The Foster gang was a group of criminals who operated in South Africa, around Johannesburg and the Rand, between the months of July and September 1914, committing various acts of robbery and murder.
[citation needed] The gang formed in 1914, a few months after William Foster had escaped from Pretoria Prison, where he had been sentenced to 12 years hard labour for robbing a shop.
Then, on Sunday 13 September, at a Big Bottle Store in Doornfontein, a sequence of events began which ultimately was to lead to nine deaths and the most intensive manhunt the South African Police had ever conducted.
A local woman informed the police that she believed that they were living in a small cottage near her house, and three plain-clothes officers were sent to investigate.
[4] Soon the cave was surrounded by police, but before they would surrender William Foster asked to speak to his wife Peggy and his child.
De la Rey's death and subsequent funeral, where it was rumoured that he had been assassinated by the government, was a contributory factor in the Maritz Rebellion of 1914.