STEP BACK IN TIME: A Vryheid attorney at war, remembered
Leo Myburgh opened his own practise named “HL Myburgh Attorney” and had his office at 222 Church Street, Vryheid.
THIRTY three years after the tragic loss of the life of a war veteran, we celebrate the life of Hendrik Leo Myburgh. Born in Paulpietersburg, Natal on December 2, 1910, Myburgh was the eldest of the six children of general Marthinus Wilhelmus Myburgh, and Anna Helena Liversage.
Leo started his schooling career at the Paulpietersburg Primary School and he matriculated from Vryheid High School in about 1928. After matric, he enrolled at the Natal University College in Pietermaritzburg, where he studied law, and there gained his BA LLB. During his time in Pietermaritzburg he played Varsity 1st team rugby as well as cricket.
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On June 26, 1940, at the age of 29 years, no: 62612V, Hendrik Leo Myburgh joined the Union Defence Force at Ladysmith in Natal where he had undergone basic military training. On November 14, 1940, he was posted to the South African Military College at Voortrekkerhoogte, Pretoria with the rank of 2nd lieutenant. Myburgh was later also promoted to the rank of lieutenant and on June 5, 1944 he was promoted to the rank of captain.
During World War II, Myburgh served in Kenya, Egypt and in Italy. Captain Myburgh owned a 35mm camera, which he took along with him to war, and with it he literally took many dozens of pictures of the many places and incidents he had visited and encountered during his service in Kenya, Egypt and Italy.
For his service during the war, captain Myburgh was decorated with: The 1939-1945 Star; The Africa Star and 8 clasp; The Italy Star; The British Defence Medal; The War Medal (1939-1945); The Africa Service Medal.
After the war, Leo Myburgh returned to Vryheid where he was employed as an attorney with the attorney’s firm “Guy Turton and Hannah”, and it is believed that he may have already been in their employ before joining the war effort in 1940. Leo Myburgh later opened his own practise named “HL Myburgh Attorney” and had his office at 222 Church Street, Vryheid. It is told that Leo and Attorney Douglas Hannah were close friends.
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On April 24, 1948, Hendrik Leo Myburgh was married to Anna Elizabeth Potgieter in the Dutch Reformed Church (“Klipkerk”) in Vryheid, and two sons were born from their marriage named Marthinus Wilhelmus “Tinus” Myburgh, who lives on the farm Uitval near Vryheid and owns the store at Besterspruit and Hans Jurie Myburgh, who lives and farms at Almansnek near Vryheid. Anna Elizabeth Myburgh worked as a nursing sister at the Vryheid Government Hospital for many years, and in later years she worked as a sister at the Clinic in Mason Street in Vryheid. Anna also owned the “Robust Dairy” and had delivered milk in Vryheid town. Years later Leo and Anna were divorced, and Anna was later married to Joshua or “Joof” Louwrens, who was a motor mechanic in Vryheid, but Leo did not get married again. Anna Elizabeth Louwrens nee Myburgh born Potgieter, passed away on August 24, 2004 in the Old Age Home in Vryheid and was laid to rest in the Vryheid Cemetery.
After retirement, Leo was employed on a temporary basis with “The Department of Native Affairs” at the Vryheid Magistrates Court, and Tinus Myburgh says that, after his parents were divorced, his father found lodgings with friends at number 243 Breë Street, near the Vryheid Hospital, and he had visited with Tinus on most weekends on Uitval farm.
On the evening of September 12, 1985, at the age of 74, Captain Hendrik Leo Myburgh was killed when his motor vehicle collided with a truck on the Hlobane to Vryheid road. Leo had been on his way from the farm to attend a meeting of the Moth’s in Vryheid, when tragedy struck. Hendrik Leo Myburgh was laid to rest in the Paulpietersburg Cemetery, right next to both his parents.
