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John Graham (British Army Officer)
Colonel John Graham (24 April 177813 March 1821) was a British soldier and administrator best known for founding the settlement of Grahamstown in the Cape Colony in 1812. Grahamstown went on to become a military, administrative, judicial and educational centre for its surrounding region. Family origins Graham was born in Dundee, Scotland. He was the second son of Robert Graham, the last laird of the demesne of Fintry and 12th representative of the Grahams of Fintry in Forfarshire, Scotland. Later in life, John became the thirteenth representative of the Fintry Grahams following the death of his elder brother in 1799 and his father in 1816. At the age of 16, Graham was commissioned in the British Army, joining the 90th Regiment of Foot, which had been raised in 1794 by his kinsman, Thomas Graham of Balgowan (later Lord Lynedoch). Two expeditions to France in the late-1790s were followed by an appointment as '' aide-de-camp'' to the Earl of Chatham, who Graham served in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grahamstown, South Africa
Makhanda, also known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 140,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Port Elizabeth and southwest of East London. Makhanda is the largest town in the Makana Local Municipality, and the seat of the municipal council. It also hosts Rhodes University, the Eastern Cape Division of the High Court, the South African Library for the Blind (SALB), a diocese of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, and 6 South African Infantry Battalion. Furthermore, located approximately 3 km south-east of the town lies the world renowned Waterloo Farm, the only estuarine fossil site in the world from 360 million years ago with exceptional soft-tissue preservation. The town's name-change from Grahamstown to Makhanda was officially gazetted on 29 June 2018. The town was officially renamed to Makhanda in memory of Xhosa warrior and prophet Makhanda ka Nxele. History Founding Makhanda was founded as Grahamsto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guernsey
Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency. It is the second largest of the Channel Islands, an island group roughly north of Saint-Malo and west of the Cotentin Peninsula. The jurisdiction consists of ten parishes on the island of Guernsey, three other inhabited islands ( Herm, Jethou and Lihou), and many small islets and rocks. It is not part of the United Kingdom, although defence and some aspects of international relations are managed by the UK. Although the bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey are often referred to collectively as the Channel Islands, the "Channel Islands" are not a constitutional or political unit. Jersey has a separate relationship to the Crown from the other Crown dependencies of Guernsey and the Isle of Man, although all are held by the monarch of the United Kingdom. The island has a mixed British-Norm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uitenhage
Uitenhage ( ; ), officially renamed Kariega, is a South African town in the Eastern Cape Province. It is well known for the Volkswagen factory located there, which is the biggest car factory on the African continent. Along with the city of Port Elizabeth and the small town of Despatch, it forms the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality. History Uitenhage was founded on 25 April 1804 by ''landdrost'' (district magistrate) Jacob Glen Cuyler and named in honour of the Cape's Commissioner-General Jacob Abraham Uitenhage de Mist by the Dutch Cape Colony governor, Jan Willem Janssens. Uitenhage formed part of the district of Graaff Reinet (shortly after its short-lived secession). The Cape Colony received a degree of independence when "Responsible Government" was declared in 1872. In 1875, the Cape government of John Molteno took over the rudimentary Uitenhage railway site, incorporated it into the Cape Government Railways (CGR), and began construction of the lines connecting Uit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Graaff-Reinet
Graaff-Reinet is a town in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is the oldest town in the province. It is also the sixth-oldest town in South Africa, after Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Simon's Town, Paarl and Swellendam. The town was the centre of a short-lived republic in the late 18th century. The town was a starting point for Great Trek groups led by Gerrit Maritz and Piet Retief and furnished large numbers of the Voortrekkers in 1835–1842. Graaff-Reinet is home to more national monuments than any other town or city in South Africa. It is also known for being a flourishing market for agricultural produce, noted for its mohair industry, and sheep and ostrich farming. History Graaff-Reinet was established by the Dutch East India Company in 1786, after Cape Town in 1652, Stellenbosch in 1679, Paarl in 1687 and Swellendam in 1745. The town is named after then-governor of the Cape Colony, Cornelis Jacob van de Graaff, and his wife. The town was originally established ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swellendam
Swellendam is the fifth oldest town in South Africa (after Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Simon's Town, and Paarl), a town with 17,537 inhabitants situated in the Western Cape province. The town has over 50 provincial heritage sites, most of them buildings of Cape Dutch architecture. Swellendam is situated on the N2, approximately 220 km from both Cape Town and George. History Early travellers and explorers who visited the Cape in the 16th century traded with the Khoikhoi people who lived on these shores and in the interior. When the Dutch East India Company established a replenishment station at the Cape in 1652, trade continued inland as far as Swellendam. In 1743 Swellendam was declared a magisterial district, the third-oldest in South Africa, and was named after Governor Hendrik Swellengrebel, the first South African born Governor, and his wife, Helena Ten Damme. This outlying settlement soon became a gateway to the interior, and was visited by many famous explorers an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boers
Boers ( ; af, Boere ()) are the descendants of the Dutch-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controlled this area, but the United Kingdom incorporated it into the British Empire in 1806. The name of the group is derived from "boer", which means "farmer" in Dutch and Afrikaans. In addition, the term also applied to those who left the Cape Colony during the 19th century to colonise in the Orange Free State, Transvaal (together known as the Boer Republics), and to a lesser extent Natal. They emigrated from the Cape to live beyond the reach of the British colonial administration, with their reasons for doing so primarily being the new Anglophone common law system being introduced into the Cape and the British abolition of slavery in 1833. The term ''Afrikaners'' or ''Afrikaans people'' is generally used in modern-day South Africa for the white Afri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Light Infantry
Light infantry refers to certain types of lightly equipped infantry throughout history. They have a more mobile or fluid function than other types of infantry, such as heavy infantry or line infantry. Historically, light infantry often fought as Reconnaissance, scouts, Raid (military), raiders, and skirmisher, skirmishers. These are loose formations that fight ahead of the main army to harass, delay, disrupt supply lines, engage the enemy’s own skirmishing forces, and generally "soften up" an enemy before the main battle. Light infantrymen were also often responsible for Screening (tactical), screening the main body of a military formation. Post-World War II, the term "light infantry" evolved to include rapid-deployment units (including commandos and Airborne forces, airborne units) that emphasize speed and mobility over armor and firepower. Some units or battalions that historically held a skirmishing role have kept their designation "light infantry" for the sake of traditi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wynberg, Cape Town
Wynberg () is a southern suburb of the City of Cape Town in Western Cape, South Africa. It is situated between Plumstead, Cape Town, Plumstead and Kenilworth, Cape Town, Kenilworth, and is a main transport hub for the Southern Suburbs, Cape Town, Southern Suburbs of Cape Town. History In the 1650s, Jan van Riebeeck's farm Boscheuvel, where he planted the Cape's first vineyards and was the first to produce History of South African wine, wine in the Cape, was located in the greater Wynberg area close to the slopes of Table Mountain. In 1683 land along the Liesbeek River was granted to Herman Weeckens by Simon van der Stel. The farm was named De Oude Wijnbergh (Old Wine Mountain). The Cape's rough seas in the winter months led to a formal winter anchorage in 1743 where ships would dock at Simons' Baai (present day Simon's Town). A wagon route linking Cape Town to Simon's Town went over the hill adjacent to De Oude Wjinbergh estate. When the British took control of the Cape sett ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cape Corps
The Cape Corps and its predecessor units were the main military organisations in which the Coloured members of South Africa's population served. History As one of the military units of South Africa with one of the longest histories, the Cape Corps reflects the history of South Africa's Coloured population to a great extent. 1781–1782 The first Coloured unit to be formed was the ''Corps Bastaard Hottentoten'' (Afrikaans: "Corps of Bastard Hottentots"), which was organised in 1781 by the Dutch colonial administration of the time. Based in Cape Town and drawing its members from men of mixed Hottentot and White ancestry, this unit had about 400 members under the command of Hendrik Eksteen and Gerrit Munnik. The unit was disbanded in 1782 when French mercenaries arrived in the Cape. 1793–1870 In 1793 this unit was re-formed in Cape Town as the ''Corps van Pandoeren'' (Pandour Corps) with 200 men under the command of Captain Jan Cloete, only to be disbanded again in 1795 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lieutenant Colonel
Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence. Sometimes, the term 'half-colonel' is used in casual conversation in the British Army. In the United States Air Force, the term 'light bird' or 'light bird colonel' (as opposed to a 'full bird colonel') is an acceptable casual reference to the rank but is never used directly towards the rank holder. A lieutenant colonel is typically in charge of a battalion or regiment in the army. The following articles deal with the rank of lieutenant colonel: * Lieutenant-colonel (Canada) * Lieutenant colonel (Eastern Europe) * Lieutenant colonel (Turkey) * Lieutenant colonel (Sri Lanka) * Lieutenant colonel (United Kingdom) * L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Blaauwberg
The Battle of Blaauwberg, also known as the Battle of Cape Town, fought near Cape Town on Wednesday 8 January 1806, was a small but significant military engagement. After a British victory, peace was made under the Treaty Tree in Woodstock. It established British rule over the Dutch Cape Colony, which was to have many ramifications for the region during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A bi-centennial commemoration was held in January 2006. Background The battle was an incident in Europe's Napoleonic Wars. At that time, the Cape Colony belonged to the Batavian Republic, a French vassal. Because the sea route around the Cape was important to the British, they decided to seize the colony in order to prevent it—and the sea route—from also coming under French control. A British fleet was despatched to the Cape in July 1805, to forestall French troopships which Napoleon had sent to reinforce the Cape garrison. The colony was governed by Lieutenant General Jan Wil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
93rd Regiment Of Foot
The 93rd (Sutherland Highlanders) Regiment of Foot was a Line Infantry Regiment of the British Army, raised in 1799. Under the Childers Reforms, it amalgamated with the 91st (Argyllshire Highlanders) Regiment of Foot to form the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. History Formation The regiment was raised from the Sutherland Fencibles by Major-General William Wemyss on behalf of the Countess of Sutherland as the 93rd (Highland) Regiment of Foot on 16 April 1799. The first muster of the regiment took place at Skail in Strathnaver in August 1800. One of the soldiers who attended the muster was Sergeant Samuel Macdonald, a soldier who stood six feet ten inches tall and had a chest measuring 48 inches. The Countess of Sutherland, on seeing Sergeant Macdonald, donated a special allowance of 2 shillings 6 pence a day, and stated that anyone as large as Macdonald "must require more sustenance than his military pay can afford."McElwee, p. 6. According to historian James Hunter, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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