"The boy who fired the last shot of the war", Neels Blom, Weekender

newspaper · 'n oorspronklike rekord · geraadpleeg 2026-08-16

Soort

newspaper

Bewaarplek

Newspaper clipping, family papers, held by Frans Oosthuizen

Verwysing

Column "On the water" by Neels Blom, dated in manuscript on the cutting "Weekender 18-19/4/09". The byline gives blomn@bdfm.co.za, which is Business Day's domain - Weekender was the BDFM weekend title.

Geraadpleeg

2026-08-16

Die sitasie soos dit gegee is

RECORDED, AND NOT USED AS FAMILY HISTORY. | WHAT IT IS: a personal column about a story told among the writer's cousins - Bloms, Malans and Van Bruggens - at the Van Bruggen homestead in MAGALIESBURG. An Oosthuizen family's house on the Magalies River was burnt by Kitchener's troops; a boy too young for commando was told to take a Mauser and three cartridges and hide in the kloofs; he shot a British despatch rider carrying the peace orders after 31 May 1902, and the game the cousins played ended with the cry "That was the last shot of the war". | THE COLUMN DISOWNS ITSELF IN ITS OWN FIRST PARAGRAPH: "I can't say I remember which aunt did the telling, or whether it is just a story that any Boer family may claim." It also says the aunt never said where the soldier fell or where the boy was. | SEARCHED ONLINE 16 Aug 2026 AND FOUND NO INDEPENDENT VERSION of this incident - no Oosthuizen last-shot story at Hekpoort or Magaliesburg in the Anglo-Boer War literature reachable that way. | SO IT IS NOT PUBLISHED AS ANYTHING. These are MAGALIESBURG Oosthuizens, not this district's, and 9a gives a different branch a line in a note at most. The cutting is kept because the family kept it, and because what a family chooses to cut out of a newspaper is itself a small fact about them.

Woordeliks gehou. Hierdie projek weerspreek gepubliseerde genealogieë en stel 'n familie se eie mondelinge oorlewering reg, so elke bewering moet nagegaan kan word deur iemand wat nie in die vertrek was nie.

Niks in die model haal hierdie bron nog aan nie.