Top honour for Karoo soldier: John Clements of Middelburg
The Victoria Cross (VC) was awarded to 78 members of the British Armed Forces for bravery in action during the Anglo-Boer War. One of the recipients of this highest and most prestigious award for gallantry was John James Clements, a son of the Karoo. Clements was born in Middelburg, on June 19, 1872, and shortly after…
Read MoreRailways In The Karoo: John Paterson and William Brounger
It was the son of a Scottish stone carter who devised a way to link Graaff-Reinet to the coast by rail. But John Paterson initially came to South Africa to teach English. He was recruited by James Rose Innes, and he arrived in this country filled with enthusiasm. By 1841 he had established The Government…
Read MoreMerinos Make Their Mark
By 1830 experts considered the teething stages of the Cape Merino industry to be over. F W Reitz, the man destined to become president of the Free State, believed that 1830 was the turning point for the South African wool industry. He was proved right, states Edmund H Burrows in Overberg Outspan. In 1830 the…
Read MoreCaptain Hicks’s ghost still patrols a Middelburg farm
During the Anglo-Boer War, a Captain Hicks was placed in charge of a group of fearfully inefficient “poor whites”. It was said they were only in the war for the money and so inefficient that poor Hicks was at a loss as to what to do with them. The locals jokingly called them DMTs “Delirium…
Read MoreAG Schoombee, settler near Middelburg
Rocks truly are the curators of history in the Karoo. Way back in 1780, a Dane left his mark on a Karoo boulder. A G Schoombee was so delighted by the Karoo that he carved a message on a rock and settled right there despite the fact that the area was in the grips of…
Read MoreThe Story Of Melton Wold Farm, Victoria west
Robert Torr came out to the Cape as a soldier during the Second British Occupation in 1806. While in this country he lost his heart to the lovely widow of his late commander, and married her. They migrated to the Eastern Cape Karoo area where he traded and in time was granted a piece of…
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