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and the Transvaal. Beset as they were by warring native tribes like the Bantus, Basutos and
Zulus, and by other problems, the Boers were forced to refer to the British for military,
administrative and economic aid. But when the British annexed the Transvaal in 1877, the Boers
revolted, and after defeating the British at Majuba Hill in 1881 succeeded in affirming their
independence. This success emboldened the Boers and led to a struggle for supremacy in South
Africa between the British and the Dutch - and for control of the gold and diamond mines.
Paul Kruger, who became president of the Transvaal in 1883 was openly hostile towards the
'Uitlanders' (outsiders or foreigners) who crowded into the Orange Free State and the
Transvaal seeking to prosper and benefit from the increasing discoveries of diamonds and gold.
He revised the franchise, so that the newcomers, though heavily taxed, would have few rights as
citizens: they would be second-class. The blacks of course were third-class, if anything at all.
In opposition to those demanding 'Africa for the Afrikaners' there arose an Imperialist party,
championed by Cecil Rhodes, who became prime minister of the Cape Colony in 1890. In the
Transvaal the political screws tightened on the Uitlanders, whose petitions for equal rights for all
white men were ignored. A section of them, encouraged by Rhodes, resorted to arms, and a
small force led by Dr Leander Starr Jameson, invaded the Transvaal from Rhodesia on New
Year's Eve, 1895. Dr Jameson, a Scot, had treated both President Kruger and the chief of the
Matabele, Lobengula, whose land he had recently conquered. This time he failed, he and his
force being routed and captured within a few days near Krugersdorp. Rhodes resigned as
premier a few months later, in 1896. Kruger entered into an agreement with the Orange Free
State aimed at achieving a united South Africa under a Dutch Republican Flag.
At the same time Johannesburg was declared a municipality run by a Town Council of
Afrikaners, and containing (in 1897) about 590 hotels and bars, and almost as many brothels -
of which the Honeycombe wives in Melbourne would have been happily unaware.
How aware were the Honeycombe brothers of the gathering political storm? Probably not much
- there were too many other distractions, in addition
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to the pressures of work. Apart from the brothels, there were flashy music halls, circuses and
racecourses, and weeks of celebrations for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria's reign (60
years a Queen). Cars now added to the noisy throng of animal-drawn vehicles in the streets, lit
garishly by electric light.
The storm broke when in October 1899 the Boers invaded the British colony of Natal. Within
weeks the boisterous life of Johannesburg died away; thousands fled south by train and wagon;
the gold-mines closed, and unaccustomed silence reigned.
What happened to Dick and Tom and Jack?
It is said that Jack remained in or near Johannesburg and was employed as a guard protecting
the mines. There is a photograph of him, taken about 1900, that shows him in a khaki uniform
minus any insignia, sporting a splendid moustache and a rakish hat with a tilted brim. Was this
his military outfit for guarding the mines? Or did he perform some other military role?
Of Tom's situation nothing is known, except that he must have been a sick man by now, as he
would die of phthisis two years later.
Dick became a stretcher-bearer. But whether he volunteered or was commandeered, we do not
know. And he was not thus employed until March 1900, by which time Kimberley and
Ladysmith, besieged by the Boers, had been relieved, and all the major battles had been fought,
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