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18 January 1902
Commandant Gideon Scheepers, Boer scout and commanding officer during the Second Anglo-Boer War (South African War) was executed by a firing squad beside an open grave in the veld near Graaff-Reinet. He was captured in October 1901 by a British column and found guilty by a British military court on charges of murder, arson and demolishing of trains. Scheepers admitted during his trial that he had committed acts of arson, but claimed that he had acted at all times on the orders of his superior officers. He was buried at the place of execution. However, that same night his body was apparently exhumed by British troops and reburied at an unknown spot because of fear that his commando would attempt to recover it. Efforts to trace his grave and approaches to the British authorities to reveal its location was unsuccessful. His execution caused an outcry in South Africa and abroad. Protests were made in the British Parliament and the United States of America, as he was not treated in accordance to the Geneva Convention. There was also a serious doubt as to whether a British military court was competent to pass a sentence of death on a prisoner of war while the war was still raging. His achievements in the war were adequate to ensure that his memory would endure, but the manner of his death elevated him to the rank of martyr.
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A particularly revolting incident happened in the execution of the three who were shot. This was, that the firing parties were a body of ten men, five with ball, and five with blank cartridges. After the word “present,” which brings the rifle to the shoulder, one of them “‘pulled off” before the command “fire” was given, and the bullet blew off the top of one man’s head.
-British guard Wilfrid H. Harrison in his Memoirs of a Socialist in South Africa
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On 13 June Scheepers had entered Murraysburg unopposed and replenished his supplies, leaving on the 14th. For a time he remained in the Camdeboo and Koudeveld Mountains. He liked the area, finding it, with its many kloofs which made direct British attacks impossible, a convenient and relatively safe place to rest his men and horses. There were also many Afrikaner farmers in that area who gave him their full support although there were also a number of pro-British ones who revealed his movements to the British troops. Some of these loyalist farmers were caught by his commandos and beaten with sjamboks while a number of farmhouses were burnt down and destroyed. On 6 July Scheepers made another raid on Murraysburg (which was mockingly renamed Scheepersburg) and overwhelmed the town guard. There he burnt down the public buildings as well as some houses of loyalists. His commando also stopped at Vleiplaats, the farm of the local MP, A J Herholdt, where they burnt down the homestead. During July 1901 Cmdts Scheepers and Schalk Pypers had made their base in the most rugged part of the Camdeboo Mountains. One camp was on the farm Langfontein and the other on Middelplaas. (It was known from an intercepted letter that Scheepers at this stage had 240 men with him, of whom 40 were Free Staters, the rest being Cape rebels.) Frequent raids were being made from these two camps by small Boer patrols on the neighbouring farmers whom they compelled to bring wagonloads of grain and lucerne to the laagers. When the military authorities were informed of these activities they organized a big drive. On 14 July Gen French ordered four columns under Sir Charles P Crewe, G Wyndham, Col Beauchamp Doran and Scobell into the Camdeboo Mountains to try to trap Scheepers. Scheepers was, however, able to escape with the bulk of his commando up the steep sides of a small kloof. Only 28 of his men were captured of whom 8 were later executed. A further 6 OFS men were sent to POW camps while the remaining 14 captured rebels were sentenced to imprisonment.(16)
Those who were part of Izak Liebenberg party who were caught and subsequently executed:
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- # * Petrus Jacobus Fourie, 40 years old. In court 30 Jul. Sentenced 17 Aug. Executed at Graaff-Reinet 19 August 1901.
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- * # Jan van Rensburg, 22 years old. In court 30 Jul. Sentenced 17 Aug. Executed at Graaff-Reinet 19 August 1901.
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- * # Lodewyk Francois Stephanus Pheiffer. In court 30 Jul. Sentenced 17 Aug. Executed at Graaff-Reinet 19 August 1901.
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- * # Ignatius W Nel, 17 years old. Sentenced 26 August, Graaff-Reinet. Executed at Graaff-Reinet 26 August 1901.
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- * # Daniel F Olwagen, 18 yearsl old. Sentenced 26 August, Graaff-Reinet. Executed at Graaff-Reinet 26 August 1901.
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- * # Hendrik Petrus van Vuuren, 27 years old. In court 5 Aug. Sentenced 3 Sept Graaff-Reinet. Executed at Colesberg 4 September 1901.
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- * # Fredrick Toy. In court 5 August. Sentenced 3 Sept. Executed at Colesberg 4 September 1901.
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- * # Hendrik Veenstra, 22 years old. In court 5 Aug. Sentenced 3 Sept. Executed at Colesberg 4 Sept 1901.
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- * # Izaak Bartholomeus Liebenberg, 18 years old. Executed at Aliwal North 11 January 1902
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(Boers executed in Graaff-Reinet: 19.8.1901 - P J Fourie, J B L van Rensburg, L F S Pheiffer; 26.8.1901 - D F Olwagen, J W Nel; 7.10.1901 - J H Roux; 18.1.1902 - Cmdt Gideon Scheepers; 14.2.1902 - J F Geldenhuis.)
Eight of these people were executed as rebels over the ensuing weeks, with the aid of Jan Momberg, one of their erstwhile mates who turned Crown’s evidence against them to save his own life.
After Fourie, van Rensburg and Pfeiffer were shot on Aug. 19, Ignatius Nel and Daniel Olwagen — both teenagers — died at Graaff-Reinet on August 26; and, Hendrik van Vuuren, Fredrick Toy and Hendrik Veenstra were shot at Colesberg on September 4.
Though the British made an effort to obscure the final resting-places of these potential martyr figures, their graves were located. Fourie, van Rensburg and Pfeiffer, along with Ignatius Nel and Daniel Olwagen, are among the men subsequently exhumed and placed in a collective grave. A monument in Graaff-Reinet honors these and three other guerrillas executed there … one of whom is Gideon Scheepers himself, who was captured in October of 1901 and executed the following January. .
Jan D Momberg was sentenced to death but then he turned crown witness to save his own life.
Source:H.J.C. Pieterse, "Oorlogsavonture van Genl. Wynand Malan", (Nasionale pers, 1941)
PJ van Eck (1), D Olewage (2), GJ Esterhuizen (3), F Toy (4), FS Pfeiffer (5), J Rensburg (6), CH Kocks (7), I Nel (8), L Esterhuizen (9), J Erasmus (10) , BJ Pienaar (11), JD Momberg (12), Izak Liebenberg (13), F Gouws (14), H Feenstra (15), CJ Kemp (16), M du Preez (17), G Erasmus (18), G Strydsman (19), P Fourie (20), JP Hough (21). Photo, KAB, AG Collection, Ref AG2462 ____________________________
http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol073vm.html
https://www.oocities.org/athens/rhodes/1266/historical-rebel.htm