Historical

UPDATED: 22/01/2021 22 January 1844, Reverend Prince Gway Tyamzashe (pictured) born. 22 January 1901, Queen Victoria dies in England. The Reverend Prince Gway (Gwayi) Tyamzashe 22 January 1844 – 26 October 1896 No 1 Location in Kimberley, (roughly) bordering on ...

UPDATED: 21/01/2021 21 January 1872, Church school opens its doors in Dutoitspan. 21 January 1900, Long Cecil gun fires its first shell in anger at the Boers. 21 January 1931, Sydney de Melker, a Kimberley Springbok rugby player, marries the notorious ...

UPDATED: 20/01/2021 20 January 1900, Proving, sighting and slight adjustments to the Long Cecil gun (pictured) are made. DEATH FROM DISEASE RUNS RAMPANT DURING THE SIEGE Rationing of foodstuffs was not seriously adhered to until the military authorities realized that ...

UPDATE: 19/01/2021 19 January 1900, The Long Cecil gun, designed by American George Labram, and built in the De Beers Workshops, is tested. 19 January 1906, South Africa’s first Inter Colonial Poultry Conference in Kimberley. (Pictured is the Long Cecil ...

UPDATE: 18/01/2021 18 January 1908, The municipal Merryweather fire engine, now in the mine museum, replaced. 18 January 1977, Belgravia Girls’ Junior and Kimberley Boy’s Junior amalgamate to form Kimberley Junior School. AMALGAMATION FORMS KIMBERLEY JUNIOR SCHOOL Kimberley Junior School ...

UPDATED: 15/01/2021 15 January 1877, Murderer William Danster executed in Kimberley. 15 January 1897, Secretary of De Beers CM, William Henry Craven dies in the USA. 15 January 1901, Catholic Bishop Anthony Gaughren OMI dies. 15 January 1942, Springbok rugby player AFW ...

UPDATED: 14/01/2021 14 January 1871, First official mail from Cape Town to Klipdrift dispatched. THE POST BETWEEN THE DIGGINGS AND CAPE TOWN  It was on 15 October 1870 that the first mail was dispatched from the Diamond Fields to Cape ...

UPDATED: 13 JANUARY 2021 13 January 1900, The price of meat raised – beef 1/- and horse flesh 9 pennies per pound. Excerpt from “The Siege of Kimberley” – Its Humourous and Social Side – by T Phelan. Week ending ...

UPDATED: 12/01/2021 12 January 1915, The South African forces move in strength into German SWA. The forces include the Kimberley Regiment. Aircraft during the German SWA campaign The use of aircraft in warfare came of age in the Great War, ...

UPDATED: 11/01/2021 11 January 1905, Two books signed by Florence Nightingale donated to Library. 11 January 1916, 24 recently planted trees destroyed on Main Road Beaconsfield. 11 January 1965, Body of five-year-old girl recovered from Otto’s Kopje mine. Internment camps ...