Home
Up

Boer personalities C - D 

Cilliers, Jan Daniel  

  He was born in 1854.and lived until 1922.  He was a poet and early advocate of the Afrikaans language. 

Colenbrander, H T

   

Conradie, Johannes Hendrik 

    He was born in 1872in Prince Albert.  he studied Victoria College, Stellenbosch, and qualified as a teacher.  He worked at Christiana in the Transvaal, and later in the Orange Free State, where he became a headmaster.  After the Boer War, he qualified as a solicitor, and from 1912 to 1921 was Superintendent of the Kakamas Labour Settlement on the Orange River.  A founder member of the Nationalist Party, he was elected to Parliament in 1920.  From 1929 to 1938 he served as Administrator of Cape Province.

Coster, Dr Hermanus Jocob

    Born in Holland. He was State Attorney of SAR and ex officio JP He prosecuted on behalf of the State in the case of the Reformers. There were originally four indictments against the whole of the prisoners, but negotiations between Dr Coster and Advocate Wcsscls (the latter representing the accused) resulted as follows: that the leaders, Colonel Rhodes and Messrs. L Phillips, Hays Hammond, and Geo. Farrar, should plead guilty to count 1 (conspiring with Dr Jameson to make a hostile invasion), and that the rank and file of the committee should plead guilty to counts 3 (distributing arms, guns, erecting defences, etc.) and 4 (arrogating the functions of Government in Johannesburg, arming their own Police Corps, etc.); that counts 2, 3 and 4 should be withdrawn against the latter. Dr Coster admitted that the effect of this would be making the charge against the rank and file purcly nominal, while in the case of the four leaders he undertook not to press for exemplary punishment. Nevertheless, at the trial Dr Coster, in a violent speech, depicted in the blackest terms the action of those men, and claimed that the Court should apply the Roman Dutch Law in preference to the statutes of the SAR, and demanded the severest penalty that could be imposed under that law and under the Thirty-three Articles and the Gold Law. Dr Custer resigned the State Attorneyship in consequence of an insulting reference of President Kruger's to his countrymen. He took part in the Boer War, and was killed in action at Elandslaagte.

Cronje, General Pietrus Arnoldus

 

 

 

 

 Born in Colesberg in 1836, he was present at the Battle of Boomplaats in 1848 at the age of 12.  He distinguished himself by his fighting abilities and was Commandant of Potchefstroom in the First Anglo Boer War.  He served on the Executive Council of the Transvaal Volksraad. He was the Commandant of the Boer Army to whom the Jameson Raiders surrendered at Doornkop in 1896.  When the Boer War broke out, he was in command of the Western Transvaal, and took park in the siege of Mafeking and then the siege at Kimberley. He participated in the Battles of Modder River (28 November 1899), Magersfontein and Paardeberg.  Creswicke says of him "in spite of his tricks and tyrannies, he has shown himself a first-class fighter, and a remarkable leader of men.  He profoundly detests the British, but the British, while returning the compliment, have a generous appreciation of his abilities."  At Paardeberg he was forced to surrender to Lord Roberts with over 4,000 men on 27 February 1900.  He was sent to St Helena as a prisoner of war.  He died in 1911. 

De Beer, Jacobus Frederik

  He was born in 1853 near Wolmaranstad in the Transvaal.  He served in the First Boer War as a field cornet.  He was promoted to Commandant of the Bloemhof commando in 1882.  He was elected to the Volksraad in 1897.  During the Boer War he was successful in destroying railway and telegraph links near Vryburg.  He took part in actions at Magersfontein, Paardeburg, Driefontein, Zand River, Boerlaagte and Twee River.  In Sep 1900, he was defeated by Lord Methuen near Lichtenburg.  He participated in the peace negotiations at Vereeniging.

De Beer, Commandant J M

  Born in Smithfield, OFS, in 1854 he gained military experience in native wars and was elected as commandant.  During the Boer War, he captured the town of Colesburg.  He was captured in the Transvaal and was sent to Ceylon.  He was later appointed an inspector in the Department of Agriculture.  He died in 1935.

De Jager, Major Helgaardt

  He served with distinction around Ladysmith as adjutant to General Louis Botha.  He was a signatory at the Peace Conference.  During the Great War he organised De Jager's Scouts in the German South West African Campaign of 1914-15 and later in East Africa.  The Government of France decorated him for services to them.   He died of Blackwater Fever in 1924.

De Villiers, Jacob Abraham Jeremy

    Born in Fauresmith in 1868 and educated at Grey College, Bloemfontein.  He studied law in Amsterdam and was called to the Bar in 1893.  He practised law in Johannesburg for the next three years and became State Attorney for the Orange Free State for a furrter two years.  He fought during the Boer War and was captured and sent to Bermuda.  After the war, he travelled and resumed his practice in 1903.  He later became Attorney General for the Transvaal and rose to be Judge President.  He died in 1932.

De Wet, Sir Jacobus Albertus de Wet, KCMG

    Formerly Member of the Legislative Council of Cape Colony, and then British Agent in the Transvaal.

De la Rey, General Jacobus Hercules (Koos)

 

He was born near Winburg in 1847, the son of a Voortrekker.  He lived near Lichtenburg.  He first worked as a transport rider in the diamond fields and saw military service in the third Basuto war 1865 and against Sekhukhune in 1876.  He entered politics in 1893 and represented Lichtenburg in the Volksraad.  Although opposed to the Boer War, he joined the commandos and, being promoted to General, successfully operated in the west, taking part in the battles of Graspan and Modder River.  At the battle of Modder River he was wpunded and his son was killed.  While he was not fit enough to fight at Magersfontein.  It was Del la Rey who suggested the line of entrenchment should be at the base of the include and not at the top as the British expected.  He was known as the 'The Lion of the West'.  He attacked the British camp at Nooitgedacht and was able to capture Lord Methuen at Tweebosch in March 1902.  He participated in the peace negotiations.  He became a Senator in the Union Parliament.  He commanded government troops during the 1914 Johannesburg strike.  He met an unfortunate death.  While driving through Fordsburg with General Beyers, the car he was travelling in failed to stop at a road block in Johannesburg that was set up to catch the Foster gang.  The car was fired on.  He was killed by the shot but General Beyers was totally uninjured in the incident.

De Villebois-Mareuil, General G H A - M V

  A Frenchman by birth, he was born in Nantes in 1847.  He passed out from St Cyr Military Academy in 1868 and was commissioned into the Infanterie de Marine, being sent to French Indo-China.  In 1870 he returned to France and participated in the Franco-Prussian war. He also served in the Tunisian Campaign of 1881 in the Foreign Legion.  He offered his services as a military adviser to the Boere at the start of the Boer War.  He was present at Colenso and Caesar's Camp/Wagon Hill on 6 January 1900.  In the Western Theatre he was for a time involved in the siege of Kimberley and later escaped capture from the surrender at Paardeberg.  He formed an international brigade with the rank of General and located himself back in the area to the east of Kimberley.  He met his end at Tweefontein near Boshof in April 1900.  Lord Methuen buried him with full military honours.  His body was exhumed in 1971 and reinterred tt the Burgher Memorial at Magersfontein.

De Wet, General Christiaan de Wet, Commandant of Boer Forces

 

Christiaan de Wet was born near Smithfield in the Orange Free State in 1854.  He served in the third Basuto war and became a Field Cornet in the Heidelberg Commando.  He saw action at Laing's Nek, Ingogo and Majuba during the First Boer War.  He then moved to Lydenburg where he became a member of the Volksraad, and moved to Heilbron in the Orange Free State where he became a member of the Free State Volksraad.  When the Boer War started, he joined the local Heilbron Commando as a burgher, but he was soon appointed Acting Commandant.  He was the strategist behind the defeat of Colonel Carleton's troops at Nicholson's Nek.  During the Battle at Modderspruit on the same day (30 October 1899) he wanted to pursue the British and urged General Joubert to 'Los jou ruiters! Los jou ruiters!' (Let loose your horsemen!).  His brilliance resulted in a rapid promotion to the rank of General.  Creswicke says of him "Though he can scarcely be described as a great general, he may be called a bold and cunning Guerrilla chief; a man whose powerful and dominating personality is endowed with both the magnetism and the passion of a leader.  He displays withal a sense of soldierly chivalry, and has striven to contend against the treacherous and cruel instincts of his rude followers".  He was present at Paardeberg and thought up the plan to allow the escape of General Cronje but this was not acted upon.  He was in command at the engagement of Sanna's Post (31 March 1900).  During the guerrilla phase, he managed to evade the many troops engaged in sweeps against him.  He was elected Chief Commandant of the Free State forces.  In 1914 he joined the rebel cause and was captured on the farm Waterbury near Vryburg in the OFS.  This was the first time he had ever been captured.  He died in 1922 and was buried at the Vrouemonument (Women's Memorial) in Bloemfontein.

De Wet, General Pieter Daniel

  The younger brother of General Christiaan de Wet, he was born in 1861.  He gained his first experience of war at Majuba in the First Anglo Boer War.  He then settled near Lindley and was elected its representative in the Orange Free State Volksraad.   At the commencement of the Boer War, he joined his brother at Ladysmith, and was later sent to Colesberg and promoted to General.  He participated in the battle of Poplar Grove, Sanna's Post and Lindley.  His doubts about continuing the flight came to a head later that year when in July 1900 he informed his brother that he believed it was futile to continue.  Pursuing his beliefs, he surrendered and in December 1900 became Chairman of the Burger Peace Committee and commanded the National Scouts.  He enrolled in the Orange River Colony Volunteers and became leader of the Heilbron section.  He remained an outcast within his own community and died an alienated man near Lindley in 1929.