Q 01/05

Which future prime minister, captured while working as a war reporter, escaped from a Boer prison in 1899?

A) Winston Churchill

B) David Lloyd George

C) Arthur Balfour

D) Stanley Baldwin

Answer · why

A) Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill was taken prisoner when Boers ambushed an armoured train. He escaped within a month, came home a hero and was elected to Parliament ...

Q 02/05

What does the word 'Boer' mean?

A) Settler

B) Farmer

C) Hunter

D) Soldier

Answer · why

B) Farmer

Farmer: it is the Dutch word for one, a cousin of the German 'Bauer'. The same old root, meaning a dweller, hides in the last syllable of the English ...

Q 03/05

Which author volunteered as a field-hospital doctor in the Boer War and was knighted in 1902 for his services?

A) Rudyard Kipling

B) H. Rider Haggard

C) Arthur Conan Doyle

D) H. G. Wells

Answer · why

C) Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle, a trained doctor as well as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, served at a field hospital in 1900. He published a history, The Great ...

Q 04/05

What term did the Boers use for the mostly British foreigners drawn to the gold fields?

A) Voortrekkers

B) Uitlanders

C) Trekboers

D) Burghers

Answer · why

B) Uitlanders

Uitlanders, Afrikaans for 'foreigners', could vote only after 14 years' residence. On the eve of war Kruger offered to halve that to seven, but the Br...

Q 05/05

On which ridge in the Transvaal was gold struck in 1886, giving rise to Johannesburg?

A) Drakensberg

B) Witwatersrand

C) Magaliesberg

D) Waterberg

Answer · why

B) Witwatersrand

Witwatersrand: fortune-seekers streamed in from all over the world and Johannesburg grew up beside the mines. South Africa's currency, the rand, is na...