Most soldiers contracted fever in the unhealthy swamps of PEA and received medical attention at the Marondera hospital which resulted in their recovery; others developed complications and died enroute.

The locations of those that died are as follows:

My spreadsheet tracking the casualties started with 35 names from The Official Boer War Casualty Rolls 1899-1902 British and Empire Army which lists 54,931 fatalities. I added 13 names from the sources listed by Rob Burrett in his excellent and comprehensive article on this subject and took out 9 names that did not appear in any of the source references.  Col. Hickman, acknowledged below, also did a great deal of research on the subject.

The full list is:  

The various causes of death in this country are analysed below:

I have used the same layout as Rob Burrett’s cemetery plan so as to reduce confusion; when you read the source evidence you realise how much of the material is contradictory. As Burrett notes, this seems to have arisen because many of the casualty reports came from the RFF base at Marandellas, rather than from where the person died, so when in doubt they simply put Marandellas. For example, for QM Sgt. Walton I have a contemporary account of his death and burial at Iron Mine Hill by a colleague, yet the record states Marandellas. Col Hickman raised doubts about Studdart, for whom there is a grave marker at Paradise Plot cemetery, but actually Tpr James Hastie Stoddart was killed in the 1897 Mashona Rebellion, or First Chimurenga and is buried at Ruzawi School about 6 KM’s away, this all results in some confusion in the records. [See Mashona Rebellion / First Chimurenga 1896-7 graves at Old Marandellas (Ruzawi Cemetery on the website www.zimfieldguide.com]

Some of the confusion arises because a number of different parties were involved. First, the BSAP compiled lists of the names of those buried at each site around the country before 1908. Lists were then drawn up by the Guild of Loyal Women (GLW) that were sent to be cast as the familiar circular cast iron markers by the Gregory iron foundry firm in Cape Town. Those who died prior to the death of Queen Victoria on 22^nd January 1901 are headed “FOR QUEEN & EMPIRE” and those after are “FOR KING & EMPIRE.” Gregory made mistakes on the castings. The BSAP then placed the grave markers, but not always on the correct graves; so the current positioning of the grave markers should always be treated with caution.

As Burrett further notes those who died in 1900 were Australians and New Zealanders and unknown to local people; additionally the record keeping of the military was often poor; particularly at a position such as Marondera where the town barely existed and the population was very small.  

Burrett goes into the arguments for and against the accuracy of the positioning of the current grave markers in a lot of detail and for the purposes of this short article I have accepted his initial reasoning and conclusions.

Grave 10 dates from 1935 and is ignored hereon as it is clearly outside the period being considered, but as the records indicate there are seven RFF graves at Marondera, a further two need to be eliminated. Graves 8 and 9 appear to be the latest; Grave 8 has a granite slab and Grave 9 has a tin plate cut in the shape of a heart and both appear to be civilian burials unrelated to the others.

The normal pattern of laying out graves is to have them in date order of burial in rows making Grave 1 of the above plan the earliest.  All those buried here are Australians; except for the New Zealander Pte F. Saxon. In date order and following the cemetery plan this would be as follows, however Rob Burrett follows the grave markers which I believe to be incorrect:

Grave 1 – Tpr A.E. Shaw. List 1 and 6 give his date of death as 7 June 1900, the earliest death. Burrett puts him in grave 6. There is no grave marker. Not to be confused with G.F. Shaw who died at Bamboo Creek on 29 May 1900.

Grave 2 – Pte F. Saxon. Lists 1, 2 and 10 give his date of death as 19 June 1900, the second death. List 2 incorrectly lists his place of death as Beira. Burrett has him in grave 7. No grave marker.

Grave 3 – Capt. H.C.W. Hamilton. List 1 and List 3 give his date of death as 12 May 1900, List 5 and List 8 state 8 July 1900 and List 7 states 7 July 1901. The Gregory cast iron marker states 12 May 1901, which is clearly incorrect, as even the GLW list sent to the Gregory iron foundry states 12 May 1900. As the incorrect date used by the Gregory iron foundry is after Queen Victoria’s death; it is marked “FOR KING & EMPIRE.”  Because he is not listed in the official Australian casualties, Burrett thinks he enrolled as an independent volunteer in South Africa and this seems plausible. Burrett quotes The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, which has a letter from Capt. William McKnight to his fiancée “Belle” dated 10 July 1900 which says: “There was a civilian clerk left here [Marandellas] but he is out of his mind, also a Captain Hamilton under my care who has gone to the dogs with drinking and morphine. No orderly would stay with him and I was afraid he would commit suicide. I had a bad time. I managed to get him into the hospital, so that was a relief.”  He wrote again on the 13 July 1900 saying: “Captain Hamilton, I regret to say, died yesterday and was buried close to the camp.”

The date of 12 July 1900 therefore seems the most reliable, the third death. Burrett / grave marker has him in grave 1.

Grave 4 – Tpr S.E. Davis. List 1, 5, 8 give his date of death as 25 July 1900, the fourth death. List 6 states 26 July 1900. List 7 states 16 July 1900. Burrett / the grave marker has him in grave 3. The Gregory iron foundry incorrectly gives the year of his death as 1906.

Grave 5 – Pte G.W.N. Stevens. List 1, 7 and 8 give his date of death as 29 July 1900, but this is probably his date of burial. List 5 states 28 July 1900, the fifth death. Burrett / the grave marker has him in grave 4.   

Grave 6 – Tpr T.G.B. Armstrong. List 6, 7 and 8 give his date of death as 7 August 1900, the sixth death. He is omitted from the other lists. Burrett / the grave marker has him in grave 5.

Grave 7 – Pte J. Kiley. Lists 4 and 7 give his date of death as 13 October 1900, the seventh death. List 3 has his name, but not a date, or place of death. Burrett puts him in grave 2. He has two grave markers; one was made locally probably by a local farrier, or his colleagues. The Gregory iron foundry grave marker is misspelled as Kelly and the date needs correcting. There was a Kelly, or Kelby, who died at Enkeldoorn on the 3^rd July 1900 and this maybe where the surname error crept in. Burrett / Gregory iron foundry grave marker has him in grave 2. The locally made grave marker puts him in grave 7, which I believe is correct.  

Grave 8 – unknown, probably later civilian.

Grave 9 – unknown, probably later civilian

Grave 10 – Gertrude Margaret McLaren died October 1935 aged 49 years. Not listed in Pioneer Women.

List of those buried at Paradise Plot, Marondera with suggested gravesites

This table follows the Plan of the Paradise Plot Cemetery above.  The first fatality at Marondera, Tpr A.E. Shaw who died on 7 June 1900 I put in grave 1, Burrett puts in grave 6. The last fatality, Pte J. Kiley who died on 13 October 1900 I put in grave 7, Burrett puts in grave 2. The grave markers correspond with Burrett, but I am not sure this numbering is logical for either a military or civilian cemetery. Either way, we will probably never know.

Acknowledgements

R.S. Burrett. Rhodesian Field Force (Anglo-South African War) graves in Zimbabwe, with particular reference to Marondera.  Heritage of Zimbabwe Publication No. 19, 2000. Pages 22-45

Col. A.S. Hickman. Rhodesia served the Queen Vol I and 2. Government Printers, Salisbury. 1975

A. Doyle. Thanks for additional information from the Kew Medal Rolls.

List 1 - The South African Field Force Casualty List

List 2 - London Times

List 3 - The Heraldry & Genealogy Society of Canberra’s Australian war graves database for South Africa 1899 - 1902 (www.hagsoc.org.au/sagraves) 

List 4 -official Australian government website (www.pcug.org.au/~croe/oz_boer0.htm)

List 5 - Contemporary Death Registers, National Archives of Zimbabwe   

List 6 - Rhodesian Field Force Casualty List in S.H. Gilbert 1901. Rhodesia and After: the story of the Sharpshooters. London. Simpkin & Marshall, Hamilton & Kent & Co. and Col. A.S. Hickman as above

List 7 - Text references in Col. A.S. Hickman as above

List 8 - Administrator’s Office – List of graves to be marked by Guild of Loyal Women (GLW) Rhodesia Central Committee 

List 9 - Australian letters located by C. Wilcox.

List 10 - New Zealand database (www.nzhistory.net.nz/Gallery/SAW.htm)