Christiaan de Wet

January 7, 1854 (age 68)

Smithfield, South Africa

In 1881 Christiaan became one of the Boer leaders in the Boer Insurrection against the British. After the war De Wet returned to his farm, where he remained until 1896. At the outbreak of the South African (Boer) War in 1899, De Wet saw service as a general under Piet Arnoldus CronjéCronje in the western areas of the South African front. After the British captured CronjéCronje (1900), De Wet became commander in chief of the forces of the Orange Free State. He was a formidable guerrilla leader, the hero of many amazing escapes from the British, whose outposts were the objects of his frequent night attacks. After the war, in 1902, De Wet retired to his farm. In 1907 he became minister of agriculture in the Orange River Colony. He remained opposed to the British, and when the Union of South Africa was formed he supported James B. M. Hertzog in the latter's separatist policy (1912 - 1913). De Wet then seceded from the South African Party and helped to organize the new Nationalist Party, dedicated to the principles and memory of the independent Dutch Republics of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, and strongly hostile to British interests in South Africa. De Wet did not agree with Louis Botha and the others who had long since become reconciled to the results of the Boer War. During World War I, De Wet remained true to the loyalties he had never abandoned. He felt it his duty to rebel against the South African government. He was captured and charged with high treason. Found guilty on eight of ten counts, he was sentenced to six years' imprisonment and fined £2, 000. p2, 000. In 1915 he was released upon promising to refrain from political agitation. After his release, De Wet took no further part in South African affairs.