History of Weltevreden Farm
Weltevreden was purchased by George Heys, a prominent Pretoria business man (who made his home Melrose House available to Lords Roberts and Kitchener during the Boer War) in 1904 from the widow of General David Joubert. David Joubert was the nephew of the Boer Commandant General Piet Joubert and one of the few Volksraad members who had voted against the Boer ultimatum to Britain. Joubert founded the Carolina Commando which invaded Natal as far as Mooi River and caused many English residents in Durban to flee to ships in the bay. The Carolina Commando showed intense bravery at the Battle of Spionkop suffering probably the largest casualty rate of any Boer War Unit.
After the battle of Berg en Dal, as General Pole-Carew was unable to pursue the Boers down the eastern railway line towards Nelspruit due to Boers stationed on Weltevreden and other farms overlooking the Elands Valley, General Hutton was ordered to clear Boer forces from these areas and on the 9 September 1900 the Boer forces under General Joubert were defeated in an engagement on Weltevreden and a neighbouring farm, Welgeluk. A Tasmanian mounted infantryman, Private Bailey was killed in a subsequent action and buried high on a rocky outcrop near the farm's north eastern boundary.
There were many reports that one of the Long Tom canons, after the Battle of Berg en Dal had been pushed over the Weltevreden main krantz to prevent being captured by the British. As all four Long Toms have been accounted for the persons who witnessed the gun's destruction must have mistaken it for a Creusot 75 or 115mm or a Krupp 120mm.
Whilst David Joubert's ownership of the farm was a mere ten years as a result of his having refused to take the Oath of Allegiance to the Crown at the end of the Boer War and subsequently succumbing to malaria in 1903 in German East Africa, George Heys was able to develop and enjoy the farm until his death in 1939 - and his family for all the many years since his death. His great, great, great, great grandson, aged 15 months, being the most recent family member to be photographed on the front steps of the old homestead Heys built in 1905.
