Johan Christian Kriegler was a deacon at the klipkerk, transport rider, businessman and teacher.
Kriegler was responsible for most of the houses built in Fenter Street in Heidelberg.
His life spanned from September 15, 1858, to June 9, 1900. He initially stayed in Wellington and moved to Heidelberg in 1870.
According to scribes, Kriegler was one of the first to volunteer for the Second Anglo Boer War.
He started as a trooper of the 8th South African Mounted Rifles.
After the battle of Paardeberg, he firstly made it to veldkornet and later kommedant.
Kriegler was wounded at the battle of Karee Siding on March 29, 1900. He was shot through the chest and the bullet grazed his spine.
He was transported to a British camp. Kriegler’s wife, Sibella (neé Bosman) was the stepdaughter of JP Maré and was one of Kriegler’s pupils that he taught.
They married on April 5, 1881.
When Sibella received the news by telegram on Kriegler, she packed her and her daughter Janie’s bags and left for Brandfort.
She received two telegrams, one from Ds Adriaan Louw and a second from General Louis Botha. They arrived two days later in Brandfort.
Sibella asked permission from Louw of Heidelberg permission to visit Kriegler. The permission was granted to visit him for one hour.
After the visit, they slept about 10m away from Kriegler but were not allowed to help him.
British General Wavell believed that Kriegler was a high-ranking officer to fight the way he did on the day he was wounded.
Sibella Kriegler and Janie remained at Brandfort, nursing Kriegler, through May and into June. He died on June 9, 1900. Janie believed the lack of adequate medical treatment resulted in her father’s death.
Sibella spent the rest of the war in a concentration camp at Merebank with her four children Janie (17), Fanie (13), Isabella (10) and Johann (2).
Sibella never remarried. She died in 1924 and is buried with her son Fanie in the Heidelberg Kloof Cemetery.
Kriegler’s daughter Janie became one of Dr O’Reilly’s nurses in the concentration camp and also taught in the camp’s school.
Janie married Charles Brink of the Heidelberg Commando and went to live in Pretoria. Janie died in 1971.
Fanie graduated from Oxford University and became a doctor.
He was engaged to Jeanne von Belkum, but she died tragically in 1916. Fanie remained a bachelor for the rest of his days.
Isabella never married and died in 1980. She was buried with her father.
Johann was a toddler during the war and in the concentration camp.
He joined the permanent force at the age of 23 and was commissioned in 1926.
He married Anna, daughter of commandant J van der Walt DTD of the Pretoria South Commando, who was wounded twice during the Boer war.
In 1934, he qualified as a pilot in the SAAF. Johann attended numerous courses in England.
During the Second World War, he served as a brigade commander in North Africa and Italy.
He was decorated with the CBE in 1947 and retired in 1953 to a farm outside Pretoria.
His son, Johann Christiaan Kriegler, an advocate, became a supreme judge of the South African Constitutional Court of South Africa.
