Deneys Reitz
| Deneys Reitz | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
2 April 1882 Bloemfontein |
| Died | 19 October 1944 (aged 62) London |
| Resting place | Magale, Mariepskop 24°33′56″S 30°53′37″E / 24.56556°S 30.89361°E |
| Citizenship |
 South Africa
|
| Occupation | Soldier, attorney, author, cabinet minister |
| Spouse(s) | Leila Agnes Buissiné Wright (1887-1959) |
| Children | Francis William Reitz |
| Parent(s) | Francis William Reitz, Blanka Thesen |
Deneys Reitz (1882—1944), son of Francis William Reitz, was a Boer soldier who fought in the Second Boer War for the South African Republic against the British Empire. After a period of exile in Madagascar he returned to South Africa, where he became a lawyer and founded a major South African law firm. In the First World War he fought for the Union of South Africa against the German Empire, and in later life he was a politician.
While in exile in Madagascar, he wrote about his experience of the Second Boer War (1899–1902). When it was eventually edited and published in 1929 as Commando: A Boer Journal Of The Boer War, it still had the freshness and detail of an account written soon after the war. Not only is the account very well written and an important source for the Second Boer War, but his family connections (his father was State Secretary of the Transvaal) and sheer luck provide for a unique account because he was present at virtually every major event of the War.
At the age of 17, while visiting his father in Pretoria, at the start of the Second Boer War, the Field-Cornet's office said he was too young to fight and refused to enlist him. He met his father with the President of the Transvaal, Paul Kruger, who took him straight to the room of the Commandant-General Piet Joubert. Joubert personally handed him a new Mauser carbine and a bandolier of ammunition. He and one of his brothers then joined the Boer forces "by virtue of having thrown our belongings through a carriage window and climbing aboard".
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