THE ~ A T A L SOCIETY OFFICE BEARERS

1999 2000
President
Vice-Presidents
Trustees
Treasurers
Auditors
Director
S.N. Roberts
Or F.e. Fried lander
T.B. Frost
MJ.e. Daly
A.B. Burnett
S.N. Roberts
KPMG
Messrs Thornton-Dibb.
Van der Leeuw and Partners
le. \1orrison
COUNCIL
Elected Members S.N. Roberts (Chainnan)
Professor A. Kaniki (Vice Chairn1an)
Professor A.M. Barrett
A.B. Bumett
lH. Conyngham
MJ.e. Daly
J.M.Deane
T.B. Frost
Professor W.R. Guest
Mrs T.E. Radebe
A.L. Singh
Ms P.A. Stabbins
Transitional Local
Council Representative Professor e.O. Gardner
EDITORIAL COMMITTEE OF NATALIA
Editor
Associate Editor
Secretary
lM.Deane
T.B. Frost
Or W.H. Bizley
M.H. Comrie
Professor W.R. Guest
Or D. Herbert
F.E. Prins
Mrs S.P.M. Spencer
Or S. Vietzen
G.D.A. Whitelaw
DJ. Buckley
Natalia 29 (1999) Copyright Natal Society Foundation 2010
Natalia
Journal ofthe Natal Society
No. 29 December 1999
Published by Natal Society Library
PO Box 415. Pietcrmarilzburg 3200. South Africa
SA rSSN 0085-3674
Cover Picture
'1'111: ORDINARY FACES OF WAR. Fortunate sun iH)fS.
British soldiers. captured at Spion Kop. under guard in a cattle truck.
(PhOfographlram the collection afthe ,\ala/ ,\/USCUtJl. J
Typesel by AI.J Afanl'lck
Prinled hy The Natal Wilness Printing and Puhlishmg Company (Pt!') Lld
Contents
Puge
EDITORIAL .............................................................................. 5
PREVIOUSLY UNPUBLISHED PIECE
Mary Moore writes of war
S ~ v ! v i u Viet:cen ....................................................................... 6
REPRINT
The Battle ofTalana Hill, as described in the
campaign journal of Lt. R. Ernest Reade, DSO 16
ARTICLES
'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times':
Natal and the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902
A gl impse into Bushman presence in the Anglo-Boer War
BiI! Guest ............................................................................. 23
F. E. Prins .......... .......... ......... ............... ................................. 50
Maritzburg during the siege of Natal, as reflected in
The Nutu! Witness October 1899 to March 1900
W.!-/. Biz!e)' ........................................................................... 61
OBITUARIES
Daphne Child ....................................................................... 91
Or Johan Colenbrander ........................................................ 91
Professor Jeffrey Horton ...................................................... 92
Professor Donald Hunter OBE ............................................. 94
Peter Kerchhoff .................................................................... 95
Lorraine Kettley ................................................................... 98
Bonakele Ntshalintshali ....................................................... 99
Professor Patrick Smythe ...... ........ ............ ............... ............ 99
Col. Jack Vincent MBE ....................................................... 101
Hubert von Klemperer ......................................................... 102
NOTES AND QUERIES ........................................................... 106
BOOK REVIEWS ..................................................................... 117
SELECT LIST OF RECENT
KWAZULU-NATAL PUBLICATIONS ................................... 125
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS ................................................ 128
Editorial
Natalia 29 is an Anglo-Boer War commemoration edition, with all five of its
substantial articles related in some way to that conflict, and its book reviews
reflecting at least some of the many publications marking the centenary.
When battlefield tours are the growth industry of the moment, it is easy to look no
further than the Boer invasion of Northern Natal and the famous engagements that
ensued. To balance that tendency Professor Bill Guest provides an authoritative
account of the overall impact of the war on the Colony of Natal, whose economy did
not reap lasting benefits from the temporary urgencies of wartime demand and supply.
In our Reprint section we reproduce an extract from the campaign journal of Lt.
R. Ernest Reade OSO who, hardly out of his teens, experienced the Battle of Talana
and the retreat to Ladysmith, survived the prolonged siege of that town but died in
action in the Transvaal in the later stages of the war. Or Sylvia Vietzen provides
commentary and notes on a previously unpublished letter of the Pietermaritzburg
teacher and headmistress Mary Moore. Moore's spontaneous responses to the
unfolding events of 1899 (including the Battle of Talana) show how fierce patriotism
and 'instant' unconfirmed information in wartime can influence the attitudes and
utterances of ordinary civilians.
A description of how some of the last Bushmen families from the Natal
Orakensberg became involved in the Anglo-Boer War is the subject of Frans Prins's
article. It is based on field work he has done among descendents of those Bushmen,
most of whom are now employed as farm workers in the Ermelo district.
Bill Bizley's selections from and comments on The Natal Witness columns during
the first six months of the war provide an interesting and often amusing account of
life in the colony's capital under the threat of invasion.
*****
The year 2000 will see a new editor of Natalia. Mr Moray Comrie, a long-serving
member of the editorial committee, has agreed to take over from the present editor,
who about a year ago indicated that he wished to lay down the office. Mr Comrie's
willingness to do this is much appreciated by the editorial committee, which will
remain unchanged next year, and by the Council of the Natal Society, in whose name
Nalalia is published.
J.M.OEANE
THE CATTLE GUARD. One of the drawings of Capt. CM. Dixon, 16th Lancers.
contained in the album The Leaguer of Ladysmith, Nov. 2nd 1899 Feb. 28th 19()(J (Eyre &
Spottiswoode. London. 1900.) The caption to this picture reads: 'Our slaughter cattle and treck [sic1
oxen (before they were all eaten) were sent out to graze just outside our defences, under small escorts.
whose duty was to prevent the Boers from rounding them up and driving them off These escorts
were usually found by the Natal Volunteers or Imperial Light Horse:
(Picture reproducedfram the book in the ::,pecial collections of The Natal Society Library.)
Mary Moore writes ofwar
Talana and after
Introduction
Mary Elizabeth Constance Moore came to Natal from England in October 1890, aged
30, to teach at St Anne's Diocesan College, then situated in Loop Street in
Pietermaritzburg. There she taught English and Latin and soon became known for her
devotion to duty. and for her pleasant disposition and inexhaustible humour. In
August 1898 she was sent to launch a branch of St Anne's at Dundee, but the project
did not prove viable and she soon returned to St Anne's in Pietermaritzburg where
she became headmistress and worked under the overall leadership of the Lady
Warden, Miss Marianne Browne. She played a major part in the relocation of St
Anne's to Hilton in 1904, but after a disagreement with Marianne Browne's
successor, left St Anne's early in 1905 and founded Wykeham, a girls' school in
upper Loop Street near to the old St Anne's. At Wykeham she fulfilled her life-long
dream of owning her own school. In 1919, shortly before her sixtieth birthday, she
retired and eventually settled in Grey town where she was joined by her sister from
England. She died in 1933.
From the moment she left London on the SS Umku:::i on 19 September 1890 Mary
Moore began a combination of vividly detailed letters and 'diary budgets' to give her
mother (Mater) and sister (Flo, or Chick) in Lincoln a full account of her colonial
venture. A substantial part of these letters and diaries survives, dated from October
1890 to December 1892 and July 1897 to June 1902. They are presently held in the
Killie Campbell Library in Durban. Other than a few isolated letters in the Wykeham
papers in The Wykeham Collegiate Archives and a 'holiday budget' bought at
random at an auction sale and now owned by Miss K.M. Nixon of Pietennaritzburg,
and two later letters in the possession of Mr Drummond Mackenzie of Cramond,
none of Moore' s other letters has, to date, been found, nor the letters she received.
There is no explanation of why some were kept but it does appear that the
resumption of the collection in July 1897 followed a home visit and extended travel
abroad.
Mary Moore was an accomplished diarist and the material is tilled with
information about Natal in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Social
comment, cultural events, education, the church, the military, travel, nature. people,
prejudices, gossip: all are there. Her extensive coverage of Natal issues and events is
especially appealing for its spontaneity and candour. Her aim was purely and simply
to meet her mother's request to 'know all about everything' and to satisfY her own
Vala/IQ 29 ( 1999). S. Vietzen pp. 6-15
7
Mary Moore writes ofwar
need to tell all. As a source of historical 'facts' the letters must naturally be subjected
to the usual processes of verification. As a source for knowing Mary Moore and
placing her in her milieu - her intellectual framework, preconceptions, attitudes,
assumptions, beliefs, loyalties and aspirations, and those of her class - they are
invaluable.
Mary Moore (seated in grass chair) with her fifth-form pupil s at St Anne's.
(Photograph: Sf Anne 's College archives.} .
At this time when the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 is undergoing reappraisal in
the context of its centenary, the letters are a veritable treasure trove. With the
exception of some missing letters between 5 July and 3 August 1900 when it is
known that she wrote a ' holiday budget' of her travels around the Natal battlefields,
and a significant break between 11 December 190 I and 7 June 1902, her letters
during the war appear to be intact. The proportion of war news to non-war news
reflects the progress of the war. Her first reference to the 'Transvaal trouble' was on
27 April 1898 and her references to the threat of war increased steadily to its
outbreak in October 1899. During the Natal campaign there was voluminous detail,
often whole letters being devoted to it. After Ladysmith was relieved she dwelt for
some time on tales of the siege. References then became intermittent until peace was
declared in May 1902. This, and visits to Pietermaritzburg of the generals Buller and
Roberts and Sir Alfred Milner, were vividly described. Her system was fairly
consistent. She began her letter on Sunday, added to it during the week, and posted it
usually on Friday or Saturday when the overseas mail left.
8
Mary Maare writes a/war
St Anne's College, Loop Street Pietermaritzburg, in Mary Moore's time.
Onl y the arched gateway on the right is recogni sable today.
(Ph otograph: St Anne '51 College archives.)
The challenge of Mary Moore's writing during the war is that it is the testimony
of a civilian woman caught up in the trappings and repercussions of war as she
faithfully carried out her duties as teacher and headmistress in a girls' boarding
school. Fear for the safety of families on farms and as far afield as the Transvaal,
anxiety about relatives and friends in the forces, constant telegrams from parents
fearing for the safety of their daughters, troop trains trundling past the school,
frequent visits to the station nearby where telegrams with the latest news were posted,
and the ever-present dread of a Boer invasion vvhich would take in Pietermaritzburg
on its way to Durban, made St Anne's a war zone of its own. Rumour abounded, both
about what might happen and what had happened, given the time it took for news to
be confirmed and given the many people with whom a school would have contact.
This immediacy is reflected in Moore' s reportage; it gives the letters authenticity and
demonstrates the mixture of fact and fiction which accompanies war, even more for
those at home than for those at the front.
Although the history of war is often regarded as a woman ' s ' no man's land', the
Anglo-Boer War is moderatel y represented by Boer women's concentration camp
reminiscences, the pro-Boer writing of Emily Hobhouse and her associates, and some
memoirs of British and colonial nurses. But available pro-British writing of the
strength and conviction of Mary Moore is fairly unusual. She was an ' establishment'
woman through and through. She had attended Newnham College, Cambridge, not
long after it was founded for women in 1871. She had taught at St Mary's School,
Paddington, a high church Anglican establishment in London. Her friends in the
Colony were representative of the 'old Natal' family network such as the
9
Mary Moore writes ( ~ l w a r
Vanderplanks and St Georges in Pietennaritzburg, the Mackenzies and Leucharses on
their fanns at Cramond, the Fannins at the Residency at Grey town, the Jacksons, also
magistrates, one at Harding and one at Newcastle, the Strachans at Umzimkulu and
other fanning families at the Oargle and Mooi River in the Natal midlands. Her circle
was enriched by the school's proximity to Government House and to Fort Napier, the
imperial army's regimental headquarters in Natal. Clearly she had imperial army
connections in her family; her father's brother had been in India with Lord Roberts.
She was, in no uncertain terms, for Queen and Empire. She believed in British
rightness and certain victory in South Africa. Her attitude to the Boers was one of
contempt, signified by her use of a small 'b' when writing of them. While her
derogatory judgments of them could be read as war talk of an extreme kind, they also
constituted 'othering' of subject colonial peoples, more usually associated with black
people. Of the latter's participation in the war Moore said very little.
Mary Moore was a conventional Victorian woman. She carried out the home-front
duties expected of women and worked tirelessly in support of the troops, hosted
nurses and refugees at St Anne's, visited the wounded at Fort Napier and comforted
the bereaved. Yet there was much in this intelligent, lively woman which actively
challenged the passive, non-combatant Victorian female image. She showed an
extraordinary interest in the war and an almost frenetic desire to convey the war news,
even sending newspapers to her family, favouring The Natal Witness over the Times
of Natal. She commented on strategy and tactics, made judgments on generals and
soldiers, and, on several occasions, expressed a wish to become involved in the war,
lamenting that women were not yet allowed to fight. Perhaps this gendered conflict is
best summed up in a remark in her letter of 29 October 1899 after a day of sewing at
St Anne's:
Today I have a blister on my middle finger where the scizzors [sic]
went, & my ann is as stiff from machining as if I had
rheumatism ... I stuck to the machine as I should like to stick to a
Gatling or a Maxim, mowing them all down before me.
The letter quoted below shows Mary Moore's reactions to the breaking news of
the battles at Talana Hill and Elandslaagte and to the first week of hostilities in Natal.
It is one of her shorter and less sensational letters but it does reflect the position of
those at home waiting for news. Read together with the accompanying memoir of R.
Ernest Reade, who took part in the events of that week, it provides some balance for a
more all-round understanding of the social phenomenon of war. War history is made
up of many war stories, and some of these should be from women.
10
Mary lvloore writes ofwar
The letter
St. Anne's College
Maritzburg.
Oct:21 st/99
My dearest Mater & Chick,
We seem to be really in the thick of the Rebellion as they are calling it. They will
not honour the boers by calling it a war.:: You know how blood-thirsty one was before
it began. well. now the horrors are sickening. It is nothing to speak of thousands
being slaughtered when it is in a distant age & you have read it as history, or when it
is in a distant land & you read in a newspaper but when among the slain are
people you have known or seen & heard about it is awful & one longs for it all to
be over.' On Friday was a great battle at Dundee they are calling it Talani [sic] Hill
it was bri Iliant but it has cost the life of our General & of numbers of officers for
the boers best shots seem to be told off to aim at the officers.
4
The Irish acted bravely
there is a rumour here that the regiment that pursued the enemy over the hills have
never returned certainly their return has never been mentioned - it may have been
that they did not think the return worth mentioning. On the other hand, many are
that it means they were led into ambush, met by another commando &
slaughtered to a man.
s
Our camp seems to have been on the flat outside the town near
where the St. Anne's School was to have been b u i l t ~ the hospital that is the Swedish
Mission House we used to pass every day if from Miss Usherwood's garden
6
we
called on our next neighbour by creeping through the fence. It makes it so real when
you know the place exactly to the hills that the rebels were posted upon & over which
they were driven. Mr Bailey is still there, his wife & child are in Durban. The
Bishops told me he envied him.
All Saturday we were busy for the poor men. There had been appeals in the paper
for tobacco & papers - & for invalids' things. So we had got up a St Anne's Fund
all the girls & Mistresses & the Lady Warden & all Saturday Miss Lawrance & I
were getting the things
9
First we got the tobacco for it is getting scarce here. They
always use Boer Tobacco here, & of course the supply is cut off from the Transvaal.
We got 5 bags of 5 lbs each at 101- a bag it used to be 7 i6 before the war this is
cost price they let us have all our things cost price Mellin's Food, Neave's Food
Semolina, Corn Flour, Arrowroot
lO
Cocoa, & 3 cases of Condensed Milk, & Pearl
Barley. We got also a gross of Matches, a gross of pipes at one shop, & 9 doz at
another & then another dozen as we had alc left. We interviewed the man who
sees about such things & he said they would be thankful for old linen so the L.W.
looked out old sheets & pillow-cases & our old linen - all the afternoon we were
packing & Shortie had come in for the day. Mr George wanted to see the Governor to
learn whether Buccleuch & Cramond were safe & Shortie had seen us in the town &
when she learnt what we were doing she gave us another bag of tobacco so had 6
altogether. I I Won't the poor men be thankful. You see sometimes as happened to the
Carbineers they were obliged to leave their camps & their kit fell to the enemy
when the 70 stood up against 600 boers in the bush in which Gallwey was lost - by
the way he was taken prisoner & is now at Harrismith wounded but alive.
11
lwary Moore It'rites qfwar
Alfred Shaw wrote after the fight to say don't think we beat a cowardly retreat our
orders were to retire & we had to do so but if they would have allowed us we would
have beaten the Dutch. Fancy 70 to 600. It was a brilliant little fight they never lost a
man except Spenser & Gallwey.12 As I went to church at 7 a.m. Mr Frank Green
l3
told me that there had been another victory. This at Ladismith [sic] 14. So I returned
from Church up Church street (a very long way round) that I might see the telegrams
& there r saw the battle of Elandslaagte (Eel-ans-Iurk-ter) (if you can, put a gutteral
into the 'laag,)I". It is a wonderful tight! First we retook the station & collieries & all
that had been lost a day or two before that was Saturday morning then in the
afternoon was the battle, it was 15 miles from Ladismith & of course very much
nearer to Maritzburg than Dundee. All day telegrams have been arriving & new
editions or rather slips of paper printed. One of the Light Horse chiefs, Sampson 16,
has a thigh shattered by an expanding bullet. The grandest thing was the Lancers
charge the boers scattered like sheep the Lancers went backwards & forwards
through them, bayonets in hand & scarcely lost a man. One little trumpeter, of J 4,
killed 3 men with his revolver & was afterwards carried round the camp. We don't
know the real loss yet. Boers fired on the ambulance after the battle when we were
succouring their own wounded as well as ours just like them. General Kockl7 was
found dying, Joubert's nephew taken, & there was an idea that Kruger's son was
among the slain but we don't know yet. IS They expected another fight at Dundee,
but no news.
Mondav At Dundee yesterday, the boers threw 2 or 3 shells into the town but they
were not plugged, so they could not explode. However, it might be to find the range
l9
(Later) It is said that the Dundee camp is entrenched, surrounded by boers & is
short of ammunition. Let us hope it is not true for if it is they will all be massacred
unless help can go from Ladismith. They say in the papers now 'Where are the
regiments that followed the Dutch over the hill after the fight at Talani Hill'. We hope
they returned & it was not thought important enough to note - but it is curious that
nothing has been said. Another rumour is that 1500 boers are the other side of Table
Mt,:w that is 17 mi. away, we look at it from our verandas. Another that a commando
has got through Zululand & is making for Greytown - certainly the troops which
have been quietly waiting at Otto's Bluff were sent on to Grey town to'day21. Old
men say we have not begun yet, we don't know what we are in for yet - & we had
in a sort of way hoped that our 2 victories would crush the spirits of the boers - it
seems only to have made them desperate.
n
Tuesday Most depressing news. Dundee is evacuated & shelled - not a building
standing. What a good thing we did not spend all our money & run into debt to build
a school in Dundee! Where would it have been n o w ' ? ~ ' "fhere is news of a battle near
Ladismith but no particulars yet. Martial Law is proclaimed here, so we must mind
our P's & Q's. The children wanted to know if they would be shot if they spoke of the
Queen, they had an idea that they were not to mention her name.
24
Within an hour of
its being proclaimed in Durban the Blue Jackets marched up to the National Bank &
commandeered all Transvaal gold, & the clerks & managers, all English, made no
protest but srn ilingly & agreeably complied with the law. It is suggested that the
12
Mary Moore writes qlwar
Dutch prisoners of war should be imprisoned on hulks in the Bay, where they would
roll not a little, & they think sickness might relieve them of their treason
2
'i.
Wednesday News of a splendid victory near Ladismith - won by Sir G. White over
1500 boers. Nearly all volunteers engaged & Regulars as well, gunning excellent.
Boers most determined & brave but their positions taken & their guns silenced. The
camp from Dundee is safely removed to Ladismith
2h
but - the wounded are left
behind - Penn-Symons & all. We are in terror that the boers will go & shoot them.
According to the rules of civilised warfare
27
they are safe but only yesterday a boer
shot 2 wounded men as the doctor was tending them & would have shot the doctor
too but the pistol shot brought up 2 soldiers who shot him. He never said a word,
strolled up as if to look on, & then pistolled them before the doctor knew what he was
about. They are such inhuman brutes.
We call it a victory but it is the cover of a retreat & shows weakness. Besides, we
are losing so many men & the boers don't, they give way when they begin to fall
so what we call victory is really only their tactics.
28
Things look very bad. It is like a
bad night-mare. One wonders when the awakening will come. There is a heavy dark
cloud & it never lifts, but gets lower & lower & more oppressive each day.
Thursday The children were going away for the All Saints' Holiday tomorrow - we
had none at Michaelmas because of measles. Mrs Leuchars & Grace
29
asked me to go
to Cramond but I did not like to go for the whole as I knew there would be many left
here, & as I had lots of arrears to make up in work & I wanted to finish off the
Quarter's Accounts & try to do some sewing for the soldiers - but I said I would for
Sunday & wrote last night to say I would go on Saturday afternoon & return on
Monday morning. However, I must write tonight to say I cannot.
We had a letter from Mr Bennett the Magistrate of Ladismith advising the L.
Warden not to allow any holidays now or at Xmas - at least not to allow the children
to leave & asking us to keep his girls.
Mrs Bennett wrote & said she did not know his reasons but she knew that all the
plagues of Delagoa Bay & India were staring us in the face - we don't think he
means the bubonic plague only - which is or has been reported at Delagoa but the
cut-throats, murderers & villains of the blackest dye, of all nations & colours, which
have been turned out of the Transvaal gaols & let loose upon society - sent out of
the Transvaal in trains - out of their territory to go where they would & do as they
will. There are petitions to the governor asking that they may not be allowed to land
in Natal.
30
So we may have the children indefinitely except such as are provided with a
proper escort by parents.
Friday (Before breakfast) Another week day. All yesterday it rained hard - the first
really hard tropical rain that we have had for more than 5 minutes, this season - &
we had a bad storm thunder & awful lightning nearly all the afternoon. I do hope our
poor men will not suffer. Of course they must because they are not all under canvas.
Alfred Shaw said when he wrote that he had not seen a tent for 11 days. The brother
of a girl here said he had never been under any cover since he went up - but they
lvlary Afoore writes qf\var
13
don't grumble they are splendid fellows.:)! [ saw Mr B i r d ~ 2 yesterday just down
from Johannesburg he arrived on Sunday the last down only knew 10
minutes before he left that he was to leave - had orders to stay before from his head
office then sudden notice to quit - not a thing could he bring, only found room
for himself He says the Transvaal is like a barren desert, you don't see a living
creature for miles & miles then you see a stray man on the line. He thinks they have
sent all to the front. It is a supreme effort on their part & it wi II go hard with us.)\
I am sending you a paper again. Will you let Loue have letter & paper too. You
will see they are doing well at Mafeking & Kimberley, both invested & cut off really,
but both plucky. Rhodes is at Kimberley Baden Powell is the mainspring at
Mafeking a well-plucked little man.:>-l Vryburg you will see has barely given itself up
without a blow full of traitors they say it was.
We have no coal & can get none - fortunately wood is procurable yet, but
transport is very difficult we tried to get some the other day & failed, still with the
wattle plantations we shall get it eventually.:>5
Mail goes off in half an hour. We were all so sad this morning to
hear of our General's death. We had hoped against hope that he might recover.
36
Poor
fellow & to die a prisoner in the hands of those boers. You will see Joubert's
telegram- cold. callous, beast.:
17
We hear that they have ill-treated Mr Jackson
38
but
it is only a report brought by natives, I believe. I hope it is not true. So far though we
have had victories we have now nothing but rather lost ground. We were fearing the
worst but we have just been cheered by the news that troops have come, & gone
up secretly - 20,000 they say.39 I don't mind a rumour like that it cheers one, but
retreats, evacuations, & deaths make one wish for peace. We feel always as if it were
a night-mare & yet we can't wake. The deaths are dreadful, they say the boers are not
good shots & yet they pick off all our officers!
Well good-bye dear Mater & Chick. Please send this to Loue when you read it
give my love to Kate & tell her I will write her birthday letter this week when we
have a holiday.
With much love
Mary Moore
NOTES
I. Sunday \\as 22 October. Lither she misdated thc letter or dated it on the Saturday and started writing
on Sunday.
2. The Times o!\atal tended to use the term 'rebellion'. Though Moore would have sympathised with
the concept and frequcntly described the Boers as "traitors' she used the teml 'war'.
The harsh reality of war dawned very quickly once hostilities had begun. Just one week before,
Moore had written, 'I am glad I am here & am awfully sorry for Miss Heaton, just to have missed iC
I should have been wild if this had taken place when I was having my holiday',
4. or the 51 British dead and 203 wounded at the Battle of Talana it is estimated that each battalion
had lost half a dozen oflicers, and Major-(ieneral W. Penn Symons. See Thomas Pakenham, The
Boer War, Johannesburg, 10nathan Ball. p. 132.
5. This rumour proved to be unlounded. Early news of this kind probably came by telegram and b)
word of mouth and would be clarified later. Confirmation of news. especially in the press. would also
be dependent on the work of the press censor.
6 Miss fliza .lane Usherwood was benefactress and Lady Warden of St Anne's in Pietermaritzburg
when it moved in 1879 to the property in Loop Street previously occupied by Bishop's College. She
14
Mary lvloore writes qlwar
took a l:otlage in Dundee and sponsored the Brandl School whil:h Mary Moore was sent to open in
August 1898. The project was abandoned <lller onc month because. in Moore's words. there W<lS not
the 'class of people there to pay for the edul:atioll of their l:hildrel1. They have a vcry good
Ciovernment School which is all they need'.
7. The Rev. (ierard Chilton Bailey. Vicar nrSt .lames's Church. Dundee. had been the moving li)ree IiJr
the branch school, hoping it would serve the growing coal-mining town and provide an alternative to
the Roman C<ltholic Convent Sl:hool opened there in 1897. Bailey remained in Dundee throughout
the Boer occupation. from 23 October 1899 to 6 May 1900 and kept a daily diary. See Pam
McFadden. nu' Hallle o(Talana. Battles of the lioer War Series, Ravan Press, 1999. pp. 3(}-38
8 Bishop Arthur Hamilton Baynes. author of Atv j)/()(,(:,s(:' f)urIng Ihe War. I>ondon. (ieorge Bell and
SOilS. 1900 I le resigned at the end of 1900 and returned to I:ngland.
9. Moon; was an indefatigable \\Orker for the war effort and she presumed that all at St AI1IH:' s should
be similarly involved. This was. aller all. the expected female role in a colonial war. I ler frequent
n;tCn:nce to the 'poor men' carried with it a sense of indebtedness to them and an acceptance of
patriachy.
10. There should. presumably. be a comma betvvcen Arrowroot and Cocoa
I1 (his refers to Mr Cieorge Macken;:ie whose farm. Buccleuch and that which his son. Torn Mackenzie
was to occupy in 1900. Cranwnd. near the village of Cramond. were Mary Moore's regular holiday
destinations. So it has not been possible to identify 'Shortie' mentioned here.
12. In a preliminary skirmish with the Boers the previous week. Lieutenant Gallwey. son of the Chief
Justice of Natal. Sir Michad Oallwey. was taken prisoner when the Natal Carbineers werc guarding
the Orange Free State approach to I.adysmith.
13 Son of Dean .lames Green (18211906). of SI Saviour's Cathedral.
14 Moore frequently wrote Ladysmith as Ladismith.
15. rekgrams and latest war news were posted outside the Colonial Buildings in Church Street Moore's
aid to the pronunciation of Llandslaagte was valiant but not totall) correct. She always assisted her
family in this way with Dutch names.
16. rhe Imperial Light Horse was a voluntary regiment of Transvaal refugees. At L1andslaagle the III I
under Colonel Aubrcy \Voolls-Sampson were able to avenge the Hoer victories over them at Majuba
and [)oornkop. See Pakenham. pp. 134-141
17. General Kock commanded the Boer fon.:es at Ilandslaaglc and was lHortally wounded
Commandant-(Jeneral Pict Joubert led the Hoer forces in the first part of the Natal campaign but was
replaced after 25 November 1899 by the younger I ,Duis Botha.
18 Written less than 24 hours after the battle at Elandslaagte Moore's account is remarkably accurate.
tinged only with the rUlHour and uncertainty which was to be expected. Obviously her inf(mnation
on a Sunday morning came from tekgrams. Her prejudice towards the Hoers is evident. Some
accounts of the battle do suggest incidents of sly behaviour towards British medical staff See. for
example. Donald Macdonald. !fOil' We Kepllhe nag fJying The ,')"Iory q/lhe Siege q/
(first published. London. Ward. Lock & Co .. 1900). Reprint Roodepoort. Covos Books. 1999. pp.
8-11
19. Moore's interest in combat details and weaponry is unusual for a woman, especially of her time. She
did own a pistol and Wykeham School was the first girls' school in Pietermaritzburg to introduce
shooting as a sport.
20. A Ilat-topped mountain visibk from Pictermaritzburg. There was a genuine tCar among the colonial
population of a Boer invasion and rumours were rite of their movement south and imminent arrival
on their way to Durban. In fact the Boers did not advance further south than the Nottingham Road
district. some 60 kms north of Pietcm1aritzburg.
21 There were Olto girls at St Anne's and Moore had many friends in Grey town and the surrounding
area. notably Major Georgc Leuehars who commanded the Umvoti Mounted Rilles during the war.
Hence her focus on these areas and information about them.
22. Of the British victories at Talana and Elandslaagte Moore wrote on 19 November 1899. 'This is as
someone says the funniest war- we efaim all the victories & the ellemy takcs all the territory if
you have a map you will see thcy have control of more than half Natal. It makes me so angry I long
to go & fight. We are not allowed yet. We shall soon think the very generals are traitors'
23. A very human reaction amid the alarming war news.
Mary Moore writes qlwar
15
24. Loyalty to the Queen and to the 13ritish cause was assumed and actively cultivated at St Annes.
Coming largely from colonial families with 'establishment" connections. the girls hardly needed the
encouragement they were inevitably given by their English-born teachers.
25. It would be fair to assume that this was newspaper information amplified by Moore's subtle humour
and less subtle prejudice
26. This refers presumably to Lieutenant-General White's attempt on 24 October 1899 at Rietfontein to
prevent the Free State Boers from joining with the Transvaal Boers to cut off Brigadier-General
Yule's retreat from Dundee. While his brigade achieved this limited objective. the Boers in fact held
their ground with minimum loss. See Pakenham. pp. 150-1. Moore's first reports oflen had to be
amended later
27. Moore held the traditional view that warfare had rules and was incensed when the Boers' unexpected
tactics and actions appeared to ignore them. It is ditTicult to verify all the examples she recounts in
her letters as many came from personal infonnation which frequently reinforced her anti-Boer
prejudice. It is worth noting that observers of warfare in the twentieth century have discerned a
steady descent into 'slaughter' and 'barbarism' associated with disregard for the rules and 'honour'
of fornlal warfare. See. for example. Michael Ignatieft: The Warrior's Honor: Ethnic War And The
Modern Conscience. London. Vintage. 1998. pp. 116--8 and Eric Hobsbawm, 'Barbarism: A User's
Guide' in On History. London. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 1997. pp 256--8.
28. The tendency of the Boers to show a white flag and then continue fighting. evident at Talana and
Elandslaagte. drew comment from Moore on several occa'iions Writing on 29 October 1899. for
example. she suggested. scathingly. that they all carried white flags in their riding boots I
29. Mrs Leuchars. nee Mary Mackenzie. and her sister. Grace Mackenzie. were daughters of George
Mackenzie of 13ueeleuch. Cramond. It is worth noting the speed of the postal service.
30. While the hazards of a war situation arc acknowledged. racism and xenophobia clearly existed in
colonial Natal as in Moore herself
3 I. Moore had great admiration for the soldiers. especially the colonials. many of whom were known to
her through her pupils and her friends. She was less impressed with the leadership. commenting in
her letter of 29 October 1899. '/\s some onc said the other day - the men are splendid. but they arc
badly otTieered' and later. 'We are terribly outnumbered & out-gunned & worse [sic] of all out
general led '.
32 Probably Christopher John Bird (1855-1922). one time Colonial Secretary of Natal. who played an
influential role in the development of the Natal civil service and was the compiler of the Bird Papers.
a collection of particulars of old Natal settlers.
33. Despite her anti-Hoer feeling. Moore acknowledged their military prowess and. from the start. felt
Britain was underestimating it.
34. Moore admired Baden-Powell greatly and was constantly comparing him favourably with White,
indicating that Mafcking had more to hope for than Ladysmith. She was generally suspicious of
Rhodes's motives.
35. The supply of coal would have been atTected by the cutting of the railway link with northern Natal. It
is interesting that Moore's friends the Mackenzies had fonned the Clan Syndicate. which included
Major Leuchars and others. to introduce wattle trees to Natal. (Personal infonnation. Mrs Brigid
Mackenzie. Cramond.)
36. Clearly she knew when she began this letter that Penn Symons was mortally wounded. but she heard
of his death on 27 October.
37. Joubert expressed his sympathy to White and Lady Penn Symons but took the opportunity to
condemn the war which he said was brought about by unscrupulous speculators and capitalists who
went to the Transvaal to obtain wealth and further their own interests. This would have annoyed
Mary Moore.
38 Magistrate of Newcastle and father of Ruby at St. Annes. Moore spent several holidays with the
Jacksons and in later letters gave extensive coverage to Jackson's experiences of the Boer occupation
of Newcastle and his journey to Durban via Delagoa Bay.
39. The British War Ot1ice had been able to muster reinforcements of 10 000 troops who came in
through Durban in mid-October ahead of the main army corps under General Bulb which arrived in
Cape Town on 3 I October 1899 Mary Moore had expressed her dismay at the dilatory attitude of
the British authorities towards the Boer threat as far back as her letter of 25 September 1899 and she
predicted that these t<Jrces would arrive too late.
SYL VIA VIETZEN
The Battle ofTalana Hill
as described in the campaign journal oj'
Lt. R. Ernest Reade, DSO.
Introduction
Robert Ernest Reade was born near Be({ast, Northern Ireland, on 18 April 1879, the
second in afamil}' qfjive. Afierfour years at Harrow, he went up to Trinity
Cambridge, for the purpose of qualifYing for the Army. He passed the army
examinations well, and in August 1898 was commissioned as a lieutenant in the 60'11
(King '.'I Royal Rifle Corps). Almost immediate(v he embarkedfor South .1{rica, where
war was imminent. In October he took part in the Battle ( ~ { Talana Hill and the
retreatfrom Dundee. During the siege of Lady smith he was mentioned in dispatches
lor conspicuous gallantry', and was later awarded the DSO, though he did not live
to hear q{that honour. By the time the siege vvas raised Reade was seriously ill 'with
enteric fever. While convalescent, he travelled by invalid train to Durban, and was so
weak that he had to be carried on board ship. By the end ql the voyage to
Southampton his health had improved, but he remained at home from May until
November 1900 to recuperate fully. As soon as the medical board passed him as fit
for active service, he sailed again for South .1{rica, eager to rejoin his regiment, then
operating in the eastern Transvaal. On 2 February 1901, near Middelburg, he was
seriously wounded in a skirmish with a small Boer force, and died two days later,
two-and-a-ha({ months before his 2 1st birthday .
. 1jier his death, a book ).vas published as a tribute to this very personable young
man. One who knew him well described him as 'one q{the most perfect characters I
have ever known one who attracted affection and admiration wherever he moved
[He had] simplicity and pureness q{ mind, courage and honour, unselfishness quite
uncommon. delightful industry, playfillness and a high capacity for enjoyment. ' The
book contained a Memoir and extracts from Reade's campaign journal. (Memoir of
R. Ernest Reade, DSO. London, 1902. Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner & Co. Lld.)
The extract that follows describes the.first engagement (ij'the Anglo-Boer War q{
1899-1902. This soldier's account (?{ the battle invites an interesting comparison
with Mary Moore's letter on the same subject, elsewhere in this issue.
* * * * *
.Vatalia 29, ( 1999) pp. 16--22
17
The Battle olTalana Hill
Friday, Ocloher 20 Yesterday evening I was permanently sent to A Company. Of
which I was very glad, as E Company is not so seasoned as A, which is commanded
by Major Boultbee, and Marsden under him. Thus we had three officers to A
Company.
We paraded under arms at 4.30 a.m. Our tea was late, but I just got a small cup
swallowed, and choking down a Marie biscuit, rushed out. After standing under arms
until 5 a.m., we were told to dismiss. We were a little longer seeing to some things
than the other companies, and when we came to the mess-tent, found everybody
looking with glasses at Talana Hill, distant about 3 500 yards from where we were
standing. ( got out my glasses and saw that the whole ridge, as well as a small hill to
the east, was fairly lined with Boers, and also that guns were rapiqly being got into
position. Almost at the same moment I saw a flash, a few seconds' pause, then bang!
closely followed by a long-drawn-out whiz-r-r-r over our heads; whack! As the bullet
landed about 70 yards in a direct line in the stones just beyond our camp.
This was the first. All was then bustle and confusion for a few seconds, while we
fell in again and opened out, awaiting orders to move. There we lay on the ground
to the inexperienced a terrible ordeal as the shells fel) amongst us. The shells did
not burst in the air, but were percussion fuzed [sic]. No-one was killed, although the
Boers made splendid practice at us. One man had the upper half of his helmet taken
clean off. My nearest shell was about 7 yards off.
I think of all the events of that dreadful day I hated this part by far the worst. The
waiting after that flash, then the bang! and the whir-r! coming right at one. The moral
effect was terrible to the young and inexperienced.
Then our artillery set to work, and at the same moment we got orders to move.
The Rifles were on the left. I having the left half of A Company was told to keep the
left of B Company on my right. This I did and got separated from the rest of A for a
time.
By this time we were about 1 500 yards from the top of Talana Hill. The Boer
guns spoke no more, as our gunners, picking up the range in the most wonderful way
almost at once, and far outnumbering the Boer artillery, burst shrapnel after shrapnel
just over the brow of the hill, and there is no doubt the Boer loss at this point must
have been very great.
Soon the bullets began to fizz around us. We had to get into a spruit - i.e., a
stream with very steep sides. This was about 800 yards from the summit and 300
from a wood of gum trees, which stretched most of the way along the foot of the hill,
and a little way up from the spruit to the wood was an absolutely open space, quite
level. I don't think the Boers ever came down as far as the wood, but lined the hill
face, which was covered with big stones and rocks.
The wood was about 200 yards deep, then there \vas about 150 yards to a stone
wall, running all along the hill, along which, on the other side from us, the Boers were
thick. Then 50 yards off, fairly steep ground. The last seventy yards to the top almost
a precipice.
To into that spruit was the first thing to be done. Long-range bullets whizzed
around us, and once, as I and my half company were crossing a particularly open
18
The Battle ofTalana Hill
space, a quick-firing Hotchkiss opened on us, and turned the clay up amongst us, but
most curiously, there was scarcely a dead man among the whole force when we
reached the shelter of the spruit. Here we were joined by the rest of A Company, who
having been rather more to the left had taken longer to come round to the spruit
which was pretty well below the centre of the hill and behind the wood.
We soon heard the orders. for those lucky Dublin fusiliers was reserved the
honour of attacking, as they were the first of our regiments to come under Symonds'
[sic] command. We were to support and the Irish Fusiliers in reserve. The Leicesters
had been left behind in camp to guard against the possibility, or rather probability, of
an attack from the Imparti [sic]. This came next day, a mistake that cost the Boers
dear; but more of th is hereafter.
The Dublins got across the open space and lay down behind the ditch on this side
of the wood. Then came our turn to do exactly the same thing. This we did at a slow
double. The bullets were as thick as an ordinaI)f hailstonn, and it seems to me almost
incredible that we only dropped about thirty men on the way ..We were, of course,
extended. 1 was told to keep the left half of A steady, and not let them rush for the
wood, and this so engrossed my whole attention that I scarcely noticed the bullets at
all. Only 1 was dimly conscious of many bullets passing over my head, and, in
particular, a succession of bullet after bullet just behind the nape of my neck, and am
inclined to think that as my equipment was still rather bright, some old veteran Boer
had singled me out as being an officer, and was using his magazine; in vain, however,
as it happened. Once 1 thought I had 'got it' in the leg, but it was only the blow from a
stone which a bullet pitching about two teet in front of me threw up.
We reached the ditch, and soon advanced to help the Dublins. I suppose we must
have waited lying down on the damp ground in the wood for a good hour and a half
before we advanced right up the hill. The bullets were nipping off the branches above
us all the time, but only a few seemed to come below a height of about ten teet.
We were on the extreme left, and so were the last to move round to the right.
While waiting here I must tell a little incident, which, though small in itself. I shall
always remember. Poor Colonel Gunning, who was with us, came up to me, and
taking my arm most kindly, pointed out to the left, and told me to keep a good look
out in that direction, for fear of being outflanked.
It was bitterly cold in the wood. The whole week till now had been very hot and
dI)f, but this morning was foggy, damp and raw, and I, personally, had been up to the
waist in mud and water, chiefly the former, while crossing the spruit.
On the order for us to move being given, we moved along the Boer edge of the
wood, only sheltered by a very low bank, over which the bullets fizzed. We remained
for about five minutes near a fannhouse towards the right before we got the order to
advance up the hill by the side of a stone wall running up the hill. While sitting
behind the bank, two poor 'Tommies' on either side of me were shot, as the bank was
really no shelter the men were falling thick all round, and the groans of the poor
fellows were terrible. We were glad to be told to advance, and after about one
hundred and fifty yards more or less in shelter, on account of the exceeding steepness
of the hill, we reached the wall about one hundred and fifty yards from the summit.
19
The BailIe o.lTalana Hill
As we had come up rather late, we were sent round to the left to guard against
tlank attack from that quarter. We were round a little spur, and here there was a sort
of small corner in the wall going into the hill.
This was the hottest spot of the whole length of the wall, as some Boers must have
got a cross-fire on us here.
I had already made one expedition to the Colonel to ask if we might move round
as far as this, and received an answer in the affirmative, and had just come back when
I saw Peechell [sic] standing up near this corner looking out to see if it would be
advisable to move further to the left the bullets were coming thick all over the
wall, which was only about three feet high, and the next moment he was down.
Boultbee and I, who were near, ran down to support him, but it was almost all over
with him. I shall never forget that minute - it was about the worst in my life. While
we were holding him up, one on each side, Boultbee suddenly put his hand to his side
he was wounded, and badly, too. By this time it was all over with poor Pechell, so
we had to get Boultbee as comfortable as possible. By the way, I ought to say I made
another journey to the centre to try and get a surgeon for Pechell before Boultbee was
wounded. I mention this, because it was then I saw the last of Colonel Gunning, for
he was killed about half an hour afterwards.
The fire was now hotter than ever; all that I could do was to try and get the
remaining men of my left half-company, and looking over the wall to try and see
Boers, to fire volleys now and then. The Boers, however, were so well posted behind
rocks that it was almost impossible to see any part of their bodies. Still, we had to fire
at something, but I am sure many a round was wasted. On one occasion, as I was
looking over the wall with my helmet off, there was a rather near fizz, a sort of spatter
in front of me, and then I felt a little dazed, but did not realise what had occurred until
two or three 'Tommies' on either side of me said, 'That was a close shave, sir,
through your 'air,' and so it was.
It was a most curious fact, but true all the same, that just before looking over that
time I felt a very strong disinclination to do so. However, as it never does to let this
sort of feeling get hold of one, I did look over, but took the precaution to take off my
helmet and not look so high as usual. I was further helped by the bullet hitting the top
of the wall, and so glancing off higher than my poor nut.
The artillery all this time was playing on the crest above, and it certainly speaks
volumes for the pluck of the Boers that so many of them stood their ground.
Then the guns ceased, and the charge began. r have already said that I was on the
extreme left. The charge was made on the right centre, and so we were not even
aware of its being made until it was over. In company with about three brother
officers, r missed this, which is a great grief to me. The Dublins by this time were
nearly all passed by our men. Up the steep face our fellows went, mixed with Irish
Fusiliers, who backed us well. When almost at the top we caught sight of them, and at
the same moment out rushed about twenty old Boers, who, standing on the skylines,
took shots from only about ten yards' distance at our leaders, all of whom they either
killed or wounded, until they themselves, by the hail of bullets sent from below, were
every one despatched. Thus died our Colonel and many of our officers and men. This
stopped our charge for the time. On seeing the charge I ran round to the centre to try
and get into it, but when I got there the artillery had already begun to play on the
20
The Battle o.lTalana Hill
brow again. By a dreadful mistake they showered some of their shrapnel on the brow
near the top where our poor wounded fellows were lying. They were stopped at once,
but the mischief was then done for at least two of our poor officers. Then we charged
again. There were so few officers left that Marsden, Stirling and myself found
ourselves at the head of about seventy Riflemen and a very few Irish Fusiliers.
Up and down we went revolvers on our right, swords on our left. We had all
the moral feeling of a we passed our dead and lacerated comrades, and
momentarily expecting the brow to be again lined with Boers, but alas! when we
reached the top no Boer was to be seen at close quarters, but out in the plain, at a
distance of about 800 yards was a long, black, huddled mass of flying Boers. Oh,
what a glorious feeling of victory! In half a minute we had the rifles down, and at 'the
present', to fire on the flying Boers, when up came a galloping staff officer yelling
out 'Stop firing! there is a flag of truce. ' I can absolutely state that neither I nor any of
us saw a flag of truce, and am inclined to think this was a fable. There was, however,
a Red Cross flag coming out to get leave to bring in the wounded. On this, of course,
we would not and did not fire, but neither Marsden, Stirling nor myself, who were in
the end first up (there is no glory in this, as there were no Boers) saw any flag of
truce. Even if there had been, a flag of truce should never for a moment be respected
while the enemy continues to scuttle out of range as fast as they can. The guns were
up, and all in readiness to plough long lanes in the closely packed masses. A hard
won fight might have been turned into a complete victory but for this. We then set to
work to gather in the spoils. We made some prisoners, took two flags (both were
dropped by flying Boers), and gathered a good score of Mausers and ammunition.
The Boers took away nearly all their dead, but left their wounded. Their loss has
been estimated at about 500, and their original force at about 7 000. The fighting
lasted nine hours, and was just about as stubborn as could be. While I was near the
Boer hospital seeing about the gathering in of the spoils I was told there was a
mounted infantry officer of ours lying a mile or so out, as well a poor wounded
'Tommy' half-way. I at once got ten riflemen, and a Boer fellow had a mule cart,
which we made come along. Assisted by a doctor, we found our way to the first
wounded 'Tommy'. He was about two miles out. I sent him back with eight men to
carry him and pushed on with the waggon, the doctor and colour-sergeant Davis to try
and find Crum, this being our mounted infantry officer's name.
Never shall I forget that walk. It was three good miles more from the last
wounded man. We now began to feel the effects of hunger, which excitement had
hitherto kept away. It was raining in deluges, and the walking was like ploughing the
whole way. The doctor was mounted and at last found the farmhouse where poor
Crum was with a wounded trooper of the 18
th
. Crum had his right arm shattered at the
shoulder, but his only inquiries were how the day had gone. He also said, 'I do hope
this arm won't have to come off, as then I shan't see any more of the fighting.' He
also insisted on the trooper being cared for first, and this was the third instance that
day of one of our officers getting the doctors to attend to a soldier the other two
were Major Boultbee and Captain Nugent. This I can vouch for myself. We dared not
leave Crum there, as, although the women folk in the house were very kind, Crum
said that he suspected that the man, who had left the house and was a rank Dutchman,
had gone to get some Boers to make himself and the trooper prisoners.
21
The Battle olTalana Hill
We got a little to eat in the farm, and putting the wounded into the cart to be jolted
to the Boer hospital set off for this place. By the time we reached it darkness had
completely set in, and then taking a Mauser extra each we set off on our trudge to
camp. Lucky that we had skirmished over that hill, as Colour-Sergeant Davis and
three 'Tommies' whom we had picked up were quite lost; my only gift, that of
remembering a place nearly always when having once seen it, got us home at last.
There were only six at mess that night; they were just finishing when I came in. Had a
ghost appeared they could scarcely have been more astonished.
It was just going to be telegraphed home that I was dead; both legs having been
shot off. Such was the rumour that had got about. Naturally I was joyfully welcomed.
After eating as much as I could, I took off my wet things, went to my bed in my tent,
and got a sound sleep, which was to be my last for many days.
Thus ended this terrible day. I suppose it was very nearly as hard a fight as there
ever has been. It just came within my first week. Twenty-two officers were at mess on
Thursday evening. On Friday there were only eleven fit for duty, and two of these
were slightly wounded. Five of them were dead - among them the Colonel; one was
missing; six were wounded: two very badly. One's feelings that evening were a
mixture: first came the great joy of victory, then a sort of great sorrow for the dead,
mixed with feeling that it was all untrue. Also, I must confess, I am sure none could
help it a feeling of relief at having got off, and a sort of dull carelessness for the
morrow.
We were, in fact, in a terrible plight. On the Imparti Mountains there was now
known to be a large commando with heavy guns easily able to reach the camp. The
force we had defeated was expected to return perhaps before the morning, espec ially
as our guns had completely failed to follow the enemy in any way.
Saturday, Octoher 21 - We paraded this morning at 4.30 a.m. and awaited orders,
or an attack. Soon after breakfast we struck our tents; that is, we laid the tent poles
down inside, but left everything exactly as it was.
The morning passed in this way - we doing nothing. I have been sent to 0
Company to command it. Imagine a subaltern of a week's service commanding a
company! About four o'clock in the afternoon, Major Campbell, who is now
commanding us, told us that the Boers had got two siege guns posted on Imparti, and
that as the camp was easily commanded by them, it had been decided to move further
away up the slopes near the 'Colliery'. We were only to take great coats, waterproof
sheets, and blankets. As we started a most miserable thunderstorm came on, and
choked everything.
Marsden, Stirling and myself got a pony each, and finding holsters, went to the
mess to try and take away what we could. We were rather behind the rest, who were
on Iy just in time, for several shells burst in the camp while we were sti 11 in it. But the
guns of the Boers were 40-pounders, and they followed our troops right up the slopes.
That evening, as we waited for darkness to set in, was very miserable. The 40
pounders continued to fire, going over our head close every time. They made some
wonderful shots at the Colliery, in the buildings of which the mounted infantry was
gathered. One shot took Hannah's head clean off. He was a subaltern in the
Leicestershire Regiment, and was about three years in the Grove with me at Harrow.
22
The Battle olTalana Hill
Our own field guns were powerless against such heavy metal. To add to it all it
continued to rain in buckets. The ground was sopped, and all Davidson (who used
also to be at Harrow), Stirling and myself could do was to sit back to back, with a
waterproof sheet over our heads and another under us. This is unpleasant, as besides
being hard to sleep. pools gather round the edge of the sheet and the water often runs
down one's neck. We had to be up and ready to move still higher up the slopes at 2
a.m. It was quite dark, and the men were all rather "down on their luck'. To make
matters worse, the mess-cart having stuck in the mud, I ran back with ten men to help
it out. Having done this we tried to rejoin the column, lost our way for a time, and,
after falling about over stones, at last regained it, pretty fagged out, high in the hills.
We lined the crests among the rocks and waited, feeling most wretchedly. If the
Talana force were to return we were indeed done, and perhaps without even this.
Sunday, Ocloher 22 Soon after lining the crests we heard great cheering. It was
because the result of the battle of Elandslaagte had become known. This put new
heart into the men, and soon after having eaten bully beef and bread, we set ofT in the
direction of the big guns. It was like walking through a ploughed field, only a good
deal more slippery. crhe day was wet and very foggy, so that the mist was round the
Imparti Hill and the Boers could not see us.
All at once the fog lifted, and "Long 'rom' (as the men at once christened the Boer
gun) spoke out, sending the shells rattling among the artillery and over our heads. We
lay down in a small hollow while the shells went whistling over, and I for one went
fast asleep, and many others did the same, we were so done out. There were no
casualties, though some were very near. General Yule now der:ided to retire to our old
position up the slopes, as we could not well afford to lose any more men; so back we
went, the mud clinging to our boots all round, making walking terrible. That
afternoon we lay down, trying to get a little rest. We were told we were going to start
at 8 p.m., but to where we did not know. At 7.45 the officers were told by Major
Campbell that it had been decided to try and reach Ladysmith, as our present position
was untenable. With wonderful skill (mainly due to Major Campbell), in the pitch
darkness, the whole column was got together. We were the advance guard. We went
back through Dundee three miles, and then out on the Biech Road twelve miles, the
men all carrying their things. It was a wonderful march, and completely out-did
Joubert who was in command of the Imparti force. No one knew anything of it in
Dundee till the next morning. We got through a very awkward defile on the way,
which happily was not guarded. We were, of course, 'dog done'. Personally, I threw
myself down in my coat on the ground, put my helmet under my head, and when I
awoke it was bright daylight, about 6 a.m. We had started the march at 9 p.m., and
ended about 4 a.m.
'It was the best oftimes,
it was the worst oftimes '1
Natal and the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902
2
At the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War the British colony of Natal stood to gain and
to lose by virtue of its geographical position, and duly did both as the ensuing conflict
unfolded. The territory was obviously vulnerable to Boer invasion, yet the support of
its inhabitants for the British war effort was not as axiomatic as might be supposed.
The reaction of the colony's African majority to the prospect of war was not
recorded, though many were to be affected and some actively involved in what was
supposed to be a whites-only conflict. Most white Natalians were slow to rally to the
flag as they wrestled with ambivalent feelings towards the Boer republics and
uncertainty concerning the sincerity of aggressive imperial diplomacy in southern
Africa. Significantly, perhaps, when war was declared less than 20% of the colony's
white adult male popUlation of military age (20 to 40 years old) enlisted for service,
excluding the existing rifle associations which were on standby.3
Pre-war sentiment
Whi le the imperial defeats of 1881, CLl lminating at Majuba, still rankled in loyalist
hearts, by the 1890s Natal inescapably depended more than ever before upon the
overberg trade as a source of both public and private income. President Kruger was
wamily received when he visited the colony in April 1891 to celebrate the completion
of the main Natal railway line to Charlestown on the Transvaal border.
4
By then more
than 62% of Natal's imports, upon which customs duties and railway rates were
levied, were bound for the interior republics. Within eight months of the completion
of the I ine to Johannesburg in December 1895 it was already carrying the bulk of the
Transvaal's sea-borne imports. Most of the colony's 9 million imperial loan was
invested in railway development and more than I million was devoted to harbour
improvements in order to accommodate this vitally important transit trade. As early
as the 1870s some colonists, especially those in Durban with a stake in the import
business, favoured closer union with the Transvaal in preference to the Cape Colony,
with which Natal was in keen competition for commercial advantages in the interior.
5
The attitude of white Natalians towards their republican neighbours only began to
harden in the wake of the Jameson Raid into the Transvaal at the end of 1895.
Salalia 29. (1999). Bill Guest pp. 23-49
24
'11 was Ihe besl aflimes, it was the worst qftimes .. . '
.) J't/,
Transvaal
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Hattingspruit.
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Ladysmith.
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Colenso Fe'rr{'"
Weenen
Estcourt
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Greytown
Nottingham Road
Howick
Pietermaritzburg
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Boundaries
Rivers and Coast
land incorporated into Natal
after Peace of Vereeniging
Magisterial Araas
Towns
40 80
,
Kilometres
of N8IBI Pietermlrizbu 1Q99
Natal and Zululand and the Anglo-Boer War
25 'It was the best qj'times, it was the worst o.(times ... '
The Natal ministry formally expressed its regret at this armed invasion but there were
pro-imperial demonstrations in the colony when Jameson and his men passed through
en route to Britain, and again when the Kaiser sent a congratulatory telegram to
Kruger for dealing so effectively with the incursion. Even then the South African
League, whose purpose was to promote the cause of British supremacy in the
subcontinent, did not attract as much immediate support after establishing its Natal
branch in July 1896 as it did elsewhere. Reports concerning the Kruger government's
harsh treatment of the Transvaal's uitlander community did help to strengthen the
colony's pro-imperial lobby. So, too, did a gradual decline in Natal's railway profits
in 1897 and a subsequent improvement in her financial circumstances following her
agreement, at last, to join the Cape-Free State customs union in May 1898.
The Natal colonists still needed to be assured that the imperial authorities would
continue in their resolve to impose a political settlement on Kruger in spite of the
efforts of the Cape government to avert military conllict. Natal could not afford to be
left in the lurch at the eleventh hour to face Boer retaliation for nailing her colours to
the imperial mast. It was really only from the middle of 1899 that white sentiment
coalesced around the war effort as the British High Commissioner to South Africa,
Sir Alfred Milner, ensured that the diplomatic pressure upon the Transvaal
government was maintained and as more military reinforcements were directed to the
colony.6
Military build-up
As the pre-war tension mounted, one of the first effects felt in Natal was the build-up
of British military forces. In May 1897 these were augmented in the colony by the
arrival of an infantry battalion and three field batteries. By July 1899 the commander
of the Natal garrison, Major-General Sir William Penn Symons, concluded that
diplomatic relations with the Boers had deteriorated sufficiently to necessitate
additional reinforcements and in September another 2 000 troops arrived in response
to his request. By the end of that month the British garrison in Natal had been
distributed amongst five camps: at Glencoe, Ladysmith, Estcourt, Eshowe and
Pietermaritzburg.
Some of these were subsequently deployed at Dundee and Colenso, with the
whole force being further strengthened during the course of October 1899 by nearly
6000 troops transferred from India, as well as two battalions and three batteries from
Britain. The decision, taken in early September on the advice of the War OtTice, to
dispatch these additional forces began to transform Natal from what was initially
intended from a British perspective to be a side-show into a major theatre of military
operations against the Boers. The subsequent arrival of even more reinforcements
eventually made the British army in Natal capable not only of defensive but also
offensive activities.
7
From the outset of the conflict British imperial forces in the colony were
supported by the Natal Police, in training for military service since June 1899, and by
the Volunteer Militia, which had been reorganised in 1895. Joint manoeuvres with the
imperial garrison over Easter 1899 satistied Penn Symons. as general officer
commanding in Natal, that these local forces were of equivalent quality to the
regulars. The Natal Police were assigned to guarding bridges as carly as August 1899,
26
'/! was the hest qj'times, it l1!aS the wor,\'! (?j'times ....
and the Volunteer Militia was deployed in October. The Natal Carbineers. Natal
Mounted Rifles, Border Mounted Rifles, . A' Battery Natal Field Artillery and most
of the Natal Naval Volunteers were encamped at Ladysmith with the smaller
volunteer forces, while the Durban Light Infantry were stationed at Colenso and the
Natal Royal Rifles and some Naval Volunteers at Estcourt.
8
The recruitment of Transvaal refugees in Natal was already under way in
September 1899 when Milner officially requested permission for it. The move was
prompted by his perception of Britain's military vulnerability in the subcontinent and
the imperial government's tardiness in despatching reinforcements to the region. The
Imperial Light 110rse (lUI). as the regiment became known. was the brain-child of
former Johannesburg Reform Committee members Percy FitzPatrick and Aubrey
Woolls-Sampson. who became its commander during the war.'i Recruitment for the
ILH was not confined to Natal but the raising of volunteers highlighted another early
effect of the conflict on the colony: the influx of refugees from the interior.
Refugees and relief work
Refugees from the Boer republics. mainly women and children, began to arrive in
May 1899 and by July it was estimated that more than 5 000 persons had already left
the Transvaal for Natal and the Cape Colony. Large-scale withdrawals were being
made from post office savings accounts in Johannesburg. and mining houses like
Ecksteins. Barnato Brothers and A. Goertz and Co .. were reported to be transferring
their business records to Durban. As the refugee influx gathered momentum Natal
newspapers carried increasing numbers of job inquiries from experienced clerical and
sales assistants. There was growing concern that the colony would soon face a
massive unemployment crisis. By September the number of refugees escaping to
Natal by bicycle was sufficient to prompt the Natal to publish a
recommended route for 'Rand ladies' who were heading for Durban. The last batch to
arrive by train made the journey in 33 open cattle and coal trucks. each conveying 30
to 40 passengers. After the declaration of war more arrived by ship from DeJagoa
Bay.lo
By November 1899 the white refugee population in Natal had risen to between
20000 and 26 000. Various relief organizations emerged to supplement the efforts of
existing benevolent societies. In August 1899 the Speaker of Natal's Legislative
Assembly and the mayors of Durban and Pietermaritzburg launched fund-raising
appeals. The Durban Benevolent Society. the Pietermaritzburg Rei ief Committee and
the Mansion House Relief Fund were among the new welfare bodies formed. By mid
October the Pietermaritzburg municipality was providing relief work in the form of
stone-breaking and road construction but the rates of pay offered did not attract many
refugees. 1 1
'fhe Uitlander Council. formed earlier in J 899 to articulate the grievances of
uitlander.\ in the Transvaal. played a significant role in organizing relief for the
refugee influx. Members of the council began to arrive in Natal in August 1899. some
reportedly in disguise to avoid possible arrest by the Boers. Before the end of the
month it was falsely rumoured that the entire council had arrived in Pietermaritzburg.
where several wives of council members were already engaged in relief work. The
Uitlander Council requested all refugees to register on arrival in the colony and on
27 'It the hest it )1'as the worst qj'times ....
this basis attempted to distribute aid. In November 1899, in conjunction with the
Pietermaritzburg Relief Committee, it opened dining facilities to provide meals for
deserving cases, and also shelter where possible.1
2
Relief funds were not as readily available in the capital as they were in Durban
and early in 1900 the Pietermaritzburg Relief Committee was obliged to withdraw its
support of all able-bodied men, most of whom had by then either left or found
employment. The mayor's relief fund did eventually establish several homes for
indigent women and children, while the Volunteer and Sufferers' Relief Fund assisted
the dependents of those who had joined the volunteer and irregular corps raised in
Natal. Other more intriguingly named relief funds that emerged during the ensuing
conflict included the Special Relief Fund, the Mauritius Relief Fund, the Kipling
Poem Fund, the Armoured 'frain Relief Fund and the Telegraph Shilling Widows'
and Orphans' Fund. Natal's Indian community also provided relief, in cash and in
kind, espec ially for members of the I ndian stretcher-bearer corps and their
dependents, and for Indian refugees from the Transvaal. D
As the war ran its course public attention was diverted increasingly towards
alleviating the suffering of casualties from the ftont. In Durban and Pietermaritzburg
the public made large donations of food, reading-matter, bedding and clothing which
were distributed daily among the ill and wounded by women's organisations. In
addition to public hospitals and the hospital ships in Durban harbouL further
accommodation was provided for this purpose by the conversion of schools and other
public buildings. In November 1899 parts of Maritzburg College were converted into
a military hospital, resulting in a three-month holiday for the pupils before altemative
facilities were provided for them in the new Native High Court building in College
Road. Fort Napier and St. George's Garrison Chapel were also requisitioned to
shelter the wounded before the spacious Legislative Assembly buildings in the centre
of the capital were equipped to do so.
In addition, an 'epidemic hospital' was established in Pietermaritzburg and
quarantine restrictions imposed on parts of the city following outbreaks of smallpox
in October 1899 and again in January 1900. These were attributed to the influx of
indeterminate numbers of Aft'ican refugees who were not treated to the same
consideration as their white counterparts when they arrived in Natal. 14
'Marwick's March'
The colony's African migrant workers on the Witwatersrand goldmines became
increasingly uneasy after June 1899 as the political tension increased. J.S. Marwick,
the Natal Native Agent in Johannesburg, tried to reassure them in order to avoid a
panic flight homewards which might unsettle the rest of the African population. Apart
from possible social instability, Natal also stood to lose a substantial amount in
unpaid hut taxes if migrant workers' wages were not remitted smoothly back to the
colony. As the situation in the Transvaal deteriorated Marwick helped them to
transfer their eamings home as rapidly as possible. When the passenger-train service
to Natal ceased at the beginning of October 1899, he persuaded the Transvaal
authorities to allow him to lead the stranded migrants home on foot.
'Marwick's March', assisted by his colleagues G.O. Wheelwright and W.A.
Connorton, involved between 7 000 and 8 000 workers proceeding 30 abreast with
28
'It was the hest o.(times, it was the worst ( ~ ( t i m e s ... '
their own musicians leading the way. The journey lasted about 10 days although the
participants had been instructed to provide their own rations for only five. There were
several deaths from exhaustion among the stragglers and some harassment on the part
of Boer commandos who commandeered 400 men to serve as labourers. By mid
October the majority of marchers had reached the British camp near Dundee, where
they were charged I each to complete their journey southwards by train from
Hatting Spruit station. Most of them were too exhausted to quibble about the loss of
nearly two weeks' earnings for a ticket out of the war zone. There were no relief
comm ittees to greet them when they eventually disembarked.
15
Boer invasion: the road to Ladysmith
Marwick's marchers barely made it home. On 9 October 1899 President Kruger
delivered an ultimatum on behalf of the South African Republic demanding the
withdrawal of British troops from southern Africa. The British government cabled its
rejection the following evening and hostilities commenced on 11 October. The last
Natal train was intercepted by Boers at Harrismith even before the ultimatum had
expired. The subsequent course of military events is well known. Republican forces
seized the initiative by launching a major thrust into the colony before the bulk of
imperial reinforcements had arrived from Europe and India. Commandant-General
Marthinus Prinsloo led 6 000 Free Staters through the Van Reenen, Tintwa and
Bezuidenhout passes while Commandant-General Piet 10ubert advanced with 14 000
Transvalers across terrain which had witnessed the Boer victories of the 1881 Anglo
Boer War, including his celebrated triumph at Majuba.
The northern extremity of the Klip River triangle had already been dismissed as
indefensible by the British and was quickly overrun. Charlestown, on the Transvaal
border, and Newcastle to the south were abandoned within the first two days of the
conflict. As the inhabitants of Charlestown fled southwards, the last to depart were
local government and railway officials who withdrew under instructions on
1I October, just before the Boer ultimatum expired. That evening the mayor of
Newcastle addressed the townsfolk at the railway station and advised them to leave.
By the following morning the village was deserted as it was considered defenceless
against artillery fire, much to the annoyance of the local rifle association whose
members had hoped to make a stand. Six hundred members of the Natal Mounted
Rifles, the Natal Carbineers and the Border Mounted Rifles briefly delayed the
Boers' advance by engaging them near Besters station, though no attempt was made
to impede them by destroying bridges or blocking the mountain passes. At Newcastle
all railway rolling stock was destroyed but large quantities of provisions, including 5
000 muids of mea lies, were abandoned to the invaders. 16
Several towns, including Charlestown, Newcastle, Weenen and Colenso, were
pillaged by the Boer commandos. Private homes as well as public buildings were
burgled and shops were looted of provisions, clothing, blankets and saddles. Liquor
was plundered from bars and hotels, resulting in riotous scenes of inebriation in the
streets. Railway stations, bridges and sections of line were severely damaged or
destroyed as far south as Elandslaagte. Lack of discipline in the commandos, coupled
with the necessity of foraging for supplies, underlay the extensive looting that took
place. Boer leaders tried in vain to restrain their subordinates, several of them posting
29 '11 ",vas the hest qj'times, it was the worst aftimes ... '
guards to protect likely targets. The Boer commander Piet Joubert repeatedly warned
against pillaging, but remote fanns were particularly vulnerable and many in the
upper reaches of the colony had been hastily abandoned. These were stripped of
everything movable including livestock, food supplies and even furniture, while other
items and entire homesteads were destroyed. In some instances whole orchards were
chopped down. rainwater tanks punctured and livestock slaughtered. 17
Contemporary accounts attributed much of the wartime destruction to the local
'Dutch' who, it was claimed, carried off booty to their own farms or drove captured
livestock across the border into the Boer republics, never to return. The Dundee
district in particular was so terrorised until near the end of the war by marauding
groups of local 'rebels' that some far-flung farming families regularly slept out in the
veld to avoid being molested in their homes. The minority of English-speaking
fanners who opted to remain on their northern Natal properties were generally left
alone, though most of their livestock was commandeered. Those who decided to
leave thronged the main road to the coast, causing a congestion of wagons, horses,
cattle and sheep which had never been seen before on the section between Mooi
River and Nottingham Road.
18
The decision taken earlier by Penn Symons to divide the still small British forces
in l\atal into several camps, with 4 000 troops eventually deployed as far north as
Dundee, was an attempt to defend as much of the colony as possible against likely
invasion, including the coal mines owned by influential London and Durban
businessmen. rt was also intended to anticipate a potential uprising of local Dutch'
and/or Africans against British authority. His overconfidence, followed by the initial
hesitancy of Lieutenant-General Sir George White, who arrived on 7 October 1899 to
succeed him as general officer commanding Natal, meant that the resistance
encountered by the Boers was not only divided but indifferently led. On 16 October
Penn Symons evacuated the women and children from Dundee, thereby adding to the
stream of refugees moving southwards from the northern districts of the colony. On
20 October at Talana Hill, overlooking the town, he successfully attacked the Boer
positions but at high cost. He was mortally wounded and the pursuing imperial
cavalry was forced to surrender to another Boer force after suffering more than 200
casualties.
The Boers, meanwhile, placed a 40-pounder gun on Mpati mountain, whence on
21 October they began to shell the British camp and the town below. That evening, as
General Joubert's main force drew nearer, the order was given to abandon Dundee.
The remaining 300-odd inhabitants, led by Mr Edward Ryley, chairman of the local
board, and accompanied by marshals, retreated on foot through tOITential rain to
Ladysmith. They were followed the next night by the town's 4 OOO-strong garrison
which stole away silently without arousing Boer suspicions. Penn Symons and the
other British wounded were left behind, along with large quantities of military stores,
whi le the survivors reached the main force at Ladysmith four days later. 19
The town of Dundee was particularly badly devastated by the advancing Boers.
possibly because it was the scene of the first major battle of the war and an obvious
target for reprisals immediately after their initial setback at Talana. Dundee had only
recently been described as 'a fair-sized little town' making 'rapid strides' by virtue of
its central position in the Klip River coalfield and an 'extensive trade' in wool
30
'11 was the hest qltimes, it was the worst ( ~ l l i m e s ....
purchased from Transvaal farmers who considered it 'a much better market than
Vryheid.' The pre-war presence of British troops had given a further boost to the
town's commerce as well as to its social life and, briefly, there were also numbers of
refugees from the Transvaal and Newcastle seeking board and lodging.20
All this was in stark contrast to what followed the Boer occupation on 23 October.
Abandoned shops, homes and otlices were plundered and items of value carted away.
Oldacre's store was spared because it supplied goods to the invaders, under orders
from the commandant. Mr Brokensha, the owner of the building, persuaded them not
to break into the bank, though they could not resist throwing stones at the town clock
on its roof The Masonic and Royal Hotels were both drained of their liquor stocks,
the former becoming a recovery station for inebriated burghers and the latter being
converted into the Hoer Commissariat Department with the Vierkleur tlying over its
roof
After the initial plundering the veld-kornets eventually established some order. A
vrede rechter or justice of the peace was appointed to serve as resident magistrate, as
well as an assistant and a jailer, supported by a locally recruited police force. Its
function was to prevent looting, safeguard commandeered livestock, press-gang fresh
reserves for the Boer commandos and enforce the quarantine regulations upon the
African population f()lIowing the outbreak of smallpox among them. The surviving
contents of unoccupied houses in Dundee were stored for safekeeping in the Masonic
Hall and many of these dwellings were then used to accommodate an influx of Boer
families into the town. Peter Smith's home on the slopes of Talana Hill (now restored
as part of the Talana Museum) was used by the Boers as a hospital for their wounded
but by the end of January 1900 they had established a new hospital in the government
school at Dundee and a day school for Boer children.
Dundee, like the rest of Klip River County, was administered, for a time, as
though it was part of the South African Republic. On 9 November Joubert proclaimed
martial law over all of Natal's 'northern districts', recognised the neutrality of any
who desired this status, and granted seven days' grace to those who wished to leave
Boer-occupied territory. At some places, like Waschbank, the proclamation was only
publicised after the seven-day deadline had expired but there were few loyalists left in
northern Natal to take up the offer. The handful who remained in Dundee and
elsewhere were not ill-treated but eventually a number of English and Gennan
speaking residents were sent to prison in Pretoria. They were subsequently brought
back to be placed under Boer guard at Tombi's Spruit near Ladysmith. By then the
siege of that town was already under way.21
The siege of Ladysmith, and beyond
The unhindered arrival at Ladysmith of the retreating Dundee garrison under the
command of Brigadier-General James Yule was Hlcilitated by Sir George White's
successful assault on the intervening Boer forces at Elandslaagte where they held a
commanding position looking down on the railway station. This engagement was to
become a particular source of bitterness on both sides, for an apparent Boer surrender
was quickly followed by a counter-attack that was repulsed with a cavalry charge in
which many Boers were put to the sword and lance.
'It lvas the best qj'times, it was the worst 0.[times ... ' 31
Instead of seizing the initiative White prepared for a siege at Ladysmith. The
Boers duly surrounded the town between 29 October and 2 November while also
capturing a I OOO-strong force of British troops under Lieutenant-Colonel Carleton
near Nicholson's Nek. The four-month siege and its eventual relief on 28 February
1900 emerged as the primary focus of the Natal theatre of conflict.
23
Immediately
prior to the war Ladysmith had enjoyed a mini-boom with money "circulating very
freely' as imperial expenditure amounted to nearly 100000 per annum in a town that
had rapidly become a major military depot and assembly point while diplomatic
pressure on the Boer republics mounted. Local businesses and the surrounding
farming community all benefited from the increase in demand for produce, goods and
services. Building activity gathered momentum as some shops were upgraded, houses
were enlarged and the Royal Hotel was reconstructed in stone.
The mood began to change as the Boer noose around Ladysm ith tightened and the
last train to the south departed. It was initially estimated that the available food
supplies in the town were sufficient for the remaining population of 13 745 imperial
troops and Natal Volunteers, as well as 5 400 civilians, to survive a siege of
approximately 50 days. The likelihood of such a prolonged inconvenience seemed
remote, but morale was steadily eroded by a combination of factors.
British efforts to land a sufficiently large force at Durban and then to breach the
Boer line along the Tugela Heights were disturbingly cumbersome. White's attempts
to deal the enemy a decisive blow from within the besieged town were ineffectual.
25
Boredom, punctuated by bombardments from the Boers' "Long Tom' which took a
human toll but caused little material damage, also had its effect. The outbreak of
dysentery and typhoid, which reached its height in the early months of 1900, was
compounded by poor hygienic precautions and inadequate diet Rations became more
meagre, except for those who had taken the early precaution of hoarding supplies or
who were sufficiently affluent to buy what the town still had to offer. By 10 February
the decision was taken to begin slaughtering the cavalry horses, in order to provide
additional protein for the garrison as well as mealies which would otherwise have
been used as horse-feed. Less than three weeks later the British relief column arrived
26
in town.
White was to be severely criticised for allowing the siege to take place, though he
could not have retreated further south before Yule's desperate column reached
Ladysmith. By then the Boers were almost upon him, and there was no obvious
alternative position north of Pietermaritzburg where he could have made a stand.
General Sir Redvers Buller VC, who arrived in Natal in December 1899 as the
new British also attracted criticism. The strategy of dividing the
British forces in South Africa proved highly controversial, the intention being to
advance into the interior on three fronts. Two followed the Cape's rail routes inland
and the third, led by Buller himsel( was directed through Natal towards Ladysmith.
His ponderous efforts in the latter regard, only raising the 118-day siege at the fourth
attempt. were characterised by setbacks at Colenso (on 15 December 1899), Spioen
Kop (24 January 1900) and Vaalkrantz (5-7 February). They were accompanied by
major defeats on the other two fronts as well, in particular between 10 and 17
December 1900 or what became known in Britain as 'Black Week'. Buller's personal
courage and concern for the well-being of his men won him popularity among the
32
'It was the best oftimes, it was the worst ....
rank and tile, if not in Whitehall. The tinal outflanking thrust over the Tugela Heights
into Ladysmith (19-27 February J900) was expertly planned and executed but it had
involved more than 50000 troops and 7 000 casualties to lift the siege.
The struggle for Ladysmith simi larly did nothing to enhance the reputation of the
Boer commander, Piet Joubert. He has subsequently been accused of lacking
enterprise and vision in allowing virtually his entire force to be concentrated for four
months on the siege instead of heeding the advice of capable subordinates and
thrusting southwards towards the coast. The capture of Pietelmaritzburg and even of
Durban may indeed have been feasible, even allowing for the 28 naval guns
positioned in the hills around the port. As most of the British reinforcements were
then still on the high seas, the garrisons at Colenso, Estcourt and Pietermaritzburg
were small and White's large force at Ladysmith would have been incapable of swift
pursuit. A sustained Boer occupation of the capital and the harbour city was
nevertheless improbable, though the stalemate at Ladysmith made eventual Boer
defeat in Natal the likely outcome as British forces gained in strength and purpose.27
Joubert did allow a force of 4 000 Boers under the command of General Louis
Botha to advance south of the Tugela (Thukela) river, but only 10 days after the
investment of Ladysmith, by which stage the small villages of Estcourt and Mooi
River had had some opportunity to prepare for their defence. The Boers advanced no
further south than the latter town, where an exchange of artillery fire occurred on 22
23 November 1899. On the previous day the garrison at Estcourt launched an
audacious assault on the Boers ensconced on Brynbella Hill near Willow Grange, just
south of the town. It was there that Percy FitzPatrick's brother George was killed in
action.
After these discouraging engagements Joubert ordered Botha's force back to the
siege of Ladysmith, though the Boers had enjoyed some minor successes in the Natal
midlands. These included the derailment of an armoured train on 15 November at
Chieveley north of Estcourt where 57 prisoners were taken, including war
correspondent Lieutenant Winston Churchill. The incident was highlighted by his
subsequent escape from Pretoria via Delagoa Bay to Durban, where a plaque on the
steps of what is now the Central Post Office commemorates the site of his address to
local loyalists the following month.
28
While the Boer campaign in northern Natal became a struggle along the Tugela
Heights to resist the relief of Ladysmith, Zululand was also subjected to invasion. At
the outbreak of war a commando entered the territory on what amounted to an
extensive looting raid. In February 1900 another invaded from the north-east and
assumed brief control of the Nquthu and Nkandla magistracies. Eshowe was also
seemingly at risk but the Boers soon withdrew in the face of a 500-strong contingent
of 'Colonial Scouts' supported by naval guns supplied from Durban.
29
It took nearly three and a half months following the relief of Ladysmith on 28
February 1900 to clear northern Natal of Boer forces. Dundee was recaptured on 15
May and Newcastle two days later, but the last of the large commandos only left the
colony on 11 June 1900. While the Cape and Natal war fronts advanced into the Boer
republics in September 1900 the Natal Volunteer Militia was demobilised. Most of its
members had been trapped in the siege of Ladysmith and perhaps for that reason the
Volunteer Regiment which replaced the Militia immediately attracted 500 recruits.
33 'It was the best o.ltimes, it was the worst ....
This was fortunate as northern Natal was not completely pacified until near the
official termination of all hostilities in May 1902.:;0
Guerrilla warfare: raid and counter-raid
After June 1900 small guerri Ila bands of local' Dutch rebels' continued to operate in
the upper reaches of the colony, especially in the Dundee district. They posed little
threat to British military forces but severely disrupted civilian road traftic, looted
farmhouses and drove off livestock. Early in 190 I the neighbouring south-eastern
Transvaal was subjected to a similar but even more severe campaign when a large
British force under General French destroyed buildings and crops and seized cattle in
an effort to deprive Boer commandos of their sources of supply in the region. The use
of Zulu scouts and guides had already become a source of friction between the British
anny and Natal government but the recruitment of a Zulu force to participate in this
looting of Boer property caused consternation in Pietermaritzburg. Government
ministers feared that their involvement in military operations, for a 10% share of the
I ivestock captured. was a recipe for post-war inter-racial conflict. Several Zulu
chiefdoms participated enthusiastically, with the blessing of their King. Dinuzulu ka
Cetshwayo, and acquired at least 10 000 cattle and a few thousand sheep before the
campaign ended in June 190 I. [t helped them to recover from their recent losses to
the rinderpest. though some of their new livestock had to be destroyed due to

In the spring of 190 I Louis Botha, Commandant-General of the Boer forces in
succession to the ineffectual Joubert. launched a second invasion of Natal with a
force of barely 2 000 men. Its purpose, along with those led into the Cape Colony by
Jan Smuts and Christiaan de Wet, was to conduct a campaign of highly mobile
guerrilla warfare in regions inhabited by known Boer sympathisers who still had the
means to supply them. Botha's initial victory on 19 September over Major Gough's
force at Blood River Poort alerted the British to his presence and Natal's Volunteer
Regiment was ordered to assemble at Grey town and Pietermaritzburg. The precaution
proved unnecessary, for there were nine imperial columns blocking his advance and
he exhausted his limited resources by taking heavy casualties in unsuccessful attacks
on the British positions at Itala and Fort Prospect.':'
This invasion of Natal proved to be the last. for a third attempt. planned in March
1902, failed to reach the border. By then the Natal Volunteers had already been
demobilised, in October 190 1, followed by re-enlistment in February 1902 into
another composite unit called the Natal Mounted Infantry. Its services were hardly
needed, as the Boer republics were already on the military defensive. Their leaders
signed the Peace of Vereeniging a few months later, on 31 May 1902, thereby
surrendering their independence to British rule. By their own admission one of the
factors which persuaded the Boers to negotiate peace was the night attack on 6 May
1902 by a Zulu impi on their camp at Holkrans (Ntatshana) near Vryheid. It resulted
in the death of 56 burghers and raised the spectre of ethnic contlict which had so
concerned Natal's ministry a year earlier when Zulu recruits were used to raid the
south-eastern Transvaal. It also highlighted the extent to which Africans had actively
participated, and suffered, during the course of the
34
'11 was the hest it was the 'worst ... '
Black involvement in the war
Louis Botha subsequently described the Holkrans incident as the 'foulest deed of the
war' but an official inquiry conducted on the instructions of the British government
revealed that the Boers had frequently requisitioned African-owned livestock in the
Vryheid district without the issue of receipts, or had simply raided cattle as
punishment for alleged desertion from Boer employ, for supplying the British, or for
acts of theft. Some Africans had been summarily executed on suspicion of
collaborating with the enemy, or for carrying weapons. Moreover, since the outbreak
of war, many in the Vryheid district had been conscripted to assist the Boer forces
and numerous households had been intimidated in an attempt to counteract the
extensive pro-British intelligence network controlled by King Dinuzulu from
Zululand.
There was a longstanding conviction that the Vryheid district rightfully belonged
to the Zulu, not the Boers, while at the personal level Chief Sikhobobo, who led his
Qulusi people in the attack at Holkrans, had only recently had his homestead burnt
and livestock driven off on the orders of Louis Botha. The latter insisted that this had
been retribution for Qulusi attacks on his forces when they returned to the Vryheid
district in February 1902, but it may have been in settlement of a personal vendetta
between ChiefSikhobobo and local Veldkornet J.A. Potgieter.J-l
Such involvement and suffering during the war was not confined to the Africans
of the Vryheid district. As in other parts of southern Africa many in Natal and
Zululand participated in the conflict, and even more were numbered among its
victims. Indeed, they were far from being the 'passive onlookers' described in some
contemporary accounts. The informal agreement of October 1899 that this was to be a
'white man's war', in which no Africans would bear arms, was soon broken and the
Natal theatre of conflict was no exception. They were employed on both sides in
numerous supporting capacities and, as casualties mounted, were increasingly
deployed as combatants.
The Boers used armed Africans at the siege of Ladysmith as they did at
Kimberley and Mafeking while the British conceded a total of at least 10000 African
combatants in their ranks. Some of these were used in Natal, not counting the
numerous African armed scouts and sentries. In addition to the Zulu impis that
operated in the south-eastern Transvaal. the Edendale Horse were armed with rifles as
were the Zululand Mounted Police who relieved Fort Prospect at the time of Botha's
attack in September 190 I. Some 300 'free' and 800 indentured Indians who were
resident in Natal joined the corps of stretcher-bearers along with M.K. Gandhi. They
served with distinction, often under heavy fire as at Spioen Kop, and were mentioned
in dispatches before their disbandment in 1900 when British Red Cross units arrived
at the front.
35
For A fTicans living outside the war zone there was ample opportunity to recoup
their recent losses to the rinderpest by meeting the demands of the military for labour
and fresh produce at rates substantially higher than those previously paid in the
colony. By contrast, combatant and non-combatant Africans in the northern districts
suffered severely in the wake of the Boer advance, and as a result of the commando
raids into Zululand. During the period of effective Boer occupation between
November 1899 and January 1900 General Piet Joubert was anxious not to disturb
'It was the hest o.ltimes, it was the worst o.l time,')' ... ' 35
the local population unnecessarily and insisted that African communities should not
be provoked. In practice, Boer administration was extremely harsh and left a lasting
legacy of distrust between Africans and whites. They were restricted to their kraals, in
part as a measure against smallpox, pressurised for information about enemy
movements, forced to provide labour for the commandos and resident Boer families,
and brutally flogged for trivial offences. Moreover, their farming activities were
dislocated and their cattle, crops and wagons looted by the invading forces.
36
Not surprisingly, the Boer occupation of northern Natal generated a wave of
African refugees into the midlands and coastal districts. In turn, the upper reaches of
the colony subsequently received an influx of Africans who had been displaced by
military operations in the Orange Free State and Transvaal. The Natal government
eventually allowed more than 6 000 to settle on reserves and deserted farms along the
Drakensberg between Witzie's Hoek and Botha's Pass. A Superintendent of Refugees
was appointed to distribute some relief among them and to arrange temporary
employment with local farmers. The loss of jobs, not only on farms but also on the
Natal collieries, was another major setback which local Africans had to endure as a
consequence of the conflict.
Disruption and recovery: coal-mining and agriculture
The wartime disruption of the northern Natal coal industry resulted in a decline in
total output of 146 481 tons (37.8%) between 1898 and 1900. The collieries were
only closed for approximately six months but their subsequent recovery was impeded
by a number of factors. These included the difficulties encountered in re-assembling
the dispersed African labour force, the need to repair and drain neglected mine shafts,
the shortage of railway trucks to transport the reviving coal output due to heavy
military demands on available rolling stock, the damage inflicted by the Boers on
machinery and railway lines and the theft of tools and looting of mine stores.
Natal-owned mines, including Dundee, St George's and Elandslaagte, sustained
much more severe war damage than those owned by non-residents, such as the New
Campbell, Natal Navigation and Natal Marine collieries. At mines such as West
Lennoxton, where the manager or owner remained in charge, no damage was done at
all. Some of the destruction was inflicted by the invading commandos, who also
looted the Mines Department's district offices at Dundee and Nondweni in 1899 and
1900, but much of it was attributed to local' Klip River Dutch' rebels. The effect was
to increase the price of coal in Natal from 1 to between 5 and 7 per ton, though
this decreased as the collieries came back into full production. By 190] the industry's
total output already exceeded any previous year when it rose to 569 200 tons,
amounting to a 135.8% increase over 1900.
38
Agricultural production in that region took much longer to recover its momentum,
for the Boer invasion was only one of a series of disruptions for local farmers. A
locust plague in the mid-1890s was followed by an outbreak of rinderpest in 1897-8
that enveloped three-quarters of the colony but was most severe in northern Natal.
The drought of 1899-1900 facilitated military operations but inflicted crop and stock
losses which compounded the damage done to the region by Boer commandos and
their local allies. Such depredations were extensive, quite apart from the deterioration
36
'1( was (he hest (?l(imes, i( was the wor5;( qltime/,. ... '
of properties which had been abandoned by loyalists fleeing southwards and pro
republ icans moving northwards into the Transvaal and Orange Free State.'')
As early as November 1899 it was observed that 'years must elapse before the
agricultural sector will be able to replace their stock'. Farming activity in the upper
reaches of the colony was seriously disrupted for some two-and-a-half years. The
poor condition of livestock and the shortage of forage in the district which was noted
at the 1903 Dundee Agricultural Show was attributed both to the war and the
continuing drought. Only in 1904 was it reported that 'the indications are in the
direction of a gradual return to normal times' .4(j The process of recovery was long and
difficult for all those on the land in northern Natal but for none more so than for the
'Klip River Dutch' community.
The Klip River Dutch: a dilemma of loyalty
Prior to the war the Boer or 'Dutch' inhabitants of Klip River County constituted
approximately 60% of its 5 OOO-strong white population and, natural disasters aside,
enjoyed a modest level of prosperity. At the end of the conflict they still retained their
land but many of them were destitute. The invasion of 1899 confronted them with a
traumatic choice between co-operation or some form of resistance to 'the enemy'.
Relations with their English-speaking neighbours had been good but as descendants
of the trekkers who had settled in Natal in the late 1830s with close linguistic and
family links with the interior republics, they constituted a cohesive community whose
loyalty to the government and crown was decidedly fragile.
In that respect they were quite distinct from the Boer minority who resided south
of the Thukela, some of whom were prominent members of colonial society. Even
allowing for strong blood-ties and pro-republican sentiments, the decision which most
of them took to side with the invaders was made under coercion, for there was
understandable fear of the possible consequences for them if Klip River County did
not remain under Boer control.-11
There were many who readily provided information, shelter, slaughter-stock and
forage. Those who resorted to guerrilla activity in the northern districts presumably
did so voluntarily, particularly after the republican forces had retreated from the
colony, and there were some who willingly joined them. The reliability of such local
recruits may have been in doubt, for the Boers tried to keep them together in a Natal
Commando which was held in reserve at Helpmekaar, even when the struggle along
the Tugela Heights was at its zenith, and entrusted it with little more than patrol
duties.-12
While some of the 'Klip River Dutch' welcomed and willingly collaborated with
the Boers, the fact that the invaders had to rely on a system of commandeering
through their own locally-appointed police forces indicates that the majority of
Natal's 'rebels' co-operated under compulsion. The English and German-speaking
residents of Klip River County who had remained on their properties were, with few
exceptions, fairly treated. This was not true of the local 'Dutch' community despite
General loubert's professed respect for the right of neutrality and his concern to
maintain tranquillity in occupied territory. His prohibition on the looting of property
did not exclude forced enlistment for military service. He almost certainly conceived
the twin deceptions that, following the Boer occupation, the 'Klip River Dutch' had
'It was the he . ..,'t oj'limes, it was the lvorst oj'limes '" . 37
. .
become liable for this duty as republican citizens, and that this was a necessary
precaution against an imminent African uprising in the region.
loubert did not formally declare the annexation of Klip River County to the South
African Republic. despite subsequent claims to the contrary, but some of his
subordinates may have created that impression and he did give local 'rebels' the
assurance that the Hoer occupation rei ieved them of loyalty to the crown. It is not
clear whether he genuinely believed in the possibility of violent African opportunism
in the wartime situation but this prospect was undoubtedly exploited to pressurise the
'Klip River Dutch' into compliance.
n
By the end of 1902 a total of 409 Natal residents had been convicted of acts of
high treason during the course of the war. Approximately 80% of them were Dutch
speakers and 330 were inhabitants of Klip River County, amounting to roughly half
of that district's' Dutch' adult male population. When allowance is also made for
those who fled pennanently to the Boer republics, or were tried outside the colony, or
pardoned before trial, or who were never caught, or who were released for lack of
evidence, it is evident that virtually the whole 'Klip River Dutch' community was
disloyal to the crown.
The Natal government was well aware of the possible impact of a Boer invasion
on the local 'Dutch' community and its response to their 'rebellion' was both efficient
and conciliatory. It indignantly rejected the British proposal of an Imperial Special
Commission to ensure fair treatment of 'rebels' in both Natal and the Cape Colony
but did agree to the creation of a Natal Special Court to try such cases and to hear
appeals arising out of convictions in local magistrates' courts, military courts, the
Supreme Court and the Zululand High Court. The 'Klip River Dutch' were not the
only inhabitants of Natal faced with a dilemma of loyalty by the outbreak of the
conflict in October 1899. There were a number of colonial families of British origin
with sons and brothers who had settled in the interior republics, married Boer women
and. in some cases, had joined the invading commandos. There were also English
speaking colonists married to Boers in Natal, whose children were more Dutch than
British orientated.
Prosecutions were only brought against those deemed to be guilty of 'overt acts or
deeds' of treason, including the provision of material assistance or information to the
Boers, taking up arms on their side, or leaving Natal for the interior republics under
their protection. Compulsion was recognised as a mitigating factor but was not
accepted as sufficient justification on its own for co-operating with the enemy. There
were some severe fines, but most of the sentences handed down were fairly light,
imposing terms of imprisonment of less than twelve months. The heaviest involved
ten years' penal servitude, and ten years' imprisonment with the option of a further
year in jailor a 500 fine. The Royal Commission which investigated all sentences
passed under martial law in the Cape and Natal recommended only one revision in
the case ofa Natal 'rebel'.
There was considerable agitation on the part of Natal loyal ists to infl ict heavy
punishments on all 'rebels' and the member for Melmoth, a Mr Yonge, led a vigorous
campaign in the Legislative Assembly for the confiscation of their land. The Natal
government had decided against such severity even before the outbreak of war, and in
March 1903 it pardoned all Natal 'rebels" including those against whom treason
38
'It was the hest if was the wor,,'t ... '
charges were pending, much to the annoyance of the Governor, Sir Henry McCallum.
'rwo years later it restored their civil rights, including the franchise, nearly a year
ahead of the amnesty granted by the Cape government.
This spirit of reconciliation did not extend to the granting of immediate financial
aid to destitute 'rebels', or to funding post-war reconstruction in Klip River County.
They were entitled to return to their abandoned farms or to find shelter in the
government's refugee camps but all appeals for financial assistance were rejected
under clause 10 of the Vereeniging Articles of Surrender which specifically excluded
them from such relief. Similarly, their claims for compensation to the Invasion Losses
Enquiry Commission set up by the British government were almost all rejected, such
awards being restricted to appl icants who had sutTered for their loyalty to the crown.
Private relief organisations were also unsympathetic and their painful post-war
rehabilitation was further hampered by outbreaks of rinderpest and drought in 1902-3.
The 'Klip River Dutch' community nevertheless remained on the land but while
cordial pre-war relations with English-speaking neighbours were quickly restored,
their at best tenuous loyalty to the government in Pietermaritzburg had been replaced
by an attitude of hostility.H This process of alienation was doubtless further promoted
by post-war accounts of the manner in which Boer men, women and children had
been treated in Natal's concentration camps.
Concentration camps
Three concentration camps were initially established in Natal during the war: at
Pietermaritzburg and Howick in August 1900 and at Merebank, south of Durban, in
September 190 I. They were intended to accommodate the overflow of wartime
intelllees from the overcrowded Transvaal camps, while similar facilities in the Cape
Colony received the surplus from the Orange Free State.
45
The Pietermaritzburg camp, situated just out of town near Fort Napier and the
Botanical Gardens, was considered the best-equipped in the colony, though it did not
escape the criticism of intelllees. The first of them arrived there in November 1900,
comprising 24 so-called 'undesirables' who it was considered necessary to remove
from the war zone because of their continued attempts to assist the Boer commandos
and to disregard camp rules. The Natal camps received large numbers of these
troublemakers whose fierce loyalty to the republican cause soon clashed with the
more moderate views of 'hensoppers' Chandsuppers' or 'joiners') among the
internees, and fomented a variety of grievances.
Life under canvas was uncomfortable, exposing internees to extreme variations in
temperature, invasions of insects and high winds which frequently blew tents over
before they were eventually replaced with corrugated-iron dwellings. Bedding and
fUllliture were in short supply and internees brought little in the way of personal
possessions as a result offarm-bulllings and transport shortages in the war zone. The
rations provided in Natal camps were superior to those supplied in the Transvaal but
their quantity and quality soon became another source of complaint, as did badly
organised, slow-moving ration queues and fuel shortages during the winter months.
The presence of camp shops, and of Indian hawkers who were in daily attendance,
was problematic as many inmates were too poor to buy the creature comforts which
they offered in the form of extra food, clothing and medicines.
39 'It was the best o/times, it was the worst o/times ... '
Some male internees could earn ready cash by accepting the employment which
camp administrators were instructed to provide in the form of building covered stoves
to replace open fireplaces and digging stormwater trenches. Females could work in
camp hospitals and schools, or sew clothes for new arrivals. Men who had formally
surrendered and women whose menfolk were not still in the field could earn even
better wages by taking jobs in town, but the issue of passes allowing them to spend
daylight hours out of camp and, in some cases, to reside there with friends or
relatives, became another source of grievance. The use of Africans to police and
guard the camps also caused resentment, though some internees brought African
servants with whom they shared their accommodation and rations.
Attempts were made to isolate 'hensoppers' from 'bitter-einders' (,bitter-enders')
and to reward the former with superior accommodation and food while punishing the
indiscretions of the latter with hard labour and short rations. The harshness of camp
life was, to some extent, softened for all internees by religious services, Bible classes,
gardening activities. sports events and the availability of materials for home industries
such as carpentry and furniture manufacture. Camp schools, using a British
curriculum but initially employing internees to teach through the medium of Dutch,
were much appreciated and well attended. Older children were allowed to register at
government schools in town. The erection of new buildings and importation of
teachers from Britain to instruct in English increased the rate of daily school
attendance quite significantly at all three of the Natal concentration camps. These
facilities gave large numbers of up-country rural children their first experience of
formal schooling and they were joined by many adults who took the opportunity to
acquire a basic education while escaping the boredom of camp life.
46
Unfortunately, the children were also the most frequent victims of the ill-health
and infectious diseases that were so prevalent in the camps and which became such a
major source of grievance among internees. Those assigned to the Pietermaritzburg
camp were fortunate in having access to the hospital at Fort Napier, as well as their
own resident medical officers and special facilities for maternity cases and for
children with infectious diseases. Inmates of the Howick and Merebank camps had
initially to make do with small canvas hospitals and suffered much higher mortality
rates in consequence.
The overall death rate in the Natal camps was never as bad as those in the
Transvaal and Orange Free State but it did reach 1.74% of internees in September
1901 as the British 'sweeps' through enemy territory forced increasing numbers of
people into already overcrowded facilities. The number interned in Natal rose from
4370 in September 1901 to 10216 in November and more than 24 000 in April
1902. Additional camps were opened during the latter months of the war at Eshowe,
Mooi River, Colenso, Ladysmith, Wentworth and Jacobs Siding (near Merebank) but
these were unable to cope with the huge additional influx.
Deaths among internees were attributed to a variety of factors including
inadequate accommodation, food and medical facilities. The Natal camps were much
better provided with water than those elsewhere, though inmates often complained
about the paucity and quality of the supply. Camp authorities, on the other hand,
pointed to their unsanitary personal habits, arguing that their rural background
40
'It was the best qj'times, it was the worst qltimes ... '
rendered them unfamiliar with the basic rules of hygiene which were so essential
among such dense concentrations of people.
In July 1901 the War Office appointed the all-female Fawcett Commission,
headed by a prominent suffragette, Mrs M.G. Fawcett, to investigate conditions in the
South African concentration camps following the public attention drawn to them by
Emily Hobhouse and others. The commission condemned the Merebank camp, where
the majority of deaths in Natal had occurred, as unfit for human habitation. Yet its
criticism of the camp's poor siting and inadequate drainage was subsequently
attributed to the heavy rains that had preceded the commission's visit. Merebank was
later expanded to become one of the largest concentration camps in Natal, with more
than 8 000 internees but with hospital facilities for only 130 patients.
47
The Fawcett Commission also decried the transfer of internees who had already
contracted contagious diseases to previously uninfected camps like Merebank.
Indeed, all the Natal camps had to contend with periodical influxes of new arrivals
many of whom were weak not only from illnesses contracted in Transvaal camps but
also from the long, slow journey in third class carriages, and even in cattle and coal
trucks, with little or no food and bedding. The findings of the Fawcett Commission
confirmed the opinion of Emily Hobhouse, and of internees themselves, that camp
conditions in Natal, with the possible exception of Merebank, were much better than
those to the north. Some internees actually applied to be transferred to the Natal
camps and to have friends and relatives moved there. Camp conditions in Natal, as
elsewhere, did improve further after the transfer of control in November 1901 from
military to civilian administration. This trend was also promoted by the arrival of
more British doctors and nurses and by more conscientious efforts on the part of
camp superintendents.
The Natal camps remained open, some as long as a year after the war had ended,
until all internees had been resettled on their devastated farms in the interior.
48
By
then the colony had already counted its own losses in material and human terms.
Natal's financial losses
There was a substantial decline in public revenues derived from northern Natal
because local officials were unable to collect licence fees, fines, stamp and transfer
duties and, not least, the hut tax during the period of Boer occupation. Recovery was
slow following their retreat as financial records had been destroyed and the
inhabitants of the region were not all immediately able to resume payments. A much
more serious loss was incurred as hostilities reduced Natal's vital import-export
transit trade with the trekker republics to a trickle and halted the traffic in coal for
several consecutive months. The combined effect of the invasion and of the
disruption to the overberg trade was a deficit of 68 400 in the colony's 1 8 9 9 ~ 1900
budget.
This constituted only part of Natal's wartime losses. State expenditure had, for a
variety of reasons, been increasing since responsible government was attained in
1893, but the all-time high of 5 102000 expended in the 1 9 0 2 ~ 3 financial year was
attributable to the additional costs incurred during the conflict, coupled with an
attendant increase in economic activity and a rise in prices. It was estimated that the
expense of maintaining the volunteer forces amounted, for a time, to as much as
41 'It was the hest q(times. it was the }vorst qj'times ... '
80 000 per month. and that the war cost the colony nearly 500 000 including the
customs duty rebate granted on imported military stores. In terms of Natal's
constitution this additional expenditure could not be paid out of the consolidated
revenue fund. except by an act of Parliament. Instead. credit to a maximum of
1 000000 was arranged with the Bank of England and all extraordinary costs
attributable to the war were euphemistically accounted for as 'advances made in
connection with the South African Crisis' .4<) The colony also contributed human
resources to the war effort.
Natal's manpower contribution
At most 2 710 Natalians formally enlisted for military service, excluding the existing
local rifle associations. some 300 Natal Police, and the non-combatant volunteers.
This active participation is insignificant when compared with the 85 000 burghers
who rallied to the flags of the two Boer republics and the overall total of
approximately 450 000 involved on the British side. Moreover. most of those
involved were disbanded after the Boer retreat from Natal in June 1900, though a few
who had enlisted in British and Cape regiments served for longer periods. Fatalities
amounted to 4.9% of men on active service in Natal units or 134 in total, including 39
members of the Natal Carbineers, 27 in the Border Mounted Rifles, and 21 from the
Durban Light Infantry. Not surprisingly, the majority of the Natal volunteers were
English-speaking. There were also some Afrikaners, particularly in the Umvoti
Mounted Rifles. Part of this regiment was stationed at Tugela Ferry, where it checked
a Boer force that had previously sacked Helpmekaar and Pomeroy, and another
section was sent from the war zone to patrol Natal's southern border against the
possibility of an African uprising there. 50
The bulk of the Natal volunteers were besieged at Ladysmith but others fomled
part of the relief column and, with their local linguistic and topographical knowledge,
also provided an invaluable service as scouts and guides. None of them were
recipients of the 71 Victoria Crosses awarded during the war but one gained the
KCB, one the DSO, two the CMG, two the DCM and 90 were mentioned in
dispatches.
51
The fact that less than 20% of Natal's adult white male population of
military age enlisted to bear arms in the conflict is particularly surprising in view of
the prevailing levels of unemployment in the colony, even allowing for the existence
of (unpaid) rifle associations. Many Rand refugees whose applications to join the
Imperial Light Horse were unsuccessful vigorously petitioned for the formation of an
additional corps, subsequently known as the Imperial Light Infantry. Natalians were
less enthusiastic. They had not experienced Boer government. it was not their war,
some had positively opposed it and others teared its economic implications.
Natal's African majority had even less cause to identity with the war though many
were employed by the British forces and some became involved as combatants,
culminating in the Zulu attack at Holkrantz. Indians could also be excused for a lack
of pro-war enthusiasm after being largely excluded from the franchise and subjected
to increasingly hostile legislation since the colony gained responsible government in
1893. Even so, more than a thousand of them served as volunteer stretcher-bearers
and, in some cases, exposed themselves to enemy fire.
52
But Natal's financial losses,
42
'It was the hest qltimes, it 1-vas the worst ... '
if not its human sacrifices, consequent upon the war were more than offset by the
material benefits it derived.
The credit balance: territorial gain
Territorial gains were more modest than those initially envisaged by some prominent
Natalians in discussions which began almost as soon as war broke out. One proposal
was that Natal and the Boer republics should be merged under one administration.
Before his death in December 1899 Harry Escombe insisted that after the war the
entire Transvaal should be annexed to the colony. In March 1900 committees similar
to Cape Town's Vigilance Committee were formed in Pietermaritzburg and Durban
to maintain a watching brief for local loyalists over negotiations concerning a post
war settlement. In April 1901 Natal's Hime administration proposed that as part of
the peace terms 17 553.6 square kilometres of Transvaal territory together with 10
268.8 square kilometres of the Orange Free State's Harrismith and Vrede districts
should be incorporated into the colony.
It eventually settled for much less, as well as undertaking responsibility for
700000 worth of the Transvaal debt which had to be met out of Natal's own loan
fund. The territorial gain amounted to between 11 200 and 12 800 square kilometres
in the form of the Utrecht and Vryheid districts (formerly part of Zululand before
being annexed to the New Republic in 1884 and then to the Transvaal in 1887) and
also part of Wakkerstroom. These areas enlarged Natal by roughly a quarter of its
existing size and increased its population by more than 14% with the incorporation of
approximately 50 000 African and nearly 10 000 white inhabitants, who were to be
represented in the Legislative Assembly by the addition of four new members.
Territory was not the only gain that the war brought to the colony.
The credit balance: economic boom
While the northern districts sutlered varying degrees of dispossession and
destruction, the effects of the conflict south of Mooi River were largely beneficial as
the midlands and coastal belt experienced a wartime and post-war boom. Local
newspapers complained about the hardships of military press censorship but the
agricultural and commercial sectors in particular benefited from the army presence as
the British Government spent approximately 250 000 000 on maintaining a force of
nearly 450000 men at its height in southern Africa. This amount was by no means all
spent in Natal but as large numbers of troops passed through the colony to the war
front livestock and agricultural commodity prices soared in response to increasing
demand. Farmers also turned a good profit transport riding for the military as they did
during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, or else by hiring out their wagons and draught
animals.
In the major urban centres traders acquired additional business by acting as
middlemen for military provisions, local manufacturers enjoyed a temporary boost,
particularly in the heavy engineering sector, with the value of their total output
increasing from 2 282 in 1900 to 5 304 in 1902, while brothels and bars had not
been as busy since 1879. Domestic consumption and the demand for accommodation
was boosted further by the arrival of refugees from the Witwatersrand and northern
43 'It was the best 0.(times, it was the worst oftimes ... '
Natal and, towards the end of the war, by an influx of immigrants attracted by the
boom conditions.
54
These benefits were not confined to the colony's white population. African
fanners also responded to the increase in agricultural prices and increasing numbers
of African work-seekers were attracted to the major urban areas by increased job
opportunities arising out of the military presence, the influx of white refugees and the
burgeoning harbour activity. African peri-urban communities expanded so rapidly
that a pass system was imposed on incoming work-seekers under the 190 I
Identification of Native Servants Act, and tight regulations governing the
employment, payment and accommodation of togt daily labourers were implemented
in tenns of the 1902 Togt Labour Amendment Act.
The value of exports through Cape and Natal ports declined by almost two-thirds
between 1898 and 1900 as the overberg trade evaporated, but there was no loss of
purchasing power abroad due to the huge inflow of imperial funds to finance the war
effort. There was a sharp increase in imports in response to the needs of the imperial
forces and the temporary increase in population. The duty levied on these eventually
more than compensated for the loss of excise income nonnally derived from the
overberg trade. The imposition of higher wartime customs duties inflated prices and
increased the cost of living but this was accompanied by more readily available credit
and improved levels of income and employment in the private sector.
In addition to public income derived from customs duties, Natal's railway
revenues were also dramatically improved by the heavy traffic in troops, equipment
and supplies to the war zone, even though most trucks returned empty to the port.
Increased railway earnings were largely responsible for the 57% increase in Natal's
revenue in 1900-1, amounting to nearly 3 million more than the previous financial
year. This additional income was achieved in part by investing in improved railway
infrastructure costing nearly 2.5 million but still left a hefty surplus of471 000.
As the trend continued a surplus of 387 200 was achieved in the 1901-2
tinancial year, during which the loans from the Bank of England amounting to
835 000 for the payment of additional wartime costs were repaid. In 1902-3 the
colony's public revenues rose to an unprecedented level that would have yielded a
surplus of 372 000 had it not been for the Natal government's undertaking to pay
war expenses. This resulted in a substantial deficit for the financial year but also in
the elimination of all expenses connected with what had been budgeted as the 'South
African Crisis' .56
Confidence in the future was high as the inflow of immigrants and capital
continued. Real estate business increased and traders continued to import goods in
expectation of an ongoing post-war boom in Natal and especially in the Transvaal,
and in anticipation of higher customs duties under an imminent new customs
convention. In 1903 Natal's imports increased in value to a record 15.3 million,
largely in response to the needs of post-war reconstruction in the Transvaal and
Orange Free State. Governmental and municipal authorities were sufficiently
encouraged to launch their own construction programmes, some initiated before the
tennination of hostilities. These included extensive harbour and railway development
to cater more adequately for the import-export trade, tarred urban roads, electric
44
'If was fhe hest qftimes, it was the worst oftimes ... '
lighting. telephone services, schools and offices, and new town halls, one of which
was built in Pietermaritzburg at a projected cost of 60000.
Other public works initiated in the capital included new colonial offices (the
Colonial Building in Church Street) for 80000, described as 'one of the handsomest
blocks of architecture in South Africa', Legislative Council buildings for 25 000 and
new railway workshops. In addition, plans were drawn up for post and telegraph
offices, a museum, drill hall, market buildings and enlargements to the railway station
and police court. By January 190 I several privately-owned shops were being rebuilt
or otherwise improved and the city was reported to be 'in a very prosperous
condition' due to the high level of military expenditure and an innux of 10 to 12 000
upcountry refugees. 58
Durban also benefited from the now of military traffic and the arrival of 'several
thousand refugees'. Wholesale merchants engaged in the overberg trade fell upon
hard times but retailers thrived and actually increased in numbers, partly in response
to the demands of the Army Services Corps and also the Field Force Canteen which
for a time placed orders to the value of 80 000 per month. By the end of 1900
buildings to the value of at least 250 000 were under construction and land prices
had risen not only in Durban itself but as far as two hours' journey up the main
railway line into the interior where affluent members of the community built summer
residences. The Durban City Council embarked upon several major works including
an extended sewerage scheme, new reservoirs, electric tramlines and market-houses,
the completion of the Victoria Embankment on the city side of the Bay and the
reclamation of parts of the foreshore on the beachfront, necessitating loans of more
than 1.25 million.59
Even parts of northern Natal benefited from the prevailing boom conditions after
the invading commandos had been forced out of the colony. By 190 I coal had
become Natal's second largest export commodity due largely to the prevailing
wartime conditions. Coal exports through Durban harbour amounted to only 9.7% of
the colony's total output but the bunker trade at the port (considered to be part of
'exports') absorbed no less than 43.4% in that year and 49.2% in 1900 as a result of
the heavy volume of shipping generated by the war. The domestic consumption of
coal also increased temporarily due to the huge imperial military presence. This more
than compensated for the loss of access to inland markets, which in 1900 absorbed
only O. I7% (430 tons) of Natal's output.
60
The bunker and domestic markets, supplemented by the reviving consumption of
the Natal Government Railways, provided the local coal industry with a strong
incentive to make a swift recovery from its wartime setback. The demand for food
crops and slaughter-stock, which was in short supply by mid-1900, provided a similar
incentive for the agricultural sector in the northern districts but, as previously
indicated, its rehabilitation was a much longer process.
By contrast, business in Newcastle enjoyed a boost from the advancing imperial
forces, and from the arrival of refugees who temporarily settled there when the town
was re-occupied, preparatory to returning to the Transvaal. After the siege was lifted
the mini pre-war boom in Ladysmith resumed even though most contracts to supply
the army were rumoured to be already 'i n the hands of Pietermaritzburg men'. The
commercial life of the surrounding district was still severely dislocated as many
45 '1t H'as the best qllimes, it was the worst ....
farmers were either in jai I or on the run after collaborating with the Boers. Yel several
inhabitants of the town had made a great deal of money during the siege and
Ladysmith continued. for a time. to be in 'a fairly tlourishing condition' with the local
hotel business already enjoying a steady tourist trade attracted to the battlefields.
61
Indeed. the impact of the Anglo-Boer War was to be felt all over southern Africa
for nearly half a decade but. in most places. the wartime boom did not survive the
termination of hostilities in 1902 by more than a year.
Post-war recession
The long recession experienced in Natal from 1903 until as late as 1909 was due to
several factors. Expenditure in the colony declined as the inflow of imperial funds to
fuel the war effort and the resettlement of refugees dried up. Imports also slumped.
merchants were stuck with stockpiles of unwanted foreign goods and prices dropped
as surplus military stores were dumped on local markets. By 1905 several small
businesses in Pietermaritzburg and Durban had closed down, numerous offices and
shop premises were standing empty and property prices had plunged between 20 and
30% since the war. There was very little building activity except for the construction
of the ne\v Post Office in Pietermaritzburg where the municipal debt exceeded
I million and necessitated the raising of an additional loan of 490 000 to finance
public works currently under way.
Ratepayers in Durban objected strongly to the proposed construction of a new
Town Hall at a cost of 200 000 as the number of local insolvencies and mounting
unemployment expressed itself in a rising incidence of crime and drunkenness. The
older, established firms managed to survive but their capital resources were seriously
eroded and business was reckoned to have 'scarcely been worse during the past 20
years'. There was a noticeable decline in the white urban popUlation, particularly in
Durban where it dropped from 40 000 in 1903 to 25 000 in July 1908. with most
emigrants leaving for Europe. Australia or Argentina. The agricultural sector was
also adversely affected by these recessionary conditions. its recovery being further
retarded by recurrent drought. locust swarms and rinderpest, followed in 1904 by a
major outbreak of east coast fever.
The financial burden involved in the implementation of preventive measures
against the spread of cattle diseases and the provision of more efficient agricultural
services was compounded by the costs incurred in completing the process of refugee
repatriation and replenishing railway stores looted during the war. The Natal
government was also faced with increased military expenditure in the immediate post
war era when it was informed that it would henceforth have tolinance its own
defence. as provided tor in terms of the granting of responsible government in 1893.
The subsequent establishment under the 1903 Militia Act of an active militia of 3 500
men. supported by three reserve militias and equipped with the latest weapons.
constituted an additional heavy demand on the colonial exchequer when it was still
paying for the ambitious public works initiated during the wartime boom.
Natal's post-war recession was. in measure, attributable to circumstances
which were entirely external to the colony. The economic and political future of the
whole subcontinent depended heavily upon the revival of the Transvaal gold industry.
which \\-as (;10\\ to recover its momentum due to a shortage of unskilled labour.
46
'It was the hest qltimes, it was the worst ... '
Confidence in Natal's future well-being was further undermined by a new isolationist
movement among Transvalers. This group, including some leaders of the mining
industry, proposed to terminate the free importation into the Transvaal of goods from
other British colonies in southern Africa. They also wanted to encourage greater use
of the shorter route through Mozambique for railway traffic between the
Witwatersrand and the coast.
In 190 I the British military government, already installed in the Transvaal before
the war was over, negotiated the modus vivendi agreement. This assured the
Portuguese that goods in transit to the Witwatersrand would enjoy equal treatment
with those passing through the Cape and Natal. In return the Portuguese were to
provide a guaranteed supply of unskilled Mozambican labour which was much
needed in the mining sector. Not least, the agreement also exempted Mozambican
goods from import duty into the Transvaal. This posed a serious challenge to Natal in
view of the similarity of their sub-tropical products, but the problem was insignificant
compared with the colony's potential loss of income from customs and railway
revenues generated by the overberg trade. In addition to the shorter distance to the
sea, railway rates on the Delagoa Bay line were lower and while negotiations
concerning the allocation of the Witwatersrand's rail traffic continued,
Mozambique's share rose to as much as 60%:4 It was only in 1908 that there were at
last some indications of an economic upswing in Natal, after a worldwide recession
had made local conditions even worse. By then declining customs and railway
receipts, rising public debt and a succession of budgetary deficits had also impacted
upon the colony's political life. Sir Albert H ime 's ministry fell in mid-1903 when its
Supply Bill was rejected. The next ministry, led by Sir George Sutton, collapsed over
disputes concerning the raising of revenue. He was followed by Sir Charles Smythe
who resigned eighteen months later after Bambatha's uprising - sparked off by a
new I poll tax introduced to improve state revenues --- added another 700 000 to
the public debt by way of military expenses.
65
The ordeal by fire of 1899-1902, followed by prolonged post-war recession and
financial hardship, gradually made it clear to many reluctant white Natalians that the
long-term future of the colony lay in some form of closer political association with
her neighbours and, in particular, with the gold-rich Transvaal. Yet again, as before
the Anglo-Boer War, they had to contend with ambivalent attitudes towards their
neighbours across the Drakensberg.
66
NOTES
I. Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities (London. 1859). p. I.
2. The term 'Natal" in this context includes the territory between the Thukela and Phongolo rivers
known as 'Zululand' that was annexed to the colony of Natal in 1897 The title 'Anglo-Boer War' is
preferred here to the currently fashionable 'South African War' because it indicates the major
belligerents involved. This is not to deny the active participation in the conllict of other persons
including Africans and Indians. as well as American. Irench. German. Irish and Russian volunteers.
3. J. Stirling. The Colonia/'I' in South Africa. 1899 1902. their record based on the despatches
(London. 1903). pp. 27-8.42-3: R. RusselL Natal the land and its story (Pietermaritzburg. 1904).
p. 302: CH. StotL lhe Hoer Invasion oflv'atal (London. 1900). p. 216: Colony of Natal Statistical
Year Book. p. 12: 11. Paterson. 'The military organisation of the colony of Natal. 1881-1910' (MA.
Natal Durban, 1985) pp. 94-6.
47 'It was the hest qltimes, it was the worst times ... '
4. The .\'alal 9 April 1891: A.F. lIattersley. Pietermaritzburg Panorama: a survey C?f one
hundred years o/an African city (Pietermaritzburg. 1938), p. I1I
5. Standard Bank of South Alrica Ltd Archives. Johannesburg (herealler, SBA) General Manager's
Oflice 3/211 1I lIalf. .. Yearly Letters 189()-1896 Joint General Managers to The Secretary, Standard
Bank. l.ondon. 10 February 1891. pp. 62-3: WR. Guest. 'Natal and the confederation issue in the
1870s' (MA, Natal Durban. 1966) pp. 6-9, 85-6, 130: R. Ovcndalc. 'The politics of dependcnce.
1893-9'. in A. Duminy and B. Guest (Eds) 'valal and Zululand/rom earliesl limes 10 1910. a new
JlIslorr (Pietermaritzburg. 1(89) pp. 328.337
6. Duminy and Guest op. eiL pp. 327-38: LII. Bmokes and C de B. Webb, A History C?f'valal
(pietermaritzburg. 1(65). pp. 192-3.200-1.
7. Paterson. '\1ilitary organisation of the colony of Natal" pp.759.
8. Ibid.. pp. 80-2.
9. Ibid., p. 76: A.I!. Duminy and W.R Guest (Eds) Flt:::.Palrlck: SOUlh African politician, selected
papt'rs, 1888-1906 (Johannesburg. 1(76). pp. 222, 242.
10 The Xalal Witness. I, 6, 8 July 1899: Jhe 'valal Afercury, 4 July. 23 September. 3, 13 October 1899:
Stoll, Hoer Invasion of.\'atal, pp. 18- 20.
11. The Xalal Alercury, 18 August 4 November 1899: \1.D. Bollmann. 'War and Natal urban
communities: the socio-economic life of Pietcrmaritzburg and Dundee, during the first phase of the
Anglo-Boer \Var. October 1899 to April 1900' (BA Hons. Natal Pietermaritzburg. 1987) pp. 42-3:
PJB. Savory, 'The Uitlander Council (with special rclerence to Natal), (BA lions, t\atal Durban.
1973)pp.28-9.32-3,39.
12. The Xalal Witness. 23. 26 August 1899: Savory. 'Uitlander Council'. pp. 31-6: Bollmann. 'War and
Natal urban communities', pp.
13 The Xatal Wllness. 27 October 1899, 16 February F. Meer (ed). The S'oulh /{/rican Gandhi,
An Abslracl of Speeches and H'ritings of A1.K. Gandhi. 1893-19/.1 (Durban, 1995) p. 743:
Bollmann. 'War and Natal urban communities', pp. 44-5.
14. Ibid. pp. 75-7: Stott Hoer Invasion o(.'.atal, pp. 220.223.
15. Killie Campbell Africana l.ibrary, Durban. MAR 2.08.5. 'March with Zulus from Johannesburg to
Natal': P Warwick. Hlack People and the South A/neon J;Var. 1899-1902 (Johannesburg, 1983).
pp. 127-8: Stotl. Hoer Invasion of SalOl, pp. 30-1. (Sce also the book review of Fhe rang Afarch
lIome by Elsabc Brink elsewhere in this issue. Ed.)
16. Ibid. IJP 27. 33. 38-9: R. Kruger. Good-bye Do!!y Gray (London. 1974). p. 55: AF 11 attersley.
('arhineer. the hislory o/Ihe Royal SalOl Carhineers (Aldershot. 1950). pp. 36-7.
17. Stot1. Hoer InraslOn o/Satal. pp. 28-9.107-9, 120-22. 164. 21\. D. Rcitz. Commando (l.ondon,
1(29). p32-6
18. VS Ilarris, 'The rc1uctant rebels: the impact of the Second Anglo-Boer War upon the Klip River
Dutch community. with special reference to the Dutch community of Dundee' (BA Hons. Natal
Pietennaritzburg. 1982) p. 22: Stott. Boer Invasion of ;\'atal. pIlI. S. Spencer (Ed). 'Catherine
Portsmouth's letter. .. '. Xalalia. 27. 1997, pp. 6-18.
19. Kruger. Gray, 76-8. 100-1: Stott. Boer Invasion a/Salal, pp. 44-64.
20. SBA. Inspection Reports on Branch Offices 1/1/465. Dundee 24 December Bollmann. 'War
and 1\atal urban communities', pp. 7-8.
21. Ibid. pp. \ 0-15: Harris. 'The reluctant rebels', pp. 24-8.
22. T Pakenham, Fhe Boer War (Johannesburg. 1993). pp. 75-9.93-4.
23. Ibid., pp 82-5: Stott. Hoer InvaSIOn C?f.\'alal. pp. 90-8.
24. SBA Inspection Reports on Branch Offices 11\/101, Ladysmith 15 November 1898
25 Pakenham. Hoer War, pp. 82-5. 1425. 185: R. Chisholm, radysmilh (l.ondon. 1979). pp. 92-4,
128-33.
26 Ibid.. pp.98-9.127-8.162.164,190--3.195:Pakenham.BoerWar,pp.183-4.1889.
27. Ibid. pp. 82-5.879.93-4.186--91; Stot1. Boer Im'asion ofAalOl, pp. 23-4,125-213: J Symons.
Bu!!er's campaign (London. 1963). passim.
28 Pakenham. Boer War, pp. 93-8: Stott. Boer Invasion o/.Valal. pp. 99-1 18.
29. Ibid., pp. 219-20: Warwick, Black People and Ihe SoU/h African pp. 80-3.
30 Symons. Buller's campaign, pp. 27982: Stirling. C%ma/s If1 Soulh ,1frieo, pp. 42-4: Paterson,
'Military organisation of the colony of Natal'. p. 83
48 'It was the best qi'times. it was the worst q(times ....
31 Wamick, l3Iack Peuple and the ,\Ol/t17 ,!(rrcc1f1 War. pp 87-90: Harris, 'The reluctant rehels',
pp. 21-2: S . .!. Maphalala. 'The policies of the Transvaal and I\atal Governmcnts towards Dinuzulu
1897-1913' (D.Lilt et Phi]. lJnisa 1(89) pp. 90-107.
32. D. M. Moore. General Louis Rotha's second expeditIOn to \alal (Cape Town. 1(79). pp 14-16. 36.
49: Paterson. 'Military organisation of the colony o1'l\atal". p. 85
33. Pakenham. Boer War, pp. 279-83: Waf\\ick. Black P(!()ple and Ihe ,\011111 ,I(rruln War, pp. 90-3
34. \1aphalala. 'Policics t()\\ards Di11luulu', pp. 107-22: Warwick. Rlack People and tlte South A/riean
War, pp 90-3.
Ibid., pp. 87-90,132-3: StotC Roer InWlslOn o(\"ala/. p 216: \1. Palmer: /lISIOIY Indwlls 111
\alal (Cape Tlmn. 19:"\7). pp 634.
36. Ilarris, 'The reluctant rebels". pp. Bollmann. 'War and Natal urban communities'. pU:
Warwick, Rlad People and the .'loutll War. pp. 78-80: Sec also S.l \1aphalala. 'Thc
participation orthe lulus in the Anglo-130er War 1899-1902' (MA, lululand, 1971)) passim.
37 Ihid., pp. 158-9.
38 Blue Books for the Colony of Natal (Departmental Reports). Annual Reports of the Commissioner of
\1ines: 1898 p. 11103. 1899 pp. 1129,35. 1900 p. 1149 and 1901 p. 3: Commissioner of \'-1ines
Records (Dundee), File 65/1900: W.N. Muir (Assl Inspector) to Commissioner of Mines, 29 March
1900, Files 126 and 149/1900: Correspondence re War Damage: Ruth Ldgecombe and Bill (iuest.
'An introduction to the prc-Union Natal coal industf), in B. Guest and .l.M. Sellers (Eds)
and ExplollatlUn in a J/clorlan Colony.' A.spects the ecunomic and social hislmy o{ colonial
.\'alal (Pietermaritzburg, 1985). pp. 316, 318.
39. Stott. Hoer Inmsion p. 223: Bollmann, 'War and Natal urban communities' pp 28,30-1:
.I. Lambert. 'The impoverishment of the Natal peasantry. 1893-19J(J', in (iuest and Sellers (Lds)
and E-.;plol/(JtlOn. pp. 300-1
40. SBA. Inspection Reports on Rranch Oftkes 1/1/46, Dundee 15 Novemher 1899, 111/208, Dundee
31 Januaf) 1902 and 19 Ma) Bolll11ann, 'War and I\atal urban communities'. p. 32
41 VS. f1arris. 'The Klip River Dutch Community 1843-18li9' Journal 0/ ;\'alal and /.ulu / It.wory,
VII. 1984, pp 1-10: Harris 'The reluctant rebels', pp. 15,32,48.
42. Ibid., pp. 214
43. Ibid. pp. 28-9,38-9,40--1.
44 Ihid .. pp. 30-6,42-50,53-6
45. PA. Dry. 'Concentration camps during the South African War (1899-1902) with particular
reference to the Natal camps. 1900-1902' ([3A lions. Natal Pictermaritzburg. 19(0) p. 7: sec also
1:. Hobhousc (I:d) Har ll"lIllOut glamour. lromen's war experiences ll"nllen hI' themselves, \899
1902 (Bloemfontein n.d). passim: A.C Martin. file Concenlralion Camps. 190() 190/. facts.
figures (md/ahles (Cape Town. 1(57), passim; S.B. Spies . .\lethods o/l3arharism:)' /?oher/s al1d
J\ilchener and cil'i1wns mlhe Hoer repuhltcs January 1900 .'day 1902 (Cape Tovm, 1977). passim.
46. Df), 'Concentration camps', pp. 715,26-39,42-59,679
47. [bid .. pp. 11-26,72-5,80.92-9,102.105-6,110-11. 118-19.
48. Ibid .. pp 85.956, 105-b. 137-8, 142.
t9. SlOtL l30er InvaSIOn o( .\'ala/. p. 224: I.A. Konczacki. Puhlic Finance and 1:'cono"lI(' IJevelopment
o(.\'ata/. 1893 1910 (Durham, N.C 19(7). pp. 54. 86-7.
:"\0. Stott, Hoer Inmsion o( ;\ala/. pp. 214-16: Stirling. Colonials 111 .';oulh ;1jhea. pp. 27-8: Ru:-.se 11 ,
SalaI.
p 302: Brookes and Webb, lliSlor), o(\alal. pp. 203-4: Paterson. 'Military organisation of the
colony of Natal', p. 95.
51 Stirling. Colonials in Sa/aI, pp. 47-9 (KCn Knight Commander of the [)SO Companion of
the Distinguished Service: CMG Companion of St Mlchad and St George: [)CM Distinguished
Conduct Medal.)
52. Bollmann. 'War and Natal urban communities '. pp. 46-8: Stirling. Coluf1/(Jls If1 .\ala/. pp. 42-3. 4\):
Colony o{.\a/al Slatlsliea! rear Book. 190 l. P12: Warwick, Black People and Ihe South .. ({riean
War, pp. 87-90,132-3.
53. The Salal .\Iercur)" 19 Decemher 1899. 27 and 28 March 1900: Konczacki. PubliC Fmanee and
/:'conOI71IC IJevelopmenl, p. 107: f5rookes and Webb. iIlslory o(\alal, pp. 2 J I 12.
54. Konc7acki, Puhlic Finance and /:'col7omic Devc/opmenl, pp 13. 54. 70-1: TH'enlielh Century
ImpreSSIons ol\alal: its Peuple. Commerce. Indus/n(!s and Resources (London, 1(06), pp. 67-83:
49 '/1 was Ihe hest it was Ihe 'worst q(limes ....
Andrc\\ Duminy and Bill (juest 'The Anglo-Rocr War and its economic attermath. 18L)L)-191 0'. in
A. Duminy and IHJuest (Lds) ;\'alal and L.ululand. p. 351
55 M.W Swanson. '''The Durban System'" Roots of Urban Apartheid in Colonial NataLl(rtcan
Sludies. 35.1976. pp. 159-76: Andrcw Duminy and Bill (fuest. 'Conclusion'. in Dumin: and Guest
(Lds) .\alal and L.ululand. p. 432.
56. Koncncki. Puhhc Fmance and /:conollllc /)evelopment. pp 5-.1-5. 72-3. 100: D lIobart lIoughtol1
and J. Dagut (Lds) 5,"vurce materwl on Ihe .)'outh ,{[rican f:'conomy: 1860 1970 Vol 2 18L)lt-lltI9
(Cape Tlml1. Ilt72). p 1
57 SHA. Inspection Reports on Branch Oftices 1/l/20R. Durban 31 Januar: 1902: Dumin! and Guest.
. Anglo-Boer War and its cconomic aftermath'. pp351. 353--.1.
58. SBA. Inspection Reports on Branch Oftices 1/1 1129, Pietermaritzburg 31 December 1899 and
31 Janua!) 1901
59. SBA. Inspection Reports on Branch Officcs 1/1/53, Durban 24 November 1900 and 1111208. Durban
31 January 1902.
60. Blue Books of the Colony of Natal (Dcpartmental Reports), Annual Reports of the Commissioner of
Mines: IR99-1902: Edgecombe and Guest 'Pre-Union Natal coal indust!), pp. 324-5.
61. SBA. Inspection Reports on Branch Oftices 111/251. Newcastle 26 December 1901: 1111101.
Ladysmith 25 August 1899 and 8 September 1900: II I1238. Ladysmith 15 Septembcr 1903 and
23 September 1905.
62. SBA. Inspection Reports on Branch Otlices 1/1/256. Pietermaritzburg 6 May 1905 and 21 April
1906; 1/1/209. Durban 20 March 1905,3 March 1906 and 18 July 1908.
63. Konczacki. Public Finance and Economic Deve/opmt'nt. pp. 55-6. 58, 75; Paterson, 'Military
organisation of thc colony of Natal'. pp. 97-110: Duminy and Guest. 'Anglo-Roer War and its
econom ic aftermath'. pp. 354-7.
64. S.L::. Katzenellenbogen. South <1[rica and southern IHo:::amblque. labour, rai/ways and lrade in the
making of a relatIOnship (Manchester. 19RI), pp. 50-I. 90-1; A. H. Jeeves, AlIgrant Labour m
South Africa's Afimng Economy: the struggle for the gold mines' labour supply, 1890 /9::0
(Johannesburg. 1(85). passim.
65. SBA. Inspection Reports on Branch Ollices 1/1/209. Durban 17 July 1909; Konczacki. Public
FlI1ance and Economic Development, pp. 57. 78, 82, 84. 100; R.JH. King, 'The premiership of
CJ. Smythe. 1905-1906. and the Bambatha Rebellion' (MA. Natal Durban. 1(79) passim: Paterson.
'Milita!) organisation of the colony ofNatar. pp. 86-7.
66. W.R. Guest 'FitzPatrick. Natal and thc unification of South Africa'. Xatalia 11. 1981. pp. 47-56;
PS Thompson. .\'malians First: Separatism in ,'louth "1fnca 1909-/96/ (Johannesburg. 1990).
pp. 1-5.
BILL GUEST
A glimpse into
Bushman presence in the
Anglo-Boer War
Introduction
When the first European settlers arrived in southern Africa they found the land
already inhabited by indigenous societies. Some of these groups, such as the Khoi
pastoralists and Bantu-speaking agriculturists, were relative newcomers as they most
probably only entered the sub-region around 2000 years ago (Hall 1987: 17-3 I). By
way of contrast, the Bushman hunter-gatherers whom all settler societies encountered
when they entered southern Africa had been there for almost 25 000 years.
Relationships between these hunter-gatherers and other indigenous groups were not
always amicable but in many instances they did manage to live alongside each other
relatively peaceably. These situations almost always led to the Bushmen being
reduced to the lowest class in these new socio-economic systems of which they
eventually became part.
The knell for hunter-gatherers, however, was sounded by the settlement of the
sub-continent by European colonists. Conflict between European settlers and
Bushman hunter-gatherers over land and resources led to the inevitable genocide of
these 'first peoples'. In some areas, such as in the Sneeuberge of the Upper Karoo,
conflict was especially intense. Here the Hundred Years Bushman War temporarily
halted colonial frontier expansion and saw the slaughter of virtually thousands of
Bushmen (Ne\\''ton-King 1992). Less bloody, but perhaps as intense, the history of
contact between European settlers and the last Bushman hunter-gatherers in
KwaZulu-Natal followed a similar path. Livestock raiding by Bushmen on European
owned fanns began soon after the Great Trek in 1838 and continued for about
another 50 years (Wright 1971). These raids were conducted by the Berg Bushmen
(also known as Bathwa or Seroa by Nguni and Sotho-speaking groups respectively)
who operated from the Drakensberg (Ukhahlamba) and Maluti mountains.
With their fonner hunting territories hemmed in by migrating Sotho farmers from
the west and an expanding colonial frontier from the east, they increasingly came to
rely on livestock raiding as a means of maintaining their inherently fragile and now
highly threatened economy. However, with the imposition of African buffer locations
along the base of the Drakensberg by Sir Theophilus Shepstone, then Native
Commissioner of Natal, these raids soon became something of the past. Those bands
Xa/alta 29. (1999). F.E. Prins pp. 50-60
51
A glimpse into Bushman presence in the Anglo-Boer War
who were not wiped out by means of retaliation by the colonial government either
migrated elsewhere or were eventually absorbed into the farming communities of
their Sotho- and Nguni-speaking neighbours (Wright 1977: 184-195). Within this
mountainous panorama the Bushmen's final scene was to be acted out. By the end of
the nineteenth century independent Bushman hunter-gatherers all but disappeared
from the South African landscape.
This climactic event saw surviving Bushmen being either acculturated or having
internlarried with other groups and no longer regarded as authentic. The popular
notion that real Bushmen were either extinct, of the last generation, or could only still
be found somewhere in the Kalahari desert pervaded historical writings. Hence the
possible contribution of Bushmen populations to modern South African history has
been largely ignored. Whereas the southern Bushmen figure prominently in the pages
of South African history books before 1890, their contribution fades away soon after
the European colonisation of the sub-continent. Surprisingly, similar sentiments have
also been voiced in historical writings regarding 'first-peoples' in other parts of the
world which have been dominated by settler societies (i.e. America, Australia, New
Zealand). Again through these writings, readers are led to believe that these peoples'
contribution to modern history is insignificant. Perhaps this is due to their assumed
extinction (Prins 1999).
These scholarly notions, perhaps more than anyone historical event, have led to
the final deathblow for many 'first peoples' as distinct entities. The fact that the
southern Bushmen have been treated as peripheral to modern mainstream South
African history is clearly evident in their apparent absence during the Anglo-Boer
War of 1899-1902, only 30 years after the well-recorded period of Bushman
livestock raiding (Wright ]97] :194) came to an end. This is rather ironic as it has
become fashionable among liberal historians to pay more attention to the role of
indigenous populations during this war (Changuion ]999:] 0 1-109). In fact, the
renaming of the Anglo-Boer War to the more politically correct South African War is
a direct attempt to acknowledge and incorporate the contribution of the African
population to this war, and to recognise that it was not only a 'white man's war'.
We know that indigenous groups and the acculturated descendants of South
Africa's first peoples were affected by this war in many different ways. It is almost
certain, for instance, that many agterryers (mounted attendants or servants) employed
by the Boers would have been of Bushman descent. Oral accounts by old farnlers
suggest that individuals of Bushman descent were frequently used by British forces to
spy on Boer commando movements in the Eastern Cape (Bellcross pers.comm.).
However, it also happened that Bushman farm labourers in the same area
accompanied Afrikaner rebels on commando (Schmidt pers.comm.).
Most information on the role of Bushman individuals during the Anglo-Boer War
is forthcoming from a small community of Bushman farm labourers in the southern
Transvaal highveld. Interestingly, some members of this community originated in
Lesotho and the Natal Drakensberg where they had been implicated in livestock raids
on white farmers some thirty years earlier. For them participation in the Boer War on
the side of the Afrikaner farmers was a logical gesture which would have secured
their economic and ethnic survival. In order to understand their motive for taking part
in the Anglo-Boer War it is first necessary to outline the events leading up to this
52
A Rlirnpse into Bushrnan presence in the AnRlo-Boer War
decision. A large percentage of the information reported here is based on oral
interviews with European farmers and Bushman farm labourers in the Lake Chrissie
area. Given the problematical nature of assessing oral tradition, the evidence reported
here must be treated with circumspection.
The last trek of the Drakensberg Bushmen
In the early 1880s a Lutheran pastor P. Filter, who was attached to the German
mission station at Llineburg in northern KwaZulu-Natal (Laband 1990:185), came
ac:ross two groups of migrating Bushmen at Annysspruit near Piet Retief. Filter was
involved in transport riding between the eastern Transvaal and Natal (Filter
1925: 186). According to his great-grandson Jorg Filter, he most probably provided
the gold diggers at Barberton with freshly cut wooden beams which he obtained from
the indigenous forests on the mountains surrounding Llineburg at the time (Filter
pers.comm.). He befriended these Bushmen whom he met on several occasions over a
four-year period. They were migrating from the central Natal Drakensberg to the
southern Transvaal highveld. Oral tradition among white farmers in Piet Retief has it
that pastor Filter helped these migrating Bushmen and provided them with transport
on his oxwagon (Weber pers.comm. 1998). The Bushmen, whose leaders were known
as Kibit and Adons, told pastor Filter that they had operated as livestock raiders in the
Weenen area but that they left Natal during the Anglo-Zulu War (1879) after being
pursued by angry Boers. One group was generally taller and darker in complexion
whilst members of the second group appeared smaller and yellower in complexion.
According to the memoirs of pastor Filter the black Bushmen originated in the
foothills of the Natal Drakensberg while the yellow Bushmen originally came from
Lesotho (Filter 1925: 187). In fact, some of these yellow Bushmen spoke Sesotho
which suggests a long period of residence amongst or adjacent to Sotho speakers.
Interestingly, it is generally assumed that Bushman livestock raids on European farms
in Natal ceased soon after 1872 (Wright 1971: 194). However, the Natal colonial
authorities did receive reports of cattle drives along the Drakensberg in the vicinity of
Giants Castle in 1879 (Thompson 1990:265-266). It can be speculated that these
drives may have been conducted by Sotho in collaboration with Bushman groups but
the evidence is too uncertain to be sure.
The year 1879, when these Bushmen left the foothills of the Drakensberg, is
important on two accounts. Not only did it see the outbreak of the Anglo-Zulu War
but also the defeat of chief Moorosi, the long-time ally and protector of the Berg
Bushmen. These occurrences provide an important backdrop to understanding the
possible political context of this migration. In fact, it is generally accepted that the
last stand of the Berg Bushmen took place in 1879 when they aided chief Moorosi of
the Baphuti in his final battle against colonial forces. For many years Moorosi, a
semi-independent Sotho chieC orchestrated livestock raids on European farmers in
the Eastern Cape Colony and Natal. Many of these raids were conducted in
collaboration with his Bushman allies. Ties between the Baphuti and the Bushmen
were particularly close. Many of them were affines, and it is even said that Moorosi
himself was partially of Bushman descent. In April 1879 colonial forces besieged
Moorosi's stronghold, a well-fortified mountain in south-eastern Lesotho, only
managing to conquer it eight months later. The Bushmen, who were armed with bows
53
A glimpse into Bushman presence in the Anglo-Boer ~ V a r
and arrmvs. fought alongside the Baphuti but eventually also succumbed (Jolly
1996:60).
These developments were closely monitored by the Zulu King Cetshwayo. At this
time he was also entering a period of military resistance against British and colonial
authorities. In March 1879, two months after Moorosi led the Baphuti into rebellion
against the Cape authorities, he received messengers from Cetshwayo who had
promised assistance. On the 18th of the same month a report in The Natal Witness
stated that Moorosi and his men might be trying to make their way to Zululand by
way of the Drakensberg (Thompson 1990:266). It is not certain if any of them did
manage to escape to Zululand. Howevec it is entirely possible that the Bushmen
vvhom Filter met were somehow connected to chief Moorosi and caught up in the
turmoil at the time. It seems that they were granted safe passage through Zulu land by
Cetshwayo. Since at least 1847 small communities of acculturated Bushmen had also
been living together with Zulu and Swazi residents near the sources of the Pongola
river under chief Nyamainja as subjects of the Zulu king Mpande (Orpen
1964:3 I 1 ~ 329). It is entirely possible that these Bushmen had connections with those
of the Drakensberg and their presence in the peripheral Pongola region may have
been enough incentive for other groups to join them. In fact, at various stages in his
life chief Nyamainja moved with his followers to Swaziland, Natal and Lesotho,
clearly indicating that he and his Bushmen subjects may have had a wide network of
contacts (Orpen 1964:3 I I ~ 324: Eldredge 1994: 120). A contributing factor concerns
Boer farmers who in northen Natal and southern Mpumalanga aided the Zulu against
the colonial and British forces during the Anglo-Zulu War (Laband 1990:204).
Clearly. fleeing Bushmen would have regarded these Boers as more sympathetic to
their cause.
The Bushmen whom pastor Filter encountered stayed for a while in the area
bordering the disputed Pongola River territory but eventually settled at Lake Chrissie
further north (Filter 1925: 1 8 8 ~ I S9). And indeed it appears that Lake Chrissie became
the last haven for various groups of south-eastern Bushmen. These would have
included remnants of the original Transvaal Lowveld Bushmen, such as those which
inhabited the Honingklip shelter (Korsman & Plug 1992), and more recent arrivals
from the Orange Free State (Potgieter 1955:5) and the Natal Drakensberg/Lesotho
respectively. In addition. the Lake Chrissie Bushmen also had contact with other
groups in Mozambique (Filter 1925: 190). Exact figures are hard to come by but it is
said that one farm. Goedehoop. had at least 100 Bushman occupants when the first
Europeans arrived in the area (Potgieter 1955:8). The migrating Bushmen whom
pastor Filter encountered could not have numbered more than 100 and indeed on one
occasion he only saw about 40 individuals hiding in a cave (Filter 1925: 188).
Nevertheless. oral tradition suggests that there may have been several hundred of
them in the Lake Chrissie area when the first Europeans entered the region.
From servants to allies
Towards the middle of the 19th century the Swazi started controlling the southern
Transvaal highveld including Lake Chrissie. However, through the colonial system of
conce..,sions the area became part of the so-called New Scotland in 1867. This
initiative wa.., the brainchi Id of the Scot Alexander McCorkindale and was supposed
54
A glimpse into Bushman presence in the Ang/o-Boer War
to benefit the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek economically. Not only were farms in this
area occupied by Scottish emigrants but he also planned a port at the mouth of the
Usuthu River. However, on his sudden death from fever in 1871 the whole scheme
collapsed. Thereafter large portions of New Scotland were again settled by Boer
farmers who wanted to secure the area for themselves (Bonner 1983: 1 17-120).
However, they were not the only claimants to these lands.
Klaas Machoqv"ane. the great-grandson or the Bushman leader Kibit \vho kft the
Drakensberg in 1879. Today all the Bushmen at Lake Chrissie have become farm labouras
and have adopted a western styk of housing and material culture.
(Photograph: F.L Prim; )
Some African groups in New Scotland, such as the amaNgqamane, still paid
tribute to the Swazi royalty and hence regarded the area as rightfully belonging to
Swaziland. Since the 1840s Swazi impis regularly traversed this area in search of
booty. This included the children of neighbouring tribes, including Bushmen, who
were abducted to become serfs. Many of these children were again sold to Boer
farmers who needed cheap labour to develop their farms (Bonner 1983). Others were
taken to Swaziland where they became known as the (i.e. non-Swazi
captives from outside the boundaries of the Swazi kingdom). Such captives fomled an
important part of the Swazi economy and were in fact assimilated into Swazi society.
By a complex process their presence was used to justify Swazi rights to cede those
areas where they originated (Bonner 1983:80). In fact, through this system many
Bushmen came to be regarded as Swazi subjects. The Bushmen residents of the
southern highveld were particularly hard hit by Swazi raids, and the Swazi looked
upon them with contempt.
It is also possible that the Swazi royalty was angered by the relative protection
which the Bushmen enjoyed under Zulu hegemony in the Pongola region - an area
claimed by both Swazi and Zulu. For instance, in 1858 King Mswati of Swaziland
attacked chief Nyamainja, who also had Bushmen living under him, in an attempt to
reassert control over this trans-Pongola region (Bonner 1983:93). According to oral
tradition literally hundreds of Bushmen were murdered by Swazi impis during these
55
A glimpse into Bw;hman presence in the Anglo-Boer Mlar
raids on the southern highveld. Certain features of the landscape, such as an
interesting mushroom rock formation at Breyten also known as Moordrots (Murder
Rock) stand as silent witnesses marking the sites where particular atrocities took
place (Schoonraad & Schoonraad 1972: 10). Tradition has it that Bushmen frequently
hid from the Swazi raiders in the numerous pans of the Lake Chrissie area (Potgieter
1955:3-5). Yet even so Bushmen continued to be exterminated.
Paradoxically, a safeguard came in the form of the Boer farmers who offered to
protect the remaining Bushmen from Swazi aggression in exchange for cheap wage
labour. A singular incident as told to the author by two Bushmen, Simon Ngwenya
and Klaas Machoqwane (the latter being a great-grandson of the Bushman leader
Kibit), is particularly noteworthy. Soon after their arrival on the southern Transvaal
highveld Kibit's band was besieged and trapped by a Swazi impi in a cave known
locally among the Bushmen as Magageng. The Bushmen thought that they would all
be killed the next day and prepared for the worst. However, early the next morning a
Boer commando under the leadership of Bauer Bezuidenhout came to their aid and
told the Swazi to leave the Bushmen alone. Although Bushman accounts paint this
encounter as one of friendship between Boer and Bushman, the actual reason for the
Boer action was probably more sinister. There is reason to believe that they wanted to
secure the Bushmen children tor themselves as serfs or inhoekelinge. In fact, the
abduction of Bushman children by Boer farmers in northern Natal and adjacent areas
of Mpumalanga was something of an institution. J.M.Orpen, who acted as chief
magistrate of Winburg and Harrismith areas in the 1 850s, for instance, was told that
Boer farmers in Utrecht regularly abducted Bushman children in the Pongolo area
(Orpen 1964:311324). Present-day fanners and Bushmen in the Lake Chrissie
district still relate stories of how the Boers used to catch Bushmen with sugar and
porridge as bait. Despite official outcries (Eldredge 1994:93-126) the abduction and
'employment' of Bushmen children as serfs was still very much a reality on the
southern highveld in the 1880s almost twenty years after it ceased in other parts of
South Africa. The Bushmen whom pastor Filter encountered, for instance, at first
enquired if he was going to remove their children (Filter 1925: 1 8 6 ~ 187). Bushman
descendants also told the present author that Matsebula, an old Bushman who died in
the 1980s, could still remember how towards the end of the previous century he was
taken from his parents to work on a fann (Ngwenya pers.comm.). Not all child
removing encounters between Boer and Bushman necessarily led to bloodshed, and
there is evidence to suggest that the Boers sometimes compensated the Bushman
parents for abducted children (Orpen 1964:322). This would have contrasted with the
attitude of Swazi raiding parties who not only decimated whole bands of Bushmen
but would also have beaten the abductees severely en route back to Swaziland
(Forbes pers.comm.).
With the disappearance of large herds of game on the southern highveld by the
end of the 19th century, remaining Bushman groups had few options left in order to
ensure their economic survival. Their choice to become inboekelinge and farm
labourers on European-owned fanns rather than Swazi serfs was perhaps seen as the
lesser of two evi Is. It is perhaps in this context that the oral tradition must be viewed.
Bushmen descendants today emphatically maintain that the encounter at Magageng
led to a long-lasting friendship between the Bushmen and the Boer fanners in this
56
A glimp:;e into Bushman presence in the Ang/o-Boer War
area. Seventy years later Potgieter (1955:4) was told that the Bushmen of Lake
Chrissie still regard the Europeans as their protectors against the threat which they
saw in the Swazi, and the present author recorded similar sentiments in 1998.
Tradition has it that Kibit and his followers became wage labourers on the Boer
farms soon after the incident at Magageng. The segregationist outlook of the
Calvinistic farmers also allowed these Bushmen to retain a measure of ethnic identity
in the face of rapid cultural change. With the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War in
1899 the transformation of the once nomadic Bushmen into semi-resident farm
labourers was almost complete. Kibit, once the leader of a nomadic band of Bushmen
who operated from the Natal Drakensberg, became the personal assistant and farm
manager of Bauer Bezuidenhout. When Bezuidenhout left for commando duty during
the Anglo-Boer War he was accompanied by a loyal Kibit who acted as his agterryer.
Both Boers and their Bushman farm labourers were threatened by Swazi incursions,
while British overtures to the Swazi royalty were viewed with suspicion.
Participation in the Anglo-Boer War
The Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 was one of the best documented wars at the time,
and was comprehensively reported on by numerous war correspondents and
journalists. Boer and British soldiers kept diaries and many of the combatants wrote
books on the war after the cessation of hostilities (Pakenham 1979). However, most
of this documentation was by Europeans, and their reports reflect a bias towards
white perceptions of the war. It is therefore not surprising that there is virtually no
documentation on the role of Bushmen during the Anglo-Boer War. Again we have to
rely on oral data to ascertain such information. Oral accounts suggest that most of the
direct Bushman involvement took place during the guerrilla phase of the war when
the southern Transvaal highveld became the battleground of hittereinders (diehards)
and the scorched-earth policy of Lord Kitchener.
Support lent directly to Boer commandos
Although the Bushman farm labourers of Lake Chrissie generally supported their
masters during the Anglo-Boer War they were never armed for combat. Some
accompanied the Boer commandos as agtenyers to the battlefront. Especially
members of the Ermelo and Carolina commandos apparently had Bushman agterryers
as support. Their main function was to carry provisions, look after the horses during
combat, act as sentries, and be all-round assistants to the Boer combatants.
During the battle of Lake Chrissie on 6 February 190 I Boer commandos under
General Botha attacked the British forces who camped above the little town of
Chrisiesmeer (Reid 1997: 1). General Botha's main aim with this attack was to cripple
the advance of General Smith-Dorrien into the eastern Transvaal. According to oral
tradition Smith-Dorrien's march had been kept under observation by Bushman
agterr.vers who also acted as messengers on this occasion. The Boers capitalised on
the Bushmen's knowledge of the terrain. With their help the Boers could anticipate
exactly where Smith-Dorrien would establish his camp. The next day the Boer
commandos attacked and 75 British soldiers were killed or wounded against the Boer
losses of about 80. However, the British lost 300 horses which were either stampeded
or killed. Despite the losses on the Boer side, their eradication of the British horses
57
A Klimpse into Bushman presence in the AnK/o-Boer War
did delay the British advance into the Eastern Transvaal and gave the Boer
commandos time to re-group (Reid 1997:3). However, it was not only as agterryers
where the Bushmen's knowledge of the landscape aided the Boer commandos but
also as active onlookers of the war.
A Dr J. P van der Westhuizen recently wrote a letter to Die Burger in which he
recounted some experiences of the Anglo-Boer War (Van der Westhuizen 1999:2).
According to him one of the farms at Lake Chrissie, known by the Scottish name of
Lake Banagher. used to belong to a certain commandant Prinsloo. One of his loyal
farm servants was a Bushman by the name of Job. One night the small Boer
commando of which Prinsloo was a member hid in the thick reeds of Lake Banagher
Lakt Banagher. A Hoer wmmando trapped hy British fon.:es tscaped from this
arta alkr a Bushman called Joh. realising that his employer \\as among those trapped.
showed them an escape route in the heavy mist. (PholOgrap/z. r r FrillS.1
when pursued by a numerically superior force of British soldiers. In the mist of the
night Job suddenly appeared amongst the Boers and told them that they had been
totally surrounded by the British soldiers. He assured them, however, that he knew a
secret way out of the lake and persuaded them to follow him through the mist, leading
their horses by the bit. In this manner the Boer commando managed to escape without
any casualties. J. P. van der Westhuizen met the aged Job in the 1960s and described
him as a dignified old Bushman with an admirable personality (Van der Westhuizen
1999:2).
Domestic support
Most Bushmen remained on the farms, where they aided Boer families throughout the
war. With the implementation of the scorched-earth policy of Lord Kitchener in 190 I
some Boer farmers sent their livestock to be hidden in Swaziland by their loyal Swazi
58
A Klimpse into Bushman presence in the AnKlo-Boer War
and Bushman servants. These herds were returned safely to the Boer farms after the
cessation of hostilities. Other Bushmen remained on the Boer farms where they acted
as general assistants and messengers, reporting to farmers' families on the movements
of British forces. Most moving of all these occurrences are those of Bushmen caring
for Boer women and children who were hiding in caves. Two such incidents are well
remembered on the southern Transvaal highveld.
The first relates to the Van Zyl family of the farm Goedehoop. During the last
year of the war Jakomiena Elizabeth Van Zyl and her children decided to hide from
the British soldiers in a sandstone shelter next to an isolated pan known as Eiland
Meer. Here they stayed for almost a year whilst the British soldiers travelled from
farm to farm in search of Boer families to be taken as prisoners to the concentration
camps. During her year of hiding Jakomiena relied on a loyal Bushman servant who
not only reported to her on the activities of British soldiers in the vicinity but also
provided her with food. Much of this was foraged from the veld and included
blesbuck which he hunted on occasion. Eventually Jakomiena was caught by the
British who took her to a concentration camp near Barberton. It is not known what
happened to her Bushman servant at that stage, but his descendants live on the farm
Lake Banagher to this day.
A similar set of circumstances prevailed on the farm Bankfontein near Breyten as
recalled in a letter to Die Burf{er by Peet Steyn (Steyn 1999:6). Here the farmer's
wife Tienie Steyn was aided by a Bushman named Cheese. Cheese had to act as
sentry and general assistant to the Boer family. He would sit on a hill behind the
farmhouse and report on British troop movements in the vicinity. By the time the
British soldiers arrived on the farm Tienie Steyn and her daughters, Lettie and Nettie
together with Cheese had departed on a horse-drawn spider, to hide in a nearby series
of caves. These caves were locally known as the wonderbanke and their entrances
were well camouflaged by indigenous bush. Most of the Steyns' valuable furniture
and other belongings were hidden in them. From the caves they could also observe
the activities of the British soldiers at the farmstead -- they usually did not stay
longer than a day and a half. During the war this fami Iy spent most of their time at the
caves and apparently occupied their farmhouse only for about three months.
Conclusion
The participation of Bushmen during the Anglo-Boer War is a little known aspect of
this country's history. Not only did the European bias during the Anglo-Boer war
ignore such contributions at the time, but the assumed extinction of the southern
Bushmen soon after 1890 has also limited modern historical enquiries into this
fascinating topic. The close comradeship between Boer and Bushman during the
Anglo-Boer War can be understood in terms of the Boer practice of obtaining serfs
(inboekelinf{e), and the economic and cultural transformations many Bushmen had to
experience in order to survive in the new social order. The Anglo-Boer War was an
important factor in strengthening the forced mutual allegiance of the Boer farmers
and their Bushman servants. The segregationist outlook of Boer famers and the
manner in which they regarded the Swazi ensured the ethnic survival of a small group
of Bushmen as farm labourers until modem times.
59
A glimpse into Bushman presence in the Anglo-Boer War
The eastern Transvaal never had a large 'coloured' population into which the
Lake Chrissie Bushmen could have been assimilated and, unlike parts of the Eastern
Cape Province, miscegenation between Boer and Bushman apparently never
occurred. Despite some sentiment against the Swazi, many Bushmen intermarried and
took on the cultural identity of their Swazi neighbours. Paradoxically, even those
Bushmen who staunchly adhere to a Bushman ethnic identity have taken Swazi clan
names, even though they do not necessarily owe allegiance to a Swazi chief. The
recent colonial history of the Lake Chrissie Bushmen is in a sense a microcosm of the
larger melting pot, the intermingling and clash of different cultures, which produced
the modem South African mosaic. For the Bushmen of the southern Transvaal
highveld this is aptly symbolised in the imposing Union Buildings in Pretoria.
Tradition has it that this building, which stands for a unified South Africa, was built
with sandstone blocks quarried from the wonderbanke the same place where a
Bushman aided a Boer family during the war that heralded the beginning of the
modern era in South Africa.
Acknowledgernents
I would like to thank all the farmers and Bushmen at Lake Chrissie who so
generously assisted me with this project. Thanks are also due to Sian Hall for
valuable discussion, and assistance during field work. The research reported here was
funded with the support of the De Beers Chairman's Fund and The National
Geographic Society, Washington DC.
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A glimpse into Bushman presence in the Anglo-Boer War
Schoonraad, M & Schoonraad, I:. 1972. 'Rotskuns van Oos-Transvaal' in Outlook 68-11
SteYTl, P. 1999. 'Vrou vlug op spaaider voor die oorlog uil. Kosbaarhede op plaas begrawc' in Du!
BlIrger: 27 Maarl: 6.
Thompson, PS 1990. 'Wcencn County and the war. 1879' in Laband, J & Thompson, P (eds) Kingdom
and ('olony at War. 245-272. University of Natal Press: Piclcrmaritzburg.
Van der Westhllizen, JP, 1999, 'Die nag toc 'n linesman 130ere lIit die klouc van die Kakies gcred her in
/)U! Burger: 6 Fcbruarie: 2,
WrighL JB 1971 Bushman Raiders oj'the f)rakensherg 18-10 187() University or Natal Press
Pietermaritzburg,
F,E. PRINS
'Maritzburg during the
Siege ofNatal'
as reflected in The Natal Witness
from October 1899 to March 1900
In the months before the Anglo-Boer war broke out, 'Maritzburg as its citizens
perpetually and defiantly referred to it - exhibited all the confidence and
complacency of the closing years of Victoria's reign. Only six weeks before the
commencement of hosti I ities, the Arthur Rousley Opera Company brought to the
boards of Scott's Theatre (in a somewhat anglicised advertisement) 'Pallsl, Montana.
Daughter q/lhe Regiment, Bohemian Girl, Lily of Killarney, Cavalleria Ruslieana,
Pagliaeei, Luey of Lammermoor, Tannhduser and 11 Trova/ore all to be done in
English, and all to be squeezed into the brief sub-tropical season ('Why is Natal left
in the cold for the other eight or nine months of the year?' asked an irritated
correspondent. )
The war was so long a-coming, and the bellicose predictions since Milner's
'Bloemfontein Conference' so frequent and so profuse, that one can detect, in the last
days before the actual declaration of hostilities, a touch of deja vu. The Natal Witness
the venerable daily by which, for this article, we shall represent Maritzburg's own
'man in street' had an interesting theory for the slow coming of the inevitable
connict. President Kruger has 'shown his usual astuteness', it said, in 'protracting the
negotiations.' The forthcoming 'raid on Natal will possibly be attempted as soon as a
couple of days' rain have allowed the grass to grow sufficiently to feed the Boer
ponies... ' Little did anyone guess that the conflict would reach levels of mobilisation
not seen since the American Civil War. 'It is possible' says the unsuspecting editorial,
'that raiding parties from the Transvaal may inflict some damage.' Meanwhile, in the
lull before the storm, there was time for even more mock battles by the Maritzburg
Rifle Association, and for even more goods trucks to be converted in the Durban
railway yards- 'each truck can hold sixty men.'
While Mausers and Creuzot field-pieces were being unpacked in Pretoria, the
monthly meeting of the Botanic Society grappled with the problem of the fragility of
the public in thunderstorms. Mr Topham, store-keeper of Church Street, suggested
that the difficulty might be met by keeping a supply of umbrellas to be hired at a
penny apiece. Dr Sutherland: -You might add the proviso: On condition that they are
\(1/0/[(1 ( 1999) \\ 11 1 ~ 1 / k : ; . pp. (J 1 40
62
'A1arilzhurg during 'he S'iege qj'Nalal'
bought at my shop' (laughter). The monthly meeting of the Natal Museum thanked
donors for specimens. Mr A.B. Sparrow: one vervet monkey. Mr W.E. Marsh: one
native opium pipe. And (rather touchingly) Master T. W. James: one moth.... These
were the days when it seemed quite in the order of things that the game between the
Maritzburg Cricket Club and Zingari should be attended by the band of the
Manchester Regiment. The only people who seemed to anticipate a war of some scale
were the boys of the Model School, the editorial statT of whose journal it cost only
a penny, said an enthusiastic 'puff in the Witness was increased by one 'war
correspondent' and one 'artist in black and white'. Meanwhile Peter Davis and Son
- the commercial enterprise that not only published The Natal Witness but imported
organs and phonographs, produced maps and Zulu Grammars, sold sheet music and
bicycle accessories-- advertised a whole range of French novellas, bespeaking a
considerable readership in that language.
Finnly convinced that any war that came along would come to a swift conclusion,
the 'sturdy fight' mentioned by the local press was that of Mr W.Street Wilson,
architect of Maritzburg's new Town Hall, trying his hardest to get the clock and bells
in position by the end of 1899. The clock was to be shipped from England on
I November, and he reports that his men will 'have their work cut out. .. to ring in the
new year, Jan I 1900.'
The entrenched racial complacency of the colonials was to get its severest lesson
from the Boers themselves. A typical portrait of Kruger published in September says
'He has a low, sullen cunning, a certain nimbleness of intellect, an acute sense of the
sordid motive in another. .. the avarice of a peasant, the courageous fear of a beast at
bay... ' In vain did higher-minded correspondents try to ameliorate the pre-war tone:
' ... this attitude of brag, ofjeering, this tone of "You wait and you'll see what you'll
get" is unmanly... ' The colonists had little doubt that, as the paper says on
2 October, the 'forces at present in the Colony are sufficient to hold the frontier posts
in Natal, and sufficient to beat back any serious (attempt) of the Boer to advance in
force.... ' Complacency is bolstered by a stream of tell-tale stories. An English
doctor in the lowveld recommends a bath to an elderly female patient. 'Alamachte
[sic] man' screamed the old vrouw, who had been ordered a hot mustard foot bath,
'do you want to kill me! I haven't washed my feet for the last 30 years... ' Harry
Escombe is reported somewhat satirically when, addressing a gathering in Newcastle,
he 'gives the Boers credit for being human beings' not much consolation, says the
reporter, to the unfortunate inhabitants. There is no desire to hear anything good from
'over the hill'; one country correspondent declares there is 'not the least doubt the
Boers will shoot all the wounded who fall into their hands .... '
The colonial complacency was perhaps even more unrealistic than that of the
home country. The leader for 19 October is amazed that 'many in England' hold that
the conflict 'will be a protracted one, and that the Boers will fight for every inch of
their country .... Those who entertain that belief do not know the Boer character. .. '
On this theme, the uitlanders from Johannesburg who began to throng the city made
tor good copy, each train-load having further news of the iniquity of the Boers:
63
'A1aritzhurg during the Siege oflvatal'
Johannesburg people who journeyed into this Colony during the
latter days of last week met with many unpleasant experiences
which reflect the gravest discredit upon the Boers ... (They tell of)
particularly unpleasant particulars of the callous and brutal conduct
of Dutchmen and Dutchwomen too.
So what was this callous and brutal conduct?
At one station the only refreshments the trainload of passengers
were able to obtain was a mixture of tea and coffee, and when a
complaint was naturally made, they were told it was 'good enough
for English people .... '
Within weeks this pampered crew of 'refugees' had become less and less
welcome. 'The general public are warned' says one correspondent 'that a number of
members of the loafing fraternity are in town asking for help and for lodgings on the
plea that they come from Johannesburg .... ' The better-heeled of them, however, did
provide something of an economic boost, especially when they set about assembling
their own 'troop', the Imperial Light Horse. One beneficiary of this 'war boom' was
T. Dickinson, photographer, who kept business at 294 Berg Street, who advertised
shrewdly that 'Volunteers in Unifonn' would be photographed at 'Reduced Prices.'
By 20 October a whole brigade of amateur photographers was at it, blissfully
unaware of the dire pictures that the 'Kodak' would soon be recording within the
confines of Natal. The 'energetic snap-shottist has been very busy lately in the City',
says one report, and the Imperial Light Horse 'have come in for as much attention as
a "star" in the music hall world .... ' The writer hopes wistfully that 'the Boer guns
will not be levelled at them with such deadly effect as have been the kodaks of
enterprising amateur photographers .... ' In fact, with the departure of the Imperial
Light Horse for the front, an economic question arises: 'What will the riksha boys do
now? The gallant troopers were a continual source of income.'
The Natal 'liberalism' that irritated the uitlanders would make us smile today. It
resided in such attempts as that of P. Davis, bookseller, to persuade the public to read
The Captain of the Insects by W. Werner. 'The manners and customs of the
unsophisticated native are but imperfectly known. The whole book breathes the
atmosphere of the country and is obviously the result of long and actual experience of
life on the veld and in the kraal. ... ' Davis and Son put out Zulu simpl(fied by Revd
F. Meyr, which 'helps the student of Zulu to obtain a comprehensive idea of the
general formation and peculiarities of the language .... ' Maritzburg's 'refugees', it
seems, came from a different environment. A letter signed 'Citlander' complains that,
when he and two ladies sat on a seat near the Supreme Court, 'three Kafirs came out
of the buildings close by and crowded on to our seat':
If I had been in Johannesburg I should have known what to do, but
being under the British nag once more and seeing the Kafirs were
evidently in Government employ, I meekly moved away with the
ladies, and left the black men in possession, much to their apparent
64
'Nfaritzburg during Ihe ,"'iege qj'Nalal'
amusement. .. I am afraid this Kafir question is going to be a very
sore point in Johannesburg when the English take it over. ..
If black people had political clout at all it was in their fonning, once hostilities
had broken out, a constant judgmental witness. As one correspondent puts it: 'In our
conduct we are being intently watched by the Natives and the Dutch sympathisers in
our midst. .. the least display of fright or cowardice will be marked down against
us... ' One person who forgot this imperial 'burden' was Mrs Graves, of Zwaartkop,
who was fined 3 for discharging a revolver at two young natives 'under the
impression that the Kafirs were laughing at her ... ' It might be considered weak,
today, that the magistrate let her off with 'if anyone had been killed she might have
been tried for her life' but it is obvious that the two young men in question did feel
they could bring a white woman before a magistrate.
On 7 October a correspondent notices that the British Indians in Mafeking are
applying for anns to assist with the defence. He compares them with Natal's
'agitators of the Gandhi type' who are 'ready enough to complain .... ' Would he
have read the letter from M.K. Gandhi of 28 October, which says that, while 'we do
not know how to handle arms,' it may be that 'there are other duties no less important
to be performed in the battlefield ... we would consider it a privilege to be able to
perform them'? The official response is given in an editorial footnote: 'the
Government is deeply impressed with the offer of Her Majesty's loyal Indian subjects
in Durban.... '
Those who would like to feel that 'the feminine' was an ameliorating influence in
the midst of all these male patriotics would not be much assisted by Martizburg's best
renderer of Kiplingesque pastiche, Kate Bishop. She seems to have felt the need for
the 43rd Regiment to avenge Majuba more than did the regiment itself. A poem
published on 3 October longs for the clash of anns:
It was only just a munnur, but a munnur low and deep,
Like a lion's angry growling when you rouse it from its sleep;
But it's reached the golden lndies and the wild Canadian shore,
Bound to speak again in cannon, as the lion's bound to roar. ..
There is no attempt to disguise the source of inspiration:
Now there ain't a Rudyard Kipling in the fighting Forty-third;
But it just expressed our feelings and our very souls is stirred...
This before the Kipling-Sullivan 'Absent Minded Beggar" where Kipling's cockney
isms made the imperial middle class feel that they embodied the virtues of Tommy
Atkins, so long as they would 'pay, pay, pay ... '
That same 3 October was the day of a 'hearty send-off at Maritzburg station of
the Natal Carbineers; a send-off that
was continued all up the line ... Hardly a house was passed but its
inmates turned out to give them a cheer. Near Rosetta, several
young ladies raised a good deal of enthusiasm by turning out with
Union Jacks.
65
'A1arilzhurg during the Siege
The first engagements in Natal, where the earliest contingent of British troops was
widely supported by colonial volunteers and where, at Elandslaagte and Talana Hill,
the Boer advance was well anticipated, saw the complacency of Empire well served:
'the dash and courage of the British infantry ... was equal to anything it has ever
shown in its long and brilliant history.' But already there was a qualification in the
general euphoria: the Boers seemed to be more tenacious than anyone expected. Thus
on 25 October: 'As to the pluck of the Boers there can be no doubt. Again and again
they returned to the attack, after our artillery fire had scattered or killed groups of
them... ' (One might say this was the first 'honourable' reference to republican
personnel for literally years.) Then comes the realisation that at the battle of Tinta
Inyoni (Rietfontein in more modern texts) the losses on the Imperial side are beyond
expectation for what is supposed to be the mere rebuttal of an invasion. How innocent
the Witness's exc lamation of horror seems now as it notes that 'the cost of the
dilatory conduct of the Imperial Government. .. is the appalling total of 584 killed
and wounded ... '
Comes a subtle change of mind. It was not long before the Maritzburg public was
learning the double-speak of war reporting, and the associated art of reading between
the lines. As early as 27 October the patriotic editor of the Witness - E.G.Thomson,
the first South African-born editor in the countr/ realised that the official
pronouncements posted outside the fVitness offices were not squaring with the
strategic facts:
Even with the words Another British Victory in large type staring
them in the face people were not disposed to regard the position
with cheerfulness. The so-called victories, it was argued, were far
too dearly purchased to cause any rejoicing ...
This phase of bitterly-learned scepticism culminates in the editorial for
I November, where the triumphant General White is severely taken to task:
On Monday afternoon, there was once more exhibited on a board in
Church Street the announcement that we had won another glorious
victory. With such announcements the Maritzburg public has
become only too familiar ... Only by the widest stretch of the
imagination could the battle at Ladysmith on Monday be
represented as a victory ...
The moral shock was great to a people who had simply not anticipated the
mobility of flying columns and the strategic scale on which the war with the
Republ ics was going to be fought.
The shock is well symbolised in the fate of Major General Penn Symons. On
24 October he is written up as the latest 'star' to arrive in Natal: 'a trim, light, well
built, active figure, above the middle a face bright but hard-bitten; eyes keen
and piercing: dark hair and moustaches still untouched with and with a 'quick
decisive speech, a brisk, direct air .... ' Three days later the poor man's death is duly
noted, together with the last battle-order of that 'quick, decisive speech': 'Tell
General Yule my accident is but slight, and that I shall be out again tomorrow .... '
(Like all Victorians, Witness readers loved 'death-bed' sequences. There was the
66
'A4aritzburg during the Siege qlNatal '
case, in the bombardment of Ladysmith, of the sudden death of Dr Stark, naturalist,
who was felled by shrapnel in the public street, and whose last words were said to
have been 'Look after my cat. ... ' But, suggests a relative on 19 January, it is 'highly
probable that Dr Stark died before he could complete his sentence', and that the last
words of the stricken naturalist were actually' Look after my catalogue. .')
Meanwhile the demoralising losses, and the blatant failure of the British to take
the advice of colon ials, led to some tensions in the patriotic all iance. 'Of what use',
asks one letter.
is our much vaunted, much belauded British officer, with his
interminable 'exams', 'coaches', luxurious mess, polo, sport of
every kind, and an income... quite sufficient to keep two
families... what 'exams' have the Boers and their leaders ever
passed?
The greater reality of war was causing everyone to revise their mental attitudes.
This is evident in a letter from the front: 'As a volunteer who was present at the
fighting of Elandslaagte... I appeal to the kindly-disposed of whatever nationality to
ameliorate the lot of the enemy's wounded that fall into our hands.' The writer notes
the 'generous conduct of our soldiers towards the enemy's wounded', and also the
way 'the wounded of both sides chatted like comrades during the dreary watches of
the night, till the ambulances came up.... '
By 6 November and the investment of Ladysmith the Witness's colonial-born
editor has little option but to do an honourable re-think:
It is true that previous to and just after the outbreak of hostilities we
spoke slightingly of our opponents, and talked somewhat foolishly
of how they would be smashed up. Well, we were mistaken. We
underrated our enemies.... The long lists of British casualties
... demonstrate that in the Boer Great Britain has found a foe
worthy of her steel.
And his sub-editor 'Q', in charge of 'Topics of the T o w n ' ~ up with the worst of
them in stirring pre-war feeling admits that the Boers' 'doffing of hats in the
streets of Pretoria as a mark of respect for. .. captured officers' has entirely revised
his preconceptions: 'I wondered whether an English crowd would have behaved as
generously... ' A letter of 9 December from four Boer POWs in Maritzburg gaol
must have gone a long way to altering the received image: the men give thanks 'for
the kind and most humane way we have been treated, especially to Mrs Mackenzie,
Drs Ward and Lund ... '
Gradually the legendary names of the Natal warfare Elandslaagte, Talana,
Ladysmith become part of the general vocabulary, sometimes presuming a kudos,
suggests 'Q', that the facts did not warrant. He reminds us of a satire by an American
poet: 'I was with Grant. the old man said.... ' The same spurious fame is being
claimed by those who let it be known that' I was in Dundee... '
67
'Maritzhurg during the Siege ofNatal'
When in a shop the other day a bevy of damsels, who were taking
an hour to purchase what the 'mere male' would have bought in
five minutes, repeated the word Dundee some sixty times in ten
minutes...
Gradually the growing realism began to sort out fact from propaganda. To this
day text-books on the Anglo-Boer War offer a photographic record of Buller's
departure from England and disembarkation at Cape Town so complete that it comes
as something of a relief to discover that the colonial public were not necessarily
convinced by the blaze of pUblicity. On 26 October a Witness leader claims that many
a 'loyal' newspaper has discounted the official line:
The 'impending departure' of General Sir Redvers Buller has
proved a plaything.... The public were positively sick of the
intelligence and begged that. .. different newspapers would
establish a censorship of their own accord and 'black out' Buller on
every occasion that the name occurred ...
The fact was that, as the Witness spelt it out, 'General Buller. .. landed with the
mortification of hearing... that no inconsiderable portion of the British forces in
Natal are on the march to Pretoria, but as prisoners of war, and not, as we hoped, as
conquerors....
The ponderousness of the' home' reaction brings with it a growing realisation that
it is not beyond the bounds of imagination that the capital city of the Colony will
itself come under siege. It is no great consolation to see Fort Napier being
strengthened:
Great energy is being displayed in fortifYing Fort Napier, but
[people] naturally ask: 'What is to become of us?' It would not be
against the fort that [the Boers] would expend their shells, but at the
prominent buildings in the town ....
The fragility of Maritzburg was rendered more obvious by the view from the top
of the new city hall, which was now nearing completion. A winched lift took
dignitaries and reporters to the top of the tower, where they 'positively appeared to
"look down" on Signal Hill and the fortification in the vicinity.' What a plum this
would be for the stealthy invaders!
The Union Jack, a little tattered and tom, perhaps, but none the
worse for it, was hoisted on the apex of the tower of the rapidly
growing Town Hall .... Fortunately 'Brother Boer' has not yet
gained possession of the heights surrounding the city, otherwise the
hoisting of the grand old flag may have been treated as a challenge
and have brought a shell from a 12-pounder. ..
The strengthening of the garrison boosted no-one's confidence. The colonial
government seems to have had no policy, no strategy to allay public fears. 'Q'
particularly took the Prime Minister, Colonel Hime, to task:
68
'Maritzburg during the Siege oflVatal'
Overheard in the Park last Saturday:
'I say, Colonel, I hear that they are fixing up guns on... '
'Yes, , said the head of the Government; 'done any fish ing,
lately?,
'Well no, not lately, but those guns .... '
'Since you left we have introduced trout. .. '
It is wOlth mentioning that one brave letter to the correspondence columns of the
Witness, signed 'Senex', did recommend the surrender of the city if the Boer advance
got this far. This on 6 November:
All that is left to us is a few men, many of whom are armed only
with weapons effective up to 1 000 yards, against the 3 000 yards
of the Boer mausers.... To attempt resistance under these
conditions would be to invite a butchery only as cruel as it is
purposeless. We have only two choices, to surrender the City with a
bombardment, or without it. ...
One reply that Senex be tarred and feathered, but, at this distance in
time, his letter seems a model of good sense. The Witness, while not formally
agreeing with Senex's analysis, nevertheless did spell out the consequences of that
ultimate fate: the fall of Maritzburg. That fall, says a leader of23 November,
would be more catastrophic than the fall of Kimberley. It is the
capital of Natal, and if the Boers were to get possession of it. they
would be placed in the position of ability to dictate terms of
settlement to the Imperial Government. ...
Was this grand self-estimate a sort of parochial megalomania? Whatever it was,
the constant whisper these days was how close the Boers had got to Martizburg. In
vain did the press try to aIlay the panic: 'The Kokstad Advertiser has been requested
to advise farmers that there is absolutely no danger in sending wagons with wool to
Maritzburg' this following a report that Boers 'have been seen near Richmond'.
The jitteriness of the public was not helped, points out 'Q', by the municipality's
horse-drawn rolling machine: 'the noise this cumbersome contrivance makes is
remarkable, and goodness knows how many nervous people have mistaken its
rumbling for the Boer artillery.... '
A great talking point was a Government Advertisement of23 November:
The Government view with the deepest concern the desertion of
their houses by inhabitants of certain of the Country Districts of the
Colony through apprehension of ill-treatment by the invading
forces. As far as the Government has been able to ascertain, the
houses of those who have remained at their homes have not been
interfered with, nor have the occupiers been subjected to personal
ill-treatment. ...
To tell the inhabitants of Newcastle that avoiding Boer occupation had been
'desertion of their houses' was more than most colonists could stomach. The local
69
'l'vfarilzburg during the Siege qllVatal '
editor waxed eloquent: 'If Ministers are so indifferent to the facts of the hour, why
does not Mr Bale (in of local militia) set an example by retiring to his villa at
Hilton Road, (where), should he feel apprehensive of loneliness, he might take with
him the company of the guard of which he has assumed command .... '
It was the relative of a farmer's wife who, a week later when the Boers had in
fact spent many hours in houses near Estcourt and Mooi River- humbly suggested
that the Government might be right. The letter is titled 'Give the devil his due', and is
a hundred years later delightful for its innocent equation of the Boers with
English rural labourers persons, in other \\lords. who can recognise an English
Lady when they see one!
"!\1one of the women folk (near Estcourt) experienced any
indecency, no more than we should from an ordinary English
labourer. All honour to women like this who stayed with their
husbands on their fanns during Boer occupation and did not help to
produce the needless panic and congestion rushing into Maritzburg
and Durban ....
Back in the city, however. mentality meant that anyone with a non-English
name was under suspicion. "ropics of the Town' reports that' Dutch sympathisers
meet daily at the residence of one of their number to discuss "church matters'" and
asks. 'are they being watched?' Feelings were running high: at a concert in the
YMCA HalL one Mr Henry Miller recited Clement Scotfs Midnight Charge. A 'lady
of Dutch sympathies in the audience' apparently misinterpreted the piece and 'met Mr
Miller outside and threatened to bring several male friends to chastise him..... A
teacher of Dutch at the Loop Street Government SchooL M.K. van Dam. was
'charged with treasonable practices for allegedly trying to convey information to Her
Majesty's enemies ... ' Three 'Mooi River Dutchmen' were arrested for being on
Railway property without passes. Only after they had been shunted from court to
court was it conceded that they were 'trying to sell forage to Imperial authorities.'
The hunger for news led to a sort of promotion in social rank of anyone who
could come forward with a newsworthy titbit. Natal blacks became prestigious
newsmongers: 'The imaginative native is seized upon as a fruitful medium for the
manufacture of "copy'" What more authoritative way might one start a report than
with 'We learn from a Dutch voice ... ' 'Q' notices how 'the simple incident of a
Dutch family ordering a few yards of crepe is interpreted by the soothsayers as
indicating "heavy Boer losses"'.
16 "!\1ovember was the last time that the Witness was permitted to take upon itself
the analysis of a military exploit. The incident was that of the Armoured Train, and
the colonial paper refused to dress it up in glowing ternlS. The 'debacle', said the
paper, would have been perfectly avoidable if colonial spying in this case 'the
imaginative native' - had been attended to:
Native infonnatioll had been received that the Boers were in strong
force, and the annoured train was sent out with Cl complement of
officers and men who would have been totally inadequate ... to
70
?vlaritzhurg during the Siege ( ~ l N a t a l '
cope with the enemy. The conduct of the campaign is
sickening....
How ingenuous was the paper being not to realise that, sooner or later, this would
invite retaliation? The Declaration of Martial Law was advertised in the edition of
20 November, but only by 29 November did the size of the thing and the key role
the Witness had played in inviting the strictures become effectively apparent. The
paper was aghast:
How utterly misconceived the censorship [has been] in its attacks
on this paper. What the war correspondent wants to feel is that he is
in complete touch with the great British nation for which he is
writing. He is engaged in writing History the historian of the
future will look to the comparison which he will make of what each
writer has told him ....
Alas, 'the historian of the future' will find that, from this date on, the Witness
presents an inhibited view. The criticism of General White was the straw that broke
the camel's back Mr Bennet Bewley, correspondent for the DaiZv Telegraph, who
came 'very close to the view we had formed of General White's strategy' brought
about the same interdict upon that venerable journal. The Witness quoted
enthusiastically the Telegraph's loud squeal: censorship is 'an offence against reason
and the modern way of conducting campaigns,' but it could not defer the fall of the
axe.
The axe is evident in the edition for 30 November. In many ways this should be
one of the most famous editions of our local paper: it was certainly exhibited overseas
at the time when the debate on censorship reached full fury. It is perhaps the only
Witness ever to have had one whole column spattered with blacked-out copy. The
article was called 'Military Press Censorship' and the censor's pencil has cancelled
some 20 lines of print.
By 5 December the paper's demotion is evident in its gloomy tone, chafing with
editorial frustration:
The Press is becoming so restricted as to what it might write, and
the subjects which may be touched are becoming every day so more
and more limited, that we may have to fall back upon science,
geography, or astronomy .... Before long we may expect to have
to fall back upon the Homilies of the Church of England....
As if to demonstrate just how 'local' local news will now have to be, 'Q' gives his
own rendering of events:
There was an 'armoured train' disaster in Commercial Road
yesterday morning. The Corporation steam-roller came to grief in
the trench through which the new barrel drain has been
constructed...
For the historian the result is a strange hiatus during the build-up of British forces
prior to the battles at Tugela River (and, of course, as to any news of General Buller's
71
'Maritzburg during the Siege afNatal '
arrival). Martizburg could not but be aware of the throngs of ox-wagons passing
through the town, each with a yellow military arrow painted upon it. But its citizens
were not allowed on to the station to see the troop-trains passing through, and the
news of the hour had to be carried more by gossip than by print. 'Q' speaks for the
offended middle class when he notices how the atmosphere has changed up at the
station. Surely 'the military will issue passes to a certain number of ladies and
gentlemen who have charge of the distribution of dainties.... ' But the officials, it
seems, were adamant: those who once served the public now bossed it:
There is a bit of a martinet at the railway station, who has his own
ideas of martial law. It is not pleasant for responsible and
respectable citizens to be told: 'Here, get out of this, we are under
martial law now, you know', and then to the men: 'Shove 'em
out. .. '
It was 'too much martial law', says 'Q' grimly, that, at Lexington, 'lost England a
new world.'
That blow to bourgeois presumption was accompanied by frequent large-print
adverts proclaiming a curfew: 'No person allowed out of their houses between 11 pm
and 4am without a Pass. All male non-residents must register their names at the
Borough Police Station .... ' There was no question about it: with the investment of
Ladysmith, Maritzburg had been shunted off-stage. Natal became overrun with generals
and top brass who had minimal concern for what the colonists thought or felt:
Overheard in Church Street a couple of days ago: 'Did any more
troops come up last night?' 'No. I only heard of a trainload of
mules and generals ... '
How much comfort might the citizens derive from Buller's pronouncement (was
he in Natal or was he not?) that 'the British flag will flyover Pretoria by Christmas
Day'? Later he denied that he ever said it, but at the time it led to another fluctuation
of emotions. P. Davis and Son inserted an advertisement that, before long, they would
have cause to regret:
Despite a few minor reverses, much is expected before
Christmas... it may be hoped that before Christmas Day the
newsboys in the streets of London will be announcing victory after
victory for the British. What could be more fitting than for those
across the ocean to receive from South Africa Christmas and New
Year cards together with the glorious cable news ....
It was an enticement to back the mail-boat against the telegraph.
--.)
to

"":
-.......
N

s:::


.
......


C/)

A HERO'S WELCOME. The civic reception for General Buller. in the Pietennaritzburg Market Square, 17 November 1900. The area bedecked
with flags is for the dignitaries, while others mill about and look on. The spire visible at the lower end of the square is that of the old Dutch


Refonned Church. which wa'l a landmark from 1861 until its demolition in 1955. (It can also be seen in the famous Thoma'l Baines painting
Market Square, 187(), the original of which is in the National Archives of Zimbabwe.)

5'
(Photographjrom the colleclion of The ,'Vatal Society Library.)
-
73
'A1aritzhurg during the Siege ( ~ l N a t a l '
One military incident that the curbed paper could report upon was the investment of
Kettlefontein (to use its own spelling). Kettlefontein (i.e. Keteltontein), half way up
to Hilton, was still the site of a renowned public house, and it was thither that the
Home Guard trying to prove its worth in stirring times directed a Sunday
'manoeuvre'. 'The day was hot' says the reporter 'and some unkindly-disposed ones
insinuate that had the objective been drier, it would never have been reached. They
also hint that in the return march the ambulance men had a good many wounded to
attend to.... '
So where was Buller? Suddenly, on 15 December, comes an oblique reference to
the British general, alive and well at Colenso. A Wesleyan clergyman, Revd Wayne
Sparks, is quoted as speaking' in the highest terms of the courtesy with which the
General and his statT have shown him the camp.' Only in a much later Witness, of
22 January, do we get a retrospective story on the weird silence that surrounded
Buller's arrival in Natal. It seems that a Gilbertian discord ruled the day:
The Press received instructions not to mention General Buller's
whereabouts. When, however, the censor here learnt that the censor
at Frere or Estcourt had passed a mention of General Buller, that
restriction was removed.... [C]ould anything have been more
absurd?
More than this: General Buller. in his personal deportment, seemed not to have
understood the basic tenets of military secrecy:
The fact of his being in Natal could not have been more widely
proclaimed than by General Buller himself: who, on the two
consecutive Sundays on which he was in Maritzburg, attended
church with the Governor, and visited the hospitals....
It should be mentioned that, throughout these months of censorship, the Witness
dutifully reported the voice from the 'other side of the hill', in the shape of the
Diggers' Times, the English paper of the Republics. Though it often picks holes in
the figures and facts offered by that source, it does admit that putting two stories
together is often unexpectedly edifYing:
While information and reference to the movements of troops has
been strictly banned, and criticism of military men is taboo, it has
been possible to kill poor Piet Joubert twice, to relieve Kimberley
and Mafeking at one stroke, and to capture 2000 Boers at an
engagement at Ladysmith. These little pleasantries are allowed....
'Q' captures nicely the exasperation of the editor at his literary demotion:
Editor to Printer: 'Throwaway my War leader, and put in that thing
about'" Do worms make love?'"
In the first weeks of December the paper tries to devise strategies of its own to
'give the wink' to its readership. An editorial entitled 'Whilst Waiting to Cross'
obviously refers to Buller, but chats away about distant topics of scientific research
until it suddenly interrupts itself (has the censor fallen asleep?) with:
74
'Marilzhur;:; durin;:; the Sie;:;e qlNatal'
Since we may not touch, except with the greatest caution, upon
matters which are of absorbing interest to every man, woman, and
intelligent child in the community, other subjects must be found.
We are as much in want of relief as Ladysmith, and it is even
becoming a matter of common gossip that ours is much the further
off of the two ....
If the historian goes to the Witness on the day that the Battle of Colenso was
fought, it wi 11 find stories that almost defiantly jeer at the censor: 'The gratings of the
barrel drains are at present covered with refuse, and are badly in need of attention... '
'There was to have been an organ recital at St Peter's Cathedral on Sunday evening
last, but unfortunately the organ broke down... and the recital has had to be
postponed unti I next Sunday.'
But even this mood of grim humour rapidly became obsolete. When 'official
reports' did at last come on Buller's attempt to cross the Tugela, they could no longer
hide the size of what had actually happened. On 22 December the Maritzburg public
woke up to news that quite changed the tenor of the war. After the publication of
casualties from the Battle of Colenso one simply knew that one was party to a conflict
on a scale not seen since the Crimea or the American Civil War. The names of killed,
wounded and missing take up columns and columns: 900 names become a few days
later I 100 names, and even then the I ist does not stop growing. The sheer size of the
reverse led to a chastened honesty from the military, and the Official Report,
published each day, no longer tried to conceal the facts .. 'The Ermelo Commando
delivered such a terrible fire that two batteries of cannon had to be abandoned... It
was a most crushing defeat, and nine cannons (were taken) across the river ... '
The nearest a local reporter could get to the scene was at Chieveley station, and
that provided a poignant story. The reporter, standing on the platform, saw many
wounded being loaded on to a train:
... arms were in slings, heads and faces swathed in blue lint
bandages. Some of the men hopped along on one foot. It was in this
line I noticed a little bugler boy with his arm in a sling. He could
not have been more than J4....
The events of late November and December well-nigh banished light-heartedness
from the everyday style. The new note was struck by the headmaster of Maritzburg
College, R.D. Clark, when he gave a Christmas Day address not to the boys in his
school, but to the sick and wounded soldiers who now occupied it. The resonance of
the message with the Latinate syntax of Natal's best classicist is immediately
apparent:
Soldiers of the Queen, for whom you have bled, and for whom so
many of your gallant comrades have died in this Christmas land, I
little thought when, less than a year ago, I had this hall, graced as it
is by a fine portrait of Her Majesty, called the Victoria Hall, that it
would be consecrated by your presence today ....
75
'A1aritzburg during the Siege oflvatal'
'I little thought. .. ' the degree to which the unexpected had taken place is
obvious in the somewhat muffled tones of the newspaper itself. The same note is
struck in the tribute to Harry Escombe whose premature death was announced on
29 December. The death of Escombe, says the editorial, is of a scale with the sad
times that the colony is now enduring:
... the unexpected has once again happened, and now it is not a
household here, or a household there, that has to sorrow over a
vacant chair, but the whole Colony over the death of her
incomparably ablest man... Harry Escombe was great in council
and great in debate.... The knowledge that he was to speak could
fill the galleries. And when he did speak it was worth a long
journey to hear him ....
One thinks of the isolated humanists like Merriman in the Cape when one reads:
He had faith in the Boers seeing their error, and disbelieved reports
as to the possibility of harsh treatment and discreditable conduct by
them during the invasion .... No one lamented the war more than
Mr Escombe and no one would be more useful, had he lived, to
help in cementing the peace ....
The Christmas season, and the approaching end of the century, provoked a certain
philosophical mien in the Witness editor. What we capture in these editorials is the
undented text of Social Darwinism, but by which standards 'the Boer, as we found
him at Colenso, is as different from the old Boer of Amajuba as the proverbial chalk
is from cheese.' This is a nice documentation of the first astounded responses to the
changed technique of war. 'Instead of skirmishing along stone-strewn kopjes, he [i.e.
the 'new' Boer] has burrowed like a rabbit in the mountain. Tram lines have been laid
the main positions, or forts, are connected with underground passages .... '
This really admits a 'progressiveness' beyond the range of British military
thinking. Yet two days later the racial comparison is still very much in evidence: there
must be no 'responsible government' in the Transvaal after the republics are taken,
because that would deprive 'the inferior race which would return a larger
proportion of representatives - of the benefit [that] would derive from contact with
the superior race .... '
From this lofty perch in the scales of Social Darwinism, the black people in Natal
are measured with a degree of respect. It is noted that 'civilisation' has not wiped out
the American negro, and that 'of what an American negro is capable our Kafirs are
assuredly still more capable .... The Kafir is undoubtedly the finest savage which the
white man has met. ... ' Back on the streets of Maritzburg, however, and with the
coming of the New Year holiday, the 'finest savages' were having a bit of a field day.
Stick fighting led to what was later called the 'Bulwer Street riot', and a solemn
warning was subsequently published by the municipality that 'no Native or other
coloured person shall carry any sword, assegai, dagger, iwisa, or umtshiza' (the two
lastmentioned being clubs or knobkieries), but - gracious concession he 'may be
permitted to carry an uswazi. .. ' (a small stick or switch),
76
'Maritzburg during the Siege ofNatal'
That the word 'Katir' was used in an unpejorative way is shown by an interesting
report of early January. It seems that, as thousands of British troops sailed south of
the equator. a black football team sailed north of it:
Several of the Katir football players now touring in England have
created such a favourable impression amongst experts of the game,
that it is possible they may be induced to stay in the country and
accept engagements to play for professional teams ....
Meanwhile the bad news from the Thukela made the 'nation of shopkeepers' in
Natal sit tight and endure life from day to day. Why not make a silver lining out of
these dark clouds? Messrs. McNamees, furnishers, placed a large advert: 'Furniture
Destroyed by the Enemy: We are prepared to supply furniture at the shortest notice
and on the best terms .... ' Midlands farmers would have been attracted by another
bold-print piece: 'The Inspector of Remounts will be at Nottingham Road Station on
Thursday to look at any Horses suitable for the Imperial Government that anyone
may care to bring for his inspection.' The trade in horses brought further variations:
'Wanted immediately, Six Shoesmiths, for Thorneycroft's Mounted Infantry.' The
horse shortage was perennial: again and again there are advertisements for 'cobs,
fourteen hands and up.' It is suggested (with a slight needling of Natal's mounted
aristocracy) that 'the race horse is still far too fashionable here' and that 'carriage and
saddle horses are far more what is wanted.... '
Draught oxen were needed too - and the modern reader discovers that this
involved a much more sophisticated trade than one would have expected. David
Whitelaw and Son announce that they presently stock: 'yokes, reims, strops,
bucksails, anti-friction grease, trek-chains, shackles, brake blocks, linch pins, and
every description of oxwagon gear'. The demand for oxen saw strange fluctuations in
agricultural life. With the 'record price for oxen', says the Witness's farm
correspondent, 'natives have had considerable difficulty in getting their ploughing
done. as oxen have been too valuable to lend', and he quotes as a typical price
fetched by 'native' cattle 16 per head.
Meanwhile, with Christmas and New Year, Maritzburg's ambivalent relations
with its 'refugees' reached a new intensity. One report almost rejoices in the 'record
crop' of 'drunks and disorderlies' that a 'too liberal use of the cup that cheers' has
brought about, and which has led to 55 names appearing on the charge book. This
will 'make a substantial addition to the Borough treasury' (and don't worry: it is not
the local citizenry who are to blame. 'It must be remembered that. .. our present
population is far above its normal strength ... ') Maritzburgers might have believed
that they had done their bit for empire and accommodated the Johannesburgers. 'Our
uitlander visitors are settling down, the streets do not present the same packed
appearance. The Public Reading Room has proved a boon to many ex-Transvaalers.'
Whereas 2 009 visitors passed through the museum in September, the visits for
December (to see the likes of Master James's moth) total 4 321 a figure I presume
even the same museum would be pleased with today.
But the love-hate relation rumbled on. The correspondent 'Uitlander', while
admitting the 'overall debt of gratitude' to the city of his fellow-Johannesburgers,
deplores the 'contemptible and mean action' of its landlords and hoteliers 'in taking
77
'lvlaritzburg during the Siege qj1Valal '
undue advantage to enrich themselves by bleeding the unfortunate refugees.' There is
an inverted discrimination: the 'destitute are looked after' while those 'with a bit of
money are asked utterly unreasonable sums for the merest damp hovels.' There was a
choice: did one appear destitute, and thus have hope of charity, or did one retain
respectablity, and forfeit charity altogether? 'Even the leading hotel', complains
Uitlander, 'has raised its tariff. .. '
The place where this social tightrope was publicly exhibited was the eating-house
of Mr Paterson in Pietern1aritz Street. This hostlery was subsidised: to the destitute it
gave free meals, and to those who could pay it gave meals at a discount. But how did
you tell the difference? The 'respectable' did not want to sit with the unrespectable.
Mr Paterson duly rigged up a dividing curtain that sorted out payers from non-payers.
But the payers maintained with one long, never-ending moan-- that they did not
get value for money. By February Mr Paterson was exasperated and begged the
Witness to come in. incognito, and inspect his quarters. 'Popping in at odd times' '0'
found 'the soup excellent. and everything well-cooked and served up in a clean
manner. Yet on all sides there is grumbling.... '
One visitor who rather misjudged Maritzburg hospitality was an Irishman who
deserted from 'the notorious Irish Brigade' (the brigade, that is, that fought on the
Boer side). Leaving his comrades 'when matters became a trifle too hot at Ladysmith'
and expecting 'to be received here with open arms', this good man 'had already made
himself comfortable at Lord's when the detectives called .... '
With a large British army tloundering in the field some 100 miles off. and with
martial law restricting movement and news, there was a touch of sheer escapism in
the public deportment at 'the Park Oval' in the New Year. Professor J. Michael. 'the
world-famed aeronaut', was to give one of his daring 'ascents and parachute
descents', which would be 'paced' by an electric motor. One review of the Park
entertainments in this. the first week of 1900, the citizenry something of a
wigging. It finds the greensward to be 'strewn with paper, empty sardine and meat
tins, bon-bon boxes. bottles and all sorts of debris. By Monday evening the Park
looked more like the floor of a New York retail emporium .. ,. ' '0' was annoyed to
find 'a deep trench dug at the Oval immediately in front of the Pavilion... '. an
'abomination' which was the work of a professional visitor who had been granted the
use of the Oval for the purpose of making a balloon ascent. ... ' What trivial s t u f t ~
says '0' of Professor Michael's airborne effort, compared 'with a hawk or eagle'.
where 'every moment is the embodiment of grace. Yet people ignore such sights to go
and see a human being ... dropping with a large umbrella over his head .... '
Squalor there may have been, noise there was not:
The new year was ushered in without the usual noisy
demonstration... , There was no clanging of bells, or loud reports
of squibs and crackers, and an absence of the horseplay which has
been a feature in past years .... There was not such an exodus of
picnicking parties as in years past. A good many people visited the
Albert Falls, and entrained for different places on the line as far as
Howick.... The Masonic fraternity entertained about 800 refugee
children at their hall in Longmarket Street.
78
'Marilzhurg during lhe Siege qlNalal'
Gradually the talk of the town turned to other forms of travail than that suffered at
the front. The Meldrum family suddenly came into prominence:
Yesterday at noon citizens were surprised to see a red tlag guarded
by a policeman standing at the end of Henrietta Street. On
enquiring it was found that Mr A.C. Meldrum, of bicycle fame, had
been declared ... suffering from small-pox ....
In years to come the Meldrums of Henrietta Street would be associated with
mineral waters rather than bicycles. Mr A.C. Meldrum did not survive the attack, but
there were other Meldrums around. With a shrewd eye to business, one of them asked
the Witness 'to state that Mr Meldrum of Pietennaritz Street riksha owner, has not
been near his relatives in Henrietta Street for several months .... '
The Meldrum clan were to entertain a war-worried citizenry again a week later.
Even in the midst of war there is nothing as spicy as a well-reported divorce. An
article entitled' An Unhappy Marriage' took up column upon column of small print.
If one could not say much about General Buller and his problems, there was much to
say about Mrs Kate Meldrum, wife of Mr Paul Meldrum, fanner of Nottingham
Road, who was having a wretched time of things by reason of her husband's 'repeated
cruelty, neglect, and intemperate habits.' In vain did the Bar try to find any shaft of
light in the unredeemed Mr Meldrum:
Judge: How did your husband fill up his day?
Plaintiff: By dawdling about, rolling cigarettes, visiting
neighbours, and brushing his clothes.
Judge: Then he did exert himself to that extent to
brush his own clothes.
Plaintiff: Yes..
This small virtue failed to eXCUlpate Mr Meldrum, and his farm and stock were
duly ceded to his wife.
At last, some good news on 10 January. The 'clock and bells for the Town Hall
have arrived in Durban by the Inyoni'. But, in the nature of the times, this is
immediately followed by bad news. The maker 'declines to send a man out to erect
the clock, in consequence of the war.' Such pusillanimity in the face of the Boers
draws from 'Q' one of his most barbed rejoinders:
I would suggest that by this week's mail a map of the Colony be
sent. .. with British and Boer positions marked, while in a covering
letter it might be stated that in this present time ... between the
Town Hall tower and the Boer positions there are some tens of
thousands of British troops, who may be relied upon to protect the
clock-maker's precious employee from harm.
'Under the rigorous censorship it has become very difficult to find subjects of
interest for an article ... ' notes the leader of 18 January, and, as if to belabour the
point, presents local news that is more local than ever:
79
'Maritzburg during the Siege o.lNatal'
Yesterday a box containing six dozen eggs was received at the
market and on being opened the contents were found to be in that
condition which is described as scrambled' ... Are the porters at
the station into trim for the ensuing football season?
The unruly porters at the station seem to bespeak a railway system over-stressed.
Just as the Spioenkop battles reached their culmination, some citizens of Maritzburg
suffered a somewhat violent train ride. The paper for 27 January reports that the 8.45
train for Durban, at Umsindusi Station (Pentrich), 'the through points being wrongly
placed... ran into a siding, the engine striking the dead end with some force.
Passengers were much bruised and shaken.' Dangerous stuff, this; a vast number of
the empire's VIPs were then using the tracks. One bulletin reports that 'among the
passengers by the down mail last evening were Lady Randolph Churchill, Bishop
Baynes, and Colonel Young .... '
But the doldrums continued. Both the Horticultural Society and the Maritzburg
Agricultural Society announced the cancellation of their annual shows. In the latter
case there was not much option, since the show-grounds were 'occupied by the
military authorities, having been taken over by force under martial law .... ' During
the long wait for Buller's next advance, we find the Sports Column, presided over by
'Meteor'. coming back into prominence, and that simply because of the psychological
vacuum that prevailed. As 'Meteor' explained:
The other day, when it was an even money chance on Slim Piet and
his hosts executing their threat to indulge in the luxury of oysters
and stout on the Blutl it was impossible to concentrate one's
interest in sport. ...
But things have changed:
Now that Natal is no longer permitted to know what is going on at
the front, and is consequently debarred from taking a live interest in
the fortunes of the brave fellows ... there is no reason why sport
should not revert to its normal condition ....
To Meteor's consternation, one consequence of the cultural doldrums was that the
bandstand, which recently exuded regimental airs, was now handed over to school
drum and fife bands. 'Meteor' would 'as lief listen to the music of the Boer Maxim
and Nordenfeld ... ' Why did the Park bar show an increased profit last weekend?
Small boys in tight-fitting jerseys and knickerbockers three sizes
too small [were] allowed to murder 'Annie Laurie' and the like,
people were compelled to drown their son'ows in Dewars.
The long weeks of January and February tend to become a record of energetic
concertising to raise funds for 'relief - not so much of refugees, these days, as of
the wounded now filling the military hospitals. The need to show that one was on
'Tommy's' side was felt, it seems, by the German community at New Hanover. The
Natal Germans must have been a little sensitive to the fact that - despite the Kaiser's
coming out for Rhodes rather than Kruger - some of Germany's best military brains
80
?v1aritzburg during the 5'iege (?lNatal'
and best field-ordnance were now being used against the British. New Hanover. these
days, was perhaps a linle more in range of the eagle eyes of the press. That great
harbinger of civilisation, the Natal Government Railways, had actually reached there.
Adverts in January tell us that the 8.20 from Maritzburg arrives in Albert Falls at
10.08 and New Hanover at 11.10. At any rate. the 'relief' concert of 18 January was
certainly not run by English colonists only:
Mr Schroeder followed with the 'Battle Hymn' to which he did full
justice with his powerful voice. Perhaps the star of the evening was
Miss Konigkramer, who sang 'Carnival' and 'Daddy' and was
vociferously encored... The comic clement was well sustained by
Misses Smith and Westbrook, and Messrs. Oellermann and
who, to the accompaniment of the auto-harp, kept the
house in one long roar of laughter.
But the hawk-eyes of the press noticed one little dissension. 'Q' asks in his next
column 'whether the loyalty, fidelity and integrity of a certain resident in the New
Hanover division are not open to question? Whether he did not rise and leave the hall
as soon as the opening chords of the National Anthem were struck? Whether he did
not return as soon as the National Anthem had been sung?'
Reading between the lines, one has to conclude that only the imperially dutiful
and the inexorably patriotic patronised the 'Minstrel Entertainment' (put on for 'the
Maritzburg Refugees') at Scott's Theatre. No doubt 'Snowdrops' and 'Bohemians'
warranted repetition, but the price for a box was two guineas, and for seats in the
stalls one guinea. How one must have chafed at that sober entertainment when one
knew that just around the corner in Church Street, Dell's Palaee of Varieties,
frequented by off-duty soldiers and the more out-or-pocket refugees, charged only
one shilling. It was 'open every evening with a first-class variety entertainment'
provided by the likes of Miss Mary Bell, Miss Stella D'Evran, Miss Louise Melanti
and Professor Hal Sesor, the Celebrated Ventriloquist. At Dell's you would also see
Edison's '98 Bio scope', with 'all the latest pictures.' That one of the city's top brass
did find patriotic attendance at Scott's too much for his pocket is suggested by some
questions raised in 'Topics of the Town'. 'Q' asks
whether a certain municipal dignitary is not just now in bad odour
with the local minstrel troupes? Whether the trouble has not arisen
through the individual in question cancelling an order of a couple
of rows of stalls at Scott's theatreT
'Vox Humana', the Witness's musical correspondent, notes that 'no-one is
interested in music at the moment, only in the war.' What with 'no Town Hall and
organ'. and 'all the military bands being away', the city seems 'quite dead'. There is
only one small triumph in these grim times: the 'chimes' for the Town Hall clock
have arrived in the city. The twelve bells have been promptly locked up in a shed
near the City Hall. There will be 'fourteen tunes played by the clock mechanism' and
also. alas, 'an ingenious arrangement whereby any tune possible can be played .... '
Vox Humana says soberly: 'It is to be hoped that no one but an expert will have
access to the ropes. otherwise the consequences would be too distracting.' What Vox
81
'A4arilzhurg during the Siege ofNatal '
Humana does not say is that in these 'dead' times 'live' music was already competing
with twentieth-century technology. A phonograph concert given on 18 January in the
YMCA hall was 'an unqualified success ... The instrument used was one of Edison's
latest improvements, and the various items were rendered with a clearness and fidelity
that took the audience by storm .... ' Door revenues, as usual, went to Relief funds.
As each organisation vied to top the 'relief figures, Kipling's challenge to 'pay, pay,
pay' affected almost every performance. A concert at Scotfs made 64 4s 7d for
'Ladysmith sick and wounded' but Mr Douglas, passing around a hat after rendering
'The Absent-minded Beggar', raised a further I 0 16s 6d for that item alone.
But over-use creates an inevitable reaction. The familiar strains had become
excruciating; nowhere more so than in beleaguered Natal. Says 'Q':
When you get the Absent-minded Beggar groaned out from the
phonograph, sung at every concert, shrieked by every alleged
elocutionist, when there is hardly a paragraph about our soldiers in
which they are not referred to as 'gentlemen in khaki', and when all
the young ladies in town are tinkling out Sir Arthur Sullivan's
melody on their Broadwoods and Collard and Collards, well then, [
think the enjoyment begins to fizzle out.
suppose no South African paper was slow to quote the delightful take-off of
Kipling that had come out in the Christmas number of Punch, following the news that
50,000 plum puddings had been sent to the front. It was certainly there in the Witness:
When you've eaten Christmas pudding when you're groaning in
your grief
When you've woken with a taste about your mouth
Will you drop a tear of pity in your little handkerchief
As you think of all those puddings ordered south ...
Was it only 'Q', however, who realised that a satiric pastiche might just get past
the military censor, and late in the day deliver some tactical criticisms?
When you've finished with your pipe-clay,
Won't you try a little change
(It's useless killing Kruger with your mouth),
By sending out some cannon of a slightly longer range,
For the gentlemen in khaki falling south?
New guns, true guns, guns of a modem make,
Ship them out for Tommy's sake, out to Table Bay
We've got the men but not the guns, s,o we'll pay, pay, pay ...
Even the 'Minstrels', as they got to the end of their 'Scotts' season, became a little
bolder. Of course, there was always the excruciating rendering of patriotic numbers
one of their reviewers 'suggests' that 'even the most patriotic are surfeited with
"Soldiers of the Queen'" But an element of satire does creep in: the review admits
that 'Mr H Fuller as General Buller was genuinely funny, and his expression "Let the
battle proceed" really first class humour. ... '
82
Meanwhile the city council wrestled with the problems of war-time water supply
and the state of the streets in crowded Maritzburg. The trouble is, said 'Q' that the
costly 'Borough Engineers' Department' does not share pedestrian locomotion with
the ord inary man in the street:
A magnanimous corporation has provided the Borough Engineer
with a carriage and pair, and the members of his staff with hacks,
and consequently their acquaintance with the condition of
sidewalks may be somewhat distant and formal.
Hence the neat satire in which he welcomes the coming of improvements to
Church Street in supra-historical terms:
Relief at last No, not Ladysmith. Church Street is being paved.
It will be the high and mighty privilege of the now babes-in-arms to
gaze upon the actuality of Longmarket Street with its footpaths
respectable, when we of th is day are dust and cinders ...
Somehow, in 1999, it is easier to imagine Ladysmith being besieged than it is to
believe that Church Street was once unpaved, and blurred by the dust of passing carts.
But what of water consumption, which had more than doubled since 1895? The
three chief culprits were the Camp, the Railway, and the Brewery. Yet, at a well
reported council meeting of 8 February, Councillor C.W.B. Scott (of Scott's Bridge
and presumably Scott's Theatre fame) found his motion for inspecting the water
supply to be ruled out of order.
Councillor Scott (interrupting): This is funny... I don't like things
being held back until it is thought convenient; you ought
not to keep things back in this way ...
'fhe Deputy Mayor (wrathfully): I won't put up with your remarks,
sir; sit down! f will not have any of your insinuations.
You are always coming in with these insinuations. You
judge other people by yourself. ..
Councillor Scott (who had resumed his seat): Probably...
The mayor's office was furious with the Witness for exposing this civic dissension
in time of war. 'Q"s response was immedate (Councillor SBWC being, in this spoof,
Scott with his initials in reverse.)
At a Roarporation Meeting
Cr.A: 'Has I was a-sayin' ot: if them bricks isn't. .. '
Cr SBWC: 'On a point of order I would like ... '
The Mayor: 'Cr A has the floor. .. '
CrSBWC: 'I beg your pardon.
Cr.A: 'Has I was a-sayin' of, when that little .... '
CrSBWC: 'On a point of order, Mr Mayor, I. .. '
The Mayor: 'I must call Cr SBWC to order. .. '
Cr A: 'When that little ... '
Cr SBWC: 'Mr Mayor, I. .. '
83
'Maritzhurg during the Siege o.lNatal '
The Mayor: 'Sit down!'
Cr SBWC: 'You can all go.... '(Exit)
The Mayor: 'We have much to be thankful for. Let us pray... '
Not that Councillor Scott was entirely let off the hook. The military hospital at
Maritzburg College had vastly increased the traffic down West Street and across the
Umsinduzi River. 'Q' asks: 'Whether Councillor Scott might not deal with the bridge
bearing his name? Whether the flooring thereof will not be flooring some
horseman ... ?'
Wartime discussion becoming somewhat parochial and introverted, it was often
noted that the Martizburg Market was the 'chief means of relaxation that the City
possesses.' Here politicians argue their new ideas, here everyone 'bull[ies] Buller for
not adopting their particular plan of campaign... ' It sounds an excessively masculine
enclave, but a feminine presence was beginning to make itself felt. This is proved in
an interesting test case heard before the City magistrate from 17 February. The
pecking order at the market was under racial strain. Did 'coolies have the right to
place their goods in the most advantageous position possible on the "'first come first
served" principle' or do 'Europeans... have the pick of the tables for their goods ... '
The case was set to drag on and on. One colonial growl was that Indians did not have
to pay tax. Whereas black 'riksha pullers, togt boys, and monthly servants pay a tax'
the 'hawker of fruit, fish, and other commodities' does not. The racial innuendo is
there in the observation that white ladies now used the market arena, raising the
question 'should coolies presume to shove in front of them?'
The 'feminine presence' is indeed rather hard to find in the reports of these times.
I suppose the early phase of any war tends to present it as a man-on Iy affair, where
'warrior' women like Kate Bishop are only too happy to hand over history to the all
active male. The absence of women from centre stage suggests a background
presence, rather like that of the queen herself. R.D. Clark, in the Christmas Day
address to soldiers already mentioned, referred to the painting of the queen that he
had chosen for the Victoria Hall:
... just as those gracious eyes look down upon you in blessing now,
Her Majesty's thoughts and prayers are much with you today....
In this vein, the women in Ladysmith provided a central icon. One report notes
that
while shells were hurling through the air and bursting on the
ground, they (the women) moved through the streets, in ordinary
costume and with ordinary demeanour, as though no hostile Boer or
bellowing gun was within a hundred miles of them. Not a trace of
fear or panic was manifest.
In Maritzburg itself one cannot read the pages of the Witness without noticing
how often Mrs F.S. Tatham wife of the Natal politician, and (later) donor of the
Pietennaritzburg Art Gallery is the central, unassuming, figure. Who is it that, on
I December, takes fifty refugee children down to the Park in rikshas. and hands out
'dainties'? Mrs Tatham. Who receives the proceeds of the New Hanover concert to
84
purchase linen and clothing for military hospitals? Mrs Tatham. Who meets an
ambulance train, carrying 'a large number of sick and wounded', that arrives in the
city on a Saturday evening after 'Spionkop'? Answer: 'Mesdames Wesley Francis
and F.S. Tatham, who dispensed from a capacious store, tea, milk, aerated waters and
eatables.' (I gather from Tatham descendants that she would have then been about 30
years old.) I wonder whether it crossed her mind that the woman's voice was going to
become much more politically powerful as the war went on. (Certainly after the war
her husband was to associate himself with radical politics; he earned notoriety on one
occasion for congratulating the Witness on 'breaking secrecy' on one of the Prime
Minister's covert plans.)
On 19 January 1900 the Witness quotes an interesting 'first of this shift of
influence:
To us women, says 'Only a Woman' in a Cape paper, the glorious
victories and reverses only mean battlefields strewn with corpses,
tortured wounded, hospitals full of wrecks of splendid manhood of
English and Dutch, homeless refugees, neglected industries... an
undying of racial feeling, and thousands of black-robed
(ourselves among them) ...
It is, of course, that prescient intuition as to the 'legacy of racial feeling' which
was to prove more accurate than Milner's 'progressives' ever realised.
A controversy closer to home brings the 'woman's question' to light rather more
urgently. The bourgeois 'halo' around women was starving the shop-floor of labour.
At last the colonial hierarchy had to recognise its structural limitations ~ its patent
inability to generate a blue-collar class from its own people. A piece titled 'Woman's
Labour', on 22 February, exemplifies nicely the typical mixture of insight and
narrowness:
When ladies holding good posItIons in Johannesburg do not
consider it 'infra dig' to accept temporary situations during the
crisis, there appear to be no serious objections to the daughters of
the labouring classes from the Rand helping forward the progress of
the Colony by refraining from overcrowding shops and refreshment
bars as 'helps' and following the footsteps of their mothers ....
The author now goes through the weird drill of holding up upper-class colonial
ladies as an example to all. (Notice how he does not even concede that a black
working class exists):
We have no female farm servants in South Africa, and at our
agricultural shows it is not the butter-making that attracts attention.
but the novel sight of seeing well-dressed and comely matrons and
bewitchingly attired and attractive farmers' daughters with their
sleeves rolled up, working hard to make the butter come.
Unfortunately the daughters of the tenant farmers and the artisans
and pass on. If South Africa is to prosper, we must put an
end to playing at being Ladies and Gentlemen.
85
'A1aritzburg during the .','iege (?fNatal '
The problem is, of course, the author himself: who shows no intention of
to 'play' at 'Ladies and Gentlemen.'
To judge purely from the pages of The Natal Witness, Maritzburg women of
7 February 1900 were being persuaded to concern themselves not so much with
Buller's ditllculties on the Thukela as with getting their children back to school. The
paper is crammed with adverts for familiar schools, and tor unfamiliar ones. We have
St Charles, Girls Collegiate, Merchiston, Weston College, but we also have Blenheim
School, the Huguenot Seminary (Grey town), the Hook School (Highlands), The
Gables School (Chapel Street), Glen Lynn College (Loop Street). and the Maritzburg
High School f()r Girls (Zwaat1kops). '0' is only too glad that schools are re-opening
he has found the conduct of the average youngster 'becoming intolerable. The
manners and language of the Maritzburg boys is on a par with those of the small fry
in the East End of London.... Ladies watching boys angling, and leaning over Park
Bridge. [heard] words that would not even be quoted by Kipling... ' (In my reading,
Kipl worst word is 'bloomin'. and I cannot think that the young anglers would be
awfully shamed by 'O's' report.)
Were the Maritzburg boys that bad!? We note that the boys of the cathedral choir
voted their 'good attendance' prizes to the relief fund - but. then. perhaps they were
not the type who went fishing beneath the park bridge. Someone who knew just how
to talk to the young was R.D. Clark, opening the new Maritzburg College session in
temporary war-time quarters at the Native High Court building:
He expressed his belief that their temporary exile ... in a noble
cause would prove to have been only a blessing in disguise. A
tablet. to be erected in the College Hall, would not only
commemorate the fact that her Majesty's brave sick and wounded
soldiers had t()Und nursing and shelter during their campaign ...
but would also record the names of old boys, such as Craig Smith,
Tucker, and Haddon, who had met heroic deaths in action.... He
urged every boy to see that he left that court with not a single dint
on the dado, or a drop of ink on the parqueted floor ... (laughter)
Not all Maritzburg's boys. it turns out. served at the front with equal honour. One
character who earned himself dishonourable mention in the Ladysmith siege might
well a hundred years later - stir up psychological interest. [n the official war
bulletin for 14 February there is reported the court-martial and imprisonment, in
Ladysmith, of one Herbert Foss. for 'circulating reports calculated to cause
despondency among the troops'. He was. says the report. 'warned by several
civilians. The only wonder is that he was not locked up sooner. ... ' I might have left
that news item to anonymity had [ not discovered in the 'Sporting [ntelligence' of the
same edition, an unexpected sequel:
Herbert Foss, Natal champion swimmer, and latterly an aspirant tor
cycling honours, appears to have fallen upon evil times in
Ladysmith ... One cannot help feeling sorry for one who was
regarded as being made of better stuff. ...
86
'Marilzhurg during Ihe Siege ( ~ l N a l a l '
suppose every war throws up such lone, highly self-disciplined types, whose
trace of mania takes them in a rebellious direction. One wonders whether Herbert
Foss was able to patch up his life again after the war, and, if so, in what part of the
world he did so.
Meanwhile, the temporary hospitals for the wounded were, as the College
headmaster said, very much in the public eye, and none more so than the building
handed over by the government of Natal, the Legislative Assembly. By I February
272 men had passed through its wards. An article writing up the achievements of this
hospital rather takes one's breath away: it is difficult not to discern a certain 'class'
implication:
A generous public keeps them (the patients) well supplied with
papers and magazines; there are the beautifully cool vestibule and
balcony where they can take an airing, and the members' billiard
room is always at their disposaL ... Mrs Topham... adds
considerably to the attractiveness of the place by her artistic
arrangement of flowers.
'Q' saw the social implication pretty smartly. He asks in his next column:
'Whether the men in the Garrison Hospital might not receive a little more attention
from the citizens? Whether a plethora of kindness is not showered upon the Assembly
HospitalT (One attention that the Garrison wounded did receive, by the way ~ and
which made all the more shameful the non-erection of the clock bells ~ was the
discontinuance of the 'time gun' fired daily at 8am and I pm, 'on account of the bad
effect it had on the wounded men in camp.... ')
Meanwhile all was not running as sweetly at the College hospital as R.D.Clark
might have hoped. Out on the tented fields the men were not subject to the elegant
visitation of Mrs Topham. On 3 February, two days after the Assembly Hospital
report, The Times (?lNalal, in a Special Edition, carried the juicy headlines: 'Military
Hospital Deficiencies. Serious Complaints by the Wounded. Wounds Undressed
since Spion Kop.' The paper quotes some thirteen areas of complaint derived from
the patients themselves. An enquiry was instituted under no less a personage than Sir
William Stokes, 'Surgeon-in-Ordinary to HM the Queen', who was renowned for
work at Richmond Hospital, Dublin. The unfortunate reporter for the Times o.lNalal
was made to accompany the inspecting party. Sir William felt 'compelled to state that
the charges are as mischievous and cruel as they are false'. The Witness must have
rather enjoyed this spectacular discomfiture of a rival newspaper. In fact, the report
shows that the complaints were not totally unfounded. 'In one or two cases
concerning the beds', it says, 'a deficiency of sheeting was observed. This, we were
informed, was due to the want of a heating apparatus for drying linen .... ' As to the
most general complaint, regarding the quantity of food, Sir WiIliam has a sagacious
reply: 'Cases continually occur. .. in which strong convalescent young men find, or
think they find, the regulation diet supplied to them insufficient.'
Was this rebuttal assisted by the ever-present filter of military censorship? By
February the papers in Natal were beginning to regain composure as regards the
censors. As early as 5 January it was reported that the mails recently arrived on the
Majestic of the Atlantic Greyhound Line made up 'the quickest delivery on record',
87
'Maritzhurg during the Siege ~ l N a t a l '
and they revealed to the colony that the home papers 'contained some very outspoken
comments', including calls for resignations at the War Office. The Witness was to
learn an item of fame that, to my knowledge, it has never traded upon since that
its blacked-out column for 30 November 1899 had become an international exhibit in
the history of press censorship.
'Q' tells usjauntily of the paper's present relations with the censor. 'Nightly, at 12
o 'clock promptly, the staff of this paper warble through their telephone:
Send him censorious
Red pencil glorious
Long to out-score-ius
Greatest of men ...
He makes it clear that the only news the public can trade on these days is the
gossip of the hour:
Overheard in Church Street:
'Any news this morning?'
'Yes; Nqutu has fallen.'
'You don't say.'
, It's a fact.'
'Then 1 suppose England will sue for peace.'
Gossip has become more trusted than official news. That is the burden of the
paper's rather more defiant treatment of the Spionkop reverse than had so far been
allowed. The news broke on 29 January. 'Q' in that edition remarks how 'last
Saturday evening ... the heat wave and muggy atmosphere' that Natal has been
experiencing was 'dispersed by... one of the most magnificent electrical duels ever
witnessed in NataL ... Another storm came over the Zwaartkop about 12.30am .... A
grand sight was witnessed by those who took the trouble to rise.... ' He would not
have known it, but that same break in the Natal weather overtook the British troops
retreating down Spionkop. Meanwhile, the paper's editor, treading carefully, makes
his feelings plain:
General Buller's official despatch has confirmed in almost every
particular the miserable rumours which had been current in the
city.... Few military despatches have ever, perhaps, invited the
criticism of which this one would admit. The man in the street may
discuss it in all its bearings. The Press may not. All that is
permissible to them is to join the General in its congratulations on
the force having been withdrawn 'without the loss of a single man'.
The inverted commas around 'without the loss of a single man' show reservations,
doubts that the subsequent display of column after column of casualties seemed to
justifY. But now comes the bitterest sentiment:
88
'Maritzburg during the Siege o.lNatal'
One thing we will say further in reference to this despatch, and that
is only an expression of universal public feeling that the suspense in
which colonists have been... kept is refined cruelty. The
compliments... which have been bestowed upon the Colony for its
loyalty... do not outweigh or compensate for the anxiety to which
military thoughtlessness has subjugated them after almost every
engagement....
But Buller's unhappinesses were at last to be sidelined by the first unadulterated
good news of the war: the information that Lord Roberts had crossed into the Free
State - a 'pick-me-up' (says the Witness on 15 February) for 'every man, woman,
and child of intelligent age in Natal.' Surely the three must soon be raised:
Overheard in Church Street:
'Where is 'Bobs'?'
'Somewhere near Kimberley, 1 imagine.'
'['11 take 20 to I that he's not a hundred miles from Van Reenen'
'I n other words, that he reaches Ladysm ith before BulIer does ... ?'
The relief of Kimberley was the dress rehearsal for that release of suppressed
emotion that Natal was waiting for. The news broke on 21 February:
The streets rapidly tilled with excited streams of residents and
refugees, many of the latter letting off supertluous hurrahs from
time to time. The Stock Exchange, Post Office stoep, the corridors
and verandahs of the principal hotels, were all taken up by groups
of would-be generals and a perfect babel of 'I told you so', 'Bully
for French!', 'Grand old Bobs' and other expressions arose on all
sides...
There was a new moral confidence in the air. The paper that announces 'Cronje
smashed and captured' has 'Q' noticing 'quite a change since my last
scribbl ing ... Then we were down in the dumps; now we are as happy as sand
boys.... '
As if to relish the change in public morale, the Witness chooses this moment to
reveal a colossal bloomer committed by the military censor. Throughout the
Ladysmith campaign readers have been aware that the troops are being accompanied
by 'the Warwick Portable Biograph Co.' The new technology is amazing: 'one
camera with its tripod can be carried on a bicycle, a pack mule can carry three or
four'. But, alas, the London Daily Mail has received three tins of undeveloped film
with 'Opened under martial Law' written on them, under the signature of the Cape
Town censor. Result: some 'interesting and unique films' have been ruined by
careless exposure. 'Martial law' is thus responsible for 'the loss to the British public
of some exceedingly interesting pictures.'
Another shift in tone is evident in the way that the siege of Kimberley is
subsequently reported. No Rhodes-worship; no Baden-Powell-type heroics. What
takes the publ ic interest is not the military crisis but the crisis in health: 'The sad, but
expressive, news from Kimberley' says an article on 24 February, is that 'during the
89
?vlaritzhwx during the '
owing to want of milk... babies died like flies .... It is perhaps the young ones
who suffer most during a siege.' The lesson is one of civic hygiene: 'However careful
some milk vendors may be with their habits, little is known of what happens to the
milk whilst being carried about the streets.'
But now Natal's turn really did come. Even the war with the censor was forgotten
in the great news that broke on Saturday 3 March 1900. Ladysmith was relieved. No
matter how much a more sceptical, more revisionist view of history overtakes us a
hundred years later, the depth of the emotion cannot be gainsaid. If, today, we can
smile at the tone of the leader 'neither the courage of the Boer, of which the
display has been remarkable, nor the science of Europe, can avail against the
unflinching determination of an Empire at arms' - the actual description of the street
scenes speaks for itself:
Nothing was allowed to mar the general joy. There were those
whose sombre habiliments told of recent losses, keeping back their
tears, cheering and waving handkerchiefs in thankfulness and
sympathy with those who joyed for dear ones emancipated from a
living tomb.... As though some band of genii or fairies with deft
fingers had sprung from the shades, the streets of the City assumed
with magical transformation a new aspect. Stern and cold iron
pillars blossomed forth like Aaron's rod into life and colour.
Festoons of banners and ribbons of bunting ran across the
streets....
This time it was the female of the species, and not the club male, who took centre
stage:
Here one met with a dainty face peeping from under a network of
red, white and blue, there a vision [looked] in a bewildering display
of lemon with the Scottish lion .... [There were] fetching gowns in
green, with harps galore on them.... Ribbons, bows and rosettes
flashed everywhere on the female form divine, even to tiny rosettes
on tinier feet. .. The girls of various schools in the City paraded the
streets carrying banners babies were not forgotten; they were
quite as fearfully and wonderfully dressed as their mothers.
And the reporter notices how, here and there, 'groups of natives burst into song.'
It is often remarked that this public catharsis was never experienced again in a war
that was to drag on for another two years. As Simon Haw remarks in his history of
The Natal Witness, the headlines on the Peace ofVereeniging in May 1902 are almost
perfunctory.2
If only it had happened, then, that prior to that Saturday, the 'expert from
England' had arrived, and set up the new City Hall clock-tower carillon. But wait!
it seems that some inspired party managed to release even that gagged voice:
Unfortunately the bells for the clock tower had not been placed in
position, but during the morning their voices were made heard from
the basement. ...
90
'Maritzhurg during the 5,liege (?lNatal'
An inspired intervention: even Maritzburg's bells did manage to speak! It was a
nice culmination of the colonial city's more parochial saga.
REFERENCES
All excerpts taken rrom I 1900 editions or The ,Vatal unless otherwise stated
NOTES
lIaw. Simon. Hearing Witness. The /Iiatal Witness IgM 1996, (Pictermaritzburg. Natal Witness.
1(96) p. 137,
2. Haw, HeariflR, Witness, p. 142.
W.H. BIZLEY
Obituaries
Daphne Margaret Child (1920-1998)
Daphne Child died in Durban on 23 December 1998, when Natalia 28 was already
with the printers. She is best remembered for exposing the reading public to the lives
and thoughts of a number of Natal's nineteenth-century settlers through the editing of
their diaries and letters.
Ms Child was educated at Durban Girls' College and showed an early leaning
towards art and poetry. After leaving school she studied art for four years and gained
the National Art Teacher's Certificate.
Initially she taught art, but in about 1966 changed to freelance writing. The saga
( ~ f the South Ajrican horse (1967) and Yesterday's children (1969) were her first
publications. Thereafter she devoted herself to editing Natal settler writings, viz.
Charles Smythe, pioneer, premier and administrator ~ ( N a t a l (1973), The Zulu War
Journal (?fColonel Henry Harford (1978), A merchant family in early Natal: diaries
and letters ~ f Joseph and Marianne Churchill /850-/880; with a narrative (?f
pioneering travels to Potche.f.;'lroom and the Soutpansberg (1979), and Portrait ofa
pioneer: the letters ofSydne.v Turnerjrom South Africa 1864 -/90/ (1980).
SHELAGH SPENCER
Johan Cornelius Colenbrander (1912-1999)
lohan Colenbrander (known to many friends and colleagues as 'Colen') was born in
London on 22 November 1912. After attending school in Lavender Hill and training
as a doctor at Guys Hospital, he went into general practice in London's East End,
often riding a bicycle to do his rounds. During the Second World War he joined the
Royal Air Force and was posted to the Royal Infirmary at Hull, where one of his
duties was to lower the radium supplies down a well, in case of a direct hit during an
air raid! After the war he returned to Guys Hospital to specialise in radiology, and in
1954 he came to the brand-new Edendale Hospital in Pietermaritzburg, where he ran
the always overloaded radiology department until his retirement. He was, however,
still working part-time until only a few months before his death on 2 September 1999.
I think he lived his life somewhat in awe of the father he never knew a rather
mythical figure, known as the White Whirlwind, who galloped around Matabeleland
with Cecil Rhodes. He became, in part, his father's biographer, but I believe he was
92
Obituaries
much greater in his way than his father; but he would deny this, flustered in the true
embarrassment of the humble man.
He will be remembered also as a great companion and raconteur, the master of
stories, and stories within stories, yet always kindly and careful of the feelings of
others. His magnificent rambling discourses contained embellishments and red
herrings; they built serious castles in the air, which inevitably dissolved in self
mocking humour. And who can forget his 'And that, of course, is another story',
whispered conspiratorially in a soft lisp? One night, over coffee, I heard from him of
the plot for Natal to secede from the new Republic in 1960. He told it like a John
Buchan romance, and how at the last minute the leaders in Durban had called it off.
He had been assigned with his men to seize the radio station at World's View. He
swore us al1 to secrecy, as those were strange and abnormal times in South Africa.
I have told only a small part of Colen's life - the part I knew. Many others wil1
have their own memories of a man who lived life to the full, with dedication and
humour. Winston Churchill, whom Colen admired greatly, wrote a letter from the
Western front in 19 15. On the envelope was written 'To be sent to Mrs Churchill in
the event of my death.' The letter read 'You have taught me how noble a woman's
heart can be. If there is anywhere else, I shall be on the outlook for you. Meanwhile,
look forward, feel free, rejoice in life, cherish the children, guard my memory and
God bless you.'
Colen would have written that, too. These memories and many others are now
with his wife Diana and their children Anne and Peter.
CHRIS ELLlS
(Adapted, with permission, from the tribute published in The Natal Witness.)
leffrey William Horton (1921-1998)
It is, I think, true that there is something to be learnt from everybody one meets in
life, though this may not always be of a positive nature. There was, however, much
that was positive about the life of Jeffrey Wil1iam Horton for us to remember and to
cherish.
Jeffrey was born on 23 January 1921 at Harrismith in the Orange Free State, near
his beloved Drakensberg, but he spent most of his life on this side of the mountains.
After his schooling at Cordwalles and Michaelhouse, he went on to acquire degrees at
Rhodes University and Oxford and to lecture at Rhodes and the University of the
Witwatersrand, his early academic career being disrupted by war-time service in the
Aptitude Test Section of the South African Air Force. In 1960 he assumed duties as
Senior Lecturer in the History Department at the University of Natal in Durban where
he spent the rest of his working life, interspersed with brief spells as visiting lecturer
at Queens University, Ontario, and as visiting researcher at Smith College,
Massachusetts and at Northwestern University, Illinois, where he assisted the
southern African research of Professor Gwendolin Carter.
On the Durban campus Jeffrey rose to become Head of Department, Acting Dean
of his Faculty, University Orator, and on his retirement, Professor Emeritus. He did
not publish extensively but had an enormous and unquantifiable impact as a teacher,
93
Obituaries
thesis supervisor and, in some cases, personal mentor. His expert knowledge and
obvious enjoyment of British history in particular made for lectures which were both
informative and entertaining. As a supervisor he was rigorous and encouraging, and I
am only one among many who remain grateful for the demanding standards that he
set.
A brief outline of Jeffrey's successful career as an academic is, of course, only
part of the story. It says little about the person, the personality, whose life we
celebrate today, though for some of us it is impossible to separate Jeffrey the teacher
and colleague from Jeffrey the friend. There were many aspects to his life and
personality, some better known to several of you than to me, and I do not presume to
touch upon them all in the limited time available. We will miss his stimulating
conversation, his engaging, often subtle sense of humour, his witticisms, his eloquent
command oflanguage and play on words, all of which contributed to his popularity as
lecturer and University Orator. In my early years on the staff of the Durban History
Department he and J undertook the annual task of organising tutorial groups. Mutt &
Jeff we were, in imitation of the old cartoon strip, with Jeff mostly getting his own
way in terms of times and group allocations but Mutt not really minding because the
banter and repartee involved always made an entertainment of what would otherwise
have been a mundane, routine task.
This example points also to another of Jeffrey's qualities: his great organisational
and planning ability. The final illness aside, Jeffrey did not allow events to take what
course they may; he planned and organised his life to assume more or less the shape
that he wanted. Coupled with this was an enormous determination to achieve the
goals he set himself. This was never more evident than during the last days of his life
when he made up his mind that he was going to spend Christmas with the
Shuttleworths at Nottingham Road and see the Frosts of Johannesburg. I have no
doubt that he would, if necessary, have absconded from hospital but for the kindness
of those dear friends in enabling him to achieve his final objectives.
This brings me to my last and perhaps most important point: Jeffrey's enormous
capacity for wide-ranging, deep and abiding friendships. Many have commented on
the ease and immediacy with which they were able to make his acquaintance and
regard him as a friend. His friendships were not confined to his own generation or his
own social background and included people who were older and very much younger
than himself. Among these were former students and the children of friends. To them
he was much more than an entertaining and kindly uncle; he was a friend, always
tuned in to the younger generations, at heart a young man to the end of his life.
Jeffrey never took his friendships for granted; he nurtured and maintained them
through regular contact, a perceptive awareness of other people's feelings and moods,
and a shrewd ability to diagnose the need for humour, advice or silence, where
appropriate.
I suspect that, by this stage, though much has been left unsaid, Jeffrey would
already have prescribed silence in my case. In conclusion then, though the eventide of
his life here has fallen there is much for us to celebrate: a long and productive life
fully enjoyed and filled with friendship and affection, and a life hereafter in which he
firmly believed. Let us then think of his gain rather than our loss as we remember
Jeffrey the brother, nephew, uncle, godfather, colleague, friend, mentor, tape aids
94
Ohiluaries
worker and, for many years, the ever-hospitable squire of Folly Bridge where the
people of the beautiful Loteni valley, now bedecked in its summer splendour, await
his final and fitting return.
BILL GUEST
(This was the Funeral Oration delivered on 9 January 1999)
Donald Raymond Hunter (1927-1999)
Donald Hunter was born in London, and matriculated at the Bournemouth Collegiate
School. He went on to King's College, University of London, with the intention of
specialising in physics and mathematics, but became increasingly attracted to
geology, in which he graduated with a BSc Hons in 1947.
After a short time working on the Witwatersrand gold mines, he joined the
Colonial Geological Surveys in 1949, and spent the next 21 years in Swaziland,
where he became Director of Geological Survey and Mines. [n his first eight years
there he completed the geological mapping of about two-thirds of the country,
concentrating on the Archaean granitoid terrain. This work fonned the basis of his
University of London MSc in 1954, and a PhD from the University of the
Witwatersrand in 1968. He was also responsible for the assessment of mineral
deposits, especially gold, in north west Swaziland.
Swaziland became independent in 1968, and in 1970 Don Hunter resigned his
position in order to accommodate the appointment of Swazi nationals. In 1971 he was
awarded an OBE.
From 1970 to 1974 he worked in the Economic Geology Research Unit at Wits
University, and in 1975 was appointed to the newly-created chair of geology at the
University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg - a position he held for 17 years until his
retirement in 1992. During this time he developed research interests in Antarctica,
and in 1977 was appointed as South African representative on the working group for
geology of the Scientific Council for Antarctic Research.
Professor tlunter was elected President of the Geological Society of South Africa
in 1979, and it was through his efforts that a Natal branch of that society was fonned
in 1980. He received the society's Jubilee Medal in 1970, and the Draper Memorial
Medal in 1988. In 1990 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa,
and in 1993 received the Percy Fox Foundation Award. During most of his time in
Pietermaritzburg Don Hunter served on the council of the Natal Museum, for several
years as its chairman.
At a memorial service on 6 October Professor Tom Clifford of the University of
the Witwatersrand paid eloquent tribute to a valued friend and colleague who will be
sadly missed by many throughout southern Africa. Don Hunter is survived by his wife
VaL three children and four grandchildren.
JOHN DEANE
95
Ohituarie."l'
Peter Campbell Kerch h off(1 934-1999)
Peter Kerchhoff, who died in July 1999 as the result of a car accident, was the
organiser of the Pietennaritzburg Agency for Christian Social Awareness (Pacsa) and
was well known and admired among church people of all denominations and among
many of those concerned with issues of social justice.
He was born in Johannesburg in August 1934, went to school at Jeppe High and,
after working at African Explosives and Chemical Industries (AECI) in
Modderfontein got a bursary to study at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg
where he qualified as an industrial chemist. He then worked first at Kynochs in
UmbogintwinL then at AECI again, and finally at Hulett Aluminium, where he was
chief chemist. He also took a BCom degree part-time.
A growing concern with socio-political injustice and the inadequacy of the
response to it by many Christians, particularly white Christians, led a group of people
most of whom had been members of the then banned Christian Institute to set
up Pacsa in 1979. Peter courageously gave up his job at Huletts in order to become
Pacsa's full-time organiser.
Under his leadership Pacsa made an impact in several areas: it encouraged serious
thought about human relations and questions of justice, it was thoroughly ecumenical
and developed interdenominational and inter-faith spirituality (though Pacsa members
retained their denominational allegiances), and it got involved in specific activities.
During the period of intense state repression in the eighties, the Pacsa office
became known as a place where victims of police and other violence or harassment
could seek refuge. It was no doubt largely as a result of Pacsa's achievement in this
area that Peter Kerchhoff was detained for three-and-a-half months in 1986. The
police held him in solitary confinement and interrogated him for many weeks, They
could not believe that a true Christian would have so much interest in the poor and
the oppressed, and tried earnestly to get him to admit that he was a 'communist'.
He was also involved, over the years, in a wide range of social-justice and church
initiatives. He played leading roles in the local branches of the Institute of Race
Relations, the Detainees' Support Committee, the Advice Office, the End
Conscription Campaign, the Dependents' Conference and, more recently, Amnesty
International. He was also a founder member of the Association for African Rural
Advancement (Afra), the Pietennaritzburg Urban Ministry Project (Pump), the
Council of Churches and the Natal Church Leaders Group, of which he was secretary
and treasurer for many years.
He was also involved in a variety of community projects, in trade union affairs,
including the Sarmcol strike at Mpophomeni, and in the crisis committee at the time
of the Seven Days War in 1990. He was a member of the National Justice and
Reconciliation Commission of the Anglican Church, where he was particularly active
on the question of forced removals. In the eighties he was a member of the United
Democratic Front (UDF) and in the 1994 election he was a prominent local
representative of the Independent Electoral Commission. In 1995 he was ordained as
a deacon in the Anglican Church.
96
Obituaries
Oaphne Child Or Johan Col en brander
Professor Jeffrey Horton
(Photograph: University ofNatal)
Peter Kerchhoff
Professor Donald Hunter OBE
(Photograph: The ."iatal Witnes.'l)
97
Ohiluaries
Lorraine Kellley Bonakelc Ntshal intshal i
(PhotoKraph. The ,":ata! Witness) (Photograph: The ,1I,'ala! Witness)
Professor Patrick Smythe
Col. Jack Vincent MBE
(Photograph. The Natal Witness)
Hubert von Klemperer
98
Ohiluaries
Since 1990, under Peter's leadership, Pacsa has modified its role in obvious
ways, but it has continued to seek theoretical and practical ways in which
dedicated Christians and other concerned people can make a creative
contribution to the exciting but worrying society in which we live. A list of the
activities and involvements of Peter Kerchhoff gives one a lively sense of his
great energy and enthusiasm. But it tells one little of his warmth, his openness,
his unfailing good humour, his strength and his compassion. He generated an
enormous amount of caring thought and activity he was a true leader and
yet he was amazingly self-effacing. His heart and soul were wholly in the work
that he was doing and in the people he was working with: the kudos was of no
interest to him at all.
The many people who admired and loved him are devastated by his sudden
disappearance from the scene. lIe leaves his wife .loan, four daughters and five
grandchildren.
COLlN GARDNER
(By courtesy of The Natal Wilness.)
Lorraine Kettley ('Joanna ') (1920-1999)
Lorraine, or .Ioanna as she named herself, died peacefully in Pietermaritzburg on
19 August 1999. She was a renowned gardener and the chairman of the original
group of local gardeners formed in 1983 to discuss the possibility of opening
privately-owned gardens to members of the public. Her garden at Rosehurst
became famous as the perfect town garden, small but artfully designed. Her
talent with mixed borders, shade gardens, topiary and herbs created a unique
garden, delighting all visitors alike. Lorraine gave freely to other gardeners,
ideas and often plants. Her love of gardens inspired her writing of Rosehurst
Ramblings (1995) followed by More Rosehurst Ramblings (1996). She described
her first book as a 'personal look at gardening rather than another "how to"
manual.' It is a book of gardening philosophy, as much about people as it is
about plants.
Lorraine was a well-known figure in Pietermaritzburg, particularly as a
member of the Concerned Citizens Association, and was committed to the
preservation of the City of Pietermaritzburg and its heritage. In 1997 she made a
formal announcement that she would henceforth be known simply as . .Ioanna'.
This was the result of a spiritual change in which she stepped back in time to the
Victorian age, and turned her home into. a place of peace and tranquillity. She
disposed of all modern gadgets, and Rosehurst became a haven of serenity where
anyone was welcome who wished to spend time away from the rush and
pressures of mod'ern life .
.Ioanna is survived by her husband David, children and grandchildren.
SHONA WALLlS
99
Obituaries
Bonakele (Bonie) Ntshalintshali (1967-1999)
Born on Ardmore Farm near Winterton, Ntshalintshali suffered polio as a child,
spending four years in Edendale Hospital. In J 985 she joined the Ardmore
Ceramic Studio at the request of her mother, who felt that working with clay
would be less strenuous than physical farm labour. After an apprenticeship
making functional ware under the guidance of the studio's founder Fee Halstead
Berning, she began working on ceramic sculptures, often based on biblical
themes. Her fresh, colourful approach to themes such as The Last Supper and
The Nativity, interpreting them in a contemporary Zulu idiom, became a
trademark of her production. As well as biblical themes, she interpreted Zulu
customs such as The Labo/a, in a similar contemporary idiom, based on her own
experience as a young woman living in a rural area of KwaZulu-Natal.
In 1990 Ntshalintshali and Halstead-Berning received the Standard Bank
Young Artist Award for Fine Art. The result was a joint exhibition at the
Grahamstown Arts Festival that year, where for the first time Ntshalintshali's
work reached a wide audience. She was subsequently invited to exhibit at the
Venice Bienniale in 1993, and participated in many ceramic exhibitions in South
Africa. The accessibility of her work to audiences unfamiliar with so-called
'high art' established her popularity, and the desirability of her works, which are
now housed in public and private collections in South Africa and abroad.
The death of Bonie Ntshalintshali has deprived South Africa of one of its
leading ceramicists, one whose obvious enjoyment in her work also brought
much joy to others. Her legacy survives in what she has left beh ind.
BRENDAN BELL
Patrick Montrose Smythe (1913-1999)
Pat was born in Pietermaritzburg and educated at Merchiston and Cordwalles
Preparatory schools. From there he went to Michaelhouse where he matriculated
at the age of 16 with a first class matric and represented his school at rugby in
the first f ~ f t e e n .
He went to the then Natal University College in Pietermaritzburg where he
graduated with a first class BSc Honours. He also played rugby for the
University first team. He furthered his studies at Cambridge and the London
Hospital and obtained an MB ChB.
At the outbreak of World War 2 he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps
and served in the United Kingdom, and was then posted to Nigeria with the
Royal West Frontier Force. Shortly thereafter, he was sent with the Gold Coast
Regiment to Burma. Pat related a story that the practice was to take the injured
to base hospital carried in blankets slung between two poles. He decided that a
critically injured officer would die en route if transported in this fashion. Ever
resourceful, Pat designed and constructed a bamboo raft and accompanied his
patient, floating down the Arakan River to the base hospital. Happily, the patient
100
Obituaries
survived, but it resulted in Pat having to walk back alone through the jungle to
return to his unit.
After the war, he went back to the London Hospital, where he obtained his
MRCP, specialising in Paediatrics. In 1949, he moved to Cape Town, where he
was a Research Fellow at the University of Cape Town. In 1951 he joined the
Department of Paediatrics at a time when paediatrics was regarded as a minor
discipline at Groote Schuur Hospital and the Medical School of the University of
Cape Town. He played an important role in promoting paediatrics and lending
academic credibility to the discipline both nationally and internationally.
As a researcher Pat had many innovative ideas which he followed with
enthusiasm. His major research interests were in tetanus and nutrition. He
developed techniques with Professor Arthur Bull, and later refined them,
resulting in a drop in the mortality of patients with neonatal tetanus from 90% to
10%, the best reported survival rates at that time. He showed that undernutrition
during infancy inhibits brain growth and subsequent intellectual development in
some patients with severe kwashiorkor. and he contributed to the understanding
of the immunological changes that take place in this disease. This research
received international recognition and was commented on in the NeH' York
Times.
In 1964 his doctoral thesis was accepted by the University of Cambridge as
the best MD thesis and he was awarded the Raymond Horton Smith prize. Two
of his thirty-three publications have been identified and accorded Citation
Classics by the Science Citation Index Philadelphia as amongst the most widely
quoted in world medical literature.
He was promoted to Associate Professor of Paediatrics while he was working
at the Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital. In 1968 he was appointed
Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Natal and Dean of the Faculty of
Medicine in 1974. In 1988 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of
Paediatrics of the College of Medicine of South Africa.
In 1978, on retirement from the university, he spent six months at the Harare
Hospital, and subsequently held teaching sessions at Tygerberg, Baragwanath,
Red Cross Childrens' Hospital and King Edward VIII. He then retired to his
beloved farm Allandale at Nottingham Road, but continued with paediatric work
doing ward rounds at rural hospitals including Emmaus, Tugela Ferry. Charles
Johnson Memorial and Ngwelezane hospitals. thereby continuing with his
contribution to medical education and care for underprivileged children. This
commitment required considerable stamina and travelling for a man in his
seventies and eighties.
Medicine was but one facet of Pat. truly a renaissance man. He was not only
interested and knowledgeable, but was passionate about many and varied
subjects.
His interests ranged from science and medicine to agriculture and botany;
from wild life to antiques and fine art: from literature and music to gardening:
from philosophy to sport: from history and politics, to education and children.
He enjoyed hunting, shooting and fishing but there was something in which
he had no interest at all, and that was his personal wardrobe! Who else but Pat
101
Ohituaries
would attend an overseas congress as the keynote speaker, wearing khaki longs,
held up by baling twine?! Above all else, he had an abiding interest in and love
of people and his family. its heritage and future. For instance, he and a cousin
recently spent months researching and restoring the family cemetery on the
original Smythe family farm, Strathearn. Their efforts culminated in a wonderful,
two-hundred-strong gathering of the Smythe clan where Pat gave a talk and
planted a Pepperwell Oak.
One of his greatest joys was welcoming guests to Allandale. Nothing gave
him more pleasure than driving guests around the farm and also debating issues
at the dining room table. No topic was closed to his open and enquiring mind
whether moral. philosophical, Christian or topical matters. At his memorial
service, Professor John Hansen said 'As a person Pat was a wonderful warm
friend of countless colloogues and families. Many of these and VIPs from
overseas visited him at Allandale. This kind and generous man, who can be
regarded as one of the greats in South African paediatrics during the last 50
years. will be sadly missed.'
SUSAN SMYTHE
Jack Vincent (1904 999)
Jack Vincent was born in London in 1904. He went to school at Willington,
before earning a scholarship to Christ's Hospital at Horsham, Sussex, where he
went at the tender age of 10. He left school at 16 and worked as a farm pupil in
Sussex.
At the age of 21 he emigrated to South Africa on the 1820 Settlers'
Association scheme and WOI ked on two farms in the Richmond area of Natal
before returning to England to work for the British Museum. to pursue his
interest in birds, which had been with him since childhood. He was sent on a
number of bird-collecting expeditions in Africa, some on his own and one in the
company of Admiral Hubert Lynes of the Battle of Jutland fame.
His expeditions took him to most parts of Africa in the late 1920s and early
1930s, and earned him an honorary Life Fellowship of the Royal Geographic
Society. On his return from his last trip, in 1934, he met a Scottish girl. Mary
Russell. in Cape Town, proposed to and married her within a week. They
travelled together to London where they lived for the next year. He then took a
post with Jardine Mathieson Co., who sent him to Zanzibar to start the first clove
distillery on that most famous of 'clove isles'. There he spent three years
building up the industry before being transferred to a sisal plantation in
Tanganyika. The health situation there was too much for a wife and tiny child. so
Jack moved to South Africa again. where in 1937 he bought a farm in the Mooi
River district, which he named Firle after the farm he worked on in Sussex.
The Second World War intervened, and Mary was left to run the farm while
Jack served with the Royal Natal Carbineers in East and North Africa. Whilst on
active service he was seconded to the British army as an officer at the Staff
102
Obituaries
College in Haifa, Palestine. He was awarded the MBE for his service, and also
the PSC Dagger the only South African ever to have received the latter.
On his return to South Africa he was unable to the farm back on its feet,
and had to find other work. After working in Johannesburg for a few months, he
was asked by Douglas M itchell (q.v. in Natalia 19, obituaries, 1989 Ed.), to take
over the fiedgling Natal Parks Board. This he did in 1949, and the rest is history.
Under his guidance the Board became one of the most famous of the world's
nature conservation authorities, particularly for its role in saving the white rhino
from extinction.
In 1963 he accepted a post with the International Council for Bird
Preservation and moved with Mary to Morges in Switzerland, where he worked
in international conservation for four years. During this time he was awarded the
World Wildlife Fund Gold Medal, the Rolex Award for Enterprise, and the
Order of the Golden Ark, from Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands.
He returned to rejoin the Natal Parks Board in 1967, before finally retiring in
1974, to live first in Howick and later again on Firle. It was while there that he
wrote an autobiography, Weh qj'Experience, which was privately published.
On Mary's death in 1989, after 55 years of marriage, he moved to Pieter
maritzburg where he lived with his son John until his death on 3rd July 1999, at
the age of 95.
One final accolade for Colonel Vincent was the conferring of an honorary
doctorate by the University of Natal in 1993, for his services to conservation in
the province.
True to his spirit of determination and independence he continued to drive
around town, and became a familiar sight in his little green 1950 model Ford
Angl ia. It was his own decision to part with it at the age of 93.
Throughout his life Jack Vincent earned the respect of all those with whom
he worked and lived. He had a very simple philosophy of life, which was that
there were no grey areas. Everything had its place. His axiom was always that if
something he was about to do was morally right and justifiable, then he pressed
on regardless. His achievements bear testimony to this, for they were not done
for himself, but always in the interests of others. In this he showed he was a
leader who had the abi I ity to gain the confidence and love of his staff.
Jack Vincent is survived by his son John and daughter Thamar, seven
grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, and an elder brother Alfred, who
lives in England.
JOHN VINCENT
Hubert Ralph van Klemperer (1914-1999)
A good meal to Hubert was as a symphony to a music lover. Many hours have his
friends spent listening to Hubert describe his latest meal while damaging a bottle of
Justerini and Brooks or a bottle of wine. But Hubert loved his family and friends
more than food. He was a loving son, a loving brother and husband, a loving and
Obituaries
103
proud father and a loving and very proud grandfather. His love remained constant,
but his pride expanded with each younger generation.
Hubert also loved being with people. He loved nothing better than to have
family or friends ~ whether local or from overseas - visit or stay with him at
'The Huts'. His family and vast range of friends will recall with pleasure their
visits to his very special home high in the hills outside Pietermaritzburg.
Huberfs life story is a remarkable one, and has the makings of a really good
book. He was born at Wannsee, near Berlin, on 22nd September 1914. His parents
were Austrian and his father was in the Austrian War Ministry, which meant that
Hubert lived in Vienna during 1917 and 1918. Perhaps in that romantic city he first
acquired the personal charm that was to be an endearing characteristic throughout
his life!
After his schooling in Dresden he studied economics in Munich from 1933 until
the end of 1935. During his youth he spent some holidays at an aunt's country
estate near Barfelde. where he developed a love for riding and the lifestyle of the
landed gentry.
Because of his dislike of the then German regime ~ which dislike was mutual
he left Germany in January 1936 and emigrated to South Africa. Through a
connection of his father he joined Seligson & Clare, a firm of machinery importers,
as a management trainee in Johannesburg. Hubert became aware that unrestricted
emigration from Germany would cease on I st February 1937, and so he telephoned
his father, who soon realised that Hubert's protestations of homesickness and his
request for his father and brother to visit him in South Africa, had a greater
significance. During his father's visit he was able to persuade him to leave
Germany and relocate the family to South Africa.
He was transferred to Port Elizabeth in 1937, shortly before his family arrived
to settle in this country. Whilst in Port Elizabeth Hubert shared a house with
Ludwig Abel, who later married his sister Mika.
In December 1938 the fami Iy bought the Standard Yoke and Timber Mills in
Pietermaritzburg. This business had had 21 owners in the previous 20 years, and so
this was quite a challenge. At the time the mill produced shooks for fruit boxes and
yokes for oxen.
Hubert enlisted in the Union Defence Force at the outbreak of war, and was
called up at the end of May 1940. He had a varied army career, which included
periods when he was suspected of being a Nazi agent or a spy. Both these episodes
are stories for another day or perhaps another book!
In March 1941 Hubert met Marjorie Girdlestone at his brother Fritz's wedding.
A science graduate of the Natal University College, she was a radar operator
monitoring shipping around the South African coast. He married Meg on
19 October 1943, and they were married for almost 53 years, until her death in
September 1996. Their son Geoff was born on 13 October 1944, and Julian on
10 August 1946.
At the end of the war, Hubert was posted to Natal Command HQ to sort out the
leases on privately-owned properties all over Natal which had been commandeered
for military use early in the war. He completed this task in December 1947, at
which time he held the rank of captain.
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Obituaries
In January 1948 he joined Standard Yoke and Timber Mills, which his father
had bought ten years earlier. After his father's death in 1956 he became chairman
and joint managing director with his brother Fritz. He held this position until the
end of August 1984, when his family sold the business and he retired. It was in this
period that Hubert and Meg bought 'The Huts' at Claridge, and they moved there
in December 1958.
During his years at Standard Yoke, Hubert was involved with many outside
organisations. One might have expected that on his retirement at 70 years of age he
would begin to take life a little easier. On the contrary a Fordyce at the bottom
of the Polly Shortts of his life, he looked up, shortened his stride and maintained
his pace! The many business executives amongst his friends usually checked
Hubert's diary first when setting up an appointment.
Hubert was a great believer in organised industry and commerce. He was active
in the Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Industries from 1948 and became a member of
the first post-war executive committee when it was established in 1953. He was
president of the Chamber in 1957 and 1958, and was given its highest honour
Honorary Life Vice Presidency ~ in 1984. He continued as a member of the
Chamber of Commerce and Industry's executive council and its city affairs
committee, until his death. The Chamber staff said of him: 'Hubert was one of the
Chamber people most popular with the staff because of his gracious and
considerate manner, and his lovely sense of humour. He had the gift of making
people feel good about themselves.'
Horses and the Royal Agricultural Society were both very close to his heart. He
joined the Society in 1948 when the annual shows resumed after World War 2, and
was actively involved ever since. He served on the committees for Commerce and
Industry and Arena Displays, was the longest-serving member of the Horse Section
committee, and chairman of the Show Jumping sub-committee. He was the longest
serving member of the Executive Committee, was vice president and elected
Honorary Life Vice President on 16th October 1980. He visited the Society's
offices the day before his a<:cident, and the RAS staff said of him: 'He was
probably the most caring and devoted of all the committee members. He was
always ready to give assistance and support, in both business and personal matters.
The affairs of the Society and the happiness of the staff were of equal importance
to him.'
During all that period he himself took part in equestrian sport (where both his
sons excelled, too) and was prepared to use his talents at all levels. He was an
international show jumping judge, was past chairman and past president of the
Natal Horse Society and the S.A. National Equestrian Federation respectively.
Hubert was involved with Cowan House prep school from its very early days
when it was sti 11 situated at Mountain Rise, and was instrumental in finding the
land at Mount Michael where the school moved in 1964. He succeded Professor
Burchell as chainnan of the board of governors until 1983, remained an ordinary
board member, and attended what turned out to be his last meeting on 9 March
1999.
Hubert was one of the prime movers in the founding of the Association of
Private Schools, later to become the Independent Schools Council (lSC). At that
Obituaries
105
time private schools were under severe threat, fighting for their survival against a
government antagonistic to them and wishing in fact to destroy them, or at least
completely control them by draconian legislation. It was essential for the private
schools in South Africa to form a united front against these threats, and Hubert was
to champion this cause from 1973 for the next 26 years, seeing the Association
grow from small beginnings into an influential body representing 290 schools, now
a recognised and respected participant in national educational matters. In
recognition of his outstanding service he was the first person to be made an
Honorary Life Member of the ISC's national executive.
The Rotary Club of Pietermaritzburg nominated Hubert for its Vocational
Service Award for his outstanding contribution to the community of the city; and
on 4 October 1988 the City of Pietermaritzburg in its 150th anniversary year
entered the name of Hubert Ralph von Klemperer in the Civic Honours Register
' ... for active and unselfish involvement in many community and public services
aimed at benefiting the City and the community.'
His record is remarkable. What makes it perhaps unique is that much of it was
achieved after Hubert's official retirement in 1984 at the age of 70. He is the
perfect example of how to stay healthy and young in heart and mind.
Hubert once told me that he didn't excel in ball games because he had poor
timing. We may consider that his timing let him down on Wednesday 16 March
1999 when he fell from his horse and sustained what turned out to be a fatal injury.
At the time his health and mind were in excellent shape, he was happy, and he and
his loving companion Bobby had just booked their flights for a trip to England and
the United States later this year. Timing is one thing, but planning, organising
ability and influence at the highest level were Hubert's bread and butter and on
this occasion he excelled himself. He did not ever want to leave Claridge, and he
had a horror of becoming infirm or disabled. So what did he do? He left us on a
glorious day, whilst riding his horse in the fields around Claridge, in the company
of a lovely young lady. What more could a man of 84 wish for?
TONY HESP
(This is a modified version of the eulogy spoken at the
memorial service for Hubert von Klemperer on 26th March 1999.)
Nates and Queries
The French connection
We are indebted to Mrs Fleur Webb for this photographic record of a remarkable
occasion -- the investiture by the French Ambassador to South Africa of Ms Glenn
Flanagan as a Chevalier de I 'Ordre National du Merit e. Ms Flanagan is a lecturer in
French at the Technikon Natal's Pietennaritzburg campus, and the award was
conferred in recognition of her work in promoting French culture and touri sm In
KwaZulu-Natal.
Her imaginative initiatives
since 1995 have re sulted in a far
greater awareness, among French
and South A frican people, of the
many links between this province
and France. The tourism potential
of these links is increasingly
recognised , as for example at
places associated with the Prince
Imperial of France and his mother
the Empress Eugenie.
The investiture ceremony took
place at Uqweqwe near Nqutu on
Sunday 6 June 1999, at the
memorial site of the death of the
Prince Imperial during the Anglo
Zulu War of 1879. Members of the
French Foreign Legion, flown in
from the Comores, attended the
Ambassador. Ms Flanagan ' s efforts
have raised funds from French,
British and South African sources
for a skills training programme to
benefit people living near that site,
and for improved facilities at the
nearby rural school , including
On the day of her investiture into the Order, Glenn
Fl anagan. Chevalier de I 'Ordre l\'ational du
Merite. flanked by legionnaires. stands at th e
sponsorship for a teacher of
monument marking the place of Prince Louis
French, so that the area may Napoleon' s death.
107 Notes and Queries
produce recruits for the tourism industry who, in particular, will be able to speak to
French tourists in French.
Further recognition of her researches was accorded to Ms Flanagan four months
later, on 22 October. She accompanied a rather special party of French tourists who
attended the re-enactment of the Battle of Talana outside Dundee. They were
members of the Dauphine-Savoie regional association of the 'Institute of Higher
Learning of the French National Defence Force'. After the day's events, with no
earlier hint of what was to come, the leader of the party, General Broussaud,
presented the Institute's medal to Glenn Flanagan.
JOHN DEANE
At the Ambassador's ceremony on 6 June 1999. soidlers of the French Foreign Legion
watch a display by Zulu warriors. As they \\'ere performing a purely ceremonial duty in
a friendly country. the French soldiers did not carry arms.
Closure of the OK Bazaars
At the end of December 1998 the OK Bazaars shop at 160 Church Street, at the
corner of Chapel Street closed, marking the end of an era for one of
Pietennaritzburg's most prominent trading sites.
Those who knew the OK Bazaars in its heyday will remember it as a fascinating
shop where one could buy almost anything small for not very much. In fact when it
first started in Johannesburg in 1927 it had only three prices - threepence, sixpence
and a shilling! The OK Bazaars was an instant success and soon spread throughout
South Africa and the Rhodesias. It came to Pietennaritzburg in 1935, opening on the
corner of Church and Timber streets, where The Hub now is.
It soon acquired several other trading groups, including the Sowden and Stoddart
chain, which had a long-established business at 160 Church St. Sowden and Stoddart
(their shop was generally known as 'Sowden's' for short) continued trading as a
108 Notes and Queries
separate entity in the city until 1960, when it was closed and the OK Bazaars took
over its site. In 1962, the beginning of the 'depression years' in Pietermaritzburg's
architecture, the attractive old shop was demolished and replaced with the present
und!stinguished construction.
Number 160 Church St has long been one of the city's prime trading sites. During
the 1860s it was owned by the Natal Bank. In 1868 John Jex Chapman in partnership
with Henry Griffin started a grocery business there, known as 'The Golden Canister',
which later sold drapery, haberdashery and hosiery as well as groceries. The shop's
name derived from a large gold-painted canister on top of the building. According to
legend, during the Anglo-Zulu War a group of military officers, having drunk rather
more than was good for them, removed the canister and kicked it down Church St. It
was never replaced.
Apparently Chapman retired from the business in about 1886. It was carried on by
Henry Griffin's son William Henry, the firm being re-named W.H. Griffin & Co., as
which it continued until 1914. An advertisement in 1899 describes the firm as
"drapers, milliners, clothiers, furnishers, grocers, tea and coffee dealers and flour and
sugar merchants'. When W.H. Griffin closed in 1914 the shop was taken over by
E.G. Mendenhall, a general dealer.
Sowden and Stoddart opened at 160 Church St in 1921 and bought the property
from Mr Mendenhall's estate in 1927. 'Sowden's' soon established itself as one of
the best so-called 'Ladies' Shops' in Pietermaritzburg, with a wide range of the very
latest in drapery, millinery and dresses. It was the sole agent for Gossard corsets, then
an indispensable item of every lady's attire. Later Sowden's also sold electric stoves
and refrigerators.
When the OK Bazaars took over in 1960 the property was registered in the name
of Federated Holdings, OK's property-holding subsidiary. In ]993 the property was
acquired by the Anglican Church, whose cathedral and associated buildings stand on
the adjoining site. This proved to be a poor investment, as the OK Bazaars was soon
in tenninal decline. The large building, with two stories and a basement, has now
stood unoccupied for a year.
DA VID BUCKLEY
A new monument at Isandlwana
One of the more obvious symptoms of the skewedness of social perceptions in South
Africa's past has been that monuments tended to commemorate only white
participation in the notable events of history. In December 1998 and January 1999
two of the more obvious omissions in KwaZulu-Natal were corrected, with the
dedication of monuments to the Zulu who fought the Boers at the Ncome River, or
Blood River (which is not a translation of the Zulu name) in ] 838 and the Brutish at
Isandlwana in 1879.
The Isandlwana monument is the work of sculptor Gert Swart. Unlike
conventional war memorials, it invites the visitor to engage actively with it. Three
steps lead on to a low circular plinth, on which lies a bronze representation of an
i ~ i q u , the carved necklace awarded to warriors who had proved themselves in battle.
The man who was granted the title to wear the iziqu would carve it himself. There
is an example in the museum at Rorke's Drift - thorns are interspersed with small
109 Notes and Queries
carved wooden pegs. Swart uses the same motif, but adds five lion claws, symbolic of
Zulu kingship.
The plinth itself is of concrete edged with stonework. Let into its front arc at
intervals are four niches, each with a bronze headrest. The monument is set at, and
approached from, the side of the battlefield towards the Nqutu Plateau, from where
the Zulu forces launched their assault on the British camp. The lion claws face the
Nqutu heights, directly away from the Isandlwana mountain itself. and the necklace
curves away towards the battle field to left and right, much as the 'horns' of the Zulu
military formation. In this configuration, the royal claws stand for the 'chest' of the
Zulu force the solid phalanx of experienced and hardened men who drove forward
to the centre of the battle while the younger and faster soldiers of the horns ran round
to outflank the foe.
The approaching viewer thus sees the mountain beyond and framed by the
monument, just as the advancing Zulu veteran saw the enemy camp as the left and
right horns swept around it. In the battle, the right horn skirted behind Isandlwana,
closing in behind the British camp and all but cutting off the last fugitives. On the
monument the right arc of the necklace pushes impassably against the edge of the
plinth. On the left, however, there is room to pass around the thorns and beads of the
necklace and come into the centre of it.
The claws and thorns convey the belligerence mixed with apprehension which the
advancing warrior must have felt. Once within the circlet the necklace becomes a
protection, and a calmness descends. Swart intends the viewer to mount on to the
plinth, experience the agitation of the soldier in battle, and pass into the tranquil
centre to reflect on the nature of violence and of peace.
The Isandlwana battlefield is now a protected reserve. While the bronze sculpture
was cast at a foundry near Lidgetton in the Natal midlands, the plinth and its
stonework were made by local craftsmen, and the monument itself was paid for by the
Zulu people through the sale of cattle by the amakhosi. The dedication of the
monument by King Zwelithini was the focal point of events on 21 January 1999 to
mark the 120th anniversary of the battle.
M.H. COMRIE
Making light of war
War provides children (except those unfortunate enough to be caught up in the real
fighting) with inspiration for their fantasy games. The writer remembers being in a
group of South African students in Vienna in the 1950s when they were accosted by
an elderly Austrian who informed them that fifty years earlier he and his friends had
'played [their] games about the Boers and the British'. The conflicts of the adult
world find an echo in games of 'cowboys and Indians', 'Yankees and Confederates',
. British and Germans', and all the rest. Even when fathers and brothers are away at
the front, the small fry tend to find the whole idea of war exciting, and can deal with
it in a light-hearted way. Comic papers give it their own particular treatment,
pandering to children's taste, and perhaps also doing their bit to keep morale high.
South African newspapers kept thl! drama and agony of the Anglo-Boer War
constantly before their readers; but for another kind of publication, the war in South
Africa was a rich source ofjuvenile humour. Week after week papers such as the Big
110 Notes and Queries
Budget and Chips contained comic strips in which ragamutlin characters like Weary
Willy, Tired Tim, 'Airy Alf and Bouncing Billy outwitted and outfought equally
outrageous caricatures of Boer soldiers and generals. The illustration opposite is an
example. The text under the pictures may be too small to be easily legible in this
reproduction, but a sample wi 11 suffice. When the two British heroes have blown up
Kruger and Joubert by filling their meerschaums with explosive, the narrative ends:
'BANG! and two figures went up like the price of coals in winter. "It is dem Alf
unt Beely vunts more," howled Kruger. But when the pals who were bolting with all
the Boer war plans heard the language used by Joubert, they sadly sighed, "Oh, wot a
norfully wicked man!" ,
Caricature, however, could be abandoned when not appropriate. Notice in the
following picture the 'straight', even flattering, depiction of Joseph Chamberlain, the
British Colonial Secretary, as he speaks to the two incredible scarecrows.
AIRY ALF AND BOUNCING BILLY
By all accounts papers like Big Budget and Chip;.; also had a considerable
unsophisticated adult readership!
JOHN DEANE
Heritage Day event
'Pietermaritzburg: some community perspectives' was the theme of the Heritage Day
Seminar held on 22 September J999 in the Colin Webb Hall on the campus of the
University of Natal, Pietemlaritzburg. The Seminar was co-hosted by the Alan Paton
Centre and the Pietermaritzburg Archives Repository, and its purpose was to bring to
I ight historical and community information on Pietermaritzburg, most especially of
areas which have been ignored in the past, such as Oribi Village, Sobantu,
Georgetown and Mountain Rise.
Notes and Queries
I11
Pala 10.
AIRY ALl' AND aoUNOINS SILLY a/vIE KRua_R AND JOUSIERT ANOTHER IIJU1lPRIa.
.. IIAIfGI-aoI ....... _wp ....... "' .... _. ~ n .. _AJl ..
- ~ ..,.-_.. . .._ .......... _ ....... _011 ... __
.-MuI ... ""'-- ... '-71..-, .... 00411 ...... .. 0,. _. -'"117 _J _I"
A hundred-year-old comic strip. This page of the Big Budget
(price: one penny) is referred to in 'Making light of war'.
112 Notes and Queries
An introductory talk was given by the chainnan, Professor Bill Guest. Professor Paul
Thompson read a paper on Oribi Village, dealing with the three successive communities
that have occupied the place when it was a Military Camp and Hospital. an emergency
housing scheme and a so-called Government Village. This was followed by a paper
entitled 'Sobantu Village, 1 920s-1950s: a historical perspective' by Sibongiseni Mkhize
of the Natal Museum. Jabulani Sithole followed on with a talk on his current research
topic, the 1980s conflict situation in Sobantu.
After tea, Yunus Bayat, a quantity surveyor, spoke about his family history, and
the detrimental effect that their forced removal from their premises in Church Street
to Mountain Rise had on his family. He brought some interesting exhibits, such as his
grandfather'S scroll, turban and presentation gold watch. His grandfather Amod Bayat
in 1908 travelled with Gandhi and a delegation of four others to England to bring the
plight of the South African Indian community to the attention of the British
Government. The scroll thanks him for this act, amongst others. The watch bears the
inscription Presented to Amod Bayat by the Natal Indian Congress, October 3,
1926.' Mr Bayat senior was president of the Natal Indian Congress in 192 J.
These talks were followed by a slide presentation by Ismail Cassimjee, a local
architect, on the planning process in the future development of Pietennaritzburg.
Leonard Nkosi, a retired school principal, then spoke about the history of
Georgetown. The Seminar was attended by about 55 people, who contributed a
variety of interesting questions between papers.
JEWEL KOOPMAN
Urban decay
Pietennaritzburg has fallen on hard times. The structure that created and defined the
physical and economic development of the city has changed. The city is decaying,
brick by brick, being replaced by a transient, throw-away architecture and flagging
infonnal economies.
Lewis Mumford in a visionary paragraph captured the essence of a city. 'Cities
are a product of time. They are the molds in which men's lifetimes have cooled and
congealed, giving lasting shape, by way of art, to moments that would otherwise
vanish with the living and leave no means of renewal or wider participation behind
them. In the city, time becomes visible; buildings and monuments and public ways,
more open than the written record, more subject to the gaze of many men than the
scattered artefacts of the countryside, leave an imprint on the minds even of the
ignorant or the indifferent. Through the material fact of preservation, time challenges
time, time clashes with time: habits and values carry over beyond the living group,
streaking with different strata of time the character of any single generation. Layer
upon layer, past times preserve themselves in the city until life itself is finally
threatened with suffocation: then in sheer defense, modem man invents the museum.'
Is the museum the environment we want to create for Pietermaritzburg? A sterile
space that encourages hushed voices and best behaviour? This is not an appropriate
manner of re-use for a city that visibly challenged the adversity of the wilderness and
broke the backs of our forefathers, black and white.
113 Notes and Queries
The types of economy that defined the planning and character of the city have
changed. A trend towards decentralisation of business results in the once vibrant city
centre emptying, being replaced with runs of similar businesses and sub-economic
housing. The new city owners do not repair or replace the existing fabric. The way
people use the city has changed. Streets rather than buildings are now the focus.
Developers take the law into their own hands without recourse to official bodies.
Combating serious crime is seen as being more important than punishing
transgressions of land development ordinances. Prosecution is time-consuming and
costly. Local authorities are preoccupied with politics and redressing the injustices of
the past, thus neglecting to save the visible and tangible vestiges of the past.
Mumford comments: 'When the city ceases to be a symbol of art and order, it acts
in a negative fashion: it expresses and helps to make more universal the fact of
disintegration.' The Victorian vernacular of Pietermaritzburg is unique, but this fact
seems unimportant in the greater socio-economic and political melting-pot. But it is
an issue that people will take cognizance of once the first excitement of the new order
is over and the sensitive areas of urban living become important. The city in a
heritage context should be seen as a money-spinner, developing tourism and using
buildings for that purpose. This has been emphasised often, but there has been little
follow-up. Mumford again: 'Today we begin to see that the improvement of cities is
no matter for small one-sided reforms: the task of city design involves the vaster task
of rebuilding our civilisation.'
We need to revisit the initial conservation motives presented by Brian Bassett in
his 1982 report Cataloguing and Conservation in Pietermaritzburg, which identifies
the following reasons for conservation: 'Buildings and sites are part of a country's
cultural heritage. Their destruction is therefore a blow to the morale and identity of
any nation. Buildings and sites are three-dimensional documents of the past. They
therefore make the past more actual to us and aid our understanding of our history
and development, thus providing us with a firm base on which to plan the future.'
The way forward will be long and hard, and the effort needs support from everyone,
from the person in the street right up to those in local and provincial government.
DEBORAH WHELAN
Important collection of Zulu woodcarving
In 1997 the Natal Museum purchased a valuable collection of almqst 200 Zulu
woodcarvings from Professor Frank lolles - a former professor of German at the
University of Natal, and an expert on Zulu material culture. These items will shortly
be on temporary display and will complement the larger displays of African material
culture of the Natal Museum. The lolles collection includes four categories of
woodcarvings: meat platters (izithebe), headrests (isigqiki), milking pails
(amathunga) and spoons (izinkhezo). They were collected from a small area on either
side of the Izinyati (Buffalo) River between Msinga Top and the Mahlaba Mountain.
The relative remoteness of this region saved it from some of the political turmoil of
recent times and from the attentions of dealers collecting African tribal artefacts.
Professor lolles' main objective was to acquire household utensils that people were
willing to sell, and to establish who carved them by interviewing the owners and, as
114 Notes and Queries
far as possible, the carvers themselves. rt became apparent that there was sufficient
continuity of material culture to trace the family traditions of most of the carvers back
to the time of the Bambatha rebellion (1906) and in one or two cases even before this
period. This collection of Zulu woodcarvings is therefore one of the best provenanced
of its kind in the world and is a valuable research resource.
For much of the 19th century the Izinyati River formed a boundary between Natal
and the Kingdom of Zululand and there was traffic across it in both directions. In the
early part of the 20th century there was a movement of people from the lowlands
(Umvoti) into the mountainous area of Msinga and across the river to the Nqutu side.
It is not certain why they moved but in the I 940s some of the families moved back to
Umvoti in search of better pastures. Finally, in the apartheid years people expelled
fTom farms around Muden and Weenen were resettled there. Some stayed, others
moved to destinations further north. This history of ordinary people is reflected in the
wide variety of forms and decorative motifs of the artefacts they left behind. Because
much of the African local history of the 19th and even the 20th century has not been
recorded, we have to rely on artefacts such as these to reconstruct the past by
correlating styles with people's personal recollections and with the oral tradition and
then extrapolating the results to areas where the oral tradition fails. The feasibility of
this method has been demonstrated for beadwork patterns, and the Jolles collection
will now allow researchers to extend this method to woodcarvings. It therefore adds a
valuable new dimension to the history of the Zulu people of the Msinga area.
FRANS PRINS
National monuments and heritage sites
The National Monuments Council Report for the year ended 31 March 1998 lists six
new declarations of sites in KwaZulu-Natal. The following descriptions are taken
directly fTom the Report.
I. The Property with the Old Supreme Court thereon, in College Road,
Pietermaritzburg.
The history of the Old Supreme Court is inextricably linked to the legal system
as it applied to black South Africans in the colonial and union periods. It was
built as part of the system for the administration of customary law, which in the
present province of K waZulu-Natal provided that crimes exclusively involving
black people should be tried according to 'Native Law'. The structure was
probably built about 1898 when the Native High Court was reconstituted after
its abolition in 1895. It is a traditional Pietermaritzburg red-brick building and
typical of official architecture of the late I 890s. The building is H-shaped with
a central courtroom. Doors and door furniture are in the Edwardian idiom and
the floors have wide planking. Certain formal rooms have fine cast-iron
fireplaces with wooden surrounds. The courtroom has retained its teak
furnishings.
115 Notes and Queries
2. The Property with the historical house thereon at 131 Pietermaritz Street.
Pietermaritzburg
This house was built between 1893 and 1897 by G.J. Cundell. It has a tiled
roof with two unique stepped gables on the f a ~ a d e and three other gables on
the main roof. The verandahs on both levels have typical wrought-iron work
and timber balustrades. This fine late-Victorian red-brick residence is the last
in an almost uninterrupted row of Victorian houses, two of which have already
been declared as national monuments. The building is also a fine inner-city
asset.
3. The Property described as The 'Passive Resistance Site' on the corner of
Umbilo Road and Gale Street, Durban.
In 1946 the South African government passed the Asiatic Land Tenure and
Indian Representation Act, founded on separate residential areas for Indians
and some indirect representation in Parliament. As a protest against this Act the
Natal Indian Congress led by Or M. Naicker, with the support of the Transvaal
Indian Congress under Or Y. Dadoo, resolved to launch a second passive
resistance campaign (the first had been started by Mahatma Gandhi). They
declared that numbers of Indians were prepared to break the law and even
submit to arrest and punishment by occupying land denied to them by the Act.
These Indians began by camping on an unused piece of land at the corner of
Umbilo Road and Gale Street in Durban. Disturbances subsequently arose
through attacks on the Indians by groups of Europeans. This forced the police
to intervene, and it was on this site that almost 2 200 Indian men and women
were arrested. They were later brought to trial and imprisoned. Shortly
afterwards the [Indian Congress movement] joined hands with the African
National Congress. This ultimately led to the defiance campaign, and arrest and
banning of leaders of all races. This site therefore symbolises for Indians in
KwaZulu-Natal the start of the Passive Resistance Campaign of 1946-48.
4. The Property with the building known as 'The Residency' thereon, at 11-13
Wright Road, Ladysmith.
This house is a prototype of what might be termed the 'Ladysmith Vernacular'
a type of residence which became popular in Ladysmith around the turn of
the century. In construction it makes use of local materials. It consists of a
sturdy core of local bluestone (dolerite) and a large corrugated-iron roof which,
with its dormer vent, voluminous ceiling void and large verandahs on two
sides, is designed to prevent heat from penetrating the interior. 'The
Residency' is also characterised by typical Victorian fretwork detailing, three
fine chimneys and a gable vent. Internally the house boasts a fine cast-iron and
tile fireplace.
5. The Property with the building known as 'Ottawa House' there on, being Lot
2-193, Waterloo Extension No.IO, Inanda District.
This mansion forms part of an estate which was once the property of one of the
great 'sugar barons' of KwaZulu-Natal. Its first owner, A. Wilkinson, who
named the estate in remembrance of his Canadian wife's home, originally
planted the estate with sugar cane in 1861. It remained the property of the
116 Notes and Queries
Wilkinson family until 1926. The interior of Ottawa House shows
predominantly Arts and Crafts characteristics. A notable feature is the cast-iron
staircase, the only major stylistic contradiction in the interior. ...
6 The Umhlatuzana Rock Shelter, Camper down District.
This rock shelter is situated in a deep gorge between Pietermaritzburg and
Durban. It is well screened by vegetation, is 43 metres long and approximately
M'2 metres wide. The deposits in the floor of the rock shelter built up to a depth
of 2112 metres as a result of human occupation for long periods over the past
100 000 years. This rock shelter is of special importance because it is the only
known site in the eastern part of South Africa with evidence that there were
people living in this region continuously between 45 000 and 12000 years ago.
It was during this time that the gradual transition from the Middle Stone Age to
the Later Stone Age tradition took place. The detailed record of the long period
of occupation and the distinctive artefacts found at the Umhlatuzana rock
shelter have been vital for a better understanding of the development of the
Stone Age material culture in Southern Africa.
Book Reviews and Notices
THE PLOUGHSHARE OF WAR: The Origins of the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879
By RICHARD COPE
Pieternmritzburg, University of Natal Press, 1999. 282pp. iIIus. R95
Dr Cope points out in his preface that although the causes of the Anglo-Zulu war of
1879 have been considered in numerous chapters and parts of chapters in previous
publications. this is the first book on the subject. Does this then mean that something
new has been brought to the interpretation of the subject? The answer lies in the
exhaustive scope of his 30-year research, and the skill with which the background events
have been woven together to provide the setting which made it possible for Sir Bartle
Frere to force a war on a reluctant Zulu King, a reluctant British Cabinet and a reluctant
Colony of Natal. As Norman Etherington, one of the examiners of Cope's doctorate on
which this book is based, has written, it is too easy to blame Frere for causing the war,
and as a consequence, to overlook the deeper causes. Ploughshare does not do this.
A great deal of care has been taken in the planning of the book. The preface and
introduction are essential reading, concisely providing the reader with a template on
which the ensuing chapters are structured. The section on the historiography is
important. In examining Colin Webb's proposition that there have been three types of
explanation for the origins of the war, many of the themes which are to be considered
in detail later in the book, are introduced. Particular attention is given to the
evaluation of 'proletarianisation, an inescapable component of capitalist production'
as . part of the purpose of the confederation policy', and the introduction ends with
From de KiewieCs comment it appears ... that there is evidence of a
desire on their [the Victorians] part to facilitate the advance of capitalist
production. Perhaps this is why they acted as they did and why they felt
justified in doing so. Whether this is so can only be settled by an
examination of the available evidence. to which we must now turn.
This is a rather protracted turn, as we are first introduced to the political and
economic background of the Zulu Kingdom, Natal and the South African Republic
(ZAR) up to the mid-] 870s; the relations between Shepstone and Cetshwayo; the
ZAR-Zululand Border and the links and tensions involving those already
mentioned with Pedi and Swazi at a variety of levels. There is more. The Diamond
Fields in GriquaJand West, firearms to Natal, the Langalibalele affair, Shepstone's
visit to England to meet Carnarvon, the influence of Froude (who regretted the
abolition of slavery and favoured forced labour in South Africa) on Carnarvon, and
the posting of Wolseley to Natal. What Cope has established is that there existed a
118 Book Reviews and Notices
complex system in South Africa by 1875, in which no factor can be seen in isolation.
There is a high degree of interlinking of events, their contexts and the relevant
personalities and their persuasions. It is now that Wolseley sees that 'NataL .. is the
most dangerous point at present in the whole Colonial Empire' and argues for a
substantial increase in military force.
We get closer to Victorian attitudes with the consideration of Carnarvon and his
efforts to bring about confederation. Detailed as the coverage is, the reader is likely to
feel the need to refer back to the works of Clem Goodfellow, Robinson and
Gallagher, and de Kiewiet, to read more about the 'blunders' of 'little Carnarvon', to
quote Disraeli. Things did not go Carnarvon's way. Molteno refused to have anything
to do with the Cape Town conference of 1875, called by Carnarvon to discuss
confederation. The conference was moved to London in 1876 but was also a failure.
Yet Carnarvon insisted that the Transvaal, with its rich potential, had to be brought
under British control. The stage was set for its annexation, and it was declared British
territory by Shepstone on 12 April 1877.
We then see a shift in Shepstone's attitude towards Cetshwayo. Despite the lack
of evidence, Shepstone increasingly spread the word that the Zulu threat was real and
that the Zulu Kingdom had to come to an end. In this bellicose atmosphere, it is
almost with a sense of relief that we meet Bulwer. He was not, like Bishop Colenso,
an advocate of the Zu I u cause, but he refused to accept Shepstone' s opin ions. and was
determined to avoid war. Bulwer's Border Commission was approved by Frere with
the greatest reluctance and the cOlTespondence between Bulwer and Shepstone clearly
shows the latter's resentment at having his 'expert' interpretation of the situation
disputed.
Sir Bartle Frere is the major player in the final chapters of the book, which make
for totally absorbing reading. Cope presents a masterly analysis of the man, highly
regarded in important places, but driven by personal ambition to gamble his
reputation away. We are exposed to the thinking of Disraeli's cabinet and the
Colonial Office, much of which is referable to the definition of the book's quest, as
presented in the Introduction.
A recurrent theme of importance is that of timing. It took time for messages and
instructions to be relayed between Britain and South Africa. Frere played this to his
advantage to deliver the Ultimatum in disregard of Hicks Beach's telegram. The
possibility of war in Afghanistan and Russian intervention in eastern Europe arose at
the same time as the Colonial Office was considering the Border Commission report.
Frere's letter to Chelmsford indicating his awareness of the risk being taken in
forcing a war without home or local support was dated 22 January 1879 the day of
the Battle of Isandlwana.
The Epilogue and Conclusion are succint. They are also reassuring, in that so
much material has been presented in the book that it is not easy to keep track of the
main thematic trajectory. After reading this final chapter, I found it very useful to re
read much of the main body of the book.
During my five-year caretaking stint at Isandlwana I was frequently asked 'Why
did the British want to attack us?' An excellent question, which the diligent reader of
this most important book will be far better equipped to answer than I was then.
MIKE TAYLOR
119 Book Reviews and Notices
NOMSIMEKWANA OF EMKHAMBATHINI
Durban Local History Museums, Educational Pamphlet no. 2, 1999. 44pp. Price:
RIO. Obtainable from the Museum Shop at the Old Court House Museum, Aliwal St,
Durban 400 I (or fax 031-300 6308).
The history and bibliographical detail of this little publication cannot conveniently be
reflected in the above heading, and it is necessary at the outset to say something about
that. On 12 October 1939, in an interview with members of The Zulu Society, Chief
Somquba Mdluli of the Mkambathi (Table Mountain) district near Pietermaritzburg
related the story of his grandfather, Nomsimekwana, chief of the Mdluli, who died in
1901. The (Zulu) transcript of his account is among the papers of The Zulu Society in
the Pietermaritzburg Archive Repository. It has now been translated into English by
Sicelo Majola and Christopher Mchunu, edited by Robert Papini. and issued as a
booklet by the Durban Local History Museums.
The story of Nomsimekwana and his people was recorded in written form as long
ago as 1864, and is mentioned, among other places, in Bird's The Annals of Natal
(1888), Bryant's Olden Times in Zululand and Natal (1929), Mackeurtan's The
Cradle Days ql Natal (1930) and Lugg's Historic Natal and Zululand (1949).
Somquba Mdluli's narrative taps directly into family oral tradition, and provides a
useful comparison with other accounts. Its publication in translation now makes this
particular version easily accessible, after 60 years of obscurity.
Robert Papini's commentary examines briefly how this story, and other similar
ones from the same period (1820-40), have helped to create beliefs about the political
and economic dynamics of precolonial south-east Africa and the mfecane which are
now seriously questioned. In particular, he suggests a revision of the view that
cannibalism was widespread among the people displaced by the Shakan upheavals.
Nomsimekwana's story invites reconsideration of that particularly gruesome
strand in the history of this region. One of the most dramatic and memorable events in
the narrative is the young man's escape from a band of ama=imu (cannibals) by
jumping into a river pool and hiding under water among the reeds, despite the
presence of crocodiles and hippos. (To this day, the stretch of water near the
confluence of the Mpushini and Msunduzi rivers near Bishopstowe is known as
Nomsimekwana's Pool.)
In fact. during the 20 years covered by the narrative, and during the chieftainship
of Nomsimekwana's father Mcoseli, the Mdluli people endured one disaster after
another. They fled from Shaka's soldiers to Njasuti in the Drakensberg; incurred the
enmity of fellow-fugitive Matiwane of the Ngwane (who later had Mcoseli killed);
returned to Mkhambathi only to find bands of ama=imu in the area; moved north of
the Thukela to seek safety and protection, but in their impoverished state became
serfs; returned to Mkhambathi and endured some harsh treatment at the hands of the
newly-arrived Voortrekkers under their leader 'Potoiozi' (Pretorius); fled from
expected execution of Nomsimekwana himself in punishment for alleged complicity
in stock theft and settled at Embo; and finally after the Trekkers' control of Natal had
ended, were invited by the British to return once more to their ancestral lands.
Nomsimekwana's remaining 50 years of peaceful life in the Colony of Natal must
have been very different from the turbulent and dangerous years of his young
manhood.
120 Book Reviews and Notices
This booklet is a welcome addition to the historical record of the province. The
text of Somquba Mdluli's narrative makes readily accessible the particular oral
transmission of a biography colourful and interesting in itself. The commentary and
notes place it properly in context and contribute to a better understanding of
conditions in south-east Africa in the first four decades of the 19th century.
JOHN DEANE
1899: THE LONG MARCH HOME
A little-known incident in the AnglG-Boer War
by ELSABE BRINK
Cape Town, Kwela Books, 1999. 111 pp., illus., paperback, R90,00
If one of the positive aspects of commemorating a war is to dig deep and recognise
how extensively it touched the lives of ordinary people, then Elsabe Brink has
rendered the Anglo-Boer War a notable service. Furthennore, she has gone right to
the heart of the challenge facing historians of South Africa today, namely the linking
of indigenous and settler themes and the creation of a history in which differing
groups can find identity. The story of how John Sidney Marwick, the grandson of a
Byrne settler, who was born and raised in the most English colonial Natal village of
Richmond, walked with some 7 000 Zulus from Johannesburg to the safety of their
homes in Natal and Zululand at the outbreak of the war, is both moving in its
humanity and encouraging in its inclusivity.
As Natal Native Agent in the Transvaal, Marwick negotiated at length with the
Kruger government and the Department of Native Affairs to get the Natal black
workers displaced by mine closures back to their homes when it became clear that
war between Britain and the Boer Republics was drawing closer. With trains to Natal
almost at a standstill, his plan to walk them to Natal was eventually sanctioned on
condition they kept together and were marshalled. Hlobeni Buthelezi, a descendent of
a minister to Zulu King Mpande, offered to be head marshal and to collect suitable
men to assist him. On 6 October 1899 Marwick led the first 4 000 out of
Johannesburg and returned for the others. For ten days, over a distance of 400
kilometres, the 'march' moved forward: through Heidelberg and Standerton to
Charlestown on the Natal border; to Newcastle where some returned to their homes;
through Ingogo and Dannhauser to Hatting's Spruit where they were able to take a
train to the coast for I. Marwick arrived at Pietermaritzburg station on 16 October
and was met by the Secretary of Native Affairs, other dignitaries, his brother and
local people. This simple outline says nothing of the dangers they encountered and
the delicate diplomacy which underpinned the operation. Much of the time Marwick's
pony was given to the sick and struggling among the marchers. He had to parley with
General Piet Joubert and the Boer commandos waiting to invade Natal, who were
naturally alarmed at so large a black presence in the area. He had to ensure that
justice was done when the marchers bought provisions from storekeepers and fanners
along the way. He had to discipline the occasional marcher for theft and reckless
behaviour. Yet through it all a relationship of trust between Marwick and the 'gang',
as he called them, was sustained. Of him the Zulus said, 'Child of the Englishman,
but for whose presence none might brave the Boers'. They saluted him: 'Care for the
121 Book Reviews and Notices
dark race' and again, 'Gather the orphans of the Zulu'. (p. 68) Likewise, Marwick
was praised widely in Natal and Britain.
The author has garnered new and varied sources and built out this sometimes
forgotten story into an enthralling and noble tale. She is perhaps a little more partisan
than Peter Warwick in Black People and the South African War
(Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1983) who implies that Marwick was also ensuring that
Zulu taxes would reach Natal, and she is less inclined to highlight the unruly and
comical aspects of the march as does Thomas Pakenham in his brief account in The
Boer War (Johannesburg, Jonathan Ball, 1979). It is possibly not so much for
unearthing this story that the author should be commended as for the way she has
presented it. It represents a clear step forward in South African historical writing. The
juxtaposition of 'A childhood in the Zulu Kingdom' and 'A childhood in colonial
Natal' in Chapters I and:2 respectively gives equal place to the leading players in the
story, as does 'The Zulu men who went to the Witwatersrand' and 'The first Natal
Native Agent in Johannesburg' in Chapters 3 and 4. The anecdotal contributions of
Marwick's granddaughter are balanced by the author's appeal to Zulu descendants of
the march to come forward with information and stories which are bound to exist in
oral trad ition.
This is a book for everyone. It is written in a style that makes it accessible to
young readers and second language readers without sacrificing adult interest and
historical accuracy and referencing. It is illustrated with a wide range of
contemporary photographs and maps. The concept of 'the march', moreover, is bound
to have resonance in present-day South Africa; that it is not new and can be used in
different ways could be a salutary lesson in history for many.
In short, this is one of the most satisfactory books to emerge from the crop of
publications marking the War centenary. It demonstrates that history is
indeed society's memory and that none of it should ever be regarded as irrelevant.
SYLVIA VIETZEN
THE SMALLER MAMMALS OF KWAZULU-NATAL
By PETER TAYLOR
Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press, 1999. 146pp. rllus. RIIS
This is an excellently-written and well-produced book which is a must for all those
with an interest in small mammals and the fauna of the region -- whether they are
amateurs or professional conservation biologists and specialists. It covers a wide
range of common and lesser-known species, from bats and insectivores to rodents and
bushbabies, which comprise the faunally diverse communities in the sub-region.
Some are pests of forestry and agriculture, others are exceedingly rare. These
delightful small mammals inhabit the varied habitats found in the province, ranging
from the sand forest of the coastal plain to the Drakensberg mountains, and from the
semi-arid northern interior to the steamy south coast.
The book is well illustrated with good quality photographs, clear maps and
informative tables. The double-column A4 format is appreciated and the sub-headings
enable quick reference to information. It is well referenced and right up to date,
though I would have liked a more informative Contents page. The text is authoritative
122 Book Reviews and Notices
and economical. but easy to read, and contains masses of valuable information. Nine
new species are included in the species accounts. Some general synopsis of the higher
taxa would have been useful, especially for the lay person. The identification keys are
from Meester, and work well.
The book is very good value for money, and the sequel, which will focus on the
bats of KwaZulu-Natal, is eagerly awaited.
MIKE PERRIN
BATTLES OF THE ANGLO-BOER WAR (series)
By McFadden, Torlage, Watt, Bourquin & Gillings
Randburg, Ravan Press, 1999. A series of seven booklets covering the battles of
Talana and Elandslaagte, the Siege of Ladysmith, Colenso and Spioenkop,
Vaalkrantz and Thukela Heights. R45 per booklet or R280 for the boxed set of seven.
The famous battlefields of Northern Natal have long been places of pilgrimage. The
1979 and 1981 Centenary Commemorations of Isandlwana, Rorke's Drift and
Majuba proved a gold mine for academics, authors, publishers, military history
guides, museum curators, hoteliers and tourists alike. The current centennial
celebrations throughout South Africa of the Second Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902
bid fair to rival that success, for new publications are flowing from the presses, and
book launches are a constant temptation. The publications committee of ABW 100
KwaZulu-Natal, through Ravan Press, have produced this series of handbooks to the
Natal campaign with the tourist in mind.
Pi Igrimage was a perilous adventure in former times. In the 1950s an eminent
couple of Pretoria professors dedicated some weeks to a detailed and chronological
field study of the seven key engagements of the Natal campaign. Armed with
compasses and binoculars they plunged into uncharted territory, heroically battling
ever onwards and upwards with a heavy suitcase. It contained holy writ Amery's
authoritative and weighty Times History olthe War in South Africa. One of the
professors died tragically shortly afterwards - of battle fatigue! He would have been
spared had the Ravan Press publications been available neat, portable, reliable and
eminently practical.
The authors of the series are experts in their field. Familiar with the terrain,
steeped in the human tragedy of the war, they are acclaimed specialist guides on the
'Battlefield Route'. Pam McFadden has made the Pyrrhic British victories of Talana
and Elandslaagte her own; Gilbert Torlage was the original custodian of Spioenkop,
indeed its saviour; Steve Watt's painstaking and meticulous knowledge is awesome,
just as the reputations of 'Ziggie' Bourquin, the doyen of them all, and of Ken
Gillings for scrupulous accuracy and empathy are unquestioned. Their accounts are
marked by admirable clarity and brevity.
Each book follows the same format a clear route map marking the battle sites,
a modest preface emphasising the Battle Books as field guides, and an introduction
that neatly places each battle in the context of the overall strategy of the campaign.
The detailed accounts of the action are succint and digestible, an easy read on the
battlefield or in bed that night, and enlivened by apt photos and sketches from the
collection of the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Museum Service. A final delight are the
Book Reviews and Notices
fine maps specially commissioned from the Cartographic Unit of the University of
Natal in Pietermaritzburg that follow lists of forces engaged, artillery employed,
casualties suffered and decorations won. The series is a mine of reliable information
and expert testimony in manageable form (a mere 45 pages), in print legible to old
eyes, and of negligible bulk.
The Battle Books make no claim to literary flair or to controversial theory. That is
left to the authors they recommend Ruari Chisholm's brilliant Ladysmifh, Kenneth
Griftith's Thank God we kept the flag flying and Thomas Pakenham's masterly The
Boer War. It all serves to whet the appetite of the passing visitor.
SHEILA HENDERSON
SEVEN MONTHS UNDER BOER RULE
By Gerard C. Bai ley
Printed and published by R.A. Bums & Co. (Pty) Ltd, 4 Kabel Rd, Avon Industrial
Sites, Dundee, South Africa 3000. Limited edition, 1999. Available from the Talana
Museum, Dundee, or from R.A. Burns & Co. RI 00
Hot off the presses to meet the deadline of the Anglo-Boer South African War
Centenary Commemoration, this handsome small volume is a limited privately
published edition. Hardbacked, bound in red leatherette, boldly blocked in gold and
impeccably printed, it is a unique piece of rare Africana.
At the outbreak of war in October 1899, the Revd Chilton Bailey was Vicar of St
James Anglican Church in Dundee. Evacuating his young wife, who was expecting
their first child, the vicar chose to stay behind in the town and minister to his depleted
flock. After the Battle of Talana he had the heartrending task of consoling the dying
and burying them in his churchyard and on lonely Talana hillside, amongst them
General Sir William Penn Symons.
Part memoir, part diary, Bailey's account of the battle, of the annexation of
'Meyersdorp' and the welcome relief of the town in June 1900 is the only civilian
account of the Boer occupation of Northern Natal so far published. It contains much
fresh detail. Humour and deft touches of characterisation brighten an otherwise
sombre theme.
There is a great poignancy to the story. In June 1900 Mrs Bailey returned with a
baby girl from her forced exile in Durban. The young couple at the vicarage made
themselves well loved in the busy little mining village as they nurtured their flock,
counselling the bereaved and comforting the returning refugees, traumatised by the
devastation of their looted homes and businesses.
Tragically, the Revd Mr Bailey fell victim to typhoid. In December 1900
schoolchildren were marched through the streets to St James to attend his funeral and
burial next to General Penn Symons. (In old age some of them remembered with
sadness the tragic black-clad widow standing forlornly beside the grave, her baby girl
in her arms.)
In its infant days Talana Museum traced that baby girl to England. Unmarried,
and with few close relations, Miss Bailey agreed to send the Museum a copy of her
father's diary, with permission to publish, and the promise that on her death the
original would be willed to St James Church.
124 Book Reviews and Notices
It is fitting that 100 years after the events he described in Dundee, Revd Chilton
Bailey's diary should have been printed in the town by a former owner of the historic
Northern Natal Courier, Mr R.A. Bums. Mr Bums had the honour of presenting a
copy to HRH The Duke of Kent at the launch of the KwaZulu-Natal Commemoration
on 10 October the very date the diary commenced. Serious collectors could not do
better than acquire a copy before the limited first edition is exhausted. The Bailey
Diary is one of a kind. As promised, the original is in the keeping of St James
Church, Dundee.
SHEILA HENDERSON
Select List ofRecent
KwaZulu-Natal Publications
Conservation offannland in KwaZulu-Natal, compiled by the KwaZulu-Natal Dept
of Agriculture. Pietermaritzburg: KwaZulu-Natal Dept of Agriculture, 1998
ISBN 1-86871-029-7
DARTNALL, Elizabeth, and others. Is deinstitutionalisation appropriate?: discharge
potential and service needs o.lpsychiatric inpatients in KwaZulu-Natal and the
Eastern Cape, South Africa.
ISBN 1-919743-40-5
DELL, Elizabeth, editor. Evocations ofthe child:fertilityfigures (?lthe Southern
African region. Cape Town: Human and Rousseau, 1998
ISBN 0-798 1-3830-0
DENNIS, P h i l l i p e ~ Mlotshwa, Thulani and Mukuka, George, editors. The Casspir
and the Cross: voices ofblack clergy in the Natal midland'). Pietennaritzburg:
Cluster Publications, 1999
ISBN 1-875053-17-4
DERWENT, Sue. Zulu. Cape Town: Struik, 1998
ISBN 1-86872-082-9
DIXON, C.M. The Siege ofLadysmith. Pietermaritzburg: Oribi Books, 1999
ISBN 0-9584300-2-0
DODDS, Glen Lyndon. The Zulu and Matabele warrior nations. London: Anns and
Annour Press, 1999
ENGELBRECHT, Bushie, and Schnehage, Mice!. A Christmas to remember.
HalfWay House: Maskew Miller, Longman, 1999
ISBN 0-636-04212-X
FREED, Lynn. The mirror. London: Random House, 1999.
[A novel about life in colonial Durban]
GANDHI, Meena. Audit of perinatal mortality and acute maternal morbidity in
Northern KwaZulu Natal using the Perinatal Problem Identitication Program.
Durban: Health Systems Trust, 1999
ISBN 1-919743-43-X
GRANT, Rina, and Thomas, Val. Sappi tree spOiling: KwaZulu-Natal coast and
midlands. Johannesburg: Jacana Education, 1998
ISBN 1-874955-51-4
126
Select List KwaZulu-,Natal Publications
GUY, Rob (ed). The naming <?lHodgson 's Peaks and Underberg District's
Beginnings. Underberg: The Underberg Farmers' Association, 1999
ISBN 0-620-24586-7
HALL, Darrell. Halt! Action/ront.': with Colonel Long al Colenso. Florida: Covos
Day Books, 1999
ISBN 0-620-24112-8 Hardcover reprint. First published 1994
HARBER, Mary. Who will care/or the children?: social policy implications for the
care andwe!lare ofchildren ailected b.v HI VIA IDS in KwaZulu-Natal. Durban:
School of Development Studies, University of Natal, 1999 (Research Report
No. 17)
ISBN 1-86840-3\4-9
HARLEY, Anne, and Fotheringham, Romy. AFRA : 20 years in the land rights
struggle, 1979-1999.
ISBN 0-620-24257-4
HIGGINSON, Craig. Embodied laughter. London: Minerva, 1998
ISBN 0-7541-0039-1 (A novel about schooJdays at Michaelhouse)
ILLMAN, Shirley. IlIman's English Zulu dictionary: a basic guide English
Zulu vocabulary and phrases. Umhlanga Rocks: the Author, 1998
ISBN 0-620-22978-0
JONES, A.W. Born 10 be a queen: Queensburgh. Durban: the Author, 1998
KAIGHIN, Brian. A diary ofthe siege qjLadysmith. Ladysmith: Royal Hotel, \999
KNIGHT, lan. Great Zulu battles, 1838-/906. London: Arms and Armour Press, 1998
ISBN \-85409-390-8
KNIGHT, Ian. Great Zulu commanders. London: Arms and armour press, 1999
ISBN 1-85409-389-4
LABAND, John, and Thompson, Paul. The battles oflsandhlwana and Rorke 's Drfji.
Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 1999
ISBN 0-86980-95\-2
MACDONALD, Donald. How we kept the jlagjlying: the story ofthe Siege of
Ladysmith. Roodepoort: Covos Books, 1999
ISBN 0-620-22342-7 [Reprint of 1900 edition.]
MARTINS, J.H. Income and expenditure patterns ofhouseholds in the Durban
Metropolitan area. Pretoria: Bureau of Market Research, University of South
Africa, 1999. (Research report No. 267/1999)
ISBN \-919789-11-1
MOORE, Jean. Eradicating invading alien plants in KwaZulu-Natal: a field guide.
3rd ed. Howick: Share-Net 1999
ISBN 1-874891-67-2
MURUGAN, Pushpam. The lotus blossoms on the Eastern Vlei. Durban: the Author,
1999
NGCOBO, Lauretta. And the:v didn't die: Afterword by MJ. Daymond.
Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 1999
282 pp. Originally published in 1990. R89,00
PHASWANA, Nkhelebeni. Language and the common matriculation examination
policy in KwaZulu-Natal. Durban: Education Policy Unit (Natal), 1999
ISBN 1-86840-315-7
127
Select List ofRecent KwaZulu-Natal Publications
PRETORIUS, Fransjohan, and Torlage, Gilbert (eds.). The Hall Handbook ofthe
Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902 by Major Darrell Hall. Pietermaritzburg:
University of Natal Press, 1999.
ISBN 0-8698-04931 (This is a posthumous publication. See Natalia 26 p. 84for
the obituary of Major Hall. Editor.)
REYHER, Rebecca Hourwich. Zulu woman: the lfre ofChrist in a Sib(va: Historical
introduction by Marcia Wright; literary afterword by Liz Gunner.
Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 1999.228 pp. R85,00
Restructuring ofnursing education in KtvaZulu-Natal: financial implications of
rationalising nursing education campuses. Durban: Health Systems Trust, 1999
ISBN 1-919743-44-8
RICHARDS, Maureen. Into the millenium: Anglo-Boer War centenary diary: today
and 100 years ago. Pietermaritzburg: Shuter and Shooter, 1999
ISBN 0-7960-1493-0
SCOTT, GilIian. Ardmore: an African discovery. VIaeberg: Femwood Press, 1998
ISBN 1-874950-39-3 [Ardmore Ceramic Arts Studio]
D.E. Collection and evaluation ofrunqlf water quality from a disused
feedlot in KwaZulu-Natal. Pretoria: Water Research Commission, J 998 (WRC
Report No. 498/1/98)
ISBN 1-86845-498-3
SIMPSON, Phyl. Bravo Hotel calling. Howick: Brevitas, 1997
ISBN 1-874976-20-1
STEYN, E., and Prophet, J. Bibliography ofthe Anglo-Boer War. Bloemfontein: War
Museum, 1999. 300 pp.
ISBN 1-874979-16-2
STRAUSS, Gertrud, and Murran, Marita, editors. New SI. Michael's Milne SI:
rededication, 1998. Durban: St. Michael's - Milne St Congregation, 1998
ISBN 0-620-22623-4
THOMAS, Val, and Grant, Rina. Sappi tree spotting: Highveld and the Drakensberg.
Johannesburg: Jacana Education, 1998
ISBN 1-874955-50-6
TORLAGE, Gilbert, and Watt, Steve. A guide to the Anglo-Boer War sites of
KwaZulu-Natal. Randburg: Ravan Press, 1999
ISBN 0-86975-520-X
V AN JAARSVELD, Albert. Mtunzini: a history from the earliest times to 1995;
translated by Maurice Bennett. Vo!. I. Mtunzini: the Author, 1998
[Available from P.O. Box 292, Mtunzini, 3867]
WOODLEY, Valerie. On the highjlats earliest pioneers in the ffighjlatsllxopo
urea Natal. Hightlats: Maxann Books, 1984, (1999 reprint)
ISBN 0-620-08080-9
Notes on Contributors
BRENDAN BELL is the director of the Tatham Gallery, Pietennaritzburg.
DR BILL BIZLEY is a senior lecturer in the Department of English in the University
of Natal.
DAVID BUCKLEY is the special collections librarian at the Natal Society Library.
MORA Y COMRIE is vice-rector of a college of education.
JOHN OEANE is a retired teacher, college principal and education department
official.
CHRIS ELLlS is a medical practitioner.
DR COLlN GARDNER is fonner professor of English in the University of Natal, and
a member of the Pietennaritzburg-Msunduzi Transitional Local Council.
DR BILL GUEST is professor in the department of Historical Studies in the
University of Natal.
SHEILA HENDERSON is a historian, and chairwoman of the board of trustees of the
Talana Museum in Dundee, and of the advisory board of the KwaZulu-Natal
Provincial Museum Service.
TONY HESP is an industrialist and businessman.
JEWEL KOOPMAN is the manuscript librarian at the Alan Paton Centre, University
of Natal.
OR MIKE PERRIN is professor of zoology in the University of Natal.
FRANS PRINS is head of the Department of Historical Anthropology at the Natal
Museum.
SUSAN SMYTHE is a specialist remedial teacher.
SHELAGH SPENCER is a researcher and author in the field of Natal settler
biography.
MIKE TAYLOR is a cultural officer in charge of compliance matters in the heritage
body Amafa aKwazulu-Natali.
OR SYLVIA VIETZEN is a historian, and a retired teacher and school principal.
DR JOHN VINCENT is head of the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Museum Service.
SHONA WALLIS recently retired as director of the Natal Society Library.
DEBORAH WHELAN is an architect and works as a cultural officer in the heritage
body Amafa aKwazulu-Natali.