Hendrik Johannes Van Der Bijl 1887-1948

Hendrik Johannes van der Bijl was born in Pretoria on 23 November 1887. His father, Pieter Gerhard van der Bijl, was of the seventh generation to be born in South Africa. The first of the line, Gerrit van der Bijl, landed at the Cape in 1668 to join the sixteen-year-old settlement which had been established by the Dutch East India Company to provide for the needs of the ships which called there for fresh provisions. Six generations of the family had lived in the pleasant wine-farming districts of the Western Province of the Cape when the discovery of the Kimberley diamond fields led Hendrik’s father to make his home in the developing north. As a youth of some sixteen years, Pieter van der Bijl took to the transport-riding of goods by ox-wagon between the Cape and Kimberley, then settled for a time in the town of Boshof near Kimberley, where he married and owned an hotel and finally moved to Pretoria in 1887. Hendrik’s mother was Plester Groenewald of Boshof, and he was the fifth of a family of eight children. In Pretoria, Pieter van der Bijl became a prosperous grain and produce merchant and was much respected for his ability and for the service he rendered in administrative and financial matters to his church and to other bodies. Hendrik van der Bijl grew up in troubled times. His home town was the capital of the Transvaal Republic and as a child of eight he saw and felt the unrest and bitterness caused by the ill-starred Jameson Raid and helped his father, a Field-Cornet, to stack the rifles and ammunition hurriedly collected by the Boer forces.