Ghost story
My thanks to Rob Milne who kindly send me this story whilst he was researching his book on Boer War Anecdotes. Rob’s publication can be obtained from him via his e-mail at robmilne@global.co.za
This book is the direct result of the almost supernatural orders I was given on my first day at Frischgewaagt, described in my “Introduction” to this book. In “seeking and finding” I landed up with the war graves commission in Pretoria. It was here that I learnt that full records are kept of all English war graves on the one hand and all Boer graves on the other. I learnt that many of the British dead, buried at Belfast, were moved to Machadodorp and that the soldiers buried at the Bergendal monument had been collected from a wide area, and were not just the few who had died at Bergendal.
A retired colonel told me to visit the war graves at Waterval Onder, at Airlie and other spots down the Elands valley. Now “Airlie” used to be the farm “Nooitgedacht” where the Boers had a prison camp with about 2000 British prisoners, who were released just after the Bergendal battle. An old deserted store, which used to be a staging post for the old Zeederburg coaches, still stands next to the main tar road and there is a small cemetery just behind this store. A sign still points to “Airlie station” on the other side of the road. By the way David William Stanley Ogilvy – Earl of Airlie, after whom the farm was called, was a Lt.-Colonel who commanded the 12th Lancers and who died at Diamond Hill, near Pretoria, on 11th June 1900. Lord Airlie was one of Scotland’s representative Peers and a truly beautiful memorial was erected on Tulloch Hill, Cartachy in his honour in 1901. Anyway that is why the prison farm “Nooitgedacht” got a name change and why I found myself bashing through heavy undergrowth and thorn bush to look at 2 war graves. I found them and sure enough Captain A D Plomer of the Kings (Liverpool) Regiment is buried there. The inscription says that he died of wounds on 29th August 1900 received in action at GELUK farm on 23rd August 1900. It would have been more accurate to say that he had left GELUK and been wounded by the Heidelberg Commando on the farm LEEUKLOOF. He must have been captured, sent onto the prison camp at Nooitgedacht and died 6 days after the fight. The last grave in that small cemetery records that Major R L MACGREGOR 1st Bn – The Royal Scots died there on 2nd April 1901.
Now I phoned our retired war graves colonel and told him of the overgrown state of the cemetery plus my findings. Unknown to me, he wrote to the manager of the farm – now called Ryton Estates – asking him to please clean up the cemetery.
Some months later, having learnt that “Airlie” had been the Nooitgedacht prison farm I dropped into “Ryton Estates” and met GEOFF YORK, the new farm manager, and his wife ANITA. I asked if he knew where the prisoner of war camp had been, but he explained that he had only recently came down from Zimbabwe and knew nothing of the history. He however showed me the “War graves commission” letter and his wife then told me their “spook” story.
GEOFF and ANITA had walked down to the cemetery with their little jack russel to see if it had been cleaned up properly. It had been, and their little dog trotted smartly in front of them to examine each grave – a sniff here and a lifted leg there. All went well till he came to the last grave. Here he froze, he growled menacingly and all the hackles on his neck rose. GEOFF and ANITA thought he had seen a snake but the area had been cleared and they could see no reason for his aggressive behaviour. Suddenly he turned tail and, with tail between his legs, he ran whimpering away. This in when GEOFF said “He must have seen a spook”. A few weeks later they saw an elderly couple poring over a large book in their car next to the old store. Thinking they were lost, they asked if they could help. The elderly couple said that they had just visited the war grave and did they know that Major R L Macgregor, in the last grave, had committed suicide!!!
Now, some month’s later we invited our White River friend James Macgregor to spend the weekend at Frischgewaagd. I was amazed to find that Major R L Macgregor was his great uncle and that he still had correspondence about his death at his home, Lochaber.
James dug out a letter from Lt. Colonel WILLIAM DOUGLAS, the commanding officer of the Royal Scots Regiment, explaining the circumstances leading up to this suicide. On reading this letter, James realised that his poor great uncle must have been suffering from an imbalance of lithiam which causes manic depression and is a disease still being experienced in the family. However, it had not been diagnosed and there was no one to help the poor Major who shot himself.
Now on my table I had the 4 volumes of H W WILSON’s books titled “With the flag to Pretoria” and “After Pretoria – the Guerilla War”. There are 1724 pages in these 4 volumes and they are full of illustrations and photographs. I wanted to photocopy the numerous pictures of horses so, putting Lt. Colonel WILLIAM DOUGLAS’s letter to one side, I chanced to open Volume 3 to page 585 hoping to find a picture of a horse. You can imagine my surprise when I found myself looking at a photo of Lt. Colonel WILLIAM DOUGLAS who’s letter I had just read!!!
Was this strange sequence of events just chance or had I unwittingly become a cog in the supernatural wheel that linked the departed Major with his great nephew? I’d like to think I was and that the desperately unhappy Major’s spirit can now rest in peace knowing that his family now know that his death was really due to illness.