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Item Ref# FS3130
Bronze Plaque of President Kruger
This bronze plaque was found on the Island of Guernsey. It is particulalry heavy.
It was stated by the owner to have been taken from a Boer home by a British soldier during the First Anglo-Boer War (1880 - 1881).
General During the first Anglo-Boer War there were several sieges. Lydenburg, Potchefstroom, Pretoria, Marabastad, Rustenburg, Standerton and Wakkerstroom were all surrounded in by the Boers in order to stop the British forces stationed there from taking part in the fighting.
Potchefstroom Prior to the war the British had been building a fort in Potchefstroom. Progress was very slow. On 15 December 1880 a large group of Boers on horses rode up to Potchefstroom. Major Thornhill, who saw them, raced back to the fort to warn his comrades. When a small group of Boers approached the fort shots were fired. Soon afterwards the Boers started firing on the fort from three directions. The fort’s low walls didn’t provide much protection.On 16 December 1880 the Boers replaced the Union Jack at the Landdrost’s office with a white flag. The thatched roof building was also set alight. The Boers demanded the British surrender of the fort but Colonel Winsloe refused. The siege continued and after 95 days the British force inside the fort surrendered as a result of hunger.
Lydenburg The siege of Lydenburg lasted from 6 January 1881 to 30 March 1881. After 5 December 1880 less than a hundred soldiers under 24 year-old Lieutenant Walter Long were left in Lydenburg. Although Long improved the fort's defences the water supply ran low by 23 January 1881. Long rejected a peace offering from the Boers and the siege only came to an end after 84 days.
Rustenburg There were very few British soldiers at Rustenburg when the war broke out. When Boers demanded the surrender of the fort on 27 December 1880 the British force refused. The small mud fort provided little protection and the people inside suffered from the lack of food and water and diseases. The Boers issued terms of a truce on 14 March 1881 and on 30 March they received confirmation that it had been accepted. |
National Scouts – We Pity the Traitors
Ah! Brother, national scout, who may be reading this, do you not regret and lament the unhappy part of traitor? Are your hands not stained with the blood of your countrymen? And your conscience, is that not tarnished with the blood of men, women and children, who fell in Freedom's holy war? We do not despise but we pity you, and wish it were otherwise.
Not only did these "National Scouts" lead the British to the Boers, but they were the principal instruments in the hands of the enemy to clear the Republics of all foodstuffs and ammunition. They knew precisely where their fellow-burghers had stored away their meal, corn, fodder, and ammunition, knew where the oxen and sheep were grazing, and forthwith to these they conducted the enemy's forces, and thus was brought to pass that state of affairs which necessitated the Boers to lay down their arms.
Without the assistance of the deserted burghers it would have taken the enemy ever so much longer to have exhausted the Republics entirely of all their resources. To a large extent these very republicans who sided with their country's enemies became the despoilers of the once so fair Republics. Ah me, that this should be recorded!
Besides, by assisting the enemy they not only encouraged them, but greatly discouraged their brethren in the field. The burgher who really meant well naturally became disheartened that those who fought with him for one and the same object could turn against him and play such a low and treacherous part. How men, who have stooped to deeds so mean and foul, shall defend their loathsome actions at the bar of Conscience and Justice, I know not.
Pieter Hendrik Kritzinger, Boer General
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And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Isaiah 35:10 |