Empire Cricket Booklet

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BOER PRISONERS OF WAR IN CEYLON

under captain Vincent Tancred, brother of A B. and Louis Tancred. 37 A B. Tancred captained the other cricket club in Pretoria, Eclectic Club. Clearly, right up to the outbreak of war, some Afrikaans-:5peaking sportsmen were very much a part of the imperial game. Kotze regularly played first league cricket in Pretoria. The pinnacle of his pre-war cricket career came in February 1899 when he was selected for a Transvaal XV to play against Lord Hawke's team in Pretoria. The Transvaal XV, in effect a Pretoria XV, boasted a few 'big' names such as Vincent and A B. Tancred and A W. 'Arthur' Seccull who would later play for South Africa. 38 Kotze joined the Pretoria Commando at the outbreak of war and fought in Natal under General Louis Botha. He was part of the corporalship of Izak Malherbe and was among those captured at Pieters Hill on 27 February 1900 by General Redvers Buller. 39 Kotze and De Villiers travelled on the same ship to Colombo and became close friends. 40 The age difference of nine years prompted De Villiers to refer in a diary entry to Kotze as 'my son ... another real good fellow ... he [Kotze] and Koos Theron slept on either side of me [in our hut at Diyatalawa]'. 41 After the war, Kotze returned to Pretoria where he worked as an accountant and later as an attorney. During the 1920s, he moved to Bethal where he farmed until the early 1930s, when he was elected as member of the Provincial Council. He was later also appointed a member of the National Roads Board which necessitated a move back to Pretoria, 42 where he died in 1958. 43 Thomas Minter Hilder of Wakkerstroom in the Transvaal is a good example of the diverse origins of the Boer forces. He came from a well known Eng lish family. Legend has it that an ancestor, Baron B. Hilder of Germany, married a Danish princess in 1578 before fleeing with his bride to England. A descendant, Charles Henry Hilder, a gunsmith by profession, emigrated to South Africa in the 1840s. On 4 July 1850, Charles witnessed the Minerva going down at the Bluff in Durban shortly before midnight. 45 One of the passengers was nine-year old Adela Sarah Richards whom Charles rescued and T. M. Hilder14

apparently, have gone to a more popular man.' 32 De Villiers spent the rest of his days in Stellenbosch, where he died in 1928 at the age of 60. De Villiers was one of many Boer prisoners who in later years did not harbour grudges against the Eng lish. 33 Warner, after meeting De Villiers in 1905, was of the opinion that he 'made no secret of the fact that he liked Englishmen, and hinted that South Africa would settle down rapidly (after the War) and there would be no distinction between Briton and Boer; all would be South Africans - "if only", De Villiers add ed, "the newspapers would stop talking." "Next time there's a war," he said, "I shall stay at home and sell horses!"' 34

Tommy HiIder (on the left) with his brother, on commando

G. P. Kotz�

Gerhardus Petrus Christiaan 'Gert' Kotze, born at Malmesbury in the Cape in 1876, was 23 when war broke out. He was employed by President Kruger's government as the third clerk to the inspector general in the Customs Department. 36 A distant relative of Springbok fast bowler J. J. ('Kodgee' or 'Boerjong') Kotze, he was actively involved in cricket in Pretoria as honorary secretary of the Union Cricket Club