Johan Wilhelm Colenbrander

The National Archives of Rhodesia and a publication by the University of Natal give Colenbrander's birth date as 1 November 1855, though other sources give the year as 1856 or 1857. He was born in Pinetown in the British Colony of Natal, the fourth son of Dutch-born parents Theodorus Christiaan Colenbrander and Geraldine Nicolene van Groll. They established an indigo plantation at Pine Town and in 1857 established another and a coffee plantation near Unhlali, which grew into the settlement of New Guelderland. Colenbrander grew up in New Guelderland, looked after by a Zulu nurse from whom he became fluent in the Zulu language. In his youth became recognised as one of the best marksmen and horsemen in Southern Africa. ==Zululand ==

Colenbrander joined the Natal Mounted Police, an all-white militarised colonial police force, in 1870. Colenbrander relayed a similar account to a young Bertram Mitford in early 1882 while travelling with the future British Army general in Zululand. Colenbrander took Mitford to meet Dunn and showed him the battlefield of Gingindlovu and a number of abandoned British forts. Mitford wrote about his experiences in the 1883 book Through the Zulu Country. With Dunn in July 1882 he helped quell a rebellion by Sitimela. Sitimela claimed to be a grandson of Dingiswayo and intended to re-establish the Mthethwa Paramountcy in Zulu territory. A contemporary report in the London Daily News claimed Colenbrander took pleasure in shooting down Sitimela's supporters, including a number of women, and that he was unfit to play a part in the governance of Zululand. In 1883 Colenbrander married Maria "Mollie" Mullins of Verulam. During the 1883–1884 Third Zulu Civil War Colenbrander fought for Zibhebhu at the head of a party of white mercenaries and helped defeat the supporters of Cetshwayo at the 1883 Battle of Msebe. Colenbrander returned to Natal to recruit more men, but while he was absent, Zibhebhu was defeated in the 1884 Battle of Tshaneni (Mkuze), by the forces of Cetshwayo's son Dinuzulu. As a result of the defeat Colenbrander lost all his cattle and trade goods. == Rhodesia ==

Colenbrander then worked for a period as a trader in Swaziland before moving to Mashonaland upon which the British South Africa Company (BSAC) had territorial ambitions (the BSAC territory later became known as Rhodesia). Colenbrander was appointed BSAC resident at Bulawayo, Matabeleland in 1889. He accompanied the Pioneer Column that annexed Mashonaland for the BSAC in 1890 and, after a brief stint in Cape Town, returned to Matabeleland with Mollie. Although he was an employee of the BSAC, Colenbrander won the trust of Lobengula, such that the King allowed him to represent the kingdom in negotiations with the company. Colenbrander's loyalty lay entirely with the company and he worked to assist Leander Starr Jameson in portraying the Ndebele as aggressors in reports to British officials, giving the company cause to start the First Matabele War. The company was victorious in the 1893–1894 war, during which Colenbrander served as a scout for military expeditions, alongside Frederick Russell Burnham. The war brought Matebeleland under full BSAC control. The British authorities insisted on the establishment of a Matabeleland Land Commission to create native reserves for the Ndebele people and Colenbrander was appointed its head. BSAC policy was to force the Ndebele away from their traditional self-sufficient lifestyle and into wage slavery. The allocation of land was made in support of this goal and a hut tax, illegal under British colonial law, was also imposed. Colenbrander assigned the Ndebele a reserve of , significantly smaller than the of prime territory (with additional areas of wasteland) the Ndebele had previously occupied. Some of the land assigned by the commission was blighted by the Tsetse fly. Colenbrander occasionally commanded British South Africa Police patrols, including an early 1894 expedition to suppress a rebellion in the Matopo Hills. During one police expedition he had a horse shot from under him. Colenbrander took a six-month leave of absence in 1895 which included a visit to England where he was a guest of the Anglo-African Writers Club. He also established, in London, Colenbrander's Matabeleland Development Company, as a limited company. This venture controlled several valuable concessions in Matabeleland, including of land and 930 gold mining claims. It had an initial market capitalisation of £280,000 (). The company was sold to Frank Johnson's Rhodesia Consolidated in 1903. Dissatisfied with their reserve and the hut tax the Ndebele rose against BSAC in the 1896 Second Matabele War, during which Colenbrander was granted the rank of captain in the Bulawayo Field Force. He raised and led a Coloured mercenary unit, known as the Cape Boys, and, with Cecil Rhodes, helped negotiate the surrender of the Ndebele chiefs. After the war Colenbrander remained in the territory, working as a cattle dealer, labour recruiter, mining claims inspector and manager of Redrup's Kop Mine. ==Second Boer War ==

During the Second Boer War (1899–1902) Colenbrander founded and led Kitchener's Fighting Scouts, a unit fighting for the British. He later commanded a British column. On 9 July 1901 Colenbrander, who then held the rank of lieutenant-colonel, received the first of numerous mentions in dispatches, being named by General Herbert Kitchener for bringing in Boer prisoners during a raid from Pietersburg in early May. Colenbrander commanded troops that occupied the Boer settlement of Louis Trichardt on 9 May and on 19 November captured Warmbaths taking 54 prisoners, 28 wagons and 35 horses, mainly from the commando of Christian Frederick Beyers. He remained at Warmbaths to keep the Boer military forces in the area under observation. By December 1901 he held the rank of colonel. That month, working in conjunction with a column under Lieutenant-Colonel Dawkins he captured Boer Commandant Adriaan Dirk Badenhorst and 22 burghers. Colenbrander, working independently, then took the towns of Jericho, capturing 60 prisoners, and Waterval, killing 5 Boers and taking 29 prisoners in a surprise dawn attack. After the latter he persuaded Chief Linchwe I of the Kgatla people to stand down a war party of 2,000 warriors who were attempting to recapture livestock taken by Boer General Jan Kemp. Colenbrander was concerned that Linchwe's men posed a threat to Boer women and children. In February 1902 Colenbrander's column was ordered south, which allowed Beyers to raid Pietersburg. Afterwards Colenbrander was ordered to Rustenburg to search for Beyers. Beyers besieged Fort Edward near Louis Trichardt and it was almost forced to surrender, its water supply being cut off. Colenbrander learnt of the attack and moved from Krugersdorp to launch a surprise dawn attack on the besiegers on 29 March, driving them off with three dead and four taken prisoner. Colenbrander afterwards followed Beyers to Pylkop. On 8 April he launched a successful attack on Beyers' position at Malipspoort. Although a planned encirclement failed to prevent the escape of the Boer force Colenbrander captured the town, much equipment and 119 prisoners, having inflicted nine dead. In pursuing Beyers to Oud Agatha, part of Colenbrander's force was ambushed and it lost six dead, 12 wounded and 30 captured. After this Beyers' force dispersed and Colenbrander returned to Pietersburg. In May 1902 Colenbrander carried out operations in the Malip Valley, killing one Boer, wounding 21 and capturing 101 before Beyers' arrival for peace negotiations ended operations. Colenbrander was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath on 26 June 1902 for his war service. After the war's end Colenbrander agreed to purchase from the British Army around 11,000 surplus horses, for a total in excess of £80,000 (). Three thousand of the horses died and Colenbrander was unable to pay £30,000 () of the contracted price and was forced to declare bankruptcy. == Later life ==

Colenbrander's first wife died in 1900 and he married Yvonne Nunn in 1902. He was employed by the Middlebury-Vermont Marble Company, with contemporary reports describing him as having "considerable experience in England as a quarry owner". Colenbrander returned to England in April 1911 penniless, his passage provided for by the British consulate in New York. Ten days after arriving in England he was arrested on fraud charges relating to $1,250 () he had accepted as payment for a shooting expedition in central Africa. The complainant, Aylmer Francis Richard Dunlop Quin, alleged that he had made the payment on the basis that he was promised valuable mineral and land concessions would result from the expedition. Colenbrander presented evidence, including letters to Robert Baden-Powell, that the expedition was of a purely sporting nature. The charge was dismissed at Bow Street Magistrates' Court on 10 May 1911 after the magistrate decided that on the basis on evidence heard no jury would convict Colenbrander. Colenbrander married Catherine Gloster in 1911, with whom he had a son, John; Catherine died in 1982. After the court case Colenbrander returned to South Africa, funded by BSAC, but enjoyed little financial success. His horse lost its footing and he was thrown into the river. He attempted to swim to the bank but was drowned, alongside two other actors, in a sequence caught on camera. Colenbrander's body was not recovered. The drownings, which happened on a Sunday, were mentioned in a South African House of Assembly debate as part of an argument against filming taking place on the Christian Sabbath. Some of Colenbrander's papers and correspondence are in the collection of the Bodleian Library, the Yale Library, the National Archives of Zimbabwe and the Killie Campbell Library in Natal. Some physical artefacts belonging to Colenbrander are held by the South Mill Arts centre in Bishop's Stortford, England. John Colenbrander gathered material on his father which was used for a biography begun by Frederick de Bertodano, 8th Marquis del Moral in the 1950s and completed by Tom V. Bulpin after the Marquis' death. It was published in 1961 under the title The White Whirlwind. == References ==