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William Hollard

By Eric Bolsmann

William Emil Hollard was one of the most colourful characters of Republican Pretoria. Born in 1835 Pommerania near Danzig, (today Gdansk) on 2 March 1836, he was a German Jew, a painter and glazier by trade, who spoke Polish fluently. He came as a private under his real name, Wilhelm Emil Musiek, with the Anglo–German Legion at the conclusion of the Crimean War in 1856 under Capt. Carl von Brandis and Lieutenant (later Colonel) Schermbrucker to the Eastern Cape. The conditions were that the immigrants, 2351 Legionaires with 373 women and 178 children, settled in and about King William’s Town. The condition were that they remained at least seven years in the province. Shortly after his arrival in 1857, Musiek deserted to Burgersdorp, where he called himself Emil Levondovsky, and from there he travelled to Smitfield in the Free State with two ox-wagons loaded with timber. In Smitfield he became a jailer before moving on to Basutoland (Lesotho) under the assumed the name of one of his former colleagues, Franz Hollard. He engaged himself as a storekeeper but soon his itchy feet carried him to Natal. In 1865 he ran an hotel in Sandspruit in the Ladysmith district, and in 1873 he had advanced to practicing law, in partnership with W. R. Keet, in Wakkerstroom. During a visit to Europe in 1876, the President had verbally instructed the State Secretary to strike his name off the roll on the ground of a criminal charge laid against him. When Hollard applied for re-admission to practice, he explained that he, after successfully completing his examinations as conveyor on the 19th January 1875, and earlier as public procecutor in the Wakkerstroomn district, had been appointed an agent of the Lower Court and thereafter as Procureur of the High Court. The official responsible for criminal prosecutions, he said, had certified that there was no criminal case against him. The application for admission was heard on July 16, 1876. Upon the motion of Mauritz de Vries suspension was withdrawn on February 17, 1877, and during the same year Hollard and his partner Keet built up a very successful practice in Pretoria and became foundation members of the Pretoria Bar. On November 20, 1987, however, one William Leatheren appeared in person and obtained a rule nisi calling upon Hollard to show cause why he should not be struck off the roll. The rule was discharged with costs on December 21, 1877, and this caused Leatheren to publish a pamphlet defaming Hollard as a deserter, a thief and a prison breaker. He attached documents to the flyer in the form of affiadavits he had gathered from people all over South Africa, causing Hollard to try his best to collect and destroy every pamphlet he could lay his hands on. After the annexation of the South African Republic by the British, Hollard was admitted as an advocate and acted as State Attorney until his death, at the age of seventy in April 1906. Although Hollard had great difficulty expressing himself in Dutch, he was known as a brilliant pleader and at times an impassionate orator whose addresses were delivered in a mixture of German, English, Dutch and Yiddish, known as ‘Hollard’s taal.’ With his winks, expressive gestures and innuendos he exercised a remarkable influence over the jury and being pre-eminent in court, not even the judges were able to withstand him. One one occasion, when Hollard mercilessly flayed the self-styled Charles Grant Murray Somerset Steward David Gun of Gunn, an adventurer who had returned to Pretoria from Secucuni Land before the Secucuni War was over. Although he had not been at the front, he was extolled as a hero. The British, however, arrested him and tried him for sedition. Deeply offended by the lawyer's skillful and remorseless attacks, he challenged him to a duel with pistols. According the Sir John Gilbert Kotzé’s Memoirs and Reminiscences, the parties turned up at the appointed place and waited in vain for Gun and Gunn. There is another version, from the pioneer R. T. N. James who claimed to have witnessed the duel at the Race Course in Pretoria West. According to James, everyone was talking about the duel and all wanted to be present, but there should be no bloodshed. A merchant and acclaimed amateur actor by the name of R. Winstanley brought the pistols. That they were so-called ‘property pistols’, that is pistols used on the stage, no-one knew. They were fitted with hammer and percussion caps and when fired, made the same noise as ordinary pistols. A chemist assisted Winstanley to fill a phial with red liquid and inserted this into the barrel of one of them. At the given signal both contestants turned and fired. Gun and Gunn was the first to shoot. It appeared that the challenger had missed his target. Hollard was a better shot. His eyes bulged as he saw the trickle of scarlet on Gun and Gunns’ shirt starting to flow from what he believed was a mortal would. His knees became weak as he imagined himself already dangling on the gallows. Gun and Gunn’s eyes followed Hollard sinking into the grass and as he looked down at his shirt, he too fainted to the applause of Winstanley.

Hollard lived in a stately mansion he had built himself in 1895 at 249 Jacob Maré Street, at the corner of Andries Street across Burgerspark in central Pretoria, which was known as Hollard House. The impressive building with its high gables, antique balconies, large doors and imposing windows was described in Die Transvaaler of 6 January 1955, as “a fairy tale like house that, counting in todays terms, can be described as a castle.” On entering the house, a focal point was the coat of arms of the Transvaal on tiles; a colourful glass mosaic complemented by portraits of High Judge J. G, Kotzé, President Paul Kruger, Commandant-General P. J. Joubert and General Nicolaas Smit. Beyond the entrance hall there was a large reception room whose walls were fitted with wooden panels as well as wooden arches with ornamental carvings. A staircase which was considered the most beautiful of its kind in the Transvaal. The building was, before it was closed to make way for a block of flats called Hollard Place, utilized as a guest house. It was a treasure trove of art, much of which was acquired during the 1960s by the Transvaal Provincial Administration and incorporated into the Pretoria Provincial Building at the corner of Pretorius and Bosman Streets. Being the businessman he was, Hollard accumulated large properties in and around Johannesburg. With his friend and partner Sam Fox he established Marshall’s Township, where a street was named after him. In 1958 the Transvaal and Orange Free State Chamber of Mines requested the Council to close the southern portion of Hollard Street to enable them to develop it as a park. A year later a similar request from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange for the development of the northern portion of the street was agreed to by the City Council. This park was established to mark the 75th anniversary of the city and the mining industry. In Pretoria the name Hollard seems to be forgotten. A photograph of him and of his “fairy tale like house” has survived in the municipal archives.