THE SWISS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA 1652-1970 - swissroots-za.ch

All the lieutenants and junior officers of the regiment together formed the court. They
heard the case and decided on the appropriate sentences which were submitted for
approval to the commanding officer Count de Meuron and his senior officers assembled
in the Castle. Sentence was then pronounced to the waiting prisoners and the regiment,
and immediately carried out on the nearby place of execution. The principal culprit was
hanged, the others scourged, branded and banned to Robben Island for various numbers
of years, there to be put in chains and labour in the quarries.
De Meuron was severely criticised for the harsh sentences passed, but he replied that
the Swiss knew and respected their old laws and that these were very necessary for
maintaining discipline under sometimes very difficult circumstances.
The Regiment is transfered to Ceylon.
By 1786 the effective membership of the regiment had diminished to such an extent
that the Company decided to transfer it to Ceylon. The officers were given the option to
resign, which quite a number did. The Regiment Württemberg arrived at the Cape in
1787 to replace the Swiss and by 1788 the Regiment Meuron had left leaving only a
depot manned by a captain, sergeants and fifty soldiers.
After the regiment had departed from the Cape, officers passing on their way to and
from Ceylon spent pleasant days with compatriots living here. Notable amongst these
were Susanna Margaretha Nicolet of Lignerolle NE, wife of Colonel Robert Gordon,
officer commanding the Dutch forces at the Cape. and her former maid and companion
Anne Albertine Bienvignon of Vufflens-la-Ville VD, married to Jan Christiaan Yselle
of Hasle BE, who provided board and lodging.
A few officers married Cape Town girls who left with them for Ceylon. Some officers
resigned from the regiment in order to settle here. Of these the most prominent Swiss
and the only one whose name lives on in South Africa was Jean-Charles de la Harpe. He
became a successful businessman and farmer, owning at various times farms at
Wynberg, near Elgin, near Mossel Bay where he built a mansion which was recently
declared a National Monument but shortly after was destroyed by fire, and at
Plettenberg Bay. The only surviving historical monument is the funeral hatchment in
the Grootkerk, Cape Town, to commemorate Andre-Urbain de le Nieps Henry of Nyon
VD, Officer Commanding the Regimental Depot.
Two of the Regiment’s officers, Baron de Bonstetten of Berne and Simon de Sandol-
Roy of Canton Neuchatel served the Dutch for a short period as Captains of the
Recruits. Simon Henry de le Nieps Prevost of Nynon VD, after resigning from the
regiment and successfully applying to the Company for a military appointment,
departed for Europe but returned to the Cape in 1803 now known as Colonel Henry, as
Commander and Chief of the Batavian troops.
/ 1 Linder, A.: The Swiss Regiment Meuron at the Cape and afterwards, 1781-1816; 2
KAB, VC 33, Journal, 7.2.1783; 3 KAB, VC 34, Journal, 29.8.1785; 4 KAB, BO 237.
Members of the Regiment in action defending the Cape, 1795.
On 11 June 1795 a British task force of nine vessels appeared in False Bay on a
mission to seize the Cape. The Cape government was not sure whether they were hostile
or not. Further confusion arose when the British produced a letter from Prince William V
of Orange, in which he asked the Cape Government to accept the British as friends and
protectors. The Cape was starved of news. Rumours spread that the Prince of Orange
was in England, that the French had occupied the Netherlands and that the Dutch
revolutionaries had formed a new government. The attitude of the Cape government
toward the British forces who had clearly arrived to take possession of the Cape, was
ambivalent. Opinion was split beween those who favoured the Prince and those who
favoured the new government in Holland.
The garrison at Simon’s Town comprised 60 infantry men and 80 gunners. Colonel
De Lille immediately sent an additional 120 infantrymen and 80 gunners and signal guns
were fired throughout the colony to call up the burgher commandos. Yet at the same time
the British were allowed fresh supplies, could place their sick in the hospital at Simon’s
Town, and every day a limited number of sailors and soldiers were allowed ashore to
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