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Difficult one this, only casualty at this location. Newspapers also show Wilge River as the location. Watt shows he is buried in Braamfontein, Johannesburg with the additional remark "Rietvlei/Witklip".

As it is the only casualty at this place the Gazetteer doesn't have an entry for it as it doesn't figure in contemporary histories. But, the Gazetteer does show two farms near Delmas which is not far east of Johannesburg, Rietvlei (3) 15km north-west and Witklip (2) "immediately south of Delmas" - are these locations Watt means? Neither entry shows any action on that date or even month and year. It could be Joyce was simply sniped on patrol and there was no action to report.

The Register shows 10 battle casualties for this date but none obviously connected to Joyce.

Here we go. Listed by H.F. Marriott in his indispensable "Alphabetical Index to Farms in the Transvaal" (Johannesburg, 1904) as Vandyksput (132) [or "Van Dyks put" on Jeppe's Map]. Location given as: Map 5, grid square 26.0 – 26.15 latitude; 28.45 – 29.0 longitude.

Watt's remark "Rietvlei/Witklip" appears to be an indication that Vandyksput is located midway between Rietvlei (169) and Witklip (532).












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