George Labram George Labram was an American engineer employed as Chief Mechanical Engineer at the De Beers diamond mines in Kimberley during the Siege of Kimberley . Early life . Labram was born in Detroit , Michigan in 1859 , but attended school at the Quincy Mine after his parents moved there around 1864 . Career . Labram started his working career at Samuel F . Hodge & Company in Detroit before moving to Chicago where he first worked at the MC Bullock Manufacturing Company and later at Fraser & Chalmers . From Chicago Labram moved to the Silver King Mine in Arizona and then became mechanical engineer on a smelter for Anaconda Copper . Following that Labram worked at Boston and Montana Consolidated Copper and Silver Mining Company for a short period before moving to the Butte and Boston Consolidated Mining Company where he worked for about a year as engineer in charge of machinery before moving to Dakota to erect a tin mill . At the World ' s Columbian Exposition in 1893 Labram ran a machinery exhibition . In 1893 Labram was employed by the De Beers company in Kimberley to build and manage a crushing mill . In 1898 he was promoted to chief engineer . Under Labram ' s supervision as manager of the crushing plant , Fred Kirsten devised an automated diamond extraction process . Up to that time all diamonds were manually extracted by sight . Second Boer War . Labram assisted Major General Robert George Kekewich in preparing Kimberley ' s defenses prior to the siege ; including the construction of a watch tower , search lights and a telephone system . Labram installed an emergency fresh - water supply system for the town and designed a bulk refrigeration plant for perishable foodstuffs , specifically for the storage of meat from cattle that had to be slaughtered as they could no longer be let out for grazing . During the siege Labram also built two armoured train s , manufactured munitions for the existing artillery available in the town , as well as a complete once - off gun affectionately named the Long Cecil after the chairman of De Beers , Cecil Rhodes . Many of the tools needed for the manufacture of the gun had to also be manufactured in the De Beers workshop . Long Cecil was rifled with a bore of capable of propelling a shell over . Labram was killed on 9 February 1900 , less than a week before the siege was lifted , by a Boer shell that hit his room in the Grand Hotel on Market Square . Kekewich gave Labram a full military funeral , that was attended by thousands despite Boer shelling specifically targeting the procession . De Beers provided well for Labram ' s widow and son after his death , with Mrs . Labram receiving $ 500 per year for the remainder of her life and their 13 year old son $ 1000 per year until he came of age . Great Britain also granted Mrs . Labram a once - off sum of 1000 pounds for the services her husband rendered during the siege . The importance of the role Labram played in the defence of Kimberley is probably best expressed in a letter from Lieutenant - Colonel Robert George Kekewich to Mrs . Labram : The one request from the people of Kimberley that Labram was unable to deliver on was to produce some whiskey . Legacy . The modern day suburb of Labram in Kimberley is named after George Labram . The Honoured Dead Memorial , which prominently features " Long Cecil " and a memorial plaque to George Labram on its stylobate , is situated adjacent to the neighbourhood . The memorial plaque reads