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SARAH RAAL
She took part in several battles and skirmishes and witnessed the deaths of fellow Boer fighters and the enemy. She was then captured and spent many months in various concentration camps, sometimes in solitary confinement, while searching for her parents.
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She continuously protested against the horrific conditions in the camps, and bravely confronted the camp officers on many occasions, developing a reputation as a troublemaker.
She was released at the end of the war, and returned to the now-derelict family farm, where she was reunited with her parents and surviving brothers. With the 500 pounds still intact and the British eventually agreeing to honour the receipt for the commandeered sheep, the family was able to begin rebuilding the farm.
Sarah Raal
After the war she married and was urged by friends and family to write a book of her wartime experiences. Met Die Boere in Die Veld was published in 1936 and republished in English in 2000. The story is a straightforward and unique account of the Boer War events from her viewpoint. Much of the story is set in the Southern Free State where the family farm is located.
Raal, Sarah, THE LADY WHO FOUGHT, A young woman’s account
of the Anglo-Boer War, Stormberg Publishers, 2000.
It is 120 pages long, translated by Karen Smalberger with a foreword by Ann Emslie. You can find it on Takealot.
