Doornkop (literally "thorn hill") is a ridge and locality on the western outskirts of

Soweto Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...

in the

Gauteng Province Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only 1 ...

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 ...

Battles

It is the spot where Dr

Leander Starr Jameson Sir Leander Starr Jameson, 1st Baronet, (9 February 1853 – 26 November 1917), was a British colonial politician, who was best known for his involvement in the ill-fated Jameson Raid. Early life and family He was born on 9 February 1853, o ...

was defeated on 2 January 1896 following the

Jameson Raid The Jameson Raid (29 December 1895 – 2 January 1896) was a botched raid against the South African Republic (commonly known as the Transvaal) carried out by British colonial administrator Leander Starr Jameson, under the employment of Cecil ...

. The area is also linked in popular history to the third day of the Battle of Johannesburg that took place nearby from 27 to 29 May 1900 during 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 ...

. The ridge was taken by cavalry under command of Lt Gen John French while a nearby ridge, now covered by several

suburbs, was taken by seven infantry battalions, including: Left Flank:21st Brigade; · the City Imperial Volunteers ·The Derbyshire Regiment ·The Cameron Highlanders ·The 1st Battalion The Royal Sussex Regiment. Right Flank of Lt Gen Ian Hamilton;19 Brigade; ·The Gordon Highlanders. ·The 2nd Battalion The Royal Canadian Regiment. ·The Kings Shropshire Light Infantry. ·The Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. Gardyne The Life of a Regiment 1794-1816 Map p.177

Present day

The area is currently being subsumed by the westward expansion of

and the eastward growth of

Krugersdorp Krugersdorp (Afrikaans for ''Kruger's Town'') is a mining city in the West Rand, Gauteng Province, South Africa founded in 1887 by Marthinus Pretorius. Following the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand, a need arose for a major town in the west ...

's Kagiso township. Suburbs include Tshepisong, Leratong Village, Bambayi and Thulani. Doornkop is also known as Thulani, Snakepark and Silvertown. There is another place named Doornkop, a community 15 km north of

Middelburg Middelburg may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Europe * Middelburg, Zeeland, the capital city of the province of Zeeland, southwestern Netherlands ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Middelburg, a former Catholic diocese with its see in the Zeeland ...

in the Steve Tshwete Local Municipality (http://www.stevetshwetelm.gov.za/) in Mpumalanga.

References

External links

Battle of Johannesburg
Johannesburg Region D {{Johannesburg-stub