Chieveley (J12)

Name: Chieveley

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Date:

Historic fact:
From the book The Man who captured Churchill The following:

On 13 November, Botha's task force slept under heavy clouds next to the railway line and demolished bridge at Hermansspruit. The next day they had breakfast on the banks of the Tugela River, north of Colenso. From here they crossed the river via the Bulwer bridge, and slept near Chieveley.

Early the next morning (06:00) Colonel CJ Long sent 160 men under the command of Captain J A L Haldane on an armoured train from Estcourt to Chieveley. The purpose of this was to monitor the southward movement of the Boers. General Louis Botha immediately saw the opportunity of capturing the train, and left the burghers of Krugersdorp and Wakkerstroom next to the line on a bend near Frere, with instructions to disrupt the rails as soon as the train passed.

The train returned from Chieveley when the British troops found no sign of the Boers. The train was however attacked by General Botha before it reached Frere Station, and when the driver tried to increase speed so as to escape the attack, it was derailed by rocks having been placed on the rail by the Boers when it had completed the run to Chieveley. The young Winston Churchill who acted as war correspondent for the British daily, MORNING POST, was on this train He tried to escape in that section of the train that had not been derailed. This did not amount to much, as the derailed section blocked the escape route. The enemy eventually succeeded in escaping in the locomotive, after bumping it to and fro until the way was cleared.

The Boers attacked the train with, inter alia, a pom-pom (quick-firing Vickers-Maxim). This piece of artillery was so unpopular, that the main buyers were the Boers and the Chinese.

After the locomotive's escape from the ambush, the Boers captured Captain Haldane, a non-commissioned officer of the Dublin Fusiliers, along with 53 more non-commissioned officers and troops. It was here that Field-Cornet Sarel Oosthuizen succeeded in capturing Winston Churchill.

http://www.prominentpeople.co.za/churchill-sir-winston-hamilton.aspx
Other interesting info:

Chieveley Military Cemetery

In this cemetery Lord Robert's son, Freddy lies buried. Follow the dirt road past the railway station to the cemetery set among trees. Off the R103 from Escort to Colenso. Open daily.

http://www.battleguide.co.za/Chieveley.htm

http://www.icon.co.za/~dup42/toer01.htm



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