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1900 - Letter from Winston Churchill to Cecil Rhodes:

My dear Mr Rhodes,

Abe Bailey has spoken to me about a plan to send a small private expedition from Capetown to Cairo, and has suggested my coming with him. Of course I must think first of all of getting into the House of Commons, but I daresay the general election will be over before the expedition would start and were that the case I daresay I could get away.

I should personally like very much indeed to take part in such an interesting venture, and as I have to make my own living it would be a great advantage to me to do so, for what with a series of letters to a London newspaper and a good sized book to be published later, I should be able to earn a good deal of money.

Now it seems to me that this writing would help to attract public attention to the Cape to Cairo route and stimulate the interest taken in your railway scheme: so that perhaps you will think that our roads lie for some small distance in the same direction. If this be so and you would like me to go with this small expedition as Bailey's companion, will you write me - or have me written for I know you have many things to occupy you - a letter on the subject. This should reach me in about two months time, and I will then give you a definite answer without delay, for by then I shall know what prospect there is of my being able to play at `the cup and ball trick' (to quote your expression) in the House of Commons.

I lunched and dined with Frankie at Groote Schuur and much admired your beautiful house. I am sorry not to have seen you in South Africa, but the Boers interfered with most peoples' arrangements.

Yours sincerely,
Winston S. Churchill.

1900 - Death in Bloemfontein of Private B. W. Fox, a Forest of Dean man.

...."The death has occurred at Bloemfontein from enteric fever of Private Benjamin William Fox, of the 2nd Gloucestershire Regiment. Private Fox, who was 30 years of age, was the son of Mr. Benjamin Fox, of Gloucester-road, Coleford, and served for seven years in his regiment, when he was placed on the reserve. He married a daughter of Mr. Stephen Joynes, grocer, Coalway-lane-end, and for some time resided at Coalway, until he obtained a post as constable at the Royal Victoria Home for Inebriates, Bristol. He performed his duties to the entire satisfaction of the Superintendent of the Home, the Rev. Mr. Burden, who speaks very highly of him. Soon after the outbreak of hostilities in South Africa, the deceased received orders to rejoin his regiment, and shortly afterwards proceeded to the front, where he saw a good deal of the fighting. When the news of his untimely end reached Coleford it evoked much sympathy for his wife and three children, as well as for his parents and other relatives."
The Cheltenham Chronicle, Saturday 21st July 1900

British Memorial - Pres Brand Cemetery, Bloemfontein