Lieutenant Wilbur Dartnell, killed in action at Maktau on 3 September 1915.

By the late nineteenth century vast tracts of East Africa which had formerly belonged to the Sultan of Zanzibar had been carved up between Germany and Great Britain. German East Africa, now Tanzania, and British East Africa, now Kenya, shared a common border running from Lake Victoria around the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro to the Indian Ocean. The first settlers arrived from their respective countries in the late 1890s and during the next decade they built railways and established the colonies’ infrastructure.

Following the outbreak of the Great War many of the British settler farmers formed their own mounted patrols and rode into the capital, Nairobi eager to take on the enemy next door. On 14 August a German battalion captured the border town of Taveta. The lifeline of the British colony was the Uganda Railway some sixty miles away and it was not long before the line became the subject of guerrilla attacks by mounted Schutztruppe patrols from Taveta. Despite counter patrols, armoured trains and whitewashing the stone ballast, the Germans succeeded in attacking the railway at least fifty times, derailing trains and destroying many bridges including the one over the River Tsavo.

The construction of this twin piered structure in 1898 had been scene of the most devilish attacks by a pair of lionesses that consumed twenty-eight workers and brought construction to a halt for three weeks before they were shot. The enemy placed mines under the track to be detonated by the weight of an engine. To combat this a disposable wagon was placed in front, but the Germans countered this by using delayed action mines. Additional wagons were added until the situation became ludicrous. The British then painted miles of track ballast with whitewash to indicate any disturbance but the Germans quickly responded by bringing their own paint to cover their handiwork.

To deal with this dangerous situation which would otherwise quickly cripple the country, large numbers of allied and Indian troops were hurriedly brought in to patrol the line. One such battalion was the 25th Royal Fusiliers (City of London) which arrived on 6 May 1915, and included in its number Lt. Wilbur Dartnell.

Dartnell had been born in Fitzroy, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia on 6 April 1885. At the age of 27 he settled in South Africa where on the outbreak of the Great War he volunteered for service and sailed for England. He was commissioned into the Royal Fusiliers on 12 February 1915 and promoted Lieutenant on 25 July 1915.

The following month the battalion saw action with the capture of the German port of Bukoba on Lake Victoria, during which Dartnell retrieved the imperial ensign from atop the local headquarters (the battle honour "Bukoba" was later granted to the Fusiliers). Shortly afterwards the battalion moved to Voi in preparation for the allied advance towards German East Africa. Two companies were dispatched by rail to Maktau, a small village in the lee of the Taita Hills; thirty-five miles from Voi, it was the railhead of the military railway then under construction towards Taveta.

A railway had seemed the best solution when it was found that the dry bush land rapidly became a muddy morass during the rainy season that immobilised vehicles, pack animals and men, and brought the mosquitoes out in force. Every drop of drinking water had to be railed in from the wells at Voi and despite stringent precautions casualties from water and food-poisoning were high. It was said that for every man who died in action at least eight died of tropical diseases.

wording from the Royal Fusiliers site