Kwazulu-Natal

There is something magical about blue plaques. They are portals into the past and you never know which personality, invention or event you are going to stumble upon next.

The other day, while walking around my home town of Cirencester, I spotted a plaque on the wall of the local school. As always, I strolled over to have a closer look. The name Walter Reginald Hammond looked familiar but I wasn't sure why. When I read the next line I got excited. I love cricket and to see that a world renowned player and captain of England went to school nearby was very cool. I had to know more.

That evening, back at home with a cup of coffee and my laptop, I began a fascinating research journey. Not only did I dig deeper into the life of one of the greatest cricketers of all time, but I discovered some fascinating South African links along the way.

Cirencester School and Blue Plaque (The Heritage Portal)

The more articles and statistics I digested, the more I realised that I had stumbled upon a legend of the game. Walter Hammond scored 50,493 runs...

From about 05h00 on Saturday 8 June 2025 around 15,000 athletes are expected to gather in the cold pre-dawn outside the Pietermaritzburg Town Hall. Normally one would also have said it was pitch dark and very quiet.

But on 8th June this year (as it is every second year) the entire area will be well lit, music will be blaring from loudspeakers and there will be an excited buzz as new arrivals join the throng.

As the young set would say: “unless you’ve been living under a rock” every reader will recognise that we are describing the scene that builds up to the start of “The Comrades”. Over the years the organising committee has dropped the reference to “Marathon” but added the epithet - “the Ultimate Human Race”.

Gathering before the start (Wikipedia)

A dash for the cameras (Rob Arthur)

Nine times winner and 30 finishes overall Bruce Fordyce has frequently sardonically quipped that:

Only in South Africa would they call an event that is twice the standard distance, with at least 5 monstrous climbs and many other up and downs along the route, and with a...

The Battle of Spioenkop in January 1900 is often cited as a remarkable convergence of three future world leaders - Winston Churchill, Louis Botha, and Mahatma Gandhi. While Churchill's presence as a journalist and Botha's role in the battle are well-documented, a fascinating historical question remains:  Was Gandhi actually present at Spioenkop itself? Thank you to Neil Cairns for posing the following question which inspired this article:

Please can you help me with a simple question which I can’t find the answer to? The reference to the three future world leaders Churchill, Botha and Gandhi’s presence in or around Spioenkop at the time of the battle abounds in many articles. Churchill and Botha are obviously easy to account for, but I have not found a reference that actually puts Gandhi himself there. Obviously his corps of stretcher bearers were there, but I haven’t found anything that puts Gandhi there at all. Do you know of any such source or is this merely an apocryphal “good story”?

In books, articles and even quiz questions, the story of Gandhi at Spioenkop continues to be repeated. The story even appears on the interpretation boards at the battle site. This specific question about Spioenkop, reminds us that it is important to challenge an existing view if it isn't supported by the evidence.

Gandhi as a...

The Peter Louis Award, established in 2004 by the Architectural Heritage Committee of the South African Institute of Architects – KwaZulu Natal, celebrates contributions to conserving the built environment. Named in honor of Peter Louis, a professional Quantity Surveyor, the award recognises individuals or organisations that represent the cultural and physical diversity of KwaZulu-Natal.

In 2024, the award was presented to the Durban Art Deco Society (DADS) in recognition of their 25-year commitment to preserving Durban's architectural heritage. The award ceremony took place on 14 November 2024 at the SAIA-KZN offices in Glenwood, Durban, with a hand-written Scroll of Honour created by calligrapher Ingrid Lotter Smith.

Founded in 1999 by Jean Powell and Denis Claude, with Helen Labuschagne joining soon after, DADS has been instrumental in protecting and promoting Art Deco buildings in Durban. The society's constitution emphasises encouraging the preservation of Art Deco buildings by providing design guidelines for owners, developers, and designers.

Over the past 25 years, DADS has made significant contributions:

• Providing consultancy services to building owners, helping them understand and preserve the heritage value of their properties
• Successfully intervening in potential heritage preservation challenges, such as the case of Berea Court
• Awarding Certificates of Merit to well-preserved Art Deco buildings like Berea Court and Escombe Court
• Collaborating with owners to ensure appropriate renovations and restorations

Berea Court (Alison Chadwick)...

It is with great sadness and a very heavy heart that I write this goodbye to my friend, my "go to" encyclopedia for information on military, cultural and Zulu history and customs of this region, a sounding board for events and new ideas and information on medals.

Pat Rundgren will leave a huge hole in our area - his passion for the history, his incredible breadth of knowledge, his willingness to always share his knowledge and for always being there when it came to tours, reenactments, writing articles and so much more.

Always ready for reenactments

For over 20 years he served on the Dundee Tourism committee. From the very early years he was part of the Battlefields Route committee and was a founder member of the professional association of Battlefield Tour Guides and served as secretary for many years. His wit and sense of humor was evident in all notices and minutes of meetings - and always drew a reaction and interaction from the guides - and his call sign as he ended his messages- Kambula Kid.

He served on the Talana Museum Board of Trustees for over twenty years and as Chairman for the past five years. Many was the time when he thought that I was really barmy especially when it...

One of the significant treasures of the St John’s College archives is the handwritten journal of the Boer War by a young chaplain relating his day-to-day war experiences and his description of campaign details as seen from the British viewpoint. This journal has been consulted extensively by academics as well as military history buffs to produce theses and articles of the South African War.

Later much was written about this warrior/priest regarding his bravery as a chaplain in the trenches of World War I and also about his strong views held, often contra conventional opinions of the day. His caring for the common soldier and an absence of self-regard impressed many and engendered numerous anecdotes.

Father Eustace Hill painted by Hugh Dent (Wikipedia)

A revered headmaster for only nine years, some of Fr Hill’s achievements were the creation of many beautiful buildings of the College, the swelling pupil numbers, and sporting achievements, as well as the blossoming of the cadet efficiency platoon. What is less mentioned is the fact that St John’s involvement with the CR Anglican Sophiatown mission came into existence by his urging and under his leadership.

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Recently I came across what may well be classed as the first example of what we now call "electronic warfare". It was described by no less a writer than Winston Churchill and it appears in his book "London to Ladysmith via Pretoria" (1900).

This intriguing incident occurred during the attempt by the British Army to relieve Ladysmith, then under siege by the Boers. I shall leave it to Churchill to describe what happened:

That night we tried to congratulate or encourage Ladysmith, and the searchlight perseveringly flashed the Morse code on the clouds. But before it had been working half an hour, the Boer searchlight saw it and hurried to interfere, flickering, blinking, and crossing to try to confuse the dots and dashes, and appeared to us who watched this curious aerial battle - Briton and Boer fighting each other in the sky with vibrations of ether - to confuse them more effectually. Next morning, however, the sun came out for uncertain periods, and Ladysmith was able to tell her own story briefly and jerkily, but still a vey satisfactory account.

It occurred to me that the searchlight used by the Army signaller in tapping out the Morse code, was most likely mounted on an armoured train and somewhere in my collection of Boer War artefacts was a photograph of just such a train. Not only was there a "shutter telegraph" mounted upon a searchlight on an armoured train but the train carried two significant sign boards attached to its...

During the 1980s, the Pietermaritzburg Society was dedicated to the preservation of the city’s red brick Victorian architecture. The president was architect Gordon Small who had been commissioned by the Natal Provincial Hospital Services to advise on the restoration of some of the old buildings at Fort Napier, originally the headquarters of the British garrison in Natal, but then as now, being used as a mental health facility.

First and last structures of the fort: The turn of the 20th Century water tower built into the 1843 redoubt.

Gordon arrived at a society meeting sometime in 1987 marvelling at the wealth of heritage buildings and at the history of the old fort that lay cut off from the world by strong gates, tall trees, and the general inaccessibility of a mental health institution. Paul Thompson, a history professor at the University of Natal (who had trained at a military academy in the USA), jumped through several bureaucratic hoops, but received permission to do a survey of the surviving military buildings on the site.

There was some talk of turning some of the buildings into a museum, but this would have fallen foul of the Tri-Cameral Constitution beloved by “Die Groot Krokodil”, one PW Botha...

There are a number of basic principles to be followed when an Imperial or Colonial army equipped with superior firepower takes on a so-called “native” or indigenous enemy armed principally with hand-held weapons such as spears, clubs, swords etc. One of these is to be able to shoot the enemy before he can get close enough to use his own weapons.

In this event, although it might look very precarious, the situation is actually quite under control and there is little or no danger posed to the side with the superior firepower. 

So long as the ammunition keeps coming! Fire control and re-supply is therefore critical.

Fire Control

Grierson in Scarlet into Khaki states:

The usual deep formations of infantry are not advisable in war against savages; on the contrary, the front rank (line of riflemen) must be powerful enough to repulse all hostile assaults by their own strength. In the Zulu War a detachment was annihilated at Isandlwana, because the endeavour was made to resist an attack of the enemy in loose order. The infantry will mostly remain in close formation, and to advance steadily so as not to weary the men uselessly, and to maintain order. Special stress is to be made on fire discipline. The firing is exclusively by volleys and at short distances. What the savages dread most is a bayonet charge.

Volley firing would have been done by section, not en masse. There was therefore no requirement for individual marksmen to take pinpoint shots – the...

Shortly after David Lloyd George became the UK’s Prime Minister in December 1916, Arthur Lee (1868 – 1947 and later Lord Lee) and his wife Ruth, an American heiress, decided on a most altruistic and public-spirited gesture. While previous Prime Ministers had always belonged to the landed classes, the post war era was clearly ushering in a new breed of politician. These men did not have the spacious country houses in which to entertain foreign dignitaries, or a tranquil place to relax from the affairs of state. After discussions with Lloyd George, the childless Lees donated their country home and estate, sections of which date to 1556, to the nation as a country retreat for the serving Prime Minister, under the Chequers Estate Act 1917.

Chequers from above

Sir Frank Reynolds follows suit with Botha House

In early 1918, South Africa’s Prime Minister, General Louis Botha (1862 - 1919) visited Sir Frank Reynold (1852 – 1930), a sugar magnate living at Lynton Hall on the southern outskirts of the little seaside village of Pennington. At some point Botha requested Reynolds to secure him some land in the vicinity, where he could erect a beach cottage for his wife Annie.

Inspired by Lord Arthur and Lady Ruth Lee’s gift to the British nation, Sir...