(Author: Saul Issroff, Vol. 65 #1, Pesach 2010)
Sarah Glueck acquired world-wide prominence during the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902. At the time, she was employed as the postmistress in the village of Lady Grey in the Cape Province, near the Lesotho border. She defied an invading Boer commando, inter alia by refusing to haul down the Union Jack. As a result, she was likened to the legendary Barbara Fritchie, the American patriot during the Civil War who defied the Confederate troops as they advanced through Frederick MD by waving the Stars and Stripes from a window of her home.
Sarah Bella Abrahams, the daughter of Elias Abrahams, was born in Zagare in Lithuania, circa 1867. She arrived in South Africa in the early 1890s with her husband, Marcus Glueck, who was born in Kletzkow, Germany, in 1867. They were married in the United States and had two children, Frieda Hannah (born 1889 in Charleston, South Carolina), and Percival Joseph (born circa 1891 in Birmingham, Alabama). She began her career in the Post Office as a postal assistant at Lady Grey, in the division of Aliwal North, in 1897, and by 1899 had been promoted to the position of its postmistress.1
When Glueck died in Springs on 27 February 1933, the following obituary appeared in a Port Elizabeth newspaper:
Death of Mrs Glueck: Bravery in Occupied Village
Mrs Glueck, who was honoured in South Africa and Britain as one of the outstanding heroines of the Anglo-Boer War, died aged 66. The story of her gallantry has figured in most of the authentic histories of the war. When hostilities began Mrs Glueck was the postmistress of the little town of Lady Grey, in the Aliwal North district. The Boer forces invaded the colony and on several occasions took possession of and occupied Lady Grey.
On the first occasion they smashed the telegraph instruments. No sooner had they departed than Mrs Glueck had them replaced, and when the Boers next drew near the town she quickly substituted the damaged set and hid the new instruments.
The Good Set Again
The invaders contented themselves with further damaging the instruments they found in the office. Upon their withdrawal the good set was immediately linked up to the nearest British force appraised of the situation. Whenever the Republican forces were in occupation they hoisted the Vierkleur, but their backs were hardly turned before Mrs Glueck replaced it with the Union Jack as an indication that the town remained British. Similarly, when on one occasion President Kruger’s proclamation was posted up, she stole out and pasted over it one issued by Lord Milner.
Ultimately the Boers entered into a prolonged occupation of Lady Grey. The residents had warning of their approach and the magistrate instructed all Government offices to quit. Mrs. Glueck duly obeyed the order, but she was among the last to leave, and she was burdened not with her household goods, but with every bit of property of value in the post office, including her precious instruments.
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She removed herself to Herschel, where she installed herself as postmistress. When Major Hook reoccupied Lady Grey he sent for Mrs Glueck, and she cheerfully undertook to run both the Lady Grey and the Herschel post offices. It necessitated a daily horseback journey, which she made with unfailing regularity. During the occasions when the Boer forces were in occupation of Lady Grey, Mrs Glueck established an Intelligence department, which she conducted with the aid of native runners. She was thus able to keep the British fully informed of the position in the town and district and materially assisted in the military operations conducted by the British command.
Mentioned in Dispatches
Mrs Glueck was mentioned in dispatches, and a tribute to her heroism appeared in Major Hook’s book on the campaign. The London Times hailed her as one of the heroines of the war and awarded her a substantial cheque, which was presented to her by Mr Ward Price, their correspondent in the field. Lord Milner also marked his appreciation of her bravery and devotion by promoting Mrs. Glueck to the postmistresship of Springs, a post she held for 20 years, till she was retired on a pension.
Glueck’s wartime feats were further described by SA Rochlin in the 1 December 1950 issue of the Zionist Record (“Postmistress who was a ‘Barbara Fritchie’”). Rochlin recorded that the O.F.S. Boers under Commandant Oliver came to Lady Grey after occupying the border town of Aliwal North in November, 1899. Here, they attempted to place President Steyn’s proclamation on the notice board of the post office. Glueck not only took this down and substituted Lord Milner’s pro-British statement, but also refused to hand over the keys of her office. This act of bravery won her great popularity among the British, with comments in the press including the following poem:
When you talk of deeds of glory Of this campaign in the south,
Where the deeds seem super human In the battle and the fray,
You’ll remember one brave woman In the town of Lady Grey.
It’s the olden, golden story
Of the weak who can be strong;
It’s the deed that rates the glory
Of the brightest wealth of song;
It’s the old world – you can hear it, Working with us here today;
It is Barbara Fritchie’s spirit, In the town of Lady Grey.
The obituary in the Jewish Chronicle of 24 March 1933 noted that Glueck had been a sister of the Polish-Jewish writer, Jacob Dinensohn and a well-known Zionist and communal worker. During the war, she had been “instrumental in preserving for the British forces a good set of telegraph instruments every time the Boer forces invaded the town. On the approach of the Boers she always installed a set of instruments which they had once damaged and replaced them by working instruments immediately they retired”. She later served as Postmistress of Springs for some twenty years, in addition doing “valuable work for the Jewish community and the Zionist movement”.
Sarah Glueck clarified her own part during the occupation of Lady Grey in a letter to the Cape Times, dated 23 March 1900:
Sir
A cutting from your paper- the paragraph relating to the Lady Grey incident was sent to me by a friend, which forces me to make some corrections. Firstly, the Boers had no flags when they entered Lady Grey and neither was hoisted. Secondly, which pains me much, is the tone in your article reflecting on our men. They did not fail in assistance. The Magistrate, Mr F. B Gedye, only gave up after receiving instructions to make no resistance, although his life was threatened. Here in Herschel, East London and Queens Town there are many refugees, who left their comfortable homes and thousands worth of stock, because they are too loyal to sign neutrality forms. Many of their homes have already undergone plunder and those who remained had to sign, not being able to obtain conveyance. Thus, they are forced to stay and suffer the indignity of being amongst rebels. I only acted as an official, but it was as much due to their loyalty that encouraged me.
Dr Saul Issroff, a retired dermatologist, is the long-serving editor of Southern Africa Jewish Genealogy (http://www.jewishgen.org/SAfrica).
NOTES
- Women in Postal History http://www.sahistory.org.za/franco/ postal-history-women-colonial-po.html
- Jacob Dinensohn b. 1856 New Zagare (Lithuania) d. 1919 Warsaw. Popular Yiddish romantic novelist, friend of J. L. Peretz and Izak Meyer Dick. See Universal Jewish Encyclopaedia Vol. 3, 1941
