TOPIC:

I am researching a POW by the name of Mattheus Johannes Hollebrands who you list as:

Kaptein Adjutant Awarded the DTD (Dekoratie voor Trouwe Dienst) and received the Wound Ribbon (Lint voor Verwonding).

I have mail addressed to him at Burt's Island in Bermuda. However there is no record of a POW by that name having been in Bermuda.

However, there is a record of this POW:

Mattheus Johannes Hollenbrand
Prisoner number: 19818
Captured: Zoutpansberg 02 Jun 1901
Sent to: Bermuda, Burts Island
Age: 34
Address: Elandsrivier

I note your site says he was Burts Island St Helena and this should be corrected to Bermuda which is where Burts is located.

Anyway, I am wondering if these are the same POW with just different spellings of the name or if they are different.

Do you have any more information on either of them, but especially Mattheus Hollebrands. I have four pieces of mail to him at Burt’s Island Bermuda, from USA, Germany, Holland and South Africa. One of them is addressed to him as part of the Manila Contingent, and I wonder if this is referencing the SS Manila which was one of the ships that took the Boer POWs to Bermuda or something else.

I am new to the site so hope I am posting in the right area.

A substantial number of the Dutch teachers joined either the Hollander Corps or Boer commandos at the start of the war. Some, such as the former Secretary for Education Cars Geert de Jonge, were to die on the battlefield
or, like Nicolaas Willem Ligthelm, as prisoners of war. Others were captured and sent to prisoner-of-war camps in Ceylon, St Helena, India and Bermuda, or interned in Portugal. The list is endless: Johannes Antonius
Valks, Willem van der Neut, Gerrit Jan Boegman, Jacob Kat, Jacob Lub, Jan Hoogeveen, Bernard Veenemans, Jan Karel Martinus te Boekhorst, Abraham Stafleu, Gerrit Geertsema, Jan Leendert Moerdijk, Leendert Lambertus Steen, Omius van Oostrum, Harm Oost, Bauke Spoelstra, Cornelis Plokhooij, Mattheus Hollebrands, Jan Hendrik Gijsbertus Koelman and Izaak Wüst. They carried on teaching boys and illiterate adults while in the camps. After the war, most of them settled in the Transvaal permanently. Some, like Pieter Isebrand Heslinga, Adrianus Op’t Hof, Petrus Albertus Raman, Martinus Ribbens and Willem Riemersma, escaped the camps and also remained in the Transvaal after the war.

Source: api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.97817702...223431_A20986504.pdf

I have a cover (envelope) mailed from Holland to a "G. Hollebrands" at Burt's Island, Bermuda. A Name Search in the ABW data base lists two persons under Hollebrands:

"Hollebrands ?" (first name and initial unknown) as one of the Holland / Belgium Volunteers serving with the Boer forces.

A second listing for "Hollebrands, Mattheus (Kaptein Adjutant)" who was awarded the DTD (Dekoratie voor Trouwe Dienst) and received the Wound Ribbon (Lint voor Verwonding).

Unless the sender of my cover made an error with the initial, "G", there may have been two Boer soldiers with the surname "Hollebrands", possibly related?

Hi there, thanks for the note - any chance you can upload/attach a scan of your cover and I can compare it to mine. I have since found more addressed to him.

After I sent my note I had another look at the initials. The first letter looked like Mr or Hr but is probably "M" and the second letter looks like a G but is probably a J so this most likely "M J Hollebrands (Mattheus Johannes Hollebrands). Based on this cover there is no doubt that he was in Bermuda, and almost certainly at Burt's Island. The postmark is s'Gravenhage, the full Dutch name for The Hague.

I tried adding an image but the system won't let me.