Johan Wilhelm Colenbrander CB (1 November 1855 – 10 February 1918) was a Natal-born soldier and colonial official in Southern Africa.

[1][2][3][4] He was born in Pinetown in the British Colony of Natal, the fourth son of Dutch-born parents Theodorus Christiaan Colenbrander and Geraldine Nicolene van Groll.

[4][2] At the latter battle he met John Robert Dunn, a British settler in Zululand who had been made a chief by Cetshwayo, the king of the Zulu.

Colenbrander said he suffered another wound to his hands in warding of an assegai thrust and was struck three or four times again on the head, leaving the weapon embedded in his skull.

[10][11] A contemporary report in the London Daily News claimed Colenbrander took pleasure in shooting down Sitimela's supporters, including a number of women, and that he was unfit to play a part in the governance of Zululand.

[13][8] During the 1883–1884 Third Zulu Civil War Colenbrander fought for Zibhebhu at the head of a party of white mercenaries and helped defeat the supporters of Cetshwayo at the 1883 Battle of Msebe.

Colenbrander returned to Natal to recruit more men, but while he was absent, Zibhebhu was defeated in the 1884 Battle of Tshaneni (Mkuze), by the forces of Cetshwayo's son Dinuzulu.

Colenbrander worked with Lobengula as an interpreter and accompanied two of his inDuna (lesser chiefs) to England in February 1889 for an audience with Queen Victoria.

The British authorities insisted on the establishment of a Matabeleland Land Commission to create native reserves for the Ndebele people and Colenbrander was appointed its head.

[19] Colenbrander occasionally commanded British South Africa Police patrols, including an early 1894 expedition to suppress a rebellion in the Matopo Hills.

[27] Dissatisfied with their reserve and the hut tax the Ndebele rose against BSAC in the 1896 Second Matabele War, during which Colenbrander was granted the rank of captain in the Bulawayo Field Force.

He raised and led a Coloured mercenary unit, known as the Cape Boys, and, with Cecil Rhodes, helped negotiate the surrender of the Ndebele chiefs.

On 9 July 1901 Colenbrander, who then held the rank of lieutenant-colonel, received the first of numerous mentions in dispatches, being named by General Herbert Kitchener for bringing in Boer prisoners during a raid from Pietersburg in early May.

[30] Colenbrander commanded troops that occupied the Boer settlement of Louis Trichardt on 9 May and on 19 November captured Warmbaths taking 54 prisoners, 28 wagons and 35 horses, mainly from the commando of Christian Frederick Beyers.

That month, working in conjunction with a column under Lieutenant-Colonel Dawkins he captured Boer Commandant Adriaan Dirk Badenhorst and 22 burghers.

After the latter he persuaded Chief Linchwe I of the Kgatla people to stand down a war party of 2,000 warriors who were attempting to recapture livestock taken by Boer General Jan Kemp.

Although a planned encirclement failed to prevent the escape of the Boer force Colenbrander captured the town, much equipment and 119 prisoners, having inflicted nine dead.

In pursuing Beyers to Oud Agatha, part of Colenbrander's force was ambushed and it lost six dead, 12 wounded and 30 captured.

[45] Ten days after arriving in England he was arrested on fraud charges relating to $1,250 (equivalent to $40,875 in 2023) he had accepted as payment for a shooting expedition in central Africa.

[46] The complainant, Aylmer Francis Richard Dunlop Quin, alleged that he had made the payment on the basis that he was promised valuable mineral and land concessions would result from the expedition.

[51] The drownings, which happened on a Sunday, were mentioned in a South African House of Assembly debate as part of an argument against filming taking place on the Christian Sabbath.

[48] The loss of Colenbrander seems to have led to Chelmsford being relegated to the role of a minor character in the final version of the film, which was released later that year.

[3][41] Some physical artefacts belonging to Colenbrander are held by the South Mill Arts centre in Bishop's Stortford, England.