Adriaan Jacobus Louw Hofmeyr
Adriaan Jacobus Louw Hofmeyr
Born in Calvinia on the 13 April 1854 and died in Bellville, Cape Province on 01 May 1937, minister of the N.G. Kerk and political agitator, was the eldest son of Prof. N. J. Hofmeyr of the Theological Seminary, Stellenbosch, and his wife, Maria Magdalena Louw.
Hofmeyr was educated at Stellenbosch where he completed the B.A. degree at the Victoria College and his training at the Theological Seminary. In 1879 he was admitted to the ministry and in 1881 ordained at Willowmore. In 1883 he was called to Prince Albert, and was, as in the previous parish, active in promoting church music and rehabilitating the indigent. Requested by the Cape Church, he visited its members in Mashonaland in 1891, becoming an enthusiastic supporter of Cecil John Rhodes’s plans for expansion north of the Limpopo. Although he made his mark as a public speaker he refused a request to stand for election to the Cape parliament. After the Jameson Raid (1895-6) he tried in vain to reconcile J. H. Hofmeyr (Onze Jan) and Rhodes.
In 1895 he accepted a call to Wynberg but in July 1899 the Presbytery found him guilty of serious misconduct and suspended him.
Subsequently he settled in Bechuanaland where he was mainly active with political propaganda against the government and the policy of the neighbouring Transvaal Republic. He acquired an unfavourable reputation among the Afrikaners as being markedly pro-British and shortly after the start of the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) he was taken prisoner by an invading Boer commando at the Palapye railway station. From November 1899 he was detained in the State Model School in Pretoria together with British officers who were taken prisoner and with whom he identified himself completely. Among them was the British journalist Winston Churchill. When Pretoria was occupied in June 1900 he regained his freedom and on the recommendation of Sir Alfred Milner, whom he taught Afrikaans, was engaged as agent by the military authorities to persuade the republicans to lay down their arms. His efforts failed, however, and after several months he left for England where he published an account of his experiences during captivity under the title The story of my captivity (London 1901). The work was characterised by declarations of loyalty towards Britain and contempt for the fighting Boers.
Next he campaigned to influence British public opinion against the deputation of the Cape politicians, John X. Merriman and J. W. Sauer, who visited England from January to July 1901. By means of letters in the London press he also tried to refute the disclosures of Emily Hobhouse about the concentration camps. The issue was confused, however, when the Liberal opposition press released the facts connected with his suspension from the ministry and stressed that H. had no status or prestige among his own people.
After the war he settled at Kuruman. In 1926 he was readmitted to the ministry and became assistant minister at Heilbron.
In 1928 he was ordained minister at Kuruman and retired in 1933. He married Anna Joubert. A photograph of him appears in The story of my captivity (supra) and in the Jaarboek van die Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerke in Suid-Afrika, 1938.