Cecil John Rhodes was an English mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. He and his British South Africa Company founded the southern African territory of Rhodesia, which the company named after him in 1895. He also devoted much effort to realising his vision of a Cape to Cairo Railway through British territory. Rhodes set up the Rhodes Scholarship, which is funded by his estate.
Kimberley is the capital and largest city of the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It is located approximately 110 km east of the confluence of the Vaal and Orange Rivers. The city has considerable historical significance due to its diamond mining past and the siege during the Second Anglo-Boer war. British businessmen Cecil Rhodes and Barney Barnato made their fortunes in Kimberley, and Rhodes established the De Beers diamond company in the early days of the mining town.
The siege of Mafeking was a 217-day siege battle for the town of Mafeking in South Africa during the Second Boer War from October 1899 to May 1900. The siege received considerable attention as Lord Edward Cecil, the son of the British prime minister, was in the besieged town, as also was Lady Sarah Wilson, a daughter of the Duke of Marlborough and aunt of Winston Churchill. The siege turned the British commander, Colonel Robert Baden-Powell, into a national hero. The Relief of Mafeking, while of little military significance, was a morale boost for the struggling British.
Barkly West is a town in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, situated on the north bank of the Vaal River west of Kimberley.
Sir Herbert Baker was an English architect remembered as the dominant force in South African architecture for two decades, and a major designer of some of New Delhi's most notable government structures. He was born and died at Owletts in Cobham, Kent.
The Battle of Paardeberg or Perdeberg was a major battle during the Second Anglo-Boer War. It was fought near Paardeberg Drift on the banks of the Modder River in the Orange Free State near Kimberley.
The Rhodes Memorial is a large monument in the style of an ancient Greek temple on Devil's Peak in Cape Town, South Africa, situated close to Table Mountain. It is a memorial to the English-born South African politician Cecil John Rhodes, was designed by architect Herbert Baker and finished in 1912.
The Frances Baard District Municipality, previously the Diamantveld District Municipality, is one of the 5 districts of the Northern Cape province of South Africa. The seat of the municipality is Kimberley. As of 2022, the majority of its 434,342 residents speak Setswana. The district code is DC9.
The 155 mm CreusotLong Tom was a French siege gun manufactured by Schneider et Cie in Le Creusot, France and used by the Boers in the Second Boer War as field guns.
The siege of Kimberley took place during the Second Boer War at Kimberley, Cape Colony, when Boer forces from the Orange Free State and the Transvaal besieged the diamond mining town. The Boers moved quickly to try to capture the area when war broke out between the British and the two Boer republics in October 1899. The town was ill-prepared, but the defenders organised an energetic and effective improvised defence that was able to prevent it from being taken.
The Cape Police Memorial is a South African national heritage site located in Kimberley in the Northern Cape province. It commemorates the losses of the unit during the Anglo-Boer War.
The Horse Memorial is a provincial heritage site in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, in memory of the horses that served and died during the Second Boer War, where Britain brought a large number of horses to South Africa. Designed by Joseph Whitehead, the life-sized bronze memorial features a kneeling soldier presenting a bucket of water to a service horse.
George Labram (1859-1900) was an American engineer employed as Chief Mechanical Engineer at the De Beers diamond mines in Kimberley during the Siege of Kimberley.
Long Cecil is a cannon built in the workshops of the De Beers mining company in Kimberley for use by the British in the Siege of Kimberley during the Second Boer War.
Frances Goitsemang Baard OMSS OLG was a South African trade unionist, organiser for the African National Congress Women's League and a Patron of the United Democratic Front, who was commemorated in the renaming of the Diamantveld District Municipality (Kimberley) as the Frances Baard District Municipality. Schoeman Street in Pretoria was also renamed in her honour. This heroine is the reason we celebrate National Women's Day today in South Africa.
William Alfred Henry Cotty was a South African international rugby union player. Born in Kimberley, he attended Kimberley Boys' High School before playing provincial rugby for Griqualand West. He made his only Test appearance for South Africa during Great Britain's 1896 tour. He played as a scrum-half in the 3rd Test of the series, a 9–3 loss in Kimberley.
This is a list of the famous and notable people from Kimberley, Northern Cape, South Africa.
The Livesey Hall War Memorial, in Lewisham, Greater London, commemorates the fallen of World War I and World War II who had been employed by the South Suburban Gas Company of London. It is also a tribute to those employees who served in the wars. The monument was designed and executed by the British sculptor Sydney March, of the March family of artists.
Artillery Memorial, Cape Town was erected in memory of the gunners who fought for South Africa during World War I. The memorial, which forms part of the Delville Wood Memorial, is located in the Company's Garden, Cape Town, and was strategically established to commemorate South Africa's artillery soldiers who fell in battle. Of those who volunteered to fight during the war, 5800 were white South African, amongst whom 15% were Dutch and 85% English. An estimated 2536 of these men were killed in the Deville Wood battle in Europe. The Artillery Memorial, an authentic cannon facing east towards the National Gallery, proudly honors South Africa's heavy artillerymen. Inscribed on it are the names of the officers, N.C.O.'s and men of the South African artillery who fell in the Great War (1914–1918).
The South African War Memorial is a First World War memorial in Richmond Cemetery in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Designed by architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, the memorial is in the form of a cenotaph, similar to that on Whitehall, also by Lutyens. It was commissioned by the South African Hospital and Comforts Fund Committee to commemorate the 39 South African soldiers who died of their wounds at a military hospital in Richmond Park during the First World War. The memorial was unveiled by General Jan Smuts in 1921 and was the focus of pilgrimages from South Africa through the 1920s and 1930s, after which it was largely forgotten until the 1980s when the Commonwealth War Graves Commission took responsibility for its maintenance. It has been a grade II listed building since 2012.
