23 MAY 1901 - RIETFONTEIN / WITPOORTJIE

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Nothing of importance occurred during the rest of May except an attack on a Potchefstroom – Ventersdorp convoy on the 23rd. The attack, which was twice repeated, was of a determined nature, and the convoy was surrounded and all but taken as it came within sight of Ventersdorp.

 

The Boers were kept off, however, by the  stubborn defence of the escort, under Major P. Palmes (Royal North Lancashire) and Captain E. C. Purchas (South Wales Borderers), and by a gun which the Commandant at Ventersdorp, Major J. H. du B. Travers (South Wales Borderers), took out from the village with what men he had some twenty in all - and the convoy barely escaped with the loss of six killed and thirty-one wounded amongst the escort.

“History of the War in South Africa 1899-1902” Vol IV, p183.