By Yakubu Abdullahi Yakubu
Driving down the road that leads from the Government House, Yola to join the highway linking with Yola Town, you would easily pass and not notice the Yola Station Cemetery used by the British Colonial Army to bury their dead.
The cemetery contains three Commonwealth War Graves Commission burials for the dead soldiers of the First World War, located at Dougirei, Jimeta-Yola, near the west bank of the Benue river.
In one of the graves lies Captain Derek Wetherall Pawle. Captain Pawle headed a British Army garrison at Gurin (present Fufore Local Government Area), along with 42 rank and file of WAFF and police, to block a German expedition.
On 29 April 1915, a German force of 300 rifles and five machine-guns under the command of von Crailsheim entered Gurin and attacked the British fort for eight hours resulting in the loss of 30 of their men.
The British force lost Captain Pawle at the beginning of the assault and later, a third of their men. Since that time, Adamawa as destined, became Captain Pawle’s final home for the past ninety nine years.
Another 100-Year Grave In Jada
Less than 140km away, in a lonely grave surrounded by grass and building blocks at Mayo Kalaye Village in Jada Local Government Area of Adamawa State lays another soldier killed in battle just three weeks before Captain Pawle. On his tombstone was the inscription LIEUT C.J. HEBBLETHWAITE, MINING ENGINEER, KILLED IN ACTION, 7TH APRIL 1915.
On that day at dawn, Lieut. C.J. Hebblethwaite led a British border patrol of 30 men to attack a notorious German fort. Their attack was repelled and Hebblethwaite was killed.
He was recorded in the General List and 1st Battalion, Nigeria Regiment, West African Frontier Force, (W.A.F.F.) as – killed in action on Wednesday, 7th Apr 1915 and buried at MAIO KALEI MILITARY GRAVE, Nigeria.
(Credit: Adamawa Events and History Digest)
