Gideon Scheepers (1878–1902) was a Boer military leader, scout and

heliograph A heliograph () is a semaphore system that signals by flashes of sunlight (generally using Morse code) reflected by a mirror. The flashes are produced by momentarily pivoting the mirror, or by interrupting the beam with a shutter. The heliograp ...

er during the Anglo-Boer War (also known as the South African war). He is remembered for having been executed for war crimes.

Early years

Gideon Jacobus Scheepers was born on 4 April 1878 in

Middelburg Middelburg may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Europe * Middelburg, Zeeland, the capital city of the province of Zeeland, southwestern Netherlands ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Middelburg, a former Catholic diocese with its see in the Zeeland ...

in the

Colony of Transvaal The Transvaal Colony () was the name used to refer to the Transvaal region during the period of direct British rule and military occupation between the end of the Second Boer War in 1902 when the South African Republic was dissolved, and the ...

. When he turned 16 he trained as a heliographer (a specialist trained to use a mirror and sunlight to transmit messages to other troops) in the State Artillery. In 1898 he was seconded to the

Orange Free State The Orange Free State ( nl, Oranje Vrijstaat; af, Oranje-Vrystaat;) was an independent Boer sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeat ...

and promoted to sergeant.Taffy & David Shearing, Commandant Scheepers and the search for his grave, published privately in 1999

Anglo-Boer War

He accompanied the Free State commandos to its western border. During the

Siege of Kimberley The siege of Kimberley took place during the Second Boer War at Kimberley, Cape Colony (present-day South Africa), when Boer forces from the Orange Free State and the Transvaal besieged the diamond mining town. The Boers moved quickly to try ...

he shot two captured natives (then the polite term) on the grounds that they were allegedly scouts. General Christiaan de Wet used him as a scout and later promoted him to captain in charge of his own reconnaissance corps.

Invasion of the Cape

In December 1900 Scheepers was a member of commandant Kritzinger's commando that invaded the Cape Colony. Within eight weeks their ways parted when Kritzinger returned to the Free State. After recruiting many Cape rebels, he was promoted to commandant of 150 men, marauding in the Cape. Kritzinger's commando sabotaged British rail and telegraph lines. They executed blacks accused of spying for the British. They burnt houses, shops and public buildings. In September 1901 Scheepers started getting ill. By 10 October, when they were close to the

Prince Albert Road Prince Albert Road is a village located in Laingsburg Local Municipality, Western Cape. History The village of Prince Albert Road owes its existence to the route chosen by Prime Minister John Molteno, in 1872, for the Cape Government Railways's ...

station, he was too ill to stay with his commando and he had to be left behind. The British captured him on 12 October and he was given the necessary medical treatment. By December 1901 he had recovered sufficiently to be taken to the gaol in

Graaff-Reinet Graaff-Reinet is a town in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is the oldest town in the province. It is also the sixth-oldest town in South Africa, after Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Simon's Town, Paarl and Swellendam. The town was the ...

Court martialled and shot

Scheepers faced 16 charges in a court martial: 7 of murder, 1 of attempted murder, 1 that he placed a prisoner in the enemy's line of fire, 1 of maltreatment of a POW, 3 of assault, 2 of malicious injury to property and 1 of arson (15 incidents). 54 witnesses were called to testify for the prosecution. Scheepers appointed his own attorney Carl Auret to defend him. Scheepers was convicted on all counts except one of the murder charges. He was sentenced to death. On 18 January 1902 he was executed by firing squad, while tied to a chair. He was reburied during the night in an unknown grave, and to this day his place of burial is unknown.Johannes Meintjes, Sword in the Sand, Cape Town, Tafelberg,1969, p. 183.

Cultural depictions

Gideon Scheepers
(1982) - an Afrikaans language movie about Scheepers' trial and execution.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scheepers, Gideon 1878 births 1902 deaths People executed for war crimes Orange Free State military personnel of the Second Boer War