The infamous Rand Revolt takes place. Starting off as a strike by white miners, the situation soon escalates, prompting Prime Minister Jan Smuts to declare martial law. The revolt is subsequently violently crushed – with the rebels bombed from the air, the only time Johannesburg has ever faced an aerial assault and artillery bombardment. The mining magnate, Sir Julius Jeppe, lives in the vicinity of the school and Miss Holmes-Orr, fearful for her boarders, flies a white flag on the school building. A former pupil thought she was like a mother hen, gathering her chicks around her when there was danger.