Battlefields Tour - A Step back in British History
Although you can do a self-guided drive around these sites, given that neither of us knew a huge amount about this period of history, and we didn’t have a 4x4 vehicle (to traverse some of the more challenging “roads”) we thought we could gain a lot from going on an organised tour.
So, having booked with Spionkop Lodge to go on their tour of the Spionkop Battlefield, we headed out to Winterton to meet our guide for the day, the utterly charming and hugely knowledgable, Raymond Heard.
Over a morning coffee at the Spionkop Lodge, it quickly became clear that Raymond was a leading authority on the battle for Spionkop, having lectured at the Royal Geographical Society in London on the subject. We knew we were going to be in for a treat.
From the lodge, we drove with Raymond to Mount Alice, a hill which overlooks Spionkop and from where the British commanded the battle. There is now a monument to the Battle of Spionkop on Mount Alice, and we spent a couple of hours with Raymond there recounting the history of South Africa, and the causes of the Boer War. It was an utterly fascinating chat.
From there, we headed to the Spionkop Battlefield itself where Raymond brought the scene to life. We relived the history of this key battle between the Boers (the Dutch settlers in South Africa) and Britain (the colonial power) back in 1899. The Boer War, in the eyes of the British, was only ever meant to last 3 weeks - instead it went on for 3 years and was one of the bloodiest ever fought. To this day, the battle for Spionkop (an otherwise anonymous hill on the plains of KwaZulu-Natal) holds the record for the highest concentration of fatal military casualties in any war fought in the modern era.
I discovered that three future world leaders were all present at Spoinkop - Louis Botha (the first PM of a united South Africa), Sir Winston Churchill (who was a young lieutenant) and Mahatma Gandhi (one of many Indian stretcher bearers aiding wounded soldiers that day). Of course, if any of these men had been killed in battle, the world would be a very different place today.
The battle of Spionkop also lent its name to many English football stadia. Perhaps most famously, local Merseyside sports journalist Ernest Edwards christened the home end at Anfield, the Spionkop (the “Kop”) as it reminded him of how difficult that hill in South Africa had been to take from the Boers! As the collection of memorabilia at Spionkop Lodge attests to, the connection with Liverpool FC has continued to this day.
A truly fascinating few hours, and one I would highly recommend if you are planning a visit to South Africa.