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Partially thanks to Reuters parts of the "intercepted letter written on September 4, 1901 by General P.J. Liebenberg near Klerksdorp and addressed to General DelaRey" were widely quoted in the British papers. An example below from the Globe of 13th September 1901:



A least a couple of the articles go further by haranguing the home pro-Boer faction for helping to prolong the war by giving encouragement to the Boer Generals.

Intercepted Proclamation made by General van Zijl.

Spurred-on by the avalanche of thumbs-ups on my two preceding posts, herewith another intercepted message from the Belfield files. This message consists of the translation of a Proclamation issued by General J.A. van Zijl (Zyl) on September 15, 1901. The Proclamation is remarkable because it involves the commandeering into military service of men from Districts outside the Transvaal or Orange Free State. As it is also impossible to argue that in September 1901 the Boer forces were in control of the Vryburg, Kukuman or Mafeking Districts, it is hard to see why van Zijl thought he had a right to issue the Proclamation under the Martial Laws of the Transvaal.



Belfield refers at the bottom of the page to van Zijl as the “Rebel commander of Bechuanaland.” I’m not entirely convinced that it is correct to label van Zijl a “Rebel” because at the beginning of the war he evidently was established at Christiana, in the Bloemhof District of the Transvaal.

To get an idea what man General Van Zijl was, herewith a slightly abbreviated translation of what was written about him in Die Helde Album (the Author of Die Helde Album is O.H.S. van Zyl who may have been related to the General) all text between [ ] is added comment or information gleaned from other sources.



Jacobus Albertus van Zijl was a strong, well-built man. He was born in 1864 [in the Cape and studied to become a Dominee but quickly found out this was not his vocation]. Van Zijl worked as a schoolteacher at Kuruman and, at the outbreak of the war, was farming near Christiana. He decided to join DelaRey [with the Bloemhof commando] after he learned that British authorities were looking for him. Van Zijl, starting out as an unranked Burger, was present at the battles around Kimberley where, at one stage, he found himself the only Burger in the commando able to converse with the POWs in English. According to him, some POW’s were very surprised by the appearance and demeanor of the Burgers as one of them conveyed to him “We thought we had come to fight against colored barbarians”

Die Helde Album contains some anecdotes about van Zyl. One evening, towards the end of the war, van Zijl singlehandedly rescued his fiancée, Miss Anna van Deventer, from enemy clutches. Miss van Deventer was a brave young lady who was with a women’s lager, herding cattle around in effort to avoid these fell into British hands. On that particular evening Miss van Deventer was holed up at a farm near Schweizer Reneke, a town then under British control. Van Zijl apparently informed the British commander there that he intended to attack and then, like a true Knight in Shining Armor, galloped up to the farm, snatched his fiancée right from under the noses of the British troops, threw her over his saddle and stormed off to safe pastures. [ The anecdote ends with the remark that Van Zijl married Miss van Deventer “shortly after” this episode. The marriage was swiftly blessed with a baby which, if I followed the narrative correctly, must have been conceived “In the veldt” well before the nuptials]

General van Zijl was involved in an action at Biesiebult, Lichtenburg, against a large British force. During that action a substantial number of British were killed. The women’s lager with which Mrs. van Zijll travelled, later stumbled upon the ghostly sight of the dead who had been buried by the British in shallow ditches. Here and there limbs had protruded from the ground, some of which the natives had pulled out and hung in trees. The Boers had reburied the dead and later van Zijl’s men mounted a native’s skull onto a stick, probably in an effort to communicate to the locals that hanging limbs from trees is generally not appreciated.

The morning on which Methuen was taken prisoner [at the battle of Tweebosch on March 7, 1902], General Van Zijl had encouraged his men into action by shouting “Storm, Kerels, there is Kemp, he will arrive before us.” “After that battle cry there was nothing that could stop the fearless men” van Zyl related to the author of Die Helde Album in or around 1942. According to him, the Kommandanten Hendrik Groenewald, Bekker and Erasmus had climbed on flourbags and other supplies the British had thrown up as defenses and from there had poured fire into the enemy massed behind. This reckless behavior eventually cost Erasmus his life and severely wounded Groenewald but helped the Boers carry the battle. General van Zijl then said to have stumbled upon a severely wounded Lord Methuen. Van Zijl stated that “Methuen’s leg had been shot above the knee, which stuck in the ground” [most sources state Methuen’s leg was broken when his horse fell on him, others mention that Methuen was shot in the thigh. In Die Boere Officiere, Malan states that it was General van Zyl himself who had shot Lord Methuen]. Van Zijl apparently heard Methuen say to a Burger who was about to take his riding boots “Don’t rob me, I’m Lord Methuen” Van Zijl then ordered the Burger to leave the Lord be, which solicited the Burger’s reaction: “General, dammit! that’s not fairplay!” Van Zijl subsequently ordered two British POW’s to keep a tarpaulin over the wounded Lord to protect him from the burning sun. Lord Methuen later personally congratulated van Zijl with the “fine charge” made by his mounted men during the battle.

General van Zijl was a Bittereinder who came up through the rank and ended up a General commanding the Griekwalanders. I have no information about what happened to him after the war other than that he visited Europe, wrote a book about his war experiences and that he was still alive in 1942. Perhaps a forum member who has read his book could add more information.