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Event EVT-000213

The skirmish at Remhoogte, and the death of Johannes Kleu

2 February 1901 · district

[SRC-010, Rose Willis Klaarstroom cameo. TERTIARY, TO VERIFY] The Boers caught the retreating Yeomanry at REMHOOGTE, a farmstead beside the old Prince Albert road, and shot the horses from under them. Lance-Corporal J. Boyd, wounded, sheltered at Wolwekloof; Johannes Kleu, a 23-year-old unarmed rebel walking home to Aberdeen, stumbled on him and was shot dead. That night Scheepers's men stayed at BLOEMENDAL. On 5 February they slipped north across the Witteberg via Boesmanskloof, SLEUTELFONTEIN and BOTTERSKRAAL, reaching ZEEKOEGAT on 7 February and looting two shops. Four of those farms are in this model. || *** [7 Sep 2026, SRC-172 pp.11-13 and SRC-632] THE FARM IS SETTLED AND THE FAMILY IS NAMED. *** Two patrols out of Prince Albert under Capt. McDowell and Lt. Torrane rode towards Klaarstroom on 2 February, took three Boer scouts on the way, saw how many Boers held the village and turned back. 'The Boers gave chase and NEAR THE FARM REMHOOGTE began to close in.' Eight of the Yeomanry were taken with their horses shot under them; Sgt.-Maj. Jackson and Tpr. Mobsby dismounted under fire to get Col. Parke back into the saddle and Jackson was captured doing it; Corp. Boyd was fatally wounded. JOHANNES KLEU DIED IN THE HOUSE. p.13: he 'was seriously wounded and was left behind with the Du Plessis family at Remhoogte'. The family's own account is SRC-632, from Miemie de Wit (PER-002051), who was ten and in the house: the wounded Englishman hid in Wolwekloof, Kleu came upon him, and the Englishman shot him at point blank range through the chest. Her father ROELOF DU PLESSIS (PER-002050) carried him in through the back door and laid him in the room at the far end of the stoep, where he died, and buried him quietly that night. WHICH REMHOOGTE: THE QUESTION FLAGGED ON THIS ROW IS ANSWERED, AND IT IS REIM HOOGTE No. 167. The book states the distance twice and from two different informants - p.36, Anna Snyders: 'the farm Remhoogte, 40 km from Prince Albert on the Klaarstroom road'; p.45, of the grave: 'Forty kilometers from Prince Albert on the farm Remhoogte'. Measured against this project's own cadastre, Reim Hoogte No. 167 (PAR-000092) lies 36.9 km from Prince Albert in a straight line, which is about 40 km by road; Rhemhoogte No. 125 (PAR-000068) lies 46.3 km in a straight line, which cannot be 40 km by road. The grave's own coordinate, which came from eGGSA and not from the book, already sat on 167. Three independent things agree, so the affair belongs on Reim Hoogte No. 167 and the cameo's filing under Rhemhoogte No. 125 is wrong. BOYD WAS BURIED BESIDE HIM AND DID NOT STAY. p.13: 'Boyd was also buried at Remhoogte but after the war his remains were reinterred in the graveyard of the Anglican Church of the Good Shepherd at Klaarstroom.' Miemie de Wit watched it: he 'was buried 50 yards from the Boer. After the war his wife in England asked that he be reinterred. I can well remember the grave being opened.'

Who is on record here

Everyone the record names at this occasion. Who stood together is the clearest surviving evidence of which families were close to which, if you know of others who were here, this is the page they belong on.

Sources

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