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TODAY IN KIMBERLEY’S HISTORY 30 JUNE

UPDATED: 30/06/2023

30 June 1875, Black Flag Rebellion peters out with the arrival of British troops.
30 June 1882, Kimberley’s police force 86 whites and 2 africans.
30 June 1895, Sister Henrietta and the Anglican sisters leave the hospital.
30 June 1916, Dentist Dr Charles Snow killed in France.
30 June 1932, John Orr MBE (pictured), dies.
30 June 1967, SA cricketer Rudi Steyn born.
30 June 1991, The demise of apartheid, the Group Areas and Land Act done away with.

DEPARTMENT STORE FOUNDER DIES ON HOLIDAY

John Orr was born to Dickson and Letitia Orr on Thursday 7 January 1858 in Benburb, County Tyrone, Ireland, and died, while on holiday, in Dublin, Ireland on 30 June 1932.John Orr Gravestone

Educated in Ireland John Orr came to South Africa in 1883 aged 25 years and after working for Garlicks in Cape Town opened his first store in the mother city. In 1885 he moved to Kimberley and opened a drapery store in what would be a Kimberley landmark on Jones Street (now Phakamile Mabija Street) for many decades.

His brother Joseph joined him in 1891. Together they would build up the well-known chain of stores around South Africa, the major ones being in Kimberley, Durban, Johannesburg, Benoni, Lourenco Marques (Maputo) and at Springs. The empire steadily expanded. In 1951, it became a public company, by which time it was employing 2,500 people and conducting some 20,000 transactions a day.

In 1892 he married Mary Ellen Harper, the union producing five children, three sons and two daughters. The elder daughter Eileen married Lionel Cooper the Kimberley pharmacist.

He was twice Mayor of Kimberley, 1909 – 10 and again from 1916 – 1918. In 1910 he issued souvenir Kimberley cups to celebrate the Union of South Africa. In 1918 he was made a MBE. Orr was also a member of the first Management Board of the Alexander McGregor Memorial Museum, and was the founder of the Kimberley Horticultural Society.

John Orr

John Orr

In 1918 he was awarded an MBE.

His house on Lodge Road, Dunluce, or Lillienville as it was first known, was designed by DW Greatbatch for Gustav Bonas, a diamond buyer, in 1897. In 1902 Orr bought the house for the sum of £6 400, and gave it its present name. He lived there until his death, after which his daughter Eileen and her family moved in until 1975. In that year Dunluce was purchased by Barlow Rand. The company restored the house and donated it to the McGregor Museum, but retained its use until 1985 as accommodation for Barlow Rand managers.

Patrick Lambie, the Springbok rugby player, is a direct descendant of John Orr. Lambie’s grandmother Alizanne Labuschagne (husband was Nic Labuschagne of KZN rugby and an England rugby International) was the granddaughter of John Orr. Her father was Robert Harold Orr.

UPDATED: 30/06/2021

30 June 1875, Black Flag Rebellion peters out with the arrival of British troops.
30 June 1882, Kimberley’s police force 86 whites and 2 blacks.
30 June 1895, Sister Henrietta and the Anglican sisters leave the hospital.
30 June 1919, The number of Blacks employed by De Beers is 13083.
30 June 1932, John Orr MBE dies.
30 June 1967, SA cricketer Rudi Steyn born.
30 June 1991, The demise of apartheid, the Group Areas and Land Act Act done away with.
 

The Black Flag Rebellion

The Black Flag Rebellion or Revolt in 1875 was between the diamond diggers and the Cape’s colonial government. The head of the colonial government was Sir Richard Southey, who wished to curb the independence of the diggers.

The revolt was led by Alfred Aylward, other major players in the revolt being William Ling, Henry Tucker and Conrad von Schlickmann. The diggers were upset about high taxes, increased rent and black African unrest. Aylward was pushing for a Republican form of government, preached of revolution and formed the Defense League and Protection Association which pledged action against taxation.

Aylward (1843-1889) inspired the diggers to take up arms in March 1875 and he formed the paramilitary Diggers’ Protection Association. A black flag flying on Mt Ararat was the pre-arranged signal for Aylward’s supporters to revolt. (Mount Ararat was a Kimberley mine tailing, long since fallen into the open pit).

The black flag was raised when William Cowie, a hotel owner, was arrested for selling guns to Aylward without a permit with the rebels blocking the prison upon the arrival of Cowie (led by a Police escort). Cowie was eventually acquitted.

Southey immediately asked for British troops to be sent to help control the situation, and volunteers from the Cape also assembled to assist. The rebels held control of the streets for about ten weeks, but surrendered upon the arrival of the British soldiers on 30 June 1875.

The rebel leaders were arrested and put on trial but were found not guilty by a jury of their peers. London was not happy with the way that Southey had handled the situation and the cost of sending troops, and he was removed from his position.

The Irish-born and bred Aylward was the Editor of the “Diamond Field” newspaper at the time and was dismissed for his role in the revolt. Upon his clearance by the courts he was then employed as the Editor of the “Independent”, owned by William Ling. He left Kimberley shortly thereafter and by 1880 was the Editor of the Natal Witness, introducing the term “sleepy hollow” to describe Pietermaritzburg.

After the Transvaal War of Independence (1880-1881) he left southern Africa to settle in New Hampshire, United States which is where he died in 1889 in a wagon accident. He was no stranger to the USA, having fought in the American Civil War.

The significance of the “Black Flag Revolt” was a victory for white interests, the end to independent diggers and signalled the rise of the diamond magnates.

 

From Kimberley Calls and Recalls on Facebook By Steve Lunderstedt

Aeon Computer Kimberley

About Steve Lunderstedt

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