Monument in memory of the Boer Prisoners of War

About Monument in memory of the Boer Prisoners of War

At the onset of the Anglo-Boer War, the British military lacked infrastructure to house captured forces. The earliest prisoners were confined to the naval guard ship HMS Penelope in Simon’s Bay before tented camps were erected at Bellevue and Seaforth.Those who grew severely ill were treated at the nearby Palace Barracks Hospital, where famous author Mary Kingsley volunteered and subsequently died of typhoid. Roughly 50 to 160 of these men did not survive to see freedom or their exile to places like St. Helena and India. This stone monument stands directly over the Dutch Reformed allotment where they were laid to rest.