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Grave of the British soldiers killed at Bronkhorstspruit
Grave of the British soldiers killed at Bronkhorstspruit

The battle of Bronkhorstspruit was the first major engagement of the First Boer War. It took place by the Bronkhorstspruit river near Bronkhorstspruit in Transvaal on 20 December 1880. Threatened by the growing numbers of militant Boers in the Pretoria region, the British recalled the 94th Regiment of Foot, which had several companies garrisoned in towns and villages across the wider area. The regiment's commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Philip Robert Anstruther, led a 34-wagon column on a 188-mile (303 km) journey from Lydenburg to Pretoria. A Boer commando force, led by Francois Gerhardus Joubert, was ordered to stop the British. Anstruther's column was confronted by the Boers, who demanded that the British stop their march. Anstruther refused, and the Boers attacked. The British took heavy casualties and surrendered after about 15 minutes; their surviving men were captured. Anstruther was badly wounded and died of his injuries a few days later. ( Full article... )

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MV Doña Paz in port, 1984
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