Today in Kimberley's History
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60 days since beginning of the Siege of Kimberley, 1899
Extract from "The Diary of a Doctor's Wife – During the Siege of Kimberley October 1899 to February 1900" by Winifred Heberden.
Another quiet day to-day. Boers have been observed to be trekking away by twos and threes, probably Free Staters - for they are known to be half-hearted. At Belmont they actually ran away back to the Free State in large numbers.
Our Relief Column, it is rumoured, is laying a light railway line across the flats out of range of the Boer guns round Spytfontein, so we are hoping to see them pop in by the Sanatorium one morning.
The Newspaper and two Specials have been published to-day. This plethora of news is owing to various 'finds' of newspapers on different farms - the Cape Argus and Standard and Diggers' News amongst them. The latter is an amusing tissue of Boer lies, whereby the 'Dutch Courage' is kept up with false reports of their successes everywhere - though they own they have not taken Kimberley or Mafeking - only parts of them! Stating also that the Sanatorium and Town Hall in Kimberley are knocked to bits - whereas they have not even been touched.
Extract from "The Diary of a Doctor's Wife – During the Siege of Kimberley October 1899 to February 1900" by Winifred Heberden.
Another quiet day to-day. Boers have been observed to be trekking away by twos and threes, probably Free Staters - for they are known to be half-hearted. At Belmont they actually ran away back to the Free State in large numbers.
Our Relief Column, it is rumoured, is laying a light railway line across the flats out of range of the Boer guns round Spytfontein, so we are hoping to see them pop in by the Sanatorium one morning.
The Newspaper and two Specials have been published to-day. This plethora of news is owing to various 'finds' of newspapers on different farms - the Cape Argus and Standard and Diggers' News amongst them. The latter is an amusing tissue of Boer lies, whereby the 'Dutch Courage' is kept up with false reports of their successes everywhere - though they own they have not taken Kimberley or Mafeking - only parts of them! Stating also that the Sanatorium and Town Hall in Kimberley are knocked to bits - whereas they have not even been touched.
