Aliwal North Refugee Camp 1901 – 1902

The camps were formed by the British army to house the residents of the two Boer republics of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State. They were established towards the end of 1900, after Britain had invaded the Boer republics. This database was designed to investigate mortality and morbidity in the camps during the war. Although it will include everyone listed in the registers during the war, it usually excludes returning prisoners-of-war and men who came back from commando at the end of the war, as well as the considerable movement of people which took place after 31 May 1902, when families were repatriated to their homes.

The origins of the Aliwal North camps are unusually well documented. In August 1900 Major Kendal Pretyman Apthorp, a relative of General Pretyman, the Military Governor of the Orange River Colony, was appointed District Commissioner of the Smithfield district. This area had a fairly large number of English-speaking farmers in addition to the Boer residents. When Apthorp took over, Smithfield was quiet. About forty impoverished families were asking for help and on 24 September 1900 Apthorp had to write to the Military Governor for funds and the right to appoint a Relief Committee to distribute aid.1
But at the end of September conditions began to change rapidly. Boer commandos had captured Zastron and Rouxville and occupied the towns for a couple of weeks. Shortly after Bethulie was threatened. A trickle of farmers began to rejoin the commandos. Apthorp was convinced that the Boers should be treated courteously and he was opposed to the farm burning which had begun to take place as reprisal for the raids. He was unhappy about the women, however, complaining that ‘they are far more bitter, and they excel the men as perverters of the truth’.

http://www2.lib.uct.ac.za/mss/bccd/Histories/Aliwal_North/