Boer personalities T - Z

Theron, Commandant Daniel (Danie) Johannes Stephanus

He was born in 9 May 1872 at Tulbagh in the Cape.  Initially he worked as a teacher and later studied law.  In 1895 he served in the Mmalebogo War.  He rose to prominence for assaulting W F Moneypenny, editor of the Star, for allegedly insulting womanhood.  He was fined for the assault but the money was paid by his sympathisers. When the Boer War started, he served a Captain in the Transvaal Cyclist Corps.  He was present at Colenso.  He then commanded a corps of scouts and became legendary.  During the engagement at Paardeberg, he carried a message from General Christiaan de Wet to General Cronje.  He later commanded Theron se Verkenningskorps with a strength of around 100.  Theron was killed on 5 September 1900 at Elandsfontein near Potchefstroom, in action against Major General Hart's column.

Trichardt, Lieutenant-Colonel S P E

He was born near Ohrigstad in 1847, the grandson of the Voortrekker leader, Louis Trichardt.  He gained a wide military experience gained between 1860 and 1898, the First Anglo Boer War and the Jameson Raid. In 1880 he became Field Cornet and Assistant Native Commissioner of the Olifants River ward, Middelburg.  He was appointed Commandant of Middelburg in 1889.  On the death of Lieutenant Colonel Henning Pretorius in 1897, he was appointed Commander of the Staatsartillerie and was responsible for the re-equipping of the force.  He distributed the artillery across the forces and went into Natal with the invasion force.  He moved between the battle with the relieving British force and the Boers surrounding Ladysmith.  Later, he was at Diamond Hill.  With the destruction of many guns at the start of the guerrilla war, he position as commander of the artillery was no longer needed.  He retained his rank and acted as Commandant in the Middelburg Commando.  He operated in the Eastern Transvaal until the end of hostilities.  After the war he lived in German East Africa and then moved to Kenya.  He died in 1907.

VAN RENSBURG, Hendrik Petrus Francois Janse

Represented Heidelberg, in the second Volksraad, and at the same time acted as President of the Burgerwacht, a Boer society. He fought against the British during the Boer War in 1881, and again in the Boer War in 1899-1902. Subsequently he accepted a seat in the Transvaal Legislative Council under the new Government in the Progressive interest.

Viljoen, General Benjamin (Ben) Johannes

Born in the Cape in 1868.  He moved to the ZAR aged 16.  He joined the Transvaal Mounted Police in Krugersdorp, and fought the Jameson Raiders in 1896.  He also worked as a journalist.  He served as a member of the Second Volksraad in 1898.  At the start of the Boer War he served as Commandant of the Johannesburg Commando.  He fought in the Battle of Elandslaagte and narrowly escaped capture.  He fought in the battle of Modderspruit, Ladysmith, Colenso, on the Tugela and at Vaal Kranz.  Winston Churchill described his capture of the Lady Roberts canon at Vaal Kranz "A Maxim-Vickers gun abandoned by the Boers in a donga was about to fall into British hands, when that notorious ruffian, the fearless Viljoen himself, brought back a team of horses and escaped with the gun, threading his way between the red flames and black clouds of lyddite shells which the British artillery concentrated on him - a feat that, were it done by a British officer, he would assuredly be covered with decorations". After the siege of Ladysmith was lifted and the British started to move northwards out of Natal, he took up a position on the Biggarsberg mountains with the intention of stopping Lord Dundonald's advance.  He was then withdrawn to Johannesburg to assist in planning its defence.  He was in action again at Diamond Hill.  He was promoted to General in June 1900.  General Botha asked him to hold the approaches to Middelburg at Bronkhorstspruit.  At Bergendal, he commanded the centre of the Boer position.  Later, during the guerrilla phase, he operated in the east and north east of Transvaal.  He narrowly escaped capture by Lieutenant-General Sir Bindon-Blood in April 1901. In August 1901, he protested strongly to General Blood about the use of blacks in the war.  He was captured near Lydenburg in January 1902 and sent to St Helena.  in St Helena he wrote his autobiographical 'My Reminiscences of the Anglo Boer War'.  In a foreword to the book Col Theodore Brinckman, officer in charge of the prisoners of war in St Helena, wrote: "The qualities which particularly endeared this brave and justly-famous Boer officer to us were his straightforwardness and unostentatious manner, his truthfulness, and the utter absence of affectation that distinguishes him".  General Viljoen emigrated to the United States in 1904 to establish a Boer colony in Mexico.  He also wrote the books Under the Vierkleur and An Exiled General whilst living in the US. He died in 1917.

Viljoen, General Piet Retief

He was born in Pretoria in 1853 and descended, on his mother's side, from the Voortrekker leader, Piet Retief.  He experienced several several native campaigns and in 1887 became Mining Commissioner in Heidelburg, Transvaal.  During the Boer War, he displayed skill during his operations in the Orange Free State and in the west of Transvaal.  He was severely wounded in action near Lake Chrissie.  He died in Heidelburg in 1926.

Wannenburg, P S

formerly one of the most esteemed judicial officials of Boer Government in his position as Fourth Criminal Magistrate of Johannesburg. The served throughout the Boer War a Chief Staff Officer to General Louis Meyer, and since the declaration of peace he has been studying law in London, being called to the Bar at the Middle Temple in the middle of 1906, afterwards returning to South Africa.

Wessels, Matteus Hendrikus (Tewie)

He was born in 1878 in the Boshof district.  He was nicknamed the 'lone fighter'.