John Patience probably walked through the small park where the memorial now stands that bears his name.
His mother’s house was just 300-metres from the park that borders Bez Valley and Kensington.
In that park is the Bezuidenhout Valley memorial and on it is Patience’s name and those of 63 other men who died in World War I.
Few people know of this war memorial and even fewer visit it, because the site over the years has been vandalised, and is frequented by vagrants.
But on Sunday morning as armistice commemorations began across the City and the world, a small group of residents gathered at the memorial to honour the local men who fell during this dreadful war.
Kensington resident Richard Brooksbank decided that on the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I he would first clean the Bezuidenhout Valley memorial, then lay a wreath.
He posted a message on Facebook asking people to join him. A handful of people pitched.
Locals, some sitting on a bench swigging beer from long tom cans, watched as Brooksbank and his ex- wife Heather Smail rushed to clean the memorial before the 11am deadline.
They were joined by Joseph Marume, who lives near the memorial.
“It is sad. People sleep here at the memorial and they urinate here,” said Marume. “I wanted to buy the site, to control access to it, but I was told I couldn’t do that.”
A fire, lit the night before, still smouldered at the base of the memorial.
Occasionally a passer-by would ask what they were doing. Some simply shook their heads at the neglected state of the memorial. Others asked if they were doing it because there were only white names on the memorial.
“I have a son the age of many of these men,” Brooksbank would later explain. “This wasn’t a glorious war, it wasn’t a just war and millions died because of it. And it is important to keep their memory alive.”
Like Patience, many of the men on the memorial had a connection with this section of Johannesburg. They lived in suburbs like Bezuidenhout Valley, Kensington and Troyeville.
Private Algene Bradfield’s parents lived up the hill in Cressy Street in Kensington.
Private Howard Godfrey Capel died on July 17, 1916. Records show that his parents lived at 28A Bezuidenhout Street in Troyeville, a couple of houses up from where the Troyeville Hotel stands today on Albertina Sisulu Street.
But it is Patience’s story that is better known, because of a brave deed he did during the war.
Patience was a postman before be joined the South African Infantry at the age of 19, in 1917.
He was sent to France where on the night of June23, 1918, he and Corporal Codd charged a machine gun nest, killing one German, wounding two others and capturing seven more.
For this Patience was awarded the Military Medal for bravery.
“This dashing gallantry was most inspiring to all ranks of the two platoons who had been enfiladed. The capture of the gun team saved many casualties in our ranks, and enabled the line to move forward to the final objective, when it was held up by the enemy fire from the MG and group of Germans,” the citation for the medal read.
Corporal Patience never saw his medal; months after his heroic action in June, he was caught in a gas attack.
He died of his wounds a month and a day before the armistice was signed.
A hundred years later, and many of those men’s names can no longer be read - chunks of masonry has been pulled from the memorial.
The Bezuidenhout Valley memorial has been in trouble for a while. Even the fountain next to it has been smashed.
“It is in a shocking state of abuse, and the condition of the memorial has been in a downward spiral,” said Eric Itzkin, head of Immoveable Heritage at the Joburg City Council.
It is in fact Joburg’s most vandalised memorial.
Other sites do periodically get vandalised. The Cenotaph in the centre of Johannesburg had to be cleaned of graffiti in time for the commemorations on Sunday.
But Itzkin says there is a plan for the Bezuidenhout Valley memorial.
“We have started consulting with the provincial heritage authority and we are continuing our discussion with the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation, for us to work on this jointly,” he said, adding that it was important that the memorial stay in the community.
With minutes to spare, Brooksbank and Smail finished cleaning as much of the memorial as they could.
Brooksbank then laid a wreath at the foot of the memorial. He also taped a piece of paper next to John Patience’s name on the memorial.
At 11 o’clock, the time when the armistice was signed all that time ago, the group bowed their heads and gave a minute’s silence to the dead.
Brooksbank left the piece of paper on the memorial. He hopes someone might read it. If they do, they will learn about a Bez Valley boy who did a brave deed and died for his country.
“Someone might read it and want to find out more,” says Brooksbank.
“They saw the same hills around us that we see today, but they were all blown to smithereens.”