Southern Rhodesia in World War I

In August 1914, the United Kingdom declared war on the German Empire at the start of World War I. The settler society in Southern Rhodesia,^{[n 1]} which was administered by the British South Africa Company, received the news with great patriotic enthusiasm. The Company administrator, Sir William Milton, wired the British government, saying, "All Rhodesia... ready to do its duty".^[2] Although it supported the British Empire, the company was concerned about the possible financial implications for its chartered territory to make direct commitments to the war effort, particularly at first. As a result, most of the colony's contributions to the war were made by Southern Rhodesians individually—not only those who volunteered to fight abroad but also those who remained at home and raised funds to donate food, equipment, and other supplies.

Starting immediately after the outbreak of war, parties of white Southern Rhodesians paid their own way to England to join the British Army. Most Southern Rhodesians who served in the war enlisted in this way and fought on the Western Front, taking part in many of the major battles. They fought alongside an assortment of British, South African, and other colonial units, most commonly the King's Royal Rifle Corps, which recruited hundreds of men from the colony and created homogeneous Rhodesian platoons. Troopers from Southern Rhodesia became renowned on the Western Front for their marksmanship, a result of their frontier lifestyle. Some of the colony's men served in the Royal Flying Corps, one of the two predecessors of the Royal Air Force. The Rhodesia Regiment, the Rhodesia Native Regiment, and the British South Africa Police served in the African theatre of the conflict, contributing to the South-West African and East African campaigns.

Though it was one of the few combatant territories not to raise fighting men through conscription, proportional to the white population, Southern Rhodesia contributed more manpower to the British war effort than any other dominion or colony and more than Britain itself. White troops numbered 5,716, about 40% of white men in the colony, with 1,720 of these serving as commissioned officers. The Rhodesia Native Regiment recruited 2,507 Black soldiers; approximately 30 Black recruits served as scouts for the Rhodesia Regiment, and approximately 350 Black soldiers were assigned to British and South African units. Over 800 Southern Rhodesians of all races died on operational service during the war, with many more seriously wounded.

The territory's contributions during the First World War became a major entry in many histories of the colony and a great source of pride for the white community, as well as for some black Rhodesians. It played a part in the UK government's decision to grant self-government in 1923. The contribution remained prominent in the national consciousness for decades to come. When the colonial government unilaterally declared independence from Britain in 1965, it deliberately did so on Armistice Day, 11 November, and signed the proclamation at 11:00 local time. Since the territory's reconstitution and recognized independence as Zimbabwe in 1980, the modern government has removed many references to the war, such as memorial monuments and plaques, from public view, regarding them as unwelcome vestiges of white minority rule and colonialism. The Zimbabwean cultural memory has largely forgotten the First World War.

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