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Borrowed from a facebook page - Flippie van der Merwe hailed from Vryheid and was the smallest man to fight on the Boer side. He stood 3 feet 6 inches "tall" and was born in 1854.

He was taken POW at some stage - I wonder if his medal was claimed and, if so, if it is extant?



Regards

Rory

Rory

Going out on a limb here, Flippie is short for Philippolus (Phillip) as far as I am aware. Checking the Boer War museum database, there are 5 Van der Merwe names with this as 1st or 2nd name, none from Vryheid. Given his date of birth as 1854, ot would mean he would be 45 (1899) years as a minimum and 48 (1902) as a maximum. None of the Van der Merwe POW's, even the one from Vryheid (different fore names) falls in this range.
I think we will never know who he actually was.
Jon

I think you're spot on Jon. It was worth a bit of speculation though. An interesting little piece on the war.