Listen to the track:
🎵 "The Lad from Blouberg" 🎵
RIP Jeremiah Siyabi
Jeremiah Siyabi (c.1873–30 March 1918) was a South African member of the South African Native Labour Corps (service no. 18830). He arrived in Devon during the First World War with SANLC units supporting coastal defence works around Plymouth, including at Renney Camp between the Lentney and Renney batteries. On 30 March 1918 he died after a fall from the cliffs near the camp, recorded as an accidental death. He was buried with full military honours in St Werburgh’s churchyard, Wembury (buried 3 April 1918), where the Commonwealth War Graves Commission maintains his grave. A century later, on 30 March 2018, Wembury marked his sacrifice with a memorial service, and on 11 November 2018 a plaque to Siyabi was unveiled in the village in the presence of the South African High Commissioner and Lord David Owen.
Verse 1
He came from the shadow of Blouberg’s hills,
Where the dust runs red and the air stands still.
Born to a land with a thousand scars,
He carried the weight of a thousand wars.
Verse 2
No trumpet called, no drumbeat played,
But still he walked where duty laid.
To Ladysmith in the July sun,
He signed his name his journey begun.
Chorus
From Africa’s plains to Devon’s shore,
He walked through a world that knew no law.
No rifle in hand, no glory won,
But he laboured beneath a foreign sun.
For the lad from Blouberg, the silent one.
Verse 3
The Kenilworth took him across the foam,
But France would never become his home.
To Renney Camp where the gunners trained,
He gave his strength through wind and rain.
Verse 4
They found him down on the rocks below,
What led him there, we’ll never know.
But they laid him down with the quiet brave,
Far from his kin, in a windswept grave.
Chorus
From Africa’s plains to Devon’s shore,
He walked through a world that knew no law.
No rifle in hand, no glory won,
But he laboured beneath a foreign sun.
For the lad from Blouberg, the silent one.
Bridge
No medal came when the guns fell still,
No banner waved on the Plymouth hill.
But a hundred years on, the world stood near,
And sang his name so all could hear.
Final Chorus
From Africa’s plains to Devon’s shore,
He walked through a world that knew no law.
He died unknown, yet stood as tall
As any hero they chose to call.
Jeremiah Siyabi, we honour them all.