St Ive team helps relive Emily Hobhouse’s funeral in South Africa

Two hundred girls in white, palm fronds in hand, walked ahead of a small black casket on a purple cushion. Behind them came rows of mourners in gowns and mortarboards, a vintage Ford, riders on horseback. It looked like 1926. It was last Saturday (31 October).

At the National Women’s Monument in Bloemfontein, South Africa, the state funeral of Emily Hobhouse was re-enacted on a grand scale, 100 years after her death. And the team that helped make it happen is based in St Ive, Cornwall.

A state funeral recreated, 100 years on

The Emily100 commemoration set out to recreate the 1926 state funeral as faithfully as possible. A total of 650 people took part.

As in 1926, 200 girls from the Eunice and Oranje schools led the procession, and a school choir sang songs of the time. The event was attended by thousands.

The team behind The Story of Emily in St Ive were instrumental in organising the South African commemoration.

Why Emily Hobhouse matters

Emily Hobhouse was a Cornish woman who travelled alone to South Africa while the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899 to 1902) raged, and saved the lives of thousands of women and children.

She was a whistleblower. At great personal cost, she exposed the appalling conditions in the concentration camps.

In the middle of a war, with patriotic sentiment running high, she challenged a powerful Empire to face its abuses. And she did it in an era when women had no voice, demanding that injustice be recognised and put right.

A traitor at home, a heroine abroad

According to The Story of Emily team, she was deemed a traitor by the UK government and written out of UK history books. In South Africa, she was celebrated as a national heroine.

She is now increasingly recognised as one of the most significant humanitarian figures in UK history.

The Cornish attraction telling her story

The Story of Emily opened in St Ive in 2024. It is an immersive historical experience and museum, and it is helping bring Emily’s story to UK and international audiences.

Earlier this year it won Silver in the National Visit England Awards, and it has also picked up a THEA award, the internationally recognised themed entertainment awards.

The team is already looking ahead, with a Victorian Christmas planned at St Ive and further plans stretching into 2027.