TOPIC:

Great minds think alike as I was going to suggest that the other house was where the conference was held in Vereeniging but I have just read it all happened in a large marquee and the Transvaal delegation stayed in a 20 tent “town”.

The AntiquarianAuctions.com website are showing photos of parts of two letters written in Afrikaans by one of the Transvaal delegates to the conference and this is their precis of the contents – “Two hand-written letters in Dutch/Afrikaans of 4 pages each (7 pp in pencil and one in ink) by Conrad Birkenstock to his wife during the peace negotiations at Vereeniging in May 1902. In the letter dated 24 May he describes his journey from Rietfontein on the 12th and points out that that he is not sure when he will leave Vereeniging. He expresses his hope that peace will be attained - "May the Lord guide us in this". He mentions that he had left Willie and Johan behind at Rietfontein and that he'd recently seen his daughter Annie in Vryheid. On 30 May he wrote that they were based near the Vaal River in a tent town of about 20 tents where they invited delegates from the Free State for talks, that they are busy finalising their work in Vereeniging and refers to a delegation that must meet Lord Kitchener in Pretoria to sign the peace treaty.”

The lot (now closed) also contained this photograph which I presume is Conrad Birkenstock standing outside his tent.




Returning to the six Generals photograph – can something be construed in the apparent body language. I believe De La Rey wanted to carry on fighting as did the Free Staters – he does seem to be sitting a bit apart from the other five and Louis Meyer could be construed as having turned his back on him.

Everhard - I think the "The late Residence" on your latest post is Kruger's House but you probably already know this.



This postcard is from an album of photos I found on the Welcome Collection website - the album was compiled by Sergeant Benjamin Hannan who served at No.32 Stationary hospital at Klerksdorp. Also relevant to this discussion is the menu when the NCO's celebrated the Peace and a photo of the table laid in readiness but i will leave them for a separate post.

David.

Based on the first article the other house was a villa at Vereeniging owned by Sammy Marks.
Based on the second article the other house was the house next door to Melrose House.
Personally I go with the second option.

Daily Mail 27th May 1902


Bolton Evening News 30th May 1902


For Sammy Marks en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sammy_Marks

The answer lies on page 98 of Kestell and Van Velden's "The Peace Negotiations between Boer and Briton in South Africa" (London, 1912). I must confess this is a volume that has been gathering dust on my book shelf, unopened, for nearly thirty years.

"The Commission left Vereeniging that same evening [17 May] for Pretoria, where they arrived at 8 o'clock p.m. They were accommodated in "Park Zicht", the residence of Mr Carl Rood, corner of [Jacob] Maré and van der Walt Streets".

Jacob Maré Street is now Jeff Masemola Street; van der Walt Street is now Lillian Ngoyi Street.


Eclectic ZA Wilhelmiens: A shared Dutch built heritage in South Africa (Bakker, K.A., Clarke, N.J. and Fisher, R.C. (eds.) Pretoria 2014)

Amongst the various private residences of its time in Pretoria, the Parkzicht residence – build in 1895 for Advocate Fred Kleijn – was considered a particularly graceful example and one of architect Klaas van Rijsse’s finest and most expressive works with its various and eclectic details such as pinnacle'd air vents, turrets, gables and obelisks. This home was designed by Van Rijsse in his private capacity and in the Flemish Renaissance Revival style for which he is known – as evidenced by his church buildings of the same period. Despite its romantic pretensions, the Parkzicht residence, like other buildings of its time, was a witness to the tumultuous political period surrounding the Second Anglo-Boer War, which ended after the Boer leaders – being lodged in the Parkzicht residence and greeted by a gathering crowd – went off to the nearby Melrose House to sign the treaty of Vereeniging. Together with the Melrose house and others close by such as the Hollard House and Barton Keep, the Parkzicht residence, had it not been demolished in the meantime to make place for a block of flats, would have still been visible as an important part of Pretoria’s collection of unique and stately houses from the pre-war era. Only its garden gates survive, now serving as one of the entrances to Burgers’ Park.



Parkzicht - Melrose House is just out of view, on the right.





All that remains of Parkzicht: the gates, which have been moved to the south side of Burgers' Park, and now stand opposite the entrance to Melrose House (Google 2022). Until recently the gates carried the name of the house, with "PARK" on the left and "ZICHT" on the right. Sadly the two cast iron plates have now vanished, believed to have been stolen for their scrap value.








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Thanks Neville for solving the riddle. I did some research and the closest in building style I could find in Pretoria were the Artillery Barracks. The Park Zicht architecture is very prevalent in Holland. This "taken for scrap" thing is worrying. Many of the grave stones of Boer War personalities feature bronze elements and are located in badly tended cemeteries. Scavengers aside, we also have to suffer the woke ignorami who want to re-write history with renaming streets and towns after anyone who ever fired an AK 47 before 1994 and are now toppling statues. Immature and sad!

This postcard was produced to promote Lionel James's book "On the Heels of De Wet". Lionel James was a war correspondent, reporting for the Times.

Hackett 1994 (p. 91) describes the book as "an account of operations to supress the Boer invasion of Cape Colony in 1901. The author took part in various drives chiefly in pursuit of the Boer commander De Wet. The narrative, based on the writer's was diary, was first published as a series of papers in Blackwood's Magazine".






The Cranleigh School list of past pupils includes the following short biography:

Colonel Lionel James

Lionel James went to India after leaving Cranleigh where he became an indigo planter. While there he discovered a hidden talent for writing and became a Reuters correspondent. When covering a battle in the Makaland Pass he became involved in the fighting, so much so that he was mentioned in despatches, and this convinced the agency to send him to other areas of conflict.

In 1899 he joined The Times and covered a wide variety of wars for them, making an immediate impression during the Boer War. He was the first journalist to report the relief of Ladysmith, dodging his way through the enemy to file his copy and deliver what was a global scoop. “His views on military and political affairs in South Africa were to become increasingly important as the war proceeded,” wrote Donal Lowry in The South African War Reappraised.” “On his return to South Africa in 1901, James coordinated the reports of stringers on the war and reported on any other matters which interested the public at home. It was partly on the basis of his reports that the Times took its unyielding stance on the concentration camps.”

He was an innovator, using any means to file his reports. During the siege of Ladysmith he used carrier pigeons to get his stories out, but a crate of pigeons sent to James was intercepted by the Boers who ate them, and then sent James a message thanking him for the “basket of nice fat pigeons”. In 1904 he reported the Russia-Japan war from wireless he installed on a ship, the first man to use such technology.

During World War One he commanded King Edward’s Horse, serving with distinction in France and Italy where he won the DSO. After the war he devoted his time to writing books and for a time managed a racing stable. His obituary in The Times said what he wrote on war “was backed by experience and hard study of the subject”.

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