1899 - From the diary of Miss Bella Craw in Ladysmith
Quite a new experience, and not at all a nice one. We went to bed at about eleven and were wakened as I thought at daylight, by the friendly boom again. I turned over thinking I would have just another forty winks before getting up. Mama said, "Surely it can't be morning". Being bright moonlight we could not tell. Another came just over our heads almost immediately. Aunt Fanny came to our room and said, "Don't you think we had better go to our "Ungotana"? She went back to her room and had only about got to bed when we heard the boom again, and then the corkscrew whiz of the shell coming, then a flash like lightning and such a report the window rattled. We covered our heads and thought our last hour had come, or rather minute. A shower of sand and small stones showered on the roof to say nothing of glass. Ada shouted out, "Are you killed?". We jumped out of bed, opened the door and could see nothing but smoke and dust and smell powder. Willie and Wilfrid were rushing to us feeling certain the house had been hit. They rushed us to the hole. Some of us did not even take time to put slippers on but ran with blankets wrapped round us. However, Willie and Wilfrid soon followed with plenty of blankets, pillows and candles and told us we must make ourselves comfortable as it was only half past twelve. Uncle George then came.
He had heard in which direction the shell had come and feared it was somewhere near the house. The shelling was thick and fast but only lasted about half an hour, but it was hot while it lasted.
After an hour or so we came out again, back to our beds, but had a look at the damage done. The shell had come from Mr. Pepworth's Long Tom, entered the ground at the root of an apricot tree at the corner of our room and the conservatory, breaking every pane of glass and some of the woodwork, just escaped the tennis court, bur what an escape we had. It made us realise what might have been, and none of us despise the hole now. In the afternoon, or rather at about seven in the evening, another shell came through the Royal Hotel, killing a poor man standing in the doorway, taking off both his legs, Dr. Stark by name. Rumour has it that he was very wealthy, but went to every war and offered his services free. He generally carried a fish basket on his back with the medical comforts.
We went to Church Parade this morning in the vacant erf at the foot of our land. In the afternoon the Volunteers played a tennis match on our court, Natal Carbineers against Border Mounted Rifles, N.C.s winning. A rest all day from shelling. Can't understand what they meant by that wild half hour in the middle of the night.
