SERGEANT THOMAS HARPER WHITAKER. 1st BATTALION NIGERIA REGIMENT, WEST AFRICAN FRONTIER FORCE. DIED 29th JANUARY 1918 AGED 37


SERGEANT THOMAS HARPER WHITAKER. 1st BATTALION NIGERIA REGIMENT, WEST AFRICAN FRONTIER FORCE. DIED 29th JANUARY 1918 AGED 37




Harper Whitaker was born in Horsforth in 1881 the son of a stone contractor Thomas Whitaker and his wife Anne. One of twelve children he and his family lived in a large house called Summerfield, on New Road Side.

A pupil at Ilkley Grammar School he went on to study civil engineering and during the early years of the 20th Century went to work on the Lagos Railway in Nigeria. He was in the colony at the outbreak of war in 1914 and made an application to join one of the locally raised regiments who would see action in nearby German controlled Cameroon. However, because of the essential nature of his work he remained at his post with the railway company.

By 1917 local West African units had been formed into the West African Frontier Force (WAFF) and sent across the continent into East Africa where they were to assist in the long running campaign against German forces under the astonishingly successful leadership of General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. In this little remembered campaign Lettow-Vorbeck was able to command a force of only a few thousand black Askari soldiers over thousands of miles which tied down nearly 300.000 British and South African soldiers.

Harper joined the 1st Nigeria Regiment made up of Black tribesmen from the interior of the country and who were led by white European officers. Appointed as transport sergeant his presence would have been particularly welcome as he could speak the native language. The battalion was heavily engaged in the campaign but it is not known if Harper took any major part. By January 1918 he was in hospital in Dar es Salaam suffering from enteric (typhoid) fever caused by poor sanitation. In the days before the widespread use of antibiotics the fever could rapidly cause death and Harper succumbed to the illness on the 29th January 1918.

Today Harper Whitaker lies in the British Military Cemetery in Dar es Salaam and is remembered with pride on the war memorial at Ilkley Grammar School.

A younger brother, Charles, a lieutenant in the West Riding Regiment would also die during the war.

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