Tom von Prince (9 January 1866 – 4 November 1914) was a German East Africa Company military officer and plantation owner in

German East Africa German East Africa (GEA; german: Deutsch-Ostafrika) was a German colony in the African Great Lakes region, which included present-day Burundi, Rwanda, the Tanzania mainland, and the Kionga Triangle, a small region later incorporated into Mozam ...

. He most notably, as a captain in the

Schutztruppe (, Protection Force) was the official name of the colonial troops in the African territories of the German colonial empire from the late 19th century to 1918. Similar to other colonial armies, the consisted of volunteer European commissioned ...

, led the first action by German forces in East Africa during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

by seizing Taveta on 15 August 1914, and was then killed in November at the

Battle of Tanga The Battle of Tanga, sometimes also known as the Battle of the Bees, was the unsuccessful attack by the British Indian Expeditionary Force "B" under Major General A. E. Aitken to capture German East Africa (the mainland portion of present-day T ...

Early life

He was born on 9 January 1866, son of Thomas Henry Prince, a Scotsman and the British police governor of the British island colony of Mauritius and a German mother. With the early death of his father, his mother returned to Germany. After he was orphaned, von Prince and his sister were educated in England. Later his mother's family brought him to Germany, and entered him into the Kassel Military Academy (''Kadettenanstalt Kassel'') for young Prussian male aristocrats in

Legnica Legnica (Polish: ; german: Liegnitz, szl, Lignica, cz, Lehnice, la, Lignitium) is a city in southwestern Poland, in the central part of Lower Silesia, on the Kaczawa River (left tributary of the Oder) and the Czarna Woda (Kaczawa), Czarna Woda ...

(Liegnitz),

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

. He was classmates with his future superior

Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck (20 March 1870 – 9 March 1964), also called the Lion of Africa (german: Löwe von Afrika), was a general in the Imperial German Army and the commander of its forces in the German East Africa campaign. For four ye ...

. He also met his future wife Magdalene von Massow here.

Military career

In 1887 he joined the

Imperial German Army The Imperial German Army (1871–1919), officially referred to as the German Army (german: Deutsches Heer), was the unified ground and air force of the German Empire. It was established in 1871 with the political unification of Germany under the l ...

and served in the Prussian Infantry Regiment No. 99, which was stationed near Strasbourg. In 1889 he retired from the army as a lieutenant; and in 1890 joined the ''Kaiserliche Schutztruppe'', initially called the ''Wissmann Truppe'', from which developed the protective force for German East Africa. By 1890, Tom von Prince was involved in German East Africa as a lieutenant attempting to control 'the Street of Caravans' under control of the ''Wissmann Truppe''. In East Africa, Prince initially participated in the suppression of the coastal insurgency. In the following years he commanded military expeditions to subjugate the

Hehe people The Hehe ( Swahili collective: Wahehe) are a Bantu ethnolinguistic group based in Iringa Region in south-central Tanzania, speaking the Bantu Hehe language. In 2006, the Hehe population was estimated at 805,000, up from the just over 250,000 ...

. Since the Hehe, under

Chief Mkwawa Chief Mkwavinyika Munyigumba Mwamuyinga (1855 – 19 July 1898), more commonly known as Chief Mkwawa or Sultan Mkwawa, was a Hehe tribal leader in German East Africa, based in Kalenga, Iringa region, who opposed the German colonization. The name ...

, had only attacked and harassed the Germans, leading to the loss of Commander

Emil von Zelewski Emil von Zelewski was a German officer of Kashubian descent who served as commander of the Schutztruppe for German East Africa. In the Hehe Revolt he was killed in action during the . Early years Emil von Zelewski was born in Bendargau in th ...

and many of his men, Tom Prince was sent far inland to Lake Nyassa, with a civilian representative of the Antislavery Committee, Wynecken. Here he met Wissmann, who lent him Bauer, the Wissmann's safari leader. The three, Prince, Wynecken, and Bauer, were to encircle the Hehe under Mkwawa, with the help of more than 20 Atongas and thousand Sangu soldiers sworn enemy of the Hehe tribe. He persecuted the ruler, Chief Mkwawa, until he finally defeated him and made him flee his capital; he died in the wilderness later. Bundesarchiv_Bild_105-DOA0764,_Deutsch-Ostafrika,_Usambara,_Pflanzung

Bundesarchiv_Bild_105-DOA0764,_Deutsch-Ostafrika,_Usambara,_Pflanzung

Prince interrupted his service in Africa by several stays in Germany. There he married Magdalene von Massow, who went with him to Africa. In 1896 he was promoted to the rank of captain. Prince also worked in the district authorities of German East Africa, including as government commissioner at Nyassa Lake and later in the region of Iringa, where he was responsible for the "pacification" of the

in 1898. Around 1900, Prince left the protective force and colonial administration to settle as landowner in East Africa. Together with his wife, he founded a plantation near Sakkarani in the

Usambara Mountains The Usambara Mountains of northeastern Tanzania in tropical East Africa, comprise the easternmost ranges of the Eastern Arc Mountains. The ranges of approximately long and about half that wide, are situated in the Lushoto District of the Tang ...

. In 1906, Captain von Prince was raised to the

German nobility The German nobility (german: deutscher Adel) and royalty were status groups of the medieval society in Central Europe, which enjoyed certain privileges relative to other people under the laws and customs in the German-speaking area, until the begi ...

World War I and Tanga

At the outbreak of the First World War Prince returned to active military service and commanded two European companies of the German

. He was recalled to active duty as ''Hauptmann'' (captain) and given command of the

Askaris An askari (from Somali, Swahili and Arabic , , meaning "soldier" or "military", which also means "police" in the Somali language) was a local soldier serving in the armies of the European colonial powers in Africa, particularly in the African G ...

of the 13th Field Company and of the 7th and 8th ''Schützenkompanien'' (rifle companies composed mainly of the sons of German settlers). Prince's exploits earned him the nickname ''Bwana Sakarani'' — the wild one — from his Askaris. On 15 August 1914, in the opening move of the war in East Africa, von Prince seized the

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

n town of Taveta on orders from the commander of German forces,

. The objective was to take and hold a key point that would strengthen German defences in the north of their colony and protect the

Usambara Railway The Usambara Railway (german: Usambarabahn) was the first railway to be built in German East Africa and what is today Tanzania. History German East-Africa A railway company was created in 1891 with the aim of connecting the port of Tanga at ...

. Tom von Prince was one of nine German officers to be killed in the

on 4 November 1914. He had been ordered to lead his troops into the centre of the town and was killed in fighting against the British 2nd

Loyal North Lancashire Regiment The Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire) (until 1921 known as the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that was in existence from 1881 to 1970. In 1970, the regiment was amalgamated with the Lancashire Reg ...

that had landed as part of the British

Indian Expeditionary Force The Indian Army during World War I was involved World War I. Over one million Indian troops served overseas, of whom 62,000 died and another 67,000 were wounded. In total at least 74,187 Indian soldiers died during the war. In World War I the ...

. His funeral took place together with twelve other German officers in Tanga.

References

Works

* Tom von Prince: ''Gegen Araber und Wahehe – Erinnerungen aus meiner ostafrikanischen Leutnantszeit 1890–1895''. Mittler, Berlin 1914

Literature

Herbert Viktor Patera Herbert may refer to: People Individuals * Herbert (musician), a pseudonym of Matthew Herbert Name * Herbert (given name) * Herbert (surname) Places Antarctica * Herbert Mountains, Coats Land * Herbert Sound, Graham Land Australia * Herbert ...

: ''Der weiße Herr Ohnefurcht – Das Leben des Schutztruppenhauptmanns Tom von Prince''. Deutscher Verlag, Berlin 1939. * Hans Schmiedel: ''"Bwana Sakkarani – Der Schutztruppenhauptmann Tom von Prince und seine Zeit"''. Handschriftliches Manuskript {{DEFAULTSORT:Prince, Tom 1866 births 1914 deaths German military personnel killed in World War I Colonial people of German East Africa German untitled nobility Schutztruppe personnel German people of Scottish descent