Ivor Markman

By Ivor Markman.

 

Sir Gavyn Arthur, a former Lord Mayor of London, presented a ceramic teacup connected to the shooting of two scouts of the Cape Mounted Irregu­lars - John Rennie, of the farm Craig Rennie, and William Ross. of the farm Cavers - to a predikant of the Dutch Reformed Church, Ds Rudi Swane­poel, and a minister of the Presbyte­rian Church, the Rev Glen Craig.

Many descendants of the two men were present when Arthur, in a gesture to symbolise reconciliation, handed the cup over to the two men.

Arthur, who was born in the Bed­ford area, is a descendant of Rennie.

The incident was not a great moment during the war, but a personal tragedy for two families.

Sir Gavyn remembers his grandmother relating the story to him as a small child.

He said the two men who were killed were following a Boer commando from the Transvaal through the Cowie Valley (where Bedford is located) when they reached Buffelskloof Ridge overlooking the valley.

They dismounted, laid down their rifles, lit a small fire and brewed some tea. They were unaware that they, in turn, were being followed, not by a member of the commando, but by a farmer from a neighbouring valley.

While the men drank their tea, they were shot in the back and killed. Down in the valley at Craig Rennie, Catherine Rennie was alone with her two daughters, Hope, 19, and Flossie, 17, Arthur's grandmother and great aunt respectively.

When they awoke in the morning they discovered all their horses were missing, requisitioned during the night by a Boer advance party.

They hid the family jewels in an old disused "bakoond".

At 4pm the Boer comman­do arrived. As the men entered the house they stacked their rifles against the wall.

Hope recognised one rifle as her father's and asked the man who placed it there where he had acquired it. He laughed and said it came from a "Rooinek" he had killed that morning.

The Boer commandant learned what happened from the two girls and when one the commando members started playing on the piano, he ordered the man to stop playing.

"This is a house of grieving," he said.

"We must show respect."

The next morning, after the Boers departed, the bodies of the two men were found.

"It's now time for the cup to leave the damp and drizzle and bustle of London and to return to the dusty dryness and sharp blue skies of the valley," said Sir Gavyn.

"John and William would be pleased, and proud, to know the cup, which symbolises the divided world in which they lived and died, was now in the shared guardianship of the min­ister and dominee."

In his book The Scottish Settler Party of 1820, namesake and author, John Rennie, gives eyewitness accounts that differ from Arthur's.

The author states the two had barely unsaddled when "a terrific fire was poured over them".

From this report it appears the two men were not drinking tea when they were killed and may have been lead­ing their horses at the time.

The account differs from other reports of the time. One report states the two men were murdered in cold blood while walking together while searching for a camping spot.

Another report in the Glasgow Gentleman says there was no fighting going on at the time.

The shooter was a Cape citizen who lived at Jericho in the Mankazana, Cornelius Johannes van Vuuren.

It was later learned Van Vuuren had been arrested and acquitted of murder but convicted of high treason.

He was sentenced to five years imprisonment and a fine of ~1 500 but benefited by the amnesty that folowed shortly after.