A loney Karoo monument

In the Karoo, along the road from Middelburg towards Richmond, you'll find a sign-post saying "Stoel Monument". The tall, black dolerite structure stands next to a peppercorn tree near the roadside. In front of the structure is a polished granite slab engraved with the picture of a riempie chair. The inscription says that Commandant Johannes Cornelius Jacobus (Hans) Lotter and his adjutant Lieutenant Petrus Jacobus Wolfaardt were executed by firing squad there in October 1901. In the town's small museum you can read the story of the two men and see photographs and a copy of the death warrant and letters admitting officials to attend the execution. The two Boer officers were captured at Bouwer's Hoek by Colonel Henry Scobell. The inhabitants of Middelburg were ordered by the Town Guard to assemble in the Church Square to hear the death sentence being read. The two were taken to the spot where the monument now stands, tied to chairs and shot.

Memorial at Abrahamskraal

On 28 January 1902 there was a fierce battle between the British Royal Sussex Regiment and Boer commandos at Abrahamskraal in the Free State. Seven British and two Boers, including the farm owner, were killed on the battlefield that day. Three wounded British soldiers later died of their wounds. Last week a remembrance ceremony was held on a hill above Kalkfontein Dam, where Abrahamskraal used to be in the early days. A memorial plaque was unveiled, in honour of those who fell and the the 139 soldiers of the Royal Sussex Regiment who lost their lives during the Anglo-Boer War. The ceremony was attended by Brig. Andrew Mantell, the British military attaché in South Africa, and Maj. Charles Wilmot of the Royal Sussex Regiment Association.

Thin blue line

The NGK Horison-Noord in Roodepoort unveiled a private memorial wall last week, dedicated to the memory of police members who have paid the highest price in the line of duty. The wall is in the church's Garden of Remembrance.