WW I – William James Weeks (Africa)

by douggieweeks WW I Africa, WWI

William James Weeks
(b 1879 - 1935)
War Prisoner

William James Weeks , son of James William & Magaretha E (Wolhurter) Weeks, and husband of Elizabeth Petronella Malan and later re-married and the husband of Francina Louisa Theron.

Second Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902– The Boer Wars were a number of conflicts between the British and Afrikaaners, Boers and South Africans. In 1875, Lord Carnarvon, the British Colonial Secretary, proposed a federation of the South African states. Initially, the Boers practiced passive resistance, but they revolted in December 1880. The British found themselves outmanoeuvred and surprised by the skilled Boer marksmen. On 23 March 1891, the British government signed a truce and the Boers were allowed to self-govern in the Transvaal. The Second Boer War broke out on 11 October 1899 when Britain rejected the Transvaal ultimatum. The records found in this collection include lists of South African and Boer prisoners of war from the Second Boer War. The war devastated the land and agrarian society in South Africa. The South African Republican and the Orange Free State were both ended and placed within the British Empire. The war ceased on 31 May 1902 with the Treaty of Vereeniging.

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