DE LA REY – JACOBUS HERCULAAS/HERCULES (KOOS)

Note:
THE SURNAME ON THE MEMORIAL IS SPELT AS DE LE RAY. THIS IS INCORRECT AND SHOULD BE DE LA REY. MOST SOURCES SPELL HIS FIRST NAME JACOBUS AND NOT JAKOBUS AS SPELT ON THE MEMORIAL.
KOOS DE LA REY WAS BORN ON THE FARM DOORNFONTEIN, IN THE WINBURG DISTRICT.  ON 3RD FEBRUARY 1848, THE NEWLY ARRIVED BRITISH GOVERNER SIR HARRY SMITH ISSUED A PROCLAMATION PROCLAIMING THE TERRITORY BETWEEN THE ORANGE AND VAAL RIVERS AS BRITISH TERRITORY WHICH BROUGHT ABOUT THE ‘ORANGE RIVER SOVEREIGNTY’.  THE DISSATISFIED TREKKERS UNDER ANDRIES PRETORIUS DECIDED TO OPPOSE THE PROCLAMATION, BUT WERE DEFEATED BY SIR HARRY SMITH’S FORCES AT THE BATTLE OF BOOMPLAATS ON 29TH AUGUST 1848, AND AS A CONSEQUENCE MOVED NORTH OF THE VAAL RIVER.  THE DE LA REY FAMILY MOVED NORTH-WEST TO, WHAT WAS THEN,  THE REPUBLIC OF STELLALAND, AND EVENTUALLY TO LICHTENBURG.
KOOS DE LA REY MET, AND ON 24TH OCTOBER 1876, MARRIED JACOBA ELIZABETH GREEF KNOWN AS NONNIE, THE GREEF FAMILY HAVING BEEN PIONEERS IN LICHTENBURG.  KOOS ROSE TO PROMINENCE IN THE VOLKSRAAD (PARLIAMENT) OF THE TRANSVAAL REPUBLIC (ZAR), AND WHEN THE ANGLO-BOER WAR LOOMED, PROCLAIMED THAT HE OPPOSED ANY WAR, AND IN FACT SAID TO PAUL KRUGER, IN THE VOLKSRAAD, IN ONE OF THE RARE FLASHES OF RAGE THAT OCCASIONALLY OVERCAME HIM, “I SHALL DO MY DUTY AS THE RAAD DECIDES, AND YOU WILL SEE ME IN THE FIELD FIGHTING FOR OUR INDEPENDENCE LONG AFTER YOU AND YOUR PARTY WHO MAKE WAR WITH YOUR MOUTHS HAVE FLED THE COUNTRY!’  PROPHETIC WORDS THAT TURNED INTO REALITY.
GENERAL KOOS DE LA REY WAS APPOINTED COMMANDANT-GENERAL IN THE WESTERN TRANSVAAL AND BECAME KNOWN AS ‘THE LION OF THE WEST‘.  HIS MILITARY PROWESS BECAME EVIDENT WHEN HE DESIGNED THE TRENCH SYSTEM THAT LED TO THE DEFEAT OF THE THE HIGHLAND BRIGADE AT THE BATTLE OF MAGERSFONTEIN.  GENERAL DE LA REY DID NOT TAKE PART IN THE ACTUAL BATTLE AS HE WAS EVALUATING THE SITUATION AT KIMBERLY AT THAT TIME.  AT THE BATTLE OF MODDER RIVER SHORTLY BEFORE MAGERSFONTEIN, GENERAL DE LA REY’S 19 YEAR OLD SON, ADRIAAN, KNOWN AS ADAAN, WAS HIT BY SHELL FRAGMENTS SOMEWHERE IN THE STOMACH REGION, WHICH MUST HAVE CAUSED INTERNAL BLEEDING, LEADING TO HIS DEATH.  HE WAS ORIGINALLY BURIED AT JACOBSDAL.  GENERAL DE LA REY BECAME MORE RENOWNED WHEN AT THE BATTLE OF TWEEBOSCH/DE KLIPDRIFT, LORD METHUEN WAS WOUNDED AND CAPTURED, AND AGAINST THE WISHES OF HIS COMMANDO, DE LA REY ARRANGED TRANSPORT, TO KLERKSDORP, FOR LORD METHUEN TO RECEIVE BRITISH MEDICAL ATTENTION.  METHUEN, WHO LATER BECAME FIRM FRIENDS WITH DE LA REY, WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE INSTRUCTION TO DESTROY THE HOUSE ON THE FARM ELANDSFONTEIN, WHICH WAS THE DE LA REY FAMILY FARM.
THE TWEEBOSCH/DE KLIPDRIFT BATTLE TOOK PLACE JUST SOUTH OF THE TOWN OF SANNIESHOF IN THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCE. THE GPS POINT FOR THE FARM ENTRANCE TO THE BATTLEFIELD/MEMORIAL IS AT S26°34.763 E25°47.233. THE MEMORIAL IS AT S26°34.318 E25°46.887
GENERAL DE LA REY WAS IN TOTAL DISAGREEMENT WITH THE GOVERNMENT DECISION TO INVADE GERMAN SOUTH WEST AFRICA ON BEHALF OF THE BRITISH AFTER THE DECLARATION OF WAR IN 1914. GENERAL CHRISTIAAN BEYERS WAS IN A VEHICLE WITH GENERAL DE LA REY, TRAVELLING TOWARDS POTCHEFSTROOM, WHEN THE VEHICLE WAS SHOT AT FROM BEHIND FOR FAILING TO STOP AT A POLICE ROADBLOCK AT LANGLAAGTE, JOHANNESBURG, ON THE 15TH SEPTEMBER 1914, THE BULLET HITTING DE LA REY IN THE BACK AND KILLING HIM.  A MEMORIAL PLAQUE WAS ERECTED ON THE CORNER OF WHAT WERE DU TOIT AN DEVILLE STREETS.  THE PLAQUE WAS STOLEN, BUT A GRANITE MEMORIAL PLAQUE WAS ERECTED ON AN OUTSIDE WALL OF THE LANGLAAGTE TRAIN STATION ENTRANCE, AT DU TOIT STREET.  THE GPS POINT OF THE PLAQUE IS AT S26°12.1181  E27°59.4404