André van Ellinckhuyzen
On a day late in May 1942, a chaplain of the South African Forces ‘up north’ was en route in convoy through the Libyan Desert, when his keen eyes spotted a shining object on a distant hill.
Instinctively, and without warning to his ‘batman’, Captain Charles Rought Jenkins turned his military vehicle off the dirt road and into the desert.
After travelling a few miles, with the rest of the frantic convoy in tow, he came across the wreckage of a Curtiss Tomahawk.
Only a few metres further on was a heap of desert rocks with a makeshift white wooden cross.
Hanging from it were the ‘dog tags’ of the Tomahawk pilot who had been shot down and buried there about five months earlier, probably by the Germans or Italians.
Partially covered by the sand was a water bottle with the inscribed initials L.O.B.P.
Great was the chaplain’s shock – he knew this man that lay buried there; they were both Vryheid boys.
Charles was born in 1905 at Poona (Pune) in India.
He was married to Annie Louise ‘Babs’ Harding, and they had four children named David, Elwyn, Glynis, and Margaret.
Charles was a clergyman, and from 1936 to 1939 he preached the gospel in the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Vryheid.
During the war, he served as a military chaplain with the Air Force up in North Africa, and his home base was the military camp at Ladysmith in Natal.
Charles was ‘called to higher service’ on September 11, 1952 at the St Antonius Hospital in Swakopmund, and he was laid to rest in Windhoek.
Lewis Otto Beatty Player, fondly known to the family as Louis, was born in Vryheid on September 26, 1916, and at the time his parents, Harold Clifford and Gertrude Elizabeth ‘Gertie’ (neé Hazell) lived at 184 Smal Street.
In their younger years, Harold and Gerty owned and managed the Green Lantern Hotel at Van Reenen in the Drakensberg, and later lived in Empangeni, where Harold was employed by Loftheims General Dealer Store.
Harold served during WWI, and during WWII he was attached to the South African Reserve Force with the rank of Quarter Master Sergeant.
‘Gerty’ was a sister of Private Albert Hazell, also of Vryheid, who took his own life at the beginning of WWI at the Bordon Barracks in England.
Lewis had three siblings: Averil Gertrude Nielsen (ex Millar, neé Player), a school teacher born on January 26, 1912 who was married to Alfred Graham Millar on July 22, 1933 in Vryheid, and on June 17, 1940 in Durban to Erik Martin Gottrup Nielsen; Hazell Agnita Halck (neé Player), also a school teacher, born in 1914 and married to Jorgen Halck in Durban on June 24, 1940; and Margaret Joyce ‘Peggy’ Mills, who was married to Alexander Victor ‘Vic’ Mills in ‘the smallest Catholic Church in the world’ in the days when the Players owned the Green Lantern Hotel.
Lewis was enrolled at Nuwe Republiek School in Vryheid in February 1922, and he matriculated from Vryheid High School at the end of 1933.
He proceeded to Howard College in Durban where he obtained his BSC in Engineering.
In October 1937, Lewis enrolled for the flying scholarship, and obtained his wings in July 1939, and a permanent appointment with the SAAF on February 8, 1940.
Lewis’ grandparents were James Otto Player and Annie Eliza Player neé Jones.
James joined the Natal Carbineers in 1872 and served with the Newcastle Mounted Rifles during the Zulu War of 1878 to 1879.
He and Annie Eliza were married in 1881 in Ladysmith, and in Vryheid they lived in a beautiful home on President Street, which they had named EMOH (the word ‘home’ reversed).
Today, this house is known as President’s Boutique Lodge at Ilawu, on 193 President Street.
Annie passed away in 1932 and James in 1935, and they both rest in the Vryheid Cemetery.
Lewis was married in Durban on 1 June 1940, to Margaret Susan ‘Peggums’ Deane, born on January 28, 1917 of Carolman Langton Road, Mowbray, Cape Town.
From September 1940 until April 1941, Lewis (at the rank of lieutenant) was posted to Broken Hill in Northern Rhodesia with the establishment of a military radio station there.
After leaving Southern Africa, he was stationed in Cairo, Khartoum and at Port Said.
Lewis was shot down on December 12, 1941 in an aerial dogfight, by an Italian flown German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter aircraft, between Derna and Gazala.
He was flying his Tomahawk as part of an escort for Blenheim Bombers, which were attacking Derna on the Mediterranean coast of Libya.
The Vryheid Gazette, 29 May 1942 reads: “ROLL OF HONOUR……Lieut. LEWIS OTTO BEATTY PLAYER (S.A.A.F.) was born in Vryheid on September 26, 1916. He matriculated at the Vryheid High School and proceeded to Howard College, Durban, where he obtained the degree B.Sc. (Eng.). During his course at the College, he entered for the Flying Scholarship and obtained his wings in July 1939. He went into active service in the war on February 8, 1940, and in September went to Broken Hill in connection with the establishment of the military signal (radio) station there, where he remained until April 1941. After leaving the Union in September last, he was stationed at Cairo, Khartoum, Port Said, and Khartoum again. He was actively engaged until shot down over enemy territory (Gazala) on the December 12, 1941. For five months he has been amongst those “reported missing,” but on May 22, 1942 the authorities sent definite news of his death.”
Sadly, ‘Peggums’ had been pregnant with Lewis’ child and when she learned of his death, the shock was enormous and she lost their baby.
In 1944 at Rondebosch in Cape Town, ‘Peggums’ married Frederick John Ford, who was born in Bangkok, Thailand.
Margaret and Frederick had four children named Sarah Ann Miller, Dominic John Ford, Cecily Claire Retief, and Simon Nixon Gerard Ford. At the time of her own death on December 28, 1983, in the Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, Margaret Susan had lived in Rondebosch.
Frederick and Peggums both rest in the Durbanville Cemetery. Lt Player’s remains were initially re-interred at Gazala, and were later moved to his final resting place in the Knightsbridge War Cemetery in Acroma, Libya, and he shares his grave with RAF Squadron Leader, Rowland Edmond Weld.
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