TOPIC:

A better copy of that photo

Thanks Rob; that’s a really good idea to do something for SA History. They do great work and I love their articles. First I have to finish updating Haldane’s book, ‘How We Escaped From Pretoria’. (Available for download from Internet Archive, see link below.) He’s a very good raconteur as you can tell from his report. In his work he inexplicably does not cover the action at the train; writing

“I am not going to recount the events of that day, which already have been portrayed by an abler pen than mine.”
Now I can fill in that blank for him.

Apart from that, this action would make a very nice stand alone article and I won’t stand in anyone’s way if they want to take it on. The text can be used by anyone, that’s why I posted it. We’re supposed to ask the Churchill Centre if we want to re-use the images but I’m not sure why because they are Crown Copyright. That said, the Churchill Centre was really, really helpful in helping suss out the last 30% of the text I could not decipher and very easy to deal with.

I’d love to see an image of the telegram Rob referred to and the comments by Danie Theron. I can get translations done.

Full title of Haldane's Book. Sir James Aylmer Lowthorpe Haldane Aylmer Haldane, How We Escaped from Pretoria. Edinburgh: W. Blackwood. 1901 How We Escaped from Pretoria

One last call for anyone who might have a copy of Haldane's 1948 Autobiography. He's a little caustic towards Churchill and I'd love to know what he has to say ~50 years after the event. A Soldier's Saga: The Autobiography of General Sir Aylmer Haldane, by Sir James Aylmer Lowthorpe Haldane Publisher: W. Blackwood, 1948

Just FYI: A couple of images inscribed Photo by L. Botha. He might have been the photographer since I don't recognize him in either picture.

Note Heliograph on RH Side

A Rene' Bull Sketch

Payton,
My voorstel vir ń bron is "Generaal Louis Botha op die Natalse Front", geskryf deur Prof C J Barnard (Balkema, Kaapstad, 1970), bladsye 37-39.
Sterkte.
Rob

75 mm Krupp Q.F. common shell, with armour-piercing head, found at the site of the Armoured Train Disaster.
With thanks to Duggie McMasters (Block House Museum, Ladysmith) and M C Heunis.




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Here are two more armoured train related pieces. A detail from a German machine-made tapestry, showing a group of Boers lying in ambush, as an armoured train approaches, and a magic lantern slide depicting the engagement near Chieveley.





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A better copy of the Horace Nicholls photograph of Armoured Train No. 53 - "Embarking on a perilous journey. (Armoured train destroyed at Chieveley)".

Copy of an original print held in the archive of the Royal Photographic Society, Bath.







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