by Allan Gordon | Mar 17, 2020 | Anniversaries, South African War 1899 - 1902
On 17 March 1900 Commandant-General Piet Joubert died in Pretoria. A generally unknown fact was that he was a huge ‘opponent’ of President Kruger, standing against him in elections on three occasions, narrowly losing out on two of those occasions. He was in command of...
by Allan Gordon | Mar 16, 2020 | Events, South African War 1899 - 1902
On 16 March 1901 Boer Commandant Botha turned down the British offer for peace. The process had started late in February when Kitchener used Botha’s wife Annie, who was living in Pretoria with their children, as an intermediary. The British terms were conveyed...
by Allan Gordon | Mar 14, 2020 | Anniversaries, South African War 1899 - 1902
Lieutenant-General Herbert Charles Onslow Plummer was born on 13 March 1857. At the time of the Jameson Raid he was on military duty in Cape Town and was sent to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) to disarm the police force who were apparently sympathetic towards the...
by Allan Gordon | Mar 13, 2020 | Events, South African War 1899 - 1902
On 13 March 1900, Roberts’ British forces marched into Bloemfontein unopposed. To the British this was the first piece of the jigsaw puzzle – two ‘republics’ had declared war on the British Empire in 1899, and now one of their capitals was in British hands. One more...
by Allan Gordon | Mar 12, 2020 | Anglo Zulu War, Battles
After the attack on Rorke’s Drift, and an attempted attack by Zulu Impi’s early in February, the German ’settlement’ of Luneberg decided to ‘laager’ their environment. The British sent four companies of the 80th Regiment to help in this regard. In late...
by Allan Gordon | Mar 12, 2020 | Anniversaries, South African War 1899 - 1902
Commandant Christoffel Cornelis Froneman died on this day in 1913. He and General de Wet were part of the Orange Free State Commandos during the South African War and he was with de Wet at Magersfontein and Paardeberg, where he evaded capture. He was part of the Free...
by Allan Gordon | Mar 10, 2020 | Events, South African War 1899 - 1902
On this day in 1900 Commandant Piet Joubert held his last Krijgsraad (War Council) at Glencoe Junction, a railway junction 10 km west of Dundee. He was an ill man and left for Pretoria the following day where he died 17 days later.
by Allan Gordon | Mar 10, 2020 | Battles, South African War 1899 - 1902
The Battle of Driefontein on 10 March 1900 followed the Battle of Poplar Grove (7 March 1900) and was the last attempt by the Boers at halting the advance of the British forces on Bloemfontein. Driefontein was a farm in the Orange Free State just south of the Modder...
by Allan Gordon | Mar 10, 2020 | Anniversaries, South African War 1899 - 1902
William Eagleson Gordon was a Captain when he was awarded the Victoria Cross at the Battle of Dwarsvlei on 11 July 1900. He was part of the 1st Battalion Gordon Highlanders who took part in the battles to relieve Kimberley and was wounded at the Battle of...
by Allan Gordon | Mar 7, 2020 | Events, South African War 1899 - 1902
Having been taken prisoner and being an injured, high profile individual, de la Rey found himself in a predicament as to what to do with Methuen. The Boers demanded that Methuen be executed, however de la Rey sent the wounded Methuen to a British hospital in his...
