BOER WAR SPY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 302, 19 November 1935, Page 2

BOER WAR SPY.

HOW SCHEEPERS ESCAPED

DEATH

THE SECRET REVEALED

Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, Nov. 19. While the people in South Africa are trying to solve the riddle of a man who claimed to be Commandant Gideon Scheepers, the notorious Boer spy who was alleged to have been shot by British troops at Graaf Heinet during the Boer War, a man in Auckland claims he was the sergeant in charge of the firing squad and that he loaded the eight rifles with blank cartridges. Recently a man claiming to be Scheepers stated in Africa that he was led out at dawn to be executed, but a friendly sergeant distributed blank cartridges, permitting his escape after he had simulated death. After the Boer War, the spy’s “grave” was opened by a commission of inquiry, who found it to be empty. Following the recent claim, a member of the Coldstream Guards, Wilfred Harrison, swore that he saw Scheepers shot through the heart and saw a doctor certify him as dead, and that he assisted at the burial. “I noticed the paragraph in the Auckland Star on Saturday,” said a man who camo to the newspaper office to-day. “I am the sergeant who was in charge of Scheeper’s firing squad and I loaded all the rifles with blanks.” This man, who was also an artillery officer in the Great War, explained that two months previously he and his company commander were captured by the Dutch and ordered to be shot, but Scheepers cut them loose and gave them their horses. They escaped. When Scheepers was about to be shot later, the company commander and sergeant whom he had saved arranged with the firing party so that the spy would be able to simulate death and be buried for the whole day, excepting his head, and escape at nighttime in the uniform of a British trooper. The ex-sergeant, who has resided in Auckland for 13 years, remains anonymous, but he says that if he can help Scheepers in any way he will gladly do so.