Eugéne Barnard

The saddle, buffed smooth from many years of use, shimmers in the lampshade’s warm glow in the War Room at Smuts Museum, Irene, Pretoria. At the rear end of the saddle, its brass lined cantle follows the contours of what would have been Charlie’s loin. The seat is light brown. The skirt and saddle flaps are darker. Stirrup leathers and stirrups dangle loose. Who knows, the saddle may once even have belonged to an English officer.

Items exhibited in the War Room of the Smuts Museum, Irene, Pretoria. General Jan Smuts’s saddle, saddle bags, telescope, binoculars and case, fragment of Charlie’s bone, fork, and four books: Holy Bible, Greek and Latin Testaments, Xenophon’s Anabasis. Photograph taken by the author with the assistance of the Smuts Museum (August 2025).

During part of the South African (Anglo-Boer) War, the saddle bore the proud figure of General Jan Christiaan Smuts, Boer commander. Rider, saddle, and horse (described by the General as “one of the best horses on commando”) had grown inseparable; that is, until 7 September 1901 when a sudden burst of gunfire shattered the eerie silence in the gorge and severed the trio’s tight bond. Four men, including Smuts, had ridden into an ambush.

One bullet...

My cell phone pinged late one Saturday night. It was an email from the wife of South Africa’s favourite science teacher and renowned TV personality, William Smith. “I am replying to your enquiry on behalf of William”, Jenny wrote from Australia. “Due to time constraints with William being unwell, I have given as much input as we are able to.”

I was elated. William had identified his mother on the 1932 school photograph I sent him via the helpful staff at Rhodes University. In their response, the Smiths also provided me with invaluable information about William’s maternal grandparents for the book I was writing. The family lived in Indwe (the first company town in South Africa) in the early decades of the 20th century.

Four days - yes, less than a week - after I received the email, the sad news broke: William Smith died of cancer in Perth, Australia on 21 August 2024, at the age of 85. I was shocked, but exceedingly grateful that the critically ill William had found the strength and time to reply to my email. This act may have been his final tribute to his grandparents.

Not many know that William Macdonald Smith’s grandfather, a New Zealander who studied medicine in Scotland, came to South Africa in the late 1890s on the advice of his doctor. The young William Chisholm Macdonald suffered from tuberculosis (then commonly referred to as consumption). His lungs were always weak and exposure to any virus and physical exertion resulted...