Hendrik Mentz

Hendrik Mentz DTD (8 August 1877 – 3 June 1938) was a South African Party lawyer, politician, soldier and South African Minister of Defence from 1919 to 1924.

Second Boer War During the Second Boer War, Mentz fought under General Ben Viljoen in Natal, being involved in the siege of Ladysmith and the battles of Colenso and Spion Kop. At the end of the war he was serving as chief of staff to Assistant Commandant-General C. F. Beyers. Mentz was wounded three times during the war. Mentz was defeated by Oswald Pirow in the parliamentary election of 1924, and also failed to gain election for the South African Party in 1929, whereafter he had devoted himself to sheep farming and to practising as a solicitor in Pretoria.