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Deneys Reitz | |
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Born | [1] | 2 April 1882
Died | 19 October 1944[1] | (aged 62)
Resting place | Magale, Mariepskop 24°33′56″S 30°53′37″E / 24.56556°S 30.89361°E |
Nationality | South African citizenship from 1910 to 1944 |
Citizenship | ![]() |
Occupation(s) | Soldier, attorney, author, cabinet minister, and High Commissioner[1] |
Known for | High Commissioner of South Africa to the United Kingdom from 1943 to 1944 |
Spouse | Leila Agnes Buissiné Wright (1887-1959)[1] |
Children | Francis William Reitz[1] Claude Michael Deneys Reitz |
Parent(s) | Francis William Reitz, Blanka Thesen[1] |
Deneys Reitz (1882–1944), son of Francis William Reitz, was a Boer warrior who fought in the Second Boer War for the Boer Republics against the British Empire. After a period of exile in French Madagascar he returned to South Africa, where he became a lawyer and founded a major South African law firm. In the First World War he fought for the Union of South Africa against the German Empire, and then was an officer in the British Army, commanding several battalions. In later life he was a politician. Deneys Reitz was educated at Grey College, Bloemfontein.
While in exile in Madagascar, he wrote about his experience of the Second Boer War (1899–1902). When it was eventually edited and published in 1929 as Commando: A Boer Journal of the Boer War, it still had the freshness and detail of an account written soon after the war. The account is unique in that he was present at virtually every major event of the war.