The brothers, Peter (1944) and David (1946) Scholtz, have from an early age, had an interest in military history. Our father grew up in a little town in the northern Karoo called Steynsburg. We used to go there for annual holidays when we were children.
In those days there were no highways. The road to Steynsburg passed through all the towns along the way, including Kroonstad, Ventersburg, Winburg, Bloemfontein, Reddersburg, Edenburg, Trompsburg, Springfontein, Philipolis, Bethulie, Venterstad and Colesberg. In most of these towns there were cemeteries from the Anglo-Boer War. We often stopped and looked at the graves. There are clear memories that many of the graves marked the cause of death of the soldiers as “died of enteric fever“.
Our interest in military history has grown steadily over the years. One of the books of particular interest to us is The Last Post by Mildred Dooner, which was first published in 1903. The book gives short but very interesting biographies of all the British officers who died during the Anglo-Boer War. This book set us on the quest to take close-up photographs of as many as possible of the graves of these officers and place them on our website. Graves were being vandalised, and a photographic record of what remained was essential.
The old National Monuments Council kindly provided us with a printout of their database which gave details of the locations of the graves of all the British soldiers who died during the Anglo-Boer War.
This database was indispensable in enabling us to find the locations of the graves as many of the graves had been moved from their original sites and consolidated in Gardens of Remembrance in a number of towns. Steve Watt’s book, In Memoriam – Roll of Honour Imperial Forces – Anglo-Boer War 1899 – 1902, was also very useful.
We have been members of the SA Military History Society since about 2007 where we have made many good friends who are too numerous to name. We would however make special mention of Robin Smith with whom we have made many sorties to places where interesting but little-known events took place during the Anglo-Boer War.
In 2019 Robin published a very interesting and informative book titled “Practically Over“, which deals with a number of little known events that occurred during the guerrilla phase of the Anglo-Boer War. The book is richly illustrated with maps and colour photographs and deals with a number of events where we have erected memorials. Robin’s contact details are smithrw@yebo.co.za.