
Kimberley’s Olympian: Bevil Rudd
Bevil Rudd, grandson of co-founder of the De Beers Mining Company with Cecil Rhodes, and son of Percy Rudd, long time Director of De Beers Consolidated Mines, was a superb sportsman. He died relatively young at age 53 (or 54) ...
Read More »Why called Kimberley?
The title evokes thoughts of the early days, of boisterous diggers in one of the many saloons or pubs that studded the winding roads of the canvas and corrugated iron diamond town, swigging draughts and singing along with, dare one ...
Read More »A city of 1sts
1871 The first Private Postal Delivery Service 1877 The first professional training of nurses 1880’s The first rugby touring teams 1880 The first drive in bar 1882 The first city in the Southern Hemisphere to install electric street lighting on 2 ...
Read More »Diamond Rush
Architecture in Kimberley
Kimberley is an architectural gem and it is difficult to remember that the city grew up around a great big hole in the ground. Starting out as a shanty and frontier town resembling the towns of the American Wild West, ...
Read More »Discovery of the Mines: Du Toitspan
The first of the Kimberley diamond mines to be discovered was the Du Toitspan Mine, named such because the farm Dorstfontein originally belonged to Abraham Paulus du Toit, who had built a small house next door to the Pan, a ...
Read More »Death at Olifantsfontein
Jacob Gamler, a well-known Jewish trader on and around the Diamond Fields, packed his wagon on Friday afternoon 19 January 1877 in readiness for a “smousing” trip to the Orange Free State. The wagon, although light of build, and drawn ...
Read More »A Brief History on the Kimberley Chamber of Commerce & Industry
Kimberley’s Chamber – Conclusion Many of the chain stores relinquished membership in 1979 creating a mini catastrophe in the ranks of the Chamber, but by the time of the Centenary in 1980 membership had again risen to total some ...
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