Gustav Thiel’s second wife, Maria, died in Pretoria in June 1906 followed in September 1907 by the deaths of both her eldest son Paul Ferdinand and her husband Gustav. They were all buried in a plot in the Church Street Cemetry in Pretoria which was established in 1867. The plot is not far from the grave of Paul Kruger, the last president of the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek.
The first to be buried in the plot was Catharina Maria Philomina Thiel, the youngest child of Paul Ferdinand Thiel and his wife Philomina . She died at 6 months in November 1902. Philomina’s mother, Katharina Tausend, who passed away in December 1903, was the next person to be buried in the plot.
The burial site was taken care of for many years by Paul Ferdinand’s wife, Philomina (Tausend), and her children, Otto, Hannchen, Max, Albert, and Frieda. When Philomina died in July 1946 she was buried behind her husband Paul’s grave.
Brian Thiel, a grandson of Paul Ferdinand Thiel, describes the Thiel site in his excellent document “The Life and Times of Gustav Thiel”. The three graves with the crosses are of Paul Ferdinand on the left, Gustav Thiel in the middle and his wife Maria on the right. Brian Thiel indicates that the two gravestones, one in front of and one behind Paul Ferdinands grave, are of his son Albert and his daughter in law Violet. When Paul and Philomina’s son Otto passed away in April 1946 in East London an inscription was added to Philomina’s tombstone bearing his name and particulars. Brian Thiel also mentions that the graves were vandalized.
The Thiel graves before the vandalism
I visited the cemetery several times while I lived in Pretoria from 1958 to 1975 and I knew that other family members did the same. It was a great shock to me when I again visited the site in the late 1980’s to see that the three main gravestones were vandalized.
The vandalized burial site
The complete headstone on Gustav Thiel’s grave and the cross on his wife Maria’s grave was lying outside the plot. The other six gravestones were fortunately intact. In the back row are the graves of Philomina, her mother Katharina Tausend and Philomina’s youngest child, Catharina Maria Philomina who died at 6 months. The two smaller gravestones in front of and behind Paul Thiel’s grave are of his son Albert and Albert’s wife Violet.
We made arrangements with a company to clean and repair all three damaged tombstones.
The three damaged gravestones of Paul Ferdinand Thiel, Gustav Thiel and Maria Thiel were repaired, cleaned and erected in their original positions. The bust of Paul Kruger can be seen in the left background in this photo.
The inscriptions on the three central tombstones in the burial plot can be seen on the photos below.
It is likely that the graves were vandalized again. I intend visiting the site when I travel to Pretoria .