Today in Kimberley's History
January 19th
"Every day has a story about Kimberley's past."
On this day...
The nineteenth of January celebrates two milestones in the history of the Diamond Fields. In 1871, the first permanent post office opened at Klipdrift, helping connect the rapidly growing diamond diggings with the rest of southern Africa. Twenty-nine years later, the people of besieged Kimberley witnessed the first successful firing of Long Cecil, a remarkable feat of engineering that lifted the town's spirits.
1871 – The First Post Office Opens in the Diamond Fields
On this day in 1871, the first Post Office in the Diamond Fields officially opened at Klipdrift (today Barkly West). The opening followed the dispatch of the first official mails from Cape Town just five days earlier, marking an important step in linking the remote diamond diggings with the Cape Colony.
Reliable postal services were essential for the thousands of prospectors, merchants and entrepreneurs who had flooded into the Diamond Fields following the discoveries along the Vaal River. Letters carried news from home, enabled businesses to place orders, settle accounts and arrange transport, and helped maintain connections with the outside world.
Although Klipdrift was then the centre of diamond activity, the focus of mining would soon shift south to the dry diggings around Colesberg Kopje, where Kimberley would rapidly emerge as the dominant town. The little post office at Klipdrift laid the foundations for a communications network that would grow alongside Kimberley itself.
Did You Know?
Within only a few years, Kimberley's post office became one of the busiest in southern Africa, handling thousands of letters each week as the diamond industry expanded.
1900 – Long Cecil Fires Its First Shot
96 days into the Siege of Kimberley
On 18 January 1900, after 24 days of continuous work, the famous gun Long Cecil was completed. On 19 January 1900, the people of Kimberley witnessed one of the defining moments of the siege as Long Cecil was taken from the De Beers Workshops for testing and fired for the first time.
The newly completed gun was positioned at one of three prepared emplacements, where engineers carefully conducted its initial trials. Present were Cecil Rhodes, senior military officers, De Beers officials and invited guests, all eager to see whether Kimberley's home-built gun would perform as hoped.
According to a well-known account, Cecil Rhodes invited Lieutenant-Colonel Chamier, the senior artillery officer, to fire the first round. Chamier is said to have politely declined, remarking that, as an officer of the Royal Artillery, he was authorised to fire only weapons officially approved by the British War Office—and Long Cecil was certainly not one of them.
Rhodes then invited Mrs Pickering, wife of the Secretary of the De Beers Company, to pull the firing lanyard. At 11 o'clock, she fired the first shot. The shell flew more than 7 kilometres, bursting in the Boer laager at the Intermediate Pumping Station, a position that had previously been considered safely beyond British range. Boer letters intercepted later described the surprise and alarm caused by the unexpected shelling.
Further rounds followed throughout the day, including several fired personally by Cecil Rhodes, while engineers carefully recorded the results to produce accurate range tables for future operations. After the trials, Long Cecil was returned to the workshops, dismantled and meticulously inspected. No flaws or cracks were found, confirming the success of one of the most remarkable engineering projects ever undertaken during a military siege.
Did You Know?
Long Cecil was entirely designed and manufactured in Kimberley during the siege. After testing, it would soon become one of the town's most effective long-range weapons against Boer artillery positions.
Check out the Long Cecil four-day sequence:
18 January – Long Cecil completed.
19 January – First test firing.
20 January – Calibration and preparation.
21 January – First operational service.
Engineering Against the Odds
The successful firing of Long Cecil was far more than a military achievement.
With most of the town cut off from the outside world, Kimberley's engineers, artisans and foundry workers had demonstrated that they could design, manufacture and test a modern artillery piece using local skills and resources.
The achievement became an enormous boost to morale. For the first time since the arrival of the Boer Long Tom guns, Kimberley's defenders possessed a weapon capable of reaching enemy positions that had previously been beyond their range. The success also strengthened George Labram's reputation, whose engineering brilliance had transformed an ambitious idea into reality in just over three weeks.
Did You Know?
Only five weeks after Long Cecil's first test firing, George Labram would be killed by a Long Tom shell on 9 February 1900, just six days before Kimberley was relieved. Today, Long Cecil stands on the stylobate of the Honoured Dead Memorial as a lasting tribute to his achievement and to those who defended the town during the siege.
Long Cecil outside the mine workshop in January 1900. (Photo Public Domain)
Long Cecil on the stylobate of the Honorured Dead Memorial
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Kimberley's Story Continues
These are just two of the many events that helped shape Kimberley. Every date on the calendar reveals another chapter in the city's remarkable history.
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