A. F. Tancred appointed Kimberley Town Clerk – 1882

On 24 August 1882, Augustus Frederick Tancred was appointed Town Clerk of Kimberley, a position he would hold until his death. Tancred served during an important period in Kimberley's development. The rough and rapidly expanding diamond-mining settlement of the 1870s was becoming an established town, requiring increasingly sophisticated municipal administration and services. As Town Clerk, Tancred became part of the machinery of local government that accompanied Kimberley's transformation into one of southern Africa's most important mining centres. 

Another Kimberley connection to 24 August

The date is also linked to a much more sombre event. Wilfred Trenery, a well-known Kimberley rugby player and De Beers employee who was killed in an underground explosion at the De Beers Mine on 23 August 1905, was buried at Kenilworth Cemetery on 24 August 1905. His funeral procession left his Kenilworth home at 4:30 that afternoon.

Did You Know?

By the time Tancred became Town Clerk in 1882, Kimberley was already changing remarkably quickly. The following month would bring another milestone: on 2 September 1882, Kimberley became the first city in the Southern Hemisphere to illuminate its streets with electric street lighting.