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 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 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 | 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 4, 2020 | Anniversaries, South African War 1899 - 1902
Major-General Hector McDonald, or ‘Fighting Mac’ as he was more commonly known, was born on 4 March 1853. He served in the First Boer War (1880–81), and at the Battle of Majuba Hill. The Boer General Joubert, after arresting McDonald, gave him back his sword, after...
by Allan Gordon | Feb 28, 2020 | Anniversaries, South African War 1899 - 1902
Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Edmond Knox was born on this day. During the South African War he was part of the force that relieved Kimberley. Thereafter he was at Paardeberg where he was wounded on 18 February 1900.