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Artikel in het Algemeen Dagblad

English translation:

" South Africa has not forgotten me

Centennial has not fought in the Boer War From one of our reporters

BRUSSELS - I had just the Dutch army turned back or I heard that there was fighting between the South African and British farmers heavily in South Africa.

As a volunteer, I stepped in early 1900 in Rotterdam aboard a German ship bound for South Africa to fight." On the part of farmers.

That says Teunis Cornelis Keuzenkamp, born on July 5, 1879 in Rotterdam, now living in Brussels, the last veteran of the infamous Boer War.

That war broke out on October 11, 1899, when the peasants revolted against the British rulers. In May 1902, the farmers had the worst of it.

Of the half a million British soldiers were killed and seven were wounded 91,000. The farmers lost five thousand men from a force of 35,000. In English camps died 26,000 women and children to epidemics.

"The ship sailed from Antwerp, Lisbon and Naples to Lourenco Marques in Mozambique . Went by train from there to the South African border at Komatipoort know," the 104 -year-old Teunis still remember exactly .

Adventurer "My father died a brave merchant from Rotterdam , always tried to keep my blood adventurer , a bit in check but did not help mother - love to . "

Keuzenkamp fought under Commander Kruger, Commander General Louis Botha and General Frans Pienaar. "Especially that Pienaar was a tough and sometimes reckless guy and woe if he was one of those Englishmen address.

Of course it was an unequal struggle. We only have Mauser rifles. Englishmen who brought their guns against us in contention. I've seen how they slaughtered an entire farming company. "

Slowly but surely, the peasants were driven back by the English. Teunis Keuzenkamp those tragic months: "On foot, we went through the Kruger Park, for all our horses were slain in the fighting.

What I remember from that trip, monkeys and lions on our way and crocodiles at night with glittering eyes floated in the rivers. "

Truce He finally ended up in a camp in Mozambique. There prevailed dysentery and malaria. In March 1901 Keuzenkamp was transferred to Portugal. There he remained until the armistice between Britain and farmers on May 31, 1902.

Back in the Netherlands, he could no longer earth: "The country had become too small for me, I decided to stabbing to America, where I found work as a waiter in hotels the lake.."

When World War I broke out, Keuzenkamp had to be there again. He hurried back to the Netherlands. "I even stayed until 1924," he says laughing.

He traveled to the French Rouen, where he found work as a ship unloader. "I met my wife, Marthe Wallet, a girl who was twenty years younger than I know. That same year we got married.

"A few weeks later, I wrote my parents that I was married. They insisted my wife to know, and so we went to Rotterdam.

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