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Dick King Memorial
Komgha, Eastern Cape

PAYNE and PAYNE: Architect

Date:1942
Type:Memorial
Status:Extant

 


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Coordinates:
32°34'35.36" S 27°53'33.67" E Alt: 635m

2022: The memorial has recently been painted white. (William Martinson)

The monument commemorates the epic 1842 ride of Dick King, who covered the 960-km distance between Port Natal (now Durban) and Grahamstown on horseback in ten days, in order to request help for the besieged British garrison at Port Natal.

See also Wikipedia.

__________________

Inscription on the Memorial:

DICK KING
RODE THIS WAY FROM
PORT NATAL
TO
GRAHAMSTOWN
MAY 26 TO JUNE 4
1842

Ten granite pylons were erected a century later to commemorate Dick King's ride. They were sited at the following points:
Isipingo Beach
Port Shepstone
Umzimvubu River, Port St Johns
Old Bunting Mission
Mancam Store, Mqanduli
Butterworth
Komgha
King William's Town
Peddie
Trompetter’s Drift

There is also a Memorial Statue in Durban and a Memorial Tablet on the clock tower of the Town Hall in Grahamstown.