Military Fort
The area of Alice was originally named Lovedale by European missionaries, who settled there in 1824. They named it after Dr. John Love of the Glasgow Missionary Society. During the Frontier Wars, the skirmishes between the Xhosa and Afrikaner trek boers, the mission station was abandoned and rebuilt on the west bank of the Tyhume River.
On the east bank of the river, a military fort was built called Fort Hare, named after Major-General John Hare, who was Lieutenant-Governor of the Eastern Cape and acting Governor of the Cape Colony. It was built in 1847 to house British troops.
A small town grew around the fort, which was named Alice in honour of the Queen of England’s daughter, Princess Alice. The town was known as the administrative and magisterial capital of the old district of Victoria East. One of the oldest sites in Alice is the Victoria Hospital, which was fully reconstructed in 2011 by the Eastern Cape provincial government.
Alice is now home to the esteemed University of Fort Hare, and contributes to Eastern Cape’s agricultural endeavours, such as cattle farming and maize growing.
Bhisho is the capital city of the Eastern Cape, with other major cities being Port Elizabeth and East London .The Eastern Cape is the tradit...