Boer personalities E - K

The grandson of President Kruger.  He was born in 1863 in the Transvaal.  He joined the police of the South African Republic and was promoted to Lieutenant.  During the Jameson Raid his speed in delivering the news helped prevent the preparations of the Reformers. His actions brought him to the attention of the authorities and he was promoted to commandant of the Johannesburg force.  He saw action during the siege of Mafeking and was captured there on 12 May 1900.  He dies in Middelburg in 1924.

'Maroela' Erasmus was born in 1845, and began his military career aged 16 in 1861.  He was at the engagement of Bronkhorstspruit in 1880 during the First Anglo Boer War, and became a Commandant at the Siege of Pretoria.  He was part of the force that opposed the incursion of the Jameson Raiders in 1896.  In of the first engagements of the Boer War, he was expected to use his force in support of General Lukas Meyer at the Battle of Talana (20 October 1899), but he failed to engage the British.  He was involved in the Siege of Ladysmith and later operated in the area around Pretoria.  He was a surly man and in August 1900 he was demoted to Commandant because of his failure to act.  He was captured in the Eastern Transvaal in January 1902 and sent to St Helena

The brother of General 'Maroela' Erasmus, he was born in 1871.  He served with the Staatsartillerie and then travelled to Holland to receive his military training.  He was commissioned when he returned.  He assisted in the planning for the forts in Pretoria and negotiated the artillery purchases.  When one of these guns, a Long Tom, was damaged during the siege of Ladysmith at Gun Hill, it was transported to Erasmus for repair. 

He was born in Pretoria and spent some of his life in Kimberley.  He was one of the first pioneers of the Johannesburg gold fields in 1886.  A Colonel in 1886 he was Boer general at the start of the Boer War.  He succeeded C J Wessels on 1 Jan 1900.  He was accidentally killed at Paardeberg.  De Wet said of him “It was while I was engaged in my efforts to relieve Cronje, that a gun accident occurred in which General Ferreira was fatally wounded.  Not only his own family, but the whole nation, lost in him a man whom they can never forget.  I received the sad news the day after his death, and, although the place of his burial was not more than two hours' ride from my camp, I was too much occupied with my own affairs to be able to attend his funeral.”

He was born in 1874 in Rouxville.  During the Boer War, he served with General Kritzinger during his foray into Cape Colony and later in the Orange Free State.  He re-entered Cape Colony again in Sep 1901 with General Smuts.  He was seriously wounded near Barkly East.  During the Great War, he served under General Louis Botha in German South West Africa.

He was born in 1861 near Philippolis in the Free State and followed a political life becoming a member of the Volksraad in 1886.  At the start of the Boer War he commanded Boers Cape border.  He was involved with General Olivier at Stormberg in December 1899. He also saw action at Colesberg and Paardeberg.  He was wounded near Springfontein and captured at Winburg in May 1900.  He re-entered politics after the war and became a Senator in the Union Government, and Administrator of the Free State.

1831 was the year of his birth in Cango near Prince Albert in the Cape.  He took part in the Great Trek in 1838 with Piet Retief's party into Natal.  From Natal, his family moved north to the Transvaal.  In 1866 he represented Wakkerstroom in the Volksraad.  He served in the First Anglo Boer War as Commandant General for the Transvaal.  He defeated Sir George Colley at Laing's Nek and Majuba Hill in 1881.  He suppressed the Swazis in 1895 and captured the Jameson Raiders in 1897.  He had become Vice President of the Transvaal in 1896.  At the commencement of the Boer War his role was as it had been for 14 years, Commandant General of the Boer forces, a position he had held since 1885.  His position meant that he had an instrumental role in directing the early operations.  During the Battle of Ladysmith re refused to follow up the British withdrawal saying "if the Lord extends a finger, do not take the whole hand".  He advanced into Natal but halted further incursion after the battle of Willow Grange.  He was injured in a fall from his horse.  Command was passed to Louis Botha.  He died in Pretoria in March 1900 and was buried on his farm Rustfontein near Alleman's Nek.  Creswicke says of him "He was of Huguenot descent, which may have accounted for his civilised attitude as statesman and politician, and the wide views which some of his countrymen failed to appreciate.  The General was an inveterate smoker and a shrewd thinker.  He had been to England several times, and knew better than his compatriots the risk of embroiling himself with a mighty nation.  Nevertheless he went into the field as a brave man, determined to meet the inevitable—fighting."

In the archives of the Siege Museum in Ladysmith is a photocopy of a contemporary newspaper article on the death of General Kock. The source of the article is not identified. The article is reproduced here as it presents a different perspective on the events leading to General Kock’s mortal wounding. 

The following is an extract from a letter written by Vyvian J Cogill, the well-known mile runner, a lad of 19, addressed to his mother in Johannesburg. He was with the Johannesburg Commando, and stuck to General Kock to the last, was with him when he fell, and only left him when it was impossible to render further service.  “We kept firing till the infantry came on and looked like surrounding us: then some fled. In the flight the Germans suffered heaviest. Some fifty of us, however, stuck to our posts with the officers. Then the fire from the Maxims and the cannon became so hot that we retreated to the back of the kop, where Commandant Viljoen and General Kock rallied our men, and we came forward again. Some of the others took the nearest horses and cleared off; but twelve of us stuck to the General and returned to the guns, while the balance went with Commandant Viljoen to the other side of the kop. When the English were about 500 yards away we mowed them down like sheep. It was terrible! I never felt a little bit of fear. I prayed to God, and fired like a soldier, taking aim every time. All the time, a good many men were retreating. I was about ten yards from the General, behind three stones, when a lyddite shell struck the first of the three, about two yards in front of me, and burst, sending the stones all over the place; a piece of stone just falling by my side. Then the General and some others retreated, and we followed suit. We stopped, and just as we stood, one of the men close to me was shot in the side and ran like a buck. We followed, saw him mount a horse, and get away. By this time we were only fifty men altogether left on the kop, and the English soldiers were climbing up and surrounding the kop. Some of the Highlanders were running after our men, when eight of us, including General Kock, opened fire on them at 50 yards, and not one escaped. Just then General Kock was shot down just at my side, and three others wounded within five yards of me. I stood up and said “God help me,” and van Niekerk (detective) got a shot in his wrist. As his hand dropped he took his gun in his left, threw his gun over his arm, and continued firing as if nothing had happened. General Kock lay half-dying at our feet, and we could not help him. Then the infantry came round the other side of the kop and there was only a space of 200 yards to go through to get out, and only about five men standing on the kop, with bullets and shells flying around. None of us would put up the white flag and we made a break for safety. The English turned a maxim on us, and I never ran in all my life as I did then. When I got down my horse was gone, but I found another, and, after just escaping a charge from the Lancers, got clean away.  I slept in a Kaffir kraal that night and met Commandant Viljoen the next day as I was going to Newcastle.

Born near Philippolis, OFS, in 1847.  He grew up in Bloemfontein and saw active service in 1865 in the Basuto War.  He led the Bloemfontein Commando during the Boer War.  He was present during the siege of Kimberley and later at Paardeberg, Driefontein and the Brandwater Basin.  He also accompanied De Wet during his incursion into Cape Colony in February 1901.

She was the daughter of H de Wet, a member of one of the most aristocratic old Dutch families, who assisted in the framing of the Constitution of the Cape, and who was the first President of the Legislative Council. Mrs Koopmans reigned in years gone by as the social queen in Cape Town. She formed a warm friendship with the Empress Eugenie at the time of the Prince Imperial's death, and with other Royalties and distinguished strangers who visited the Cape. At the outbreak of the Boer War Mrs Koopmans gave, her support to the friends of the Republics, and her drawing room became the rendezvous of the leaders of the Dutch party. Her influence in the country was far-reaching, but in spite of her alienation from the policy of the Imperial Government, she was a staunch supporter of Sir Bartle Frere, and formed intimate friendships with Lord Loch, Lord Rosmead, and General Baden-Powell, whom, however, she refused to receive when he returned from defending Mafeking, saying, "He has shed the blood of my people and I cannot receive him". She died in the summer of 1906.

Kruger's visit to France

Born Oct 10, 1825, in the Colesberg district of the Cape Colony. He was reared in a hard school, his rough training on the veldt, during which his life often depended on his readiness of resource, presence of mind and physical strength, early in life endowed him with those qualities of self-reliance and resource which wore to prove so useful to him in his later years. His boyhood was spent in the manner familiar to the Boers of the early days— farming, hunting, and trekking. There wore no facilities for his receiving any scholastic training, nor did he afterwards add much to his natural sagacity by book reading. Such as it was, however, Paul Kruger's early training only encouraged those characteristics which enabled him to load the movement which wrested the control of the Transvaal from the most formidable empire the world has yet soon, and to hold his own for years in the face of opposition before which the boldest might well have quailed. At the age of ten he accompanied his father on the great trek in search of a new country where they might settle untrammeled by the restrictions of civilised government. At that time the territory lying between the Vaal and the Limpopo rivers was being raided by Mosilikatsi, a Zulu sub-chief who had seceded from the main body of his nation with a large number of followers, and young Kruger— then a lad of twelve years—saw his first active service under Comdt. Potgeiter. Soon after Mr Kruger served under Comdt. Prctorius in the operations against Dingaan, and was present at the desperate fight which took place at the Blood River on Dec 16, 1838, where the few Boers gained a great victory which it has been their custom to celebrate every year since then. He also took part in the punitive expedition against Mosilikatsi in 1839. In 1841 Mr Kruger became a Field Cornet. In 1852 he was appointed Comdt. of the Districts of Pretoria and Potchefstroom, and in 1856 he began to make for himself a position in local politics, associating himself with General Pretorius in his attempt to join the three independent communities of Lydenburg, Zoutpansberg, and Potchefstroom under one Government, with a new Volksraad, constitution, and capital in Potchefstroom. Pretorius also sought to absorb the OFS, and demanded in the Volksraad at Bloemfontein that the administration of the OFS should be handed over to him. Being ordered to leave the country, however, he returned to the Transvaal, collected an Army, and marched with it back to the Free State, but was met on the banks of the Rhenoster River by Free State forces. A conference was afterwards held, and Prctorius bound himself not again to enter the OFS without permission of its Government Many Free Staters who had joined the northern invaders were then tried for high treason, and it is on record how their sentences were reduced to nominal fines owing to the solicitations of Messrs. Kruger and Steyn. As a matter of interest in showing the trend of Mr Kruger's character in those first days of his public career, the President of the Free State, referring to this invasion, stated in the Raad that he had proof that the raiders had made a hideous complot with the Basutos under Moshesh to join in the attack against the Orange Republic. In 1862 Mr Kruger became Comdt. General, and was elected a member of the Executive Council. Some years later (1877) he promised President Burgers his support on the question of the inevitable annexation of the Transvaal, but Mr Kruger secretly prompted the resistance of the irreconcilables, and eventually (May, 1877) left for England with Dr Jorissen to protest against the measure. But it was not thought that either member of the commission really wished the Act of Annexation to be annulled. In fact, on returning to the Transvaal, they both took office under the British Government, Mr Kruger only relinquishing his post owing to the refusal of the Govt, to increase his remuneration. After the Convention of 1881 Mr Kruger as Vice-President formed one of the triumvirate in whom the Govt, was vested, but in 1882 the old form was restored and he was elected President of the Transvaal State. From this time until the Boer War Mr Kruger's history is the history of the Transvaal. His policy soon began to declare itself. In that year the first of many laws was passed extending the term of residence for aliens to qualify for naturalisation from one to five years. Soon followed the granting of monopolies, the agitation for the removal of the Suzerainty and freedom in their external relations, whilst he also looked around for new countries to he acquired. Thus Mr Kruger's Govt, annexed Mafeking and part of Bechuanaland until the Warren Expedition caused a retreat; part of Zululand was taken over, and hungry eyes were turned towards Swaziland (the cession of which we ultimately permitted). In 1890-91 an expedition was sent to Chartered territory, but was appropriately turned back at Rhodes' Drift. Tongaland was also coveted. Meanwhile in 1884 the President and Mr Smit proceeded to Europe to endeavour to obtain some modification of the Convention and to raise much needed funds, in both of which they were only partially successful. But the discovery of gold at Moodies in 1885-6, and on the Witwatersrand later, brought revenue to the country, which enabled Mr Kruger to pursue his schemes without remedying the ill condition of the Government, or providing for the large population which began to flock into the country, and without allowing it, after reasonable residence, a participation in the management of State or even Municipal affairs. Political agitation for reforms, improved ways of communication, remission of taxes, security of titles, etc., gave birth to the Transvaal Republican Union of Johannesburg. The Witwatersrand Chamber of Mines was also formed partly to protect shareholders' interests, and for eight years this Chamber pleaded to the Volksraad for reforms and representation. But Mr Kruger remained obdurate. Legislation was passed making this practically an impossibility to the then living generation of Uitlanders who had taken up their residence in the Republic. Railways were kept out of the country as long as possible, and then construction was only permitted under such terms as were granted under the Netherlands Railway and Sclati Railway concessions, in which connection it may be mentioned that the Selati Railway Company, in order to obtain its concession, had to pay bribes or make presents to many members and officials of the First Volksraad. The dynamite concession was another iniquitous burden upon the industry which had built up the fortunes of the country. President Kruger resolutely set himself against mitigating the abuses which these concerns imposed upon the legitimate industries on the Transvaal. It is true that he secured the Raad's cancellation of the latter concession, but in a few months it was renewed in a still more obnoxious form. In 1888 Mr Kruger was re-elected President without much opposition, General Joubert receiving but few votes, but in 1893 he only defeated the General by 7,551 votes to 7,009. About this time Mr Kruger's control over affairs appeared to be none too sure. Accordingly, in defiance of the Grondwet (Constitution) he appointed Mr Koch, the Landdrost and Polling Officer of Potchefstroom who had contrived the defeat of Mr Esselen at election, Minute Keeper to the Executive with the right to vote, which with the President's casting vote, assured the latter the predominant voice in the council. His position thus strengthened, the President turned his attention to other matters, endeavouring, not without some success, to subordinate justice in the courts to the requirements of his government, curtailing the liberty of the Press, and withholding the right of public meetings and political organisation. However, the attempt to wrest from the High Court the decision in the cyanide case while still sub judice miscarried; the endeavour to deprive the mines of their Bewaarplaatsen rights only failed after the Minister of Mines had, on his own responsibility, issued the claim licences, and so forced the Volksraad to face the issue of confirming or reversing his action—an alternative which the Government cared not to afford. Meanwhile Mr Esselen had accepted the State Attorneyship for a short period, during which he brought about great reforms in the detective and police departments, and his activity in putting down the illicit liquor traffic amongst the natives was so pronounced that backdoor influence was not long in making his office untenable. Dr Coster, a Hollander, succeeded him and was found more amenable to the Pretorian oligarchy. Laws were passed in defiance of the provisions of the Grondwet, and were made retroactive, and on several occasions the President and Executive forced reversals of the decisions of the High Court. Affairs were in this condition when, late in 1895, reform was despaired of by ordinary methods, and a resort to force was freely talked of as a last resource. A Reform party was organised, under the presidency of Mr Charles Leonard, and eventually the active assistance of the capitalist element was won over to the movement. Dr Jameson was detained on the western border of the Republic by Mr Rhodes's orders as moral support, and to come to assistance in case of urgent necessity, but so quiet were the preparations that even Mr Kruger did not realise the length to which matters had gone. When at length old Hans Botha warned the President of the danger, he replied in his characteristic way that if they wanted to kill a tortoise they must wait until he put his head out of the shell. Meanwhile he received several deputations to induce him to make reasonable concessions, and then Mr Kruger's plan of procrastination began to reach a height which had never previously been attained. He would promise nothing, but said that he would do his best to sec that duties on food stuffs were removed pending confirmation by the Volksraad; that equal subsidies would be granted to English as to Dutch schools, and that the Netherlands Railway would be approached with a view to the reduction of rates, but that it was impossible to grant the franchise to the Uitlandcr. The leaders, however, could have no faith in these assurances, and matters were hastened by Dr Jameson crossing the border, on Dec 29, notwithstanding his distinct orders to the contrary. The following night President Kruger, recognising that the breaking point was nearly reached, issued a proclamation warning persons from disturbing the peace, and stating that the Govt, was prepared to consider grievances without delay. Delegates of both parties met, in fact, in Pretoria, but their deliberations resulted in nothing further than the Boer members having procured a full list of members of the Committee; the Uitlander delegates were handed copy of a resolution stating that the High Commissioner's intervention had been accepted, and that the grievances would be earnestly considered. The surrender of Dr Jameson's force followed hard upon this, but the President thought that he had still to reckon with 20,000 armed Uitlanders in Johannesburg, and although the doctor's surrender was accepted conditionally upon all lives being spared, he proceeded to let it be known that the doctor's life depended absolutely upon all arms being laid down in Johannesburg, at the same time stating to the High Commissioner that disarmament must be precedent to any discussion of grievances. Accordingly all arms were surrendered in good faith from Jan 6 to S, and on the following day President Kruger's 'Forgive and Forget' policy was inaugurated by the Reformers to the number of over sixty being arrested, tried, and found guilty of high treason, the four leaders being condemned to death and the others to fines of £2,000 each, two years' imprisonment and three years' banishment. Soon after these sentences were pronounced Govt, agents were at work trying to persuade the Committee to petition in humiliating terms to the proved magnanimity of the Government; and to make statements implicating one another for their complicity in the revolutionary movement, and so on. Meanwhile the gaol treatment was telling severely upon the prisoners, one of whom had already died by his own hand. On May 20, ten were liberated, and most of the other sentences were commuted to lesser terms of imprisonment, but so great was the feeling growing throughout the country against Mr Kruger's 'Cat and Mouse' treatment that monster petitions, headed by two hundred South African mayors, at last (May 30) effected the release of all the prisoners (with the exception of Messrs. Woolls-Sampson and Davies and the four leaders) conditionally on the fines being paid and each binding himself not to meddle in the internal or external politics of the State for three years. After much bargaining with the leaders, Mr Kruger liberated the latter on payment of a fine of £25,000 each and an undertaking not to meddle in politics for fifteen years. Negotiations went on in a desultory way. An Industrial Commission of Inquiry was appointed by the Executive at the President's request, and a mass of sworn evidence was taken. In the report which followed, numerous recommendations were made with the end in view of prospering the industries of the State and benefiting the country as a whole, but Mr Kruger declined to adopt the recommendations, and even charged the chairman of the committee, Mr Schalk Burger, with being a traitor to his country for having put his name to such a report. Ultimately nothing was done of any benefit to the Uitlander interests involved, and it became apparent that little was to be gained by British diplomacy. Mr Kruger, who was elected President of the SAR for the fourth and last time in Feb, 1895, was hurrying armaments into the Transvaal to such an extent that it was necessary to reinforce the British garrison in South Africa. The climax was reached when the President delivered the ultimatum in Oct, 1899, which brought on the Boer War, through the early part of which he remained in the country, urging and encouraging his people to victory, but when this seemed at length a remote possibility, his flight to Europe was rapidly decided upon, and the ex-President's energies were devoted unsuccessfully to obtaining foreign intervention and successfully to stir ring up Anglophobia on the Continent. But Mr Kruger was already an old man, and this final blow—the defeat of his people and the loss of his country— marked practically the end of his public life. Strong, fanatical, obstinate, shrewd, and autocratic, Mr Kruger never concealed his dislike to, and mistrust of, the Uitlanders. When the Barberton rush brought comparative affluence to the country he never once visited the town, and only on three occasions did he visit Johannesburg during nine years, although the law of the land prescribed that the President should visit every town and district yearly. As evidence of this dislike it is remembered that in addressing a mixed crowd at Krugersdorp, where some detested aliens might be present, he began "Burghers, friends, thieves, murderers, newcomers, and others". Nevertheless he did not scruple to commandeer their services for the war against Malaboch, until diplomatic representations from Lord (then Sir Henry) Loch secured exemption for them. Nor did he scruple to fill lucrative posts with relatives who were quite unfit for the public service, nor to appropriate the public revenues for improvements on his personal estates, for which purposes he had little difficulty in obtaining the sanction of the Volksraad. There is on record the case of the editor of Land in Volk successfully sustaining an alleged libel charging the President with fraud against the State. He is also generally believed to have brought away with him from the Transvaal the State and Trust funds, variously estimated at from £250,000 to £700,000, of which no satisfactory account has been obtained. Mr Kruger employed part of his exile in writing his Memoirs, for which he is supposed to have received £30,000. They were dictated to Mr A Schowalter, the editor of the Burenfreund, afterwards taken over by Slid Afrika, a paper now-incorporated with Plums. His latter days were spent in almost complete retirement; in a country far removed from his native, but forbidden, veld; with very indifferent health; but with recollections of a long and arduous career of stirring adventure and continual political strife, from which he could scarcely regret being released—even in lonely but peaceful exile. On July 14, 1904, he expired at his villa at Clarens, Switzerland, death being due to senile decay, hastened by an attack of pneumonia. For three months the ex-President had been only kept alive by continuous massage. But at last he felt the end coming. Five days before his death he took to his bed and Bible, and surrounded by relatives and friends he bade them all farewell, a Dutch pastor administering the sacrament. Two days later he breathed his last. He had previously made a piteous but ineffectual appeal to the British Govt, to be allowed to end his days in the Transvaal. But his desire to be buried in Pretoria by the side of his wife met with a ready acquiescence from the Government It is curious that the British Minister through whom his last appeal was made was Sir W Conyngham Greene , who received from Mr Kruger, under far different circumstances, the ultimatum of the Transvaal Govt, before the great Boer War .