During the Anglo Boer war those people who lived in the Cape Colony were British subjects. There was a great amount of sympathy amongst the Dutch speaking farmers in the Cape with their kinsmen in the two Boer republics who were fighting a war with the British empire. The Dutch-speaking Cape residents often had family ties to the Boers.

The Second Anglo-Boer War had no sooner commenced with the ultimatum of the Transvaal Republic on 9 October 1899, than Mr Schreiner found himself called upon to deal with the conduct of Cape rebels. The rebels joined the invading forces of President Steyn, whose false assurances Mr Schreiner had offered to an indignant House of Assembly only a few weeks before. The war on the part of the Republics was evidently not to be merely one of self-defence. It was one of aggression and aggrandisement.

There have always been people who were not Boers, but cared for the Boers and their cause.The influx of foreigners into the country, was not just limited to a couple of naughty Brits and Irish that didn't like what they saw happening to the Boers in South Africa. An influx of a mixture of foreigners began simultaneously with the war, and it continued thereafter at the rate of about four hundred men a month. These volunteers came for a number of reasons, not necessarily only because of sympathy with the Boer cause, they included soldiers-of-fortune, professional soldiers and adventurers.

None of the foreigners who served in the Boer army received any compensation. They were supplied with horses and equipment, at a cost to the Boer Governments and they received food, but no wages. Before a foreign volunteer was allowed to join a commando, and before he received his equipment, he was obliged to take an oath of allegiance to the Republic.

Those persons who lived in the Cape Colony and were caught fighting on the Boer's side, faced a trial of treason and many were executed by the British military courts .

There is much documented evidence to glorify the names of those Cape people who paid the ultimate price for their allegence to their brothers in the TVL and OFS Republics and the Boer cause, and let us not forget them.!

Jump Back to:

• WELKOM CUZZINS: Geni SA Projects' Main Site Index & Help Page

See Also Related Geni Project Pages:

• Petrus Johannes de Villiers Boeregeneraal. 1853-1944