TODAY IN KIMBERLEY’S HISTORY 15 FEBRUARY Alfred Beit, financial genius, born in Hamburg, 1853 Street Lights tested in Kimberley, but they fail, 1882 Kimberley is relieved in 1900 by General French after 124 days of siege by the Boers DID YOU KNOW? In the middle of many Anglo-Boer War Imperial soldiers who lie buried in the West End cemetery lies the grave of a woman – a Mrs Maria Macintosh Redpath, the inscription in part stating that she was the President of the Loyal Guild of Women from 1902 until 1904. It is a known fact that Mrs Redpath, with the assistance of labourers, travelled extensively around the Kimberley region maintaining all the British graves, be they single or mass, until shortly before her death on Thursday 8 December 1904. Also known is the fact that when Mrs Redpath died so suddenly, the Guild was in quite a quandary as it was only she who knew the exact locations of these myriad graves scattered in the 120 kilometre radius of Kimberley. No one else had visited these graves and cemeteries, or if they had, it was to the occasional one or two at the better-known battles of Magersfontein or Modder River. Another problem was that no one person would be able to travel as extensively as Mrs Redpath had done, so it was important to mark the graves and cemeteries so that any person would be able to visit them to do the necessary maintenance without getting lost. So the Guild decided to plant pepper trees next to each grave or cemetery and then anybody would be able to see where the soldiers were interred from a distance – they must just head for the pepper tree or trees. This was done, and to this very day despite the fact that the majority of Imperial soldiers were reinterred in Kimberley in the 1960s, the pepper trees still mark the spots of the now empty graves. In my mind quite a fitting and natural memorial to the work of Mrs Redpath who gave so much of her time to the fallen soldiers. But who was this woman? Her newspaper obituary, quite detailed but missing important biographical information, states that she was a prominent figure on the Diamond Fields and had a noble, useful and interesting life. She was born the daughter of Reverend W Machin, a Canadian. She was the first pupil of the first Normal School in Canada, and was gifted intellectually, as from the ages of 17 to 23 years she was in charge of a large church school, her interest at this stage being in education. It soon turned to nursing and she went to Germany to investigate the German methods of nursing and through this met with Florence Nightingale. She then came under the wing of Florence Nightingale and organised the nursing at St Thomas’ Hospital in England. She was soon giving lectures on nursing to probationers (trainee nurses). On her behalf, Florence Nightingale sent her (and nurses) back to Canada, where she re-organised the Montreal Hospital. After that sojourn in her home country she went back to England to St Bartholomew’s Hospital, being nursing matron for three years. Being a person of many interests she went to listen to Bishop Webb, the Bishop of Bloemfontein, give a lecture and was so taken by his talk that she decided to go to South Africa and work with and for him. She first worked in the little cottage hospital in Bloemfontein and then in hospitals along the Basutoland (Lesotho) border, which is where she met her husband, WT Redpath. She then came to Kimberley where she became involved in charity work and in particular the work of the Guild. A member of the Royal British Nurses Association Council, she was a personal friend of Princess Alice (daughter of Queen Victoria) as well as Princess Alexandra who became Queen when her husband King Edward VII ascended the throne in 1901. She became seriously ill rather suddenly and when her health failed in Kimberley Hospital – where she died – she arranged her own funeral, and at her request was buried among the soldiers “…in whose cause she had so faithfully laboured.” Mrs Redpath, who lived with her husband WT Redpath at Hillside off Memorial Road, was buried at 5pm on Friday 9 December 1904.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Feb 2014 01:44:19 +0000