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Hello all.

I am trying to locate a place called Leeuwspruit where a work party of Royal Engineers were captured on 14/6/1900 whilst repairing a railway bridge. My wife's great grandfather, Sapper George Batts was among those captured by the Boer forces, and subsequently released. There appears to be a story that General Kitchener arrived at this location by train and had to make an escape on horseback. In WW1, George Batts' stepson, Edward Thomas Hill was serving on board HMS Hampshire when she was sunk, claiming the life of Kitchener.

I would be grateful if any one can help with this enquiry.

David Green

David,

According to "A Gazeteer of the Second Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902" by Huw M. Jones and Meurig Jones (1999)

LEEUWSPRUIT: a farm and rail siding in the Orange Free State (Koppies District; Free State), seven kilometres north-east of Koppies. Variant: Leeustroom (the station name on the 1:250000 map). During the British advance to Pretoria, advance forces under Lt C. Ross reached the station on the morning of 23 May 1900 to find the Boers had earlier retired northwards. On the night of 14 June two construction trains were attacked by Senior Cmdt C. C. Froneman's commando and some 350 construction workers taken prisoner. Before the station was attacked, a northbound train had been halted but not attacked; one of the passengers was the British Chief of Staff Lt Gen Lord Kitchener. The Boers withdrew on the arrival of reinforcements from Koppies after burning the railway bridge.

Further information can be found in the Official History of the War (on this site) Volume III pp 68 and 133 (map no. 38) and in De Wet's "Three Years War" pp147-8.

Hope this helps.

Justin

Justin.

Many thanks for the reply. I have now located it on Google Earth so I can picture where this happened.

David