TOPIC:

I'd be grateful for any help that anyone can offer regarding Cornelis Smakman (b. 1880 in Leiden, Holland).

A newspaper obituary of 1960 reports that Kees made his way to South Africa to fight on the side of the Boers. He was captured at Elands Laagte and was then sentenced to be shot. However, he was found alive the next day and was sent to a POW camp in Ceylon.

My questions:

(i) were Boer prisoners routinely subject to trials which could result in the death sentence? If so, why?
(ii) if Kees was "sentenced to be shot", that implies that some sort of trial was held. If so, where would records be held?
(ii) how might a prisoner survive a firing squad? I always thought that an officer was obliged to deliver a coup de grace.

I'd be very grateful for any thoughts/help.

Regards.

Hi, welcome aboard. I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the story of Cornelis Smakman and neither with any Boer prisoners being sentenced to be shot at Elandslaagte.

I've searched the database of the Anglo-Boer War Museum in Bloemfontein for the name 'Smakman' as POW and as a foreign volunteer and can find nobody matching that name. ( www.anglo-boer.co.za/database-search/ )

It does seem strange that if he was shot (executed) that a coup de grace wasn't delivered and that neither was he buried but just left there. The battle continued into early evening so one would wonder if there was time to convene any sort of hearing or if it was a case of being summarily shot.

There was an abuse of a white flag by the Boers at Elandslaagte and British troops going forward to accept the surrender were fired upon. This seemed to have resulted in some taking a "take no prisoners" attitude following the incident but then again several prisoners were indeed taken at Elandslaagte and not shot.

When the cavalry cut into the retreating Boers there was a bloodbath. Boers screaming for mercy and trying to surrender were cut down. Many wounded from both sides spent the night lying out on the battlefield and were only attended to the next day. It would be no stretch of the imagination to imagine that Smakman may have been shot down while trying to surrender and spent the night on the battlefield wounded and was only found the next day and was then taken prisoner.

There were many instances of Boers being shot. Especially later in the war, Boer prisoners were routinely shot for the wearing of British uniforms. Boer prisoners were shot for using dum-dum ammunition. Rebels, ie Cape and Natal colonial citizens caught fighting for the Boers were shot. In some instances there were hearings. In other instances 'guilty' prisoners were summarily shot. Boers were shot for train-wrecking and other such offences. The shooting of Boer prisoners has always been highly controversial and remains so to this day. The Breaker Morant incident was in the news again recently.

Cheers,

Mark

apduffy,

Mark is right when he lists the reasons why Boer prisoners were sometimes shot by the British. These conditions prevailed later in the war and in my opinion the instances of these events were mainly a feature of the campaign from late 1900 onwards.

I read all I could about the battle of Elandslaagte for my book and never came across any mention that any Boers may have been shot after the battle. You can read in the correspondence the questions being raised about how the nearly 200 prisoners from Elandslaagte should be handled, where housed etc as the British were totally unprepared for this situation.

Regards
David

Mark,

Thanks for the very quick feedback - and you, too, David.

I have searched the records of Boer prisoners held at the National Archives in Kew, London, and also did not find any record of "Smakman". Interesting that you had the same result from the Bloemfontein archives.

The newspaper obituary that I am working fro does state that Kees was "... found alive the next day on the open veld with severe head and foot wounds...", so the suggestion contained in your fifth paragraph does make sense.

Mark or David - I take it that there was just one battle at Elands Laagte (19-22 October 1899)? I only ask because Kees reportedly traveled from Holland to South Africa specifically to support the Boer cause. He would have to have been pretty quick off the mark to get there if he waited until war broke out on 11 October 1899.

Regards.

From the Bloemfontein Conference in early June 1899 it became increasingly obvious war was coming and foreign volunteers started arriving. It is quite possible that Smakman was already in South Africa when war broke out. General Kock had two hundred German and Hollander volunteers with him when he rode for Elandslaagte. Presumably most of these men saw action with him during the battle. Several prominent foreign volunteers died at Elandslaagte; Dr Herman Jacob Coster (Netherlands) ex ZAR State-Attorney for example.

Cheers,

Mark

apDuffy

"A Gazetteer of the Second Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902" (Military Press, 1999) - lists two other Elandslaagtes with military connections in additions to the Natal battle. Both of the others are farms in the ZAR, one may be of interest as it mentions Boers being captured:

"[2626: 2653-2628] a farm in the South African Republic (Klerksdorp district; North West), 20 km south-west of Klerksdorp. At dawn on 8 February 1902 Cmdt F.J. Potgieter's commando, in laager on the farm, was attacked by a column commanded by Lt-Col S.B. von Donop, RA, and dispersed, 36 prisoners being taken. On 24 February a convoy commanded by Lt-Col W.C. Anderson heading for Klerksdorp* bivouacked on the farm by the Yzer Spruit* and was attacked there on the following morning. HMG IV pp.409-410 (map no.59); Times p.498."

Regards
Meurig
Co-Author of the Gazetteer.