Letters from S.J.P. Kruger

Two letters from Kruger, one written to President Brandt of the Orange Free State, requesting help (around the time of the British annexation of the Transvaal, 1877), the other to his grandson, written in exile in Europe, 1903. Written in Afrikaans, with a transcription and translation of the first letter.

Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger (1825-1904) emigrated across the Vaal in 1839. He was made Commandant General of the South African Republic, 1863 and a Member of the Executive Council, 1872. He visited Great Britain as a delegate from the Transvaal, 1883 and travelled in Holland and Germany, 1884. He was President of the Transvaal Republic, 1882-1900, being re-elected three times, and left the Transvaal to seek refuge in Holland during the South African War, 1900. He was married three times, to Miss Du Plessis, then her neice, who died in 1891. His third wife died in 1901.

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Collection level description created by Paul Davidson, Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies at Rhodes House.

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Letter book and press cuttings relating to Montagu White's diplomatic mission to the United States as a representative of President Kruger on behalf of the South African Republic, 1899, 1900 (ref. MSS. Afr. s. 116, 117); xerox copies of five letters from Cecil John Rhodes to Sir Robert Herbert, including references to Kruger's opposition, 1889 (ref. MSS. Afr. t. 14, ff. 113-141).