Introduction:

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Heidelberg (Gauteng), like other towns, was fortified with blockhouses during the Second Anglo-Boer War. To the north north-east stood Dublin Hill with three blockhouses (cf. Green, 2022, p 112), to the north-north-west stood Somerset Hill with Fort Whatman on its crest. To the north-west - inside today’s Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve - stood Fort Copley and to the west, also now within the reserve, were erected three blockhouses at Fort Colville. Here they are called the East, South and West Blockhouses: collectively, the “Trio”. They stand alongside the later trigonometric beacon 147.

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A well-defined rock wall three km west-by-north of Heidelberg Town Hall, surrounds the site of the East blockhouse with the West and South Block houses in close proximity, forming a triangle.

Ten blockhouses appear on the map above: Figure 2. Although numerous fortifications protected the pre-1959 Durban to Johannesburg railway line that passed through Heidelberg, the Trio, having been located over 4km away and having good visibility over Heidelberg and its approaches, probably were intended to defend the town.

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Fort Colville:

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Grant (1910) mentions “Colville and his blockhouses”. Presumably, the Trio was named after the contemporary Lt-Col A.E.W. Colville, who was active in the area. His column consisted of 500 mounted troops, 300 infantry, four guns and one machine gun (see Grant, 1910, pp 514, 522; Uys, 1981, pp 92, 100; Uys, 2002, p 101). The nearby Fort Whatman also took its name from another officer, Captain Whatman, who fortified the nearby Somerset Hill.

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Excerpt from Somerset Archive DD.SLI.1.4 (10):

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28th June 1900

G Coy under Capt Whatman sent out on permanent picquet to fortify hill 2 miles [3km] west of Heidelburg [sic] which hill was afterwards Officially named Somerset Hill,the Fort on its crest being named Fort Whatman.

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Fort Colville stands “2 miles (3,6km) west of Heidelberg”; Somerset Hill lies one mile (1,6km) north-north-west of Heidelberg.

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The archival excerpt is dated 28 June 1900; E Company took over the Trio on 8 August 1901. Captain Whatman, however, commanded G Company, not E Company, which wording appears on the South Blockhouse. An early 1900's Braune & Levy No. 1652 postcard titled "Somerset Hill's Block House" shows a circular Rice pattern blockhouse, not a square stone structure like those of the Trio. And with Grant’s mentioning “Colville and his blockhouses”, these three observations further confirm Fort Colville’s location on the June 1902 Jackson map, Figure 1. Five circular-wall stone ruins, visible on GE, (Google Earth) plus another close by, all one mile (1.6km) north-north-west of Heidelberg, were discovered during a field visit on 20/3/2022, where Somerset Hill appears on the Jackson map.

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General description of the blockhouses:

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Each blockhouse measures 6,5m square. None has a roof. They “probably had corrugated iron [CGI] roofs” (AvV to AD, 3/3/2022). A rusted 100mm x 6mm diameter nail was found here. Each floor is littered with stones from the upper walls. The remaining walls, in good condition, average 2,5m in height. All walls are built of partially dressed stone using the dry-stone-walling technique with some galleting (stone chips) (Green, 2022, pp 108, 346).

 

The stones are blocks of koppie rock 30cm-80cm long and 15cm-30cm high. No zigzag pathways are evident leading uphill towards the blockhouses. Blockhouses were not generally attacked by the Boers, hence the absence of bullet marks on walls. As attacks are not mentioned in the archives or in the two Uys books, Mike Hardisty’s view of no hostilities having taken place, therefore, is supported.

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Smaller stoneworks stand alongside each blockhouse, which may have been magazines, sangars, lookout posts, latrines (likely further away), etc. Therefore, “some of these [blockhouses] could indeed actually be forts” (AvV to AD, 3/3/2022). Certainly, the East Blockhouse was such one.

The East and South Blockhouses are 360m away from the West Blockhouse; 310m separate the East and South Blockhouses (GE).

Significantly, however, the words XIII SOMERSET E COY appear on the South Blockhouse! The colour photograph on the inside back cover is shown below with the text from the South Blockhouse graffito.

Layout differences of the Trio

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Five variations from other blockhouses are apparent:

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• There are no other SA sites with three stone blockhouses in close proximity that form a triangle. “A triangle is the first basic shape that can be defended”.

• Each Blockhouse has a two-metre distant, 123cm-high square perimeter wall with a ground-level entrance. Presence of low perimeter walls is unusual. “They were mainly used in preference to trenches when the ground was hard to dig into and acted as defences for soldiers outside the blockhouses” (Green to AD, 28/3/2022).

• Graffiti showing names of military units, as on the South and West Blockhouses, are unusual occurrences.

• Walls appear to have been recently restored as partially dressed stones are roughly bonded, i.e., no pointing, with clean, bright, light grey mortar. A loophole, two rectangular openings and probably a blockhouse entrance have been restored.

• Within Fort Colville, the East Blockhouse is a fort on its own, i.e. a fort within a fort! Could today’s East Blockhouse originally, in June 1900, have been named Fort Whatman? This might explain the archival excerpt mentioning “afterwards” for the naming of Fort Whatman on Somerset Hill.

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E Company movements:

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As the subject is an extensive one, only the events of E Company follow.

Formed in 1685, the regiment went through numerous name changes. The 2nd Battalion was raised in 1858 (Everett, 1934, pp 4, 254). From 1881-1912 the regimental title was Prince Albert’s (Somersetshire Light Infantry). The appendage “13th of Foot” had clung as it had been part of its former name since 1751. Hence “PA SLI” and “XIII” noted above. In 1921 the name was changed a final time, becoming “The Somerset Light Infantry (Prince Albert's)” until 1959, when a series of amalgamations began with other units. (Wikipedia, accessed 20/11/2021)

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The 2nd Battalion disembarked at East London on 12 April 1900 and entrained to Aliwal North. Here they joined Maj.-Gen. Hart’s column to relieve the town of Wepener, near today’s Lesotho border, which had been invested by General Christiaan de Wet. On the 21st E Company under Capt. Swayne, who was adjutant of the 2nd Battalion, skirmished with the Boers. By 6 May the battalion had marched 258km. E Company entrained to Vryburg on 29 May where Lt-Col Gallwey took command (Everett, 1934, pp 339-340).

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On 3 August 1900 E Company, under Capt. Elger, left for Schweizer- Reneke, which they garrisoned. On 27 September and again on 28 October Commandant Van Zyl summoned the garrison to surrender. On 24 November it was relieved by Col. Milne. Three days later the garrison left the town and headed to Vryburg when, on the 29th, the convoy was attacked. E Company, being in the rear-guard, “acquitted themselves right well” (Everett, 1934, pp 341, 347-348).

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On 29 November 1900, “E Coy under Capt Elger were in action near Hanneys farm on their way from Schweitzer [sic] Reneke to Vryburg ... to go to Kimberley, Capt Elger being wounded” (DD.SLI.1.4 (14)).

After one year’s absence, E Company joined the battalion from Kimberley and, on 2 July 1901, the battalion was ordered to Heidelberg to relieve the 3rd K.R.R. (King’s Royal Rifles). E Company arrived at Heidelberg on 3 July and on the 23rd, under Capt. Elger, relieved the K.R.R. Company at Nigel [mine]. On 8 August the 2nd Battalion took over the blockhouse line that had been held by the 1st Rifle Brigade. E Company was then relieved from the Nigel mine and occupied the blockhouses (DD.SLI.1.4 (6, 7)), hence the “01” on the West Blockhouse graffito.

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On 13 February 1902 E Company moved from Waterval Bridge, south of Greylingstad, and doubled the blockhouse garrison line from Zuikerbos Post, near Fortuna, to Heidelberg. At 00h30 on 16 February, when they were stationed at Steynskraal between Heidelberg and Balfour, 150 Boers “charged the wire defences with a mob of cattle”. “Some 50 men got across, leaving 150 cattle, some horses and a rifle” behind. Here one private from E Company was “dangerously wounded” (DD. SLI.1.4 (22); Uys, 1981, p 194).

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On 4 April 1902 E Company was moved back to Waterval Bridge and Greylingstad, having handed over to the 1st Rifle Brigade their posts from Val to Grootpan Hill. Peace was proclaimed on 1 June (DD.SLI.1.4 (24)).

The 2nd Battalion remained in Heidelberg until 11 September 1902, when they marched to Elandsfontein and on 25 October started their march to Potchefstroom. On 22 December the battalion moved into cantonments after over three years in tents and bivouacs (Everett, 1934, p 367).

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Acknowledgements:

Tony Burisch for his rediscovery of, and tours to, the Trio; Mrs Ann Meisel for editing article; Simon Green; Professor Anton van Vollenhoven; respondents Mike Hardisty, Robin W. Smith, Professor Ian Copley, Richard Tomlinson, Vincent Carruthers; Johannesburg Public Library for Tomlinson’s Pretoriana paper.

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Bibliography and sources:

Africa 1:125 000 (map), Transvaal, Johannesburg, Sheet South G-25 Q-1, War Office 1917.

Ditsong: National Museum of Military History, Johannesburg: Tomlinson, R. Bequest (not catalogued): “Fortifications of the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902)”, vol. 2 (E-J).

Everett, H. The History of the Somerset Light Infantry (Prince Albert’s) 1685-1914
(London, Methuen, 1927).

Google Earth (kmz) (GE).

Grant, M.H. History of the War in South Africa 1899-1902, vol. IV (London, Hurst & Blackett, 1910).

Green, S.C. Anglo-Boer War Blockhouses: a Field Guide (Johannesburg, Porcupine Press, 2022).

Green, S.C. Anglo-Boer War Blockhouses: a Military Engineer’s Perspective (Johannesburg, Porcupine Press, 2020).

Green, Simon, information at Fort Colville, 4/10/2021; 14/5/2022; interview en route to Heidelberg, 20/3/2022.

Jackson, Major H.M., no. 13 (map),

Johannesburg-Heidelberg, (third revised edition, June 1902), Mapping Section, Field Intelligence Dept - Army Headquarters.

Somerset Heritage Centre, Taunton, Somerset, England: DD/SLI/1/4, Record of Service of the 2nd Battalion [Somerset Light Infantry], 1/5/1900-23/10/1902, pp(1)-(25).

South Africa, 1:50 000 (map) sheet 2628CB, 1995, Heidelberg.

Union SA, 1:50 000 (map) sheet 2628AD, 1944 [south Springs, Nigel, north Heidelberg].

Uys, I. Heidelbergers of the Boer War (Heidelberg, Uys, 1981).

Uys, I. Fight to the Bitter End (Knysna, Fortress, 2002).

Wikipedia -Somerset_Light_Infantry

 

About the Author:

Alkis Doucakis, a mechanical engineer, is absorbed in local and regional historical research. He has published in books, and in peer-reviewed and other journals. Presently, with Mrs Ann Meisel, the two are editing a book titled, “The story of Johannesburg’s Doornfontein”. In the interim, he has authored a book on Gandhi in north-eastern Johannesburg (1909-1938); another on the first Hellenic school in SA (1931-1944); and on Linear B Europe’s first written language (1450-1200 BC).​