Willem Steenkamp’s biography, fact, career, awards, net worth and life story

Willem Steenkamp is a South African author, journalist, historian, military analyst and citizen soldier. He has published a number of books and consults widely in military affairs.

Awards

• Cited in 1967 and 1968 in United Press International’s annual selection of its best news feature articles worldwide.
• Awarded the Settlers’ Prize for Enterprising Journalism in 1982.
• Awarded the Maskew Miller Prize (co-winner with James Ambrose Brown) in 1983 for the Anglo-Boer War novel “The Blockhouse”.
• Awarded the Lady Usher Memorial Prize in 1985 for the historical novel “The Horse Thief”.
• Awarded the Barcom Prize for Professional Military Writing in 1988 for an essay on future amphibious assault personnel requirements.

Appointments

• Justice of the peace (appointed 1993).
• UN international election observer (appointed 1994).
• Member of the Ceremonial Staff Board (advisory body to the SANDF’s Director of Ceremonial and Military Music) up to 2004.
• Member of the VOC Foundation.

Military Service

List of postings and tasks

• 1958: Called up for Active Citizen Force service: Study deferment.
• 1961 – 1965: Routine non-continuous regimental service.
• 1966 – 1969: On inactive reserve.
• 1969 – 1979: Regimental service (training and operational).
• 1980 – 1983: Seconded to 71 Motorised Brigade staff.
• 1984 – 1990: Regimental service (training and operational).
• 1990 – 1992: Seconded to 75 Motorised Brigade/9 SA Division staff.
• 1993 – to date: Regimental service, in various capacities: inter alia officer in charge of designing and implementing the wreath-laying at Woltemade Cemetery by HM Queen Elizabeth II, 1995.
• Extra-regimental/staff employment:
  • Secondments to 71 Motorised Brigade and 75 Motorised Brigade/9 SA Division, as noted.
  • Observer on three external operations, 1979 – 1985.
  • Minute-taker/diarist: Operation Sclera (1984 South African – Angolan Joint Monitoring Commission).
  • Member/scriba of official SADF delegation sent to attend national convention of United States Reserve Officers’ Association at Nashville, Tennessee, July 1993; also visited ROA head office in Washington DC for confidential briefing to convey to SA Minister of Defence
• 1997 – 1998: Member of the SA National Defence Force’s Education, Training and Development Team (with Lt Col A. M. Marriner JCD) revising Reserve Force training

Military Awards

Published Books

• Ngami! (1971). Fictionalised re-telling in Afrikaans, for mid-teenagers, of explorer Charles John Andersson’s epic mid-19th-Century trek from Walvis Bay to Lake Ngami.
• Land of the Thirst King (1975 – reprinted 1979). Historical/contemporary travel book about Namaqualand (North-West Cape Province).
• Adeus Angola (1976). First account of the initial South African military incursion into Angola (now a standard reference work).
• The Soldiers (1978). Short interlinked biographies of Generals Christiaan de Wet, Koos de la Rey, Sir Henry Timson Lukin, Sir Jaap van Deventer, Dan Pienaar and Evered Poole
• Poor Man’s Bioscope (1979). Historical/contemporary travel book about Cape Town
• Moedverloor (1980). Historical novel, in Afrikaans, about Great Namaqualand (now Namibia) in the 19th Century
• Sê vir Leonardo (1980). Contemporary action novel, in Afrikaans, set in Cape Town
• Aircraft of the South African Air Force (1981). Illustrated survey of contemporary SAAF aircraft; later reprinted as Jane’s Book of the SAAF (now a standard reference work)
• Borderstrike! (1983). First detailed account of early South African military incursions into Angola, 1978–1980 (now a standard reference work). Expanded/re-edited edition 2003
• Namakwalandse Oustories (1983). Re-telling, in Afrikaans, of traditional Namaqualand folk-tales
• Christmas Story/Kersverhaal (1984). Re-telling of the Nativity, in separate English and Afrikaans versions, from the viewpoint of the animals in the stable
• The Horse Thief (1985). Historical novel set in Namaqualand in the 1870s (winner of 1985 Lady Usher Memorial Prize, and later staged at Nico Malan Theatre, Cape Town)
• Blake’s Woman (1986). Historical novel set in 19th-Century Great Namaqualand (now Namibia)
• The Blockhouse (1987). Historical novel set at the end of the Second Anglo-Boer War (co-winner of Maskew Miller Prize)
• South Africa’s Border War, 1966–1989 (1989). Illustrated history of the SWA/Namibian border war (now a standard reference work); due for facsimile reprint in 2014
• Jim Zulu (2006). Historical novel set in the Kimberley diamond diggings area of the 1880s, inspired by South Africa’s only known case of public lynching
• Assegais, Drums and Dragoons (2012). The early military and social history of the Cape of Good Hope, 1510–1806
• The Black Beret: the history of the SA Armoured Corps, Volume 1 (early beginnings up to 842 Madagascar campaign) 2016)
• SA’s Border War 1966-1989 (revised and updated edition) (2016)
• SA se Grensoorlog 1966-1989 (revised and updated edition) (2016)
• Mobility Conquers: The Story Of 61 Mechanised Battalion Group 1978–2005, with Helmoed-Römer Heitman (September 2016)

Work in progress: Volume 2 of SAAC history (the Italian campaign)(scheduled for publication in 2017)