Old animosities were put aside when two ‘Boer soldiers’ and a ‘British Redcoat’ worked together to save a girl, lost on Majuba Hill during the recent re-enactment.
One of the British ‘soldiers’, Dundee Diehard member Corporal Wayne Baxter, climbed the imposing hill twice on Saturday, making this his 49th and 50th ascent. He was joined by two ‘Boers’, Louis Smith and his son, Louis, who had all started to head down from McDonald’s Koppie when they heard ‘a lot of noise in the distance’.
“Thinking it was just a bunch of kids messing round, we ignored the noise until I was sure I heard a cry of ‘help me’ [in Afrikaans]. It was coming from the Inkwelo side of the mountain, from across the gully,” explained Cpl Baxter. “I was worried now that we had a fallen child and we immediately made our way around the gully, to see if we could find the location of the distressed child.”
Fearing the worst, the trio made haste through the mist.
“At least we had a voice to home in on, but if this child had fallen, we were afraid it would be a mission to find her. Eventually, I saw a silhouette way over to the far side of the mountain… There was a little girl of about 12 years old, walking and frantically waving her arms.”
The group eventually reached the scared little girl, who was crying and in a state of distress.
“She ran over to me and gave me a big hug, thankful that someone had found her. Apparently she had somehow started her descent down McDonald’s Kop and had become very disorientated in the mist. She ended up wandering around looking for the path, but found herself at the edge of a very steep cliff. Extremely scared, and not knowing where she was, she started screaming for help.”
Cpl Baxter said he was thankful to not have brushed the sounds off as children playing around.
“We did a bit more walking on the mountain and eventually made our way down. We dropped her off with her parents after making sure she was okay.”
The anniversary of the Battle of Majuba Hill, which took place on February 27, 1881, has been marked for the past nine years, with the Dundee Diehards group joining the Boers in a re-enactment of this historical battle. It was rainy and muddy last Saturday, and the Redcoats again lost the battle to a fierce attack by the ‘Boer kommando’ known as the ‘Bittereinders’.
Next year will be the 140th anniversary of the Battle of Majuba Hill.
“Hopefully it will be a big event on the calendar, and the day will be celebrated with large crowds enjoying this historical day. Maybe the organisers of the Battlefields Marathon can arrange to have their race run at Majuba,” said Vincent Nixon, team leader of the Dundee Diehards.
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