Johannes Barnard Malherbe

Died in Natal on 24 January 1900, the second day of Spioenkop. A brother of Johanna Fredricka MalherbeM [PER-000140], who married Almero Jacobus Hitge OosthuizenL at Prince Albert in May 1903. The tree gives the death place only as Natal, so the BATTLE is inference from the date and the theatre, not a fact from a record. [TREE] [TO VERIFY]

[7 Aug 2026] VERY PROBABLY THE 'John Malherbe' OF DENEYS REITZ'S COMMANDO (SRC-331). Reitz found the body of his corporal's brother of that name on Spion Kop on 24 January 1900, 'with a bullet between his eyes', and the Pretoria dead were carried to Ladysmith and sent to Pretoria for burial - which would mean this man is buried in Pretoria and not in Natal. The identification rests on the name and the date; see SRC-331 for what it does not establish.

[7 Aug 2026, FROM FAMILYSEARCH] GHVK-SDQ gives the death place as BERGVILLE, NATAL - not merely 'Natal'. Spion Kop stands in the Bergville district. The battle is no longer an inference from a date; the place and the date agree. He had married Augusta Cornelia NeserH at Venterstad on 12 February 1895, five years before he died. [FS]

[11 Aug 2026, MED-000024] THERE IS A PHOTOGRAPH OF HIM, TAKEN BEFORE THE WAR, and it is the only likeness in this project of anyone who died in it. A studio double portrait with his wife, inscribed on the back "Jan en Gussie Malherbe" with a pencil arrow under each name marking which is which. He is at the left: a man in his middle thirties, already bald above the forehead, with a pointed beard and a bow tie. THE DRESS DATES IT to about 1893-1897, so between three and seven years before Spioenkop. He was born in March 1862 and would have been in his early thirties, which agrees. HIS WIFE IS NOW A ROW HERE: PER-001815. The file was supplied as JohannesBarendMalherbe, with BAREND where this model and FamilySearch have BARNARD; the variant is kept rather than tidied.

[16 Aug 2026, SRC-444/446/447] "JAN". KILLED AT SPIOENKOP, 24 JANUARY 1900, and the register's date is confirmed twice over - by his mother's birthday book, where a later hand wrote "Jan. 24, 1900. Jan killed at Tugela", and by his brother W. A. Malherbe's article.

HE WROTE HOME THE EVENING BEFORE HE RODE OUT, from Pretoria on 5 October 1899, six days before the war began: "As burgers of the land and father's sons we shall try our best to do our duty, though as fathers of families we shall not be reckless." He enclosed a money order so his sisters could buy a remembrancer if he fell, thanked his mother for seeing that they were well schooled, and asked her forgiveness. His youngest had been christened Julie the Sunday before. SRC-444.

His brother Pieter helped carry his body down the mountain and ate bread that evening with his hands still covered in his blood (SRC-446). Izak took the body to Pretoria; he is buried near the heldeakker in the Ou Kerkhof there. His family lived in Kerkstraat.

[17 Aug 2026, TREE] NOEMNAAM FROM THE FAMILY TREE EXPORTS, which carry alternate NAME records typed aka. Taken only where the alternate is a SHORT SINGLE NAME that is not a spelling variant of the formal one - the sweep turned up 26 candidates and most were spelling drift (Strijdom for Strydom, Izaac for Isaac), which 5a keeps as evidence but which is not a noemnaam. CONFIRMED INDEPENDENTLY: he signs himself "Jan" at the foot of his own letter of 5 October 1899, SRC-444.