Unravelling The Myths Of Moordenaar's Kop

On 13 November 1847, during the 7th Frontier War, five British officers were attacked and killed by Xhosa warriors on a hill, still known as Moordenaar’s Kop, in the Eastern Cape. Mike Burgess visited the site and asked amateur historian Dr Patrick Hutchison how his research had corrected some of the misconceptions, long held to be true, about the skirmish.

Komga locals will tell you different versions of the Moordenaar’s Kop killings. One involves the officers charging off the great cliffs with their horses to escape an agonising death at the hands of the Xhosa, while another describes the brutal beheading of all the men for the production of muti by Xhosa war doctors.

As it turns out, the historical sources concerning the incident are as contradictory as contemporary interpretations, which prompted Dr Patrick Hutchison of East London to sift through the propaganda in an attempt to get to the facts.

THE LAST RIDE

 The 7th Frontier War (1846-1847) eventually led the British to the rugged Great Kei River Valley, where one of the last Xhosa chiefs to offer resistance, Phatho of the Gqunukhwebe, was sheltering. By 31 October 1847, Lieutenant-General Sir George Berkeley and his force of about 1 500 men had set up camp less than 16km from the Kei on the banks of the Komga River.

While at leisure here, a few of the officers became intrigued by a mountain that loomed in the distance, and a group of them began contemplating an excursion to it.

On 13 November, eight officers decided to set out for the mountain at 9am. However, two officers still engaged in duty were forced to withdraw, while another returned not long after the group had set out, as he felt ill.

In the end, five men, namely Captain William Baker, Lieutenant Carevaul Faunt, Ensign William Burnop, and Surgeon Neill Campbell, all from the 73rd Regiment, along with Assistant Surgeon Richard Loch from the 7th Dragoon Guards, continued towards the mountain.