GRAVE OF "DIAMOND" DE BEER

I have heard the story from my grandfather, Karel Johannes De Beer, when I was a litlle boy that we are relatives of the De Beer on who's farm diamonds were discovered and on which the city of Kimberley was built. Although he was raised in the little Free State town of Petrusburg, next to the railway line to Kimberley, my grandfather may have visited his family as a child. He was also baptized in Kimberley. Since then, I always had this intererst about the wellknown "Diamond De Beer" family name. However, untill very recently and after a lot of research on the De Beer family, I could never found the grave of Johannes Nicolaas De Beer on who's farm, Vooruitzicht, diamonds were discovered. Even the the Rhodes museum in Kimberley could not direct me to the grave of this very famous man. Yes, famous and wellknown all over the world since his name perpetuated along with the international DeBeers Diamond Company. ( Cf Google search:"Only the name perpetuated").

Eventually a certain Gerrit Wessels of Boshof, a small town in the Free State on route from Kimberley to Bloemfontein where I live, took notice of my interest and enquiries about Johannes Nicolaas De Beer's grave, and who may be buried in the Boshof district. Fortunately his mother was related to that part of the De Beer family and subsequently put me into cell phone contact with the original De Beers who still farm near the farm, Smitskraal, where the famous De Beer is buried. I was invited by one of his great grandsons, Dirk De Beer, to show me the grave.

Dirk took a photograph of me next to the tombstone which the DeBeers Diamond Company placed on his and his wife's grave. My search has ended. The photo's in my next Blog tell its own story...