Empire Cricket Booklet
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NOTES
kindly supplied by Prof. Ellison Kahn before his death in 2007). 44 Official P.O.W. no. 154; Hut no. 42: see Anon, 'Alphabetical Roll'. 45 The Minerva was a British wooden ship (a former East-Indiaman) of 987 tons, built in 1812 in Bombay, and commanded by CaptainJ. Moir. She was on her way to South Africa to bring a party of English settlers and general cargo to Durban. No lives were lost: see M. Turner, Shipwrecks & Salvage (Cape Town: Struik Publishers, 1988), 127 and 216. 46 Hilder Family Papers, in the possession of Mrs Girly Elliott (nee Hilder) of Queenswood, Pretoria. 47 TKP Book 156 at 8 s.v.'Hilder, Frederick Arthur'; and'Hilder, Thomas Minter'. 48 The other three were Sennett, O'Reilly and Tennant. 49 Hilder Family Papers in the possession of Mrs Margaret Bell, Kestell, Free State. 50 TAB, Master of the Supreme Court (MHG), 3244/43 1943, Estate File: Thomas Minter Hilder. 51 Official P.O.W. no. 9259; Hut no: 58: see Anon, 'Alphabetical Roll'. 52 See Pakenham, Boer War, 441-444, for a description of how the Orange Free State commandos were trapped by Hunter. The actual surrender process took two days to complete and according to Pakenham presented one of the great spectacles of the War. 53 Sennett, 'Scrap Book'. 54 K. Donaldson (ed.), The South African Who's Who 1909 (Durban: South African Who's Who Publishing Company, 1909), 362, s.v.' Sennett, George'. 55 Official P.O.W. no. 9948; Hut no. 43: see Anon, 'Alphabetical Roll'. 56 However, the Boer farmers of the South African Republic, including those in the district of Ermelo, were by no means unfamiliar with cricket. According to unpublished family research conducted by Danie de Villiers, his great grandfather,Johannes Buhrman of the farm'De Emigratie' outside Ermelo, studied at Stellenbosch from 1881 to 1886 at the Victoria College (which was the predecessor of what is today known as the University of Stellenbosch). It was at Stellenbosch where he was introduced to cricket and when he returned to the family farm near Ermelo at the end of 1886, he introduced his neighbours and farm workers to the game, and many a cricket game was played at the family farm before and after the war. Games which were played over Christmas and New
Year invariably involved members of the extended De Villiers family visiting the farm, as well as the children of black farm labourers who stayed on the farm. According to De Villiers, his great-grandfather would sit on the stoep of the farmhouse from where he directed proceedings on the cricket field. Each player in these 'farm games' was named after a famous overseas international player. The old patriarch kept abreast of cricket affairs by ordering and perusing the annual Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. 57 TKP Book 156 at 72 s.v. 'Smuts, Alexius'. 58 See the photograph of him with the rest of the Medical and Nursing Staff: TAB Ref: 19767. 59 His complete bowling fi gu res on that occasion were 26-7-66-6: see TAB Ref. A 1428, Cricket score book (1 January - 1 April 1902). 60 Official P.O.W. no. 9972; Hut no. 6: see Anon, 'Alphabetical Roll'. 61 TAB, MHG Ref. 96976 1937. 62 Luckin, History ofSouth African Cricket, 805. 63 TAB, TKP Book 157 60 s.v.'Otto, Comelis Johannes'; Pakenham, Boer War, 441-444. 64 De Krijgsgevangene, 27 March 1902. 65 The Colombo Observer, 16 January 1902; TAB Ref. A 1483, R. L. Brohier, Paper Cuttings, Vols. II, VI and VII, 'The Boer Prisoners-of-War in Ceylon, 1900-1902'. 66 TAB, Ref. A 1428, Cricket score book (1 January - 1 April 1902). 67 Official P.O.W. no. 11428; Hut no. 43: see Anon, 'Alphabetical Roll'; and Sennett,'Scrap Book'. 68 Sidney Dennison Tennant,'Unpublished Diary' (unpaginated) (unpublished diary kept by S. D. Tennant during his stay in Ceylon). I am indebted to Prof. C. J. Barnard, retired professor of History at the University of South Africa, who provided me with a photocopy of the relevant pages from the Tennant diary. 69 De Villiers Family Papers. 70 Ibid. 71 Official P.O.W. no. 11365; Hut no: 55: see Anon, 'Alphabetical Roll'; and Sennett,'Scrap Book'. 72 Lochhead 1913 at 365 s.v. 'Oosthuizen, P. V.'. 73 Official P.O.W. no. 11637; Officers' tent 47(a): see 'Anon, Alphabetical Roll', 205. 74 However, a number of secondary sources indicate that Pieter de Villiers (see below) was also an officer.
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