Captured Gen. Cronje and his wife are shipped to St Helena

Date: 3 Apr 1900
Updated: 20 Jul 2026

General Pieter Arnoldus (Piet) Cronje, commandant-general of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR, also known as Transvaal Republic) and his wife Hester, with about 1 000 Republican prisoners of war, left Cape Town for St Helena as prisoners of war during Anglo-Boer War 2 (1899-1902). Cronje surrendered his commando of 4 000 men to British forces at Paardeberg on 28 February 1900 and was banished to St Helena, an island in the Atlantic Ocean, off the west coast of Africa. The prisoner of war camp on St Helena was one of the numerous British camps situated throughout the world. In this camp, the quarters consisted chiefly of tents and shanties patched together from tin plates, corrugated iron plating and sacking. The ages of prisoners varied between nine and eighty-two years.

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How we know this

01Cloete, P.G. (2000). The Anglo-Boer War: a chronology, Pretoria: Lapa.
02Potgieter, D.J. et al. (eds)(1970). Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa, Cape Town: NASOU, v.

Last updated · 20 Jul 2026

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2011, March 16). Captured Gen. Cronje and his wife are shipped to St Helena. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011205

South African History Online (2011) 'Captured Gen. Cronje and his wife are shipped to St Helena', South African History Online, 16 March. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011205 (Accessed: 21 July 2026).

South African History Online, Captured Gen. Cronje and his wife are shipped to St Helena [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011205, (accessed 21 July 2026).

"Captured Gen. Cronje and his wife are shipped to St Helena." South African History Online, 16 Mar. 2011, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011205. Accessed 21 July 2026.

South African History Online. "Captured Gen. Cronje and his wife are shipped to St Helena." South African History Online. March 16, 2011. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011205.