In the days before mass mechanisation the supply of sufficient men to enable the mine to process the vast amounts of material to liberate the diamonds was a problem. The mine recruited workers from all over South Africa as well as from the countries that bordered the Republic. To house these workers huge compounds were built. At one stage there were as many as 15 000 workers housed in the compounds. Due to internal fighting between the different ethnic groups the mine split the shifts along ethnic grounds and accommodated them in compounds according to ethnic groups.
In the early days the compounds were very basic with no bunks and with outdoor washing and cooking facilities. The compounds were closed compounds and the workers needed to cook for themselves. The food was bought from a store within the compound run by the Premier Mine Co-operative Society.
Gradually over the years the facilities within the compound improved and when the compounds closed in 1973, they boasted a bowls green, cinema and football fields.
John Lincoln's series on the history of Cullinan continues. This article looks at the village and surrounding area during World War II. Click here to view the series index.
In 1932 the mine closed for a second time and the village became a virtual ghost town. That was until 1939, when the military arrived. It was probably the vacant houses and the abundance of open veldt in which to practice manoeuvres that led the military to decide to select the Village and surrounding area to construct a massive camp.
The village was also connected to the railway network. The decision to construct the Italian POW camp at nearby Sonderwater (now Zonderwater) was probably influenced by its location well inland, as well as the close proximity of the SA Armed Forces.
The regiments of the forces decided to construct emblems of their military regiments on a koppie in the village. The two bagges visible in the above photograph are the “Regiment de la Rey” and the “Witwatersrand Rifles”. Other badges are “The Second Royal Durban Light Infantry”, the “Pretoria Regiment (Princess Alice’s Own)” and the “Central Army Training Depot” (John Lincoln)
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Below are a few short extracts on the history of the Cullinan School taken from John Lincoln's book 'Stories from a Diamond Mine'. The article forms part of a larger series on the history of Cullinan (click here to view).
The Cullinan School was opened by Mr RS Carruthers in a tent. They later moved into a tent that was also the first church in the village named the Presbyterian Church.
Presbytarian Church used by the Cullinan School
In October of the same year Mr AE Underwood arrived and took charge of the school. There were 52 pupils on the books at that time. Mr Underwood would remain as headmaster of the school until his sudden death in 1914.
Albert Edward Underwood
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John Lincoln's series on the history of Cullinan continues with this look at the town between the wars (Click here to view the series index). It contains a spectrum of stories that occurred during a difficult period for Cullinan.
Below is an extract from the Résumé of operations from 1903 until 1932:
Mining and washing operations were entirely suspended from August 1914, until January 1916, when washing was resumed with the No. 3 Gear only, and confined to the treatment of tailings and cylinder lumps from the No. 1 Gear. Work in this connection was continued until July 1916, during which time 717,726 loads of tailings and lumps were treated which yielded 266,945 carats of diamonds equal to .372 ct. per load.
Hauling from the mine was resumed in July 1916, on the basis of two shifts of 8 hours each per diem, the output being restricted to the capacity of the No. 3 Gear, the No. 4 Plant having been closed down since August 1914.
For the period January 1916 to October 1920 – practically 5 years - the quantity of ground treated varied from 4,530,000 to 4,928,000 loads per annum, with a corresponding fluctuation in the annual output of diamonds between 814,500 and 906,300 carats, the highest figure attained being for the financial year ended 31st October 1920, when diamonds to the value of £2,098,483 were produced.
The total quantity of ground washed from January 1916 to 31st October 1920 was 20,496,760 loads, from which diamonds...
John Lincoln returns with the seventh installment of his series on the history of Cullinan (click here to view the series index). It focuses on some of the wonderful historic buildings of the town.
Letter written by A Gass to the mine in 1978 about the Presbyterian Church during World War I:
Owing to the war and the closure of the mine the churches were without ministers. At that time there were four churches, the Anglican or English Church was near the post office. The Presbyterian Church had as its minister Rev. William Menzies, who was a chaplain to the SA Scottish and was away on active service. We as Presbyterians had an old missionary by the name of Christensen for a time but the boys were taken by a resident of the mine who at one time was a member of the Salvation Army, he was Mr Mahon. According to him our future outlook was none too good for all we could hope for was a perpetual life in some HOT PLACE, it was never referred to as HELL!
It is little wonder that with this as a prospect to look forward to, we were forced into taking the ‘tickey’ we were given for the collection and changing it to three pennies; two went into the collection plate and the remaining one into the chocolate machine at the railway station.
When Mr Mahon found this out we were due not only for FIRE but BRIMSTONE...
Below is the sixth part of John Lincoln's series on the history of Cullinan (click here to view the series index). It looks at some impressive mining history and reveals the vast scale of operations at the Premier / Cullinan Mine. As always, the photos from the Cullinan Mine Archive are remarkable.
To further facilitate the supply of water to the mine, a shaft was opened on the site of a borehole, which struck water at a depth of 300 feet (90 metres) and the water continued to flow out to the surface thereafter. The dimensions of the shaft were 14 feet (4 metres) and 5 feet 6 inches (1.7 metres) and during 1904 it was sunk to a depth of 195 feet (60 metres). It was situated in the north-west corner of the pipe, in blue ground, which looked very promising and pulverised freely. At this depth the shaft was making 600 gallons per hour. It was the intention to sink the shaft to 300 feet, where the water had been struck.
By 1903 a level of 40 ft. had been attained in the open pit. In 1908 a level of 160 feet (50 metres) was being worked and when the mine closed for the first time in 1914 the depth of the mine was 310 feet (100 metres). By 1918 it had increased to 410 feet (125 metres).
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Below is the fifth installment of John Lincoln's series on Cullinan based on his book 'Stories from a Diamond Mine'. As the title suggests it looks at the sporting activities and vibrant personalities of the village. Click here to view the series index.
The exact date is unknown, but one day in 1905 a group of Premier Mine employees got together to form the Premier Mine Golf Club. The area chosen would almost certainly have been the general area of the present-day Cullinan course.
The group of employees would probably have included William McHardy and AE Pack. McHardy was the first general manager of the mine and Pack the first engineer. McHardy would later become the first president and Pack the captain and champion of the golf club in 1907.
The early workers on the mine were a mixture of various races, first and second-generation South African nationals, and a large contingent from the British Isles. Some of these were soldiers who had stayed behind after the recently ended Boer War and others were from the mining camps of Kimberley.
There is evidence that the British nationals included large numbers of Scotsmen. As the inventors of the great game of golf, it would not be difficult to imagine that they would have had something to do with the formation of the golf club. In fact, William McHardy was born in Ballater in Scotland.
It appears that sport was an extremely important part of life in those early days, and pictorial evidence suggests that even as...
Below is the fourth installment of John Lincoln's series on Cullinan based on his book 'Stories from a Diamond Mine'. It looks at the magnificent engineering achievement of getting a reliable supply of water to the Premier Mine. Click here to view the series index.
In the very early days there was no concern as to the adequacy of the water supply. There were numerous springs in the pan that was to become the mine, and there was also a strong source from a stream which used to flow past Venter Motors (now Cullinan motors, and which was the site of a mill, the garage has since closed down due to the road now likely to fall into the ever expanding open pit.). Two boilers, supplying four steam pumps, were erected in this vicinity and it was from this dam that the mine obtained its water supply.
When the Minnaars’ portion of the farm was bought, a dam was also constructed at Danger Bend. Although accounts from the Minnaar family suggest that the dam was already there, it seems likely that the mine probably built up the dam for increased capacity. By 1905 the water supply was found to be inadequate and alternative supplies of water needed to be found.
An engineer, Mr D Gerrand, was commissioned by the Board of Directors to investigate a suitable source of supply.
After completion of his initial survey Mr Gerrand came to the conclusion that the point from which the mine could obtain an adequate supply was...
Below is the third installment of a fantastic series on Cullinan based on John Lincoln's book 'Stories from a Diamond Mine'. It highlights the work of William McHardy, the General Manager of Premier Mine, and reveals details of family life in the village. Click here to view the series index.
The McHardy Family
In April 1903 the Premier Mine acquired the services of a first-class manager, namely William McHardy. He was originally from the Kimberley Central Diamond Mining Company Limited and was appointed General Manager of Premier Mine.
He introduced the “direct double treatment system”, where the ground was crushed instead of being floored to allow the ground to deteriorate naturally, and through it achieved great success.
It was also due to McHardy that when the railway line between Pretoria and Premier Mine was completed in 1906, the village was named after T M Cullinan.
That McHardy was a man of strict integrity and high reputation is without question. In a book, BI Barnato, written by Harry Raymond shortly after Barnato’s death is the following passage:
Mr McHardy said: “Although I am an old inhabitant of these fields I have never spoken at a public meeting before and so you must make allowances for me. I should not speak now, but a great number of you must have heard the whisperings at street corners, and have seen the winks and nods which in this place are all that are necessary to damage a man’s reputation. I have a thorough knowledge of the...
Below is the second installment of a series based on John Lincoln's wonderful book Story from a Diamond Mine (click here to view series index). It looks at the discovery of the famous Cullinan Diamond and highlights some of the mysteries that are still with us today. The piece finishes by looking at some of the other famous stones that have emerged from the Cullinan / Premier Mine.
Fred Wells
Fred Wells is credited with finding the Cullinan Diamond, although some sources credit an African worker for pointing it out to him. Either way, on the 25th January 1905 the world’s biggest diamond was found. Fred Wells was at that time surface manager, and his daughter relates that “as my father was doing his routine inspection that evening he saw something glittering in the sunlight high up the side of the mine. He climbed up, and extracted the stone with his pocket knife. It was pronounced by the experts to be a diamond of exceptional quality, and the name by which it became at once known was bestowed in honour of Mr (later Sir) Thomas Cullinan, chairman of the company and discoverer of the mine”. She also relates that “when my father transported his large family of eight children plus a nephew from Kimberley to Premier Mine, there were only two houses with some tents clustered around the small washing plant. “We children used to play in and out of the works, sorting for rubies, as the grown-up girls helped sort the diamonds. “In...
