Anna Johanna Dorothea de Villiers was a linguist, writer, and educator. She born on 24 December 1900 on the farm Saxenburg, Kuilsrivier. She was the eldest of six daughters and two sons of George Jacob de Villiers and his wife Anna Johanna Jacoba Bester. De Villiers received her first school education through Dutch as a medium of instruction, first from a governess and later from a man employed by her father to teach his children as the nearest school is too far.

Bertha Solomon was born on 1 January 1892 in Minsk, Russia. At four years, she and her older sister were taken by their mother, Sonia Schwartz, to join their father, a Zionist pioneer, Idel Schwarz, in Cape Town. She graduated from the Anglican Diocesan College in 1911 with a BA degree in Classics, and then the South African College where she received a MA degree. Thereafter she taught Latin at Milburn House School for Girls in Cape Town, Western Cape where she met her husband Charles Solomon.

The name comes from the word: 'Potscherf'- (meaning broken pot). This was due to the cracks that appear in the soil of the Mooi River Valley during a drought.