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Gebeurtenis EVT-000326

Gideon Scheepers word op Kopjeskraal gevange geneem

11 Oktober 1901 · district · Prince Albert

[SRC-172, Helena Marincowitz, *Prince Albert and the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902)*, Fransie Pienaar Museum, 1999, pp.28-31] The commando reached Kopjeskraal on 10 October 1901 with Scheepers too ill to ride, helped onto a horsecart. 'The owner of the farm was M.A. Koorts. The seriously ill Scheepers was carried into the house by his men, where Koorts and his wife nursed him.' He handed the commando to Lt. Schalk Pypers and was taken next day by a patrol of the 10th Hussars under Capt. Shearmann. His rifle went to Field-Cornet Carel van Heerden (p.33). Dr J.H. Mearns of Prince Albert examined him at Kopjeskraal and went with him to Blood River Station - today Antjieskraal - where JOHAN VAN DER MERWE, the local teacher, and his wife MARIA had their house commandeered so that Scheepers could have a bedroom. He was taken on to Matjiesfontein, then Beaufort West, Noupoort and the prison hospital at Graaff-Reinet, tried on thirty charges, and shot outside Graaff-Reinet on 18 January 1902. THE BOOK CONTRADICTS ITSELF ON THE DATE and this row follows the majority: 11 October 1901 on pp.28 and 33, 1 October on p.31. Two informants independently place the capture at Kopjeskraal - Rinus Koorts, whose grandfather MARTIENS KOORTS lived there at the time (p.37), and Piet van der Westhuizen, whose father was with Scheepers when he was taken and was wounded in the calf (p.37). A third, Barend Johannes Koorts of Kopjeskraal, is on the rebel roll at p.48.

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