UPDATE: 18/01/2024
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 Plaque
Kimberley Junior School is part of a family of schools, with Kimberley Boys’ High School and Kimberley Girls’ High School, tracing their ultimate origins to the Kimberley Public Undenominational Schools founded in 1887.
Kimberley Junior School came into existence in its present form with the amalgamation of Belgravia Junior School and Kimberley Boys’ Junior School in January 1977, in buildings built for, and occupied for just over half a decade by Kimberley Boys’ Junior School, itself having hived off from Kimberley Boys’ High in July 1970.
Kimberley Boys’ Junior School was founded in 1970 when the junior section of “KHS” (Kimberley Boys’ High School) moved, in July of that year, to a new school building on the fringes of Monument Heights.
Kimberley Boys Junior School Plaque
Belgravia Preparatory School was established in Elsmere Road in 1907 – its building forming the nucleus of the subsequent Girls’ High School that moved to the site in 1913. Belgravia Junior School later occupied a building designed by William Timlin at the bottom of Memorial Road, on the site of the former St Michael’s School. It was from there that Belgravia moved to the new Kimberley Junior School by 1977.
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.
DID YOU KNOW
Richard Jackson has been credited with discovering the De Beers Mine in May 1871 when he, and his party, who were working alluvial diggings at Hebron on the Vaal river, heard of a white man dry-sorting “out there” and finding diamonds daily. The party, consisting of E. Struben, George Rex, Harry Collins and Jackson, moved out immediately and in due course found the lone Boer on his claim, and they too, were granted claims by the De Beer brothers who owned the farmland. His surname is not known, but to the lone Boer named Corneilsa (probably Cornelius) must go the credit of finding the De Beers Mine – even Jackson gives him recognition. Of course, there were many diamond companies by the 1880s working in the pit, but the most famous, the De Beers Mining Company, was formed on 28 April 1880, by several shareholders who included the first Chairman Robert Dundas Graham and the first secretary Cecil Rhodes. Rhodes would be the second chairman. The world’s worst ever diamond mine disaster occurred in this mine when an underground fire claimed the lives of 202 miners. During the siege, the mine headgear had the “conning tower” placed above the actual sheave wheel to allow the military to observe Boer movements, the “tower” being Colonel Kekewich’s command post. The concrete slab to the south of the hole is all that is left of the shaft. The mine closed in 1908, re-opened in 1961, but closed permanently in 1990. The open pit is now filled with ground from the re-treated tailings.
From Kimberley Calls and Recalls on Facebook By Steve Lunderstedt
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