SUPERB  RAAFF’s COLUMN OFFICERS BSAC MATABELELAND 1893. AN EX BRITISH OFFICER WHO IN 1899 WAS CHARGED WITH TREASON IN PRETORIA FOR A PLOT TO TAKE THE FORT AT JOHANNESBURG WITH 2000 ARMED MEN FROM NATAL

BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY, REVERSE MATABELELAND 1893 ‘ LIEUT R P HOOPER RAAFFS COLUMN’

Lt Robert Poole Hooper was born on 11 June 1853 in Thornage Hall, Norfolk. Served as a Lieutenant in the Royal Lanark Militia before being commissioned a lieutenant in 2^nd Battalion, 13th Foot on 6th Sep 1876, retiring in 1885. Between leaving the army and 1893, little is known of  Lieutenant Poole’s activities but he seems to have been in South Africa as at his trial part of his previous service is given as ‘Major Low’s Police’, which would be in the Cape in the mid 1880’s. However he is picked up again serving as a Lieutenant in the famed Commandant Pieter Raaff’s column during the Matabeleland operations. However in May 1899, he and eight other ex British Army officers and NCO’s were charged with High Treason in Pretoria!  These men were accused of planning and operation to take the Fort at Johannesburg with 2000 armed men from Natal, this to be held until British Forces arrived.

Below is a copy of a newspaper article regarding the arrests; many others can be found online. At this point it seems the authorities were not 100% on the background of the men. Later it would became clearer and four of the defendants were released, however Lieutenant Poole and three others ; Colonel Floyd- Nicolls (Zulu War),  Captain George Patterson  (ex NSW Sudan Contingent) and Butler, were committed to trial but later released when the prosecution collapsed. These events were just before the outbreak of the Boer War and were probably part of a larger UK backed plan (of course denied). Certainly this was one of a number of plots to overthrow the Transvaal Government, in 1896 another significant plot by members of the Reform Committee was foiled. With War almost inevitable in 1899, the idea of taking and holding a significant fort within the Boer Republic was certainly a significant plot.

The arrest at Johannesburg May i6, 1899, of eight alleged former British officers on the charge of high treason had caused intense excitement in Pretoria, to which city the prisoners were brought by a special train. After they had been lodged in jail they were visited by the British Diplomatic Agent.

The arrests were effected by a detective who joined the movement, which, it is asserted, was for the purpose of enrolling men in order to cause an outbreak of rebellion. Incriminating documents were found upon the prisoners. The men arrested were said to be:

Captain Patterson, formerly of the Lancers , Colonel R. F. Nicholls, Lieutenant E. J. Tremlett, Lieutenant C. A. Ellis, lately a detective at Johannesburg; Lieutenant John Allen Mitchell, formerly of the Horse Artillery; ex-Sergeants J. Fries, R. P. Hooper, and Nichols. None of them had been in the employ of the British South Africa Company. It was said that the Commissioner of Police, who had the affair in hand, had been working up the case for four months.

The Executive of the Transvaal sat in secret session that evening to consider the arrests, and during the afternoon the British Agent had an interview with President Kruger and expressed regret that men who had worn the Queen's uniform should be concerned in such a movement. President Kruger replied that he would not believe that the men were British officers until it had been proved, adding that he hoped the affair would not interfere with the proposed meeting between himself and Sir Alfred Milner. The eight alleged revolutionists were arraigned in court at Pretoria, May 17, of that year, were charged with the capital offense of high treason and were remanded. Sworn affidavits showed that two thousand men had been enrolled for military service, and that it was intended to arm them in Natal, to return them to the Rand and at a given signal to seize and hold the fort of Johannesburg for twenty-four hours, pending the arrival of British troops. Later the charges against some of the prisoners were withdrawn and others of the party were committed for trial. Still later all the prisoners were discharged. Mr. Rhodes, who was in London at the time the arrests were made, said he had heard nothing regarding the arrests made at Johannesburg, and he knew nothing about the reason for which they were made. Mr. Chamberlain the same evening said he had heard nothing officially regarding the arrests, and did not think that "too serious a significance ought to be attached to them." No information had reached him from South Africa, he asserted, that could lead him in any way to anticipate or to explain the arrests.

The news caused considerable excitement among the Members of the House of Commons. President Kruger's reform proposals were .presented to the Volksraad May 18. They suggested that the franchise be conferred on aliens five years after eligibility to the Second Raad, instead of ten years after such eligibility, thus making a nine years' residence in the Transvaal "necessary to qualify for the full franchise. In the House of Commons, May 19, Mr. Chamberlain gave the names and identity of the men arrested at Johannesburg. All of them, excepting Tremlett and Fries, were formerly non commissioned officers in the British Army. He added that President Kruger had informed the British Agent at Pretoria that there was no proof  that the prisoners were British officers, and that in any case the incident would not be allowed to disturb the friendly relations existing. The Johannesburg correspondent of the London Morning Post said that facts had arisen since the arrests of the "former British officers" on charge of conspiracy to promote a rising in the Transvaal, left no doubt that the alleged plot was "engineered -by Boer officials to divert attention from the real demands of the Outlanders." The Volksraad, May 19, adopted a resolution cancelling the burgher rights that were granted in return for, services rendered to the Transvaal Government at the time of the Jameson raid. This act was the cause of much ill-feeling among the Outlanders.

THE JOHANNESBURG CONSPIRATORS.

Capetown, May 17. In connection with the arrest of the Johannesburg conspirators, who have been committed for trial, the names of the men and their description are now given as follows :Richard Floyd Nichols, miner, formerly non-commissioned officer in a cavalry regiment, Cornishman. George Patterson, formerly non-commissioned officer in a cavalry regiment. Irishman. Charles Agax Ellis, ex-colour sergeant in an infantry regiment, Englishman. John Allen Mitchell, ex-sergeant-major in the Royal Horse Artillery, Englishman.  Edward James Tremlett, non-military, Englishman. Robert Poole Hooper (46), ex-non-commissioned officer in India and Matabeleland, Englishman. Jean Fries, a Danish subject.  When brought into Court, it was at once noted by the occupants of the crowded Court that, far from having military bearing, the prisoners, almost without exception, had the appearance of adventurers. A Johannesburg Boer organ distinctly, and in specific terms, accuses Mr Cecil Rhodes of being the actual plotter, and the idea is becoming universal that President Kruger has at last over-reached himself in an- attempt to hatch a plot to foil Mr Chamberlain.

The troopship Avoca, which was preparing to depart for England with time expired men, has been ordered to remain in Table Bay for the present. This order is thought to be very significant. The South & Mean League's denial of the slightest connection with the alleged Johannesburg plot is generally accepted, and the Cape Press are asking how unarmed men could attempt, or would think of attempting, to overthrow a Government armed to the teeth, and with a powerful fort frowning upon defenceless Johannesburg. A despatch from Natal states that the prisoners are not army officers at all ; but merely an irresponsible lot of citizens. The allegation that the South African League is responsible for the alleged plot has caused the most profound resentment amongst the members of the League, who recently elected Mr Cecil Rhodes as their president, and at the annual Congress of the League at Kimberley last month carried unanimously a motion of sympathy with the Uitlanders in profound silence, the delegates merely indicating their assent by rising to their feet. The incident was much commented upon here at the time. On the other hand, it is freely suggested that the whole affair of these arrests and the story of the "British officers " is a gigantic trick on the part of President Kruger to hinder and delay the reform negotiations. It is stated here that differences of a more or less serious nature exist between Sir Alfred Milner and the Cape Ministry. Reuter's Agency have been making inquiries among a number of prominent persons connected with South Africa in regard to the Johannesburg arrests. Opinion is that the affair is the outcome of either a trumped-up charge, an unimportant movement on the part of a few irresponsible nobodies, or an indication of a real fear on the part of some Uitlanders that something was .about to happen.

The following book gives some details of the initial proceedings and gives more information of who the defendants actually were;

‘Despatches from United States Consuls in Pretoria, 1898-1906’ 

 Robert’s Brother, Randle Brereton Hooper was serving in the 2nd Cape Mounted Yeomanry when he was killed in action in 1881 at Tweefontein, Basutoland. 

 

Condition NEF. A superb medal with a great deal of research potential. Some research on CD