author

D. E. van Velden

Best known for helping preserve a decisive moment in South African history, this writer worked on the official Boer-side record of the peace talks that ended the South African War. The result is a firsthand account with the feeling of history being written as it happened.

1 Audiobook

The peace negotiations between the governments of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State, and the representatives of the British government, which terminated in the peace concluded at Vereeniging on the 31st May, 1902

The peace negotiations between the governments of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State, and the representatives of the British government, which terminated in the peace concluded at Vereeniging on the 31st May, 1902

by J. D. (John Daniel) Kestell, D. E. van Velden

About the author

D. E. van Velden is known as the co-author of The Peace Negotiations between the Governments of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State, and the Representatives of the British Government, which Terminated in the Peace Concluded at Vereeniging on the 31st May, 1902. Project Gutenberg lists him as both an author and the translator of the English edition.

Sources available online describe the book as an official record of the negotiations that led to the Treaty of Vereeniging in 1902, ending the Boer War. The text itself identifies him as secretary to the government of the South African Republic, and other catalog descriptions note that he took shorthand for that government during the talks.

Very little biographical information about van Velden seems easy to confirm from reliable public sources, so most of what can be said with confidence comes through this work. Even so, that single contribution gives him an important place in the historical record: he helped document, and then translate, one of the key political settlements in South African history.