MARROW BONES AND GRACE

FOR WHAT WE ARE ABOUT TO RECEIVE

I HAD LUNCH WITH FRIENDS RECENTLY, AND – AS A SPECIAL TREAT FOR ME – THEY SERVED MARROW BONES AS A STARTER. I WAS SHARPLY NOSTALGIC FOR LUNCHES WITH MY GRANDPARENTS; MARROW BONES WERE MY GRANDFATHER’S FAVOURITE SUNDAY NIGHT MEAL, BUT WERE ALSO A POPULAR STARTER COURSE IN GRAND EATING ESTABLISHMENTS OF OLD.

Me, dressed for lunch.

After Sunday School we had to change into ‘rough’ clothes and carefully hang our Best Dress and Smart Shoes in our wardrobes and then Go And Play Outside Until I Call You For Lunch. Every Sunday except for the last Sunday of every month, when we had to stay in our Sunday Best, sitting quietly on the sofa in the lounge so that we didn’t get dirty, listening to the radio until it was time to get in the car and drive to the Maitland Hotel for lunch with my grandparents.

A liveried doorman opened the grand doors for us and we entered the plush foyer, went up the carpeted staircase and were met by the majordomo in the dining room and ushered to our table. Our chairs were held out for us and the stiff white napkins were removed from their serviette rings and placed on our laps and the waiters commenced the ceremony of serving the table d’ hote menu.

First came the soup, Cream Of Asparagus, and with it the admonishment from my grandmother to spoon away from yourself, and then the artfully arranged entre; how glad I was when it was Welsh Rarebit! Silver domes were removed from platters with a flourish to reveal the fish course and my grandfather would rise from his chair to come and debone my sole for me.

After this, ashtrays would be brought for the adults, who needed a rest before the main course. Our plates of roast beef or pork were put in front of us at exactly the same moment and we were offered potatoes and vegetables from silver dishes, each waiter had a white cloth draped over his arm and wore white gloves.

Dessert was almost too exciting for me to bear; a triple-decker trolley of the most beautiful concoctions imaginable. Meringue nests of candied fruits, tiny apple crumbles, fluted glasses of trifle … I’d go into an agony of indecision until my mother selected something for me.

By the time the cheese course arrived; water biscuits heaped with stilton and a crystal thimble of Port for everyone, even us children, my eyes would be drooping and it would be all I could do to stay awake on the drive home. I’d be totally exhausted from sensory overload; the grandeur of the hotel and the opulence of the food.

Originally the Bloemfontein Hotel, it was renamed and I read later that the Maitland Hotel became a crumbling den of iniquity, and a hub for the city’s drug trade and sex industry.

Bloemfontein Hotel, Bloemfontein, Orange River Colony, South Africa. Date: circa 1908

THE BRITISH SOLDIERS’ BLOEMFONTEIN: IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES DURING THE TIME OF THE BRITISH OCCUPATION AND LORD ROBERTS’ HALT, 13 MARCH – 3 MAY 1900 [i] illustrates how,

“after defeating the Boers at Paardeberg, Modder River Pass/Poplar Grove and near Abrahamskraal/Driefontein, Lord Roberts’ victorious army occupied Bloemfontein on 13 March 1900, without encountering any further opposition from the Boers. Roberts planned to continue his advance to Pretoria as soon as possible, but the exhaustion of his troops and the enteric fever (typhoid) epidemic that ensued, forced him to halt in Bloemfontein for more than seven weeks. A review is provided of the British soldiers’ impressions of Bloemfontein’s buildings and gardens, shops, and of the town’s women. Their experiences of life in Bloemfontein, including the clubs and bars, are discussed; and the focus also falls on how Bloemfontein was transformed from a republican Boer capital to a British Army military base and a British-dominated ‘Bobsfontein’. The impact of the enteric fever epidemic is discussed, and the British soldiers’ memories of Bloemfontein, in general, also receives attention.”

“There is a something – a something that grows on you as you walk through the streets of the town or saunter about the suburbs. Perhaps it is only the military element to be found to-day [sic] here; or perhaps it is the architecture, the solid utilitarianism of the public buildings, the many bloodred blocks – ah! That is it! It is the redness of Bloemfontein that suggests Aldershot.”[ii] This is how Edgar Wallace, war correspondent for London’s Daily Mail, described his impression of Bloemfontein during the time he spent there to report on the Anglo-Boer War (hereafter the War) of 1899 to 1902. Wallace echoed the sentiments of thousands of British soldiers who were stationed in Bloemfontein after Field Marshal Lord Roberts … Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces in South Africa occupied the capital of the Orange Free State Boer republic on 13 March 1900. Wallace’s comparison of Bloemfontein with Aldershot, his hometown in England, is surprising. To Wallace, as well as the British soldiers, and also those who had accompanied them, Bloemfontein not only looked like home, but strangely also felt like home. Instead of a hostile pro-Boer capital, they found a mostly friendly, welcoming and attractive town which reminded them of Britain. After weeks in the open veld, the soldiers were in bad shape but, writes historian Rayne Kruger, their “eyes shone at the sight of gardens, and solid buildings, and women…”. This stands in stark contrast to their mainly negative experiences of the rest of the Free State republic, which was predominantly hostile territory. For this reason, the soldiers’ mostly positive impressions and experiences of Bloemfontein are striking – surprising even – and certainly not typical of the war-time experiences of foreign invaders. In fact, an element of surprise characterised the British soldiers’ impressions and experiences of Bloemfontein during the time of the occupation. After Bloemfontein was occupied it was transformed into a military town teeming with British officers and troops from all walks of British society. “The streets certainly show traces of the khaki”, H.F.P. Battersby remarked in his memoirs of the War. Republican Bloemfontein became the ‘British soldiers’ Bloemfontein’. What were the soldiers’ first impressions of Bloemfontein on that late summer’s day when they marched into town?[iii]  What did Bloemfontein look like from their perspective? How did they experience Bloemfontein during the weeks that followed?

The last few days before the occupation were “anxious days” for Bloemfontein’s residents. Nobody knew what to expect. Conflicting and confusing reports regarding the movements of the Boers, especially after General P.A. Cronjé’s surrender at Paardeberg (27 February 1900), as well as the uncertain position of Lord Roberts’ advancing army, created an atmosphere of tension and suspense in the capital. What exactly was Lord Roberts’ intention? Would Bloemfontein be bombarded and then occupied or, as in the case of Kimberley, Mafeking and Ladysmith, would it be exposed to the horrors of a siege? Or would the town be spared? All that could be done was to wait and see. Sophie Leviseur, wife of a prominent local Jewish businessman and also a staunch republican, expressed her personal feelings in her diary at the time. Her inscription of Sunday, 11 March mentions a prevailing mood of “fearful excitement” in anticipation of the arrival of the advancing British army. Most residents, both republican and pro-British, shared Sophie’s mixed feelings. This uncertainty intensified on Monday, 12 March, when a proclamation issued by Lord Roberts, who was already within 31 km of Bloemfontein, reached the town: “To the Inhabitants of Bloemfontein. Her Majesty’s Troops are within a short distance of Bloemfontein, and will enter the town in a few days. If no opposition is encountered the town will be protected, and peaceful inhabitants remain unmolested. If opposition is met with, the Field-Marshal Commanding in-Chief will be compelled to take such steps as may seem to him best to overcome it. This may result in damage to the town and loss of life, which the Field-Marshal would regret. The inhabitants of Bloemfontein are hereby warned to take such measures as will in the event of opposition being offered, tend to the security of their own safety.” Lord Roberts’ proclamation triggered a series of events. During the two days that preceded the occupation, Bloemfontein “presented a strange appearance” as it became the scene of anxious decisions, hasty departures and intense emotions. On Monday, The Friend of the Free State and Bloemfontein Gazette confirmed that “a large British column comprised entirely of cavalry are reported to be advancing in the direction of Bloemfontein”. That night, President M.T. Steyn and a number of his loyal civil servants, including some English-speakers, left the capital for Kroonstad, while the rest of the town’s residents prepared themselves for the inevitable: either peaceful surrender or, in the case of armed bombardment. Despite the Boers’ brave resistance in the koppies (hillocks) to the south of the town, Lord Roberts and his army kept on marching to Bloemfontein through the night; and by the next morning, they were on the town’s doorstep. At about 10:30, three war correspondents rode into town to enquire about Bloemfontein’s response to Lord Roberts’ proclamation. They were directed to the Bloemfontein Club, where they found a group of men waiting: Dr B.O. Kellner, the Mayor; Mr J. Collins, the UnderGovernment [sic] Secretary; Mr J.G. Fraser, Member of the Volksraad for Bloemfontein, and Mr W. Ehrlich, a member of the Town Council. These men formed a so-called ‘peace deputation’ that went out to meet Lord Roberts at the point where he and his army were waiting near Ferreira Siding, to the south of the town. On behalf of Bloemfontein’s residents, who were terrified that “their pretty little town” might be bombarded, the deputation “surrender[ed] the City”. Lord Roberts and his men were now in a position to occupy Bloemfontein without any military opposition. “The entry of a man who led the armed strength of an empire”: the occupation of Bloemfontein by Lord Roberts’ army “March 13th: We have fallen into bondage – today the English took possession of the town.” This inscription in the diary of Elsa Leviseur, Sophie’s daughter, not only describes her personal impression and experience of the occupation, but her use of the word ‘possession’ also aptly describes Bloemfontein’s fate. Bloemfontein became ‘a town possessed’.

At approximately 13:00 on Tuesday, March 13, Lord Roberts and his army, which stretched “about a mile [1,6 km] in length”, commenced their march into town. (A total of some 34 000 British soldiers entered Bloemfontein on this date.) To the onlookers who watched the soldiers from a distance, the unfolding spectacle must have been awe-inspring and overwhelming at the same time: a seemingly endless procession of khaki enveloped in clouds of dust, almost like wingless locusts, advancing towards Monument Hill. After weeks of “long marches and short rations”, it was a “wreck of an army” that entered Bloemfontein. In his ‘Diary of the Transvaal War’, an unknown soldier writes that the long march to Bloemfontein was “worse than an engagement”. He describes how the “…men fall down exhausted, they march until their constitution gives out, then, fall blinded by heat & dust…”. Arriving in Bloemfontein, the troops were half-starved, fatigued, their faces unshaven and burnt by the Free State sun, with their khaki uniforms in tatters; and, in many cases, their “very sore feet” were wrapped in sackcloth, the worn-out boots having long been discarded.

Roberts’ elaborate indirect strategy had been a resounding success, but it had exhausted his army. He had relieved Kimberley (15 February), besieged and defeated Cronjé at Paardeberg (17-27 February), and defeated Boer forces at Modder River Pass (near Poplar Grove, 7 March 1900), as well as in the vicinity of Abrahamskraal and Driefontein (10 March). He had forced the Boers to abandon the Free State capital without putting up a fight, and soon the Boers would also withdraw from the Colesberg front and leave the southern Free State.

Four decades later, this type of rapid advance was referred to as a Blitzkrieg. But Roberts’ soldiers suffered the consequences of such a march; and they entered Bloemfontein as exhausted and potentially very ill men. The soldiers were in a physically desperate state, but what they encountered in Bloemfontein took them by surprise. It also surprised others, including The Friend, which expressed the conviction that “such a scene has never had its parallel in the history of the world”. Entering Bloemfontein from the south-east via Monument Road (the present-day Church Street), Lord Roberts was the “man who led the armed strength of an empire” into town. His procession, which consisted of his aides-de-camp and members of his staff, military attachés, war correspondents and Indian servants, followed by cavalry, first marched past Waaihoek, Bloemfontein’s main black location.

On top of Monument Hill “an excited crowd of [black people][iv]” awaited the procession’s arrival; and once they spotted the British, there was an explosion of cheering, handclapping and singing. ‘God save our gracious Queen, long live our noble Queen’, they sang, some of them standing at attention. British war artist Mortimer Menpes remembers how “[black][v] women showered down on us a rain of golden quinces and cigarettes”gfvb as tokens of gratitude to those whom they believed had come to liberate them from the Boers.

Further down Monument Road and into upper Church Street, the welcoming scenes became even more intense as the black residents made way for whites. In his diary, J.T. Carmichael, probably an English-speaking republican, noted matter-of-factly that the “inhabitants welcomed troops”, but this appears to be an understatement. The Standard & Diggers’ News reported that a large proportion of the residents “had strong British sympathies”. This explains why Lord Roberts’ entry was like a “feestelyke [sic] intocht”, and why he and his troops were “received with the wildest excitement by the Bloemfonteiners”. Such was the enthusiasm that Henry Johnson, an army chaplain, gained the impression “that British blood ran in the veins of many of the inhabitants”. Well-wishers demonstrated their support by handing the soldiers fruit and sandwiches and shouting ‘God bless you, boys’. Others walked arm in arm with them, singing ‘Soldiers of the Queen’ and ‘Rule Britannia’. Menpes notes that “…we were all made a fuss of that day”, while according to Captain S.E. St Leger of the Mounted Infantry, it was a “warm-hearted welcome the like of which we never met with in any part of South Africa”.

Bloemfontein’s warm welcoming of the British soldiers also made an impression on Lord Roberts, and in a despatch to Queen Victoria he officially reported that they had been met with a “cordial reception from the inhabitants”. It was clear that most of Bloemfontein’s inhabitants who had remained in the capital after the republican government had left, welcomed Lord Roberts’ soldiers as if they were an army of liberation. It would be understandable if the British almost felt as if they had not captured an enemy capital. “We expected to find the town full of bearded Boers”, exclaimed a ‘disappointed’ A.B. (‘Banjo’) Paterson, the well-known poet and war correspondent, who was one of the first to enter Bloemfontein.

British soldiers entering Bloemfontein.

To the British soldiers, Bloemfontein must indeed have presented a colourful and festive picture: men, women and children sporting blue, white and red ribbons and rosettes and waving Union Jacks.“A positively surprising number of Union Jacks sprang forth from their hiding-places and fluttered merrily all over the town”, recounted Rev. E.P. Lowry. Did the soldiers appreciate all of this, or were they too exhausted and starved to feel much enthusiasm for the British ‘red, white and blue’? Were they, too, amazed at the extent to which Bloemfontein resembled an English town, rather than the hostile Boer capital they had expected to find? Over and above the flags and ribbons, the soldiers probably also appreciated the large numbers of cheering females whose voices rose above those of all the rest. According to Captain St Leger, it was the women in particular who expressed “all possible manifestations of delight” at the sight of the soldiers. It was, after all, the ‘best of the British Empire’ that was on display; and Bloemfontein’s women, including “a delighted” contingent of sisters of St Michael’s Home, gathered in large numbers to appreciate the sight. An (unknown) officer of Rimington’s Scouts remembered how “hysterically enthusiastic womenfolk crowded round us and would not rest content till they had shaken hands and ‘carried’ on in their peculiar manner”. Amongst the ‘enthusiastic womenfolk’ were the teachers of the Dames Instituut (Eunice Girls School), who rode around on their bicycles and shook hands with the passing soldiers.

Artist: Rhoda Kudel 1938 – The mural from the old Eunice High Hall

The first school for Afrikaner girls, originally called the “Oranje Vrij Staat Dames Instituut” (later Eunice), was founded in 1875, although today the school is thoroughly English. The Dutch Reformed Church originally played a very important role in the founding and governing of both Grey College and the Dames Instituut Eunice, but later on both schools were placed under state rule. In 1874, the “Infant School”, a nursery school for pre-school children in Bloemfontein, was founded in Fountain Street. The Infant School served as kindergarten department for both Grey College and the Dames Instituut Eunice. During the first years of its existence, the Infant School was a private institution, but since 1888 it received an annual government grant by which it became a semi-government institution.

Eunice was my alma mater.

Founding Ideals 1875

Ps 144 v 12:

 “That our daughters may be like cornerstones, polished after the similitude of a palace”

“Vincit qui se vincit”

She conquers who conquers herself

https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/afrikaans-community-1820-1899

My first day of school.

[i] https://nationalmuseumpublications.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/VOLUME-29-PART-3.pdf

The British soldiers’ Bloemfontein: impressions and experiences during the time of the British occupation and Lord Roberts’ halt, 13 March – 3 May 1900. Navors. nas. Mus., Bloemfontein 29(3): 29-68.

[ii] Ibid in E. Wallace, Unofficial dispatches of the Anglo-Boer War, p. 181

[iii] Ibid: For biographical notes on Frederick Sleigh Roberts (1832-1914), see A. Wessels (ed.), Lord Roberts and the war in South Africa, 1899-1902, pp. 336-337. 3 R. Kruger, Good-bye Dolly Gray: the story of the Boer War, p. 267. 4 Soldiers from British colonies, including Australia, Canada, India and New Zealand, also fought on Britain’s side, but they were in the minority. 5 H.F.P. Battersby, In the web of a war, p. 102. Figure 1: Lord Roberts, 1900. (Photo: National Museum, Bloemfontein) 32 Navors. nas. Mus., Bloemfontein, Volume 29, Part 3

[iv] Derogatory term edited

[v] Derogartory term edited

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