Sarel Cilliers

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Sarel Arnoldus Cilliers was a Voortrekker leader and a preacher. With Andries Pretorius, he led the Boers to a huge victory over the Zulus at the Battle of Blood River in 1838. In particular, Cilliers lead the Voortrekkers in a vow which promised that if God would protect them and deliver the enemy into their hands, they would build a church and that the day of their victory would be commemorated as if it were a Sunday by them and their descendants.

He was a prominent member of the Gereformeerde Kerk (Reformed Church), an offshoot of the Dutch Reformed Church. He is described as being a short, stout man, and was believed to have been very religious. He joined the Great Trek at the age of thirty-five. ^[1]

The town of Kroonstad was, according to folklore, named after a horse belonging to Cilliers, which drowned in a stream (Kroonspruit) where the town is situated.

There is a Sarel Cilliers Museum as well as a statue of him (on the site of the Dutch Reformed Church) in Kroonstad. Numerous streets and roads in Kroonstad and throughout South Africa are named after him.

[edit] The Cillier Name

The progenitor of the Cillier name in the region was a French Huguenot refugee named Josué Cellier from Orléans France who arrived in the Cape in 1700. ^[1] Other variations of the name include: Celliers / Cillie / Celliers and Sellier.