Ds. Gottlieb Wilhelm Antonie van der Lingen

Gottlieb Wilhelm Antonie VAN DER LINGEN is aangestel as NGK Dominee op 5 Julie 1831 in die Paarl. Stigter van die skool, Paarlse Gimnasium in 1857.

N.G. Church minister, and church leader. He may have been the best read Afrikaaner in the Colony at the time, with over 4000 volumes in his study. Also well noted for his ability to debate. Gottlieb was also a strong campaigner for Christian National Education in the Cape. He is the only child of his father Aart Anthonij van der Lingen & Agatha van der Schijff. He grew up on the Eastern Cape Frontier where his father was a missionary. Gottlieb W. Buckner a surgeon, and his wife, his mother's foster parents looked after him. Gottlieb studied mathematics, grammer & other subjects in Cape Town & Grahamstown. He left Cape Colony in 1818 with his parents, his father suffering poor health, moving back to Harmelen in Holland. Here he attended Hieronymus Grammer School, in Utrecht, where he passed with distinction. He studied Grammer & Philosophy. He obtained a degree, He decided to become a minister in around 1827.

van der L was inducted as a minister in Paarl N.G. Church in 1832. he marries Elizabeth Johanna Frederika Vos - 18 June 1832 in Cape Town. Together they have 16 children. He is survived by x 2 sons & 5 daughters. Both sons become prominent N.G. church ministers. Sons : Aart Anthonij van der Lingen * 22 September 1845 - +13 June 1917 Gottlieb Wilhelm Bruckner van der Lingen * 09 September 1852 - +21 December 1914

In 1858 he founded the Gymnasium in Paarl. Today the high school Gymnasium, in Paarl, is named after his school. Focus here was Dutch Afrikaans Grammar, and theology, preparing students for the ministry. Gymnasium soon developed to a church school with Dutch as language, similar to the training schools in Holland. Two important figures to emerge here were Arnoldus Pannevis, a prominent grammar and theological teacher # one of the founders of Eerste Afrikaanse Taalbeweging; & Rev. S.J. du Toit, a minister in the church. # around whom all activities constantly reflected his great conservative Dutch concept of Religion on a Reformed basis.

Van der L. served as a minister for 38 years, after retirement he often retired to his study where he continued his theological and philology studies. He died in his parsonage in 1869, and instructions were that no service oration take place, so around 2000 persons sang hymns.

• * Dictionary of South African Biography VOL. l 1968 - 1974, page 812 - 814, Cullen Library, Wits University.