‘Lest we forget’ Willie Minott and Sons – The brave soldier who fought against tyranny

It is written that more than 17-million people lost their lives during the Great War (World War I), with another 20-million wounded.

More than 149 000 South Africans served during the Great War, with more than 18 000 casualties and more than 6 600 who lost their lives.

William John ‘Willie’ Minott was born in Fordsburg in Johannesburg, on June 12, 1895, and was baptised there on June 30 of that same year. Willie’s father was William Minott Snr, a barber and the owner of a greengrocer and a
general dealer store, W. Minott and Son, on the corners of High and Utrecht streets in Vryheid. William Snr was born in 1858 in Birmingham, England, and left England for South Africa when he was 20 years old, celebrating his 21st birthday after only being in the country for about six months. He was a veteran of the Anglo-Zulu War.

William Snr joined General Redvers Buller’s Light Horse Regiment in Pietermaritzburg in 1879, and fought throughout the war in battles at Hlobane and Kambula, near Vryheid, when Vryheid town was not even yet properly established. He also fought in the Matabele campaign, and later in the Anglo-Boer War under General Kitchener.
When peace was declared in 1902, William Snr settled in Vryheid.

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He married Augusta Catherine Burg on October 30, 1893 in Johannesburg, and three of their sons fought in the Great War, in which one of them paid the supreme price in Belgium, 1917.

William Snr passed away at his family home in Vryheid on August 26, 1929, and his funeral service was conducted by Reverend Mundy from the Church of England, at the Minott residence on Deputation Street, and he was laid to rest in the Vryheid Cemetery.

Among the many Vryheid couples who attended the funeral was a young Mr and Mrs Norman-Smith, who would later tragically also lose one of their sons, Lieutenant Peter-Ian Norman- Smith during the Korean War in 1951.
Willie’s mother, Augusta, known in the family as Alpha, was born in 1871 in North Shields in England. Augusta died on March 29, 1950 in the Charlotte Collins Sanatorium in Johannesburg, after a period of suffering with her heart
and Parkinson’s disease.

After her death, Augusta, who had been resident in Rietfontein Road in Boksburg at the time, was laid to rest in the West Park Cemetery in Johannesburg. Augusta’s 50 per cent share in W. Minott and Son was inherited by her son, Norman Minott.

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Willie Minott was the eldest of seven siblings, with the six others being:

• Alice Magdalene Minott (born 1896) is suspected to have died at a very young age, as nothing of her is known by the Minott family.
• Edgar Edward Minott (born 1898) was a bricklayer from Vryheid, who was married to Edith White.
• Alpha Catherine Gresty, born Minott, was married to Dick Gresty but was later divorced.
• Oliver Valentine Minott (born 1900) was a storekeeper at Paulpietersburg and married school teacher, Charlotte Florence MacKirdge.
• Norman Minott (born 1902) was married to Grace Doris Barry, and owned W. Minott and Son in Vryheid for years.
• Eleanor Olive Gresty, born Minott, married a carpenter, George Harry ‘Buff’ Gresty of Vryheid.

Willie joined the South African Oversea Expeditionary Force on August 19, 1915 in Potchefstroom and at the time, he was 20 years old, single and a clerk by profession.

After receiving military training in England, Willie embarked at Davenport on December 29, 1915 aboard the RMS Saxonia, and arrived in Alexandria, Egypt on January 12, 1916.

Precisely three months later, Willie left Alexandria on board the SS Megantic, and disembarked at Marseilles in France on April 20, 1916. Willie was wounded in battle on December 18, 1916, and spending some time in a field
hospital, rejoined his regiment on January 7, 1917.

On September 20, 1917, Willie was killed in action during the battle of Menin Road in Belgium.

Willie, of the South African Infantry Third Regiment, was a member of the St Peter’s Congregation in Vryheid.
His initials are engraved on a silver chalice and on a bronze plaque, on display inside the church.
His name is engraved on the Ypres Menin Gate Memorial to the missing, in Belgium, and on the Great War Memorial in Vryheid.

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A bronze plaque in the St. Peters Anglican church in Vryheid reads as follows:

“In proud and affectionate memory of those members of the congregation who lost their lives in the cause of Justice and Freedom during the Great War. 1914 – 1918. Herbert Eminson. Willie Minott. Eric Lightening. Egbert Northern.”

Lest we forget…

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