Today in Kimberley's History
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81 days since beginning of the Siege of Kimberley, 1900
Extract from "The Diary of a Doctor's Wife – During the Siege of Kimberley October 1899 to February 1900" by Winifred Heberden.
Before daybreak this morning I woke suddenly and heard what I thought was the Town Hall clock striking; and in counting the somewhat irregular strokes I realised it was a bell, and on looking out of my window I saw smoke and flames bursting from the roof below of a shop adjoining the hotel. I alarmed the people on our floor, while Jack began to dress in order to take Reggie downstairs in a blanket. After dressing myself, we both got our possessions hurriedly together into two sheets. The flames were licking the walls of the hotel by then, and though the engine had arrived no water was turned on.
The rooms and passages were full of smoke, and everybody congregated below in the hall amongst a confusion of bags, boxes, and bundles. Luckily, Mr Labram, the De Beers engineer, still sleeps in the hotel, and he had gone round to the De Beers' fireplug and turned it on; so presently, and just in time to save the building we were in, a strong stream of water was in use.
The burning shop was one of the oldest in Kimberley, and built of wood and iron, so it soon fell in, and by 7 a.m. everything was over, and we had no further anxiety as to where we should go if anything happened to the hotel.
A troop of our Mounted Men returned about this time from escorting a gun to Otto's Kopje under cover of the night. A camp has been formed there, under Lieut. Dunbar, of some of the roughest men in Kimberley. They are protected by this gun and various mines round the summit, and have also bomb-proof shelters, as they lie within somewhat easy distance of the Boer gun on Kamfersdam, and also one on Carter's Ridge.
Water is to be turned on in Kimberley every afternoon from today for the sake of the gardens so that we may have more vegetables in the town. People are buying seeds largely and putting their ground in order.
Extract from "The Diary of a Doctor's Wife – During the Siege of Kimberley October 1899 to February 1900" by Winifred Heberden.
Before daybreak this morning I woke suddenly and heard what I thought was the Town Hall clock striking; and in counting the somewhat irregular strokes I realised it was a bell, and on looking out of my window I saw smoke and flames bursting from the roof below of a shop adjoining the hotel. I alarmed the people on our floor, while Jack began to dress in order to take Reggie downstairs in a blanket. After dressing myself, we both got our possessions hurriedly together into two sheets. The flames were licking the walls of the hotel by then, and though the engine had arrived no water was turned on.
The rooms and passages were full of smoke, and everybody congregated below in the hall amongst a confusion of bags, boxes, and bundles. Luckily, Mr Labram, the De Beers engineer, still sleeps in the hotel, and he had gone round to the De Beers' fireplug and turned it on; so presently, and just in time to save the building we were in, a strong stream of water was in use.
The burning shop was one of the oldest in Kimberley, and built of wood and iron, so it soon fell in, and by 7 a.m. everything was over, and we had no further anxiety as to where we should go if anything happened to the hotel.
A troop of our Mounted Men returned about this time from escorting a gun to Otto's Kopje under cover of the night. A camp has been formed there, under Lieut. Dunbar, of some of the roughest men in Kimberley. They are protected by this gun and various mines round the summit, and have also bomb-proof shelters, as they lie within somewhat easy distance of the Boer gun on Kamfersdam, and also one on Carter's Ridge.
Water is to be turned on in Kimberley every afternoon from today for the sake of the gardens so that we may have more vegetables in the town. People are buying seeds largely and putting their ground in order.