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Hello, I am looking for any information on the womens' concentration camp at barberton, My ouma was interned there and obviously lived to tell the tale - I would like to find out more about this particular camp. There are some good stories that have been handed down over the years about her activities, some of which my mother who is now 86 remembers listening to. I would like to be in contact with anyone who has information on this place. She, and I believe three children and both her parents survived this camp.
Many thanks Maryanne

Hello Maryanne.....

If you can get a copy of a book called "A Canadian Girl in South Africa" by Maud E. Graham or "Those Bloddy Women Three Heroines of the Boer War" by
Brian Roberts.

The Canadian book is about Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and British women who volunteer to go to the concentration camps to teach the children....

The writer was in several camps but I read the book many years ago and cannot remember if Barbeton was one of them....

Mike

Hello Mike

This is really good of you - thank you. I must confess to ignorance here; I was not aware that there had been volunteers going to the camps to teach children. We all know about Emily Hobhouse and what a thorn in the flesh she was, but teachers? This is something new to me at least.

Many thanks and I will have a search for the books.

Perhaps Barbeton was one of the camps it was said to have been one of the better ones.

Maryanne

Dear Maryanne,

The best information on Barberton concentration camp can be found on the British Concentration Camp Database established at the University of Cape Town.

Here's the link and all the best,

Justin

www2.lib.uct.ac.za/mss/bccd/Histories/Barberton/

Dear Justin

Many thanks for this. Now wonder my grandmother survived! She also learnt tailoring there and we still have the scissors that she used. She was a feisty lady who learnt to speak fluent and apparently very good english while interned there; so despite the report which i have just read, the schoolmaster could not have been too bad!

Kind regards

Maryanne

Hi Maryanne and Justin

In the link to the Barberton Concentration Camp a number of references are made to Dr Kendal Franks.

He was one of the few recipients of a Boer War Civil CB

Regards

Henk

PS That UCT link is invaluable! By using it I found out that I had the ABO medal to a man who never claimed his QSA named to the Canadian Scouts!