TOPIC:

Many thanks, Brett.

Dear Brett. Once again thank you so much for all this information. It is helping us to fill in gaps in the family history, in addition to being most interesting about the battle itself. The Fauconnier history starts with Antonie Fauconnier (from Flanders Belgium) who was a lieutenant in a British regiment whose members were drafted from other regiments and acted as a kind of "foreign legion". These tough character were sent to the Cape where they proved to be troublesome and unfit for frontier duty. The regiment was disbanded and Fauconnier remained behind, settled in Knysna and built one of the first houses in that town at the time of George Rex. .His grandson was killed at Nooitgedacht.

That is a most interesting bit of family history! I did not know about the "foreign legion", and being a pioneer settler at Knysna is also a notable record for an ancestor. Starting in the early 1800's, the British faced a recurring problem on the expanding eastern frontier of the Cape Colony. Another of their novel ideas was to provide farms there for the German mercenaries who had joined the British army during the Crimean War - a reincarnation of the King's German Legion during the Napoleonic Wars. There are many of their descendants now scattered around South Africa.

Regards
Brett

Dear David. Thanks for reply. People have been very helpful on this Forum. Have received all the info I required. Constantinus died on 13 December at the Battle of Nooitgedacht and his name appears on the monument erected to the Boer dead of that battle. I have been sent photographs and accounts of battle. Great forum. The current Constantinus Johannes Fauconnier is past CEO of Exxaro and Kumba. Thank you one and all, and especially to Brett for additional info on German mercenaries who were settled on Eastern Frontier.

Boer mass grave at Breeds nek

Thank you Dvvuuren. That's a great addition to this thread.