Henry Broadley Cockcroft

COCKCROFT, HENRY BRADLEY. EGGENOTES MAGDALENA CORNELIA HATTINGH EN ANNIE MARGARET (GEBORE VILJOEN). Identifier: VAB MHG_0_21066_1 Start Date: 1928

Henry Broadley Cockcroft farmed at "Duringfontein" (Doringfontein?), Dordrecht district. Apparently he supported the Boer side in the Anglo Boer war, and this led to friction with other members of the family. Their will dated 20.11.1901 records their address as Arcadia, Klip River, Natal and was witnessed by his brother Mark Baillie Cockcroft, farmer of Ladysmith and nephew Gordon Powell Cockcroft, farmer of Ladysmith. After the war he spent the rest of his life in the Orange Free State. H.B.Cockcroft's Death Notice records his nationality as "Afrikaner".

There were two or three Cockcroft families who thought of themselves as Afrikaners and who fought for the Boer republics. Other Cockcroft families, particularly those in the Cape where there was little or no conflict, took no active side and as farmers would provision whoever called without a thought whether the traveller was Afrikaner or Khaki or Rooinek.