Deliana Cloete

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Birth name: Christina Deliana "Line" van Warmelo

Lifespan: 1870 Wynberg - 1955

Family: Daughter of Ds. N.J. van Warmelo and Maria Magdalena Elizabeth Maré. Siblings: Dietlof, Willem,Fritz, and Johanna van Warmelo. Her cousin was the well-known Dutch writer and psychiatrist, Frederik van Eeden. Her grandfather (on her mother's side) was landdros Dietlof Maré.

Deliana (c.1889)²

Deliana with her son-in-law, Charles Southey (c. early 1930s?)²

She married Hendrik (Henry) Arthur Cloete (1845/1851 Wynberg - 1920) in 1893 in Heidelberg (Transvaal). He was a prominent Pretoria advocate, procurator, and later British sub-agent. He was 20-25 years her senior and came from the well-known Cloete family of Constantia. He was awarded the CMG (Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George).

Short biography of Henry Cloete (1905).³

They had at least four daughters. Their second daughter became Lady Reniera van Oosterzee (Cloete) (1896-1950), later Dame Reniera Stanley, after she married British colonial administrator, Sir Herbert James Stanley.

Deliana on her wedding day (1893)²

They initially lived in Pretoria, then in 1897, moved to the historic Alphen Estate in Constantia, Cape Town.

She played a critical role in the Boer secret service during the Anglo-Boer War. Because of her husband's high social standing, she often hosted elite British officers like Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener. She would listen to their conversations and smuggle intelligence to her sister Johanna in Pretoria using invisible ink made from lemon juice.

After Deliana's daughter, Henrietta Deliana Cloete, married Charles Southey in 1919⁴, she left the comfort of Alphen to to live with him on his ostrich farm in the Karoo.²

Charles Southey's Karoo ostrich farm. n.d.²

Sources

  1. Van der Merwe, M.E. (2016) 'n Historiese perspektief oor die kontroversiele lewe van Johanna Brandt. (thesis)
  2. The Story of a Misplaced South African.
  3. Wills, W.H. et al. (1905) Anglo-African Who's Who.
  4. Charles Reginald Southey

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