The first war between the Transvaal and England lasted from December 1880 to March 1881. It was caused by the refusal of the Transvaal Boers to submit to British authority as proclaimed by Shepstone in 1877. After a period of passive resistance and repeated attempts by Paul Kruger and other leaders to have the annexation revoked, it was resolved at a national meeting on 13th December 1880 at Paardekraal to restore the Republic. Its affairs would be managed by a triumvirate consisting of Paul Kruger, Piet Joubert and M. W. Pretorius. Notice of the resolution was given to the British administration in Pretoria as well as to the governments of the Orange Free State, Natal and the Cape Colony.

The immediate cause of an armed conflict with the British authorities was an attempt by Gen. Piet Cronje to have a proclamation announcing the restoration of the Republic printed at Potchefstroom. The appearance of armed Boers in the main street and on the church square, where part of the British garrison under Capt. M. J. Clarke had entrenched itself in the magistrate’s office, ended in shooting. Hostilities followed also in other places in the Transvaal.

The British garrisons in Potchefstroom, Pretoria, Rustenburg, Lydenburg and Marabastad were surrounded and besieged. The Boer strategy was to isolate the British units in the Transvaal and to prevent their being reinforced from elsewhere. A detachment advancing from Wakkerstroom to Pretoria was forced to dig in at Standerton. Another detachment of the 94th Regt. under Col. P. R. Anstruther was cut to pieces on 20th December at Bronkhorstspruit by a commando led by Comdt. Franc Joubert. British losses were extraordinarily heavy: half of the force was killed and wounded and the rest taken prisoner. Immediately afterwards the main body of the Boers, led by Gen. Piet Joubert, occupied Laing’s Nek, the passage from Natal to the Transvaal. Meanwhile Kruger was conducting the affairs of state from Heidelberg, the temporary capital.

Britain’s first and foremost task was to relieve the besieged garrisons. Only by achieving this could the resistance of the Boers be broken. So Major General Sir George Pomeroy Colley led an expeditionary force from Natal with the purpose of breaking the Boer positions at Laing’s Nek. He had at his disposal soldiers from the zest, 58th and Both Regiments, and was well provided with rockets and artillery, arms which his opponents lacked altogether. Initially his force consisted of hardly more than 1,000 men. On 28 January 1881 Coney launched a frontal attack on the Boer positions from his camp at Mount Prospect. Despite heavy protective fire by cannon and rockets and heroic charges by infantry and cavalry, he could not succeed in driving away his opponents, all of them excellent sharpshooters. Once more the losses were heavy, and the defenders were not coming off lightly either.

Joubert was not willing to remain on the defensive, for large British reinforcements were on their way from the south and the Boers would not be able to withstand such superior numbers for a long period. He therefore sent a commando under Gen. Nicolaas Smit to the rear of Coney’s positions in order to obstruct his line of communications with Newcastle. The British commander immediately realised the danger and marched against Smit. A fierce battle took place on 8th February at Skuinshoogte, near Ingogo. The battle lasted the whole of the afternoon amid a heavy thunderstorm, and under the protection of darkness Colley was obliged to withdraw from the battlefield. Once again the Boer sharpshooters were successful and Coney lost a large part of his force. It was clear that the bravery of the British soldiers was no match for the Transvaalers’ tactics and use of the terrain.

While the war continued on the Natal border and the British administration in the Transvaal had come to a complete standstill, Paul Kruger, supported by Pres. J. H. Brand of the Orange Free State, attempted to come to an agreement with London and end the war. He counted on the sympathy of the rest of South Africa and on the active support of the Free State, many of whose citizens were threatening to join the cause of the Transvaalers. In England, too, influential persons were seeking a peaceful solution of the Transvaal problem, and Gladstone’s Liberal government, inclined to big concessions, would accept any reasonable proposal which suited the interests of Britain. As early as January Kruger had already made a peace offer based on the restoration of the independence of the Transvaal subject to some sort of British authority. On 12th February Kruger once more appealed to Coney from Laing’s Nek to make an end to the struggle and offered to withdraw from the Boer position pending an impartial inquiry by a royal commission. Coney wired the contents of the letter to London and the British government agreed to negotiate on that basis. Colley, however, delayed his reply unnecessarily, so that it reached Kruger only at the end of the month, after his return to Heidelberg.

Meanwhile Coney decided to outflank the Boers by means of a bold act and to avenge his defeats. With a hand-picked band he occupied the top of Majuba, the hill which dominated Joubert’s positions, on 26th February.

This forced the Boers to launch an immediate counter-attack. A storming party hastily collected and, led by Nicolaas Smit, scaled the hill and from close quarters opened overwhelming fire on the enemy. The demoralised soldiers fled, Coney himself was killed, and the survivors entrenched themselves in their camp at Mount Prospect, where they awaited the arrival of reinforcements under Sir Evelyn Wood.

The victory at Majuba echoed throughout the country and stirred up national feeling among the Afrikaners in the whole of South Africa. President Brand was hardly able to restrain his people any longer from entering the war, and the government in London began to fear a general uprising. The Gladstone cabinet was magnanimous and willing to enter into negotiations for peace, as proposed by Kruger.

On 6th March Joubert and Wood agreed to a provisional armistice and the British government recognised the Boer leaders as representatives of their people. Kruger arrived shortly afterwards at the border and Brand hastened there as mediator. The negotiations were then continued. Kruger, faithfully assisted by Dr. E. J. P. Jorissen, had to use all his diplomatic skill to ensure that Britain would agree in writing to the restoration of freedom to the Transvaal even before the Royal Commission began its inquiry. Eventually an agreement was reached in terms of which Britain practically undertook to cede the country within six months, and on their part the Boer leaders accepted limited independence under British suzerainty and agreed to disband their armed force. The agreement was ratified on 23rd March 1881.

The major task of the Royal Commission was to determine the borders of the ‘Transvaal State’, as the republic was now called, and the Boers were obliged to agree to the loss of considerable territory along the south-western border. The final treaty was incorporated into the Pretoria Convention, which was signed on 3rd August 1881. On 8th August the country was formally transferred to the Boer representatives and the British flag was replaced by the Vierkleur, the green, red, white and blue flag of the Transvaal.

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Dr. WILMOT BLYDEN, at the age of nineteen, became first professor in the Liberia College, then an explorer, and later a Minister of State and a diplomatic representative of Liberia in England and France. Also served the British Sierra Leone Government. Deeply versed in English, French, German, Italian, Arabic, Latin, Hebrew and Greek. Author of many books. Personal friends included such great Englishmen as Milner, Gladstone, etc.

Currie, Sir Donald

Sir Donald CURRIE was born in Greenock, Scotland on the 17th September 1825. He was the third son in a family of ten children born to James CURRIE (1797 – 1851), a barber, and Elizabeth MARTIN (1798 – 1839). He had four sisters and five brothers. Donald was an infant when his parents moved to Belfast. There he attended Belfast Royal Academy, the oldest school in Belfast and where one of the Houses was later named after him.At the age of 14, Donald started working at uncle’s sugar refining business – Hoyle, Martin & Co. in Greenock. This was not what he wanted and looking at his brother James, who worked as an engineer, he left and in 1844 joined the Cunard Steamship Company as a clerk. His career progressed so well that from 1849 to 1854 he established the company’s offices in Le Havre, Paris, Bremen and Antwerp. In 1854 he returned to its Liverpool head office. In 1862 he resigned and started his own North Sea shipping enterprise. He also founded the Castle Shipping Line which operated between Liverpool and Calcutta. By 1863 he had four new ships: the Stirling Castle, Roslin Castle, Warwick Castle and the Pembroke Castle. The next year two more ships joined the fleet: the Kenilworth Castle and the Arundel Castle. The Tantallon Castle joined the fleet in 1865 and was followed by the Carnarvon Castle (1867), Carisbrooke (1868) and the first steamship, the Dover Castle (1872).

In 1864 he made London the capital port for his ships. The London ship repair yards of the Castle Shipping Line, under the trading name of Donald Currie & Co., were founded on the banks of the River Lea. Later he switched from sail to steam and entered the Cape trade with sailings from Dartmouth, the first vessel to enter the service being the Icelandic which departed on the 23rd January 1872. His enterprise proved popular and soon the Union Steamship Company, which had enjoyed a monopoly, lost a large share of its traffic to the new line. He introduced fixed schedules, regardless of how little cargo was booked. Donald’s ships were in competition with the ships that had the Royal Mail run, as those ships were given precedence at ports. The first ship that Donald owned (instead of chartered) to do the Cape run was the Walmer Castle. It departed from Dartmouth and called at Bordeaux before arriving at the Cape in October 1872. In May 1873 the Windsor Castle reduced the passage time to the Cape to 23 days.

In 1876 the Cape mail contract was divided between the two lines and keen competition led to quicker voyages. Donald created the Castle Mail Packet Company with offices located at the Castle Shipping Line headquarters. Anderson & Murison were the Cape Town agents for Castle Mail Packet Co. with James MURISON being given Power of Attorney for all its business. He was assisted by Thomas Ekins FULLER, who later became Sir Thomas FULLER, High Commissioner for the Cape Colony, in London. Captain James lived in Sea Point for many years and was Cape Town ‘s most famous nautical man referred to as “the figurehead of Table Mountain, a prince among men” and “public-spirited, incorruptible and generous to a degree”. He first saw Table Bay in 1838, when he arrived from Scotland as mate aboard the Sir William Heathcote, a small brig that later traded along the coast, between Cape Town and Knysna. He later became a partner in the shipping firm of Anderson & Murison. He died at home in Sea Point in 1885.

Donald became quite involved in South African issues. On the 10th April 1875, President Thomas Francois BURGERS left Cape Town on the Walmer Castle on his way to England. The Transvaal Vierkleur was hoisted on that voyage when BURGERS celebrated his birthday. He met Donald at Plymouth and was hosted by him in London, where Donald assisted with the negotiations on the building of a railway to Delagoa Bay. In 1876 President Johannes (Jan) Hendrikus BRAND of the Orange Free State was also hosted by Donald. Donald helped to negotiate the diamond-fields compensation, receiving the C.M.G. and being thanked by the Orange Free State Volksraad. In 1877 and 1878 the Transvaal delegates of the first and second deputation which went to London to protest against the British annexation of the Transvaal turned to Donald for introductions to the Colonial Office. Stephanus Johannes Paulus KRUGER first met William Ewart GLADSTONE on one of Donald’s steamers during a Thames trip to Gravesend. Donald was also an active supporter of the return of the Transvaal to the Boers.

A model of the Dunvegan Castle was presented to President KRUGER by Sir Donald Currie. The model was first exhibited at the entrance of the State Museum of the South African Republic. It is now housed at Kruger House Museum in Pretoria.

The first news of the 1879 Battle of Isandlwana in the Zulu War was given to the London government through Donald’s shipping line. At that time there was no cable between England and South Africa. The news was sent by a Castle liner to St Vincent, and telegraphed from there to Donald. By diverting the outward mail ships, he helped the British government to telegraph faster instructions to St Vincent for conveyance by mail. This saving of time helped prevent the annihilation of the British garrison at Eshowe.

In 1881 Donald received the K.C.M.G. He was now a shipping magnate and a recognized authority on merchant shipping legislation, being responsible for important amendments to the Merchant Shipping Act of 1876.
He was a close friend of GLADSTONE. After an unsuccessful attempt at Greenock in 1878, in 1880 he entered Parliament as a Liberal member for Perthshire. In 1885 his political allegiance changed over the Irish question and, until his retirement from active politics in 1900, he was a Liberal Unionist supporting Joseph CHAMBERLAIN. He backed the British annexation of Damaraland, where he had business interests, forming a company to exploit the Otavi copper mine and St Lucia bay, which was annexed at the end of 1885.

As a Member of Parliament, he came up with the idea of converting fast merchant ships into armed merchant cruisers. This eventually led to the use of merchant ships in time of war. The Kinfauns Castle, built in 1879, was done so with this in mind.
In 1886-87, he made his first tour of South Africa. His business interests by then included diamonds and gold, and in 1888 he was one of the original directors of De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd.

In 1891 the Dunottar Castle brought a British rugby team on a tour of South Africa. Sir Donald had given them a golden trophy to be used for internal competition. At the end of the tour the British team presented the cup to Griqualand West, the province they believed had produced the best performance of the tour. Sir Donald also donated a trophy for cricket competitions.

When the second Anglo-Boer War broke out, his fast steamers were in high demand. In 1900 the Dunottar Castle carried General BULLER and 1,500 British soldiers to the Anglo-Boer War. Sir Donald did not share the pro-Boer views of his son-in-law, Percy Alport MOLTENO (married to Elizabeth), on the causes of hostilities. Percy had joined his father-in-law’s business and on Sir Donald’s death in 1909, he inherited a large proportion of the estate.

It was Percy who started South Africa ‘s fruit exports to England, when in February 1892, the first 14 crates of peaches from the Stellenbosch district arrived at Covent Gardens. As manager Castle Mail Packets, Percy ensured that the ships had cold storage facilities. The first peaches, bearing the label “Cape Peaches”, were transported aboard the Drummond Castle which departed from Cape Town on the 13th January 1892.

When the Cape mail contract came up for renewal in late 1899, it was decided to award the contract to one shipping line. Instead of the Castle Shipping Line (1862 – 1900) and the Union Line (1792 – 1868) bidding for it on their own, Sir Donald proposed a merger of the two lines. On the 8th March 1900, the Union Castle Mail Steamship Company Ltd. was registered. The reception to celebrate the merger was held aboard the Dunottar Castle.

During a visit to Cape Town, Sir Donald saw the Cape Town Highlanders parading in full uniform. He was so impressed that he asked to meet the Officer Commanding. He acquired a Highland stag to lead the regiment. The stag, named Donald, was stabled at regiment’s headquarters in Buitenkant Street and looked after by a keeper, Private McDONALD. Sir Donald was made a life member of the regiment and on his departure a Guard of Honour was formed as he boarded the ship back to England.

In 1893 Sir Donald is recorded as having given a cheque to the Poor Jews Temporary Shelter in London. This was one of many cheques received from both the Castle and Union Lines. The Shelter served as a temporary residence for many Jews who made their way to South Africa as immigrants in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Sir Donald also made a donation in 1906 when the Shelter moved into a new building.

In 1893 the Union Steamship Company opened its own hotel in Cape Town, The Grand in Strand Street (demolished in 1973). Six years later, on the 6th March 1899, Sir Donald’s Castle Steamship Company opened a first class hotel on the Mount Nelson estate in Gardens. It was designed by English architects and managed at first by a Swiss, Emil CATHREIN. The Mount Nelson attracted an exclusive clientele. During the Anglo-Boer War it was the unofficial headquarters of the British Army and was often referred to as “Helots’ Rest”. Today it is more commonly known as Nellie or the Pink Lady, due to its famous” Mount Nelson ‘s Blush” paint which was first mixed for the hotel in the 1920s. The hotel has an interesting collection of memorabilia from the days of the Union Castle Line.

The present-day Centre for the Book is the finest Edwardian building in Cape Town. It was built just before WWI for the University of the Cape of Good Hope, on land donated by Willem HIDDINGH who also gave money, along with money from Sir Donald Currie. Both men are commemorated by bas-relief portrait busts in the entrance hall. The building was sod to the State in 1932 and became the Cape Archives Depot until they moved out in February 1990. The building was proclaimed a National Monument in 1990.

In 1908 his health began to fail. He died at Manor House, Sidmouth, Devon on the 13th April 1909 and was buried at Fortingall, Perthshire. A sculptured cross of granite, ten feet in height, marks his grave. A marble bust of Sir Donald is at Dunkeld Cathedral in Scotland. He paid for the cathedral’s restoration work in 1908, in gratitude to the minister’s daughter, who had nursed him through a serious illness.

He was married to Margaret MILLER, daughter of J. MILLER of Ardencraig. They had three daughters. A year after his death, his daughters donated £25,000 to the University of the Cape of Good Hope. A bronze plaque, with a relief profile, was placed in the entrance hall of the former building of the University to commemorate this gift.

Sir Donald acquired estates in Scotland and collected Turner paintings. Churches, universities and the city of Belfast benefited from his generous spirit. In 1880 he was awarded the Fothergill gold medal by the Royal Society of Arts. He received the G.C.M.G. in 1897. In 1906 the University of Edinburgh conferred an honorary LL.D. degree on him, and he was granted the freedom of the city of Belfast. He endowed at his old school, Belfast Royal Academy, the school’s most prestigious scholarship known as the Sir Donald Currie Scholarship.

For many years, it was Sir Donald’s ships that brought mail, cargo, immigrants and visitors to South Africa. Many South Africans have fond memories of sailing on his ships or watching them while in port. Shipping advertisements in England and South Africa stated that they provided cheap steerage and third class passenger fares. The other shipping companies that specialised in passengers and cargo to Cape Town or dropped off passengers in Cape Town while their ships were en route to New Zealand or Australia could not offer cheaper rates. Between 1891 and 1900 the Union Line had 12 new ships, each capable of carrying about 800 third class passengers and about 400 in steerage. The Castle Line, at the same time, had 24 new ships, many of them capable of carrying between 100 and 150 third class passengers with several hundred in steerage. In the late 1880s the Board of Trade reported that there were over 16,000 passengers travelling to African ports.

The “Year Book and Guide to Southern Africa” was compiled by the Union-Castle Mail Steamship Company from 1893 to 1967. In 1950 it was split into two volumes, one being the “Year Book and Guide to East Africa”. The books were published by Robert Hale Ltd., London, and edited by A. Gordon-Brown.

The Union Castle ships sailed between England and South Africa until 1977. On the 24th October 1977 the last mail ship, with passengers, left Cape Town for Southampton. The Southampton Castle was given the honour of doing the last run. Capetonians were used to seeing the mail ships, affectionately known as Lavender Ladies (for its lavender hulls), arriving in port, mostly on a Wednesday from England. There used to be an “Ocean Post Office” in Cape Town with its own postmark. Other postmarks that related to these mail ships included “Posted at Sea” and “Too late – ship sailed”.

References:
Dictionary of South African Biography
The British Pro-Boers: 1877-1902, by Arthur Davey, Tafelberg 1978
Mail ships of the Union Castle Line, by C.J. Harris and Brian D. Ingpen, Fernwood Press, 1994
Under Lions Head: Early days at Green Point and Sea Point, by Marischal Murray, A.A. Balkema 1964
The Journal of Lt.-Col. John Scott (Cape Town Highlanders), published in the SA Military History Journal, Vol 1 No 5
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Currie
Kruger House Museum : http://www.nfi.org.za/KM/khindex.htm
Article researched and written by Anne Lehmkuhl, June 2007

In the early days of the settlement at the Cape people of note were buried inside church buildings. Provision for a place of worship was at once made inside the Castle. Consequently the Rev. Joan van Arckel was laid to rest at that particular spot in the unfinished Castle in Jan. 1666. Only a fortnight earlier he himself had officiated at the laying of one of the four foundation stones of the new defence structure. A few months later the wife of Commander Zacharias Wagenaer was buried in the same ground; likewise Commander Pieter Hackius, who died on 30th November 1671. By 1678 the little wooden church inside the Castle proved too small, and when a new site was selected provision was made for a cemetery immediately outside the church, but the custom of burials inside the building continued. The whole piece of ground where the Groote Kerk and its adjacent office building now stand was enclosed by a strong wall. People were buried on this site before the completion of the church building. The first to be buried there was the Rev. Petrus Hulsenaar, who died on 15th December 1677 and was laid to rest where the church was to be built. The bodies of those who were buried in the wooden church inside the Castle were reinterred here in a common grave. After that a fee equivalent to about R12 was charged for a grave inside the church, as against R1.00 for a burial-place in the churchyard.

The church building was completed in 1703, and the first governor buried inside its walls was Louis van Assenburgh, who died on Sunday, 27th December 1711. The following year ex-Governor Simon van der Stel died on 24th June and was buried inside the church; a memorial was put up behind the pulpit. He was followed by several notable persons, all buried inside the building: Governor Maurits Pasques de Chavonnes, whose death occurred on 8th September 1724; Governor Pieter Gijsbert Noodt (died 23rd April 1729); the wife of Governor Jan de la Fontaine (June 1730), Governor Adriaan van Kervel (19th September 1737) and Governor elect Pieter, Baron van Reede, who died at sea on the way out and was buried in the church on 16th April 1773. The last of the Governors to be buried in the Groote Kerk was Ryk Tulbagh. Although his death occurred on 11th August 1771, the burial was postponed 17th August to enable country folk to attend the funeral of the `Father' of the people. Some memorial tablets and escutcheons can still be seen at the Groote Kerk, but most disappeared during rebuilding operations, including that of Simon van der Stel. The escutcheon- of Baron Pieter van Reede is still to be seen on the outside wall of the enlarged building near the original steeple. Another conspicuous tablet, but of a much later date, is that of Chief Justice Sir John Truter and Lady Truter, who died in 1845 and 1849 respectively and were buried in the churchyard a few years after the reconstruction. It is believed that the first Jan Hendrik Hofineyr in South Africa, who was superintendent of De Schuur and died in 1805, lies buried in the little cemetery still preserved at Groote Schuur, but it is impossible to identify his grave.

Notable Huguenot personalities are buried in Huguenot cemeteries at French Hoek, La Motte and Dal Josafat. A historic Jewish cemetery has been preserved in Woodstock, while many notable figures lie buried in the cemeteries at Mowbray and Woltemade. The Cape Malay community at all times took a pride in the graves of their leaders who died at the Cape. Apart from the kramat at Faure where Sheik Yusuf lies buried, there are kramats on the slopes of Signal Hill, being tombs of Khordi Abdusalem, Tuan Said (Syed), Tuan Guru and Tuan Nurman. New structures were erected here in 1969.

Comdt. Tjaart van der Walt, 'the Lion-Heart', was buried in 1802 where he fell in battle against the Xhosa tribes in the hills at Cambria, a few km from the Gamtoos valley. Dr. John Philip of the London Missionary Society, who died in 1851, is buried near Hankey railway station in the Gamtoos valley, and with him his son William Enowy, who drowned on the day when his father's water scheme was officially opened. Frederik Cornelis Bezuidenhout, whose death in 1815 was the prelude to the Slachter's Nek Rebellion, lies buried on his farm on the upper reaches of the Baviaans River, near the Bedford-Tarka road. A significant number of British settlers and sons of the 1810 Settlers were killed in battle in the Frontier Wars. At least one had the place he was buried named after him – Bailie's Grave near Keiskammahoek in the Ciskei; Charles Bailie, son of Lt. John Bailie, the founder of East London, was killed here in the Sixth Frontier War. Settler cemeteries in various parts of the Eastern Province contain the graves of many leading pioneers.

At Keiskammahoek is Gaika's grave, proclaimed a national monument. He was the founder of the Gaika tribe and died in 1829. The grave of his son and successor, Sandile, killed in the Ninth Frontier War in 1878 and buried at Stutterheim, has been provided with a bronze inscription by the Historical Monuments Commission. In Durban, the cemetery of the Old Fort has been proclaimed a national monument along with the fort itself; also the grave of Lt. King on the B1uff (James Saunders King was one of the original settlers at Port Natal). The site was also proclaimed where a few Voortrekkers fell fighting against the British at Congella station.

In Zululand is Piet Retief's grave where he was buried, next to the other victims of the massacre, in 1839 in the present Babanango district by the Commando that avenged his death. Near by, on the battlefield of Italeni, European graves have been found recently by Dr. H. C. de Wet and farmers of the neighbourhood. Two graves, some distance away from the others, may possibly be those of Comdt. Piet Uys and his son Dirkie. The graves have as yet not been opened nor identified with any degree of certainty. In the immediate vicinity of Dingaan's Kraal, where Retief lies buried, the Historical Monuments Commission's bronze plaques protect several Zulu graves: Senzangakona, founder of the Zulu nation and father of Shaka, Dingaan, Mpande and Mageba – all in the district of Babanango. When Dinuzulu died near Middelburg (Tvl.) in 1913 his last wish was granted – to be buried with his fathers. His grave, like that of Senzangakona, has an inscription in the Zulu language only. The memorial to Shaka near Stanger has been proclaimed a national monument; also Mpande's kraal and grave in the Mahlabatini district. Cetewayo's kraal, also in Mahlabatini, has the Commission's plaque. Comdt. Hans de Lange's grave at Besters station near Ladysmith has been preserved.

In the Orange Free State the grave of Moroka, chief of the Seleka branch of the Barolong tribe near Thaba Nchu, has been provided with a bronze plaque. Of the Republican presidents three lie buried in Free State soil: J. P. Hoffman at Smithfield, J. H. Brand in the Old Cemetery at Bloemfontein, and M. T. Steyn at the foot of the National Women's Monument. President J. N. Boshof's grave is in the Old Cemetery at Pietermaritzburg, that of M. W. Pretorius in Potchefstroom, and F. W. Reitz at Woltemade in Cape Town. Gen. C. R. de Wet and the Rev. J. D. Kestell rest at the foot of the National Women's Monument, where the ashes of Emily Hobhouse are also preserved. Sarel Cilliers is buried at Doornkloof near Lindley.

Much of the early history of Kimberley can be read from tombstones in three old cemeteries: the Pioneers' cemetery; Du Toitspan cemetery, where the victims of the concentration camp (1901- 02) were laid to rest; and the Gladstone cemetery which contains the graves of Lt.-Col. N. Scott-Turner of the Black Watch, of George Labram, maker of `Long Cecil', and of those who fell during the siege of Kimberley at Fourteen Streams, Dronfield and Carter's Ridge.

Interest in Pretoria centres largely round the Heroes' Acre in the Old Cemetery in Church Street West where Paul Kruger was buried, and Andries Pretorius as well as President T. F. Burgers were reinterred in 1891 and 1895 respectively. The children of A. H. Potgieter refused the reinterment of their father and so he still rests where he died, at Schoemansdal in the Zoutpansberg. Of the Prime Ministers of the Union of South Africa, two lie in the Heroes' Acre, namely J. G. Strijdom and Dr. H. F. Verwoerd, while Gen. Louis Botha was buried in the same cemetery, but before a corner of it had come to be designated Heroes' Acre. Gen. J. B. M. Hertzog is buried on his farm Waterval in the Witbank district. Gen. J. C. Smuts was cremated and his ashes scattered on a koppie on his farm near Irene. Dr. Malan was laid to rest in the cemetery outside Stellenbosch, as well as the President elect, Dr. T. E. Donges. Dr. E. G. Jansen, Governor-General, was buried in the Heroes' Acre.

Of the Prime Ministers of the Cape Colony, Dr. L. S. Jameson died in-London, W: P. Schreiner in Wales, and T. C. Scanlan in Salisbury, while Cecil John Rhodes rests at World's View in the Matopos. The first Prime Minister, Sir John Molteno, lies in Claremont cemetery, Sir Thomas Upington at Maitland, Sir Gordon Sprigg at Mowbray; and John X. Merriman, though he died at Stellenbosch, was laid to rest in Maitland cemetery. J. H. Hofmeyr (`Onze Jan'), by whose grace the Prime Ministers ruled, is buried at Somerset West. Of the Prime Ministers of Natal, Sir Henry Binns, who died at Pietermaritzburg, was buried in the military cemetery, Durban. Natal's first Prime Minister, Sir John Robinson, lies in the Church of England cemetery in Durban; Sir Frederick Moor at Estcourt, Sir George Sutton at Howick, and C. J. Smythe at Nottingham Road. Sir Albert Hime died abroad. The only Prime Minister of the Orange River Colony (1907-10), Abraham Fischer, died in Cape Town and was buried at Maitland.

Of the Boer generals among the older generation, Piet Joubert was buried on his farm Rustfontein in Wakkerstroom, in accordance with his own request; Schalk Burger on his farm Goedgedacht in Lydenburg, Piet Cronje on his farm Mahemsvlei in Klerksdorp, and J. H. de la Rey in the Western Transvaal town Lichtenburg. Of the famous South African literary figures, Olive Schreiner, initially buried at Maitland, was reinterred on the summit of Buffelskop, near Cradock; Jan Lion Cachet and Totius (J. D. du Toit) at Potchefstroom, and Jan F. E. Celliers in the Old Cemetery, Pretoria; while C. Louis Leipoldt's ashes were interred on the Pakhuisberg in Clanwilliam. The co-founder of the Kruger National Park, Piet Grobler, was buried in the New Cemetery, Pretoria, and the best-known finance minister of the Union, N. C. Havenga, at his home town Fauresmith. Public-spirited communities as well as private families all over South Africa have at numerous places gone to great trouble to preserve the graves of pioneers and public figures. At Ohrigstad the tombstones of Voortrekker graves have been brought together in a concrete but in the form of an ox-wagon, the oldest stone being that of J. J. Burger, born at Stellenbosch, over 1 600 km away, in the 18th century.