The following lists events that happened during
1902
Events
January
* January 1
** The Nurses Registration Act 1901 comes into effect in New Zealand, making it the first country in the world to require state registration of nurses. On January 10, Ellen Dougherty becomes the world' ...
in
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
.
Incumbents
Cape Colony
*
Governor of the Cape of Good Hope:
Walter Hely-Hutchinson
Sir Walter Francis Hely-Hutchinson (22 August 1849 – 23 September 1913) was an Anglo-Irish diplomat and colonial administrator.
Background and education
Hely-Hutchinson was the second son of Richard Hely-Hutchinson, 4th Earl of Donoughmore. ...
.
*
Prime Minister of the Cape of Good Hope:
John Gordon Sprigg
Sir John Gordon Sprigg, (27 April 1830 – 4 February 1913) was an English-born colonial administrator, politician and four-time prime minister of the Cape Colony.
Early life
Sprigg was born in Ipswich, England, into a strongly Puritan fami ...
.
Natal
*
Governor of the Colony of Natal:
Henry Edward McCallum
Sir Henry Edward McCallum, GCMG (28 October 1852 – 24 November 1919) was a British colonial governor.
Biography
McCallum attended the Royal Military College in Woolwich and began his colonial service career in 1874.
He was Colonial Eng ...
.
*
Prime Minister of the Colony of Natal:
Albert Henry Hime
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Albert Henry Hime, (29 August 1842 – 13 September 1919) was a Royal Engineers officer and later a prominent politician in the Colony of Natal.
Early life and career
Hime was born in Kilcoole, County Wicklow, on the Ballyd ...
.
Orange Free State / Orange River Colony
*
State President of the Orange Free State:
Martinus Theunis Steyn
Martinus (or Marthinus) Theunis Steyn (; 2 October 1857 – 28 November 1916) was a South African lawyer, politician, and statesman. He was the sixth and last president of the independent republic the Orange Free State from 1896 to 1902.
Earl ...
(until 31 May).
*
Governor of the Orange River Colony and
High Commissioner for Southern Africa
The British office of high commissioner for Southern Africa was responsible for governing British possessions in Southern Africa, latterly the protectorates of Basutoland (now Lesotho), the Bechuanaland Protectorate (now Botswana) and Swaziland ...
:
Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner
Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner, (23 March 1854 – 13 May 1925) was a British statesman and colonial administrator who played a role in the formulation of British foreign and domestic policy between the mid-1890s and early 1920s. From D ...
.
* Lieutenant-Governor of the Orange River Colony:
Hamilton Goold-Adams
Sir Hamilton John Goold-Adams, (27 June 1858, in Jamesbrook, County Cork – 12 April 1920) was an Irish soldier and colonial administrator, who served as Governor of Queensland from 1915 to 1920.
Early life
Born in the townland of Jamesbrook in ...
.
South African Republic / Transvaal
*
State President of the South African Republic:
Paul Kruger
Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger (; 10 October 1825 – 14 July 1904) was a South African politician. He was one of the dominant political and military figures in 19th-century South African Republic, South Africa, and President of the So ...
(until 31 May) (in exile);
Schalk Willem Burger
Schalk Willem Burger (6 September 1852 – 5 December 1918) was a South African military leader, lawyer, politician, and statesman who was acting president of the South African Republic from 1900 to 1902, whilst Paul Kruger was in exile.Nat ...
(acting until 31 May).
*
Governor of the Transvaal and
High Commissioner for Southern Africa
The British office of high commissioner for Southern Africa was responsible for governing British possessions in Southern Africa, latterly the protectorates of Basutoland (now Lesotho), the Bechuanaland Protectorate (now Botswana) and Swaziland ...
:
Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner
Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner, (23 March 1854 – 13 May 1925) was a British statesman and colonial administrator who played a role in the formulation of British foreign and domestic policy between the mid-1890s and early 1920s. From D ...
.
*
Lieutenant-Governor of the Transvaal:
Sir Arthur Lawley.
Events
;February
* 27 –
Breaker Morant
Harry "The Breaker" Harbord Morant (born Edwin Henry Murrant, 9 December 1864 – 27 February 1902), more popularly known as Breaker Morant, was an Anglo-Australian drover, horseman, bush poet, military officer, and war criminal who was co ...
and
Peter Handcock
Peter Joseph Handcock (17 February 1868 – 27 February 1902) was an Australian-born Veterinary Lieutenant and convicted war criminal who served in the Bushveldt Carbineers during the Boer War in South Africa.
After a court martial, Handcock (a ...
are executed in Pretoria for the murder of Boer prisoners of war near
Louis Trichardt Louis may refer to:
* Louis (coin)
* Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name
* Louis (surname)
* Louis (singer), Serbian singer
* HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy
See also
Derived or associated terms
* Lewis ( ...
.
;March
* 7 – The Burghers win their last battle over British forces, with the capture of a British general and 200 of his men.
;April
* 4 – The town Concordia in
Namaqualand
Namaqualand (khoekhoe: "Nama-kwa" meaning Nama Khoe people's land) is an arid region of Namibia and South Africa, extending along the west coast over and covering a total area of . It is divided by the lower course of the Orange River into ...
surrenders to Boer forces.
* 8 –
O'okiep
Okiep is a small town in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, and was in the 1870s ranked as having the richest copper mine in the world. The town is on the site of a spring that was known in the Khoekhoe language of the Nama people as ''U ...
is besieged by Boer forces under General Jan Smuts.
;May
* 1 – Boer commandos use the
locomotive ''Pioneer'' to propel a truck-load of dynamite into the besieged O'okiep.
* 4 –
Boer
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 are ...
General
Jan Smuts
Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, (24 May 1870 11 September 1950) was a South African statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various military and cabinet posts, he served as prime minister of the Union of South Af ...
meets with the
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
General
Herbert Kitchener
Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, (; 24 June 1850 – 5 June 1916) was a senior British Army officer and colonial administrator. Kitchener came to prominence for his imperial campaigns, his scorched earth policy against the Boers, h ...
at
Kroonstad
Kroonstad (Afrikaans directly translated "Crown City") is the third largest city in the Free State (after Bloemfontein and Welkom) and lies two hours' drive on the N1 from Gauteng. Maokeng is an area within Kroonstad, and is occasionally used ...
.
* 6 –
Qulusi-
Zulu chief Sikhobobo with a 300-strong impi attacks Field-cornet Potgieter and 70
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 are ...
while sleeping, leaving 56 Burghers and 52 Zulus dead in the
Battle of Holkrans
The Battle of Holkrans or Holkrantz (6 May 1902) took place at Holkrans, near Vryheid in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa during the second Anglo-Boer War.
History
To stop the raids operated by the Boers
Boers ( ; af, Boere ()) are the de ...
.
* 31 – The
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...
ends with the signing of the
Treaty of Vereeniging
The Treaty of Vereeniging was a peace treaty, signed on 31 May 1902, that ended the Second Boer War between the South African Republic and the Orange Free State, on the one side, and the United Kingdom on the other.
This settlement provided f ...
at
Melrose House
Melrose House is a stately mansion and museum located on Burgers Park in Pretoria, South Africa. History
Built in 1886 by the prosperous Pretoria businessman George Jesse Heys, it was named after the famous Melrose Abbey in Scotland. Melrose H ...
in
Pretoria
Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa.
Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foot ...
.
;December
*
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
arrives in
Durban
Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...
from
Bombay
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...
.
;Unknown date
*
James Stevenson-Hamilton
James Stevenson-Hamilton (2 October 1867 – 10 December 1957) served from 1902–1946 as the first warden of South Africa's Sabi Nature Reserve, which was expanded under his watch and became Kruger National Park in 1926. The Tsonga people n ...
is appointed the first warden of the
Sabie Game Reserve.
Births
* 1 January –
Buster Nupen, South African cricketer. (d. 1977)
Deaths
* 26 March –
Cecil John Rhodes
Cecil John Rhodes (5 July 1853 – 26 March 1902) was a British mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896.
An ardent believer in British imperialism, Rhodes and his Brit ...
, businessman, mining magnate, imperialist and politician.
* 2 May – Jan Stephanus de Villiers, composer and organist, dies in
Paarl
Paarl (; Afrikaans: ; derived from ''Parel'', meaning "pearl" in Dutch) is a town with 112,045 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is the third-oldest city and European settlement in the Republic of South Africa (after ...
.
Railways
Railway lines opened
* 1 May – Free State –
Bloemfontein
Bloemfontein, ( ; , "fountain of flowers") also known as Bloem, is one of South Africa's three capital cities and the capital of the Free State province. It serves as the country's judicial capital, along with legislative capital Cape To ...
to
Sannaspos, .
[''Statement Showing, in Chronological Order, the Date of Opening and the Mileage of Each Section of Railway'', Statement No. 19, p. 184, ref. no. 200954-13]
* 18 July – Natal –
Tugela to
Mhlatuze, .
* 1 August – Cape Midland –
Cookhouse
A cookhouse is a small building where cooking takes place. Often found at remote work camps, they complemented the bunkhouse and were usually found on ranches that employed cowboys, or loggers in a logging camp. Prior to the 20th century, cookh ...
to
Somerset East
Somerset East ( af, Somerset-Oos) is a town in the Blue Crane Route Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. It was founded by Lord Charles Somerset in 1825.
The Blue Crane Route follows the national road R63 from Pearston, via S ...
, .
[''Report for year ending 31 December 1909'', Cape Government Railways, Section VIII - Dates of Opening and the Length of the different Sections in the Cape Colony, from the Year 1873 to 31st December, 1909.]
* 1 August – Cape Midland –
Klipplaat
Klipplaat is a town in Sarah Baartman District Municipality in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa.
The town is some 185 km north-west of Port Elizabeth and 75 km south-east of Aberdeen. It takes its name from large slabs of rock on the ...
to
Willowmore
Willowmore is a town in Sarah Baartman District Municipality in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa.
The town is situated 140 km north-east of Knysna and 117 km south-west of Aberdeen
Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar ...
, .
* 1 August – Cape Western –
Sir Lowry's Pass Village to
Caledon, .
* 15 November – Cape Western –
Moorreesburg
Moorreesburg is a rural town situated about north of Cape Town, in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It was laid out in 1879 on the farm Hooikraal, was administered by a village management board from 1882 and attained municipal status in ...
to
Eendekuil
Eendekuil is a settlement in West Coast District Municipality in the Western Cape province of South Africa.
Situated 30 km (19 mi) north of Piketberg, the village was the terminus of the Cape Town railway until the end of the Anglo-Boe ...
, .
Locomotives
;Cape
* Four new Cape gauge and three narrow gauge locomotive types enter service on the
Cape Government Railways
The Cape Government Railways (CGR) was the government-owned railway operator in the Cape Colony from 1874 until the creation of the South African Railways (SAR) in 1910.
History Private railways
The first railways at the Cape were privately own ...
(CGR):
** Fourteen 6th Class bar framed
4-6-0 passenger steam locomotives. In 1912 they will be designated
Class 6J on the South African Railways (SAR).
** The last ten 7th Class
4-8-0
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, usually in a leading truck or bogie, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles and no ...
Mastodon type locomotives on the Eastern System. In 1912 they will be designated
Class 7C on the SAR.
** The first thirteen of twenty-three 8th Class
Mastodon locomotives on the Western, Midland and Eastern Systems. In 1912 they will be designated
Class 8 on the SAR.
** A single experimental
"Consolidation" type
tandem compound
A compound locomotive is a steam locomotive which is powered by a compound engine, a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. The locomotive was only one application of compounding. Two and three stages were used in shi ...
steam locomotive, in 1912 designated
Class Experimental 2 on the SAR.
** Three Type A
2-6-0
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. ...
Mogul type steam locomotives, later to become
Class NG7 on the SAR, on the
Hopefield narrow gauge
A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and .
Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...
branchline that is being constructed from
Kalbaskraal
Kalbaskraal is a settlement in the Swartland Local Municipality in the Western Cape province of South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south b ...
.
** Two
Type A 2-6-4T Adriatic type narrow gauge locomotives on construction service on the new
Avontuur
Avontuur is a town situated in the Garden Route District Municipality in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The town is located 13km south-east of Uniondale on an intersection of the R339 and R62 regional routes.
History
The name is A ...
branch that is being built out of
Port Elizabeth through the Langkloof.
** A single
Type C 0-4-0 narrow gauge tank steam locomotive named Midget on the Avontuur branch.
* Two new Cape gauge locomotive types enter service with the East London and Table Bay Harbour Boards:
**
Two 0-6-0 saddle-tank locomotives enter shunting service at the East London Harbour.
** Eleven
2-6-0 saddle-tank locomotives enter harbour shunting service in Table Bay Harbour.
;Natal
* The
Natal Government Railways
The Natal Government Railways (NGR) was formed in January 1877 in the Colony of Natal.
In 1877, the Natal Government Railways acquired the Natal Railway Company for the sum of £40,000, gaining the line from the Point to Durban and from Durban ...
places ten
Class F Baltic type tank
steam locomotives in service, the first known locomotive in the world to be designed and built as a Baltic. In 1912 they will be designated Class E on the SAR.
* The Natal Harbours Department places a single saddle-tank locomotive named
Congella in service as harbour shunter in Durban Harbour.
* The Zululand Railway Company, contractors for the construction of the North Coast line from
Verulam to the
Tugela River
The Tugela River ( zu, Thukela; af, Tugelarivier) is the largest river in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. With a total length of , it is one of the most important rivers of the country.
The river originates in Mont-aux-Sources of the D ...
, acquires two 2-6-0 Mogul type tender locomotives as construction engines, later to be designated
Class I on the NGR.
;Transvaal
* The Imperial Military Railways places forty
Cape 8th Class 4-8-0
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, usually in a leading truck or bogie, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles and no ...
Mastodon type steam locomotives in service. In 1912 they will be designated Class 8A on the SAR.
References
{{Africa topic, 1902 in, state=collapsed
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
Years in South Africa