Vrystaat Confessions

Tag: Generaal de Wet

  • Sheila Family History – The de la Rey Connection

    Sheila Family History – The de la Rey Connection

    Me to Sheila: (2012)

    Subject: de Wet

    Sheila, tell me again where Generaal de Wet fits in to Ouma’s family.
    Apparently he won a battle in the Freestate where the Hysterical Tour is headed right now, so I need to brag about my connections.

    When the Brits win the battle Ken Gillings is brainwashing us about, I tell them about Annie and her love of Mrs Queen, but this battle I’m gonna need my Boer connections.

    Who else can I claim? 

    ~~oo0oo~~

    Sheila: Not de Wet, but de la Rey and Botha

    Not de Wet – but de la Rey. Ouma’s ouma (her mother’s mother) was Boer Generaal Koos de la Rey’s sister – she married a Bezuidenhout and produced a daughter who married a Bodenstein and they produced Ouma. So we are directly descended from de la Rey’s father, not Gen Koos de la Rey himself.

    Boer Generaal Louis Botha was married to John Bland’s first cousin, Annie Bland Emmett. John FA Bland II was Granny Bland’s husband. He was a lawyer in Harrismith – his own wife called him Mr Bland!

    Mr John Bland and Annie Bland Emmett were both grandchildren of  Josiah Benjamin Adam Bland – the first Bland who came to SA in 1829. He became mayor of Mossel Bay – the main street is named after him.  I have the letter of introduction he had for the Cape and the ship captain’s receipt for his passage on the Nautilus; Hugh Bland has the ring he was wearing.  He married a du Plessis and had lots of kids.

    There is something about the English Blands from Harrismith going to Ceylon as POWs during the Boer War, but I’m not exactly sure who they were – must have been two of our Granddad Frank’s brothers?

    ~~oo0oo~~

    Me:

    Aha! So: General Koos de la Rey had a sister who had a great great great great (4 greats) grandson: Me, Koos.

    Anyone who fought for the Brits?

    ~~oo0oo~~

    Sheila:

    No, not four greats – just two.

    Sister of de la Rey married a Bezuidenhout. Her Daughter married a Bodenstein. Then her Granddaughter (our Ouma) married a Swanepoel. Ouma and Oupa Swanepoel in Maritzburg.

    So her Granddaughter was Ouma. Her Great Grandson was our Dad. And her Great Great Grandson was YOU!

    I don’t know of any Pom soldiers.

    And that’s it, I’m afraid.

    ~~oo0oo~~

    So I’m two greats down from the sister of ‘The Lion of The West,’ and have zero bragging rights in any Freestate battles, zero connection to Die Dapper Generaal De Wet! *sigh* Gonna have to keep my mouth shut on this Hysterical Tour outing.

  • Culture, FreeState Style . .

    Culture, FreeState Style . .

    . . and Counter-Culture.

    At the Harrismith se Hoerskool, we were taught “sang” by Eben, well-known HNP lid of the Harrismith Tak who we thought fancied himself as a singer and a ladies man. Rather vroom, onse Eben – which has an opposite meaning to the English vroom.

    HARRISMITH HS TEACHERS 1967 Eben

    He tried his best, but we were not an easy task. The RIGHT way was very clear in ou Eben’s mind: Die Volk, Afrikaans, Die Voortrekkers, Die FAK Sangbundel, no “anglisismes” and no Engels. And modern music was the work of the devil. This much was not in doubt. This meant, of course, that the RIGHT way in our minds was – well, definitely something other than that.

    He announced one day in the asbestos pre-fab sangklas that we would now sing “Heb je al gehoord van den silveren vloot”, which wasn’t actually Afrikaans, being Hoog Hollands, but that was kosher in his world; followed by the pure Afrikaans “Wie is die dapper generaal? DE WET!” which made us all think we were singing a song of praise for our flyhalf, De Wet Ras.

    At this, Skottie Meyer sighed audibly: “O, jis, sing ons al weer vir Fokken Faderland?”

    Rugby HY 1972 Skottie

    Well! Despite Skottie’s protestations that he had said “Volk en Vaderland”, he was despatched by a puce-faced Eben to the headmaster’s office, forthwith! Inderdaad! But he must have forgotten to go all the way because he appeared at the window behind Eben a minute later and proceeded to have us stifling grins the rest of the singing session.

    I will confess we did sometimes sing words other than those strictly written down in the sangbundel.

    Skottie the irreverent and Eben the reverent have both since shuffled off this mortal coil.

    ~~oo0oo~~

    HNP lid of the Harrismith tak – member of the Herstigte Nasionale Party – an extreme nationalist apartheid political movement

    vroom – not vroom; pious; saintly

    O, jis, sing ons al weer vir Fokken Faderland? – Omigawd, are we singing boring, dreary old nationalistic songs again? Any chance of a Rolling Stones number?