Gauteng, HEIDELBERG, Rensburg, Suidstraat, Old cemetery

Information about the town:-

The town Rensburg, was named after a farmer from Houtpoort, Mr van Rensburg.

Here is the story:- The Boers regularly sabotaged the railway lines during the ABO. To try and put a stop to it – the British issued a proclamation that the farmers must report any such incidents immediately.

Poor Mr van Rensburg was awakened one night with an explosion; the railway line was quite close to his farm. Instead of getting up and contacting the British to report the case immediately, he rolled over and went back to sleep. He set out for Heidelberg the next morning, to do his duty; but, it was too late. The British was out patrolling and on discovering the wrecked line – they went to Van Rensburg’s farmhouse, burnt it down and drove all the stock off.

Source: Uys, Ian. 1981. Heidelbergers of the Boer War. Galvin and Sales (Pty Ltd), Cape Town.

Cemetery information:-

Album complete, all the headstones were photographed.

eGGSA captions done by: Heleen Nel.

Information also available on the GGSA Cemetery DVD:-
Cemetery ID: 922
Names in cemetery: 303

Google Earth Project Information:-
GPSID: 922
GPS: -26 31.668, 28 22.616