14 JULY 1901 - ZUURVLAKTE

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On 14 July the Connaught Rangers, under Major Moore, entrenched in a position at Zuurvlakte, between AliwalNorth and Jamestown, had to withstand a determined attack by the combined commandos of Fouche and Myburg.

 

The enemy pressed forward with great boldness but were finally driven off at dusk after many hours’ fighting, during which our casualties were seven men killed, three officers and 17 men wounded.

Kitchener’s Despatch of 8 August 1901. The grave of the 21-year-old Boer Field Cornet Japie Olivier is still at its original place on the battlefield where he was buried together with the British casualties. Olivier was shot through the spine and immediately paralyzed.

 

He was initially nursed in a nearby farmhouse but died a few days later. The Connaught Rangers’ casualties were re-interred in Aliwal North.