Jacobus Hercules de la Rey

Jacobus Hercules de la Rey (born 1847, near Winburg, Orange River Sovereignty [now in South Africa]—died Sept. 15, 1914, Johannesburg) was a talented and popular Boer leader in the South African War (1899–1902).

De la Rey gained military experience in the Transvaal’s attacks on African groups and represented Lichtenburg in the Volksraad (parliament), opposing Pres. Paul Kruger. On the outbreak of the South African War in 1899, de la Rey became a general and fought in the western campaign. On July 1, 1900, he assumed full charge of operations in the western Transvaal, and he was conspicuously successful in guerrilla operations. Later, however, de la Rey supported peace, believing that a fight to the end would weaken the Transvaal’s bargaining position.

After the conclusion of peace in 1902, he visited Europe with other Boer generals to raise funds for reconstruction. In the postwar years de la Rey supported Louis Botha, the head of the political party Het Volk (“The People”). In the period of responsible government (1907–10) he represented Ventersdorp in the Transvaal legislative assembly and in 1908 was chosen as a delegate to the national convention that preceded the formation of the Union of South Africa. From 1910 to 1914 he sat in the union’s first Senate.

On the outbreak of World War I he laid plans for an uprising in the western Transvaal, believing that a God-given opportunity to restore republican independence was at hand. On Sept. 15, 1914, while travelling to Potchefstroom to start the rising, he was (perhaps accidentally) shot dead at a road block by a police patrol. The uprising did not take place, but the ill feeling and suspicion aroused by his death helped foment the rebellion that broke out in October, and he became a martyr for extremist Afrikaner nationalists.