Cornelis van Gogh was born on 17 May 1867, to his
middle-class parents, Theodorus and Anna, who was 47 years old when he was born. He was the third boy and youngest brother of
Vincent van Gogh and siblings
Theo, Anna, Elisabeth "Lies", and
Wil. His more famous brother Vincent was 14 when Cor was born. Over the years, Van Gogh and his sister
Wil lived in
Zundert,
Helvoirt,
Etten and
Nuenen. Unlike his eldest brother, Van Gogh followed a technical career path. In April 1885, just before he turned 18, Van Gogh began an
apprenticeship at a factory in Helmond. In 1887, he moved to
Lincoln,
England, where he honed his technical skills. In 1889, at the age of twenty-two, he emigrated to the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek. By the time he arrived, the small gold diggers had been excluded by large mining magnates who united in 1889 to form the Chamber of Mines. Van Gogh worked on a mine in
Germiston and then, in 1890, (in the same year as his
brother's suicide), began working as a draftsman for the
Dutch South African Railway Company (N.Z.A.S.M.), where for 10 years the railway line network was extended. == Anglo–Boer War and death==