He was known by his staff in the Kruger National Park as Skukuza, a Shangaan name meaning “He who sweeps clean”. His military experience and love of the bush made him an ideal candidate and at the age of 35, he became the first warden of the Sabie and Shingwedzi Game Reserves. He felt a sense of belonging in South Africa’s bushveld and a genuine desire to conserve, rather than destroy. His sense of adventure led him to join the British Army and he eventually made his way to South Africa. James Stevenson-Hamilton was born in Scotland in 1867, the eldest of nine children. It was named Sabie Game Reserve and its first warden was the legendary Major James Stevenson-Hamilton. After the war ended, the area was re-proclaimed, this time including the land between the Sabie and Olifants Rivers to extend the size of the reserve. The boundaries of the Government Game Reserve extended from the Crocodile River in the South, up to Sabie River in the north and from the Nsikazi River in the west to the Mozambique border in the east.ĭuring the Anglo Boer War (1899-1902) the proclamation of the reserve, however, was nullified. He is buried in Church St cemetery in Pretoria, South Africa. He was exiled in Europe and passed away in Switzerland in 1904. In 1836, his family joined the Great Trek where they eventually settled near the town of Rustenburg.Ī slightly eccentric figure who grew up to be a large thick set, bearded man who often wore a black top hat, he became president of the ZAR in 1880 but left Pretoria in 1900 when British forces advanced on the capital, Pretoria.
He was born Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger in the small district of Steynsburg in South Africa in 1825. Paul Kruger, the president of the Zuid Afrikaansche Republic (ZAR) proclaimed the Gouvernement Wildtuin (Government Game Reserve) on 26 March 1898.
0 kommentar(er)
