“Lt Graham Vinicombe Winchester Clowes was an officer of the 1st Battalion of the Gordon Highlanders. On the 30th January, 1901 he and some companions were scouting these hills when they were fired upon by a Boer commando. Clowes was killed; a fellow officer was mortally wounded and died later in Clanwilliam, where he is buried. Clowes's family were devastated by his death; he was apparently a young man of great promise. His mother travelled to the Cape from her home in Hertfordshire, and had the present grave constructed over the simple hole where her son had been buried. For many years Mrs Clowes made an annual visit to the grave, to lay a wreath on the anniversary of her son's death - a considerable act of love in the days before air-travel, and when the road all the way from Cape Town was untarred, and, in January, unbelievably hot and dusty.
The full inscription upon the tomb reads:
BRAVE AND TRUE
IN SACRED AND LOVING
MEMORY OF
GRAHAM VINICOMBE WINCHESTER CLOWES,
LIEUTENAN, 1STBATTN,
THE GORDON HIGHLANDERS,
SON OF THE LATE
WINCHESTER CLOWES OF HITCHIN, HERTS,
KILLED IN ACTION NEAR THIS SPOT,
ON THE 30THJANUARY 1901
There is a myth in the southern Cederberg that there is more than one soldier buried in the grave. The myth is just that; an untrue story. For some time the roadsign to the grave used to read '”Englishmens Grave”. Fortunately the sign has been changed.” The cache is a very small container in ziploc bag.
Reference: “Beyond the Cederberg” by Peter Slingsby