The War Rooms at The Story of Emily are open!

At The Story of Emily, the War Rooms is a rich, immersive, and visual experience. A sensory journey back in time when the second Anglo-Boer War had dire consequences, especially for the women and children in South Africa. It was Emily Hobhouse, an Englishwoman, who had an extraordinary hand in their fate.

With your high-tech headset, you will experience installations, animations, film, and virtual reality, and see décor, historical pictures, and artefacts that bring to life the build up, experiences and aftermath of the second Anglo Boer war.

Through music, sound, the history and culture of the time, and the words of Emily Hobhouse we invite you to delve into the past and reflect. Here we do not glorify the deeds of generals, but stand back and see the women and children who bear the “brunt of the war.” We tell the forgotten story of Emily Hobhouse and how one woman, a pacifist,  brought change and above all, hope.

We find ourselves late in the second half of the 19th century. In Britain, Emily Hobhouse lives in a flat in Chelsea. She is a well-read, eloquent, and socially aware woman.

The British empire is at its zenith and rules over a quarter of the global population. In South Africa, tensions are rising. It all started when gold and diamonds were discovered in the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, two independent Boer Republics.

Foreigners called ‘Uitlanders’, most of whom were British, flock to the promised riches of Johannesburg. They now demand voting rights.

Joseph Chamberlain, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and Arthur Balfour, minister, and leader of the House of Commons, seek to further expand the British Empire. 

To defuse the tensions a peace conference is held in Bloemfontein, in central South Africa, in May 1899. Sir Alfred Milner, the new governor of the Cape Colony and British high commissioner, and Paul Kruger, the Transvaal president cannot see eye to eye regarding the voting rights for the foreigners. Orange Free State President Marthinus Steyn advocates for peace but, hope to avoid violence is lost and negotiations break down.

Come and see how a real historical family from the Transvaal live in 1897. Hear the story of where the Afrikaners, colloquially called “Boere” descend from how the Afrikaans language developed through their unique heritage.

Experience the endless, undulating landscape of South Africa where the Boere live mainly as farmers. To survive, families need to make peace with a vast expanse of grasslands and rocky outcrops where dangers lurk.  During winter, a bitter frost coats the veld. In summer, temperatures soar. 

To be self-sufficient they have large herds of Afrikaner cattle, an indigenous breed with a red-brown hide, merino sheep, an array of poultry, and large orchards with fruit trees. Fruits are preserved and sundried in the summer, and used to make jams so they don’t go to waste. They plant and harvest maize (mielies) – a staple crop. 

On the 11th of October 1899, the Second Anglo-Boer War breaks out.

Step into the action, see the weapons of war and hear from its participants. During the first few bloody months of the war, it was thought the war would be over by Christmas.

The British Army marches in old-fashioned columns, suffer three major defeats in “Black Week”. Boers lay siege to the three towns of Ladysmith, Kimberley, and Mafeking in quick succession.

Meanwhile in London, a city engulfed by war fever, Emily Hobhouse commits herself to an anti-war stance. She is appointed secretary of the South African Conciliation Committee’s women’s branch. Soon afterward she starts her new fund to travel to a country she has never seen and people she does not know, alone.

View the showcases with original artefacts and historical pictures from our collection. 

The Boere lose both capitals of Pretoria and Bloemfontein. Earlier in a nine-day battle, 4,000 men are taken prisoner of war. Surely the end of the war is in sight. 

When this turning point is researched, the Boere exploit their strongest weapon against a conventionally trained army: mobility and breaking up into small units, a guerilla campaign of sabotage.

The war becomes costly and embarrassing for the British.

The guerilla tactics set off an unimaginable decision. One which would change the course of the war and the lives of tens of thousands.

For every Boer attack on a railway line, the closest homestead is burned to the ground. Later, it is expanded for: any Boer attack at all, every home within a radius of 10 miles is burned down.

When the ruthless Lord Herbert Kitchener takes command, he goes for complete destruction. Every farmhouse in the Transvaal and Orange Free State is burned to the ground, along with the dwellings of their workers.  This is the scorched earth policy.

Women and children are taken forcibly away to concentration camps* , from where they are not allowed to leave.

After months of organising,  Emily establishes the South African Women and Children South Distress Fund. With £600 in her pocket (worth £ 92 4200 in 2024) she leaves Britain and arrives in Cape Town on the 27th of December 1900.

Join her on her quest to obtain permission from the military authorities to visit the concentration camps. Get a taste of her long five-day train journey to research the first one. See the landscape – thousands of miles from the lush green England – through her eyes.

Read Emily's own words:

“I have to contain my shock and horror when I enter the first camp in Bloemfontein. There are 2000 souls, women, children, and a few men. How long can this cruelty be tolerated, if only the English people can imagine this . . .”

It is in these concentration camps that Emily is an eyewitness to the suffering of the women and children exposed to the harsh weather conditions, the meagre rations they receive, and the diseases which took its deathly toll on the young.

Emily notes:

“Many women lose their children from disease, their bodies weakened by lack of food. They just wane away. I can’t describe what it is to see these children lying about in a state of collapse – it is just exactly like faded flowers thrown away. … To keep these camps going is murder to the children...” 

Step into the camps erected in the middle of the veld, with Emily. Experience her journeys and what she sees, through carefully curated décor, historical photographs, artefacts, audio-visual material, and virtual reality.

After months of helping she says she feels: “paralysed in the face of it. I feel money is of little avail and there are moments when I feel it would be wise to stop trying and hasten home to state plain facts and beg that a stop may be put to it all.  In view of the need for instant action …I had no right to delay. It showed me that the affair now must be considered under the Home Government only.”

And this is where her fight takes on a completely new level with the highest echelons of the British government, the press, and the public. Emily’s report and recommendations to the government sent waves of disbelief and shock.

After all, who was she, a “mere woman” to intervene during a war? Or criticise them? Her actions are seen as unpatriotic and she is labeled as hysterical.

But they do listen to her, even though she is never formally acknowledged by name by the British government for her work. Months after her report is published action is taken and conditions in the camps improve significantly.

Travel back with Emily to South Africa after the war and experience the work she did from 1903 to 1908; where she invents three innovative schemes to help with social upliftment, and to combat hunger shortly after the war.

Emily was a true pacifist at heart, constantly navigating a minefield of politicking and moral dilemmas. Impelled by the desire to alleviate pain and suffering, and eliminate deprivation. A stern believer in human rights and women’s rights.

She is an example of what one Victorian woman can do, to bring change and hope.

“Liberty is the equal right and heritage of every child of man, without distinction of race, colour or sex.”  - 1913

*The concentration camps of the Second Anglo-Boer War is an accepted, historical term for the specific period 1900- 1902 and in this context. However, these camps were not aimed at intentional, mass extermination.

Four decades after the second Anglo-Boer War, during the Second World War, the term ‘concentration camp’ acquired a terrible connection to a planned, and systematic extermination of people. 

The idea of a concentration camp as a means of warfare first emerged during the Cuban War of Independence at the end of the 19th century. It was during this war that the first colonial concentration camps for civilians were put in place.

The concentration camps of the Second Anglo-Boer War were a direct result of the scorched earth policy. The women and children were forcibly put on ox wagons and open railway trucks and taken to the camps. They were not moved for their protection and safety, as claimed at the time.  The military administration of these camps was shocking. Lack of clean water, poor and little food, exposure to the elements, proper medical facilities and disease, and poor sanitation facilities led to more deaths than all the men, on both sides fighting in the war. The camps were also used as a psychological element to end the war quickly.

These were not refugee camps as people were taken there by force, subject to innumerable regulations, poor conditions, and living a life that was not of their choice.