In Memory of the Count de Villebois-Mareuil Former Colonel of the Foreign Legion in France General of the Transvaal Died on the Field of Honour near Boshof on 5 April 1900 in his 53rd year
COLONEL DE VILLEBOIS MAREUIL, A FORGOTTEN FRENCH HERO OF THE BOER WAR Georges Henri Anne-Marie Victor de Villebois de Mareuil (joint project led by the French Embassy's Defense Mission and the McGregor Museum)
Georges Henri Anne-Marie Victor de Villebois de Mareuil was born on March 22, 1847, in Nantes. At the age of 16, he entered the Saint-Cyr Military Academy. Upon graduation, he joined a Marine infantry regiment and began his military career in Cochinchina (southern part of Vietnam). During the war of 1870, he commanded an infantry company. He took part in the defense of the city of Blois against the Prussians, during which he was severely wounded.
Promoted to captain in 1871, he entered the War College in 1877. He then spent most of his career in the African colonies between 1881 and 1893. He took part in the Tunisian campaign before being appointed chief of staff of the Division of Alger and promoted to the rank of colonel, making him, at 45, the youngest colonel in the French army. In 1893, he requested to take part in the Madagascan expedition, but his plan was rejected by his superiors. To strengthen his chances of being selected for the expeditionary force, Villebois-Mareuil joined the 1st Regiment of the Foreign Legion based in Sidi Bel Abbès in 1895. Although he commanded the regiment for six months he was not chosen to join the expeditionary force. Furious at not being selected he left the French Army in 1896.
Georges de Villebois-Mareuil joined the Boers in 1899, at the start of the Second Anglo-Boer War (South African War), to fight the British. On 17 March 1900, Colonel de Villebois-Mareuil was appointed Combat-General by President Paul Kruger and took command of all foreign volunteers. He fought in Natal (KwaZulu Natal) during the early battles and participated in several operations in the Orange Free State before being killed on 5 April 1900 at Boshof, near Kimberley, during an engagement with British forces under Lord Methuen. His small force was surrounded and overwhelmed. The British buried him in the Boshof cemetery with full military honours acknowledging his bravery. During the latter part of the 1960s, de Villebois-Mareuil's remains were reinterred at the Boer Memorial close to the Magersfontein battlefield site.
Magersfontein Burgher Monument
Burials at this monument have taken place on three different occasions. Those who died of wounds at the Boer casualty station (then Bissett's farm) across the road; those re-interred during the late 1920's and commemorated on the memorial standing under the apex of the monument; and those re-interred during the 1960's from areas within a radius of about 100 km thereof.
The monument was designed by Bosman and Smal Architects and unveiled in 1969. The four sides of the pyramid represent the union of the four provinces, while the three spaces between the eastern columns symbolise the three years of the war. From above the memorial appears as a perfect cross.
Amongst the casualties buried here are Adriaan de la Rey, eldest son of Gen J.H. de la Rey; the French Colonel, the Comte de Villebois-Mareuil; Scandinavian volunteers; a lone British soldier and a woman, Nurse Combrinck