Page 22 - KBHA Bulletin 16

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and ten months the party returned to South Africa. Their stay had brought some minor

economic benefit to the Island for they had spent about £1,000 annually on necessities:
even so trivial a sum made a difference to the poverty-stricken Island community. (Loos,

1998.)

During the Anglo-Boer War the British made use of some of their overseas territories to
accommodate POWs. St. Helena was the first of these and the others were Ceylon, India,

and Bermuda. By the end of the war 24,261 were held in these places, - 5,685 of them on

St. Helena which included General Piet Cronje and thousands of his followers captured at
Paardeberg. (Fig. 1.7.) They began arriving in April 1900 and continued arriving in 13

more batches until February 1902. Their numbers pushed the Island’s population to its

largest ever at 11,060 in 1902 and placed heavy demands on local water supplies so that a
desalination plant had to be built. Presumably, too, the increased demand for general

supplies was met by shipments from the Cape, but no information on this has come to
light. The annual expenditure of £10,000 made a huge contribution to the Island’s

economy. (Royle, 1998.)

They were housed at two places on the plateau, Broad Bottom and Deadwood Plain,

initially in tent camps that were later transformed into wood and iron settlements. (Figs.
1.8 & 1.9.) A third camp, Peace Camp, was established for those who described

themselves as “Loyalists” and wished to become British subjects. Following the
declaration of Peace on 31 May 1902 repatriation began of those who had sworn an Oath

of Allegiance to King Edward VII. (During the captivity 177 had died of natural causes

and three were shot.) All but 90 took the oath and by January 1903 only five remained on
the Island. One of them was Karel Smit, a baker from Pretoria who had married a local

woman. He changed his name to Charles Smith and carried on his profession until his
death in 1959. (Royle, 1998.) The repatriation was followed by acute unemployment and

distress among St. Helenians and again increased the pressures for emigration to South

Africa. But as many of them could neither read nor write they were barred from entry.