Why was this event significant in terms of Australia's 100 years of involvement in war, and why was Fiona Bekkers there?

On 1st January, 2000, in a remote part of South Africa, a sombre ceremony took place involving a few South Africans and a woman from Queensland. The events that lead to this commemoration had happened 100 years before when Private Victor Jones was killed. It is believed he was the first Australian to die in the Boer War.

"The ceremony at the graveside on 1/1/2000 commenced at 9am when it was already very hot. There were about 40 people there including the Dugmore family, who arranged the event, and other neighbouring (mainly Afrikaans) farmers and nine Queenslanders (six reserve members of 2/14 Queensland Mounted Infantry, my husband, son and myself). The service was conducted by Ken Dugmore, son of Jean and Herbert, our hosts, and opened with a prayer. Pieter Pieterse spoke next on behalf of the Boers, describing events leading to the war and its aftermath, including the benefits."

EXTRACTS OF DESCRIPTION OF MEMORIAL CEREMONY BY MRS FIONA BEKKERS

"Jones' brother, Mr G.B. Jones, who worked for the Railway Department at Rockhampton, described his brother as "a very fine young man, aged 27, 6ft in height, who at the first announcement of sending a Queensland contingent to South Africa gave up a good position, home & friends to fight for his Queen and country". According to G.B. Jones, his brother was in the first scouting party of four men, under Lieutenant A.G. Adie, sent out on the morning of the Sunnyside engagement and was shot dead on the veldt when his group were surprised by about 14 Boers.

A second Queenslander, Private David Cumming McLeod of Toowong, was wounded in action later that day and died some hours later. Both men were buried where they were killed, about a mile apart from each other."

THE QUEENSLANDER ILLUSTRATED SUPPLEMENT

His death led to an extraordinary exchange of letters, which have been kept all these years in the Australian Archives.

Thanks to the compassion and persistence of members of the Guild of Loyal Women of South Africa, the graves of the two men were subsequently located and marked. Miss Charlotte Slater, a member of the Guild, wrote to the Governor of Queensland in September 1901 in a bid to locate the nearest relatives of the two men so she could ascertain if they wished to have anything done in regard to the graves.

Her letter was forwarded to G.B. Jones who responded to Miss Slater expressing his family's gratitude for "taking such an interest in the grave of our loved one (which) is the source of the greatest consolation and thankfulness to us".

Jones then asked for a headstone to be erected on the grave. He offered to help pay for the cost of the headstone.

Miss Lilian Orpen, honorary secretary of the Loyal Women's Guild branch at St Clair, Douglas, wrote to the Queensland Governor stating that she had heard nothing more from Mr Jones since he had written requesting the erection of a head stone. She said she had also written to McLeod's family but had received no reply.

MISS LILIAN ORPEN

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This prompted a letter in December 1902 from G.B. Jones to the Governor's Office, expressing regret for not replying as he had been in a serious accident which had incapacitated him for many months. He stated he had written to me by the same mail, enclosing "a postal order for £10 from his sisters and himself towards the cost of the stone and railing and thanking me very sincerely for my great kindness in the matter".

The present owners of Sunnydale Farm, Jean and Herbert Dugmore, in late 1999 contacted Trooper Jones' great-niece, Fiona Bekkers of Ascot in Brisbane. They invited her to take part in a wreath laying ceremony at the grave on 1 January 2000, one hundred years to the day Trooper Jones was killed, an invitation she accepted.

"I spoke, mainly on a personal note about Great Uncle Victor, and laid a wreath at the newly re-erected headstone followed by the QMI soldiers who each laid a poppy. Wreaths were also laid at the communal grave marked by stones where lay the remains of the seven unknown Boers who died that day".

EXTRACTS OF DESCRIPTION OF MEMORIAL CEREMONY BY MRS FIONA BEKKERS