Pieter Voltelyn Graham van der Byl
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The Honourable Major Pieter Voltelyn Graham van der Byl MC |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
21 February 1889 Caledon, Cape Colony |
| Died | 21 January 1975 (aged 85) Muizenberg, Cape Province, South Africa |
| Nationality | South African |
| Political party | South African Party and United Party |
| Spouse(s) | Joyce Clare Fleming |
| Children | Pieter Kenyon van der Byl b. 1923 and William van der Byl b.1925 |
Major Pieter Voltelyn Graham van der Byl MC (21 February 1889 – 21 January 1975) was a South African soldier and statesman. In South African politics, he was a member of the liberal South African party and then the United Party from 1929 to 1966 and a member of Jan Smuts' cabinet from 1939 to 1948, during which time, he was minister of Native Affairs. Major Piet (as he was commonly known) was a chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur, Honorary Colonel of the University of Cape Town Regiment, as well as receiving the Military Cross and the King George VI Coronation medal.
The first van der Byl to arrive in the Cape was Gerrit van der Byl in 1668. Over the centuries, the van der Byls became powerful landowners by acquiring estates such as: Vredenberg, Klavervlei, Joostenberg, De Leeuwenhoek, Welmoed, Spier, Fairfield (where the family still resides) and Groote Schuur (the current residence of the president of South Africa and the estate came into the family’s possession from Hester Anne Myburgh. It was later sold to Cecil John Rhodes).
Born on 21 February 1889 in Caledon, Cape Colony, van der Byl was the youngest of Adelaide Taylor and Tim van der Byl's four children. His father chose to educate his children locally, instead of sending them abroad, so van der Byl attended Diocesan College, in Cape Town, and then continued the family tradition of studying in Pembroke College, Cambridge. He fared feebly at school due to serious illness, however when he went to Cambridge, van der Byl excelled at rowing, partaking several times in the Oxford-Cambridge boat race and in his final year he received a Blue, becoming possibly the first South African to do so for rowing.
After completing a master's degree in agriculture, van der Byl returned to the Cape with the intention of farming. However, he received a letter in 1911 from General Methuen who needed the aid of someone with local expertise for the forthcoming maneuvers in the Caledon area, after which van der Byl was asked enlist in an officer's course in the newly formed Union Defence Force by General Jan Smuts. Many of his colleagues on the staff were former enemies from the Boer and British armies, some of which were destined to clash again in the Maritz Rebellion of 1914.
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