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.

Do you want to know more about the 2nd Anglo Boer War?

PRINCE GWAYI TYAMZASHE was ! born at Blinkwater in the district of Fort Beaufort on the 22nd of January, 1844. He was the eldest son of Tyam. zashe; Tyamzashe, the son of Mejana, son of Oya, of the Rudulu clan, cornmonly known as the Mangwevu. Gwayi as a boy saw all the horrors of the early Kaffir Wars, and was with his mother, Nontsi, during the terrible Nongqause cattle-killing episode, while his father Tyamzashe was a head councillor at the King’s Court. At that time Sandile was the Paramount Chief of the Xosa Tribe.

After the great armed protest of the Xosas, under Sandile and his brother Anta, Gwayi and his parents became detached from the main fighting body and eventually fell into the hands of the missionaries at Dr. Love’s mission station-now known as Lovedale. The late Mr. Goven was then in charge of the mission and he soon induced the raw native fugitives to be converted. Govan actually went so far as to pay those natives who attended infant classes. Gwayi Tyamzashe liked these classes. He was followed by many other natives. The signs of progress moved quickly. Messrs. Smith and James Stewart came to Lovedale, and Gwayi and his friends soon found themselves on the highway to civilisation and education. At all times Lovedale was open to all classes of pupils, and Gwayi found himself rubbing shoulders with European pupils, amongst whom were William Henry Solomon (late Chief Justice of the Union of South Africa), his brother, Richard Solomon, Schreiner, Grimmer and others.

Soon Gwayi qualified as a teacher and taught for some years at Gqumahashe, a village just across the Tyumie River. Just at that time Tiyo Soga was reading for theology in Scotland. This caused Gwayi to leave teaching and return to Lovedale for theology. Before doing so, however, he went in for a University examination in which Latin, Greek and Hebrew were essential subjects. This examination was above the ordinary matriculation. It was a red-letter day at Lovedale when Gwayi Tyamzashe passed this examination; flags were hoisted and the day was proclaimed a exam holiday.

Gwayi completed his Theological Course in 1874 and was immediately called to the Diamond Fields. In 1884 Gwayi and his family, consisting of his wife and three children, James, Henry and Catherine, left Kimberley for the wild north-Zoutpansberg. His journey to that part of the country was a heart-breaking one; the story of which would fill a volume. Leaving Kimberley with two ox-wagons, several milch cows and a pair of horses, he slowly made his way north. There were no roads to speak of; the country was unexploed as yet; the drifts across the rivers were mere sluits and no bridges existed anywhere; the country was still wild, and, worst of all, the Dutchmen, who occupied the Transvaal, were hostile towards the black races. When Gwayi and his caravan arrived on the Witwatersrand-as Johannesburg was then called-he was arrested for having no ” pass.” He was handcuffed behind his back and hurried off to Pretoria in front of four fiery horses of the “Zarps” (Zuid Afrikaanse Republiek Poliese). His wife, however, hurried over to Pretoria and personally interviewed Oom Paul (President Paul Kruger) whereupon Gwayi was not only released, but also given a free pass to his destination.

At Zoutpansberg Gwayi Tyamzashe opened a number of mission stations which exist to this day. He lived at Zoutpansberg for six years, and on being called back to Kimberley, he returned to the Diamond Fields. It was, however, a different Gwayi that arrived at Kimberley. He was physically a mere shadow of the former Gwayi, owing to a relentless attack of asthma which he contracted in the damp and marshy country of the Zoutpansberg. He lingered for six years in Kimberley and died on the 25th October, 1896. Prior to his death he had a serious case against the European Church Union which culminated in victory for him in the Supreme Court at Capetown.

Before the Union of South Africa was established in 1910 each of the four Colonies had its own legislation on public holidays. That of the Cape Colony was promulgated in 1856, but was amended from time to time and after 1902 the calendar of holidays was as follows: New Year’s Day, King’s Birthday, Queen Victoria Day (24 May), Good Friday, Easter Monday, Whit Monday, Ascension Day, first Monday in October (‘Wiener’s Day’, instituted in 1889 and often so called after its parliamentary sponsor, Ludwig Wiener) and Christmas Day. ‘Second New Year’ (2 January) was celebrated, especially by the Coloured population, but was not an official holiday.

Natal, the other British colony, adopted the following holidays in 1901: New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Whit Monday, Victoria Day (24 May), Michaelmas (29 September), King’s Birthday (9 November, Edward V11) and Christmas Day. Previously 1 November, All Saints’ Day, was also a holiday in Natal.

The Orange Free State shortly before the Second Anglo-Boer War had the following list of holidays: New Year’s Day, 23 February (birthday of the State – signing of the Bloemfontein Convention), Good Friday, Easter Monday, Ascension Day, Whit Monday, State President’s Birthday, Dingaan’s Day (16 December) and Christmas Day.

In the Orange River Colony (1903-1910) 23 February was abolished and the President’s Birthday was replaced by King’s Birthday (9 November) while three new holidays were added: Victoria Day (24 May), Arbor Day (first Monday in August) and Boxing Day (26 December).

The Transvaal Republic at the time of the outbreak of the Second Anglo-Boer War observed the following list of public holidays: New Year’s Day, Majuba Day (27 February), Good Friday, Easter Monday, Ascension Day, Whit Monday, State President’s Birthday (10 October), Dingaan’s Day (16 December) and Christmas Day.

In the Transvaal Colony (1903-10) Majuba Day was replaced by Victoria Day (24 May) and the President’s Birthday by King’s Birthday (9 November), 16 December was retained as Dingaan’s Day, but Ascension Day was omitted and Arbor Day (first Monday in August) as well as Boxing Day were added.

Following the example of Europe, the First of May (‘Labour Day’) in practice was for a considerable time treated as a holiday in certain trades. Although the trade unions did their best to obtain official recognition for this day, it was never legalised. In the Cape, 2 January or ‘Second New Year’, as celebrated particularly by the Coloured community, was in practice treated as a public holiday by the closing of shops and private offices, but not of Government offices, since it was never recognised as a Union holiday. In terms of the Shop Hours ordinance (1930) it was recognised as a provincial holiday and shops, etc. were closed, even on 3 January whenever 2 January fell on a Sunday.

Unification made it essential to introduce a uniform calendar of holidays. The Public Holidays Act (No. 3 of 1910) which came into operation on 1 January 1911, provided for the following public holidays: New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Ascension Day, Victoria Day (24 May), Union Day (31 May), King’s Birthday (first Monday in August), First Monday in October, Dingaan’s Day (16 December), Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

On 7 April 1925 a committee of the House of Assembly was appointed for the purpose of introducing a more suitably arranged calendar of public holidays. The committee drafted a bill proposing the following amendments: Van Riebeeck Day (first Monday in March), May Day (first Monday in May), Union Day (first Monday in June), Empire Day (first Monday in August), Spring Day (first Monday in October), Voortrekker Day (16 December). Boxing Day was not recommended again. The bill was not, however, proceeded with.

On 28 April 1936 the House of Assembly once more appointed a Select Committee to revise the public holidays. The Committee recommended the following changes: Van Riebeeck Day (first Monday in March), Easter Monday (second Monday in April), Union Day (first Monday in June), King’s Birthday – Empire Day (first Monday in August), Commemoration Day (first Monday in October), Voortrekker Day (16 December), Labour Day (26 December). The recommendations of the two Committees of the House of Assembly indicate that they agreed only on New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday (in 1936 the second Monday of April was proposed), Ascension Day, Union Day (in 1925 and 1936 the first Monday in June was proposed) and Christmas Day.

Act No. 3 of 1910 remained unchanged until a third commission of inquiry was appointed in 1949, but this time it was not a parliamentary committee. It consisted of Dr. S. H. Pellissier (chairman), W. A. Campbell, Dr. E. Greyling, C. L. Henderson, Col. A. Y. St. Leger, Prof. H. B. Thom and Prof. J. C. van Rooy. The Commission obtained a great volume of oral and written evidence regarding holidays of three classes: religious days, days of historical or cultural significance, and days for relaxation. The main considerations were that certain days must have a content and significance for the nation and carry an edifying message; holidays of a religious and historic or cultural character should preferably fall on the exact dates of the events commemorated. To cause the least possible disruption, days not connected with specific dates should fall on Mondays and, furthermore, holidays should as far as possible be distributed evenly over the months of the year.

Days such as New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Ascension Day, Union Day, 16 and 25 December were accepted as more or less obvious holidays. Other days were extensively discussed and much evidence was led.

The evidence in favour of Van Riebeeck Day, 6 April, was overwhelming; Afrikaans- and English speaking people were in the main agreed on this day. Names also suggested were Founder’s Day and Settlers’ Day, but the vast majority were in favour of ‘Van Riebeeck Day’. The Commission recommended that King’s Birthday be transferred from the first Monday in August to the second Monday in July, since this day is not attached to any particular date and this would furthermore give a more even distribution. With respect to Settlers’ Day it was not possible to find a suitable historical date to fit both the 1820 British settlers and those of 1849-51 in Natal. For the sake of even distribution the first Monday in September was recommended.

Regarding Kruger Day, requests for the recognition of 10 October had frequently been put to the Government. Alternative names such as Heroes’ Day (which was already in use), Kruger-Steyn Day and Commemoration Day were recommended. Evidence given was preponderantly in favour of ‘Kruger Day’ although the Commission emphasised that it was not the intention to pay homage only to the memory of President Kruger, but rather that, since the day is associated with his birthday, Kruger ‘is to be regarded as the embodiment of Afrikaner heroes in general, so that hereby his birthday also becomes the proper day on which to remember other heroes who subscribed to the same view of life as Paul Kruger’.

While 16 December was accepted for obvious reasons, discussion centred entirely round the name of the day. It was felt that the formerly accepted name, Dingaan’s Day, conveyed the impression to the uninitiated that it involved esteem for Dingaan, or that it could rouse antipathy among the Bantu against the Whites. The name ‘Voortrekker Day’ was felt to be too vague, or to convey a sense of hero-worship of the Voortrekkers. ‘Day of the Covenant’ was therefore recommended, approved and introduced.

Empire Day (24 May) and the so-called ‘Wiener’s Day’ (first Monday in October) were omitted. The latter is of no import. Empire Day fell during May, a month already overloaded with holidays; furthermore, the Empire, from the South African point of view, was practically a thing of the past. Many witnesses, when questioned on this point, expressed the view that Empire Day had become an anachronism in South Africa and could be omitted, provided some other day was retained to symbolise the ties with other countries of the Commonwealth.

The Commission anticipated that the retention of King’s Birthday would meet the case. All the recommendations were accepted by Parliament and in the Public Holidays Act (No. 5 of 1952), which came into force on 1 April 1952, the following public holidays were laid down: New Year’s Day (1 January), Van Riebeeck Day (6 April), Good Friday, Easter Monday, Ascension Day, Union Day (31 May), King’s Birthday (second Monday in July), Settlers’ Day (first Monday in September), Kruger Day (10 October), Day of the Covenant (16 December), Christmas Day (25 December) and Boxing Day (26 December).

Effect was also given to the Commission’s recommendation that certain provisions of the Sunday observance acts should be applicable to Good Friday, Ascension Day, the Day of the Covenant and Christmas Day, in order to prevent undesirable practices on these days. A ban was placed on the organisation, direction or control, or participation in or attendance at horse or dog races or any public entertainment or contest where admission is paid for. This Act also applied to the territory of South-West Africa and Marion and Prince Edward Island.

After the coming of the Republic this Act was amended by Act No. 68 of 1961, which substituted Republic Day for Union Day, and Family Day for the Queen’s Birthday.

Women first played cricket in South Africa as early as 1920. In that year the Peninsula Girls’ School Cricket Union was formed. Twelve years later, in 1932, the Peninsula Ladies’ Cricket Council was formed and shortly afterwards in 1934 – they affiliated to the English Women’s Cricket Association. In those days the English Women’s Cricket Association was recognised as a world body.

In view of and thanks to the early enthusiasm for cricket in the Western Province, South Africa formed its own national body in 1953, namely the South Africa & Rhodesia Women’s Cricket Association, after a few enthusiasts had revived the game in the Transvaal and an interim committee under the chairmanship of Mr. Eric Rowan had done the spadework in forming of the national body since April 14th, 1952.

As early as 1947 Transvaal formed its own provincial association. Two Transvaal teams were sent to play against Rhodesia in 1950/1951.

The formation of the provincial associations was: 1934 – Western Province; 1947 – Southern Transvaal; 1950 – Border, Eastern Province, Natal, Northern Transvaal, Griqualand, Rhodesia and Orange Free State.

Whilst cricket had previously been played by girls in schools. It was officially introduced in the Transvaal by Shirley Carroll in the 1961/1962 season and the Schoolgirls Association was formed in that year. Natal followed suit and very recently Border and Western Province have a few staunch schools playing.

The presidents of the South African & Rhodesia Women’s Cricket Association since its formation have been:

February, 1953 to January, 1955 – Miss Jo Field
January, 1955 to January, 1957 – Miss Flo Adlard
January, 1957 to March 1967 – Miss Marjorie Robison
March, 1967 – Miss Shirley Carroll

As a starting point of women’s cricket one can almost legitimately take the fourteenth century.

From the miniatures reproduced in a Picard romance “The Romance of Alexander” the margins of which were illuminated circa 1344 by one Johan de Grise one of these illustrates the ancestress of women’s cricket to be a nun holding a ball. She is faced by a monk who brandishes a club.

Women used the round arm action first in the 1820′s. Christina Willes bowled the first round arm ball. To quote: “Christina Willes was sister to John’ Willes, Kentish squire and patron of all manly sports and now of immortal memory, since his tombstone stands engraved for all to see “He was the first to introduce round-armed bowling in cricket.” In appears that while Mr. Willes, keen cricketer that he was, was convalescing from an illness, he used to induce his sister to throw a ball at him for practice in the barn of his home at Tomford, near Canterbury. She did so – with a high-handed action that avoided entanglement in the voluminous skirts of the period.

He was so struck by her success that he forthwith adopted the style himself and devoted the remainder of his cricketing days to securing its recognition. But it was an uphill battle – the effort cost him his patience and cricket one of its most devoted adherents. In a famous match at Lord’s in 1822, playing for Kent against the M.C.C. – the story has often been told – he was no-balled by Noah Mann for bowling his newfangled stuff. He threw down the ball, jumped on his horse and rode away, out of Lord’s declaring he would never play again. Nor did he, though his sister’s invention was made law six years later.

1947 – Eileen Hurly hit the first recorded century in South Africa in her first league game at the age of thirteen.
1947 – First “unofficial” provincial games played when two Southern Transvaal teams played Rhodesia in Johannesburg.
1951 – The inaugural inter-provincial game was played between Western Province and Southern Transvaal at Liesbeek Park in Cape Town.
1952/1953 – First interprovincial tournament held in Bloemfontein.
1953 – Formation of the South Africa & Rhodesia Women’s Cricket Association.
1953/1954 – First recorded inter-provincial century by Eileen Hurley – 106 not out.
1953/1954 – First recorded hattrick (a double hat-trick) by Sheila Nefdt in Cape Town for Western Province.
1958 – The South African and Rhodesia Women’s Cricket Association president, Miss Marjorie Robison took the chair of the inaugural International Women’s Cricket Council conference in Australia, she herself becoming the president of the international body in 1963.

Back Row (left to right): Barbara Cairncross, Eleanor Lambert, Yvonne van Mentz, Lorna Ward.

Back Row (left to right): Barbara Cairncross, Eleanor Lambert, Yvonne van Mentz, Lorna Ward.
Middle Row: Jean McKenzie, Pam Hollett, Jennifer Gove
Front Row: Audrey Jackson, Sheila Nefdt, Marjory Robinson (manageress), Eileen Hurly, Jean McNaughton, Joy Irwin

1960 – First bowler recorded to take all ten wickets in a provincial tournament – Doris TenCate who took ten wickets for 26 runs and also scored 148 runs.
1960 – Selection of the first Springbok team B. Cairncross, J. Cove, P. Hollett, E. Hurley, J. Irwin, A. Jackson, E. Lambert, J. McNaughton, S. Nefdt, Y. von Mentz, L. Ward (Played in all four test matches against the touring English team)

Still playing in 1970. Further “caps” for the tour were: P. Klesser, D. Wood, B. Lang and M. Payne.
1960 – First international game in Port Elizabeth against English women’s cricket team.
1960 – First cricketing double-Springbok – Jean McNaughton (also a hockey Springbok at the time).
Jan., 1961 – First South African international century by Yvonne von Mentz – 105 not out in the fourth test against England, although Eileen Hurley in the first test ran out of partners at 96 not out. Result of the English tour – Three test matches drawn and one won by England.
1968/1969 – Dutch women’s cricket team toured South Africa when England was unable to fulfil fixtures at the last moment. The Springbok team was: S. Carroll, B. Clowes, E. Cohen, S. Edwards, J. Gove, C. Gildenhuys, E. Hurley* (Captain), S. Johnson (i), P. Lankenau, L. van der Maas (2), L. Ward*, G. Williamson. (Whilst this was a full Springbok team, only half colours were awarded in view of the brevity of the tour.) (*also members of the 1960 Springbok team), ((i) – injured in the second test and replaced by (2).

Result of the Dutch tour – All test matches won outright by South Africa.

Jennifer Grove 150 not out against Netherlands in 1969

The “Simon Trophy” was presented to Southern Transvaal Association by Tilly Mary Simon to hand over to the South African Association as soon as this was formed and to be competed for at inter-provincial cricket tournaments. This trophy is competed for annually by provincial teams, as in the men’s Currie Cup, the winners of the trophy thus far being:
1952 Western Province
1953 Western Province
1954 Western Province
1955 Southern Transvaal
1956 Natal
1957 Eastern Province
1958 Southern Transvaal
1959 Southern Transvaal
1960 Natal
1961 Not presented in view of the English tour
1962 Southern Transvaal
1963 Eastern Province
1964 Natal
1965 Natal
1966 Southern Transvaal
1967 Natal
1968 Southern Transvaal
1969 Southern Transvaal
1970 Southern Transvaal

Executive 1970

CARROLL, SHIRLEY PATRICIA

Carroll Shirley Patricia

Shirley was born in Durban, the daughter of Mr. Patrick J. Carroll. She was trained overseas in physical education, but now has her own business. She belongs to the Jesters Club and when there’s time she swims, plays tennis, rides and listens to classical music and the operas. She first attained provincial colours when she represented Southern Transvaal in 1962 and Springbok colours in the 1968/69 season when she played in all tests against Holland. She represented South Africa as delegate at the International Cricket Council in New Zealand in 1969. Shirley played county cricket in England before coming to South Africa. Within the first few months of her arrival in this country she was asked to “do something” about cricket in schools as she was the one who had pointed out how important this media was for adult cricket. She accepted this challenge and as a result her brainchild, the Southern Transvaal Schoolgirls Association, was formed in 1961; and by 1970 eleven schools were competing a league. In 1962 she was elected to the Southern Transvaal executive committee and in 1964 became chairman of the association.

The year 1967 saw her elected as president of the South Africa and Rhodesian Women’s Cricket Association and she was instrumental in bringing the Dutch Women’s Touring Team to South Africa. In 1970 she visited England for an important meeting with the English Women’s Cricket Association.

LINTON-WALLS, PAMELA RUTH

Pamela Ruth Linton Walls

Pamela is now in her third two-year term of office as the secretary of the South Africa and Rhodesia Women’s Cricket Association. Before 1967 she acted as secretary of the Southern Transvaal Women’s Cricket Association. She was born on the 3rd February, 1938 in Plumstead, Cape Town, and is the daughter of Mr. Leonard Linton-Walls. She attended the Central High School, Krugersdorp, and is at present secretary to a managing director. She is a founder member of the Jesters Women’s Cricket Club and also played hockey. She attained provincial colours when she was included in the Transvaal “B” Cricket Team. She acted as Manager/Liaison Officer during the tour of S.A. by the Dutch Women’s Cricket team in 1968. Pamela resides at 18 Paul Kruger Drive, Monument Extension, Krugersdorp.

HURLY, EILEEN MARY ANN

Eileen Mary Ann Hurly

Eileen, the daughter of James William Hurly, was born on the 6th May, 1934, at Benoni. She attended the Dominican Convent, Benoni, and is today an insurance broker. She has devoted many years to cricket. Not only has she attained 105 provincial caps and seven Springbok caps, and still playing, but served eight years on the Transvaal executive committee – five years as treasurer, two years as vice-chairman and one year as chairman. She was appointed a life member of the Southern Transvaal Association in 1968. She has devoted eight years service to the national body, the South African and Rhodesian Women’s Cricket Association first as treasurer and in 1969 she was appointed vice-chairman. Eileen captained South Africa in the 1968 series. In gratitude for her unselfish and devoted service to the game she loves and plays so well, she has also been appointed an honorary life member of the national body. She belongs to the Johannesburg Municipal Sports Club and is a top order batsman and fielder. She first attained provincial colours in 1947 when she represented Southern Transvaal. She won her Springbok colours in the 1960/61 season against England and the 1968/69 series against Holland . Her brother, Charlie, is a Springbok soccer player. Eileen resides at 16 Durham Street, Benoni.
ROBISON, MARJORY RUTH
Marjory was born on the 1st October, 1918, in Galle, Ceylon, and is the daughter of Mr. Lionel McD. Robison. She attended the Collegiate Girls’ School in Port Elizabeth and the London University where she obtained a diploma and is at present a manager/administrating assistant. She was manager of the Women’s Cricket Team in the 1960/61 season. She was also the chairman of the Southern Transvaal Women’s Cricket Association for ten years and the president of the South Africa and Rhodesia Women’s Cricket Association for the same number of years. She was the vice-president of the International Women’s Cricket Association for two years and the president of the association for two years. Her home address is 135 Harrogate, Tyrwhitt Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg.

Springboks 1968 – 1970

CLOWES, BARBARA LYNN
Barbara is an opening bat and first obtained her provincial colours when she represented Natal in the 1965/66 season. She was chosen for the South African Cricket XI in 1968. Barbara was born on the 27th August, 1942, and is the daughter of Mr. George D. Clowes. She attended the Wykeham Girls’ High School in Pietermaritzburg and is a clerk. Her hobbies include tennis, swimming, reading and knitting, and she resides at 1 Meleman Place, Blackridge, Pietermaritzburg.

COHEN, EDA

Eda Cohen

Eda is an all round sportswoman who has achieved a great deal in her 22 years. She attained provincial colours for three sports and won Springbok colours for two. In 1964 and from 1966 to 1969 she played American Basketball for Southern Transvaal; from 1967 to 1969, cricket and in the years 1968 and 1969 she also represented Southern Transvaal at hockey. She was first chosen to represent South Africa at American basketball in 1967 and was included in the Springbok team in 1968 and 1969. She won her national colours at women’s cricket in 1968 and also represented her country in 1969. Apart from all these activities she still finds time to listen to music and read. Eda was born on the 28th of September, 1948, in Johannesburg, and is the daughter of Harry Cohen. She attended King David School, Linksfield, and studied at the Johannesburg College of Education where she obtained her teacher’s diploma. She is a teacher. She is a member of the Wanderers Club and resides at 306 Crestview, 42 Alexandra Street, Berea , Johannesburg.
EDWARDS, SALLY ELLEN

Sally Ellen Edwards

Sally was born in Pretoria on the 8th August, 1946, and is the daughter of Mr. Ronald A. Edwards. She was educated at the Pretoria Girls’ High School and subsequently obtained the Transvaal Teachers’ Diploma at the Johannesburg College of Education. Sally is fond of music, plays the piano and guitar and reads a great deal when she can find the time. She is a member of the Old Girls’ Hockey Club, Pretoria , and the J.C.E. Cricket Club in Johannesburg. While still at school she played in the Northern Transvaal Schools Hockey Team. In 1966, ‘67 and ‘68 she represented Southern Transvaal’s women’s cricket team and won her Springbok colours at women’s cricket in 1968 when she represented South Africa against the Netherlands. Sally inherits her love of sport from her father, who captained the North-Eastern Transvaal Cricket and Hockey teams. Her brother, Neill, plays hockey for Southern Transvaal. Sally resides at 80 Eeufees Avenue, Nigel.
GILDENHUYS, CAROLE ANNE

Carole Anne Gildenhuys

Carole was born in Port Elizabeth on the 19th November, 1943, the daughter of Mr. Frederick Gildenhuys. She attended Florida Park High School and after matriculating obtained her diploma at the Johannesburg College of Education. She is at present a lecturer in physical education – and her hobbies are reading and music. She belongs to the Wanderer Hockey Club and the Collegians Cricket Club. She attained her provincial colours when she represented Southern Transvaal at cricket in 1963 and her Springbok colours when she was included in the South African XI in 1968. She also played hockey for Southern Transvaal in 1968. Carole resides at 31 Barnard Street, Ontdekkers Park, Florida.

GOVE, JENNIFER ANNE
Jennifer is a keen sportswoman and has attained provincial colours for no less than three sports. This leaves her very little spare time, but she still finds time to swim, cook and listen to music. She was born on the 28th of July, 1940, in Durban and is the daughter of Mr. Donavan Ross. She attended Northlands Girls’ High and is at present a cash machine operator. She attained her provincial colours for hockey and cricket. representing Natal in 1959, and for squash in 1964. She won Springbok colours at cricket in 1961 and represented South Africa against the Netherlands in 1968. Jennifer’s twin sister also plays hockey and cricket. Her home address is 1 Brynderyn, Hime Road, Durban.
JOHNSON, SHIRLEY-ANNE

Shirley-Anne Johnson

Shirley was born in Port Elizabeth on the 2nd February, 1938, and is the daughter of H. A. Symonds. She attended the Girls High School in Queenstown and is at present a credit controller. Shirley is fond of music and sport. She played hockey for Natal in 1960 and in 1962 and 1965 she represented the Free State. She also dived for the Griqualand West Schools in 1954. In 1959 she played cricket for the Border, in 1960 for Natal and in 1963 for the Free State. She represented the Transvaal in 1964, 1967 and 1969 and was a member of the Springbok team that played against the Netherlands in 1968. Her address is 15 Radoma Court, Cavendish Road, Bellevue, Johannesburg.
LANKENAU, PATRICIA

Patricia Lakenau

Patricia hails from Grimsby, England. She was born on the 2nd August, 1942, and is the daughter of Mr. James Lankenau. She matriculated at the Rosebank Convent and studied at the Johannesburg Teachers’ Training College. She teaches physical education. Only months after she gained her first provincial cap for Transvaal , Patricia was selected to represent her country in 1968. Apart from cricket she also represented Souther Transvaal at netball from 1962 to 1965. She is a an all round sportswoman, who in addition to the above mentioned, plays badminton, table tennis, tennis and hockey. Her address is Redhill School, P.O. Sandown, Johannesburg.
VAN DER MAAS, LYNN LILLIAN

Lynn Lilian van der Maas

Lynn was first included in a Southern Transvaal Women’s Cricket XI in the 1963-64 season. She won her Springbok colours in January, 1969. She was born in Johannesburg on the 8th June, 1945, the daughter of Mr. J. C. D. van der Maas. She went to school at Forest High and after matriculation attended the Witwatersrand Technical College to prepare herself for a business career. She is at present a secretary. Apart from her interest in sport she likes to listen to records and reads a lot. She is a member of the Johannesburg Municipals Club and resides at 14 Minerva Avenue, Glendower, Edenvale, Transvaal.

WARD, LORNA GRACE
Lorna was born in ” Port Elizabeth on the 3rd June, 1938, and is the daughter of Mr. A. G. Ward. She is a statistical analyst and her hobbies include sculpting, gardening, and pottering around backstage at the theatre. She has represented Eastern Province, Natal, Southern Transvaal and South Africa at cricket. She is an opening bowler and first won her Springbok colours in the 1960/61 season and represented South Africa against the Netherlands in 1968. Dogs are Lorna’s favourite pets and she has a golden Labrador and a black and white Cocker Spaniel. Lorna lives at 27 22nd Street, Parkhurst, Johannesburg.

WILLIAMSON, GLORIA

Gloria Williamson

Gloria was born on the 7th December, 1938, at Roodepoort, and is the daughter of Mr. Herman “Menna” Williamson. She attended the Florida Park High School and continued her studies at the Johannesburg College of Education and is pre sently a teacher. Apart from sport she finds pleasure in black and white sketching. She attained her Transvaal colours for swimming in 1958 and her Southern Transvaal colours for gymnastics in 1959 and cricket in 1960. She became a member of the Southern Transvaal “A” cricket team in 1962. She was chosen to represent South Africa at cricket in December, 1968. Gloria hails from a sporting family. Her father played soccer for Northern Rhodesia and hockey for Witwatersrand. Her cousin, Reggie Marchant, represented Northern Transvaal at athletics, and her cousin, George Fraser, is a Western Province schools’ boxer and gymnast. Gloria resides at 44 Cahn Street, Roodepoort.
LIST OF SPRINGBOKS 1960-1970
1960 – English team that toured South Africa: Eleanor Lambert, Pat Klesser, Delcie Wood, Eileen Hurly, Yvonne von Mentz, Barbara Cairncross, Pamela Hollett, Jean McNaughton, Jennifer Gove, Joy Irwin, Lorna Ward, Maureen Payne, Audrey Jackson, Beverley Lang, Sheila Nefdt.
1968 – Springbokspan teen Nederland/Springbok team against Holland: Shirley Carroll, Barbara Clowes, Eda Cohen, Sally Edwards, Carole Gildenhuys, Jennifer Gove, Eileen Hurly, Shirley Johnson, Patricia Lankenau, Lynn van der Maas, Lorna Ward, Gloria Williamson.

Sports Personalities South Africa 1971. Published by Perskor
Die Burger

David Isroff - 7th Mounted Rifles 1916 Aberdeen

The Jewish links to South Africa are said to have originated with the Portuguese voyages of exploration around the Cape in 1452. Jews were involved in these early voyages as mapmakers, navigators and sailors.

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In 1652, Jan van Riebeeck led the first permanent settlement of Dutch colonists under the auspices of the Dutch East India Company. With his group were Samuel Jacobson and David Hijlbron, the earliest recorded Jews.

The Dutch East India Company controlled the Cape from 1652 – 1795 and only permitted Protestant Christians to reside at the Cape despite the significant number of Jewish shareholders in the company. Due to this, Jacobson and Hijlbron were baptized Christians on December 25, 1669, with records of these baptisms found in the registers of the Dutch Reformed Church. This was in contrast to the Dutch West India Company, which sent two hundred Jews to colonize Brazil in 1642.

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Colorful characters such as the soldier Isaac Moses, known as “old Moses the Moneychanger” and Joseph Suasso de Lima of Amsterdam, who started the first Dutch newspaper in SA, arrived. Nathaniel Isaacs, an early explorer of Natal who befriended the famous Zulu chief, Chaka, was a Jew. Early British families include De Pass, who played a major part in the establishment of the shipping, sugar and fishing industries. Saul Solomon founded the English press in Cape Town.

Increased religious freedom, permitted under the short lived Batavian Republic in 1803, continued after the British took control in 1806. In 1820, the British government gave assisted passage and land grants to people willing to settle in the wilds of the Cape Colony. The first group of settlers was known as the 1820 settlers. Early British Jewish immigration occurred with about sixteen Jews arriving amongst the 1820 Settlers. This included the Norden and Norton families who played a significant role in the early development of the Cape Colony. In the 1860′s, other European Jews started to arrive from Germany and Holland.

By 1880, there were about 4,000 Jews in South Africa. It is estimated that more than half of these were brought out from Hesse-Cassel, Germany, by the Mosenthal family, who developed extensive trading operations in the Cape Colony, the Orange Free State and Natal.

Jewish Refugees en route to South Africa, in Jews' Temporary Shelter

From 1880, Jewish immigration increased rapidly. The pogroms (1881-1884) and other catastrophes – droughts, floods, deportation and fires, particularly in Kovno Gubernia, the Russian province with Kovno ( Kaunas now) were major factors in the emigration. The choice of South Africa was determined by special circumstances and not, on the whole by the attractions it offered to the general run of settlers who were not refugees. There was strong potential for success – in particular with the discovery of the diamond fields in Kimberley in 1869 and the goldfields in the Transvaal in 1886.

Sammy Marks, from Neustadt, Suwalki Gubernia (province), is regarded as the pioneer of Lithuanian emigration – he became a friend of President Paul Kruger and was highly successful as an industrialist. Barney Barnato, London born, was a partner of Cecil John Rhodes in the formation of the De Beers Diamond Company (later control passing to the German Jewish family of Ernest Oppenheimer with the assistance of the Rothschilds).

Over 47,000 Jews were enumerated in the first nationwide census of 1911. Most of these were Lithuanian (Litvaks) from the then provinces of Kovno, Vilna (Lithuania), Courland (Latvia), Northern Suwalki (East Prussia and later Poland) and Minsk, Grodno, Vitebsk, Mogilev (Belarus).

Louis Noick, Ostrich feather dealer

As an undeveloped country, South Africa offered opportunities to early immigrants that were far better than anything they could have had in Eastern Europe. The travelling hawker or “smous” became an institution in the remote rural areas. Many settled in small towns as shopkeepers and tradesmen. A number of very efficient entrepreneurial farmers were founders of the wool industry, ostrich feather industry and the citrus industry.

The Contemporary Community

The distinctive characteristics of this community as compared to other new world communities are:

The predominance of Litvaks (Jews from Lithuania, Latvia and portions of Belarus), hence the unusually homogenous composition of the community.

The very strong influence of Zionism in the South African community.

The amalgam of Anglo-Jewish form and Lithuanian spirit which characterizes the institutions, both lay and religious of the community. The Jewish day school movement is a powerful educational presence and its pupils consistently get excellent scholastic results.

The distinctive situation where Jews had formed part of a privileged minority dominating a multiracial society. This has also led to Jews becoming prominent in the anti-apartheid and liberation movements.

In the past 30 years, there has been a large emigration of Jews to the USA, Canada, Australia, Britain and Israel. Political and economic change has led to an influx of Zimbaweans, Israelis and Russian Jews.

Immigration

At various times attempts were made to limit the influx of Jews, e.g., in 1903, by excludion on the grounds that Yiddish was not a European language. This was successfully countered in the Cape Legislative Assembly.

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Jewish immigrants came by ship with the major port of entry being at Cape Town (a small number entered at Port Elizabeth and Durban). The major waves of migration occurred from 1895 onwards. Shipping agents, Knie and Co. and Spiro and Co., had subagents in shtetls (small towns) who accepted bookings for passage to South Africa.

Embarking initially at the port of Libau (Latvia), a good proportion of the Jews were transported on small cargo boats under rudimentary conditions to England. A much smaller number passed through Hamburg or Bremen.
Upon arriving in England, many came first to Grimsby or London and were taken to the Poor Jews’ Temporary Shelter (PJTS) in Leman Street in the East End of London.

The Shelter inmates received assistance in the form of board, lodging, medical treatment and travel advice was given by the Shelter. In one year alone, from November, 1902, 3,600 out of 4,500 Shelter inmates went on the Union Castle Line to the Cape. In 1902, the fare was £10.10.0 (ten guineas) – more than the fare to America (For a more detailed discussion of these and shipping records see the article by Prof A Newman SHEMOT Vol. 1:3 1993).

Emigration Records from Great Britain

Ships’ Passenger Lists at the Public Records Office, Kew, London, are stored under reference BT 26 Passenger Lists, Inwards, 1878-1888 and 1890-1960, these lists give the names of all passengers arriving in the United Kingdom where the ship’s voyage began at a port outside Europe and the Mediterranean Sea.

Names of passengers who boarded these ships at European ports and disembarked in the UK are included in the lists. Passenger lists for ships whose voyages both began and ended within Europe (including the UK and the Mediterranean Sea ) are not included.

BT 27 Passenger Lists, Outwards, 1890-1960, give the names of all passengers leaving the UK where the ship’s eventual destination was a port outside Europe and the Mediterranean Sea. Passenger lists for ships whose voyages both began and ended within Europe (including the UK and the Mediterranean Sea ) are not included.

The Cape Town Archives also houses immigration records of Jewish people which are held in the CCP collections.

Jewish Sources

The Johannesburg Jewish Helping Hand and Burial Society (Chevra Kadisha). The majority of Jews have been buried in large cities. Johannesburg probably accounts for over 75% of all burials. The earliest record is that of Albert Rosetenstein in May 1887. Burials commenced in 1887 for Braamfontein cemetery, Brixton in 1914 and West Park in 1942).
Specific information about individuals or communities may often be obtained from the South African Jewish Board of Deputies.
Synagogues and communal records include:

Marriages: Marriage authorization certificates and copy Ketubot marriage certificates) and ‘Gets’ (religious divorce)

Religious Institutions:

Orthodox : The Office of the Chief Rabbi can give copies of marriage and divorce certificates. (United Hebrew Congregation). The vast majority of Jews in South Africa are Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazim. These are Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities of the Rhineland. Many later migrated, largely eastward, forming communities in Germany, Poland, Austria, Eastern Europe and elsewhere between the 10th and 19th centuries. There is also a strong Lubavich (Chabad branch of Hasidic Judaism founded by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi ) movement and smaller Sephardi (Sephardim are those Jews associated with the Iberian peninsula and whose traditional language is Ladino.The name comes from Sepharad, a Biblical location that may have been Sardes, but identified by later Jews as the Iberian Peninsula (and southern France). In the vernacular of modern-day Israel , Sephardi has also come to be used as an umbrella term for any Jewish person who is not Ashkenaz) and Masorti congregations. There are 48 Orthodox Religious groups listed in Johannesburg.

Reform communities keep separate records (United Progressive Jewish Congregation of Johannesburg). Many Jews remain with a strong identity but outside the religious net. Intermarriage is very common, but emigration is the main limiting factor to population growth. (Reform Judaism affirms the central tenets of Judaism – God, Torah and Israel – even as it acknowledges the diversity of Reform Jewish beliefs and practices. All human beings are created in the image of God, and that we are God’s partners in improving the world. Tikkun olam – repairing the world – is a hallmark of Reform Judaism as we strive to bring peace, freedom, and justice to all people).

South African Online Jewish Genealogy

The Southern Africa SIG (special interest group) was founded in 1998.The SIG publishes a quarterly newsletter. General information about the SA Community and genealogical research is on

The SA-SIG has an electronic discussion group with a free subscription on JewishGen WebForm Centre for Jewish Migration & Genealogy Studies
Our intention is to create a comprehensive database of records and information relating to Jewish immigration to South Africa.
The thinking behind the inception of the Jewish Migration and Genealogy Project is twofold:
to map the entire history of Jewish migration to South Africa with the aim of providing authoritative and definitive data for the Discovery Centre at the South African Jewish Museum (SAJM).
To integrate the genealogical data in multi-disciplinary research initiatives under the auspices of the Isaac and Jessie Kaplan Centre at the University of Cape Town.
The primary aim of the project is to research the estimated 15,000 core families who migrated to Southern Africa between 1850-1950 from England, Germany, Lithuania, Latvia and Belarus.
In broad terms, the research will focus on the locations where the families originated, patterns of migration to South Africa, where families first settled, communities they established, growth of families, and subsequent movements and emigration. As such, aspects such as passenger arrival lists, naturalization lists, community records, records of marriages, births and deaths, family trees, etc., will be looked at.
The centre is under the umbrella of the Isaac and Jessie Kaplan Institute for Jewish Studies at the University of Cape Town and will also have a public access section located at the South African Jewish Museum.
South African Jewish Rootsweb
South African Jewish Museum South Africa Jewish History Virtual Tour
S. A. Special Interest Group for Jewish Genealogy
Jewishgen – Jewish genealogy main site
Witbank Jewish Genealogy site
Jewish South Africa – the South African Jewish community on the Web. Beyachad South Africa Board of Deputies
African Jewish Congress
Telfed – the website for the Southern African Jewish Community in Israel

Notable Personalities, Civic affairs, charities:

Morris Alexander
Bertha Solomon
Dr Henry Gluckman
Helen Suzman

Medicine
Sydney Brenner
Aaron Klug
Sir Raymond Hoffenberg Philip V. Tobias

Law
Issie Maizels
Arthur Chaskelson
Albie Sachs

Arts
Irma Stern
Sir Anthony Sher
Ronald Harwood

Commerce and Industry
Mosenthal family
Oppenheimers

Agriculture
Esreal Lazarus – potato king
Ostrich industry
Citrus- Schlensinger
Motion Pictures- Schlezinger

Insurance
Schlezinger
Doanald Gordon
Sir Mark Wienberg

Acknowledgements and Source: Saul Isroff

Reverend George “Gog” OGILVIE (born 1826 in Wiltshire, England) is credited with introducing rugby to South Africa, following his appointment as Headmaster of the Diocesan College at Rondebosch in 1861. This game was the Winchester football variety, which the Reverend had learnt during his school days at Hampshire School.

The first games were often reported in the local newspapers and featured teams such as “Town versus Suburbs” and “Home versus Colonials”.

It was at a farewell reception for the British Isles rugby team, which was leaving for a tour of South Africa, that Sir Donald handed over what was to become the Currie Cup. The reception was held at the Southampton Docks in June 1891. On the 7th July thanks to the sponsorship of Cecil RHODES, the first British Isles rugby team arrived in Cape Town aboard the Dunottar Castle. They were mainly Scottish and English players captained by the Scottish wing William (Bill) E. MACLAGAN. Their first match was against the club Hamiltons which they won 15-1. The only try by the home team was scored by Charles (Hasie) VERSVELD, brother of Loftus VERSVELD.

The Cape Times carried reports. The first international match in which a South African team played was against the British tourists on the 30th July in Port Elizabeth. The South Africans were captained by Herbert Hayton CASTENS. In 1894 he was also the captain of the South African touring cricket team to England. Herbert was born on the 23rd November 1864 in Pearston, Eastern Cape, and died on 18 October 1929 in Fulham, London. The British beat South Africa 4-0 in that first Test. Paul ROOS was the South African captain who led South Africa on its first overseas rugby tour to England in 1906.

The 1891 British team won all their matches. The golden cup given to them by Sir Donald was given to the strongest of the regional teams they played, Griqualand West. Sir Donald requested that the cup be awarded to the South African side that gave the tourists their best competition, and thereafter become a floating trophy for South African inter-provincial champions. Griqualand West later donated the trophy to the Rugby Board, who made it the prize for the Currie Cup competition. The cup was insured for £40 when it was put on display, shortly after its arrival, in a window shop in Adderley Street. The words “South African Football Challenge Cup” were engraved on the cup. It was awarded to Griqualand West during the British team’s farewell reception in September aboard the Garth Castle, but there was no team representative present.

In an early show of typical South African rugby rivalry, Western Province supporters were not happy that Griqualand West was awarded the trophy. They claimed that the hard and grass-less playing field in Kimberley gave them an unfair advantage.

The Currie Cup has been South Africa ‘s premier domestic rugby union competition, featuring provincial / regional teams. The Currie Cup is one of the oldest rugby competitions in the world.

Although the cup bears Sir Donald’s name, the competition has its roots in an inter-town competition that started in 1884. By the time the South African Rugby Board was founded in 1889, it was decided to organise a national competition. The first tournament was held in Kimberley and was won by Western Province. The winning team received a silver cup donated by the South African Rugby Board. This cup is on display at the South African Rugby Museum in Cape Town. The cup donated by Sir Donald was competed for from 1892 onwards. The 1892 tournament was played in Kimberley from the 12th – 23rd September. It was won by Western Province. The other teams were Natal, Griqualand West, Border and Transvaal. Christiaan BEYERS, who later became a Boer Genera, was part of the Transvaal team.

In the early rugby years there were no Cup finals. The team that finished at the top of the log was declared the champion. In the early 1900s, the Currie Cup was not competed for annually. The first Currie Cup final was played in 1939 at Newlands where Transvaal beat Western Province. The format varied and finals were held intermittently up until 1968. In its early days and until 1920, the tournament lasted a week and was played in one town. The competition was also interrupted by the two World Wars. The first annual Currie Cup final was held in 1968 when Northern Transvaal, featuring Frik DU PREEZ, beat Transvaal.

Politics was already casting its shadow over South African rugby way back then. In 1895, the 15 British soldiers representing Natal in the Currie Cup tournament having to get permission from Paul KRUGER to enter the ZAR in their uniforms. At this tournament’s official dinner, officials and players made toasts to KRUGER and Queen Victoria. During the 1899 tournament, Western Province, Transvaal and the Free State stayed away because of the Anglo-Boer War. The 1908 Currie Cup tournament, held in Port Elizabeth, was the last one held in Sir Donald’s lifetime.

In the 1898 tournament, the Transvaal team faced tragedy when their fullback Dave COPE was killed in a train accident at Mosterthoek while on his way to the tournament in Cape Town. A week later another Transvaal player, Boy TAIT, died of injuries sustained in the same accident.
The Currie Cup is such a big part of South African rugby, that it is not well-known that there were other Currie Cups involving other sports. All the cups were donated by Sir Donald.

On the 5th January 1808, a cricket match between two teams of English officers took place in Cape Town. In 1862, an annual fixture “Mother Country versus Colonial Born” was staged in Cape Town. In March 1889, the English cricket team played in a Test match against South Africa at Port Elizabeth. Sir Donald sponsored the English team’s tour of South Africa. When the team left England, he gave them a cup to be presented to the best South African team that they faced. As with his request for the rugby cup, the trophy was then to be used in domestic competition. The cup was inscribed with “To the Cricket Clubs of South Africa, 1889″. In 1890 the Kimberley cricket team became the first team to be awarded cricket’s Currie Cup. Cricket’s Currie Cup tournament was later renamed the Castle Cup. When the Wanderers Clubhouse caught fire in 2004, the silver Currie Cup was lost in the fire.

In 1899 he donated a cup for water-polo tournaments. A year later, Western Province won the first water-polo Currie Cup at the first inter-provincial swimming and water-polo tournament.

Another Currie Cup was given by Sir Donald to the Cape Town Highlanders.
References:
The Ultimate Encyclopaedia of Rugby, Carlton Books 1997
The Star newspaper, 18 June 1891
The Cape Argus newspaper, 11 July 1891; 09 Sept 1891
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.

The first British in SA
Sir Francis Drake rounded the Cape in 1580 and was probably the first Briton to see what he called “the fairest Cape in all the world”. But the first Englishmen to go ashore, a party led by James Lancaster, only landed at Saldanha Bay 11 years later. The Dutch and the English were interested in the Cape’s strategic position on the sea route to the East, and it was inevitable that one or the other would annex it.

In 1615 Sir Thomas Roe attempted to land some deported British criminals, but those who were not drowned or killed by Khoi were soon removed. In June 1620 captains Andrew Shillinge and Humphrey Fitzherbert formally annexed Table Bay for King James I, naming the Lion’s Rump King James’ Mountain. Their sovereign refused to confirm the act. It was left to the Dutch to act, after the wreck of the Haarlem in 1647. A previous visitor, Jan van Riebeeck, returned in 1652 to administer the territory for the benefit of the Dutch East India Company.

During the 18th century the rich Cape flora excited the interest of several British botanists who made long, arduous journeys through the interior in search of plants. Francis Masson, a Scot from Kew, arrived in 1772, a few months after the Swedes C P Thunberg and A Sparrman. Many plant species which Masson collected and classified remain European favourites. His work was continued by several British researchers, including W J Burchell, who arrived in 1810, after the Cape had become a British colony. About 8 700 South African plants are recorded in Burchell’s Catalogus geographicus plantarum.

William Harvey, who arrived in 1835 and later became Treasurer-General of the Cape Colony, produced his Genera of South African Plants in 1838. In collaboration with the German Otto Sender he produced the first three volumes of Flora Capensis, the work being taken over by the staff of the Kew Herbarium, London . This monumental work on the flora of the Cape was completed in England in 1933. British-born botanist, Professor H Pearson founded the National Botanic Gardens at Kirstenbosch in 1913. In its first half-century all three directors of Kirstenbosch, Profs Pearson, R H Compton and H B Rycroft, were of British descent.

The British occupied the Cape in 1795, but it was administered by the Batavian Republic from 1803 to 1806, before reverting to British control. The objective was to secure the trade route to India but British army units also kept Xhosa tribes at bay and allowed British influence to spread. The army was a safety net allowing government and education to develop and its presence encouraged the growth of eastern frontier towns such as Port Elizabeth, Cradock, Grahamstown, King William’s Town and East London.

Various governors attempted to keep the frontier peaceful, the most successful being those who sought to establish settlements as a barrier to incursions. The first group of settlers for this purpose arrived in 1820. It is a tribute to their courage that, knowing nothing of the country, they remained after the Voortrekkers had left. Many of their descendants are established in the Eastern Cape, where a distinct British culture is rooted.
This holds true for much of KwaZulu-Natal, where British settlement dates to 1824, when Lieutenant Francis Farewell obtained a grant of Port Natal and the surrounding country from the Zulu king, Shaka. This settlement was mainly for the purpose of trading. In 1835 the township of Durban was laid out on the site of Port Natal.

Two years later the first Boer settlers arrived, but their short-lived republic ended in 1843, when British sovereignty was proclaimed over Natal. Large parties of British settlers arrived in Natal from the late 1840s onward.

The British of the Eastern Cape and Natal were not content merely to settle. They adapted to a completely new environment and, imbued with the progressive spirit of 19th-century Britain, were often eager to alter and improve their new homeland.

South African agriculture benefited immensely. Agricultural machinery was introduced to a country which had few. The 1820 Settlers realised that the Eastern Cape and adjacent karoo were potentially good sheep country and merino wool became a leading export.

The British introduced sugar to the KwaZulu-Natal coastal belt and developed it into a major industry. Although deciduous fruit and citrus had long been grown in South Africa , the British were primarily responsible for the rise of commercial fruit-growing at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century.

British explorers
British explorers played a major part in opening up Africa’s interior. Early in the 19th century John Barrow traveled widely in the arid parts of the Cape Colony. Burchell reached the Vaal and Orange Rivers, and John Campbell explored north of the Orange. In the 1800s Farewell, James King, Henry Fynn and others explored Natal, and in 1835 Allen Gardiner became the first to describe the Drakensberg.

Robert Moffat established a settlement north of the Orange River and surveyed the greater part of the river’s course. In 1836 William Cornwallis-Harris and Richard Williamson journeyed through Bechuanaland and the western Transvaal. Francis Galton was apparently the first European to reach Ovamboland, and his friend Charles Andersson, the Anglicised son of an English father and a Swedish mother, traveled through the desert of the Kaokoveld to reach the Okavango in 1858.

The meeting between Gen Louis Botha (second from left, front row) and Lord Kitchener (third from left, front row). After the Anglo-Boer War hostility between the Boers and the British continued. Transvaal and the Free State lost their independence and were governed as British crown colonies.

The greatest of all explorers was the Scottish missionary, David Livingstone. In 1849, accompanied by W C Oswell, he arrived at Lake Ngami, and in 1851 reached the Zambezi River. In 1855, while traversing the continent from Luanda to the Zambezi delta, he was shown the Victoria Falls . Later he explored and mapped lakes Malawi and Tanganyika. Henry Hartley discovered gold in what is now Zimbabwe in 1867, and shortly afterwards the hunter Frederick Selous began his explorations from there.

British missionaries
British missionaries played a major part in the development of South Africa. They preached the gospel at a time when religious fervour ran high in Britain and they believed that Christianity and European civilisation were inseparable. They strove to introduce western ideas, including the inherent equality of man before the law, a notion which found expression in Cape law even before the emancipation of slaves in 1834. Five years later civil rights were extended to all in the Cape, a principle kept after responsible government was granted in 1872.
The breaking down of the legal colour bar was the greatest striving of the missionaries in the Cape. Exploration was an important second. English missionaries were early travelers to the Free State and former Transvaal, which Thomas Hodgson and Samuel Broadbent reached in 1823 coincident with a period of deep unrest. They settled among the Barolong who later helped the Voortrekkers after their cattle were stolen by the Matabele.

Missionaries founded many schools, including famed East Cape institutions such as Lovedale and Healdtown. Settler education was not neglected. Scottish missionaries and teachers resisted the plans of Governor Somerset to use the schools to anglicise pupils. Andrew Murray, Alexander Smith, William Ritchie Thomson, Henry Sutherland, George Morgan and Colin Fraser had an important part in strengthening and developing the Dutch Reformed Church. Of schoolmasters recruited by Somerset, James Rose Innes became the Cape’s first Superintendent of Education in 1839 and set about providing a firm educational grounding for people of all races. John Fairbairn and James Adamson founded the South African College in 1829, later to become the University of Cape Town.

English media
The first South African newspaper, The Cape Town Gazette and African Advertiser, appeared on August 16, 1800 during the first British occupation. It was published in English and Dutch and later became the Cape Government Gazette, which has continued in modified form to the present day. The first unofficial newspaper, the South African Commercial Advertiser, was founded in 1824 by Thomas Pringle and John Fairbairn, settlers of Scottish descent. George Greig, the printer, was also a British settler.

The establishment led to a dispute about censorship which had far-reaching effects for the South African press. The paper was suppressed by Governor Somerset, but in 1829, an ordinance removed from the Government the power of interfering with the Press and made newspapers subject only to the law of libel.

This success led to the first unofficial Dutch newspaper, De Zuid-Afrihaan, being established in 1830. The following year the Graham’s Town Journal was launched in the East Cape. Press freedom was later accepted in other parts of South Africa, with the result that newspapers played an important political role.

Government
The Cape developed a system of parliamentary government modeled on Westminster. In 1834 it received its first bicameral governing institution with the creation of a Legislative Council and an Executive Council. For the first time a clear distinction was drawn between legislative and executive functions.

John Campbell

As a result of agitation for a form of representative government, mainly by British colonists, the Cape in 1854 was granted an elected parliament. Another 18 years elapsed before the constitution was changed to provide for an executive chosen from the party which commanded the majority in the lower house, to which it was also responsible.

In 1834 the Cape received its first bicameral governing institution with the creation of a Legislative Council and an Executive Council. Until the end of the 19th century, in both the Transvaal (ZAR) and Free State republics, there was an elected Volksraad and an Executive Council with an elected President. Thomas François Burgers (above) was the second president of the ZAR.

The other territories also had representative governments. In Natal the colonists got theirs in 1856 and responsible government in 1893. Until the end of the 19th century, in both the Transvaal and Free State republics, there was an elected Volksraad and an Executive Council with an elected President. With Union in 1910 it was the Cape and Natal form of responsible parliamentary government which had served as the model for parliament.

Politics
English-speaking South Africans played a far greater role in politics prior to Union than afterwards. Between 1872 and 1910 all but one of the prime ministers of the Cape were of British descent. The influence of two, Cecil Rhodes and Dr Leander Jameson, was felt far beyond the borders of the Cape. By contrast, between 1948 when the National Party took office and 1990 when a decision was made to negotiate a democratic future the number of English-speakers who reached cabinet rank numbered barely the fingers of a hand.

An ambitious British imperialist Rhodes had by 1890 made Bechuanaland and the territory north of the Limpopo River part of empire. Most British immigrants to the Transvaal were denied full franchise rights. Rhodes used Jameson to raid the Transvaal in 1895 to stir rebellion but the venture was easily crushed. At the national convention of 1908-09 to draft a constitution for South Africa, English-speakers were well represented, among them being John X. Merriman, Jameson, Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, Sir Frederick Moor and Sir Thomas Smartt.

Infrastructure
Road-building was a great contribution of the British. The arrival of the settlers and the many frontier wars made good roads essential. The route to Grahamstown was the Cape’s main thoroughfare. An early engineering feat was the Franschhoek Pass, begun in 1823, followed in 1830 by the road over the Hottentots Holland range and named for the governor, Sir Lowry Cole.

In 1837 Scotsman Andrew Geddes Bain began to build an excellent military road across rugged terrain between Grahamstown and Fort Beaufort . The so-called Queen’s Road, was a continuation of the main route from Cape Town. The work led to Bain making palaentological fossil finds, many of them new to science.

John Montagu, who arrived at the Cape in 1843, helped establish a central and divisional road boards. Both were involved in systematically extending the road network. In the Free State and Transvaal road building awaited the revenue which accrued from gold mining.

Ports and coasts
In 1824 the British built the first lighthouse and in 1860 a start was made on a breakwater and docks at Cape Town. They were also responsible for the construction of all other harbours along the Cape and Natal coast.

Railways
The first railways operated privately around Durban and Cape Town. By 1885 there was a railway from Cape Town to Kimberley, built by British engineers to serve the diamond-fields, then being developed chiefly with British capital. The Transvaal and Orange Free State were without railways, and it was the progressive extension of railways by the colonial governments which led to rail development in the Boer republics.

By September 1892 Johannesburg was linked to Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and East London, two years before the line, sponsored by President Paul Kruger and built by the a Dutch company, was completed to Lourenço Marques, now Maputo.

Mineral Revolution
Diamond-mining led to the establishment of South Africa’s first capitalist concern organised on a national basis, and very largely dependent on capital from Great Britain. This was De Beers Consolidated Mines, stated by Rhodes, son of a Hertfordshire parson, whose chief rival had been Barney Barnato, a London-born Jew.

The nature of the gold deposits of the Witwatersrand also favoured capitalist concerns. Were it not for the advanced technology and chemistry of the predominantly British Uitlanders, the finely disseminated gold could not have been extracted from the hard quartzite conglomerate of the Witwatersrand, the richest gold-field of the world.

Gold-mining revolutionised the economy of South Africa. They gave birth to manufacturing industries and boosted agriculture. Factories established directly or indirectly through British capital have drawn millions to the cities, transforming the demographic landscape.

Law
The common law in South Africa is Roman-Dutch, derived from the 17th century law of the Netherlands. When the Cape was ceded to the British in 1806 the common law remained unaltered. In certain fields, however, English law, being seldom in conflict with Roman-Dutch law, was gradually absorbed into the South African system.
Reference has already been made to the role of the British missionaries in the field of South African law. They succeeded in persuading the Cape government to open the courts to people of all races, a policy eventually adopted throughout South Africa.

The British were always a minority group and their influence has come to be expressed through their control of major mining and industrial concerns rather than politics.
Source: South African Encyclopedia

Various definitions and concepts of folk medicine have been put forward. It will be sufficient here to mention a concept of Afrikaans folk medicine and folk remedies given by Schulz and based on his research into the background of this subject: `Folk medicine includes any medium, treatment or ritualistic act which is applied or carried out to cure or avert illness; and is administered only as a direct consequence of the traditions and lore of a particular country. It is practised in all good faith by laymen whose conscious intention is to prevent and cure illness.’ Folk medicine is traditional and unorganised and is not on rationalised scientific or pseudoscientific systems.

The emergence of folk medicine in South Africa was most noticeable among the Trek Boers beyond the Boland mountains. They had to become self reliant as there was no local medical help. Upcountry folk in general soon acquired a knowledge of the medicinal value of herbs and plants that grew in the veld, and many of these they learnt to use as purgatives, emetics and diuretics. By 1850 over one hundred different species of indigenous Cape plants were regularly used by Trek Boers and others, and by Coloured folk, as home remedies. There was not a colonist who would not rather be his own physician and seek help only in extremity; hence the statement by a young physician at Swellendam about 1812 that nobody could subsist in those parts by the ordinary practice of medicine (Laidler). Apart from the use of herbs the country folk had great faith in patent medicines. Most homes possessed a `huisapotheek’ prepared by the apothecaries of Cape Town.

The Voortrekkers carried with them a medicine-chest (medisyne trommel) of small size containing bottles of medicines, plasters and ointments. A list of the traditional household remedies known as `Dutch medicines’ used by Trek Boers, the Voortrekkers and country folk in general is given by Burrows. Certain ‘Dutch medicines’ are used even today and must be of a standard laid down in the current editions of the British Pharmacopoeia or British Pharmaceutical Codex. A list of these traditional remedies and the corresponding modern equivalents is given in the South African Medical Journal of I June 1957.
It includes bloedstillende druppels (tincture of ferric perchloride), boegoe-essens (tincture of buchu), doepa (benzoin), doepa-olie (balsam of Peru), duiwelsdrek (asafoetida), grouvomitief (prepared ipecacuanha), Hoffmannsdruppels (spirit of ether), kinderpoeier(compoundpowder ofrhubarb), miangolie (balsam of Peru), pampoensalf (ointment of yellow oxide of mercury), rooilaventel (compound tincture of lavender), ruitersalf (dilute ointment of mercury), rooiminie (lead monoxide), sinkingsdruppels (colchicum wine), staalpille (pills of iron carbonate), sterksalf (methyl salicylate ointment), turlington (compound tincture of benzoin – Friar’s balsam), kanferolie (camphor liniment), opodeldoc (soap liniment), paregorie (camphorated opium tincture), rabarberpoeier (powdered rhubarb), teerolie (creosote), witkinapoeier (quinine sulphate) and a number of others. The rapid advances of modern drug therapy have rendered most of these traditional pharmacopoeial and folk remedies obsolete.

The `huisapotheek’ remedies were used empirically and mainly for symptomatic treatment. Purging, vomiting and bloodletting were standard procedures for all kinds of illnesses. Apart from the `huisapoheek’ and the plants gathered in the veld, the Trek Boers used remedies corresponding to those used in folk medicine in other parts of the world. But some of their measures were unique (Burrows). Thus, in the treatment of pneumonia they wrapped the warm skin of a recently killed animal, usually a goat, round the patient’s chest and, when the hairs could no longer be pulled out, it was believed that the crisis was over. It is said that Paul Kruger, when a young man, developed an infected thumb which he himself amputated with a pocket-knife. As that failed to stop the inflammatory process, a buck was shot and Kruger put his thumb into it to get the benefit of the healing properties of the herbs being digested by the animal. When Dewald Pretorius (Andries Pretorius’s nephew) lost three fingers of his right hand in a shooting accident, his son-in-law amputated the shattered fragments with a hammer and chisel; cobwebs mixed with sugar were then applied as a dressing to the bleeding stumps. When Carolus Trichardt injured his leg with an axe, burnt aloe was applied and then a guinea-piece was placed on the wound; a goat was killed and an infusion of its bowel contents was given to him to drink. The body fluids and excreta of wild animals were believed to possess great healing properties. Thus, for example, vulture fat or leguan fat was used as an embrocation for lumbago; goat fat as an emollient for chapped hands and children’s faces. An infusion of goat’s dung was taken internally for measles and an infusion of wolf’s dung for a sore throat, tonsillitis or diphtheria. Even when medical aid became available and enlightened farmers were gaining confidence in professional skill available in towns and country districts, many folk, through ignorance and prejudice, preferred their own `middels’ and `boererate’. Many remedies, in addition to those already mentioned, were bought from the `wonderdoener’, a kind of quack doctor or nostrum-vendor who preceded the itinerant `doctors’. From them could be purchased medicines mostly of the variety prepared by the apothecaries in the large towns; these included emetic powders, rhubarb, aniseed pills, herbs, plants and blood-cleansing remedies.

The Voortrekkers appear to have been a remarkably healthy people. It is perhaps surprising that in a primitive community travelling across the country there should have been no outbreaks of disease. This was in part due to discipline which enforced the proper disposal of refuse and excreta, and the protection of the water-supply from pollution. The laager of wagons was always below the watering-place, and animals drank farther down at the general wash-place of the group. A sort of quarantine was maintained at times, for example, during the measles epidemic which ravaged Natal after the Cape epidemic in 1839.Midwifery was for a long time a folk practice in town and country, and doctors were consulted only about abnormal or complicated deliveries. Midwifery and children were handled in a ‘specialised’ manner; they were left to the womenfolk for treatment.
During the Dutch East India Company’s rule a woman could not, in terms of the Statutes of Batavia, act as a midwife unless she had been passed as competent by two of the Company’s surgeons. Even at a later period the practices of midwives included, besides midwifery, minor surgical procedures such as bloodletting.

The development of medicine in South Africa from the time of the Cape settlement, the diffculties of medical practice, the profound influence of the Cape apothecaries on medicine and medical practice, the popularity of patent medicines inland, and the earlier activities of the ‘wonderdoeners’, ‘meesters’, and itinerant ‘doctors’ who travelled among the Trek Boers are presented in detail by Burrows.

The White man, since his occupation of the subcontinent, has made great use of the wealth and variety of the local flora, and has accumulated through the centuries a great many popular remedies. How rich Bantu, Hottentot and Bushman lore is in this respect has only recently been recognised. These remedies are still in common use but much of the folk medicine of the tribes is vanishing.
Source: Southern Africa Standard Encyclopedia (Copyright: Media24 / Naspers)

This latest volume of the Archives Year Book for South African History is undoubtedly one of the most important publications which have appeared of recent years in connection with the history of our country.

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After publishing his monumental History of the Lutheran Church at the Cape, Dr. Hoge set himself the task of searching out the references in the various archives to the Germans who settled at the Cape during the indicated period. Previously the subject has been dealt with by Schmidt and Moritz, but now for the first time exhaustively by Dr. Hoge. Besides the 4,000, whose personalia are given in alphabetical order, followed by a list of women and Swiss immigrants, Dr. Hoge has collected the names of some 10,000 Germans who, during the above mentioned period, did not leave the service of the Company; this brings us to the figure of 14,000 persons of German origin, who individually and collectively must have contributed their share in the formation and the upbuilding of the Cape Colony during the first 150 years of its existence.

Only a small percentage of these 4,000, through continuance in the male line, have become forbears of the Afrikaner nation, a good number, however, though extinct in the male found a continued existence in the female line.

With regard to birth, breeding, occupation and social standing the vast majority belong to the category of the small fry, though some of the well-known names in our history have sprung from these simple illiterate folks, like President Paul Kruger, descended from Jacob Kruger of Sadenbeek, who arriving in 1714 as soldier was subsequently loaned as farmhand; General Botha, descended from Friedrich Botha, of Wangenheim, who worked for Jan Cornelissen of Oud-Beyerland and gained the affection of the latter's wife Maria Kickers of Amsterdam to the extent that she prided herself in a court of law that all her children in her marriage were not procreated by her official husband, but by Friedrich Botha; General Hertzog, descended from the wainwright Johann Berthold Hertzog, of Brunswick.

Among those who distinguished themselves personally and during their lifetime we find names—to mention a few—like the Company's gardener and botanist Auge, the carpenter and sculptor Anreith, the apothecary, herbalist and clever draughtsman Claudius, the sculptor and architect Hermann Schütte, the silversmith Matthias Lotter, of Augsburg, and his descendants who pursued the same trade. In this group one would like to mention not the father, but the son of the successful tailor, baker and merchant, Christian Daniel Persoon. This son, Christiaan Hendrik, who was sent to school at Lingen in Germany at the age of twelve, achieved international fame as a botanist and founder of the science of mycology.

Amongst the officials of the Company, besides, inter alia, Christian Ludolph Neethling, and the Rhenius family, the most prominent German was the second Commander of the Cape, Zacharias Wagner (Wagenaar), of Dresden. Before his appointment at the Cape he was active in Brazil. He left a "Thierbuch" on the fauna and flora of this country in 109 coloured drawings, also a work on his experiences
during 35 years in Europe, Asia, Africa and America in the service of the East and West India Companies.
A small but interesting group of Cape settlers are those of aristocratic birth, Joachim Nikolaus von Dessin, to whose passion for collecting books we owe the precious Dessinian collection; Baron Carl von Ludwig, whose botanical garden at his property ''Ludwigsburg" in Kloof Street was a delight to the lover of indigenous and exotic plants, and whose daily progress to and from his office in the Heerengracht in his equipage drawn by six white stallions was the event of the day; Ernst Friedrich von Kamptz, who sold his farm "Ravensteyn" behind Lion's Head to the Company for Rix Dollars 10,000, which has ever since then been known as Kamp's Baai. In 1786 he went to Europe.

The Directors of the Company were asked not to allow him to return, "because he has incessantly caused all sorts of difficulties and disagreeableness and must be considered as a person, in case he returns, who might be the cause of much unrest in this colony". Another Baron, the local authorities were not too pleased with, was Baron von Buchenröder, who arrived here in 1803 with his friend Baron Knobel, in order to carry out a colonising scheme. General Janssens declared that "nothing he promised or undertook succeeded, because he was profoundly ignorant in everything", and a member of the Council of Policy bore witness of "his turbulent and violent nature . . . which most times ascends to an indomitable anger". After his arrival in Holland he published two dull books on the Colony. The authorities did not prevent his return. He settled at Uitenhage, where he earned a living as a building contractor, and in this line came into contact with Piet Retief. The family is extinct in the male line. His daughter married Baron Knobel, the forbear of the South African family of this name.
The schoolmasters, though not of noble birth, were not amongst the least useful amongst the German colonists.

We meet some interesting specimens:

Tavenrath, who taught W. A. van der Stel's children privately; J. G. Kilian, a Franciscan monk, who escaped from the monastery of Brühl. He was refused in 1779 the post of schoolmaster at Stellenbosch, "seeing that he was totally ignorant in the art of teaching singing and his writing not at all that of a schoolmaster". Johann von Lindenbaum established in 1803 a kind of Select Boarding School at the Paarl in which Nederlands, French and arithmetic were taught "besides all that a decent education demands". In 1806 he rented the parsonage at Stellenbosch, in which he would teach "the French language and other sciences". Remkes, after being in the service of Henning Hüsing, became scriba of the Church. He was such a clever arithmetician that he earned up to 50 Rix Dollars a month either as an accountant or by private tuition. Schierke requested De Mist to be looked .after in the Company's Hospital, being sick and poor. For eighteen years he had been instructing the young colonists. He hoped that on being restored to health, to make a living again since "benevolent Providence had left him with a good eyesight without the need of spectacles as well as various talents".

Amongst the teachers of the Gospel there were in the Dutch, Reformed Church seven of German origin : Kalden, Aling, Ballot, Meiring, Harders. Borcherds and Von Manger. Physically, Aling must have been one of the most conspicuous amongst all the Germans who ever came to the Cape. Lady Anne Barnard testified that he was "the largest man in height and breadth I ever saw in my life". It is not generally known that Kalden, like W. A. van der Stel published a "Defence". It was printed at Utrecht in 1713. (Prof. J. J. Smith of Stellenbosch possesses .a copy). Von Manger is described as "serious in the pulpit, amiable in intercourse . . ..and in his conversations even witty".

One of the most successful Germans at the Cape, who started at the bottom and became extremely wealthy, was Martin Melck. Amongst his compatriots he seems to have been a model of an ideal husband. Stavorinus tells us that one of his outstanding characteristics was his gratitude to his wife, Anna Hop, the widow of Johann Giebeler. According to his own saying he owed her everything. "He would not allow her to give herself any trouble with anything, however trifling. He wished that she should take her ease and amuse herself. He took care of everything himself, also of household matters, so that his wife did not concern herself with anything".
It is surprising how relatively few queer and shady characters we find in the course of 150 years amongst these 4,000 German Cape settlers. We shall mention a few. Silberbach slew in 1697 the Frenchman Ary Lecrêvain better known as Ary Lekkerwyn, which designation survives in the name of his farm. He fled, was declared an outlaw and banished for life. Jacob Wemmers, after whom Wernmershoek is called, was banished in 1764 for theft and selling stolen goods.

August Wiedemann, schoolmaster at Pieter van Tank at Riebeeck Kasteel, fell in love with his boss's widow, and tried to murder her, because her preference went to another German servant on the farm. He was sentenced to death and hanged. Gotthilf Leydenberger was tired of life. He thought that the surest way of ridding himself of this burden was to kill somebody else. So he did. He was executed in 1760. Peter Lange was exiled in 1763 for the attempted rape of his stepdaughter Cornelia. Gottlieb Oppermann took to drink and ill-treated his wife and children. Mitchael Otto, who became owner of Vergelegen in 1722, according to Mentzel, also took to drink and treated his slaves with great cruelty.

The most notorious case in this respect was certainly that of Peter Becker of Konigsberg, who was rumoured to have killed his wife's former husband, the French Huguenot Andre Gauche. After flogging his slave Maria of Ceylon most unmercifully and rubbing certain parts of .her body with pickle, he suspended her above the fire in the chimney with the consequence that bits of flesh detached themselves from her body.

Dealing with criminals we might insert here the account of the death of the forbear of the Cloetes, Jacob Cloete of Cologne. He was found murdered on the 23rd of May, 1693 not far from the Castle. "They found him sorely handled with three cuts across the head and two thrusts in the breast, all five mortal, with 25 lesser wounds. steeped in his blood with his sword still in its sheath, so he must have been treacherously attacked, considering also that he was still as agile and fit as a young man of 25 and courageous".

As to marriage, cases of miscegenation were pretty prevalent amongst the Germans. The greater majority of these emancipated slaves or their daughters, who became the wives in wedlock of some of the settlers, were of Dutch or British-Indian origin. In the course of time this blood, toned down by subsequent white marriages, must have contributed to the physical and intellectual virility of the stock. These coloured spouses were moreover not necessarily of low birth. Dorothea Sultania, the daughter of the exiled Rajah of Tambora, married Christiaan van den Bosch and subsequently the German Harmen Rouwers. Several of these marriages as well as "con-cubinages" seem to have been perfectly happy. Of Spacie of the Cape, the mother of four illegitimate children by Michael Lesch, it was testified "that she had always shown an exemplary conduct, and that she as well as her children, who were recognised by Lesch as his own, had always sat down at the same table with their master". Johann Volmer left 5,000 guilders to his children by Kaatje of Ceylon and the interest of 12,000 guilders for the support of Kaatje, this sum to be divided amongst her children after her death.
Of the women immigrants who came out on their own hook the most interesting ones are certainly Catharina listings and Lumke Thoole. The former arrived as a widow in 1662 and here at the Cape married and buried four husbands. The first one was Hans Ras, hence she was generally known as Tryn Ras.

Schouten tells us all about her. She used to gallop bareback astride on her horse to the Cape. Hatless and sunburnt she looked like a Red Indian.
Lumke Thoole came disguised as a soldier under the name of Johan Theunis to the Cape in 1724. Reassuming her feminine attire and identity, she married Abraham Hartog under the name of Johanna Theunis Switters of Norden. It turned out that she was already married to the sailor Thys Geertz. The Company obliged her to return to Europe, together with her daughter.

Detailed references to the wives of the settlers are necessarily few and far between. Having given an example of an ideal husband in Martin Melck, I should like to quote a testimony concerning the exemplary German wife of Johann Sieberhagen. In 1805 he was employed by Leopold Heuser on his sheep-farm in the Roggeveld. This is what the "Commissie van Veeteelt en Landbouw" said about .his wife : "with pleasure the Commission observed the industriousness and diligence of this woman. Besides looking carefully after her small children and keeping them in trim, she kept herself at the same time busy at her outspanned wagon by spinning 'sajette' from the wool which, shorn from the Spanish sheep of Mr. Huizer in the Carro, she had brought with her. She had a whole box full of various skeins, all spun during her journey".
I can still select and add, before putting  Hoge's book aside, a few eases, interesting for some reason or other, amongst the men.

The most outstanding one and of the greatest historical importance —for it points to the birth of a nation and the ensuing national sentiment—is that of the son of Detlef Biebow of Mecklenburg. Hendrik Biebow (or Bibault, which made me presume at first that he was of French origin), elated by the defeat of W. A. van der Stel, galloped on horseback on the 7th of March, 1707 with three of his pals down to the Old Mill at Stellenbosch, where they kicked up a terrible shindy. Starrenberg, the landdrost, who came along, threatened Hendrik with his whip. The autocrat and supporter of the Governor was met by the proud and defiant statement: "You dare to touch me ! I am an Afrikaner"
Another son of a German, Johann John, who was substitute-landdrost of Stellenbosch from 1768-79, took objection to his father's living with a slave-girl, by whom he had five children, "who strutted about in the household of their master clad in civil clothes with silver clasps on their shoes".

Christian Miet, in 1780 employed in the service of Adriaan van Schoor as gardener, was praised as "a citizen who does not after the example of others adorned with a cane, pass his time in stinking leisure, but is very diligent in his endeavours to obtain in all honour as an old respectable man a morsel of bread for a living".
Johann Meintjes became impoverished. He was granted "the usual clothing as being old and decrepit and incapable of earning anything". In 1752 Eva Coetsee was engaged to look after him for 4 lids. a month, which, however, at her -request, was increased to 8 lids., "seeing that she has daily much trouble with the old man in keeping him clean from vermin as also in other respects".

I hope that I have given a sufficient idea of the interest of Dr. Hoge's work. One would be mistaken in thinking, however, that it is mainly of an anecdotic nature. With complete references, he succinctly gives everything found in the archival sources about the German section appertaining to their origin, birth, marriage, occupation and progeny. One thus obtains a comprehensive and truthful account of this section, which ethnically and culturally has gone, for an important share, in so far as they continued through marriage in existence, to make up the Afrikaner nation.

Out of 1,520 forbears Theal gives 494 as hailing from Holland and 806 from Germany. It appears that a certain number of the former according to Dr. Hoge's findings must be added to the latter.
Due to the fact that the bulk of the Germans arrived in the 18th century, after the Dutch and French section had already increased during a couple of generations, the percentage of German blood in the Afrikaner is roughly speaking not much over 28% against about 50% of Dutch blood.

After the appearance of works like Dr. Hoge's, the blood percen-tages will undoubtedly have to be revised.
Mr. Hoge is in the first place a genealogical student. His corrections and additions to the Geslacht-Register of de Villiers are now being partly published in the historical review Historiese Studies. These and his Personalia form an important contribution to the subject of South African genealogy.

Historical students and collectors of Africana should not only procure this latest volume of the Archives Yearbook, but all the thirteen others which have preceded since 1938. The next volume will also partly be of a genealogical nature. It will contain the complete genealogy, with all the references found in the archives to the individual descendants, of the Kruger family, from the forbear Jacob Kruger down to President Paul Kruger, compiled by Dr. E. E. Mossop.

The volumes, in octavo, handsomely printed and bound, limited to 500 copies, are sold far below cost price at 12s. 6d. a volume by the Government Printer.
By J. L.M. FRANKEN.
Source: AFRICANA NOTES AND NEWS December, 1948 Vol. VI, No. 1