MEYER (MELER), LUKAS JOHANNES
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Lukas Johannes Meyer (Meijer) “The Lion of Vryheid,” (November 19, 1846-August 8, 1902) was a general, president of the Volksraad, and prominent military and political leader. He was the eldest son of Izaak Johannes Meijer and Martha Maria Elizabeth Landman.
PHOTO CAPTION: Meyer (Meler), Lukas Johannes SOURCE: EA Library.
He spent his years as a young man in the Ladysmith and Newcastle districts of Natal before returning to his native Transvaal in 1865. In 1872 he became a field cornet at Utrecht. Strongly opposed to the British annexation of the Transvaal in 1877, he was wounded at the Battle of Ingogo during the first Anglo-Boer War (1880-1881).
After a spell as Landdrost of Utrecht he was elected leader of the group of Boers which gave military assistance to Dinuzulu, son and heir of the late Zulu king Cetshwayo, against his arch-rival, the chief Zibhebhu. This aid proved decisive, for at the battle of Itshaneni (June 6, 1884) Dinuzulu’s forces supplemented with 100 Boers overwhelmed Zibhebhu.
In return, Meyer received a very substantial tract of territory in northwestern Zululand. This came to be known as the New Republic where he served both as Commandant-General and President. Although the New Republic was incorporated into the Transvaal Republic in 1888 he continued to play a prominent role in public affairs.
In 1890 he was made commissioner of the Transvaal’s southern borders and three years later was elected member of the Volksraad, a body of which he became chairman in 1899. In the interim, he served on several official commissions of inquiry. Politically he was a supporter of Joubert and favoured the extension of further rights and liberties to the Uitlanders.
During the Second Anglo-Boer War, he served as a general with responsibility for the southern commandos in the Transvaal and saw action in Natal in the earlier phase of the war. Ill health plagued him and after the fall of Pretoria in June 1900, he took no further active part in the fighting.
He did, however, become a member of the Executive Council and participated in the peace negotiations. He was one of the signers of the Treaty of Vereeniging. He suffered a heart attack while on a visit to Europe and died there. Meyer was among those responsible both for forging an Afrikaner political identity and for bringing the period of overt Boer-British hostility to a close.
P. J. COLENBRANDER
