Alfred Warren Bicheno

• Uncertain whether born in Isle of Wight or Wardour Street, London • Grew up in Ryde, IOW • Went to Winchester School, learned carpentry, engineering • To Australia (see Nelson and Webster). Engineer on Koolgarlie Water Scheme. • To South Africa during Boer War. With Plumer’s Column (mounted infantry) • Worked in railway carriage business in Pretoria. Kept racehorses. One horse was used by Prince of Wales on a visit to Pretoria. Apparently when the procession passed the racecourse, the horse galloped around the track with the Prince losing control. • Talked about helping rehabilitate Boers after Boer war. Rejects ‘concentration camp’ notion, saying they were refugee camps for women and children left alone on Boer farms. Free to leave – not prisons. • Built the carriage that was used to bring Paul Kruger’s body back from Cape Town to Pretoria. Also Tool chest (In JRB office) • Offered quarter share in Cullinan Diamond Mine. Declined! • Joined, as a volunteer, Transvaal Mounted Rifles (see photo in Chandos house), to quell Zulu Bambata rebellion in 1906. Got Bambata’s knobkerrie (in Chandos). • Bought the farm Kleinbegin, near Munnik. Built the first reinforced concrete silo in Transvaal on the farm, plus excellent dams, a dip, fencing, house. Became a ‘seed maize specialist’ selling Hickory King seeds – more profitable than just selling maize. Eventually had pigs, poultry, cattle. Cream sent off to Johannesburg from ‘Copper Halt’ (a railway request stop on the farm.) • Ploughed with oxen. Built excellent ox-wagon to bring mealies (maize) in for sorting. • First wife Frances Humphreys, married in Pretoria. From 1820 settler family. Fell ill on the farm and taken by ox wagon to Pietersburg. Died in Pretoria. Isaac Matou’s (later employed at St David Road), father helped with the wagon. • Many black families lived on the farm (300 people?) • Second wife, Mabel (widow), brought some money that enabled AWB to purchase Netrecht farm. • Persuaded local famers in the Munnik district to cede their farm’s trading rights to “Munnik Famers Limited’. (Munnik is about 7 miles from the farmhouse). Became chairman of Munnik Farmers. As a result built (personally), in Munnik, a store, post office, garage, house for Indian store keepers, village hall., blacksmith shop. Also built the Anglican church in Zoekmekaar. Northern Transvaal • Was JP (Justice of the Peace). Arrested various pro-Nazi sympathizers during WW2. Was a ‘Smuts Man’. • Loyal British. Stand at attention during God Save The Queen at Christmas • Died on the farm. Buried in Anglican churchyard Zoekmekaar.