Anglo Boer War: Deelfontein
DE AAR AND DEELFONTEIN IN THE NORTHERN CAPE.
Jennifer Bosch
De Aar was important as it sat on the junction of the railway lines from Cape Town and Port Elizabeth as they joined to form the line to Kimberley and Mafeking. It was one of three stations where stores were held in volume. (Src: ABW Forum)
Deelfontein station in 1900 was described as ‘…a large water tank and pumping plant, pump-man’s cottage … and a small store.’ Water, then drawn from a well to the south of the station, is now pumped from a borehole located to the north-east of the station. Several buildings have been erected in the intervening 86 years. A hotel consisting of a corrugated iron structure, in front of which stands an archway with the word ‘Yeomanry’, was probably one of the first buildings to be built.
In early December 1900 the Cape Colony was invaded by the Boers, and during the next three months Deelfontein hospital became the centre of hostilities. Many sick and wounded (including many surgical cases) were received from the columns operating in the surrounding district.
Deelfontein today consists of a few buildings clustered around the railway station and several more are scattered over the Karoo plain. A visitor cannot help but notice the large IYH lettering, measuring 25 metres in length, etched on the hill side. Faintly discernible beneath is the word DEELFONTEIN. Of the Yeomanry Hospital complex, no buildings or stone-lined pathways are to be seen, and the only evidence that structures once stood there, are stone embankments, depressions and dilapidated mortar floors. Some distance away from the site are depressions in the ground where holes once existed in which the excreta of typhoid patients were buried.
Src: SA Military History.org
Figure : Deelfontein Station – 2019 (Own photo)
Figure : Deelfontein Station – 2019 (Own photo)
Figure : The Imperial Yeoman Hospital was close to the Deelfontein siding (Src: The Story of Emily)
Figure 4: Armoured Train at Deelfontein Siding (Src: Wellcome Images)
Figure 5: De Aar c1900
Figure 6: Deelfontein, 1895 (Src: Atom Drisa)
Figure : Then and Now Blend of Imperial Yeomanry Hospital at De Aar
Figure 8: Offloading patients for the Imperial Yeomanry Hospital at De Aar (Src: From the album of Daniel Litton Harding)
Figure 9: DE AAR, SOUTH AFRICA, C 1900. Soldiers and civilians reading war telegrams displayed at the railway station. (Src: AWM)
Figure 10: Transport Wagons – Advance Camp of 6th Division of HM’s Army in January, De Aar, 1899
Figure 11: Remains of the camp (rocks dividing camp areas) De Aar camp 2019 (Own photo)
Figure 12: The iconic arch entrance to the Yeomanry Hotel in Deelfontein
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Figure : Deelfontein Imperial Yeomanry Hospital Then and Now – Photos originally posted by Kobus Nel
