HG0003

Did You Know?

The 130 Britse grafte (130 British graves) site is located near Deëlfontein, a farmstead in the De Aar district of the Northern Cape. During the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902), Deëlfontein served as a British military camp and field hospital, particularly in 1900–1901. The graves are those of British soldiers, many of whom died from disease—especially enteric fever (typhoid)—rather than from combat wounds, as was common in the arid Karoo conditions where water and sanitation were problematic. The site is a formal war grave cemetery, likely maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission or the South African Heritage Resources Agency, though specific individual records are not widely published. The name 'Deëlfontein' refers to a farm with a spring, and the area was strategically important as a railway junction and supply base during the war. The graves stand as a tangible reminder of the human cost of the conflict in the interior of the Cape Colony, where thousands of British troops were stationed and many succumbed to illness.

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