Philipstown is a town in the eastern

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 ext ...

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 ...

. Town 56 km north-east of

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 ...

. It was established in May 1863 on the farm Rietfontein and became a municipality in August 1876. Named after Sir

Philip Edmond Wodehouse Sir Philip Edmond Wodehouse (27 February 1811 – 25 October 1887) was a British colonial administrator. Biography Wodehouse was the eldest child of Edmond Wodehouse and his wife and first cousin Lucy Wodehouse. His paternal grandfather Tho ...

(1811-1887), Governor of the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when i ...

from 1861 to 1870. At the jailhouse to the west of town is the building where a small force of the 65th Imperial Yeomanry and Native Police held off a large force of General De Wet's men during the Second Anglo-Boer War. During this action, Corporal William Sopp of the Imperial Yeomanry was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for courage under fire when he rode out from this building to warn the approaching Australian Bushmen who were coming to relieve them that there were hundreds of Boers lying in wait for them. The Boers fired at this lone horseman as he raced to the Australians then raced back, arriving back at the jail without injury. This caused De Wet to delay his movements for several hours and turned him back towards a large pursuing British column.

References

Populated places in the Renosterberg Local Municipality 1863 establishments in the Cape Colony {{NorthernCape-geo-stub