World War II army veteran of the Lowveld passes away

Jan Hendrik Naudé, fondly known as Oom Fred, passed away on September 20 at the age of 97.

Naudé was one of the oldest living World War II (WWII) veterans in the Lowveld. He was well-known for his involvement in the Memorable Order of the Tin Hats (MOTHs).

According to his daughter, June Johns, he was a Moth for 60 years and a Freemason for 59 years.

“He will be sorely missed and remembered for the legend he was. He was a caring husband, father, grandfather, brother and friend. He passed away after a short illness,” she said.

Naudé was born in Heilbron in the Free State on a farm called Boompie Alleen on March 11, 1924.
During WWII he was sent to Italy. He was a member of the Witwatersrand Rifles Regiment and was a member of the South African Army until the end of the war.

He met his wife, Daphné, in Cairo, where they got married after three months. Together they had seven children, 16 grandchildren, 22 great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.

Johns said her father did everything to the fullest. “He was a very dedicated person. Everything he did, he did properly. He was very involved.”

Karel de Beer, the chairperson of the MOTHs in the Lowveld District, said Naudé was involved in the community.
“There where he was involved he made a positive impact. He was a good example to people around him and others looked up to him.”

Before moving to the Lowveld, Naudé worked in Pretoria as a mechanic.  In a previous interview with Lowvelder, he explained that he was working on a car and the customer asked him to take it on a long drive. He remembered an old army mate, Jimmy Brighton, who had moved to White River.

“I said to Doefie (Daphné) on a Saturday night after I had finished working on the car that we were going to White River,” he told the newspaper at the time.

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“I liked it so much that I wanted to come down here. I came to the Lowveld, to White River, in ’51 or ’52. From White River I went to Malalane, where I stayed for three and a half years.”  At the time of the interview, Naudé said that he loved everything about the Lowveld.

“If you first tasted the water in Nelspruit, you wouldn’t want to drink water from another place.”  According to De Beer, Naudé owned the very first motor garage in White River.

He said his secret to old age and a happy marriage was not to drink, not to smoke and not to play around with other men’s wives.  “There are certain things in life that you can do and you can’t do, but you must be in agreement with one another. Because it pays off dividends.”

Naudé will be honoured by his family and friends at a private service this Friday, which will be streamed on Facebook on Fred Naudé’s livestream.

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