Hello List: Re Concentration of Burials after the South African War: Bodies in isolated graves were reburied in 7 cemeteries by late 1905 according to the Auckland Star of 11th Oct 1905 page 5 (see clipping and letter of 23 Oct 1905 on Archives (Wellington) file AD 34/8000). The 7 cemeteries where about 5000 bodies from 2480 graves were reinterred were: Pretoria, Middleburg, Barberton, Potchefstroom, Johannesburg, Standerton and Lydenburg. There was a similar "concentration" of graves after WWI and WWII by the Commonwealth Wargraves Commission and probably by other countries as well. Some American wardead were returned to America after WWII. Yours, John Wilson (Wellington, New Zealand) > Went to the Maitland cemetery for the first time last week. > > By South African Standards, it's an old cemetery and is large. Generally its > pretty depressing as the graves are not well tended, a lot of the older > graves have their headstones missing or vandalised. A lot of new graves are > being dug between older graves and there is a general air of neglect. > > An exception to this, fortunately, is the military section of the cemetery > which is extremely well tended (so probably gets some additional funding > from somewhere) and contains the remains of soldiers (including enemy) from > the boer, 1st world and the 2nd world wars. From what I can tell by roaming > around, it would seem that many 2nd Anglo boer war graves were relocated > here from various churches and hospitals in the area as well as from a > cemetery at a fort in Woodstock (a suburb of Cape Town). I was unaware that > such a place existed and Woodstock is now a mixture of semi industrial > business, commercial business, railway yards and working class residences. > > In addition, gravestones and remains were relocated here from many areas in > the Western Cape by the War graves society of South Africa. > > I found a fairly big monument containing the names of persons remains > relocated to the site The areas that these remains came from were: > > Ceres > Hopefield > Halfmans Hof > Laaiplek > Paarl > Piketberg > Porterville > Roodebaai > Rondebosch > Stellenbosch > Tulbagh > Wellington > Wetton Road > Worcester > > Most of the above are Towns in the Western Cape or suburbs of Cape Town, but > others (Roodebaai and Halfmans Hof) I have not heard of. > > The names are grouped by fighting unit including many British, many > Australian, some Canadian and 1 New Zealand unit. > > The New Zealand unit mentioned was the New Zealand Mounted Rifles and the > following soldiers were listed as being buried here: > > Sgt H Rule > Tpr J Jenks (I think this is the other man you enquired about) > Tpr L Matthews > Tpr JS Young > Pvte CW Franks (I think this is your man, my handwriting is terrible > and it could have been a G that I was trying to write down and not a C as > I've listed here) > Pvte J Patterson > > Perhaps if you have ranks and army numbers, I could do some more tracking? > > There are also numerous headstones of soldiers, moved from other locations. > The most easily identifiable are the Canadian ones as they are uniform in > design and have large Maple leaves (I think) carved into the top section of > the headstones. An area has headstones facing north with an inscription that > the officers buried here had wished to be buried facing England. In > relocating these remains, their wishes were carried out again. > > Let me know if you need any more help or a photo of the Monument. > > Mark van Zyl > > > Hello and thankyou for your offer, i have found one so far for Cape Town but > i am only at the letter H at putting them on the database so far. I will > have to get out an atlas to find where some of these places are as their are > quite a few in South Africa scattered all around. I asked our Ministry of > Culture and Heritage here in N.Z. and they wouldn't tell where they were as > they reckon they only just found out that they were suppose to be looking > after them, i could imagine what state some of these would be in after 100 > yrs of neglect. But as it turns out i am finding them quite easily, some of > them anyway. This one is in the Cape Town Cem and the only grave reference > as is for most of them over their is marked by iron cross, so if their is > lots of iron cross's their, they could all be NZers. Once again thanks a > million for your help. > > FRANKS George William 27.09.1900 Marked by Iron Cross > > Regards Leigh > Hokitika, > Best Place in N.Z. > [email protected] > >