TOPIC:

Photograph taken from exactly the same spot, again by R.E. Gell [ed. probably by van Hoepen - see next post], before the dead had been covered over.








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I could be wrong, but I understand van Hoepen took the famous photo of the British dead in the Lancashire Fusiliers' trench. In fact, two photos, for if one looks closely there exist 2 ever-so-slightly different views. The Lund brothers, also Boers, were also on the summit taking photos on 25 and/or 26 January.
On 25 January, only a British medical team was allowed on the summit, and that was with Louis Botha's personal permission. There are at least 3 box-camera prints recording that event.
British burial parties went to the summit with Boer permission on 25, 26 and 27 January, but as far as I know there are no photos of those events.
The photos of the dead soldiers were a very lucrative source of income. They were for sale in kiosks and thousands of prints were sold at over 1 shilling each. I suspect Gell, who photographed British subject matter, got his hands on a negative, or bought the rights to use it. You'll see copies with various 'copyright' written on them, I suspect after the fall of Pretoria, van Hoepen was not in a strong bargaining position to protect his intellectual property.
If I am wrong, I would be delighted to hear more!

Rob, I believe you are absolutely right. Looking again at the "ROBORT GELL" stamp on the back of the above photograph, I see it is from a series titled "WAR PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE BOER SIDE". It seems he returned to the spot with van Hoepen's image in hand to take the later shot of the backfilled trench. By the way, I have three copies of this print, together with several others from the series, and none of them have the "VAN HOEPEN COPYRIGHT" signature, I suppose indicating that they are all later copies. I have many prints of other subjects where van Hoepen's signature has been partially erased.


Reverse of the Spion Kop dead photograph




Example of erased "VAN HOEPEN COPYRIGHT" signature


Robert Gell was a Newcastle based photographer, and was in occupied territory at the time of Spion Kop, so not impossible that he could have taken images from the Boer side.

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The granting of Heritage Landmark status, 1978.




“Welly” Llewellyn Hyde, Natal Provincial Administration Works Dept., Dr Piet Koornhof, Minister for Education, and George Chadwick, National Monuments Council, during a visit to Spion Kop on 11 Aug 1978 to mark the granting of Heritage Landmark status to the battlefield.
They stand in front of the Imperial Light Infantry memorial.





George Chadwick gives Dr Koornhof a “quick” resumé of the Spion Kop campaign as the sun sets over the battlefield. The minister’s aids were getting agitated by this time as there was a plane back to Pretoria to catch.

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Here's an example of van Hoepen taking an important picture twice, 'just in case'. Detail of the bodies in the Lancashire Fusiliers' trench.

Unfortunately, van Hoepen either pulled the bodies into frame, or posed some of the bodies so their faces were visible and/or stiffened limbs were frozen in mid-air, which added to the drama of the photo.



Rigor mortis lasts about 24 hours after death, so these photos were taken on 25 January.
In these photos, the body has recently been moved and begins to slump between exposures.