Christiaan de Wet
Boer general, rebel and politician (1854-1922)
Christiaan Rudolf de Wet (7 October 1854 – 3 February 1922) was a Boer general, rebel leader and politician.
Life
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. He married a woman named Cornelia Margaretha Krüger, and together they had 16 children. He also had a grandson that was born two years after his death named Carel de Wet.
Military career
De Wet served in the First Boer War of 1880–81 as a field cornet, taking part in the Battle of Majuba Hill, in which the Boers achieved a victory over a British force under the command of 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.
Second Boer War
In September 1899, de Wet and his three sons were called up as ordinary private burghers without any rank. He was a member of the Heilbron kommando and they were ordered to proceed to the Natal frontier. On 11 October 1899, while he was reconnoitring the Natal frontier, De Wet was elected vice-commandant of Heilbron.
“Christiaan de Wet” enters the record as boer general, rebel and politician (1854-1922). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Christiaan, Boer and general can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q547828. VIAF identifies the subject as 74736903. The Library of Congress control number is n88277150. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1854, 1922, 1880 and 1881.
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This entry incorporates text from “Christiaan de Wet” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.