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Full name: Captain / Commandant Daniël Johannes Stephanus Theron Lifespan: 1872 Tulbagh - 1900 Fochville [28] Occupation: Military officer, teacher, lawyer. Danie Theron³ Danie Theron was a legendary Boer Army military officer, master scout, and guerrilla leader during the Second Anglo-Boer War. He is remembered for his bravery, his mastery of reconnaissance, and for pioneering the use of bicycles in warfare. The British Commander-in-Chief, Lord Roberts, famously referred to him as "the hardest thorn in the flesh of the British advance" and put a £1,000 bounty on his head (dead or alive). Through his daring visit to Gen. Cronje, when the latter was surrounded by an overwhelming force at Paardeberg, he became widely known. With his T.V.K., he covered the rear guard of Gen. de Wet’s trek to Waterberg and subsequently returned to the Free State, after which he operated successfully against the enemy's lines of communication on both sides of the Vaal River and in the wester...

Built: 1903 Architect: Karl Heyne Location:  Fatima Bhayat St (Kerk St), Rustenburg. Aerial view showing Derdepoort Monument in front of church. Image source: NG Moedergemeente Rustenburg on FB. Timeline The Reformed (Hervormde) and Dutch Reformed (NG) Church in the old Transvaal merged in 1885 to form the 'Dutch Reformed or Reformed Church' (Nederduits Hervormde of Gereformeerde Kerk), but barely seven years later, the new church split again. The court ordered the NG Church in Rustenburg to transfer its property to the Reformed (Hervormde) Church. Fortunately, the ZAR government donated 4 erven in the town to the impoverished NG congregation to help them get back on their feet. Following the runderpest (1896) and malaria (1897) epidemics, construction on the church began early in 1898. General Piet Joubert laid the cornerstone on 23 April 1898. The building was nearly completed when the Second Anglo-Boer War broke out in 1899, instantly halting any final completion or offici...

Aka: Derdepoort Gedenknaald Erected: 1920 Sculptor: Anton van Wouw Location: Fatima Bhayat St (Kerk St), Rustenburg. Image source: NG Moedergemeente Rustenburg on FB. Photo c.1969.¹ The memorial at the entrance of the NG Kerk Rustenburg was erected a number of years after the end of the Second Anglo-Boer War and commemorates the names of those killed and murdered at Derdepoort. In the neighbourhood of Mochudi the Marico River is the boundary between the Bechuanaland Protectorate and the Transvaal. On the British side of the river was a native town, Sekwane, and over against it, on the other side, was a Boer laager at a place called Derdepoort.² Derdepoort Massacre The Derdepoort attack took place on 25 November 1899, early in the Second Anglo-Boer War (also known as the South African War). It occurred at a location on the border of the ZAR with the British Bechuanaland Protectorate (in present-day North West Province, near the Botswana border, east of Gaborone). A small group of Bo...

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...

Full name:  Dietlof Siegfried van Warmelo Lifespan:  c.1869/1872 Heidelberg - 1966 Pretoria Occupation: Boer War soldier, author Family: Son of   Ds. N.J. van Warmelo and Maria Magdalena Elizabeth Maré. Eldest brother of Johanna Brandt , Willem van Warmelo, and Fritz van Warmelo . Grandson (on his mother's side) of landdros Dietlof Maré . Willem van Warmelo (1874 Heidelberg - 1948 Pretoria). Studied in the Netherlands, Served on commando during the 2nd Boer War. Frederik ''Fritz'' van Warmelo (1878-1943). Served in the 2nd Boer War. Dietlof studied theology in the Netherlands (that is where Johanna met her future husband, Louis Ernst Brandt, who was Dietlof’s roommate). He fought on commando during the Anglo-Boer War (Pretoria Commando and later guerrilla units). He suffered from a persistent knee injury (originally a football injury) that was aggravated by climbing "koppies" while on guard duty. He was eventually captured and sent to a prisoner-of-war ...

Johanna van Warmelo / Brandt’s family home 1895-c.1916 Original owner: Unknown Status: Unknown Harmonie was one of the small pre-suburban farms (plasies) that lay immediately north of old Pretoria, on the banks of the Apies River. By the time the van Warmelo family moved there in 1895, it was already a spacious country estate with a large house, orchards, and gardens. It became famous during the Anglo-Boer War as the secret headquarters of the “Petticoat Commando” run by Johanna and her mother Maria. The 1979 article from Restorica No. 6 gives us the clearest picture of how the surrounding area developed: When Sunnyside was formally surveyed in 1887 by Johan Rissik, the planners deliberately aligned the new township with the old wagon road (Marestraat / Mears Street?) that ran from the south across Elandspoort farm. President Street (today Gerard Moerdijk Street) was laid out as the westernmost street of Sunnyside. The wooded, unsurveyed land between President Street and the Apie...

Birth name: Johanna (Hansie) van Warmelo Lifespan: 18 November 1876, Heidelberg - 13 January 1964, Newlands, Cape Town Occupation:   Volunteer nurse, author, Boer spy, Afrikaner nationalist propagandist, naturopath, and later self-described prophetess/health reformer Family: Daughter of Ds. N.J. van Warmelo and Maria Magdalena Elizabeth Maré. Siblings: Dietlof , Willem, Fritz, Deliana "Line" 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 . Dietlof van Warmelo ( c.1869/1872 Heidelberg - 1966 Pretoria). Studied in the Netherlands. Served on commando during the 2nd Boer War. Willem van Warmelo (1874 Heidelberg - 1948 Pretoria). Studied in the Netherlands. Served on commando during the 2nd Boer War. Frederik ''Fritz'' van Warmelo (1878-1943). Served in the 2nd Boer War. Johanna as a nurse (unidentified photographer) Timeline Early life Johanna ...

The McLarens were an affluent Scotish family in Heldelberg, Transvaal. William Sinclair (St Clair) McLaren married Elizabeth Marshall in 1874. They had two sons: Lt. William Victor St Clair McLaren and Captain James Marshall McLaren. Timeline Biographies William Sinclair McLaren  (1843 Scotland - 1889 Heidelberg) William arrived in Heidelberg in 1871 as a Scottish merchant. Upon arrival, he worked for Heinrich Ueckermann , until he opened a shop in partnership with John Pagan in direct competition with Ueckermann. McLaren (and Pagan) quickly became one of the wealthiest men in the district through trading and property speculation. McLaren and Pagan were founding members of the Presbyterian Church in Heidelberg. The family home and shop stood on the northern corner of Ueckermann and Begeman Streets (a separate property at what is now 60 Van Der Westhuizen Street (Blue Plaque) also belonged to the family). John Pagan (1844 Scotland - 1917 Sea Point). He married Margaret Wilson n...