by Allan Gordon | Mar 24, 2020 | Events, South African War 1899 - 1902
On 24 March 1901 de la Rey’s Commando was engaged by General Babbington’s column at Wildfontein, a farm 20 km East of Coligny. De la Rey was forced to abandon his laager, a huge loss that included two ’15 pounders’, one of which was captured at Colenso and...
by Allan Gordon | Mar 23, 2020 | Events, First Anglo Boer War
On 23 March 1881 the Peace Treaty ending the First Anglo-Boer was signed at O’Neill’s Cottage, after three weeks of negotiations between the Boer Leaders and the British. The cottage was the home of Eugene O’Neill.
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 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 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 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...
