Coat-of-arms - Cape Colony

Cape Rebels

These were Afrikaans speaking Colonials from the Cape Colony who joined the Boer Forces because of familial and cultural ties. They came from all over the Cape Colony e.g from Cradock, Graaff-Reinet, Somerset East and Middelburg.

Once captured they were tried for high treason. Some of them were executed either by hanging or the firing squad like:

• Commandant Johannes Lotter (12 October 1901))
• Willie Louw (23 November 1901)
• Gideon Scheepers (18 January 1902)

Some of the sentences were commuted to life imprisonment on Hawkins Island, Bermuda and St Helena. In Bermuda they worked in the stone quarries. In January 1903 a Royal Commission sat in Bermuda and their life sentences were reduced.

The rebels returned to South Africa on board the SS Sunda in 1903 to await their final fate. They were lodged in the Tokai Goal until general amnesty was granted on 22 March 1903 by the Cape Colonial Parliament.