John Rowland Trott

Lately every time he is seen playing cricket on the television the Trott telephone in Fish Hoek will ring and someone will ask if Jonathan Trott is our grandson.  He isn’t, but we are, of course, proud to have him around.

Search our records for all TROTTS

Jonathan – or Ian Jonathan Leonard Trott to give him his full name – is of British origins and returned to England via a couple of generations in Australia and South Africa.

The name TROTT is thought to derive from the medieval period when the Lord of the Manor would grant land and accommodation to a serf in return for his services as a messenger.   These messengers came to be called Trott and so the name came down as a family surname.

The men would all have been of a healthy disposition and fast movers, and perhaps this inbuilt quality has come down to some modern-day Trott people.  If you do quite a quick search among sports write-ups you will find mention of an Emma, Harry, Robin, Nick, Kerrod and a chap who plays soccer for the Bush Bucks…  and, we are proud to say, our own granddaughter, Wendy Trott, who is a Springbok swimmer and has represented South Africa in the Olympics.

Wendy is not the only athlete in the family. Her brother Andrew rows for Harvard, her cousins Brandon and Justin are long-distance runners, even her youngest cousin Caitlin, who is nine, plays football!  Our son, John, represented Western Province at athletics some years ago.  Our children nearly all did the Big Walk, several did the Two Oceans.  All our grandchildren are sports enthusiasts.

The South African Trotts descend from a long line of farmers and tailors in Devon, England.  On Christmas Day 1899 my husband’s father, John Rowland Trott, who was a Bombadier in the Royal Artillery, sailed for Cape Town from Gibralter to take part in the Boer War.  During a leave in Cape Town he and his great friend Melville Priday met two sisters, courted and married them and settled here – hence the establishment of a Trott line in South Africa. Trott Family Tree

The Cricketing bunch

Ian Jonathan Leonard Trott (born 22 April 1981 in Cape Town) is a South African-born English cricketer who has played domestic cricket in South Africa, England and New Zealand. A right-handed middle-order batsman and occasional medium-pace bowler, he played two Twenty20 Internationals for England in 2007. Good performances for his county in 2008 and 2009, as well as a productive tour in 2008–09 with the England Lions, led to a call-up to the senior England Test squad in August 2009 for the fifth Ashes Test. He scored a century in that Test on 22 August 2009, becoming the 18th England player to do so on his Test debut.

The Trott family asserts that former Test players Albert Trott and Harry Trott are included in their ancestry. His half-brother, Kenny Jackson, represented the Netherlands and Western Province.^[2] Trott was born in Cape Town to a South African family of British descent. Educated at Rondebosch Boys’ High School and Stellenbosch University, he played for South Africa at both under-15 and under-19 level.^{[2] Image right: Albert Trott}

Albert Edwin Trott (born 6 February 1873 in Abbotsford, Melbourne, died 30 July 1914 in Willesden Green, Middlesex) was a Test cricketer for both Australia and England. He was named as one of Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1899.

George Henry Stevens “Harry” Trott (5 August 1866 – 10 November 1917) was an Australian Test cricketer who played 24 Test matches as an all-rounder between 1888 and 1898. Although Trott was a versatile batsman, spin bowler and outstanding fielder, “… it is as a captain that he is best remembered, an understanding judge of human nature”.^[1] After a period of some instability and ill discipline in Australian cricket, he was the first in a succession of assertive Australian captains that included Joe Darling, Monty Noble and Clem Hill, who restored the prestige of the Test team. Respected by teammates and opponents alike for his cricketing judgement, he was quick to pick up a weakness in opponents. A right-hand batsman, Trott was known for his sound defence and vigorous hitting. His slow leg spin bowling was often able to deceive batsmen through subtle variations of pace and flight, but allowed opposition batsmen to score quickly. Source Wikipedia

The common belief that the historic manor-house of Groot Constantia was erected by Simon van der Stel at the end of the seventeenth century is completely fallacious. Although the proud structure of the present day probably rests on the foundations of Governor Simon’s original building, there is not a vestige of a superficial trace of resemblance between the two buildings.

In her beautiful Historic Houses of South Africa, Miss Dorothea Fairbridge advanced what is on the surface, a perfectly logical argument, that “Simon van der Stel built the house which is the best example of seventeenth century architecture left to the country”. She had never come across any evidence to the contrary, she wrote; while there is ample evidence to show that it was built by Simon van der Stel. The glowing description of Kolbe, in the face of his fierce hatred for the Van der Stels, implied great beauty: and who but a Van der Stel would have decorated the floor of his house with the star in red stone that we find at Groot Constantia? The severe simplicity of the gables also suggested a link with Van der Stel: they radiated “that feeling of classical severity that made me think they were built for Simon van tier Stel”.

She was probably strengthened in her belief by the writings of Mrs. A. F. Trotter at the turn of the present ‘century, a lady who did her research on a bicycle, and who was an artist of no mean ability. “Here”, wrote Mrs. Trotter, ”he built a house … gabled like the houses of the fatherland . . . yet individual and distinct; the first great homestead of the Cape”. She was sceptical, however, of the genuineness of the white-washed lime walls and speculated whether Constantia . . . “being built early, arid almost certainly of good bricks from the Netherlands, was originally left unplastered”. An intelligent observation, ‘suggested no doubt by Sparrman’s reference in 1772 to “the old or red Constantia”. However, this probably refers to the type of wine manufactured on the estate, rather than to the colour of the house, for Sparrman was an enthusiastic botanist deeply interested in the viticulture of the Cape. After the fire, it was shown that the original building was built of small red Klinker bricks, but there is evidence that, at the time of remodelling at any rate, the building was plastered and whitewashed.

Nothing new was added to our knowledge of the history of Groot Constantia until 1926. On December 19th of that year, the manor-house was completely gutted by fire. Nothing was saved, and only the bare walls remained.

In the following year, the Public Works Department, entrusted the task of restoring the house to the well-known Cape architect, F. K. Kendall, who subsequently published his findings in book forth, entitled The Restoration of Groot Constantia. His conclusions, persuasively drawn, suggested that at one stage almost the entire house had been rebuilt and considerably enlarged. He accepted the drawing of J. W. van der Heydt as being in conformity with his findings in the walls and probably representing the original appearance fairly accurately. Previous to this, the Van der Heydt drawing done in 1741 from a point in the orchard above the house had been regarded in the same light as the illustrations in most of the travel chronicles relating to the Cape.

Examination of the front wall of the house revealed that small Dutch Klinker bricks existed up to the level of the window-sills, but that above that level a larger and more modern brick was used. In the central gable an indiscriminate mixture of Klinker and “modern” was found. At the end of the building, in the wall of the front (drawing) room two narrow voids were discovered, stretching from floor level to two segmental arches, and filled up with Klinker bricks. This provided the clue to the front of the house, for Kendall was able to show that these levels corresponded with those of the casement windows set further back in the wall, and that originally these spaces contained casement windows as well. He postulated that when the house was remodelled, the sash-window was already in vogue in the Cape, and the front was broken down to the level of the sills to include them in the walls; and, to prevent incongruity of sashes and casements in the same room, the latter were walled up in the drawing room. The appearance of Klinker bricks mixed indiscriminately in the upper part of the building with the modern suggests that when the original building was broken down, a great quantity of bricks was in good enough condition to be used again.

Kendall then proceeded to correlate these findings with the Van der Heydt drawing. He located the exact spot in the orchard from which the artist had looked down upon the farm, and he discovered that, allowing for modern developments, as far as the skyline, avenue of oaks, the sea and the mountain were concerned, it was “a remark-ably conscientious and accurate representation in all respects”. He concluded that the omission of the gable was probably accurate. Moreover, the windows, with the aid of a magnifying glass, can all be shown to be casements: not only are they of casement proportion, but the heads of the front ones are in line with those at the end of the house. The accurately-drawn dormer is so eccentrically situated that it was probably one of a pair on the front roof; and indeed this would be corroborated by his remark that “from the upper front windows you have a charming vista of meadows, vineyards and several pretty country seats”, were Kolbe not so unrealiable a chronicler.

The ridge of the roof in Van der Heydt’s drawing is on the same level on all three sides, whereas the present building has a much higher ridge on the front roof than on the sides, necessitated by the extra width of the middle portion of the house. When the plaster was stripped off the back cross-wall, it was found that it was built throughout of a mixture of Klinker and “modern” bricks, and that it had been inserted into the wing walls by chases cut into them to receive it. It thus appeared that this back wall was a product of the remodelling, for its sash-windows corresponded with those in the front of the house. This theory was borne out by the discovery of portions of an old wall well on the inside of the present one, running lengthwise through the middle of the dining-hall. Whitewashed and plastered with lime and showing unmistakable signs of previous exposure, this wall was originally the outside wall of the house. The implications of this are fourfold. Firstly, it eliminated all speculation of Van der Stel regaling his friends with gigantic feasts in the dining hall as we know it to-day; Valentijn must have enjoyed the “matchless fine and delicious fruit” of. his host in more modest surroundings and even Le Vaillant in 1780 was not privileged to be entertained here. In place of a dining-hall, Van der Stel had a fine wide gallery or passage covered with a lean-to roof and opening through a door in the centre onto a concrete platform from which led down steps into the courtyard below, as is the present arrangement. The discovery of this platform, at a slightly lower level than the floor of the hall, supplied conclusive evidence of the extent of the cross-wall. Records refer to this gallery, and there are instances of similar design in other old Cape houses—possibly this was the original one.

The second point that this discovery settles is the question of the pitch of the roof. Had a wider span been used on the front roof, this portion would have been much higher, as it is to-day; but it would have been difficult to build, especially at a time when the construction of such a building was more of an experiment than anything else.

The fact that the original walls of the house that were uncovered were lime plastered and whitewashed seems to allay the fears of Mrs. A. F. Trotter that the original structure was left unplastered. As early as 1675 there is a reference to prisoners being sent to Robben Island “to gather mussel-shells and others, for the burning of lime”, and all descriptions of the settlement remark upon the whiteness of the houses. There is no reason why Simon van der Stel should have been different in the construction of his own house.

The fourth point concerns the so-called Van der Stel arms worked into the stones on the floors of the entrance porch and dining-hall. In both cases the design is identical with that in the banqueting hall in the centre of the room. It therefore appears obvious that these floors were laid at the time when the banqueting hall was built–that is, when the house was remodelled. On the other hand, we know from Kolbe that Simon van der Stel discovered and worked a quarry of the red stone used in the design in the Steenberg, and it was much used in floors and steps. Also the floor design undoubtedly indicates the arms of Van der Stel impaled upon the star of the Sixes, the family of his wife. One can therefore speculate that the design laid down at the time of remodelling the house was a copy of an earlier design dating from the time of the Van der Stels.

The period of remodelling of the façade and courtyard of the house cannot be determined with accuracy, but, according to the evidence of old-records and references in travel-books, and the style of architecture, the year 1792 appears to be the most likely date.

When Hendrik Cloete purchased Groot Constantia from Jan Serrurier in December 1778 for 60,000 Cape guilders, the estate “was in a ruinous state, the buildings were all destroyed and scarcely a vineyard was bearing” according to an attestation by his son Peter Laurence Cloete, in 1827. He also stated that his father had “rebuilt all the buildings on it, and increased the plantations”. As Hendrik Cloete had bought the estate by a mortgage bond for the full amount to be paid off in instalments, and since he had paid an additional 30,000 Cape guilders for the slaves and movable property, it is conceivable that for no small space of time his financial position did not warrant the spending of a large sum of money on the erection of an expensive and lavish building not essential for the good running of his farm. By 1791, however, he had met with sufficient success to invite the architectural giants of his time-Thibault and Anreith—to construct a wine-cellar at the back of his house. There is a quaint tradition that Anreith worked on the pediment behind e screen, and would not allow his patron a glimpse of the work until it was completed.

Groot Constantia 1741

It does not appear that the house was altered until after the completion of the wine-cellar. Being a good farmer, Cloete built the most necessary things first. Then, as Mr. Kendall writes, “it is highly probable that the proprietor would finish his constructive energies with a flourish by adding magnificence .and comfort to the house itself”. By being in constant touch with Anreith and Thibault in connection with the wine-cellar (“the production of which must have in itself been a strong incentive to beautify the house”) Cloete invited them to remodel his house according to the latest style.

The earliest illustration of the present facade of the house—with a window in place of •a statue in a niche—appeared in Milbert’s Voyage Pittoresque a L’Isle de Franee au Cap de Bonne Esperanee (1812 Paris). A sketch by Bowler in 1854 likewise shows a window in place of the niche. This would suggest that the statue and niche are of ‘later erection: but this is contradicted by Kendall, who—feeling it unlikely for two windows to be placed one above the other in the same gable—examined the inside of the gable for previous patching and repair—and found no trace. He therefore concluded that the niche and statue are as old as the gable itself, and that Bowler copied unfinished details from the earlier artist; or, by some strange co-incidence, they both independently made the same mistake. Cloete family tradition assigns the statue of Plenty to an earlier date than 1854—indeed, Dorothea Fairbridge says to before the time of Anreith. This is hardly possible since Anton Anreith’s arrival at the Cape predated the erection of the front gable by at least fourteen years! There is a reference to “a vile painting, of a strapping girl, and ugly enough, reclining on a pillar” (not pillow as Kendall writes) by a Frenchman De Saint-Pierre, who visited the Cape in the seventeen-seventies. “I took it for a Dutch allegorical figure of Chastity : but they told me it was a portrait of Madame Constance, daughter of a Governor of the Cape”. ‘This is confusing from our point of view, but the reference is to a painting and not a statue, and it must be assumed that De Saint-Pierre at least recorded his basic facts accurately. The present-day statue of a girl leaning against a rest is very suggestive of this earlier painting, and provided De Saint-Pierre’s description is correct, we can speculate that Cloete requested Anton Anreith merely to copy the old design, rather than create a new one. For it is quite possible that the statue of Plenty was designed by Anreith as well. Hendrik Cloete would have been in close contact with him in connection with the wine-cellar pediment, and when Thibault began remodelling the house, Anreith was invited to assist. The fortunate partnership of Anreith and Thibault might well be personified in the front gable of Groot Constantia.

Writing from Cape Town on the 1st of October, 1792, Cornelis de Jongh, an accurate and pleasant Dutch visitor to the Cape, praises Hendrik Cloete as “an artistic argriculturalist who has made innumerable improvements to his farm, having built a new wine-cellar, altered the house, and planted new species of tree and vine . . . “  I feel justified in accenting this entry as indicative of the date at which the “alterations” were completed, or at least, under way.

This date is in conformity with the place of Groot Constantia in the ordered sequence of evolution of the architectural style at the Cape: the façade is certainly the product of a later development than existed in the time of Simon van der Stel. It is more likely the “country” version of the double-storeyed town house with the dak kamer on the roof, such as the Martin Melk house next to the Lutheran Church in Strand Street. At the same time it was probably the precursor of the common triangular-topped square gable seen so extensively in the country districts, particularly in the Worcester-Robertson area. But its Renaissance cap distinguishes it as something apart, and earlier in conception than these.

There is something very comforting about Groot Constantia, lying so close to the great Mother City, and yet breathing the life of another, an easier and more carefree world of the past. All the old ghosts are there—Hendrik Cloete with le Valliant, Lady Anne Barnard and a whole train of distinguished guests; and Kolbe, Valentijn and “if you dream there long enough, you will see wandering among the flickering shadows, the shadow of Simon van der Stel”.

E. H. BURROWS. Africana Notes and News,  December, 1948        Vol. VI, No. 1

Top image is Groot Constantia in 1812

Kmdt. Henning Petrus Nicolaas Pretorius

(born 1844 in Natal, South Africa; died 1897, Farm Abrahamskloof, Albanie, Cape, South Africa) nicknamed “Skote Petoors”

When a young boy, he was nearly present when his paternal grandfather was murdered in 1865 in Moorddraai, but rode ahead to see his fiancee, and therefore was saved from being murdered too. In 1876 he became and Cornet in the Z.A.R. in the Sekukune wars. His heroic conduct during the First Boer War in Elandsfontein made him famous. He was wounded twice. In 1882 he was commissioned as a Kommandant. In 1890 he was made Acting Kommandant Generaal in place in P.J. Joubert. In 1896 he was promoted to Lt. Colonel of the reorganised Artillery Corps under the new name of Staatsartillerie. He made several improvements to the Artillery, rendering them equivalent to those of most nations at the time. He died while on a mission in the Eastern districts of the Cape, while looking for the beam on which the accused were hanged in 1816 for the Slagtersnek opstand. He was buried with full military honours at the Helde-akker in Pretoria. There is a statue of him in front of Military Headquarters in Potgieter Street in Pretoria.

Kmdt. Henning Petrus Nicolaas Pretorius

His father was Marthinus Wessel “Swart Martiens” Pretorius (1822-1864) born in Graaf Reinet and who died at the Battle of Silkaatsnek, during the First Boer War. Farmer in Welgegund, near Pretoria. His mother was Debora Jacoba Retief (1815-1900), born at Mooimeisjesfontein, in the Cape. She famously painted her father’s name on the cliff face of Kerkenberg in the Drakensberg. A sculpture of this deed is on display in the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria. Her father was Gen. Pieter Retief (1780-1838), known as Piet Retief, Voortrekker leader. Retief was born in the Cape Colony, South Africa. His family were Boers of French Huguenot ancestry, and Retief grew up on one of the vineyards established by French wine-making immigrants near Stellenbosch. After moving to the vicinity of Grahamstown Retief, like other Boers, acquired wealth through livestock, but suffered repeated losses from Xhosa raids in the period leading up to the 6th Cape Frontier War. (However, apart from such losses, Retief was also a man in constant financial trouble. On more than one occasion, he lost money and other possessions mainly through gambling and land speculation.

He is reported to have gone bankrupt at least twice, while at the colony and on the frontier. Such losses impelled many frontier farmers to become Voortrekkers (literally those who move forward) and to migrate to new lands in the north. Retief authored their ‘manifesto’, dated 22 January 1837, setting out their long-held grievances against the British government, which they felt had offered them no protection, no redress, and which had freed their slaves with recompense to the owners hardly amounting to a quarter of their value. This was published in the Grahamstown Journal on 2 February and De Zuid-Afrikaan on 17 February just as the emigrant Boers started to leave their homesteads. Retief’s household departed in two wagons from his farm in the Winterberg District in early February 1837 and joined a party of 30 other wagons. The pioneers crossed the Orange River into independent territory.

When several parties on the Great Trek converged at the Vet River, Retief was elected “Governor of the United Laagers” and head of “The Free Province of New Holland in South East Africa.” This coalition was very short-lived and Retief became the lone leader of the group moving east. On 5 October 1837 Retief established a camp at Kerkenberg near the Drakensberg ridge. He proceeded on horseback the next day to explore the region between the Drakensberg and Port Natal, now known as Kwa-Zulu Natal. Upon receiving a positive impression of the region he started negotiations with the Zulu chief, Dingane, in November 1837. Retief led his own band over the Drakensberg Mountains and convinced Voortrekker leaders Maritz and Potgieter to join him in January 1838.

On a second visit to Dingane, the Zulu agreed to Boer settlement in Natal, provided that the Boer delegation recovered cattle stolen from him by the rival Tlokwa tribe. This the Boers did, their reputation and rifles cowing the tribe into peacefully handing over the cattle. Despite warnings, Retief left the Tugela region on 28 January 1838, in the belief that he could negotiate permanent boundaries for the Natal settlement with Dingane. The deed of cession of the Tugela-Umzimvubu region, although dated 4 February, 1838, was signed by Dingane on 6 February 1838. This Dingane did by imitating writing and with the two sides recording three witnesses each. Dingane then invited Retief’s party to witness a special performance by his soldiers. However, upon a signal given by Dingane, the Zulus overwhelmed Retief’s party of 70 and their Coloured servants, taking all captive. Retief, his son, men, and servants, about a hundred people in total, were taken to Kwa Matiwane Hill in what is now Kwa-Zulu Natal, and murdered. Their bodies were left on the hillside to be devoured by wild animals, as was Dingane’s custom with his enemies.

Dingane then gave orders for the Voortrekker laagers to be attacked, which plunged the migrant movement into serious disarray. Eventually, the Retief party’s remains were recovered and buried on 21 December 1838, by members of the “victory commando” led by Andries Pretorius, following the decisive Voortrekker victory at Blood River. Also recovered was the undamaged deed of cession from Retief’s leather purse, as later verified by a member of the “victory commando”, E.F. Potgieter. An exact copy survives, but the original deed disappeared in transit to the Netherlands during the Anglo-Boer War. The site of the Retief grave was more or less forgotten until pointed out in 1896 by J.H. Hattingh, a surviving member of Pretorius’s commando. A monument recording the names of the members of Retief’s delegation was erected near the grave in 1922. The town of Piet Retief was named after him as was (partially) the city of Pietermaritzburg.

(The “Maritz” part being named after Gerrit Maritz, another Voortrekker leader.) Piet Retief married Magdalena Johanna De Wet [1782-1855; daughter of Pieter De Wet (1765-?) and Maria P Opperman (1757-?)]. Her father Pieter de Wet was in turn the son of Petrus Pieter De Wet (1726-1782) and Magdalena Fenesie Maree (1726-1770). Retief’s own parents were Jacobus Retief [1754-1821; son of Francois Retief (1708/9-1743) and Anna Marais (1722-1777)] and Debora Joubert [1749-?; daughter of Pieter Joubert (1726-1746) and Martha Du Toit (1729-1771)].

Jacobus Retief was a farmer near Wellington, his original farm was called “Soetendal”. He also bought the farm “Welvanpas”, formerly known as “De Krakeelhoek” which belonged to his grandmother Maria Mouij, of whom presently. He had eleven children. His father, Francois Retief, was the eldest son of the founding father of the Retief clan in South Africa, Hugenot emigrant Francois Retif Snr. (1663-1721). This Francois Retief fled Mer in Blois, France during the recriminations of King Louis XIV with his young sister to Holland. Since the Dutch were looking for settlers for the Cape, they joined and arrived in Cape Town in 1688. He bought a farm and called it “Le Paris” on the northern banks of the Berg River near Wemmershoek. He married Maria Mouij, (1685-?, daughter of Pierre Mouij, also of France.), 23 years his junior.

To return to Marthinus Wessel Pretorius (Swart Martiens): His father was: Councillor Henning Petrus Nicolaas Pretorius [1800-1865; son of Marthinus Wessel Pretorius (1747-?) and Susanna Elisabeth Viljoen, (1760-?), widow of J.D. Hattingh] who was a Deacon in the church and long-serving elder, as well as member of the first Voortrekker Council in Natal. He was murdered by the Sotho at Moorddraai near Harrismith with his wife, Johanna Christina Vorster [1804-1865; daughter of Barend Johannes Vorster (1771-1840) and Johanna Christina Vorster (1776-?)], two of his sons and a companion. His brother, Andries Pretorius later became the Voortrekker arch-leader and founded the capital city of Pretoria, South Africa. Barend Vorster was the son of Barend Johannes Vorster (1748-1799) and Cecilia van Heerden (1752-1789). Marthinus Wessel Pretorius was the son of Johannes Pretorius [1711-1778; son of Johannes Pretorius (1642-1694) and Johanna Victor (1640-1719)] and Johanna Bezuidenhout [1717-?; illegitimate daughter of Wynand Bezuidenhout (1674-1724) and Gerbrecht Boshouwer (1684-1772)]. Johannes Pretorius (1711-1778) farmed near Roodesandskloof with about 40 cattle and 70 sheep. His father, the elder Johannes Pretorius was born in Oudorp, Alkmaar, Noord-Holland, Netherlands and was the first to move to South Africa. His parents were: Wessel Schout Praetorius [1614-1664; son of Barend Wesselius Pretorius (1596-1668) and Aaltje Jansdochter (1596-1643)] and Josyntgen Claesdochter (1618-?). Barend’s father was Wessel Schulte (1566-?).

Baptised: 2nd July 1760 in Rhenen, Netherlands and died 2nd October 1836 in George. Military officer, bank commissioner, and landdros, Adrianus was the son of Alexander Jan van Kervel, an officer in the service of the VOC, and his wife, Henriette Coenradina van Brienen; he was the grandson of Adriaan van Kervel, Governor of the Cape (1737).Van Kervel joined the VOC in 1774 and in 1782 arrived at the Cape from the East as an ensign. After that he gained the ranks of lieutenant (1786), Platzmajor (local commandant) (1789), and captain (1789).

In 1804 he was appointed commissioner of the Loan Bank, also known as the Lombard Bank, which was established at the Cape on 15.3.1793 to save the country from imminent economic ruin. It was state controlled, and in its capacity as a lending, but not a deposit, bank lent paper money on short term. The duty of the commissioners, of whom Van Kervel was one, was to be responsible for the general management of the bank.

In 1811 he was appointed the first landdros of the George district and was stationed at the government post Outeniqualand. In June he began to plan and lay out a town that was given the same name as the district, planting two rows of oak trees along the wide streets and appointing the first elders and deacons of the Cape church there. He was the landdros at George during the ‘Swarte Ommegang’ (Black Circuit) of 1812 during which many cases involving Non-Whites were tried, and which lasted for almost four months. It was a very harassing time for the colonists since numbers of White families were accused and summonsed, even more called as witnesses, and one-third of the able-bodied men dispatched to help guard the eastern border. Van Kervel had his hands full, trying to deal with all the problems. He was the landdros at George until 1819 when he retired because of illness and age, after which he was given a pension.

On 30.9.1792 van Kervel married Johanna Hendrika Loubser, widow of Martinus Westerhof. They had no children. The special school for mentally handicapped children at George was named after him, and his family coat of arms, carved on a large stinkwood shield, is preserved in the local museum.

Source: New Dictionary of South African Biographies

Image: Groot Afrikaanse Familie Naamboek

Maria Van Riebeeck

Born in Rotterdam on 28th October 1629 and died in Malacca on 2nd November 1664), wife of the first commander at the Cape of Good Hope and founder of the Cape settlement, was descended from an old Picardy family, the surname of which occurs as early as 1310. Bearers of the surname (with numerous variations of the spelling) occur from an early date in northern France and the southern Netherlands. Maria van Riebeeck was a daughter of the Rev. Abrahamus Quevellerius (who was born about 1589 in Dordrecht, studied in Leiden and used the Latin form of his name), and his wife, Maria (baptized Mariken) du Bois. Maria van Riebeecks’s grandparents were the Walloon clergyman, Chrétien de la Queillerie (1543-1631) and Maria Polle. In French and Dutch documents the surname occurs in numerous forms: for example, Cueilierie, De (la) Coeuillerie, De (la) Cueillerie, De (le or la) Quellerie, De (la) Cuvellerie, De la Caulerie, in addition to Quevellerius or Querellerius and other Latinized forms. It is worth knowing that, after an active career, Maria’s grandfather, Chrétien, enrolled, in his eighty-eighth year, as a theological student at Leiden.On 10th October 1619 Maria van Riebeeck’s father was called to the ministry of the Walloon and the Reformed churches. In her parental home she therefore spoke both French and Dutch. Her father died four months after she was born; her mother took the children to live in Leiden and moved to Schiedam only in October 1647. By that time the eldest son, Noë, was married; Abraham, the youngest son, later became rector of the gymnasium at Rotterdam.

On 3rd April 1648 Maria du Bois signed, in Rotterdam, a will in which she left her two unmarried children a legacy of 1 600 guilders each and gave Maria a further 1 000 guilders, together with her two best beds and pillows, bedspreads, sheets, and curtains.

On 7th August 1648 the former V.O.C. official, Johan Anthonisz Van Riebeeck, returned home after a period of service in the East, during which he had been dismissed for alleged private trading. He settled in Amsterdam. From Van Riebeeck’s will it appears that he was on good terms with his stepmother, Elsken Burgers, surviving second wife of his father (who had died in 1639 in Brazil). During a visit to his stepmother he met Maria de la Queillerie, a pretty medium-blonde girl, healthy, sweet-natured, even-tempered, quiet and persevering.

Johan van Riebeecq

In the register of proposed marriages in Schiedam there is an entry for 11th March 1649: ‘Johan van Riebeecq (sic) bachelor of Culemburch resident in Amsterdam and Maria La queillerije spinster Rotterdam residing here’. On 28th March the marriage was solemnized by the Rev. Theodorius Levius of Schiedam in the Grote or Sint Janskerk there. The couple married in community of property with the provision that, if there were no children, Maria would, if her husband predeceased her, receive 6 000 Carolus guilders. If Van Riebeeck were to survive her, he was to get 4 000 guilders from his wife’s estate.

The young married couple went to live in a house on the Eglantier canal, Amsterdam. It is described in their will as the house with the ‘Samaritan in the front gable’. At present it is assumed that this is no. 98 and that Van Riebeeck rented the house from a surgeon, Jan Dircksz Brummer, on 6th May 1650. Here the painter, Dirck Craey, probably painted the exceptionally fine portrait in oils of Maria van Riebeeck (the only contemporary one in existence). Here, too, her two eldest sons, Anthonij (who died at an early age) and Lambertus, were born before she left with her husband for the Cape in December 1651. She and Van Riebeeck had eight children. In 1660 she was forced to say good-bye to two of them, Lambertus and Abraham (born at the Cape), when they left in De Paerl in the care of the naval hero, Douwe Aukes. Placed in the care of her brother, they were to be educated in Rotterdam. She never saw them again.

For ten years Maria shared the fortunes of her husband, the commander, in the almost untouched Table Valley of the Cape. The records of the Council of Justice indicate that occasionally she interceded on behalf of offenders. It also appears that she endeared herself to everybody and that, on occasion, she herself assisted other wives at the birth of their children. But there was gossip about her; it was alleged, for example, that she followed the latest fashions.

From the deeds registry in Cape Town it appears that she lent money to free burghers at a rate of interest of three-quarter per cent per month. In October 1658, for example, Pieter Pauwels Cley borrowed 200 Carolus guilders from her; Caspar Brinkman, 200 guilders; Leendert Cornelisz (of Zevenhuysen), 300 guilders; Juriaen Kansz, Gerrit Hermansz and Thomas Christoffel, jointly, also 300 Carolus guilders. Brinkman repaid his debt on 4th September 1660, Leendert Cornelisz on 12th November 1658, and the other three on 1st February 1660. Jacob Cornelis van Rosendael also borrowed 100 Carolus guilders on 1st October 1658, while Steven Jansz Botma, of Wageningen, borrowed 520 Carolus guilders, which he repaid on 30th June 1659, and Wouter Cornelisz Mostert 250 Carolus guilders, which he returned on 14th March 1657 with the interest which had been determined in advance.

Besides educating her children, taking care of two half-nieces on her husband’s side, Sebastiana and Elisabeth van Opdorp, until they were married, and educating the little Hottentot girl, Eva, Maria van Riebeeck entertained visiting ship’s captains and officials, as well as strangers, at her table. One of the strangers who found their way to the Cape during these years was the French bishop, Nicolas Etienne, who, after the La Maréchale had run ashore in 1660, had to spend almost ten months at the settlement. In a letter that has been preserved, he describes the commander’s wife as ‘one of the most well-educated women I have ever seen, and she has endeared herself to all. I have never come across the slightest fickleness of temper on her part. In every situation and in everything she did she kept herself wonderfully under control, as could be seen even during religious discussions … She was in no way headstrong’.

That Maria van Riebeeck was respected and loved by the entire population in Malacca (to which she had gone with her husband and daughter in 1662) is made obvious by the tribute everyone paid her when she died of smallpox five days after her thirty-fifth birthday, and a week after the premature birth of a son who had lived for an hour. Sixteen bearers carried her body to the St Pauli Church on the mountain top. Officers and soldiers preceded the bier and more than a thousand representatives from neighbouring peoples brought up the rear of the funeral procession. The local Chinese, Portuguese, Moors and other inhabitants of Malacca paid their tribute, and members of the council of Malacca mourned for six weeks.

Van Riebeeck ordered her tombstone from Sadrapatnam. Her biographer (Mees, infra) points out that in the Latin inscription there are a number of mistakes such as the incorrect date of birth. Beneath the coat-of-arms appear the words:

“She to whom Rotterdam brightness, and Leyden goodness gave,
Whose wedding gladdened Schiedam, now lies in this grave”

They were the first two lines of an epitaph written by Van Riebeeck himself.

The gravestone was acquired for South Africa through J. de V. Roos, who visited Malacca on a journey to the East, and Dr Louis Péringuey, who conducted the relevant correspondence. It was brought to the S.A. Museum, Cape Town, in 1916 and was displayed beside that of Jan van Riebeeck until in 1966 both gravestones were built into the wall of the inner court of the S.A. Cultural History Museum in the old supreme court building, Cape Town.

A bronze statue of Maria completed in 1953 by the Dutch sculptor, Dirk Wolbers, and presented to South Africa by the government of the Netherlands during the tricentennial commemoration of the establishment of the Dutch settlement at the Cape, was unveiled in 1954 by Prince Bernard of the Netherlands in front of the S.A. National Art Gallery, and, in 1969, erected near the statue of Jan van Riebeeck in the Heerengracht.

The painting of Maria van Riebeeck, by Dirk Craey is in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; of the numerous copies there are examples in Mees and Godée Molsbergen. There is also a portrait by an unknown artist in the Houses of Parliament, Cape Town.

Source: Standard Encyolopeadia of SA (SESA)

Biography of Ruda Wahl

Ruda was born on 18 November 1953 in Hartswater in the Northern Cape and was educated at Hartswater Primary School, Parow Central Primary, Keimoes High School and Upington High School, where she spent her final school years as a boarder. After matriculating she entered the Civil Defence College in George where she undertook voluntary military service for a year in one of the first women's army camps in South Africa.

In November 1977, she married JP Landman and begun her career as a TV newsreader in 1983. Her hobbies include r eading, movies, spending time with friends over good wine and good food and she, like many other South African women, belongs to a monthly book club. Ruda has one son Johannes Petrus who is 20 years old.

Ruda has few memories of her grandparents as most of them died when she was small. She remembers: "Oupa Gert" was my father and Oupa Wahl, his father, "Oupa Jonnie" as we called him, lived with us when I was little. He died when I was four. Unfortunately I don't remember much about him, but my dad talked about his family of course – I knew most of them, and so did my mum.

Oupa Wahl fought in the Anglo-Boer War as a young man and the legend was that he took so many Grandpa headache powders that his sleeping spot was surrounded by little pink papers in the morning. He also fought in the Rebellion – one of his sons (my uncle, my father's brother) was called Manie Maritz Wahl after General Manie Maritz.

Do you have any family heirlooms that belonged to your ancestors?

I have a handcarved wooden jewellery box. Written on the side is "From S van der Merwe T Miss G/T/C (very ornate) Verster Aandenking uit Tokai 1903". That would mean the jail after the Anglo Boer War. I don't know who made it, probably Schalk Willem Jacobus van der Merwe, my mother's grandfather. But who is the mystery Miss Verster? In 1903 he was a married man with children! And the jewellery box is in our family, i.e. his daughter inherited it. My brother has a hand-tied shawl and a little wooden chest from the same period.

Did any of your family members make an impact in your life and why?

I only knew my mother's father, Andries Petrus Viljoen. I lived with him and his sister (his wife died in childbirth in 1933) for a few months when I was nine, and we often visited them for holidays before and after that. He was "Oudad", devoted to his newspaper every evening, quietly comfortable with the neighbours we shared evening with. I was probably more affected by the place, the desert heat and simplicity, than by specific people.

What aspect of you family's history has fascinated or interested you the most?

The War and the Rebellion. I wish I could have talked to my grandfather about that.

Do you have a personal motto which you live by?

From Byron Katie: What is, is. Don't resist what is; don't waste energy on how other people should behave. Accept what is, and decide how you want to respond to it.

Memoirs of the Wahl Family

Stofvlei Farm, in the Magisterial District of Springbok, is where Gert Kotze Wahl was born. The old farm had a petrol pump and a post office. There were three buildings on the farm which included the house, the shop and about 300 metres west from the house was a third tin cottage. According to family legend Grandmother Gerrie's family (the Kotze's – had "money"). Initially grandmother Gerrie was the postmaster, and later it was Grandfather John. Grandpa John, who was General Maritz's attendant, promised him that he would name his next son after the General, and so the Manie Maritz name was brought into the Wahl family on 21 November 1914.

Naturally they were pro-German. Grandfather made a knives/forks bowl from wood in the Johannesburg Jail, as well as a tray. On the bowl it says: "Aan mijn lieve Vrouw van John, Johannesburg Tronk 28 Oktober 1915".

The Wahl's enjoyed playing Bridge and their ancestors were wagon makers. Grandfather John was an Elder in the N.G. Kerk in Loeriesfontein his entire life and the middle services, in-between Holy Communion, was always held on Stofvlei farm.

According to grandchild, Andries Wahl: "We knew grandfather as "Oupa Wahl" and all the other people I ever heard talking to or of him, used the diminutive – or in Afrikaans pronounced with a long "ô", or in English pronounced as "Johnny". During my stay in Keimoes I also managed an agency from the office in Pofadder, and there I dealt with 5 or 6 people who knew him. All of them added the "ie/y". A guy who rebelled against the English didn't want to be "John" if his name was "Adam Johannes".

Many of the area's children went to school at Nuwerus. The school lorry's destination, which was the transport of the area's schoolchildren to and from Nuwerus, was Stofvlei. Both Grandma and Grandpa Wahl's graves are in Stofvlei.

Grandfather Johnie had two sisters and as the family story goes there were two Wahl's that came from Germany. The one Wahl settled himself in Paarl and became Afrikaans and the other in Cape Town who became English – this part of the family included the well-known optometrist.

Grandfather Wahl's one sister married an Englishman, and grandfather never spoke to her again after that – remember it was the time of the Anglo-Boer War. I knew the other sister. She was Aunt Bettie Bodley and lived in Paarl. She had three daughters. Aunt Bettie's husband was Tom Boyley, but he died very young. The daughters were Hettie (her husband was a Van der Westhuizen, teacher at Boys High in Paarl), Magdaleen – married to a Hugo (English pronunciation), and Elise. Elise was a famous artist, especially for her sketches of wild flowers. She was married to Apie van Wyk, also an artist.

Grandfather John was a dignified, strict man with a good sense of humour who could always tell a good story – a trait that goes through all the Wahl's

Behind the scenes

Ruda Landman's birthplace in the dry and dusty town of Keimoes, in the Northern Cape, is a far cry from where her family's humble beginnings started in the lush and fertile valleys of Europe. From the Persecution of her family in France in the 1600's, her ancestry consists of a kaleidoscope of French refugees as well as Dutch and German Immigrants.

When the French Huguenots arrived at the Cape in 1688 as a closely linked group, in contrast to the Germans, they all lived together in Drakenstein, although they never constituted a completely united bloc; a number of Dutch farms were interspersed among them. Until May 1702 they had their own French minister, Pierre Simond, and until February 1723 a French reader and schoolmaster, Paul Roux. The Huguenots clung to their language for fifteen to twenty years; in 1703 only slightly more than one fifth of the adult French colonists were sufficiently conversant with Dutch to understand a sermon in Dutch properly, and many children as yet knew little or no Dutch at all. The joint opposition of the farmers toward W. A. van der Stel shortly afterwards brought the French more and more into contact with their Dutch neighbours; as a result of social intercourse and intermarriage they soon adopted the language and customs of their new country. Forty years after the arrival of the Huguenots, the French language had almost died out and Dutch was the preferred tongue.

In South Africa we are extremely lucky to have such superb and dedicated family historians, as well as exquisite records in our Archives, which begin prior to Jan Van Riebeeck landing at the Cape. Jan's diary of his voyage to South Africa is documented and stored in the Cape Town Archives.

This mammoth task of tracing Ruda's family tree in record time, was compiled to find out how far back the Wahl family and its branches can be traced as well as how many sets of grandparents can be found.  Click here to view Ruda's family tree.

The Wahl Family

Daniel Hendrik Wahl was born circa 1850 and research has proven that there is no legitimate documentation to prove his parentage. On the 17th February 1874, Daniel Hendrik applied for a special marriage license to marry Maria Catherina Reynecke.

Photographer of the Paarl: Daniel Hendrik Wahl's Insolvent Estate (In further documentation, and finding the Liquidation and Distribution account, it is noted that Daniel was known as the “Photographer of the Paarl and Wheelwright of Paarl” in 1883)

And in another image one section of the document refers to the surname as "de Wahl" and not "Wahl", which meant that one would now have to search under the many variants of including de Wahl, Waal and de Waal. Mr D.H Wahl's Insolvent Estate

Further documentation also mentions the "widow Reynecke" Elisabeth Wilhelmina Reynecke, which was his mother in law, as well as a Constant Wahl and Adam J Wahl who thus far cannot be linked to this immediate family as no parentage exists for Daniel. It is assumed that the two men mentioned are possibly brothers as they fit well with other documentation of the same period.

Unfortunately the common problem with variants of name spelling has been a classic example of the "brick wall" scenario, which has been encountered here thus the time limit on this research has been halted. The original Wahl Family whom Daniel Hendrik would have descended is (1) Johan(n) Christia(a)n Wahl, from Strelitz in Mecklenburg (Germany). Arrives here in 1752 as a soldier. Citizen in 1756. Married 10th September 1757 to Christina Gerrits, daughter of Herman Gerrits (2 children) or (2) Johan(n) Coenraad or Conrad Wahl, from Wildungen (Germany). Arrives here in 1774 as a soldier. Citizen in 1780. Died 15th October 1814. Married 12th November 1780 to Catharina Hilledonda van Dyk (7 children). Motto: Factis non verbis.

Most family pedigrees of this extent can take many years to complete and we at Ancestry24 have managed to go back 10 generations in two weeks.

A lineage and direct relation to South African actress Charlize Theron has also been illustrated and Ruda finds herself as the ½ 5th cousin to this Hollywood star.  Click here how Ruda and Charlize are related.

Jaques De Savoye

Jaques De Savoye (Ruda's 7 times great grandfather on her maternal side) was born in Ath, Belgium around 1636 and died in the Cape in October, 1717. He was a merchant and Cape free burgher and was the son of Jacques de Savoye and his wife, Jeanne van der Zee (Delamere, Desuslamer).

Jacques was a wealthy merchant in Ghent, Belgium, but his devotion to the Protestant religion led to his persecution by the Jesuits, and there was even an attempt to murder him. In 1687 he moved to the Netherlands and left for the Cape in the Oosterland on 29th January 1688. In addition to his wife, mother-in-law and three of his children, he was accompanied by the brothers Jean, Jacob and Daniel Nortier.

De Savoye soon became a leader among the French community at the Cape: he was one of the deputation which, on 28th November 1689, asked the Governor and Council of Policy for a separate congregation for the French refugees, and the following year he helped to administer the funds donated to the French refugees by the charity board of the church of Batavia. At various times he also served on the college of landdros and heemraden.

To begin with, Jacques farmed at Vrede-en-Lust at Simondium and in 1699 was also given Leeuwenvallei in the Wagenmakersvallei ( Wellington ), but settled at the Cape soon afterwards. He apparently experienced financial difficulties since in 1701 he owed the Cape church council 816 guilders and various people sued him for outstanding debts. In 1712 he described himself as being without means.

In March 1712 he left for the Netherlands in the Samson, accompanied by his wife and mother-in-law. He enrolled as a member of the Walloon congregation in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on 16th December 1714, but only four months later, on 20th April 1715, it was reported that he had returned to the Cape. There is, however no documentary proof of his presence neither at the Cape neither after 1715, nor in C.G. Botha's assertion that he died in October 1717.

De Savoye often clashed with other people. During the struggle of the free burghers against Wilhem Adriaen van der Stel, he was strongly opposed to the Governor and was imprisoned in the Castle for a time. He was also involved in a long-drawn-out dispute with the Rev. Pierre Simond, and he and Hercules des Pré went to court on several occasions to settle their differences.

He was married twice: first to Christiana du Pont and then to Marie Madeleine le Clercq of Tournai, Belgium, daughter of Philippe le Clercq and his wife, Antoinette Carnoy. Five children were born of the first marriage and three of the second. Three married daughters and a son remained behind at the Cape, as well as a son who was a junior merchant in the service of the V.O.C. and who died without leaving an heir.

Acknowledgements & Sources:

Ruda Landman
Gert Wahl
Keith Meintjies
National Archives Respository Cape Town
Dr Chris Theron
Janet Melville
Genealogical Institute in Stellenbosch
SAG Genealogies Volumes 1 – 13 www.gisa.org.za

Images Acknowledgement:

Images.co.za / Die Burger / Werner Hills; National Archives Respository Cape Town
Who's Who of Southern Africa (Ruda Landman)

Born on the 30th July 1852 in Wassenaar, the Netherlands; died 6th February 1933 in Haarlem. Professor of Modern Languages in Stellenbosch, Superintendent of Education in the South African Republic (ZAR) and compiler of the Hollandsche-Afrikaanse Liederbundel (Dutch-Afrikaans Song Album).Educated on Christian principles, Mansvelt started his career in South Africa in 1874 when the Stellenbosch Gymnasium appointed him teacher of Modern Languages and other subjects. He served the Gymnasium (which became the Stellenbosch College in 1879 and Victoria College in 1887) for 17 years and did much to promote the maintenance of Dutch asp language, and the Netherlands culture; at the same time he completed valuable lexicographical work for Afrikaans and played a leading part in the establishment of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Taalbond to counteract the overwhelming influence of the English and their culture.

As Superintendent of Education in the ZAR (1891-1900), Mansvelt successfully reorganised, and gave substance to, the teaching system in the Republic, despite an increasing antagonism to the so-called “Hollander politics” of the Kruger regime, which also affected the sphere of education. As an educationist, Mansvelt was well aware of music’s possibilities in maintaining Dutch in the educational system. In 1898 he became a leading figure in a commission which was established in Pretoria to collect all the useful Afrikaans songs and combine them with suitable Dutch songs in one single volume. Mansvelt’s dual policy of firmly anchoring Afrikaans in the Dutch language and culture whilst acknowledging the possibilities and the right of existence of spoken Afrikaans, was clearly the shaping force behind this project which must be considered typical of his South African career.

Christiaan (Frederik) Louis Leipoldt

Born in Worcester, 28 December 1880 and died in Cape Town, 12 April 1947. Physician, poet and author, Louis was the fourth child of Christiaan Friedrich Leipoldt (Died: 11 November 1911), a Rhenish missionary and N.G. Kerk minister, and his wife Anna Meta Christiana Esselen (Died: 24 December 1903), the daughter of the Rev. Louis F. Esselen, a Rhenish missionary of Worcester, in whose home in Adderley Street Leipoldt was born and where he lived with his parents until he was four years old. His maternal grandfather gave Leipoldt his first lessons in reading and writing, guided his general education and exerted great influence on him during his formative years. His paternal grandfather, J. G. Lepoldt, was a Rhenish missionary at Ebenhaezer on the Olifants River and at Wuppertal. Leipoldt’s father was also a missionary, first in Sumatra and from 1879 at Worcester. In 1883, however, he became an N.G. Kerk minister and settled in 1884 at Clanwilliam in the N.G. parsonage in Park Street.The relationship existing among the members of the Leipoldt family was not a happy one, while Leipoldt’s relations with his mother were decidedly unhappy. However, he held his father in high esteem and greatly respected him.

An intellectually gifted child, Leipoldt received an exceptionally good grounding at home in the natural sciences, history, geography, languages (Greek, Latin, French), literature and Eastern religious conceptions. His father had an extensive library and gave Leipoldt informal instruction and guided him towards independent study by teaching him to consult source material and to solve problems on his own. This laid the foundation for his independent trend of thought in later years. His curiosity and spirit of investigation also manifested themselves in later life in his diversity of interests apart from literature: in education, the supernatural, in politics, psychology, philosophy, history, botany and in the culinary art. Even as a child his general knowledge was exceptional.

Leipoldt’s three home languages were English, German and Dutch. As a child he was able to read the language of the Malays. At a very early age he read a great deal, evinced a thirst for knowledge, a great capacity for work and an astonishing memory. He read the works of Dante, Bunyan, Milton, Racine and Scott, and before he was ten years old he knew long passages from the works of some of these authors. English became the language he used for journalism, while his poetry, prose and plays were written mainly in Afrikaans, although he began by writing his poetry in English.

Leipoldt’s childhood days were not happy. As his mother prevented his association with other children, he led a very lonely life in Clanwilliam. He remained at home until he had passed his matriculation examination. Two trips to Cape Town (1886 and 1890) made a deep impression on him. Although he attested to his unhappy life right to the end, nevertheless some of his poems reveal the intense joy which as a child he experienced in nature.

As an artist Leipoldt developed at an early age. His father encouraged him to read literary works and made him write essays which he criticized. This encouraged the artistic qualities dormant in him. From his sixth year he corresponded with his grandfather Esselen and this first conscious setting down of his observations trained him in the art of writing. Because of his loneliness he, even before his eighth year, created imaginary playmates in his writings. Throughout his life he continued to converse with himself in his poems, especially in his “Slampamperliedjies” (vagabond songs).

As the age of eight he wrote a tragedy inspired by Van Limburg Brouwer’s Akbar. Between the ages of ten and twelve he earned his first money with stories, which were published in the London Boy’s Own Paper and The Cape Argus, as well as with journalistic literature in The Cape Times, Cape Monthly Magazine and Scientific African. His creative and journalistic work during these early days was thus combined. At the age of fourteen he became a reporter for The Cape Times in the North-Western Cape. During these early years he also furnished news items for Johannesburg and Bloemfontein newspapers. He was helped with his poetry by an English minister, the Rev. C. D. Roberts, who also wrote poetry.

Leipoldt’s love for botany was awakened early in his life. In his twelfth year he met the well-known German botanist Rudolph Schlechter collecting plants in the veld outside Clanwilliam. Schlechter invited Leipoldt to accompany him on his trip by ox-waggon to Namaqualand. He later also became friendly with other well-known botanists such as Peter MacOwan, Harry Bolus and Rudolph Marloth.

Journalism was Leipoldt’s first profession. In 1896 he wrote to The Cape Times on the colour question, which gave rise to a violent controversy and F. S. Malan the editor of Ons Land devoted a leader to it. In 1898 Leipoldt published a number of sketches on Clanwilliam in the Cape Industrial Magazine. He also matriculated in that year. As the life in Clanwilliam was too confining for his budding genius, he moved to the Cape where he became a journalist for De Kolonist. Before his twentieth year he was already a contributor to several leading newspapers abroad. When the Second Anglo-Boer War broke out Leipoldt was unable to reconcile himself with the pro-Rhodes sentiment of De Kolonist and Het Dagblad and became the Dutch correspondent for the pro-Boer newspaper the South African News, which sent him to the North-eastern front. He also wrote communiques on the war for overseas newspapers such as the Manchester Guardian and Daily Express (England), Het Nieuws van de Dag en De Telegraaf (Holland), Petit Bleu (Belgium), the Hamburger Neueste Nachrichten (Germany), the Chicago Record and the Boston Post (U.S.A.). During the war Leipoldt travelled about a great deal in the Cape Colony as a shorthand recorder for the circuit court, and in 1900-01 he attended the court sessions dealing with Cape rebels. During this period he wrote a number of poems which appeared later in his first volume of poetry, such as ‘Oom Gert vertel’, which originated in Dordrecht in 1901, based on incidents related to him by an old man shortly after the engagement at Labuschagnesnek. His first published verses were war poems which appeared during the war in English in the pro-Boer New Age. In 1900 he published two sketches ‘De Rebel’ and in 1901 ‘Bambinellino’ in the Dutch art publication Elesevier’s Geïllustreerd Maandschrift . They were written in Dutch but with an Afrikaans dialogue. It was the first belletristic contribution by an Afrikaans author to a Dutch paper. ‘De Rebel’ was the forerunner of the poem ‘Oom Gert Vertel’.

At the end of 1899 the editor of the South African News was imprisoned under martial law and the nineteen-year-old Leipoldt became editor until October 1901, when the paper was temporarily suspended under martial law. Leipoldt refused an offer from a Rhodesian newspaper and in 1902 went abroad. He travelled through Holland, Belgium, France and Spain as a reporter for the Manchester Guardian. In 1903 he enrolled at Guy’s Hospital, London, as a medical student but continued with his journalism, writing for English and American papers. In addition he attended lectures on law, and on occasion he travelled to the Netherlands to interview Pres. S. J. P. Kruger in Utrecht on behalf of the British press. In 1904 he became the editor of Sir Henry Burdett’s The Hospital, travelling to Europe and America to collect in-formation about hospitals. He also edited School Hygiene, the official publication of British school physicians.

In 1907 Leipoldt completed his medical studies, being awarded the gold medal for surgery as well as for medicine. He became a houseman at Guy’s hospital and furthered his studies in orthopaedics and children’s diseases in Berlin, Bologna, Vienna and Graz. In 1909 he went on a six-month luxury yachting excursion along the coast of America as personal physician to the eleven-year old son of the millionaire press-magnate, Joseph Pulitzer. In the U.S.A. he visited orthopaedic centres. In 1909 he received the F.R.C.S. in London and again travelled to France, Italy, West Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. In 1909 his first book appeared: The ideal graduate study institution: what Germany has done (London, 1909). Between 1910 -11 he was attached to the large children’s hospital in Chelsea, London, and to the German hospital at Dalston. At this time he published his first book on nutrition and diet: Common sense dietetics (London, 1911), an adaptation of which he issued a quarter of a century later entitled The belly-book or diner’s guide (London, 1936).

He became a school doctor, first in south London and then in Hampstead, and in this capacity he frequently travelled to the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and the U.S.A. In January 1912 for health reasons he accepted the post of ship’s doctor in the Ulysses, on its voyage from England to the Dutch East-Indies, where he visited Java, Sumatra and Borneo. In June 1912 he returned, resumed his work in Hampstead and wrote a manual entitled The school nurse: her duties and responsibilities (London, 1912). While in London Leipoldt studied for and obtained various diplomas in cookery. Throughout his life he was interested in the culinary art and is known for his Kos vir die kenner (Cape Town, 1933). During the war in the Balkans (1912 -13) he again acted as war correspondent, for the allies, the Bulgarians, Roumanians, Servians and Greeks in their struggle against Turkey, but as a physician he on occasion even tended wounded Turks and as a mark of gratitude the University of Constantinople conferred an honorary degree on him.

Leipoldt’s poetical talent flourished during the years that he spent overseas, but as a poet he still felt the indelible effect of the Second Anglo-Boer War. In 1910 his friend J. J. Smith helped him in London with the editing of his first volume of poems, Oom Gert vertel en ander gedigte (Cape Town, 1911). It consisted of poems which dated from 1896 and is one of the most important volumes of early Afrikaans poetry. Together with J. F. Celliers and Totius (J. D. du Toit), whose volumes of poems appeared more or less simultaneously, he became known as one of the ‘Driemanskap’. The poems included in Leipoldt’s first volume are written in a magnificent colloquial Afrikaans bearing the characteristic Afrikaans and South African stamp; the volume has also some of the finest Afrikaans war poems. The poem which also furnishes the title of the volume is a dramatic monologue and Oom Gert is regarded as the first vital character in Afrikaans literature. This volume also contains brilliant nature poems and illustrates Leipoldt’s interest in the child, both in his role as a physician and later as a foster father.

Leipoldt in his role of the child’s friend reveals himself at an early stage in his other literary works. One of his most attractive stories entitled ‘Die weeskindjie wat ‘n moeder wou hê’, appeared in 1914 in Die Brandwag.

In 1914 Leipoldt returned to South Africa, and in April of the same year he became chief medical inspector of schools in the Transvaal, the first post of its kind in South Africa. When the First World War broke out in August, Gen. Louis Botha commandeered him for service in the Department of Defence. Later on he accompanied Botha as his personal physician, but in June 1915 he resumed his duties as school medical inspector.

In the meanwhile Leipoldt continued his work as a creative artist, and in this year revealed his ability as a dramatist. His first published play, Die Laspos, a one-act play which appeared on 25 May 1919 in Die Brandwag, was followed in 1920 by his second volume of poems Dingaansdag (Pretoria, 1920) which did not attain the high standard of the first. It dealt with the Great Trek and the Afrikaner nation during the First World War and the Rebellion. In his first volume the poet had sympathised and associated himself with the suffering and fortunes of his people, but in the new volume his political sentiments had undergone a change. Shortly afterwards a third volume of poems entitled Uit drie wêrelddele was published in Cape Town in 1923, and these poems were a great improvement on those of the previous volume. Some of them were written in England and others in the East Indies. Three of the best known poems in this volume are ‘By die vlei’, ‘Die man met die helm’, and ‘Grys-blou butte’, depicting a lonely man advanced in years. In ‘Droom en doen’ Leipoldt endeavours to forget the Second Anglo-Boer War and sallies forth to meet a new future. The poet who was so indignant about the war in Oom Gert vertel en ander gedigte now sought conciliation. He also revealed a strong cosmopolitan outlook.

Leipoldt evinced a strong interest in the East, its religion, customs, inhabitants and scenery, as is illustrated by his journey to the Orient (1912) and his poems on the East Uit Drie wêrelddele and Uit my Oosterse dagboek (Cape Town, 1932). His art was permeated by his interest in the exotic, the strange and extraordinary, the supernatural, the problem of death, the here-after, and in abnormal and deviate characters. Whereas Leipoldt had always been a man of sober, sound judgement in the scientific field, in journalism and in his everyday relationship with people, in the sphere of art he tended to be swayed by emotion.

In 1916 he assisted with the medical inspection of schools in Natal and in 1919 in the Cape. As a medical inspector of schools he did much for school tours, school holiday camps and convalescent homes for ailing children. His love of teaching was not only clearly discernible in his medical work but also came to the fore in various writings, such as Praatjies met die oumense (Pretoria, 1918), in which he proffered a miscellany of advice to parents on educational, medical and other topics. In 1919 Leipoldt and Dr Anne Cleaver established a school clinic in Johannesburg, the first of its kind in South Africa, and in the following year he published Die Afrikaanse kind in siekte en gesondheid (Cape Town, 1920). Among his best-known books for children are the educational Praatjies met die kinders (Pretoria, 1920), Stories vir kinders (Cape Town, 1922) en Kampstories (Pretoria, 1923), which appeared at a time when there was comparatively little in the way of Afrikaans reading matter for children.

During the time that Leipoldt was living in Pretoria in the capacity of medical inspector of schools he was also a regular contributor to Die Brandwag . He edited the Transvaal Medical Times and published poems and popular science articles in periodicals and newspapers such as De Goede Hoop, Ons Moedertaal, Die Boervrou, Die Volkstem and Die Huisgenoot. In Pretoria he became friendly with Dr F. V. Engelenburg, the editor of De Volkstem. In 1922 Leipoldt joined the editorial staff of the newspaper and in 1923 became its assistant-editor. However, he could not agree with Gustav S. Preller who succeeded Engelenburg in 1924 and was dismissed in 1925, butLeipoldt continued to write the column ‘Oom Gert se diwigasies’ for the paper until 9 December 1931.

In the early twenties Leipoldt published his greatest dramatic work entitled Die heks (Cape Town, 1923), which he had commenced writing in English during the years 1910-11 while in London. It was rewritten in Afrikaans in 1914 prior to his return to South Africa and he continued working on it until it was published in 1923. Even today it is regarded as one of the most important Afrikaans dramatic works and established Leipoldt as one of the pioneers in this field.
In the 1924 general election he stood as a candidate for the South African Party in the Wonderboom constituency, but was defeated. In April 1925 he again moved to Cape Town to set up practice as a child specialist, and spent some of his happiest years there until his death. Leipoldt cherished a deep affection for Cape Town with its scenic beauty and historical associations with the past.

Leipoldt opened his home ‘Arbury’ in Kenilworth to underprivileged boys who resided with him as his foster children. He legally adopted one boy, Jeffrey Leipoldt. In 1928 he accompanied a group of school children on a two-month holiday tour to England.

In Cape Town Leipoldt wrote medical articles for The Cape Argus. In 1926 he became secretary of the Medical Council of South Africa and editor of the South African Medical Journal, and also acted as a part-time lecturer on children’s diseases at the University of Cape Town (1926 -39). In 1939 he became part-time secretary of the South African Medical Council, travelled throughout the country and attended congresses and meetings. In 1934 an honorary D.Litt. degree was conferred on him by the University of the Witwatersrand.

From the thirties onwards Leipoldt showed a growing interest in his literary work, and these years proved particularly rewarding for him as an artist. Die laaste aand (Cape Town, 1930) was the first Afrikaans play ever written in verse form, although he had begun working on it as early as 1915. It is one of his best works, for which together with Die heks he was awarded the Hertzog prize in 1944. Die Bergtragedie (Cape Town, 1932), a long poem on which he had begun working before 1900 (originally in English), is not of a high standard although Leipoldt considered it good. A volume of poems entitled Skoonheidstroos (Cape Town, 1932), appeared at this time and included poems written during the period 1923-32. This work was also awarded the Hertzog prize and contains a number of Leipoldt’s loveliest poems, such as ‘n Kersnaggebed’, although it never achieved the heights attained by Oom Gert vertel en ander gedigte. At the beginning of the thirties a number of less successful works appeared: Afgode (1931), Die Kwaksalwer (1931) and Onrus (1931). Apart from these dramatic works Leipoldt also published three one-act plays: Jannie (1919), ‘n Vergissing (1927) en Die byl (1950).

His prose works were chiefly a product of the thirties. The first to appear was Waar spoke speel (Cape Town, 1927); it was followed by Wat agter lê en ander verhale (Cape Town, 1930); a long psychological novel: Die donker huis (Cape Town, 1931); and a lengthy historical novel set in the period shortly after the Great Trek: Galgsalmander (Cape Town, 1932). Die moord op Muizenberg (Cape Town, 1932) is a detective novel. Die rooi rotte (Cape Town, 1932) is a book of short stories. Uit my oorsese dagboek (Cape Town, 1932) is an absorbing travel book. Die verbrande lyk (Cape Town, 1934) is another detective story. Die dwergvroutjie (Cape Town, 1937), is a psychological story and was originally written in English. Bushveld doctor (London, 1937) is a well-written autobiography. This was followed in 1939 by Die Moord in die bosveld (Cape Town, 1939). In his prose works, which consist mainly of murder and detective stories, Leipoldt’s preoccupation with the abnormal in psychology, and with the supernatural and the mysterious comes to the fore. His prose works never attain tLeipoldthe heights achieved in his plays and poetry, yet he possesses a flowing and absorbing narrative style; and although it was small, he undoubtedly had a share in the development of Afrikaans prose. During these years he also wrote stories for children: Paddastories vir die peetkind (1934), Die wonderlike klok, Die mossie wat wou ryk word (1931) en Die goue eier (1937). He also published popular science fiction for children as exemplified in As die natuur gesels (two volumes, Cape Town, 1928, 1931).

Apart from his creative work during the thirties he published a number of works such as Medicine and faith (London, 1935) and various historical works based on secondary source material: firstly, Jan van Riebeeck: a biographical study (London, 1936), of which a German translation also appeared : Holland gründet die Kapkolonie: Jan van Riebeeck Leben and Werke (Leipzig, 1937). There is also an Afrikaans version entitled Jan van Riebeeck: die grondlegger van ‘n blanke Suid-Afrika (Cape Town, 1938). Leipoldt had begun to collect the material for his biography as early as 1896. The most significant facts about the Voortrekkers were summarised by him for young people in Die groot trek (Cape Town, 1938), which coincided with the Voortrekker centenary. During the Huguenot jubilee year he also published Die Hugenote (Cape Town, 1939). After his period of office as secretary of the South African Medical Council and editor of the council’s journal had ended in 1944, he devoted himself mainly to journalism and to acquiring information for a biography on Pres. S. J. P. Kruger which he had begun in 1906 but never completed. In his poetry and plays Leipoldt also showed an interest in historical characters such as Wolraad Woltemade, Pieter Gijsbert Noodt and other figures like De Lesseps and Multatuli.

When the Second World War broke out Leipoldt favoured South African participation. He wrote sonnets on the war for The Cape Times, the Forum, Die Volkstem, en De Stoep, a Curacao newspaper.

Leipoldt died shortly after the war of a heart complaint caused by rheumatic fever which he had contracted at the age of seven. The casket containing his ashes was interred at the entrance of a cave surrounded by boulders in the rocky country of the Pakhuispas near Clanwilliam, that countryside which he had loved so deeply, a short distance from the Clanwilliam-Calvinia road near Kliphuis. It is a picturesque part of the country where he roamed as a child. After his death three volumes of his poems were published: Die moormansgat en ander verhalende en natuurverse (Cape Town, 1948); Gesëende skaduwees (Cape Town, 1949) which contained poems written during the period 1910 to 1947; and The ballad of Dick King and other poems (Cape Town, 1949), Leipoldt’s only volume of English poems. This contains verses written at the time of the Second World War and also older poems, some even dating from his youth. They appeared under the name Pheidippides, a pseudonym whichLeipoldt had used in newspapers when publishing his English poems on the Second World War.

After Leipoldt’s death, 300 years of Cape Wine (Cape Town, 1952) and Polfyntjies vir die proe (Cape Town, 1963) also appeared, compiled from particularly absorbing articles written under the pseudonym K. A. it. Bonade in Die Huisgenoot (1942-7). His valuable collection of cookery books and his manuscripts of recipes are in the S.A. Library, Cape Town.

The University of Cape Town has a valuable and comprehensive collection of Leipoldt’s letters, manuscripts and journalistic work, as well as books which he donated to the library, such as the comparatively unknown poems which he wrote for the University of Cape Town Quarterly in the thirties.

Biographical information written by Leipoldtand published in Die Huisgenoot, include ‘Clanwilliam: herinneringe aan ‘n ou dorpie’ (5 November 1926), ‘Eerste skoffies’ (1 December 1933), ‘Oor my eie werk’ (6 December 1940), ‘Jeugherinneringe’ (9 May 1947) and ‘My jubileumjaar’ (17 January 1947). His ‘Outobiografiese fragment’ appeared post-humously in Standpunte (18 December 1950). He never succeeded in carrying out his resolution to write an autobiography.

Leipoldt’s literary output constitutes only a part of his rich, versatile life, and yet it represents one of his greatest contributions to South Africa. Remarkably diverse in nature, his works include articles on popular science, journalistic work, translations, and numerous volumes of poetry, plays, novels, short stories and travel reminiscences. The quality of his work is not uniform and his poems frequently lack finish; nevertheless he is still one of the greatest Afrikaans poets and dramatists.

Leipoldt, who from childhood had received a strongly English-orientated education, enjoyed moving in English circles and during his later years spent most of his time among the English-speaking section. As a poet, although he wrote typically Afrikaans poetry and transformed the then unmoulded literary Afrikaans of the early twenties into an elevated medium for poetry, later he tended to ridicule the Afrikaner, the typically Afrikaans characteristics, and the Afrikaans language which he had employed so skillfully as a writer. He even spoke disparagingly of his war poems, describing them as a product of youthful immaturity. He had always been opposed to the Afrikaans-Calvinistic viewpoint, although he frequently employed Christian sentiments in his poems and was without difficulty able to identify himself with the aspirations of the Afrikaner. The English press devoted a good deal of space to Leipoldt in their columns at the time of his death; nevertheless, his passing was felt most keenly by the Afrikaans-speaking section and his memory remains indelibly imprinted among the Afrikaner people. There are two facets discernible in Leipoldt’s character: on the one hand his astounding versatility, his ability to contend with a number of interests simultaneously, and on the other the picture of a person of many conflicting emotions.

Although Leipoldt confessed to being lonely, he had a wide and influential circle of friends and acquaintances, including Gen. J. C. Smuts, Dr Engelenburg, Prof. P. D. Hahn, John X. Merriman, the Roman Catholic priest F. C. Kolbe, Prof. P. MacOwan, Dr Rudolph Marloth, Marcus Viljoen and Dr Harry Bolus. It was Dr. Bolus who encouraged Leipoldt’s love of nature, made him conscious of the beauty of Shakespeare’s sonnets, and provided him with financial backing when he went overseas in 1902. Abroad Leipoldt made the acquaintance of Pres. S. J. P. Kruger, Dr W. J. Leyds and Ramsay Macdonald. Leipoldt also numbered Cecil John Rhodes and a few prominent women among his acquaintances. Although he never married and on occasion made odd pronouncements about women and also wrote little love poetry, he was known for his conspicuous gallantry towards ladies and there are agreeable female characters in his poetry, in “Die heks” and in “Van Noot se laaste aand”.

In his poetry Leipoldt created an impression of strong individualism and detachedness, yet he contrived to serve his fellowmen in public life in many spheres: as a physician, as a journalist and as a lover of children.

There is a statue of Leipoldt in plaster of Paris by Florencio Cuairan in the Jagger Library of the Cape Town University, and one in bronze in the public library, Clanwilliam, and in the Medical Centre, Wale Street, Cape Town. Photographs taken at different stages in his life appear in Burgers (infra).

Source: Dictionary of South African Biography (Volume II)

Image: Cape Town Archives

Women first played cricket in South Africa as early as 1920. In that year the Peninsula Girls’ School Cricket Union was formed. Twelve years later, in 1932, the Peninsula Ladies’ Cricket Council was formed and shortly afterwards in 1934 – they affiliated to the English Women’s Cricket Association. In those days the English Women’s Cricket Association was recognised as a world body.

In view of and thanks to the early enthusiasm for cricket in the Western Province, South Africa formed its own national body in 1953, namely the South Africa & Rhodesia Women’s Cricket Association, after a few enthusiasts had revived the game in the Transvaal and an interim committee under the chairmanship of Mr. Eric Rowan had done the spadework in forming of the national body since April 14th, 1952.

As early as 1947 Transvaal formed its own provincial association. Two Transvaal teams were sent to play against Rhodesia in 1950/1951.

The formation of the provincial associations was: 1934 – Western Province; 1947 – Southern Transvaal; 1950 – Border, Eastern Province, Natal, Northern Transvaal, Griqualand, Rhodesia and Orange Free State.

Whilst cricket had previously been played by girls in schools. It was officially introduced in the Transvaal by Shirley Carroll in the 1961/1962 season and the Schoolgirls Association was formed in that year. Natal followed suit and very recently Border and Western Province have a few staunch schools playing.

The presidents of the South African & Rhodesia Women’s Cricket Association since its formation have been:

February, 1953 to January, 1955 – Miss Jo Field
January, 1955 to January, 1957 – Miss Flo Adlard
January, 1957 to March 1967 – Miss Marjorie Robison
March, 1967 – Miss Shirley Carroll

As a starting point of women’s cricket one can almost legitimately take the fourteenth century.

From the miniatures reproduced in a Picard romance “The Romance of Alexander” the margins of which were illuminated circa 1344 by one Johan de Grise one of these illustrates the ancestress of women’s cricket to be a nun holding a ball. She is faced by a monk who brandishes a club.

Women used the round arm action first in the 1820′s. Christina Willes bowled the first round arm ball. To quote: “Christina Willes was sister to John’ Willes, Kentish squire and patron of all manly sports and now of immortal memory, since his tombstone stands engraved for all to see “He was the first to introduce round-armed bowling in cricket.” In appears that while Mr. Willes, keen cricketer that he was, was convalescing from an illness, he used to induce his sister to throw a ball at him for practice in the barn of his home at Tomford, near Canterbury. She did so – with a high-handed action that avoided entanglement in the voluminous skirts of the period.

He was so struck by her success that he forthwith adopted the style himself and devoted the remainder of his cricketing days to securing its recognition. But it was an uphill battle – the effort cost him his patience and cricket one of its most devoted adherents. In a famous match at Lord’s in 1822, playing for Kent against the M.C.C. – the story has often been told – he was no-balled by Noah Mann for bowling his newfangled stuff. He threw down the ball, jumped on his horse and rode away, out of Lord’s declaring he would never play again. Nor did he, though his sister’s invention was made law six years later.

1947 – Eileen Hurly hit the first recorded century in South Africa in her first league game at the age of thirteen.
1947 – First “unofficial” provincial games played when two Southern Transvaal teams played Rhodesia in Johannesburg.
1951 – The inaugural inter-provincial game was played between Western Province and Southern Transvaal at Liesbeek Park in Cape Town.
1952/1953 – First interprovincial tournament held in Bloemfontein.
1953 – Formation of the South Africa & Rhodesia Women’s Cricket Association.
1953/1954 – First recorded inter-provincial century by Eileen Hurley – 106 not out.
1953/1954 – First recorded hattrick (a double hat-trick) by Sheila Nefdt in Cape Town for Western Province.
1958 – The South African and Rhodesia Women’s Cricket Association president, Miss Marjorie Robison took the chair of the inaugural International Women’s Cricket Council conference in Australia, she herself becoming the president of the international body in 1963.

Back Row (left to right): Barbara Cairncross, Eleanor Lambert, Yvonne van Mentz, Lorna Ward.

Back Row (left to right): Barbara Cairncross, Eleanor Lambert, Yvonne van Mentz, Lorna Ward.
Middle Row: Jean McKenzie, Pam Hollett, Jennifer Gove
Front Row: Audrey Jackson, Sheila Nefdt, Marjory Robinson (manageress), Eileen Hurly, Jean McNaughton, Joy Irwin

1960 – First bowler recorded to take all ten wickets in a provincial tournament – Doris TenCate who took ten wickets for 26 runs and also scored 148 runs.
1960 – Selection of the first Springbok team B. Cairncross, J. Cove, P. Hollett, E. Hurley, J. Irwin, A. Jackson, E. Lambert, J. McNaughton, S. Nefdt, Y. von Mentz, L. Ward (Played in all four test matches against the touring English team)

Still playing in 1970. Further “caps” for the tour were: P. Klesser, D. Wood, B. Lang and M. Payne.
1960 – First international game in Port Elizabeth against English women’s cricket team.
1960 – First cricketing double-Springbok – Jean McNaughton (also a hockey Springbok at the time).
Jan., 1961 – First South African international century by Yvonne von Mentz – 105 not out in the fourth test against England, although Eileen Hurley in the first test ran out of partners at 96 not out. Result of the English tour – Three test matches drawn and one won by England.
1968/1969 – Dutch women’s cricket team toured South Africa when England was unable to fulfil fixtures at the last moment. The Springbok team was: S. Carroll, B. Clowes, E. Cohen, S. Edwards, J. Gove, C. Gildenhuys, E. Hurley* (Captain), S. Johnson (i), P. Lankenau, L. van der Maas (2), L. Ward*, G. Williamson. (Whilst this was a full Springbok team, only half colours were awarded in view of the brevity of the tour.) (*also members of the 1960 Springbok team), ((i) – injured in the second test and replaced by (2).

Result of the Dutch tour – All test matches won outright by South Africa.

Jennifer Grove 150 not out against Netherlands in 1969

The “Simon Trophy” was presented to Southern Transvaal Association by Tilly Mary Simon to hand over to the South African Association as soon as this was formed and to be competed for at inter-provincial cricket tournaments. This trophy is competed for annually by provincial teams, as in the men’s Currie Cup, the winners of the trophy thus far being:
1952 Western Province
1953 Western Province
1954 Western Province
1955 Southern Transvaal
1956 Natal
1957 Eastern Province
1958 Southern Transvaal
1959 Southern Transvaal
1960 Natal
1961 Not presented in view of the English tour
1962 Southern Transvaal
1963 Eastern Province
1964 Natal
1965 Natal
1966 Southern Transvaal
1967 Natal
1968 Southern Transvaal
1969 Southern Transvaal
1970 Southern Transvaal

Executive 1970

CARROLL, SHIRLEY PATRICIA

Carroll Shirley Patricia

Shirley was born in Durban, the daughter of Mr. Patrick J. Carroll. She was trained overseas in physical education, but now has her own business. She belongs to the Jesters Club and when there’s time she swims, plays tennis, rides and listens to classical music and the operas. She first attained provincial colours when she represented Southern Transvaal in 1962 and Springbok colours in the 1968/69 season when she played in all tests against Holland. She represented South Africa as delegate at the International Cricket Council in New Zealand in 1969. Shirley played county cricket in England before coming to South Africa. Within the first few months of her arrival in this country she was asked to “do something” about cricket in schools as she was the one who had pointed out how important this media was for adult cricket. She accepted this challenge and as a result her brainchild, the Southern Transvaal Schoolgirls Association, was formed in 1961; and by 1970 eleven schools were competing a league. In 1962 she was elected to the Southern Transvaal executive committee and in 1964 became chairman of the association.

The year 1967 saw her elected as president of the South Africa and Rhodesian Women’s Cricket Association and she was instrumental in bringing the Dutch Women’s Touring Team to South Africa. In 1970 she visited England for an important meeting with the English Women’s Cricket Association.

LINTON-WALLS, PAMELA RUTH

Pamela Ruth Linton Walls

Pamela is now in her third two-year term of office as the secretary of the South Africa and Rhodesia Women’s Cricket Association. Before 1967 she acted as secretary of the Southern Transvaal Women’s Cricket Association. She was born on the 3rd February, 1938 in Plumstead, Cape Town, and is the daughter of Mr. Leonard Linton-Walls. She attended the Central High School, Krugersdorp, and is at present secretary to a managing director. She is a founder member of the Jesters Women’s Cricket Club and also played hockey. She attained provincial colours when she was included in the Transvaal “B” Cricket Team. She acted as Manager/Liaison Officer during the tour of S.A. by the Dutch Women’s Cricket team in 1968. Pamela resides at 18 Paul Kruger Drive, Monument Extension, Krugersdorp.

HURLY, EILEEN MARY ANN

Eileen Mary Ann Hurly

Eileen, the daughter of James William Hurly, was born on the 6th May, 1934, at Benoni. She attended the Dominican Convent, Benoni, and is today an insurance broker. She has devoted many years to cricket. Not only has she attained 105 provincial caps and seven Springbok caps, and still playing, but served eight years on the Transvaal executive committee – five years as treasurer, two years as vice-chairman and one year as chairman. She was appointed a life member of the Southern Transvaal Association in 1968. She has devoted eight years service to the national body, the South African and Rhodesian Women’s Cricket Association first as treasurer and in 1969 she was appointed vice-chairman. Eileen captained South Africa in the 1968 series. In gratitude for her unselfish and devoted service to the game she loves and plays so well, she has also been appointed an honorary life member of the national body. She belongs to the Johannesburg Municipal Sports Club and is a top order batsman and fielder. She first attained provincial colours in 1947 when she represented Southern Transvaal. She won her Springbok colours in the 1960/61 season against England and the 1968/69 series against Holland . Her brother, Charlie, is a Springbok soccer player. Eileen resides at 16 Durham Street, Benoni.
ROBISON, MARJORY RUTH
Marjory was born on the 1st October, 1918, in Galle, Ceylon, and is the daughter of Mr. Lionel McD. Robison. She attended the Collegiate Girls’ School in Port Elizabeth and the London University where she obtained a diploma and is at present a manager/administrating assistant. She was manager of the Women’s Cricket Team in the 1960/61 season. She was also the chairman of the Southern Transvaal Women’s Cricket Association for ten years and the president of the South Africa and Rhodesia Women’s Cricket Association for the same number of years. She was the vice-president of the International Women’s Cricket Association for two years and the president of the association for two years. Her home address is 135 Harrogate, Tyrwhitt Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg.

Springboks 1968 – 1970

CLOWES, BARBARA LYNN
Barbara is an opening bat and first obtained her provincial colours when she represented Natal in the 1965/66 season. She was chosen for the South African Cricket XI in 1968. Barbara was born on the 27th August, 1942, and is the daughter of Mr. George D. Clowes. She attended the Wykeham Girls’ High School in Pietermaritzburg and is a clerk. Her hobbies include tennis, swimming, reading and knitting, and she resides at 1 Meleman Place, Blackridge, Pietermaritzburg.

COHEN, EDA

Eda Cohen

Eda is an all round sportswoman who has achieved a great deal in her 22 years. She attained provincial colours for three sports and won Springbok colours for two. In 1964 and from 1966 to 1969 she played American Basketball for Southern Transvaal; from 1967 to 1969, cricket and in the years 1968 and 1969 she also represented Southern Transvaal at hockey. She was first chosen to represent South Africa at American basketball in 1967 and was included in the Springbok team in 1968 and 1969. She won her national colours at women’s cricket in 1968 and also represented her country in 1969. Apart from all these activities she still finds time to listen to music and read. Eda was born on the 28th of September, 1948, in Johannesburg, and is the daughter of Harry Cohen. She attended King David School, Linksfield, and studied at the Johannesburg College of Education where she obtained her teacher’s diploma. She is a teacher. She is a member of the Wanderers Club and resides at 306 Crestview, 42 Alexandra Street, Berea , Johannesburg.
EDWARDS, SALLY ELLEN

Sally Ellen Edwards

Sally was born in Pretoria on the 8th August, 1946, and is the daughter of Mr. Ronald A. Edwards. She was educated at the Pretoria Girls’ High School and subsequently obtained the Transvaal Teachers’ Diploma at the Johannesburg College of Education. Sally is fond of music, plays the piano and guitar and reads a great deal when she can find the time. She is a member of the Old Girls’ Hockey Club, Pretoria , and the J.C.E. Cricket Club in Johannesburg. While still at school she played in the Northern Transvaal Schools Hockey Team. In 1966, ‘67 and ‘68 she represented Southern Transvaal’s women’s cricket team and won her Springbok colours at women’s cricket in 1968 when she represented South Africa against the Netherlands. Sally inherits her love of sport from her father, who captained the North-Eastern Transvaal Cricket and Hockey teams. Her brother, Neill, plays hockey for Southern Transvaal. Sally resides at 80 Eeufees Avenue, Nigel.
GILDENHUYS, CAROLE ANNE

Carole Anne Gildenhuys

Carole was born in Port Elizabeth on the 19th November, 1943, the daughter of Mr. Frederick Gildenhuys. She attended Florida Park High School and after matriculating obtained her diploma at the Johannesburg College of Education. She is at present a lecturer in physical education – and her hobbies are reading and music. She belongs to the Wanderer Hockey Club and the Collegians Cricket Club. She attained her provincial colours when she represented Southern Transvaal at cricket in 1963 and her Springbok colours when she was included in the South African XI in 1968. She also played hockey for Southern Transvaal in 1968. Carole resides at 31 Barnard Street, Ontdekkers Park, Florida.

GOVE, JENNIFER ANNE
Jennifer is a keen sportswoman and has attained provincial colours for no less than three sports. This leaves her very little spare time, but she still finds time to swim, cook and listen to music. She was born on the 28th of July, 1940, in Durban and is the daughter of Mr. Donavan Ross. She attended Northlands Girls’ High and is at present a cash machine operator. She attained her provincial colours for hockey and cricket. representing Natal in 1959, and for squash in 1964. She won Springbok colours at cricket in 1961 and represented South Africa against the Netherlands in 1968. Jennifer’s twin sister also plays hockey and cricket. Her home address is 1 Brynderyn, Hime Road, Durban.
JOHNSON, SHIRLEY-ANNE

Shirley-Anne Johnson

Shirley was born in Port Elizabeth on the 2nd February, 1938, and is the daughter of H. A. Symonds. She attended the Girls High School in Queenstown and is at present a credit controller. Shirley is fond of music and sport. She played hockey for Natal in 1960 and in 1962 and 1965 she represented the Free State. She also dived for the Griqualand West Schools in 1954. In 1959 she played cricket for the Border, in 1960 for Natal and in 1963 for the Free State. She represented the Transvaal in 1964, 1967 and 1969 and was a member of the Springbok team that played against the Netherlands in 1968. Her address is 15 Radoma Court, Cavendish Road, Bellevue, Johannesburg.
LANKENAU, PATRICIA

Patricia Lakenau

Patricia hails from Grimsby, England. She was born on the 2nd August, 1942, and is the daughter of Mr. James Lankenau. She matriculated at the Rosebank Convent and studied at the Johannesburg Teachers’ Training College. She teaches physical education. Only months after she gained her first provincial cap for Transvaal , Patricia was selected to represent her country in 1968. Apart from cricket she also represented Souther Transvaal at netball from 1962 to 1965. She is a an all round sportswoman, who in addition to the above mentioned, plays badminton, table tennis, tennis and hockey. Her address is Redhill School, P.O. Sandown, Johannesburg.
VAN DER MAAS, LYNN LILLIAN

Lynn Lilian van der Maas

Lynn was first included in a Southern Transvaal Women’s Cricket XI in the 1963-64 season. She won her Springbok colours in January, 1969. She was born in Johannesburg on the 8th June, 1945, the daughter of Mr. J. C. D. van der Maas. She went to school at Forest High and after matriculation attended the Witwatersrand Technical College to prepare herself for a business career. She is at present a secretary. Apart from her interest in sport she likes to listen to records and reads a lot. She is a member of the Johannesburg Municipals Club and resides at 14 Minerva Avenue, Glendower, Edenvale, Transvaal.

WARD, LORNA GRACE
Lorna was born in ” Port Elizabeth on the 3rd June, 1938, and is the daughter of Mr. A. G. Ward. She is a statistical analyst and her hobbies include sculpting, gardening, and pottering around backstage at the theatre. She has represented Eastern Province, Natal, Southern Transvaal and South Africa at cricket. She is an opening bowler and first won her Springbok colours in the 1960/61 season and represented South Africa against the Netherlands in 1968. Dogs are Lorna’s favourite pets and she has a golden Labrador and a black and white Cocker Spaniel. Lorna lives at 27 22nd Street, Parkhurst, Johannesburg.

WILLIAMSON, GLORIA

Gloria Williamson

Gloria was born on the 7th December, 1938, at Roodepoort, and is the daughter of Mr. Herman “Menna” Williamson. She attended the Florida Park High School and continued her studies at the Johannesburg College of Education and is pre sently a teacher. Apart from sport she finds pleasure in black and white sketching. She attained her Transvaal colours for swimming in 1958 and her Southern Transvaal colours for gymnastics in 1959 and cricket in 1960. She became a member of the Southern Transvaal “A” cricket team in 1962. She was chosen to represent South Africa at cricket in December, 1968. Gloria hails from a sporting family. Her father played soccer for Northern Rhodesia and hockey for Witwatersrand. Her cousin, Reggie Marchant, represented Northern Transvaal at athletics, and her cousin, George Fraser, is a Western Province schools’ boxer and gymnast. Gloria resides at 44 Cahn Street, Roodepoort.
LIST OF SPRINGBOKS 1960-1970
1960 – English team that toured South Africa: Eleanor Lambert, Pat Klesser, Delcie Wood, Eileen Hurly, Yvonne von Mentz, Barbara Cairncross, Pamela Hollett, Jean McNaughton, Jennifer Gove, Joy Irwin, Lorna Ward, Maureen Payne, Audrey Jackson, Beverley Lang, Sheila Nefdt.
1968 – Springbokspan teen Nederland/Springbok team against Holland: Shirley Carroll, Barbara Clowes, Eda Cohen, Sally Edwards, Carole Gildenhuys, Jennifer Gove, Eileen Hurly, Shirley Johnson, Patricia Lankenau, Lynn van der Maas, Lorna Ward, Gloria Williamson.

Sports Personalities South Africa 1971. Published by Perskor
Die Burger

The term Huguenots is used nowhere in contemporary Cape sources for the French immigrants who settled in South Africa toward the end of the 18th century; in all official documents they are referred to as the French Refugees. Before the Edict of Nantes was repealed by Louis XIV on 17 October 1685 many Protestants had already left France. It is estimated that between 75 000 and 100 000 entered the Netherlands either to settle there or in transit to other Protestant countries. Even at the beginning of the 17th century some had chosen to live among people of their own religion and to leave predominantly Roman Catholic France.

After the visits of Rijckloff van Goens and Hendrik Adriaan van Reede to the Cape, it was decided to encourage the development of agriculture. On 3 October 1685 the Directors of the Dutch East India Company resolved to send free burghers to the Cape. Before this time only Company officials had been sent out, who became free burghers if they decided to remain. It was also decided that among these colonists French refugees of the Reformed religion could be included. Preference would be given to persons with some knowledge of viticulture and the making of brandy, and it was emphasised that they should be honest people who would then be considered Netherlanders.

The first invitation to go to the Cape went practically unheeded, but in October 1687 the Directors of the Company again decided to give the French an opportunity to go, with the promise that they could return to Europe after five years, and not, as had previously been stipulated, after fifteen years. Dutch free burghers were not released, however, from their obligatory stay of fifteen years. The French were also promised that one of their own ministers of religion would accompany them.

The first group of French arrived at Saldanha Bay in the Voorschooten in April 1688. Among them were Charles Marais and Philip Fouche and their families. The Oosterland arrived in Table Bay in the same month and brought the family of Jacques de Savoye, the Nortiers and the Taillefer(t)s. In the Borssenburg, which arrived on 12 May, were a group of Piedmontese. The Schelde, which brought the family Des Pres (Du Pre, Du Preez), cast anchor in Table Bay in June. The largest group left Rotterdam in the Berg China on 20 March and arrived on 4th August, but of the 34 passengers more than half did not survive the voyage. The Zuid Beveland, which arrived on 19th August, brought the minister, Pierre Simond. He helped Commander Simon van der Stel to establish the French on their small farms and on 17th October at Stellenbosch he delivered the first French sermon. He was himself given a farm between Stellenbosch and Drakenstein and a horse on which to visit his flock.

New Testament in French and Dutch 1672

During 1689 further small groups of refugees arrived, amongst others in ‘t Wapen van Alkmaar (on 27 January); and on 6th May the brothers Pierre, Abraham and Jacob de Villiers from La Rochelle arrived in the Zion, having been sent because of their knowledge of viticulture. During the nineties ten more men and women arrived in the Vosmaer, while the Driebergen in 1698 and the Donkervliet and Westhoven in 1699 brought another handful of refugees.

Those arriving at the Cape before 1688 and after 1699 did not come in groups. In any case all officially supported immigration ceased after 1707 when W.A. van der Stel was dismissed. The number of French refugees cannot be precisely stated, since a number of ships’ lists are missing and it cannot always be established with certainty how many died during the long voyage. The lowest figure appearing in the sources is 155, Theal gives a list of 176, and others assert that about 200 French arrived at the Cape. Their proportion to the rest of the White population at the time is put at17 % by H. T. Colenbrander, and by D. B. Bosman at 15 %.

The reception of the French was very cordial. Simon van der Stel expressed his joy at their arrival. He observed that those who had come in the Schelde outdid the others in merit and eagerness to help. He praised the Flemish merchant Jacques de Savoye for his knowledge and industry, and since he had full command of both languages appointed him as heemraad. Since most of the French had no money or possessions, a considerable voluntary collection in money and stock was contributed by officials and burghers, and Van der Stel in a letter to Batavia dated 22 April 1689 asked that a collection toward the support of these poor people should be made at Batavia. The church relief board immediately obliged and sent 18 000 guilders, the contents of the poor-box on the island of Formosa, which the Company had lost in 1682. This money was distributed in April 16 by the Rev. Simond and the council of the French congregation according to need.
In spite of this assistance the first years were diffcult. The first winter and spring were cold and wet. Some complained about the quality of the farms which they had been given. Van der Stel did his best to satisfy them, but in the journal of 24 October 1688 he had it recorded that he had already had much trouble with the French free burghers, and that it would appear that these people were not at all as industrious as one had expected of them.
The holdings which Van der Stel had granted the French were interspersed among those of the Dutch free burghers, especially along the Berg River, but also at the foot of Simonsberg, Paarlberg and Diamantberg. The area formerly known as Olifantshoek now received the name of `De Fransche Hoek’ (the French Corner). Simond preached in Stellenbosch and Drakenstein on alternate Sundays, and in November 1688 Paul Roux was appointed as reader and schoolmaster in the French language at a salary of 15 guilders per month.

Sarel Arnoldus Cilliers - Direct descendant of French Huguenot: Josué Cellier

The French were however, not satisfied with their minister’s seat on the church council of Stellenbosch and the consistory of the Cape, but wanted their own church council. They delegated Simond with a deputation of four – Jacob (Jacques) de Savoye, Daniel de Ruelle, Abraham de Villiers and Louis Cordier – to put their request to the Council of Policy on 28 November 1689. Van der Stel was very indignant, and he and the Council refused the request. The Directors, however, discussed it at their meeting on 6 December 1690 and granted permission for the election of a French church council in Drakenstein. The explicit policy was, however, to scatter the French among the Dutch free burghers and to teach their children French as well as Dutch.

The first council of the French congregation was established on 30 December 1691. Claude Marais, Louis de Berault and Louis Cordier were chosen as elders, and Abraham de Villiers, Pierre Meyer, Pierre Beneset and Pierre Rousseau as deacons. In the beginning the French congregation of Drakenstein assembled in the house of one of the free burghers; later a shed was built, which collapsed in 1718. The congregation was then already engaged in drawing up plans for a new church, of which the first stone was laid on 6 September 1718. This building was consecrated in June 1720.
The complete disappearance of the French language can be ascribed to various causes. In the first place many of the French were already quite familiar with Dutch when they arrived at the Cape, and there were some families who had lived in the Netherlands for years. Among these were the Nels, who had lived at Utrecht since 1644, and the Du Toits who had lived at Leyden since 1605. The Malans (from 1625), the Jouberts (from 1645), and the Mesnards (from 1638, later called Minnaar), had also lived at Leyden, and the Malherbes (from 1618) had lived at Dordrecht. Secondly, there were among the French free burghers many young people and children, who quickly learnt the language of their new neighbours and fellow countrymen. Thirdly, the authorities did not encourage the use of French. Although until 1697 some proclamations still appeared in French as well, and although the French often wrote their letters to the authorities in French, the church council of Drakenstein was asked in 1709 to write no more letters to the Government in the French language. The departure of their own minister in 1702 also hastened the disappearance of French. Although the Company saw to it that Simond’s successor, the Rev. Henricus Beck, who arrived on the Reijgersdael in April 1702, could speak and understand French, in their letter dated 20 September 1701 to the Governor and Council of Policy they wrote that Beck was not to preach in that language `but only through visits, admonition and consolation to serve the aged colonists who do not know our language, so that French would in due course die out as if banned from use.’ At school no more instruction was to be given in French.
The new governor, W. A. van der Stel, did not interpret this letter from the Directors as prohibiting the use of French in the church, for the Rev. Beck was allowed to preach in French on alternate weeks. Paul Roux also read sermons in French and taught in French. When he died in 1723 there were still about 25 old persons who could understand no other language. Sermons in French became progressively rarer, and it can be said that the French language had died out by the time the second generation had grown up.
Much has been written about the influence of the French free burghers on their adopted country and the people. Since such influences cannot be measured with accuracy, such evaluations are necessarily subjective. According to Simon van der Stel, their influence on the development of viticulture and agriculture was small. After their arrival there was certainly an increase in quantity, but the quality did not improve appreciably. It is even more difficult to determine the French influence on the South African national character. Possibly a certain light-heartedness and quickness of wit may be attributed to the French infusion. The darker Latin type among Afrikaners may also be ascribed to French blood. The French and the already established Dutch and German colonists evinced the same love of freedom, the same independence and the same sense of justice. The influence of Calvinism left an unmistakable imprint on both population groups, so that as early as the beginning of the 18th century a sense of unity developed in the burghers’ struggle against Governor W. A. van der Stel.

Besides the new surnames which the French brought, many of the interesting names which they gave to their farms have been preserved, such as La Terre de Luc, La Dauphine, La Provence, Cabriere, Champagne and Non Pareille – names which still adorn the elegant gables and white gates of old Cape farms, where the architectural style and traditions which they developed along with their Dutch and German compatriots, and to which English influences later contributed, have been preserved.

Source: SESA (Standard Encyclopedia of Southern Africa)