British South Africa Police

Blatherwick, James Kincaid ‘Jimmy’ (1869-1918)

Blatherwick, James Kincaid ‘Jimmy’ (1869-1918)

by | 28-Dec-2025 | sergeantmajors

Regimental Sergeant Major – 1897 to June 1917

James “Jimmy” Blatherwick (Force No. 20) was born on 2 January 1869 in Cape Town, South Africa. He began his uniformed career in 1890 with the Bechuanaland Border Police, one of the frontier forces tasked with maintaining order across Britain’s expanding southern African territories. In 1896 he transferred to the British South Africa Police and, the following year, was appointed Regimental Sergeant Major—a role he would hold with distinction for nearly two decades.
Blatherwick first entered Rhodesia with the Matabeleland Relief Force during the Second Matabele War, serving in the campaign to suppress the uprising. His long service placed him at the centre of several formative conflicts, including both the Matabele rebellions and the Second Boer War, where the BSAP provided mounted infantry and border security. In 1911 he was selected for the BSAP contingent sent to London to represent the force at the Coronation of King George V, a mark of his standing within the regiment.
Promoted to Inspector in 1913, he later received a wartime military commission in February 1917, rising from Lieutenant to Captain and taking command of the Depot. Blatherwick died in Salisbury on 26 November 1918 during the influenza pandemic, shortly after the death of his wife. A memorial to him was erected at Morris Depot in 1921.

The Blatherwick Memorial: Morris Depot

A familiar and quietly imposing sight to generations of Morris Depot recruits from 1921 onwards was the Blatherwick Memorial, positioned on the northern edge of the Green Square where daily parades, inspections, and passing‑out ceremonies took place. The memorial was erected in honour of Regimental Sergeant Major George Blatherwick, one of the most respected early figures of the BSA Police, whose long service and uncompromising standards left a deep imprint on the character of the Force. His death in 1920 was felt keenly across the organisation, prompting senior officers and former colleagues to commission a permanent tribute at the Depot he had helped shape.
At the unveiling ceremony, Major General Sir Alfred H. M. Edwards, KBE, CB, MVO, the Commandant‑General of the BSA Police, paid a moving tribute to Blatherwick’s life and service. “Rhodesia has lost a true soldier, a fine character, and the Government a loyal servant… His loss to the Corps, which he loved, and for which he had done so much, is irreparable; the memory of him will, however, remain, and his example might well be accepted as the ideal to which all ranks should strive to attain.” Edwards went on to emphasise that Blatherwick had embodied the newly adopted regimental motto, Pro rege, pro lege, pro patria, the words now inscribed at the foot of the memorial tablet and long regarded as a reminder of the standards expected of every recruit who passed through the Depot.

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Bodle, William ‘Billy’ (1855-1924)

Bodle, William ‘Billy’ (1855-1924)

by | 27-Dec-2025 | sergeantmajors

Regimental Sergeant-Major

(BSA Company Police); Served October 1889 to 31 August 1891

William Bodle was born on 5 July 1855 in Alfriston, Sussex. He began his military career with the Sherwood Foresters (Nottingham and Derbyshire Regiment) before transferring first to the 17th Lancers and later to the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons; a move that brought him to South Africa. He saw active service in the Basuto War of 1880–81 with the Cape Mounted Rifles, gaining the experience that would shape his later career in colonial policing.
In 1884, Bodle was appointed Regimental Sergeant Major of the Bechuanaland Border Police. Five years later, in October 1889, Cecil Rhodes engaged him to help raise and organise the force that would accompany the Pioneer Column into Mashonaland. He accordingly joined the newly formed British South Africa Company Police as its Regimental Sergeant Major. After being released during an early austerity drive, he entered commerce in Fort Salisbury. However, he soon returned to uniform with the Salisbury Horse and took part in the occupation of Matabeleland. He subsequently became commander of the newly created Matabeleland Mounted Police with the rank of Major.
Bodle later served in the Rhodesia Mounted Police during the Jameson Raid, was captured by Boer forces, and deported to England. Undeterred, he returned to Rhodesia and re‑attested into the British South Africa Police, Matabeleland Division, as second‑in‑command with the rank of Lieutenant‑Colonel, eventually succeeding Nicholson. He retired from the BSA Police in April 1909 and returned to England.
During World War I he commanded the Norfolk and Suffolk Territorial battalions and later the Labour Battalion, receiving the honorary rank of Brigadier‑General in August 1917. Bodle, who had been awarded the CMG in 1901, died in his native Alfriston on 9 July 1924.