BEYERS – CHRISTIAAN FREDERIK

Note
CHRISTIAAN BEYERS WAS BORN ON THE FARM, BANHOEK, IN THE STELLENBOSCH DISTRICT.  HIS YOUNGER YEARS WERE SPENT ON THE FARM, COTTAGE FARM, ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF STELLENBOSCH.  HE STUDIED AT VICTORIA COLLEGE, LATER TO BECOME STELLENBOSCH UNIVERSITY.  IN HIS 20TH YEAR HE MOVED TO PRETORIA WHERE HE WAS A KEEN RUGBY PLAYER, WHICH GAME SUITED HIS POWERFUL FRAME.  HE PASSED HIS ATTORNEY’S ADMISSION EXAMS AND SET UP HIS OWN OFFICE IN BOKSBURG IN 1894.  HE JOINED THE COMMANDO’S WHICH DEFEATED JAMESON, AND WHICH ON 3RD MAY 1897, GAVE HIM THE RIGHT OF Z.A.R. (TRANSVAAL) CITIZENSHIP.  HE MARRIED MATHILDE KONIG IN KLERKSDORP ON 6TH AUGUST 1896.  AFTER SOME ACTION IN THE BOKSBURG COMMANDO HE WAS APPOINTED AS ASSISTANT COMMANDANT-GENERAL OF THE WATERBERG/SOUTPANSBERG COMMANDO’S BY LOUIS BOTHA ON THE 4TH SEPTEMBER 1900, JUST BEFORE HIS 31ST BIRTHDAY.  HIS SINGULAR SUCCESS IN THE ANGLO-BOER WAR WAS IN PLAYING A LEADING ROLE IN THE DEFEAT OF GENERAL CLEMENTS AT NOOITGEDACHT.  AFTER THE WAR ENDED HE MOVED BACK TO PRETORIA IN AUGUST 1902 AND BECAME INVOLVED IN POLITICS. ON 23RD/24TH MAY 1904, TOGETHER WITH BOTHA, SMUTS, DE LA REY AND ESSELEN ESTABLISHED THE HET VOLK PARTY.  HIS DIFFERENCES OF OPINION WITH THE BOTHA/SMUTS POLICIES BEGAN IN 1905, AS A DIRECT RESULT OF  HIS ANTI-BRITISH OPINIONS.  THESE DIFFERENCES LED TO HIM EXITING POLITICS.  TO KEEP HIM INVOLVED IN THE AFFAIRS OF THE COUNTRY, LOUIS BOTHA APPOINTED HIM COMMANDANT-GENERAL OF THE UNION FORCES ON THE 1ST JULY 1912.  HE 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, AND HE RESIGNED HIS COMMISSION ON 15TH SEPTEMBER 1914.  BEYERS WAS IN THE VEHICLE WITH DE LA REY WHEN THE VEHICLE WAS SHOT AT FROM BEHIND FOR FAILING TO STOP AT A ROADBLOCK AT LANGLAAGTE, JOHANNESBURG, ON 15TH SEPTEMBER, THE BULLET HITTING DE LA REY IN THE BACK AND KILLING HIM.  BEYERS ATTENDED THE DE LA REY FUNERAL IN LICHTENBURG, AND SUBSEQUENTLY LEFT PRETORAI FOR THE FARM DAMHOEK, NEAR NOOITGEDACHT, WHERE, IT IS SAID, HE WAS JOINED BY A COMMANDO OF 1100 ARMED/PARTIALLY ARMED MEN.  BEYERS CONSTANTLY SAID THAT HE WAS NOT IN REBELLION, BUT MERELY WANTED TO PROTEST AGAINST THE SOUTH AFRICAN POLICIES.  BECAUSE OF THE ARMED MEN ACCOMPANYING HIM, THE GOVERNMENT CONSIDERED HIS ACTION TO BE ONE OF REBELLION AGAINST THE STATE, AND DIRECTED GOVERNMENT FORCES AGAINST HIM. BEYERS MOVED HIS FORCE DOWN TO KOMMISSIEDRIFT ON THE VAAL RIVER.  IN THE MEAN TIME CHRISTIAAN DE WET HAD ALSO GATHERED A COMMANDO, WHICH WAS DEFEATED BY GOVERNMENT FORCES AT MUSHROOM VALLEY.  AT THIS TIME EX PRESIDENT STEYN WAS ATTEMPTING TO GET BEYERS AND DE WET TO MEET WITH HIM AT HIS FARM, ONZE RUST, NEAR BLOEMFONTEIN.  BEYERS DID MEET WITH STEYN, BUT THE DE WET COMMANDO WAS ON THE MOVE, AND SMUTS WOULD NOT GRANT BEYERS THE RIGHT OF FREE PASSAGE TO ENGAGE WITH DE WET.  PURSUED BY GOVERNMENT FORCES, BEYERS REACHED THE VAAL RIVER, WITH A SMALL COMMANDO, WITH THE VIEW OF ENTERING THE TRANSVAAL.  BEYERS, ACCOMPANIED BY ONE OTHER ATTEMPTED TO CROSS THE RIVER, BUT HIS HORSE SHIED IN MID-STREAM, CAUSING BEYERS TO SWIM BACK TO THE FREE STATE BANK WHERE HE CLUNG TO AN OVERHANGING TREE.  A SHOT RAND OUT AND BEYERS MUST HAVE THOUGHT THAT HE WAS THE TARGET, AND RELEASED HIS GRIP ON THE TREE AND WAS SWEPT AWAY. HIS BODY WAS RECOVERED TWO DAYS LATER, AND AFTER SMUTS HAD REFUSED PERMISSION FOR HIM TO BE BURIED IN PRETORIA, HE WAS BURIED NEAR TO WHERE HIS BODY WAS FOUND.