Kmdt. Johannes Hermanus "Hans" Pyper

• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Jan 1 2016, 19:38:58 UTC

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Commandant Hans Pyper, an officer in the Philippolis Commando of the Boer forces during the Anglo-Boer War, started out as a Field-Cornet and, with a small band of skilled Boers embarked on guerrilla attacks in the Cape Colony to divert attention away from the Boer Republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. In this endeavour, he and his brother Schalk, also initially a Field-Cornet and promoted to Commandant at about the same time as Hans, worked hand-in-hand, each with his own Commando.

It is known that Hans and his Commando went to Paardeberg where Genl Piet Cronjé's forces had been besieged on the hill ("berg" or "mountain" is rather an ostentatious exaggeration for what is essentially only a hill). After the battle in February 1900, Cronjé and some 3 600 men were taken prisoner and banished to POW camps on the island of St Helena, where they spent the remaining years of the war.

D.N.: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9LW-P9H4-T?cc=304...

For many decades, even Hans' direct descendants were under the impression that he had been taken prisoner alongside Cronjé's soldiers. However, no camp record clearly lists his name, and it is fair to assume that the misconception was given more thrust by the presence of another POW, also named Johannes Hermanus Pyper, who was a common soldier (not an officer), and who hailed from Krugersdorp in the Transvaal (not Philippolis in the Free State). A letter written by Genl Malan, appended by Genl Hugo, addressed to the Commandants Pyper jointly (therefore Hans and Schalk) dated 7 February 1902 has proven decisively that Hans and Schalk were very much still fighting in the north-eastern Cape on that date. According to R.J. Constantine, Cmdt Hans Pyper had first entered the region on 4 June 1901 under command of Genl Kritzinger, and again on 14 August that year under Genl Van Reenen. Subsequent activities there and elsewhere have also been reported.

-- Many thanks to Mr Johan van Zyl, manager of the War Museum of the Boer Republics in Bloemfontein, who kindly supplied me with a photo of both Cmdt Hans and Cmdt Schalk Pyper, and encouraged me to ascertain whether the Pypers had ever been captured. Without Johan's encouragement and help, I would never have known what my great-grandfather had looked like, and would have remained ignorant that these two were in fact Bittereinders. Please visit http://www.wmbr.org.za/ for a similar positive experience.