Christiaan Rudolf de Wet | |
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State President of the Orange Free State Acting |
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In office 30 May 1902 – 31 May 1902 |
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Preceded by | Martinus Theunis Steyn |
Succeeded by | Position abolished |
Personal details | |
Born | 7 October 1854 Smithfield, Orange Free State |
Died |
3 February 1922 (aged 67) Dewetsdorp, Orange Free State Province, Union of South Africa |
Nationality | Afrikaner |
Spouse(s) | Cornelia Margaretha Krüger |
Profession | Farmer, Boer General, Politician |
Military service | |
Nickname(s) | The Fighting General |
Allegiance |
South African Republic (1880–1881, 1914) Orange Free State (1899–1902) |
Years of service | 1880–1881, 1899–1902, 1914 |
Rank |
|
Commands | Natal and Transvaal Commandos |
Battles/wars | Maritz Rebellion |
Christiaan Rudolf de Wet (7 October 1854 – 3 February 1922) was a South African Boer general, rebel leader and politician.
He was born on the Leeuwkop farm, in the district of Smithfield in the Boer Republic of the Orange Free State. He later resided at Dewetsdorp, named after his father, Jacobus Ignatius de Wet.
De Wet is mentioned in Kipling's poem Ubique. He was a close personal friend of Helene Kröller-Müller who commissioned a statue of him in the Hoge Veluwe National Park in the Netherlands.
De Wet served in the first Anglo-Boer War of 1880–81 as a Field Cornet, taking part in the Battle of Majuba Mountain, in which the Boers achieved a victory over the British forces under Major General Sir George Pomeroy Colley. This eventually led to the end of the war and the reinstatement of the independence of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, more commonly known as the Transvaal Republic.
In the years between the First and Second Boer Wars, from 1881 to 1896, he lived on his farm, becoming a member of the Volksraad in 1897.