Framed photograph of British and Boer Leaders taken in February 1901

Framed photograph of British and Boer leaders taken on 28 February 1901 at the Middleburg conference, which was the preliminary meeting to negotiate peace, which were to fail. A peace treaty was eventually signed at Vereeniging, 1902.

Back row: Left to Right are Col. Henderson, Van Velden, Major Watson, H Fraser, Major Maxwell, and H. de Jager.

Front row: De Wet, General Louis Botha, Lord Kitchener and Col. Hamilton. The photograph was taken by ?(indistinct) and Savoy, Middleburg, Transvaal. No date appears on the actual photograph.

Photo and frame are in good condition, with a slight nick on the upper edge of the wooden frame.

'The Middelburg proposals, which eventually formed the basis of the final peace treaty, offered the Boers: an amnesty; the repatriation of their prisoners-of-war; the status of first Crown Colony, but eventually selfgoverning; equal standing for the two languages, Dutch and English; respect for property; payment of certain Boer debts and limited compensation; and no change to the franchise as regards "Kaffirs". These were modified by the Colonial Secretary in London, Joseph Chamberlain, to secure the Kaffirs (sic) the same standing as those in Cape Colony and the details of the amnesty offered were changed to grant less safety to Boer sympathisers within British colonial territories. These proposals were rejected by the Boers’ (Albrecht, Sahistory.org.za)  

'Kitchener, in his report of the conference, said that Botha " had showed good feeling." Mr. Chamberlain did not approve of all that Kitchener had proposed, and amended his terms. On the final submission of these to Botha, the latter replied to Kitchener, saying, " After the mutual exchange of views at our interview at Middelburg on the 28th of February, it will not surprise your Excellency to know that I do not feel disposed to recommend that the terms of your letter shall have the consideration of my Government."' (Davitt - The Boer Fight for Freedom, 1902: 488)

The photograph has the following provenance: It was given by Dr George Albertyn to Lionel Wulfsohn. This is an extract from Wulfsohn’s autobiography, The Golden Years: 

'At one of these luncheons in Rustenburg was George Albertyn, a retired dentist who grew up in Middelburg, Transvaal, where his father had been an eminent doctor, and who had been at Wits University with Denis in the 1940s. He was in the process of selling his late father’s home in that town and had come across a most interesting photograph in this house. The photo was of Generals Louis Botha and Lord Kitchener with some leading Boer and British officers, who at the time the photograph had been taken were having preliminary negotiations in Middelburg, prior to drawing up a peace agreement to end the Second Anglo-Boer War. George had read my book Rustenburg at War and had enjoyed it so much that that he graciously decided that he should present this historic photo to me. When we relocated to Plett, I brought this photo with us, and up to now it has occupied an honoured place in my small library.'

'Christian George Albertyn was born on 13 December 1920 in Bethal, Transvaal (South Africa). He moved to Middelburg and then Pietermaritzburg, where his father Dr Christopher James Albertyn was the district surgeon and who later served on the Gluckman Commission to investigate the setting up of a national health service in the 1930s.George started studying medicine at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in 1939. His studies were interrupted by World War II; he enlisted in 1941 and served in Egypt and Italy. He returned home in 1945 and resumed studying medicine, qualifying in 1949. He did his internship at Edenvale Hospital.George worked as a general practitioner in Vereeniging until 1966, when he started his specialisation in radiology at the University of Pretoria, qualifying in 1969. He worked as a radiologist in private practice until he retired at the age of 65 years, and then continued to work as a radiologist at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital until the age of 75 years, where he was involved in teaching registrars. During his career as a radiologist, George served a term as President of the Radiological Society of South Africa' (Obituary in the South African Journal of Radiology, Vol 18, No 1, 2014).