Pam McFadden

In the article below Pam McFadden reveals some of the history behind the Little Church at Van Reenen which is considered by many to be the smallest church in the southern hemisphere.

Maynard Reginald Nelson Matthews was appointed as magistrate in Dundee from 9 December 1901, having been transferred from Newcastle and having served in number of towns throughout Natal. He also served as Chairman of the Dundee Cottage Hospital and in 1906 was the Chief leader of the Dundee Militia Reserves and Commander of Dundee under Martial Law.

On his retirement in 1921 he continued to serve Dundee as the Chairman of the Dundee & Glencoe Liquor Licensing Boards 1921-1925, was a member of the Dundee Town Council in 1922 and served as Mayor 1923-1924.

On 19 March 1925 there was a rock fall at Burnside Colliery, near Glencoe. A number of miners were trapped underground. Llandaff Matthews, was employed as a shift boss on this mine. As soon as news of the disaster spread he organised some men on the mine to go underground to save survivors and recover bodies. There was no formal Mine Rescue Service at the time. The organisation was officially founded later that year, with this accident being one of the motivations for a formal volunteer rescue service of mining men based on each mine. The men Llandaff led underground managed to save eight men. As he went into the shaft one last time there was a second rock fall. He was buried under the rock and died...

A Northumbrian by birth, Dr Prideaux Selby was already a middle aged bachelor when he sailed with the Byrnes' settlers to South Africa in 1850. He became the first doctor and Justice of the Peace to the Boer families in the Biggarsberg and lived at “Mooiplaas” for 25 years. He was held in high regard and loved by the Boer families – so much so that the names “Prideaux” and “Selby” were used extensively by the Boer families to name their children.

John Sneddon Dobie in his “Journal” of 1863 describes him as a “pegtop” clad in flapping white ducks and riding off on horseback under an umbrella to tackle an epidemic of measles in the scattered farmhouses.

He gave a home to and trained the first itinerant school teachers to the Voortrekkers, James Edwin Twyman and Richard Bodien.

Shortly before the beginning of the Anglo-Zulu War in 1879, he moved to the farm “Zarana” in the Dundee area and was a refugee in Fort Pine after the disaster at Isandlwana. A family account tells of Doctor Selby delivering babies at the Fort.

Two days after Lieutenant-Colonel Black had led a volunteer out of Fort Melvill to make a reconnaissance of Isandlwana battlefield, Lord Chelmsford decided to send all the cavalry to Rorkes' Drift in order to bury the dead at Isandlwana and bring back the wagons and anything else of value to the military.

Captain Robson brought the Buffalo Border Guards and Newcastle Mounted Rifles from Fort Pine accompanied...

Major William Knox-Leet was born in Dalkey, County Dublin on 3 November 1833. The youngest son of a Episcopalian rector, he graduated from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland and became an ensign in the 13th Prince Albert's Light Infantry in July 1855. In 1858 he was sent to British India where he saw action in several engagements during the Indian Mutiny. From 1867 until 1872 he served as an arms instructor in England. In July 1872 he became Deputy Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster-General in County Cork, Ireland. In 1879 he was sent to South Africa during the Anglo-Zulu War where he won the Victoria Cross for gallantry. In May 1883 he returned to British India as a battalion commander and took it to Burma (now Myanmar) during the Third Anglo-Burmese War. He was later promoted to the rank of Major General and retired from the British Army in November 1888 with 33 years of active military service. He died in Great Chart, Kent, England at the age of 64.

Major William Knox-Leet

Knox-Leet saved the lives of four wounded soldiers and was told by his comrades that he deserved the Victoria Cross - the highest decoration awarded for bravery by the British Military. The drawback was that his superiors in the War office had not recommended that he should receive this award and so he...