Veg-Generaal Benjamin Johannes “Ben” Viljoen, a Boer War General died on this day in 1917. He was born in Wodehouse (Cape Colony) and was a South African Freemason. He was involved with the Krugersdorp Commando during the Jameson Raid. When the Boers crossed into Natal at the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War he was with the Johannesburg Commando, and saw action at the Battle of Elandslaagte.
During the Guerrilla phase of the war he commanded all Boer forces in the then Eastern Transvaal with his most high profile action being that at Helvetia on 29 December 1900. He was captured near Lydenburg on 25 January 1902 and was sent to a prisoner of war camp on St. Helena Island.
Ben Viljoen travelled to Mexico in 1904 and together with many other disillusioned Boers formed a farm colony in Mexico with the assistance of Theodore Roosevelt. Between 1904 and his death in 1917 he had an interesting history in both Mexico and the United States of America. He became an American citizen in 1909 and died at his farm in La Mesa on 14 January 1917. He is buried at the Masonic Cemetery in La Mesa, New Mexico.
