Biography

On the 26th April 1900, the South African Cultural Historian, Dr Willem Henri Jacobus Punt was born in Elandsfontein (Germiston today). He was the son of Dutch immigrants, Jacob Punt and his wife Cecile Ruwers. They were both born in the Netherlands, Jacob in Amsterdam and Cecile in Hilversum. In 1893, Jacob came to South Africa and was employed by NZASM (Nederlandsche Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorweg-Maatschappij). He became the Station Master at Elandsfontein before the outbreak of the Boer War in 1899. During the war he was imprisoned by the British and in May 1900 was deported back to Holland with his wife and son Willem of 6 weeks. The family returned to South Africa in 1904 with an added sibling for Willem, his sister Cecile Punt who was born in Holland.

Willem Punt (Bulletin)

At the age of 14, he had already decided to become an Historian and find where the Van Rensburg Trek had been massacred and where the graves of the Louis Trichardt Trek were in Delagoa Bay (Lourenço Marques). His research on the Voortrekkers, Louis Trichardt and the Van Rensburg Trek started in 1928 and was completed in 1945. From this date, more expeditions were taken to finalize certain aspects of his research. This research comprised of 14 expeditions through the bush, rivers and the wild to Delagoa Bay. It earned him his PhD at Stellenbosch University in...

Another process of research, another unlikely link uncovered between Hermanus and events of world significance a long way away. This time it is the “Burma Campaign” that took place in the country we now call Myanmar between 1942 and 1945. It started with the Japanese invasion of Burma in preparation for the final target – the invasion of India and access to natural resources to sustain the Japanese military campaigns. For the Western Allies High Command, however, the bitter fighting in Burma was seen as far less important than defeating the German forces in Europe. Indeed, the Burma Campaign has often been called “the forgotten war”.

Yangon (known in the 1940s as Rangoon) is roughly 10 000 kms from South Africa, so connections between the two countries seem unlikely, never mind a link between Burma and a specific small town in South Africa. But it exists in the persons of Berdine Luyt, Gertrude Grant and a previously little-known teak planter, elephant whisperer and Member of the Order of the British Empire, Major Harold Langford-Browne.

Harold Browne (as he was known in Hermanus and surrounds in the 1960s) was born in Cape Town in 1907. At present, I do not have his South African family details. He attended school here, but went to Britain for his university education. After graduating he decided not to return to South Africa, but joined the major private company operating in Burma, the Bombay Burma Trading Company. One of the many activities of the company was the...