TOPIC:

Thanks, Neville,
it's significant for me to see the graves of the two brave Heidelbergers, David van Staden and Willem Marais.
This is how they died:
While Hendrik Prinsloo was leading his Carolina men up the north-east slope to the summit at about 7:45 am on 24 January 1900, 30 Heidelbergers also began to climb in the dense mist, up the north-western slope. They probably took almost the same route from up Spioenkop that the car access takes today. They ran into outlying British units in the mist at very close range, probably about 100 meters N or NW of the current car-park. and Willem Kamffer was shot in the shoulder, Willem Marais through the head, and David van Staden high in the forehead. Hendrik Kamffer watched in horror as his friend David van Staden writhed about, hitting his face against the stones, spattering it with blood and brains until he died.
I wonder if you noticed their head wounds when handling their remains?
I had thought Hendrik Kamffer buried his Heidelberg comrades, Marais and Van Staden, on the summit, and my book "The Spioenkop Campaign" makes this error. If you could give me the GPS (as best you can, from Google Earth) of their first resting place, I'd be grateful. I'll correct it if it ever gets re-printed.

Thank you Rob,

Annoyingly, there are two groups of buildings with the name Alexandria, and although I am pretty certain the grave is where I have located it on the 1:50,000 map, I cannot be one hundred percent sure. The northern Alexandria (the less likely location) appears to be nothing more than a clump of trees now. Much has changed since 1978.
Matters are not helped by the fact that the Alexandria grave is not marked on the 1:50,000 map.

I think the only way of being sure would be to visit the two sites and compare the hills on the horizons with those in my photographs. Unfortunately, Google Street View's coverage of rural South Africa is rather patchy, with none of the smaller roads photographed.

I would not want you to replace one error with another!

At least we know their final resting place is under the Burgher Monument.

Neville

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6. ARCADIA

Jacob Philippus SMIT, died Arcadia Field Hospital, 25/01/1900, aged 36 (presumably from wounds received at Spion Kop).
W. MALAN (possibly Wynand Johannes Malan, Heidelberg Commando, K.I.A., Platrand, 06/01/1900, aged 54 - for two further contenders see below).


My diary entry for 9th August 1978

Neil Veitch [of the “Cape Times”] will have difficulty finding us today, as yesterday evening Welly Hyde told him we would be working at Davel’s Hoek. However our plans have changed, and we are instead heading out west to a farm called Arcadia.



.1:50,000 Map of South Africa, Sheet 2829DA (Spion Kop)


During the war this place was used by the Boers as a hospital, and, as a result, there are several graves here. Three of these belong to Burghers, but there are also one or two “Tommys” buried here.

The old hospital buildings have recently been demolished, but Welly succeeded in salvaging the original operating table, which it is intended to exhibit in Dougie McMaster’s “Long Tom Museum” [“Blockhouse Museum”] when it opens. The only surviving part of the old structure is the tin roof, which has been used to renovate one of the barns.

It was near this barn that we started the first exhumation. The grave belonged to a chap call Smit, who died of wounds in the hospital.












The labourers proved a little over-zealous today, and before anyone had the chance to stop them they were laying into one of the British graves. Welly soon put them right, and after a while we began to find the tell-tale rust fragments that indicated that Smit’s remains were close at hand. Probing a little further, we discovered a makeshift coffin, constructed from old bedsteads and sheet iron.

After the iron had been removed, I jumped in and started work at the head end of the burial. Although Smit’s skull had survived well, there was little left of the remainder of his skeleton. The labourers therefore took over, and completed the exhumation.






Once all the remains had been lifted, it became apparent that one leg was missing. Whether Smit had had one of his legs amputated or whether the labourers didn’t look hard enough I guess we will never know.

While the exhumation of Smit had been taking place, a second team of labourers had started work on another grave, some fifty yards to the southeast [south]. This was close to the farmstead, amongst a group of blue gum trees. Although the labourers had been digging here all morning, they had so far only manged to remove twelve inches of earth. The ground was incredibly hard, and Welly likened it to a grave they had dug before my arrival. This had turned out to be seven feet deep and took two whole days to excavate. The hard nature of the soil was explained by the proximity of the blue gums, which had taken all the moisture from the ground.









Luckily this grave wasn’t seven feet deep, and by the late afternoon we were lifting bones. Contrary to the inscription on the cross, we only found one occupant. This discovery solved two problems – the name of the person we had just exhumed, and the whereabouts of the two Burghers who were thought to have been buried here. This was believed to have been the final resting place of two men named Malan. However, the same two Malans were also reputedly buried in another cemetery. On top of this, there was a third Malan whose whereabouts was unknown.

Now that we know there is only one body in the grave at Arcadia, it seems safe to assume that the first two Malans are buried in the other cemetery, and that this is the third missing Malan (W. Malan).

[It turns out that all three Malans had the initial W. These are: Willem Malan, Bethal Commando, K.I.A., Spion Kop; Willem Abraham Millan, Lydenburg Commando, K.I.A., Spion Kop, aged 25; and Wynand Johannes Malan, Heidelberg Commando, K.I.A., Platrand, aged 54. Logically, the two Spion Kop casualties would have been buried together, suggesting that the Burgher exhumed at Arcadia was Wyand Malan].

A bottle was found next to our Malan’s head, but sadly the pressure exerted by the weight of earth had crushed it, so we will never know its contents. Welly says it is quite common to find sealed bottles in graves, and that these generally contain pieces of paper inscribed with the name of the individual.








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7. BEAUVALE

Johannes Groenewald DE KOCK, K.I.A., Platrand, 06/01/1900, 23 years old.


My diary entry for 2nd August 1978

After meeting up at the Natal Provincial Administration works depot, we set off for Kleinfontein again.

Once we had collected the key from the farm, we passed through a locked gate and made are way to another farm [Beauvale] a kilometre or so away. This was a very run-down place, surrounded by more scrap iron than farm implements.



.1:50,000 Map of South Africa, Sheet 2829DA (Spion Kop)



.© Maxar Technologies

Approximate location of the grave, based on the 1:50,000 Map of South Africa (1986 Edition)


On the far side of the farm, we came across two graves next to the track. These were in a very sorry state, one with its headstone smashed and lying on its back in pieces, the other with no grave marker at all. The lack of the second headstone was explained by the fact that it had recently been removed to the Caesar’s Camp monument, but its absence only added to the feeling of desolation that permeated this neglected burial place.





De Kock had been a member of the Heidelberg Commando, and like so many of his comrades met his end on Caesar’s Camp [Platrand].

Welly Hyde has only recently discovered the whereabouts of this grave, so I suppose this could be seen as an excuse for its condition.

The labourers got to work on the site, with two complications in mind. Firstly, the orientation of the graves was unusual (north-south instead of east-west), suggesting the gravestones could have been moved. And this issue was compounded by the fact that one of the burials was not from the Boer War, so it could be difficult to differentiate between de Kock and the civilian.

With a howling gale and only the truck as a windbreak we watched the slow progress of the labourers.

After a while, things began to look a little odd. Firstly, we were hauling out too many large rocks, which are rarely thrown into a grave except after an exhumation. Secondly, half the trench had given way to undisturbed virgin soil. It soon became apparent that our suspicions regarding the orientation of the bodies were correct. It also looked like we had dug through one of the graves without finding any human remains.

As the shallow grave would almost certainly be that of the war casualty rather than the civilian, it felt like we should give up there and then. However, Welly wasn’t convinced, and the labourers were told to continue digging deeper and deeper and deeper.

We never did find anyone in the grave.

From here we made our way back to Ladysmith, and thence to a grave to the north of Lombard’s Kop.



De Kock's marble gravestone (centre) as it appears now, incorporated into the side of the Burgher Monument. His grave was found to be empty, so the whereabouts of his final resting place is unknown.

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Good day Sir/Madam, I overjoyed with this report about the exhumation of the remains of HJ Kok and his son JSW Kok. Hermanus Jacobus Kok (not Hendrik as noted in the report) was my Great-grandfather and I have been trying to understand exactly where the grave was for decades. I new about the grave and have photographs of it from before the exhumation, but I did not know exactly where the grave was located. I was also aware that the remains had been transferred to Platrand, i.e. that the grave no longer exists. But I had two death dates, namely the 18th and the 24th of January so I wanted to know where the grave was in order to clarify the death date and to know exactly where they were killed.
I am extremely grateful for the information. Is there any chance of knowing the original source of the information or of contacting the original author? It is mentioned that information was obtained from an archive - which archive could that be?
Many many thanks,
Brahm Perold

Hello Brahm,

Thank you for the information regarding your great grandfather. I have updated the relevant post with the correct first names.
These reports are taken from my own personal diary entries, written during my time in South Africa, when I helped with the 1978 exhumations.

Members of your family were aware of the exhumation at the time, and asked for photographs of the process. Welly Hyde should have forwarded these to your relations at the time. The photographs in my piece were taken by me.

Neville