SA Heavy Artillery War Memorial

Last Updated: July 7, 2025

About SA Heavy Artillery War Memorial

Address

Johannesburg Zoo, Portion 37 of Farm Braamfontein 53 IR Hermann Eckstein Park, off Jan Smuts Avenue

History

This is one of six howitzers presented to the Union Government by the Government of Great Britain after the First World War and was allocated to Johannesburg by the Union Government. The other five howitzers are scattered around the country: the entrance to the Union Buildings in Pretoria; the Company’s Garden, Cape Town; Warriors’ Gate (MOTH) Durban; Park Museum, Bloemfontein; and the Kimberley Museum.

The Town Council discussed the placement of the gun with the SA Heavy Artillery Brigade, and it is probable that Sir Percy Fitzpatrick was involved. His eldest son Nugent served in France with a SA Heavy Artillery unit and achieved rapid promotion to Major. Nugent was bitterly opposed to the South African Heavies being split up and assigned to different sections. He told General Smuts that the units should be brought back together again as in the South West Africa campaign, and this was done later. The son of Sir Percy Fitzpatrick was in a position to get his ideas across. He must have mentioned them to his father in letters. This would explain why Sir Percy felt so deeply about a special memorial for the SA Heavy Artillery Brigade in Johannesburg in addition to the one at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.

Major Nugent Fitzpatrick was killed by a stray long range shell at Beaumetz on 14 December 1917. Deeply affected by his son’s death, Sir Percy was greatly concerned that all the young men who had lost their lives should be properly remembered. It was his idea to observe the two minute’s silence on Armistice Day and he was the prime mover behind the Delville Wood Memorial.

The selection of the site for the gun was probably Fitzpatrick’s proposal. His company (Rand Mines) had donated the land for the South African War Peace Memorial at the east end of the diagonal vista, the highpoint of the area around the Hermann Eckstein Park. His youngest brother, George Fitzpatrick, is listed in the Roll of Honour for the Imperial Light Horse Regiment.

The Howitzer is placed at the west end of the vista so that the memorials of the two wars speak to each other. The steps of the kiosk were altered “to permit the howitzer being trained along the road that leads to the South African War Memorial.”

The Artillery Brigade bore the costs of creating the plinth while the Town Council paid for the bronze plaque which records the names of all the men of the SA Heavy Artillery Brigade who died in the 1914-1918 war. Ironically Major Nugent Fitzpatrick’s is not one of them.

During the Second World War (according to the records of the Johannesburg Zoo) the gun was taken to Potchefstroom for training a new generation of gunners and returned in 1945.

In March this year the howitzer was removed for restoration by Frank Louw, Past National Chairman of the Gunner’s Association, to his workshop Techire in Wadeville.

Statement of Significance

1.All the men whose names appear on the Roll of Honour were volunteers. There was no conscription in South Africa. They answered the call to arms which came from their government, a government led by two Boer generals and although mostly English-speaking, they regarded themselves as South Africans. In their minds the earlier conflict was over. 2.The relationship between the memorials is plain, particularly from the Howitzer looking up the hill. It is really up to the visitor to decide whether the significance lies in man’s love of war, the destructive nature of war, young men’s heroism or simply human folly. 3.The realism of the gun is important. There is no concealing the message of a massive instrument of death. The casualty figures of the First World War are being faced squarely here. Death is not given a pretty face. 4.The relationship between the memorials appears largely aesthetic and perhaps incongruous in the Zoo which is a place of conservation. But nearly half the land which constitutes the Johannesburg Zoo was given as part of the South African War Memorial. 5.The association with Fitzpatrick ties them together as well since it was Fitzpatrick’s small menagerie which was kept in Sachsenwald which formed the start of and the inspiration for the Zoological Gardens. 6.It is noteworthy that the South African Heavy Artillery Brigade which was formed in 1915 for the invasion of South West Africa was divided into two groups. N Battery which accompanied General Beves on the remarkable march of 230 miles in 16 days, was armed with these guns. (to be checked) Howitzers.

Inscription

Legal Status

Protected under Section 37 of the National Heritage Resources Act: Public Monuments and Memorials. “Public monuments and memorials must, without the need to publish a notice to this effect, be protected in the same manner as places which are entered in a heritage register …”. Since the South African War Memorial is older than 60 years, it is also protected in terms of Section 34 of the same Act.