General Louis Botha died of heart failure at his home following an attack of Spanish influenza on 27 August 1919. He was 56. Winston Churchill paid the following tribute to General Botha – “The three most famous generals I have known in my life won no great battles over a foreign foe. Yet their names, which all begin with a ‘B’, are household words. They are General Booth, General Botha and General Baden-Powell.”
After the fall of Pretoria in June 1900, Louis Botha led the guerrilla campaign against the British. After two years of guerrilla warfare, Botha was prominent in efforts to achieve a peace with the British, representing the Boers at the peace negotiations in 1902, and was signatory to the Treaty of Vereeniging. In the period of reconstruction under British rule, Botha went to Europe with de Wet and de la Rey to raise funds to enable the Boers to help reconstruct the damage caused by the British scorched earth policy and concentration camps.
