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After serving briefly on commando, Charles' father, Philip, took the Oath of Neutrality and returned to his farm. The British military undertook to protect surrendered burghers against the efforts of their compatriots to get them to return to their commandos. Unable to implement this policy effectively, the British started the scorched earth campaign - rounded up the men and sent them away as prisoners-of-war, and destroyed the farms. In September 1901 Philip and his family decided to flee. They joined another 30 or 40 families, trekking away from the British. The troops found their laager, and Philip and Charles hid in a cave. They were captured in January 1902 and transported in open coal trucks to Durban, from where they were shipped to India. Philip’s wife, Charlotte, along with the younger children, was captured and interned in the Winburg concentration camp.
The war's scorched earth campaign was the first in modern conflict in which civilians were deliberately targeted as a way of shutting down the support networks of a guerrilla army. By mid-1902, 200 000 whites and 100 000 blacks were homeless and destitute. Thirty thousand Boer captives were held in India, Ceylon, St Helena and Bermuda, while their wives and children were held in concentration camps across South Africa.
Shortly after the war ended, Charles and Charlotte recorded their experiences. Charles also made a tape-recorded interview in the 1960s. The Anglo-Boer War Museum in Bloemfontein has the letters that Philip and Charles wrote from Ceylon to their family. Charles died in 1970. This book draws on these sources and other contemporary documents to describe a family going through that war. It also includes some introductory genealogy, information about the Winburg district and the build-up to the war. The book is illustrated with photographs from private and museum collections. There is much information about not only the DU PREEZ family but also about the VON MALTITZ family (their neighbours) and the WESSELS family, as well as a number of sharecroppers or bywoners that lived on the farm and later acquired their own farms. Boer Boy is also available in Afrikaans, titled Boerseun.
Philip and Charles brought back a love of polo from their time in India. The DU PREEZ and VON MALTITZ families became well-known in South African polo circles. The Hammonia area, close to Ficksburg, became one of the polo playing areas. At one stage three of the four Springbok polo players came from Hammonia.
Chris SCHOEMAN was born in Somerset East and has master's degrees in history from the University of Port Elizabeth and Colorado State University. He has worked as a historian and journalist and has authored and co-authored several books.
The DU PREEZ family tree:
Phillipe DU PREEZ born circa 1681 in Courtrai; died 21 May 1721 in Tulbagh, South Africa.
Son of Hercule DU PREEZ (born 1645 in Flanders) and Cecile D'AHTIS (born 1650 in Courtrai)
Phillipe married Elizabeth PREVOST (born 31 Oct 1683 in Les Attiques) in 1698 in the Cape.
Their children included Jacobus DU PREEZ (baptised 27 Sept 1711; died 04 Feb 1747 in Tulbagh)
Jacobus married Maria Susanna THERON (died 15 Jan 1797) in Drakenstein on 28 May 1741.
Their children included Pieter DU PREEZ (born at Patriarg Farm, Zeekoegat, Riversdal, and baptised 29 Dec 1748)
Pieter married Johanna DE BRUYN (baptised 02 Sept 1753) on 21 Oct 1770. He died on 12 Dec 1829 at Zeekoegat, Swellendam.
Their children included Jacobus Lodewicus (baptised 01 Nov 1772)
Jacobus Lodewicus married Susanna Jacomina MULLER (born 1772) on 26 Mar 1797. He died on 06 Sep 1851 in Riversdal.
Their children included Philippus Anthonie (born 26 Dec 1814)
Philippus Anthonie married Salomina Magdalena Christoffelina MULLER on 03 Nov 1838 in Swellendam.
He died on 09 Mar 1900 at Wonderkop Farm, Senekal.
Their children included Philippus Anthonie (born 27 Oct 1844)
Philippus Anthonie married twice - first to Elisabeth Susanna WESSELS and then to Charlotte Aletta Ann HOPKINS (born 07 Apr 1867).
Elisabeth died in 1888.
He married Charlotte on 16 Oct 1888.
Their children were:
1) Philip Charles born 04 Nov 1891; died 1970 (married Alida Roos VON MALTITZ on 01 Jun 1925)
2) Ruby Edna born 26 Sep 1894 (married Jan Abraham VAN DER MERWE in 1919)
3) Nellie born 25 Aug 1896 (married David BOTHA in 1924)
4) Jacobus Lodewicus (born 02 Feb 1899; died 1952; married Henrietta RADLEY)
5) Charlotte (born 18 Dec 1903, married Andries RADLEY in 1925)
6) Helgard Marthinus (born 09 Apr 1906; married Jeanette VAN DYK in 1933)
Philippus Anthonie died on 20 May 1918 at Wonderkop Farm, Senekal. Charlotte died on 17 Aug 1949.
Charlotte Aletta Ann HOPKINS was the daughter of Charles Kingsley HOPKINS (born 16 Mar 1823; died 05 Mar 1889) and Johanna Gertruida Margaretha BOSMAN (born 08 May 1829; died 26 Dec 1883 in Heidelberg).
Charles was the son of Henry HOPKINS and Maria Helen HIBBERT (baptised 05 Nov 1784) who married on 01 Dec 1812.
He was born in Dulwich, London, England.
Charles arrived at the Cape in 1840.
He first married Johanna Gertruida Margaretha Elizabeth BOSMAN on 26 Jan 1847.
He married Johanna Petronella SCHOLTZ ((born 29 Mar 1843 in Worcester; died 11 May 1920; buried at Old Cemetery, Knysna) on 12 Aug 1884. She was the widow of Johannes Urbanus HUMAN who died on 23 Apr 1878. After Charles' death, she married J.C. TRUTER in about 1900.
Charlotte was recorded as "fled when the British came" in the Winburg camp register on 17 September 1901. Her husband was recorded as " Philippus Antonie, aged 58, on farm". The children put into the camp with Charlotte were recorded as Ruby Edna (7 years old), Nelly (5 years old) and Jacobus Lodewicus (2 years old). Charlotte and the children left the camp on 13 December 1901 for their farm.