Combined with a brief reflection on Pretoria’s railway history, this article primarily sets out to reflect on the history of the two railway station buildings that were erected at the foot of a hill in Pretoria.
In support of this historical narrative, inclusive of key events that occurred at the Pretoria station during the Anglo-Boer war, this article’s main focus is on the visual history of the two station buildings (completed during 1892 and 1912 respectively), as portrayed on picture postcards over a 25-year period (late 1890’s to mid-1920s).
Whilst photographs of the Pretoria station also exist for the period between 1892 and 1899, picture postcards only became commercially viable in South Africa during the Anglo-Boer war period (1899 – 1902).
Introduction
Just south of young Pretoria, the first of two Pretoria station buildings, completed during 1892, was erected at the bottom of Time Ball Hill located at the end of Market Street (Paul Kruger street today).
But where does the name Time Ball Hill originate from?
During 1880 the Postmaster General, JA de Vogel, devised a scheme using a telegraph post whereby the arrival and delivery from the different mail routes into young Pretoria town could be signalled to Pretoria citizens. These signals varied from a suspended ball, a flag or a drum that was placed underneath the telegraph post (Andrews & Ploeger, 1989).
The hill, renamed to Salvokop around 1944, has also occasionally been referred to as Railway Hill.
It was thought that the name Salvo (meaning simultaneous discharge...
“An increasing number (of horses) are killed for rations and today 28 were especially shot for the chevril factory”. HA Nevinson war reporter for The Daily Chronicle.
Chevril Label (Talana Museum)
So often with history it is the main events that are carried down through time. The logistics to keep armies moving tend to be overlooked and the animals that suffered in wars also tend to take a back seat.
Horses played a vital role during the Anglo-Boer War. 360,000 horses out of a total of 519,000, were imported to South Africa including 50 000 from the United States and 35 000 from Australia – most of them landing in Port Elizabeth. 106,000 mules and donkeys out of a total of 151,000 were also brought into the country for the war.
Horse in transit (Talana Museum)
A variety of breeds of horses were used during the war. Many Boers used Basuto Ponies, that were well adapted to the rocky, mountainous terrain and were known for their endurance. The Boer horses were exceptionally hardy and nimble and could survive in all types of terrain and weather conditions.
The Penn Symons flag arrived in the post addressed to the Museum Dundee back in the early 1980s. It has been on permanent display in the museum since 1983. It has an interesting story and one that is personally connected to my forebears.
The Penn Symons flag
The idea for a permanent museum in Dundee that would commemorate the Anglo Boer War and particularly the Battle of Talana (the first battle of the Anglo Boer War of 1899-1902), the history of the coal industry (the Dundee Coal Company was launched on the London Stock Exchange in 1889), the history of glass making in South Africa (glass has been made in our valley since 1889) and of course the local settler history, was mooted in 1977 with an exhibition in the MOTH hall to raise awareness. The decision was later taken to establish a museum to coincide with the centenary of the founding of Dundee in 1982 and the original Smith farm – Dundee farm, on the slopes of Talana hill - was purchased as a joint venture between the Dundee Town Council and the Province of Natal.
In 1901 the Duke of Cornwall and York – the future King George V – and his wife embarked on the longest official tour ever undertaken by the British Royal family. The tour lasted for nearly eight months and most of it was spent in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa, with brief calls at Gibraltar, Malta, Aden, Ceylon, Singapore and Mauritius. They travelled almost 50 000 miles.
It became one of the great media events of its day and was viewed by contemporaries as a ceremonial occasion of great and lasting importance. At the time it was viewed as being “undertaken at the express desire of Queen Victoria, as a mark of special appreciation for the part her colonies had played in the hour of the Empire’s need.” However, the truth was much more complex. Her death in January 1901 changed the attitude of Edward VII, once he became king, and he did not want the tour to proceed. Eventually it was agreed that the tour would go ahead, so long as Joseph Chamberlain (Colonial Secretary) would guarantee that there was no danger to the heir to the throne.
George and his wife left Britain in mid March. He was not particularly enthusiastic about visiting South Africa and at his request John Anderson, the Colonial official accompanying the royal party, wrote to Chamberlain from Aden in early May, with a request to cancel the visit to South Africa as there was a “serious outbreak of plague” in Cape...
“I have had, in the last four years, the advantage, if it be an advantage, of many strange and varied experiences. But nothing was so thrilling as this: to wait and struggle among these clanging, rending iron boxes, with the repeated explosions of the shells and the artillery, the grunting and puffing of the engine – poor, tortured thing, harassed by at least a dozen shells, any one of which, by penetrating the boiler, might have made an end to it all”. W.L.S. Churchill.
Young Churchill (Imperial War Museum)
With Ladysmith besieged by Boer forces, by early November 1899 the main body of British troops had retired south of the Tugela River, basing itself at Estcourt. In a sort of “phoney war”, extensive scouting was carried out around Estcourt south to Willow Grange, west towards the Drakensberg Mountains and north towards Colenso, including the use of an “armoured train” which made periodic forays up the line to Frere, Chieveley and Colenso. However, the use of an armoured train as a reconnaissance vehicle was somewhat of an oxymoron. It could be seen and heard for miles, and any Boers in the vicinity merely had to take cover and wait for it to pass. Indeed, the armoured train that...
In August 2020, a Blue Plaque was unveiled at Swartruggens on the 120th anniversary of the siege of the Elands River Post. It commemorates the remarkable resilience of a small garrison of Australians and Rhodesians during the South African War. General Jan Smuts, who took part on the Boer side, described it thus:
Never in the course of this war did a besieged force endure worse sufferings, but they stood their ground with magnificent courage. All honour to these heroes who in the hour of trial rose nobly to the occasion. (Jan Smuts Memoirs of the Boer War)
Despite the high praise at the time, the episode is often overlooked in latter-day accounts such as Thomas Pakenham’s celebrated book, The Boer War, for example.
The military cemetery at Elands River (Vincent Carruthers)
The dedication of local history enthusiasts Peet Coetzee, Maarten Stols, John Pennefather and others has ensured that the battlefield is beautifully maintained and the siege is well interpreted in an interesting museum and an excellent book, The Siege of Elands River Battlefield Guide, by Peet Coetzee.
This is the story:
In the early months of the South African War, the British forces suffered a series of defeats that saw them besieged in Ladysmith, Kimberley and Mafeking. However, when the Boers...
As you approach Hartbeespoort Dam on the R511, the road rises steeply over Saartjie’s Nek to reveal a spectacular view of the dam with the cliffs of the Magaliesberg behind. On a koppie to the right, a massive granite cross commemorates General Hendrik Schoeman and overlooks the grand panorama that he envisioned but never lived to see.
The memorial
The 4m high cross is, however, more than a monument – it is an exculpation of Schoeman’s honour, erected by his son, Johan, 55 years after his father’s death. If you climb the stone path to the cross the strange epitaph hints at Hendrik Schoeman’s controversial life (translated from Afrikaans):
This symbol of tragedy and triumph of victory in defeat has been erected for GENERAL HENDRIK SCHOEMAN by a group of admirers. Cruel is the fate of the prophet and peacemaker, his lonely path leads through Gethsemane to Golgotha. Think of Hess, of Petain, of the Crucified. But even more tragic is the fate of those who reject his advice with contempt. Erected 1955
In May 1900, Lord Roberts of Kandahar, Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces, was poised to culminate his illustrious military career by marching triumphantly into his enemy’s capital city and concluding the South African War. But it was a charade. There could be no victory without a vanquished foe and the Boer leaders were still at large with a fighting remnant of their army. Another two bitter years of warfare lay ahead.
Lord Roberts (National Library of Ireland)
In the city, rumours were rife and the people awaiting the British advance lacked information and were desperately worried and afraid. Morale was at its lowest. Bessie Collins, a loyal republican despite her English surname, kept a daily letter-diary addressed to her friend in Port Elizabeth. On 6 May: “We all feel that we are very near the end. One more stand and all will be over. Our hearts are heavy. We fear the worst. The men are so weary and faint hearted that we do not even know whether their officers will get them to make a last stand.” Her concerns were probably echoed by many in the town when a week later she recorded: “I cannot see the use of shedding more blood and only long for this awful war to cease. It is getting unendurable to...
The Battle of Diamond Hill took place on the 11 and 12 June 1900. Sir Ian Hamilton, one of the generals who took part in the battle, described it as the turning point in the South African War, so in this Memoir we look at what happened and why it was so important.
The Battle of Diamond Hill (from V. Carruthers. The Magaliesberg)
An earlier Memoir told how, as Lord Roberts, Commander in Chief of the British forces, prepared to occupy Pretoria on 5 June 1900, General Louis Botha left to rally the remnants of the Boer army. Botha had been persuaded to continue the war by the Free State President Martinus Steyn and further encouragement now came with the news that Christiaan de Wet’s Free State commandos were wreaking havoc with the extended British line of communication between Pretoria and Cape Town. British columns had been defeated at Lindley and Heilbron and rail links were repeatedly being disrupted. The Transvaal commandos were despondent and exhausted after months of defeat and retreat and many had returned to their farms thinking that the war was over. But, encouraged by Botha’s revived determination and the news from the Free State, a core of about 5000 burghers were still willing to fight on. They assembled at Donkerhoek pass, which today carries...
A recent invitation to spend a weekend in the Western Free State provided an opportunity to visit the cemetery at the small town of Bultfontein. Situated approximately 90 kilometres north of Bloemfontein, I had passed through this town at least fifteen years ago, when I cursorily traipsed the cemetery. This time I undertook to explore it in more detail.
Although approval for the establishment for a village was granted in 1862, disagreement as to the site delayed the laying out of the town until 1873, when it was decided to lay out two towns, one at Bultfontein and one at Hoopstad. The former was established on the farm Bultfontein and accordingly named in 1874. Reputedly, it has the largest grain silo in Africa and quite possibly in the southern hemisphere, with a capacity of 850 000 bags.
The cemetery, opposite the town’s handsome Dutch Reformed Church, seemed to be reasonably maintained with little evidence of vandalism visible. This Church was designed by Hendrik Vermooten (1921-2013), a prolific church architect who had apparently designed 144 churches across South Africa. Vermooten adhered to a distinctive style of church architecture, of which the above church seems to be a typical example.
The oldest graves date from the earlier years of the twentieth century and there are several examples of slate tombstones that have survived the intervening years, surprisingly well. Tombstones engraved from slate seemed to have been popular amongst the Afrikaner rural communities, many of these containing unusual and varied symbols adapted from folk...
