The Men who would not March - The Surrender of Concordia, Namaqualand, 4 April 1902 by David Thomas
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A fateful decision with momentous consequences, courage, struggle and redemption ­ all the ingredients of good fiction which here all happen to be true.


A true story of courage and dignity stretching over 150 years to a moment in 2010 when, having been excoriated for over a century, Captain Phillips and his comrades in the Concordia Town Guard were honoured for the courageous decisions they took on 4 April 1902.


 


David Thomas relates the story of The Men who would not March in an engrossing narrative stylewith a filmic quality ­ in short: history made real and relevant.




A pall of fear hung over the prosperous copper-mining fields of Namaqualand in early 1902. A Boer army under General Jan Smuts relentlessly advanced into Namaqualand from the south. Scattered and stretched over the vast expanse of South Africa, the British Army had no hope of stopping them.


The British feared reprisals from the Boers for the plundering and destruction of Boer farms in the republican territories of the Transvaal and Orange Free State. The majority Œcoloured¹ population were terrified by the way the Boers had massacred coloureds at the Leliefontein mission station, ruthlessly shooting anyone whom they suspected of working for the British.


The coloured population of the mining village of Concordia was in danger, because the menfolk, who in everyday life were mine labourers, had willingly joined a Œdad¹s army¹ type of Town Guard raised by the British under martial law. Under orders to march the 15 kilometres to the stronghold of O¹okiep when the Boers approached, these men mutinied and stayed in the town to protect their families.






eBOOK - revised and updated with new research and new photographs plus Index - AVAILABLE JUNE 2013




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 Trade Paperback - R 180.00 incl. VAT
 eBOOK / Available JUNE 2013 - R 99.00 incl. VAT

about the author - David Thomas

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David Thomas describes himself as an ³opportunistic author². While it was never his life¹s aim to write books, at times he came across subjects and issues which demanded to be written up in book form. Such was the case with 'The Men who would not March'. He began his study of its subject matter largely out of curiosity about its central figure, Captain Francis Phillips, his great-grandfather. David Thomas lives with his partner Barbara Peters in Sydney, Australia, where he migrated from South Africa in 1983. However, he has returned to South Africa practically every year since then and feels equally at home in both countries. He is semi-retired, although he still teaches in the University of New South Wales in Sydney.

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