Deelfontein is a village in the

Great Karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe !Orakobab or Khoemana word ''ǃ’Aukarob'' "Hardveld") is a semi- desert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its ex ...

Northern Cape The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of the Kgalagadi T ...

, region of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

on the route of the

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

railway. It primarily developed to service the railway due to its good water supply for

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

s, and is currently the location of a

passing loop A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains or ...

on the single-track line. In 1900 a British military

field hospital A field hospital is a temporary hospital or mobile medical unit that takes care of casualties on-site before they can be safely transported to more permanent facilities. This term was initially used in military medicine (such as the Mobile A ...

, the

Imperial Yeomanry The Imperial Yeomanry was a volunteer mounted force of the British Army that mainly saw action during the Second Boer War. Created on 2 January 1900, the force was initially recruited from the middle classes and traditional yeomanry sources, but su ...

Hospital, was constructed for casualties from 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 Sout ...

. The location was chosen for its communications and dry climate, and its proximity to

De Aar De Aar is a town in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It has a population of around 42,000 inhabitants. It is the second-most important railway junction in the country, situated on the line between Cape Town and Kimberley. The junctio ...

, then the centre of hostilities. Alfred Downing Fripp was Chief Medical Officer. The hospital was unusual in pioneering the use of

x-ray An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...

diagnosis. The surgeon-radiographer in charge, Major John Hall-Edwards, achieved eminence in this field, though he subsequently lost an arm through x-ray damage. The hospital, with a capacity for some 800 patients, largely comprised tents and prefabricated huts; at the cease of hostilities, materials from the latter were used for housing at Red Location, a

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

for Africans outside

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha (), formerly Port Elizabeth and colloquially often referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, Sou ...

.Battle to fight plague lies at the heart of township’s birth
Ivor Markman, ''The Herald Online'' Little remains of the complex except a cemetery with around 130 graves and the remains of the Yeomanry Hotel, built after the war to accommodate soldiers' relatives visiting the site. In 2005 a train collision occurred in Deelfontein as a result of solder splatter bridging a relay contact and causing a wrong-side signal failure.

References

Deelfontein
SA Watt, ''Military History Journal'', Vol 7 No 4, The South African Military History Society.

Imperial Yeomanry Hospital and Cemetery at Deelfontein, ''Military History Journal'', Vol 3 No 5, The South African Military History Society. Populated places in the Emthanjeni Local Municipality {{SouthAfrica-mil-stub