Elizabeth Anne Jardine Ellson

Elizabeth Anne Jardine Ellson (Known as Anne) (1928 - 1997)

Brief overview:

Anne (69), and her husband Peter James Robert Ellson (68), from Farm Plottie in Thornville, were attacked and hacked with a panga in the bedroom of their home on 3rd September 1997. Pieter died in hospital the same day. Anne was in a critical condition and succumbed a few days later.

Brief Biography:

• Other Victims/Family
  • The couple leave behind their children - Kathleen, Keith and Eva
• Funeral/Memorial
• The Farm/Smallholding
• The Region (Land disputes, other incidents etc.)
  • A total of 12 people were murdered on farms or smallholdings in KZN during 1997. Besides Elizabeth and Peter, 11 other people were murdered, predominantly farmers and their wives. 8 of the victims were elderly, between the ages of 60 and 80. A further seven attacks occurred in the province during 1997.
  • Thelma Nzama (80), stabbed to death on a farm outside Paddock on 01/03/1997.
  • Werner Johannes Gathmann (60), shot and killed on his farm Schoonzicht, Seven Oaks, Rietvlei, Greytown on 25/03/1997
  • Peter Aurora Campbell (61), although not murdered on his farm, Peter a farmer from Vryheid was shot dead while delivering milk in Blood River on 26/03/1997.
  • Reginald Spencer Evans (55), shot in the face and chest at his farm Horseshoe, Camperdown, KZN on 30/06/1997
  • Christiaan Jacobus van der Walt (48), bludgeoned to death in Helpmekaar, Dundee on 05/08/1997.
  • Richard Noel Hardy (42), shot dead in Babanango on 03/09/1997
  • Vivianna Alma Gevers (60), shot twice in the head at her farm in Paulpietersburg on 05/10/1997.
  • Roald John Seabrook Smith (28), shot five times in Kzambonambi, north of Empangeni on 12/11/1997.
  • Elizabeth Magdalena Marais (33) and her husband Nicolaas Johannes Marais (44), tortured and beaten with blunt objects in Newcastle on 25/11/1997.
• 7 further attacks occurred in the province during 1997, where the victims thankfully survived:
  • 1997: Brett Kjonstad (41), shot through window when trying to protect his daughter Claudia who was being attacked in the garden on their farm near Margate.
  • 01/04/1997: Roland Niebuhr (40), his wife Heike (34) and their three children were overpowered, tied up and robbed on their farm near Paulpietersburg.
  • 03/04/1997: William Struckmeyer (66), attacked and stabbed with a knife on his farm Rietvallei in Howick.
  • 16/03/1997: Edwin Freese (36), his wife Inge (36) and their young daughters Brenda (4) and Chantel (9) were attacked at their Farm Datton in Lilienthal, Fawn Leas. Edwin and Inge suffered severe injuries.
  • 28/09/1997: Christo Delport, attacked and shot twice on his farm Nooitgedacht in Pangola
  • 20/10/1997: Dan Ellis, was in a critical condition after he was shot in the head through a window at his farm Texel in the Nkwaleni area.
  • 26/11/1997: Wayne Botha (32), attacked by the armed men on his farm in Highflats. He was hit on the back of his head with a walking stick and shot in the stomach. Fortunately the gun was loaded with buckshot.

Attack Details:

• Date and time of attack
• Weapons
  • Panga
• Items Stolen
• Investigative officer/SAPS Case No:
• Torture, Gratuitous violence
• Indications of Hate Crime? Threats etc.

Perpetrator details:

• Number and Descriptions
• Arrests
  • No-one was ever arrested
• Name/s and age/s of Perpetrator/s
• Country of origin of Perpetrator/s
• Trial/Conviction

Additional Biographical Information:

• "A Tribute by Spike Bulley - ' ..... even by the standards of those days Peter's early life was unusual. When he was about a year old his father was killed in an accident at the railway crossing near the old Scots Church. Peter's mother then joined up with her parents, and the family moved to Uganda where they farmed coffee outside Kampala. Times were not easy in the early 1930s and Peter's grandfather, in addition to managing the coffee farm, worked tin mining concessions near the Kagera River in SW Uganda. This was the real Africa, which, Peter the boy, loved, a love which was to stay with him all his life. Peter went to school at the Nairobi Primary, and later to the Prince of Wales .... at Kabete.
• Getting to school from Uganda was an adventure in itself - two days and a night on the train, and sometimes, depending on where his grandfather was working, part of the journey by lake steamer. At the POW Peter was in Rhodes House. He was younger than I and I remember him as being very fair haired and wearing a red sports shirt on the playing fields.
• On leaving the POW Peter joined the EA Customs and Excise and saw duty in both Kampala and Mombasa. It was in Mombasa that Peter met Anne, where they married late in 1949. Kathleen was born the next year and Keith followed a couple of years later.
• Peter joined the Kenya Regt. in 1952 and his military service began with a 6 month infantry training course at the British Army Training Centre in S. Rhodesia. He was a member of the Regimental hockey side that won the senior league competition in Salisbury and was subsequently selected to play hockey for Rhodesia. This he was unable to do, however, due to the Regiment's recruits having to return to Kenya. I recall Peter telling me that part of his Regimental service was spotting for Mau Mau gangs and hideouts from a light aircraft. The plane was also used to drop supplies to security force patrols in the Aberdare forests.
• In the mid-fifties Peter and his family moved to Kipkabus in the Uasin Gishu, where he bought a farm and developed a small beef herd. Farming didn't work out for them. Peter told me they were undercapitalised, and with the approach of Independence for Kenya they moved to Britain. Peter was unhappy in England and never really settled. The call of Africa was too strong, and some 3 years later, in the early 60s, he joined Rainbow Chickens, and the family moved once again, this time to Natal.
• Bruce Rooken-Smith They were attacked in their home just outside Pietermaritzburg by possible accomplices of their domestic, but no one was ever charged. Peter died of his wounds and his wife Anne succumbed a few days later."
  • https://archive.is/Hn97T

Links to Media articles:

• https://www.yumpu.com/nl/document/read/4451339/laai-af-die-lys-van-...
• https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0UlqSM-_mwDNWJlZmMxNmYtNGMwMS00Yz...