Fritz (Frederick) Joubert Du Quesne was born in the Cape Colony in 1877 and later moved to Nylstroom in the Transvaal Republic where his parents started a farm. When he was 17 years old, he left for University in London, and then attended the Royal Military Academy in Brussels.
Second Anglo-Boer War
When war broke out in South Africa in 1899 Du Quesne returned to South Africa to join the Boer commandos. He was wounded at Ladysmith and received the rank of captain in the artillery. Du Quesne was captured by the British at Colenso but managed to escape in Durban. He joined the Boers again for the battle of Bergendal but the Boers had to fall back to Mozambique where they were captured by the Portuguese and sent to an internment camp in Caldas da Rainha, near Lisbon.
At this camp he charmed the daughter of one of the guards, who helped him escape to Paris. From here he made his way to Aldershot in England where he joined the British army and got posted to South Africa in 1901, with an officers rank.
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