TOPIC:

Served: Frankfort.

Willem Albertus Johannes Van Biljon
23 November 1877 to 4 March 1949
Burger, Frankfort Commando

Williem Albertus Johannes (W.A.J.) Van Biljon was born on the 23rd November 1877 in the Republic of the Orange Free State.
On the 11th October 1899, at age 21, he joined the Frankfort Commando as a Burger; at the time he was working as a farmer (Boer) at Eenzaam Farm.

According to his Vorm B he participated in the Battle of Ladysmith (30 October 1899); following that his records having been present at the Battle of Colenso (15th December 1899).

It is assumed that WAJ Van Biljon was deployed with the Orange Free State commandos who were deployed at Robinson's Drift, 13 kilometres upstream from Colenso.

Following the battle of Colenso WAJ Van Biljon returned to the siege of Ladysmith as his next action is listed as the Battle of Platrand (5 January 1900) on his Vorm B. 

Very little is known about WAJ Van Biljon’s whereabouts after the Relief of Ladysmith but it is assumed that he returned home to the Frankfort district.

At this point that WAJ Van Biljon served under Commadant Alexander Ross in the Frankfort Commando who had numerous successes as a leader and evaded capture until the end of the war.

WAJ van Biljons mother (Magdalena Jacoba Pienaar) passed away in a concentration camp (Heilbron) on the 3rd December 1901 from scurvey and influenza.

WAJ Van Biljon, and a relative, were finally captured by the British on the 16th April 1902 and sent to a POW camp in Umbilo; they remained there until the following month which marked the end of the war.

Following the war WAJ Van Biljon married Anna Maria Sebastian Pretorius in Vrede on the 22nd July 1909; they had 4 children together.
Following Anna’s death he remarried on the 12th February 1929 to Catharine Maria Roos (b 1893) and they had 1 child together.

Little is known of WAJ Van Biljon after the Boer War; however, at the outbreak of WW1 WAJ Van Biljon joined the Union Defence Force of South Africa and fought in South West Germany with the Standerton Commando and was awarded his ABO medal in 1922.

WAJ Van Biljon passed away on the 4th March 1949 at the age of 71.