Kwazulu-Natal, ESTCOURT district, ESTCOURT, British Military Memorial

27 October 2008 6 images Share: Facebook , Twitter , Google+

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Cemetery information:- Estcourt’s military cemetery was between Lambert Park cricket oval and New Weir, which in turn is immediately upstream from the confluence of the Bushman’s and Little Bushman’s Rivers. This cemetery evidently had its beginnings in 1848 when Private John Ashton of the 45th Regiment was buried there after drowning in the river on 20 July 1848. Most of the other graves in this cemetery dated from the 2nd Anglo-Boer War. The cemetery was closed in 1963 and replaced by a Garden of Remembrance sited on high ground on the opposite side of the river overlooking Lambert Park. The Garden is centred on an elaborate memorial with plaques bearing nearly 150 names and regiments of men who died during the Anglo-Boer War at Estcourt, and at General Buller’s headquarters camp in Frere. Also interred there are “Privates Norton, W Burgess, Wm Molloy and 47 other unknown brave British soldiers”. These men are likely to have been buried in the Estcourt military cemetery between 1848 and the start of the 2nd Anglo-Boer War in 1899, and their grave markers with their regimental affiliations and dates of death were lost through neglect. Private Ashton was not forgotten during the move and his name appears on a kerbstone at the edge of the Garden. (source: https://www.angloboerwar.com/) Album complete, all the memorials were photographed. eGGSA captions done by: Heleen Nel. Information also available on the GGSA Cemetery DVD:- Cemetery ID: 2628 Names in cemetery: 91 Information submitted by: Brian Kaighin Google Earth Project Information:- GPSID: 3174 GPS: -29 00.455, 29 53.256