Solomon Isaac Davids

Captain Solomon Isaac Davidowitz (6 July 1915 Ficksburg, South Africa- 9 January 2008 Krugersdorp, South Africa) service number S1033, Somaliland Camel Corps (SCC) and King's African Rifles, known as Sol, was the son of Benjamin Davidowitz (1880-1961)-and Olga Davidowitz born Asher (1882-1943).

After serving in the army, whilst living in the Colony of Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), he relinquished the names of Solomon Isaac Davidowitz and assumed the name of Solomon Davids on the 29 September 1944. Sol Davids had been an active Zionist from an early age as a founding member of the Young Israel Society in the Orange Free State province of South Africa. In 1936 he was transferred from Bradlows, the furniture retailers, in Kroonstad, South Arica, to open their branch in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia (Harare, Zimbabwe) where he established a branch of the Young Israel Society and was active in Jewish community affairs. After Kristallnacht, he got a group of the Jewish boys to volunteer for military training in the Rhodesian army, as he foresaw that war with Hitler's Germany was inevitable. On completing basic training, the volunteers were told to report for duty if Britain mobilised, or if war was declared. As a result, Sol was among the first troops in the British Empire to be mobilised and claimed that he and another Jewish volunteer were the first Jews in the British Empire to be mobilised. Sol travelled via Mombasa in Kenya to Aden (Yemen) and then on to Berbera, British Somaliland where he was seconded to the Somaliland Camel Corps (SCC), a unit which still patrolled with camels. When the SCC was converted to an armoured unit, Sol was the only non-Somali on a camel in the final animal parade, as attested by some of the photos now in the Imperial War Museum in London. Britain made the decision to evacuate Somaliland in 1940 and the SCC was disbanded. Sol was assigned to the King's African Rifles in Kenya where he trained African troops mostly from Nyasaland (Malawi). When the Somaliland Camel Corps was reformed prior to the invasion of Abyssinia, the Officer Commanding specifically requested Sol as his senior NCO. The SCC liberated all of Somaliland from Italian control. Sol rose through the ranks, ending the war with the rank of Captain. At the end of the war in Africa, he was in charge of shutting down the unit's HQ. He returned to South Africa via Rhodesia, married Pearl Dogon (1921-2004) on the 4th June 1947 in Krugersdorp and lived the rest of his life in Krugersdorp, where he was active in community affairs. He was a Rotarian, a member of the local Chamber of Commerce, and for many years ran the West Rand Festival of Arts. He sat on the board of the United Hebrew Institutes of Krugersdorp, was a member of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, a delegate to the Zionist Federation and for many years ran the town's IUA (Israel United Appeal). His family donated albums, negatives, prints and ephemera depicting his service to the Imperial War Museum, London.

Sources: 1. Personal correspondence sons of Sol Davids - Leon Davids, Israel and Alex Davids, England. 2. https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205231649. 3. Davidowitz, Solomon Isaac, (fl1939-1945), Rhodesia Regiment Kings African Rifles and Captain, Somaliland Camel Corps. The National Archives; Kew, London, England. Date fl1939-1945. Place Rhodesia. Name authority reference GB/NNAF/ D228247. Description 1939-1945: letters and papers related to military service and activities with Zionist youth Group in South Africa. Held by Imperial War Museum Department of Documents.