| Summary: | In the course of 1900, the second year of the Anglo-Boer War, Potchefstroom<br />was occupied three times by British forces and twice evacuated, all in the space of<br />five months. This article focuses on the circumstances leading to these events, their<br />significance for the effective British occupation of south-western Transvaal and on<br />the effects of the occupations on the civilian population of the town.<br />Possession of Potchefstroom, next to Pretoria and Johannesburg, the most<br />populous town in the Transvaal, was a pre-requisite for British occupation of all of<br />the south-western quarter of the Transvaal. The main consideration being that the<br />Western Railway line ran through Potchefstroom terminating in Klerksdorp. Its use<br />was indispensable as a supply route for all garrison towns to be established south<br />and west of Krugersdorp. The expectations that all would be accomplished with ease<br />were dashed by the advent of the guerrilla phase of the war by mid-1900. Critical in<br />this regard was the activation of renewed Boer hostilities securely based in the<br />Gatsrand from where all rail and road communication between Potchefstroom and<br />its supply base in Krugersdorp was disrupted. These factors and other considerations<br />resulted in six months of failed British attempts to secure Potchefstroom.<br />Alternating Boer and British control of the town had interesting repercussions<br />for the civilian population with its considerable British element leading to a division<br />of loyalty toward the combatants.
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