Sir Roger Casement hero, yet still hanged.

Roger Casement (1864–1916) was born near Dublin to a Pro­testant father & Catholic mother! After his parents’ early deaths, he spent his childhood with Protest­ant relations and was raised as an Anglo-Irish Protestant among the Uls­ter landed gentry; he was not a starv­ing rev­ol­ut­ionary.

Sir Roger Casement at trial, 

London, July 1916

He joined Elder Dempster Shipping Line Liverpool as a stew­ard and later became British consul in the Congo. In this time Casement mixed loyalty to the British Empire with a desire to expose the atroc­ities of the brutal Belgian rule in the Congo. His cons­ul­ar duties took him to Portuguese East Af­rica then back to the Congo, where in 1903 he was asked to re­port on alleg­ations of widespread at­rocities un­­der the personal rule of King Leopold of the Belgians. His passionate rep­orts of br­utal forced labour in the upper Congo’s rubber industry led to a gov­ern­men­t­al White Paper in 1904. It caused outrage, lead­ing to rad­ical changes in the Congo, which was formally annexed as a Belgian colony.

Casement then lived in Britain where he joined forces with anti-slavery and anti-colonial movements and helped to establish the Congo Reform Assoc­iat­ion. In 1906 he returned to work as the Brit­ish consul in Brasil, where he saw more barbarity ag­ainst local popul­at­ions. Writer Arthur Conan Doyle, who befriended Casement in London in 1910, wrote The Crime of the Congo, and pledged his sup­port for Case­ment’s campaigns against colonial atrocities.

When Casement went to South America, he wrote further reports on the brutal practices of Peruvian Amazon Co, a British-registered rub­ber company working among the Ind­ians. Again there was a media furore! Awarded a knighthood, Sir Roger became wholly disillusioned with his consular role; he wished to re­tire and to explore his own identity.

Casement backed the Irish Volunteer Force which promoted Home Rule, so he initiated gun running into a Dublin port in July 1914. Be­coming increasingly militant, he travelled to the USA and Germany during the Great War, buying arms and recruiting among Ir­ish pri­s­oners of war for an Irish Brigade to be part of an anti-British in­sur­­rection! His politics had always been radical, but now during the Great War, his negotiations with Germany were unbelievably dangerous.

All Sir Roger’s movements abroad were being tracked by the British Secret Services. It was discovered that when he went to Germany via Norway in 1914-6, he got poor res­p­onses from both the German high command and Irish prisoners of war. Con­vinced that an uprising in Ireland now had no chance of succ­ess, Case­ment went home in a German submarine and was captured in Kerry in Ap 1916.

Then Casement was taken to London for trial in July 1916. Old docu­m­ents were found in his luggage by officers from Brit­ain’s Special Branch under Basil Thomson,  a Scotland Yard commissioner. One document was Casement’s legitimate business as a British agent in Brasil from 1910, while 5 were pers­onal diaries that contained graphic details of his homosexual affairs in Africa & South America.

Post-arrest, the British government used these Black Diaries unscrupul­ously, to drum up support for a treason conviction. Knowing how imp­ort­­ant it was to tarnish Casement’s name, Basil Thomson sent the documents to prominent British and American decision-makers, including the American Ambassador in London.

The trial for his role in Ireland’s Easter Rising was horrible. Irishman George Duffy was app­roach­ed to become Casement’s solicitor, but the partners in his leading London law firm clarified that he'd have to resign if he accepted. As no other London barris­ter was found to defend Casement, Gavan Duffy had to look to his brother-in-law A.M. Sullivan. Both these lawyers had long histories of involve­ment in Irish nation­alism, though they loathed the 1916 revolutionar­ies’ violence. Worse, the prosecution team was led by the very pro-Unionist lawyer F.E Smith. And the case was heard before another ard­ent Unionist, Chief Justice Lord Reading!

Newspapers put Casement's hanging on their front pages

Aug 1916
 
After a quick, failed appeal, Casement was hanged at Pentonville Prison in Aug 1916. Justice hadn’t been done: the Black Diaries were distrib­uted, pros­ec­ution and def­ence teams app­eared to collude, the law was from 1351AD and the appeal judge was a biased, ex-Conserv­at­ive MP.

When WW1 ended, Basil Thomson became Britain’s first Director of Int­elligence; this was a crucial time when the fear of Bolshevism over­took fears of German power. Thomson himself was con­sidered too hard­ line, just as the Irish civil war was ending, given the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the Irish Free State in Dec 1921.

When Basil Thomson was sacked, he took copies of Casement’s diaries with him, hoping to supplement his meagre pension. Thom­son passed his cop­ies to a Fleet St reporter, but when the rep­orter tried to publish ex­tracts in 1925, the Home Secretary warned that Thomson would face pro­secution under the Official Secrets Act. Decades passed before the Black Diaries were published in Paris, 1959.

Sir Roger had been a caring human being who, as a result of his exp­er­iences in Africa and South America, raised issues that were crit­ic­al: human rights, corporate duty and environ­mental just­ice. He may have played a minor role in the 1916 Rising, having been isolated in Germ­any seeking guns and men. But he was on the very wrong side in WW1.

Irish President Eamon de Valera speaking at the funeral of Irish nationalist Roger Casement
Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin, 1965.

The Guardian

After a campaign to repatriate his body to Ireland won in March 1965, Casement was buried near Dublin, with a huge crowd. His diaries were placed in the British National Archives Kew in 1994.

Read The Guardian, 2016 by Kevin Grant and “The Irish Volunteer” by Andrew Lycett in History Today, 2016.

Saving Jewish orphans Ochberg 1921

I was fascinated by Isaac Ochberg (1879–1938) who was born in Uman in Russia/now Ukraine. With thousands of other Russians, the Ochbergs went to South Africa in 1894 where Isaac became a successful Cape Town businessman.

Isaac Ochberg, March 1921

aish.com

After the old Czarist regime ended in 1917, rival armies were fighting for control. With law and order failing, transport for many thousands of demob'd soldiers ended. Plus vast armies of German ex-POWs tried to make their way home after the Soviets’ Peace Treaty at Brest-Litovsk.

The battles did not start out as particularly anti-Semitic. But owing to the oppression to which they had been exposed for gener­ations, the lives of the impoverished Jews worsened. With famine and typhoid epidemics, ancient horrors surfaced in the misery. Polish and other peasants joined forces with reactionary officers and troops, to kill Jews in pogroms.

Survivors begged their cousins in South Africa for help. A great surge of compassion swept the South African Jew­ish community who would try to save some of the victims, partic­ul­arly children. But would the Union Government create any difficulties in admitting them?  Ochberg quickly met Gen Jan Smuts, prime minister between 1919–24, who gave the children entry visas. Smuts could have sunk the rescue plan in an instant, had he chosen to. His support was essential and warmly welcomed.

A South African Relief Fund for Jewish War Victims was already in place when Ochberg pro­p­osed that the Cape Jewish Orphanage take responsibility for the children. The Relief Fund had to raise £10,000, enough for 200 or­phans. [Sadly 400,000+ destitute Jewish orphans were eventually found]. By Jan 1921 the Un­ion Gov­ernment agreed to give pound for pound to the Pogrom Orphan Fund.

Someone had to go to Europe, so Ochberg made himself respon­sible in Mar 1921. He travelled to Ukraine for a few dangerous months, vis­iting lots of villages in the Polish Ukraine and Galic­ia. Och­berg proceeded from town to town, visiting Minsk, Pinsk, Lodz, Lemberg, Stanislav and Wlodowa etc. When a letter came to him from Port Elizabeth's com­munal leaders, Ochberg answered and expressed his very great thanks for their boxes of second-hand clothing. The gen­er­os­ity displayed by South African Jewry made it possible to rescue the children. Otherwise they would surely have died of st­arvation, disease or Ukrainian pogrom wounds.

At first Pinsk was isolated by the fighting and Ochberg and helpers were thrown on their own resources. The 3 Jewish orph­an­ages in Pinsk had few beds, bedding and clothes - they used flour bags to sleep on. Typhus spread in the orphanage and shells were bursting in the streets. A notorious Ukrainian fanatic descended with his gangs and the pogroms raged for a week. The Federation of Ukrainian Jews did its best to assist but with civil war raging over large areas of Poland and elsewhere, and only a minimum of transport in operation, progress was slow. As order was restored, supplies began to arrive, first from Juedischer Hilfsverein in Berlin, and then from U.S Joint Distrib­ution Committee: cocoa, condensed milk, cooking oil and clothes.

One day the orphans heard that a "man from Africa was coming". He was going to take some of them away with him and give them a new, safe home. Nearly all the orphans had lost both par­ents, many in pogroms, on the Ukrainian border, at Minsk, Pinsk and other places. 

Group passport photo

The Observation Post

Confronting Ochberg was how to make his choice from the vast number of destitute children. He chose 8 children from each orphanage, making a total of 200 for whom he had funds. Since the South African Government had specified that the children must be in good health, of reasonable intel­lig­ence and willing to leave, the cream of each orphanage was selected.

Even though they were scared of being eaten by "African tigers", the children were excited. And when Ochberg appeared, with his gingy hair and welcoming smile, the orphans called him Daddy.

The Polish authorities put many children trav­elling to Warsaw on cattle-trucks. Though their passports carried the usual Polish word Paszport with the Polish Eagle, there were no individual photos. Instead group photos app­eared, some with 30-40 small children sitting in rows.

They travelled in overcrowded, dirty trains to Warsaw, each child having a tiny package of clothing sent from overseas. In the middle of Warsaw was a restaurant, belonging to Pan­ya Engel, a kindly Jewish woman who the children adored. For several months the Ochberg orphans stayed in local schools, and Panya Engel and friends worked hard to protect them. Just as it seemed as if most of the difficulties had been overcome, there was a serious outbreak of eye trachoma which held up their departure.

From Warsaw, they travelled by river boat down the Vistula to Dan­zig. There, on the Baltic, they boarded a steamer bound for London, and the other kind people took charge of the orphans. A few of them were again taken ill, and spent the time in London in hospital.

Warm reception awaited the orphans

who came ashore in Cape Town, late 1921.

Observation Post

There was a warm reception when they finally landed in Cape Town in Sept, with huge crowds waiting on the quay for them. So large was the group of children that Cape Jewish Orphanage could no longer house them all, and some went to Arcadia Johan­nes­burg Orphanage instead.

In South Africa, the once-pathetic, poorly dressed children clearly profited from the kindness and instruction they received. There were numerous invit­ations to Jewish homes, and some of the children were adopted. Special English language classes were organised.

Nicholas Winton saved far more children from murder before WW2 and took them to Britain. But Ochberg set the model for humanitarian heroism in taking c190 Jewish pogrom orphans from the Ukraine and Poland to South Africa after WWI. See the honours he received and the formal dedication that was made in 2011.

Read Ochberg Orphans and the horrors from whence they came, David Solly Sandler, 2014

Mercy Ships, lifesaving surgery in Africa

Don Stephens founded Mercy Ships in 1978, as a Christian charity headquartered in Texas, with the purchase of the SS Anastasis. During his time as President of Mercy Ships, Don directed and led thousands of volunteers from 60+ nations, plus employees in 16 countries.

Don Stephens and wife Deyon

Global Mercy at dock

Mercy Ships

Don pioneered The Mercy Minute, a daily radio broadcast on 840+ stations for decades. He handed over the programme to Mercy Ships spokeswoman Raeanne Newquist while Stephens wrote 3 books: Trial by Trial (1985), Mandate for Mercy (1995) and Ships of Mercy (2005). Then he won an International Humanitarian of the Year Award.

Surgical staff

Mercy Ships focused public attention on providing surgery, and strengthening the healthcare infrastructure in the nations served. Thanks to family support, children and adults suffering from painful, disfiguring and ?preventable diseases were able to find the healing they so desperately needed.

Screening day used to be the biggest day of the year for Mercy Ships. Sometimes 4,000 children and adults were waiting, hoping to be accepted onboard as patients. Recent steps in the building process included 16 months of detailed design work, construction of new machinery systems, installation of new medical equipment, and outfitting the hospital and recovery units. The vision to transform lives by bringing healing has guided Mercy Ships for decades. But the need is ongoing and growing.

Potential patients waiting on screening day in Guinea, 2012

Tertius - jpg

Still, many more children and families are waiting. So together with the nations served, hopefully the Mercy Ships will be able to make a difference in the lives of thousands. With the arrival of our new custom-built hospital ship, the Global Mercy, our capacity to provide free surgery and medical training will more than double.

This newest ship is the world’s largest purpose-built hospital ship, capable of more than doubling its surgical and training capacity. Over the 50 year expected lifespan, 150,000+ lives should be saved through surgery alone. Recent steps in the building process included 16 months of detailed design work, construction of new machinery systems, installation of new medical equipment, and outfitting the hospital and recovery units. The vision to transform lives by bringing healing has guided Mercy Ships since 1978. But the need is growing.

Previously Global Mercy spent Feb-July 2023 in Dakar, helping patients from both Senegal and The Gambia from the one port. In 2023, the Africa Mercy underwent an extensive refit in Durban Sth Africa, to prepare her for years of future service. Its hospital deck will carry out a wide range of surgeries eg cataract removal, plastic surgery to address tumour removal and debilitating burn contractures, cleft lip-palate repair, orthopaedics and obstetric fistula repair . This expansion and growth will allow surgeries for those in need; more health professionals trained and mentored; more local lives changed.

Africa Mercy’s hospital on 2 decks contains: supply services; 6 operating theatres; 102 acute care beds; 7 ICU beds; and 90 self-care beds. All pre-operative and post-operative work can be done aboard rather than ashore on busy ports. The new ship will more than double the annual medical capacity and is designed to carry out a wide range of surgeries.

recovery ward

 

In addition to the surgeries performed on board, ship-based teams serve in local villages providing a wide array of health facilities which include: dental and medical clinics, community health education and agricultural training. Plus there are conference rooms aboard for lectures and training.

It is estimated that 70% of the global population lacks access to safe surgical care, a 1/3 of them children. This burden is most heavily felt in sub-Saharan Africa, where nearly half are under 18. A 2021 study in four sub-Saharan African nations found that 60-90% of patients in need of surgery would face awful outcomes if there was no operation. Eg Senegalese parents who could not afford surgery to correct their children’s bowed legs. In any case, those parents could not be able find a surgeon near home to operate.

But in 2023, those parents received free surgery aboard the Global Mercy. The operation that finally straightened the children’s legs was the result of a partnership between Mercy Ships and Senegal, powered by the passion of African leaders, healthcare professionals from 71 countries, and 1,382 very skilled volunteers.

She is waiting for the surgeons to deal with a muscle contracture, 

especially when her knee hyperextended backwards.

The ships provided 3,513 surgeries in 2023, 1,400+ of them aboard the Global Mercy in Freetown, Sierra Leone and Dakar, Senegal. From those ports, the ship served patients from 3 countries: Senegal, Gambia and Sierra Leone. And apart from those field services, Mercy Ships’ work in Africa had partnerships with 8 countries; 3,513 surgeries; training in nutritional agriculture for 93 farmers; and training for 56 dentists. The volunteers provided 105,000+ hours of training for 1,522 professional healthcare workers. Via mentoring and training, Mercy Ships continue to partner local professionals and governments to build up a work-force of skilled surgeons and healthcare workers in the African countries.

Two Mercy Ships and the host nations made an even greater effort in 2024 when double the number of volunteers joined. Global Mercy is now serving in Sierra Leone until 2025, and the newly renovated Africa Mercy is in Madagascar.

Enjoy reading the book Ships of Mercy, written by Mercy founder Don Stephens. It tells about the remarkable hospital ships that dramatically changes the lives of millions of people in the most impoverished and diseased corners of the world. Or see the excellent Surgery Ship tv series (2017) 

The world’s most beautiful cities - 2023

San Francisco

A 2023 survey by Travel + Leisure invited readers to vote on the world’s most beautiful cities. Recognising the answer is different for everyone, here is the by-no-means exhaustive list of the world’s (25) most beautiful cities.

Sydney Australia sparkles with its yacht-filled harbour, golden beach­es, spectacular headland views, lush parks and gardens, and abundance of sunshine. Take a ferry tour to see the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge from the water. Explore the city's wealth of picturesque coastal walks and great beach­es; Manly has wide, clean sand and perfect surf. 

Barcelona Spain Covered food markets, tapas bars, iconic Modernist ar­chitecture and golden-sand Mediterranean beaches are big appeal fact­ors for Catalonia’s colourful capital. But the culture of afternoon siestas, late dinners and people-watching on busy plaz­as, stop near Santa Cater­ina Market and capture the beautif­ully relaxed life style.

Barcelona

Adventure capital of the world, Queenstown New Zeal­and is the ult­imate playground for outdoor activities. The city has hiking, skiing, sky-diving, rafting, winery-hopping and cruising Milford Sound. Queenst­own is built around a finger of Lake Wakatipu, a glacial lake whose reflect­ion of the Remarkables Mountain Range makes the scene stunning.

Istanbul Turkey is an intoxicating jumble of domed and intricately mos­aiced mosques, Ottoman-era palaces, maze-like markets and hilly cobble­stoned streets where bar parties spill out the door. The food scene stretches beyond the ubiquitous kebab; the mezze and grilled seafood are fantastic, as is the city’s coffeehouse culture at night.

In beautiful Paris France, go from a cosy sidewalk cafe tightly packed with chic Parisians to proud boulevards lined with creamy stone Haussmann-era mansions. The pat­is­series may be as delight­ful as Paris’ splendid art and ar­chitec­ture. Museé d’Orsay has C19th paintings & sculpture in a glorious Beaux-Arts train station on the Seine.

San Francisco CA US, set on a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, offers beautiful hilltop views of skyscrapers, bridges, mountains and ocean. Golden Gate Bridge, Painted Ladies and cable cars are emblems of the city. See North Beach, Chinatown’s dim sum par­lours and Presidio Tunnel Tops, a 14-acre park above highway tunnels.

Sun-soaked Palermo Sicily is a dream for archit­ect­ure buffs. It­aly’s biggest opera house is here! Tea­t­ro Mass­imo’s copper dome is c250’ over the piazza bel­ow. The striking gold-stone cathedral is one of the many old Arab-Norman structures. From the roof­top, see the city’s terra-cotta skyline in the early evening, settle on the bohemian Piazza Caracciolo.    

Cape Town

Perched between flat-topped Table Mountain and the Atlantic, Cape Town South Africa has endless natural beauty. Share in 1]ad­ren­aline-fueled action (dive with sharks, hike or take the cable car up Table Mountain), 2]leisurely (swimming, cock­tails on Camps Bay Beach, biking on Sea Point Promenade) and 3]cultural (museums, cel­lars, music festivals).

Visit Seoul South Korea’s vibrant food and nightlife scene, and urban green spaces. The past and present live together with party distr­icts, ancient palaces, ultra-modern subways, Buddhist temples, sky scr­apers and street markets. This fast neon metropolis has beaut­ifully landsc­aped parks along Han River, mountain hiking trails and free outdoor gyms.

Cartagena Colombia has a great mix of Caribbean beaches and islands in South America, with 5 centuries of history and UNESCO-listed walled Old City. It is splendidly preserved and photo­genic. Bougainvilleas burst from the balconies. Go people-watching in the squares and samp­l­ing grilled arepas from street vendors. At night find live salsa music.

Lovely low-rise Kyoto Japan is different from sprawling, daunting Tokyo. The city has a major UNESCO World Heritage front; 17 sites, including temples, shrines and Golden Pavilion. Plum, cherry and willow trees spill over Kyoto’s riverbanks, and lanterns-lit tiny alleys lined with wooden teahouses. Visit tranquil Silver Pav­ilion then Moss Temple.

Brazil’s second city, Rio de Janeiro Brazil, is home to celeb­rated Ip­anema and Copacab­ana beaches and the largest Art Deco statue: Christ the Redeemer via a steep railway ride. See parks, rain forests waterfalls, caves, great vistas and Jardim Botânico. Art­sy Santa Teresa is for cafe life, bou­tiques, and samba street parties.

Rio

Tbilisi Geor­g­­ia’s cap­it­al is fairy-tale mat­erial. The Old Town is a joy to explore, with carv­ed wooden bal­conies over-looking sleepy court­yards and cobbled streets lined with wine bars and tr­aditional Georgian cafes. Brave the funicular to the C4th Narikala Fort­ress for views of Tbil­isi and the encircling Caucasus Mountains.

Rome Italy is an open-air museum showing 3 millennia of sumptuous art & architecture. Visit the city’s tangle of mean­­­d­ering alleys, hidden piaz­z­as and imperial streets. Note the all-mighty Roman Forum or St Pe­t­er’s Basilica, then stop for a creamy gel­ato or reviving bowl of car­b­onara. When the heat breaks, watch the parade of dapper Romans strolling

Hoi An Vietnam is a riverside jewel. Its preserved old town is an un­touched UNESCO World Heritage Site. Spared the ruin of the Vietnam War, Hội An harbours hundreds of historic timber-frame hous­es, sacred temp­les, pagodas and C18th Jap­an­ese bridge. Go on a bike ride, cooking clas­ses, river­boat rides, local cafes or a trip to a bespoke tailor.

The Middle Ages, Victorian era and modern world coexist in London UK: medieval Westminster Abbey and Tow­er of Lon­don, near Victorian Trafalgar Square, with busy C21st London bustling around. Delight in the Gothic, Baroque and El­izab­ethan buildings; museums and art gall­eries; street markets; and green spaces: Hyde, St James’ and Regent’s parks.

Cosmopolitan Buenos Aires Argentina marries Euro­p­ean and Latin flavour. See green and yel­low par­rots at Bosques de Palermo, find the balcony from wh­ich Eva Perón addres­sed fans at Casa Rosada and refuel with cake in a bar not­able. The city has Paris-worthy man­s­ions, food hangouts, street markets and shopping arcades. It's the birthplace of tango.

Good TV shows benefitted from Dubrovnik Croatia’s cin­em­atic looks eg Game of Thrones. And UNESCO named Dubrovnik a World Heritage Site. This Pearl of the Adriatic, in the charming and traffic-free Old Town, has mint-condition medieval architecture, incl­ud­ing the Gothic-Renaissance Rector’s Palace and the town’s thick stone medieval fortifications.

Taipei Taiwan is the Beautiful Island. From a very tall sky­scrap­er, Taipei 101, the observatory offers gorgeous city views and lush green mount­ains. Then visit tranquil temples, flower markets, shopping streets and food-stall alleys. Hike Elephant Mountain-Nangang District Trail, admire green forests, hot springs and Taipei views at the National Park.

An ancient city set on a dramatic landscape of extinct volcanoes and an­chored by a grand, Acropolis-like castle? Yes, Edinburgh Scotland! Af­ter Edinburgh’s hills, rest in one of the many parks and squares or pop into a pub for steak-and-ale pie and a smooth Scottish stout. Note the bigg­est arts festival in the world descends upon the city every Aug.

San Miguel de Allende, Mexico is the uncontested queen of Mexico’s cen­t­ral highlands. This city is a beautiful maze of cobbled alleys, cool court­yards and buildings built in Spanish colonial, Baroque, neoclass­ical and neo-Gothic styles. The latter is best seen in the grand Parr­oquia de San Miguel Arcángel, a gorgeous pink C17th church.

Singapore’s skyline has futuristic high rises, undulat­ing cloud forest domes and a 540’ Ferris wheel. Its enclaves like Chinatown, Arab Quarter and Little India reveal the city’s multi­cul­tural past. Colourful food streets and hawker centres are packed with stalls. Stroll along Marina Bay’s illumin­ated wat­erfront, the Botanic Gardens and Gardens by the Bay

Manhattan Island New York has huge buildings eg the 104-storey World Trade Centre and Empire State Building. Other architectural treas­ures eg Greek Revival mansions in the Bronx, are found in all 5 bor­oughs. See Monets at the Met, Warhol’s soups at MoMA, or The Dinner Party at Brooklyn Museum. See Central Park and Brooklyn Bridge Park.  

Palermo

Of course tastes differ. My partner voted for ocean-front cities: Sydney, Cape Town, San Francisco, Rio de Janeiro, Bergen and Vancouver. I voted for cit­ies with gal­leries, churches and old architecture: Paris, London, Prague, Vienna and Amsterdam

Dr Margaret James Barry - very clever, androgynous surgeon

Dr James Barry: A Woman Ahead of Her Time

by Michael du Preez  and Jeremy Dronfield

Margaret Ann Bulkley's mother, Mary Ann Barry, married Jeremiah Bulkley in 1782 and Margaret was born in Co Cork Ireland (c1795-1865). They lived on Merchant’s Quay where Jeremiah held a government post in the Weigh House, having had three children, a son John, daughter Margaret and another younger daughter.

As a result of the oldest child John’s bad behaviour, Jeremiah ended up in the Debtor’s Prison in Dub­lin. Margaret and her mother Mary Ann became fell into "genteel chaotic poverty", and their only hope lay with Margaret’s maternal uncle, James Barry. He was a famous artist and a member of the Royal Academy in London.

A clever child, Margaret hoped to study medic­ine at univ­ersity, a career forbidden to women then. So in 1809 she travelled with her mother to Edinburgh, carrying a reference from the family friend Lord David Erskine Earl of Buchan; then she enrolled under the name of James Barry (her moth­er’s maiden name) as a very young student of Medic­ine and Lit­erature. From the surviving let­ters, it was obv­ious Mrs Bulk­ley was complic­it in her daught­er’s subterfuge. James graduated in 1812.

Fortunately there were influential family connections. The friend already mentioned, Earl of Buchan, supported the education of clever women. And via Uncle James, young James met General Francisco De Miranda, a Venez­ualian radical who wanted to liberate South America. Once General Francisco De Miranda had lib­er­ated Venezuela, Dr Barry would be able to practise medicine in Venezuela. Alas General Miranda was imprisoned by the Span­ish, and died in prison in 1816. So it was fortunate that Lord Charles Somerset (d1831), the Earl of Buch­an’s close friend, became Governor of the Cape in 1814. Nonethe­less, it must have been a lonely era at university.

Dr Barry moved to London, where he qualified at the Royal College of Surgeons, and in 1813, was commissioned as Regim­ental Assist­ant in the Army med­ical corps. He was posted to the Cape of Good Hope and became close to Govern­or Lord Som­erset who provided a private flat in the vice regal residence.

Soon two sets of incompatible rum­ours began to circulate that Dr Barry and Governor Lord Charles had a close relationship. Firstly that they had an illegal homosexual liaison, so a roy­al commission was set up to investigate the scandal. Lord Somerset returned home to Britain to face his critics. Second­ly while he was serving as Somerset’s physician, rum­ours spread about Dr Barry’s real gender. Some believed Barry and Som­erset were lovers, and even created a baby together.

For another 40 years, Barry served as an Army Surgeon, event­ually attaining the rank of Inspector General HM Army Hosp­it­als. Clearly his career was talented and dedic­ated, focusing on hygiene and preventative med­icine. He was clearly a (rare) doctor who worried about the wel­fare of prisoners, lepers and psychiatric inmates. His modern understanding of leprosy and tropical diseases greatly changed the hospitals in which these illnesses were treated.

It was interesting but not surprising that Dr Barry was con­sid­ered fiercely defensive. I am assuming this was because he was harassed by his colleagues for his high pitched voice and smooth complexion, and because he wore high inserts in his shoes to in­crease his height and wore baggy androgynous clothes. Records tell that he fought duels against his tormentors in defence of his honour, at least one of them being fatal for his opponent.

I do believe that Dr James Barry performed the first Caes­arian section in Africa in which both mother and baby mirac­ulously survived. What is less certain was that the thankful parents named the baby James Barry Munnik Hertzog in the doctor’s honour. Was this the same Barry Hertzog who became a Boer general during the 2nd Boer War and later was Prime Minister, Union of South Africa from 1924–39?

Certainly there were court martials, but Dr Barry continued to rise up the army ranks. As Inspector-General of Military Hosp­itals he spent some months in the Crimea, studying the tragic­ally high death rates in Scutari hospital under Flor­ence Night­­ingale. It was shown that this visit led to sweeping reforms of battlefield medicine, for improved sanit­at­ion and for good qual­ity food for ordinary young sol­d­­iers. No wonder Nightingale, once she met him, thought Dr Barry behaved like an opinionated brute.

He went on to have a very distinguished career as an army surgeon across the British Empire eg in South Africa, Canada, on St Helena and in Trinidad and Tobago.

Forced to retire from ill health in 1864, Barry returned home but did not receive the knighthood that an important army doctor would have normally been given. Was that because his years of service saw with arrests and duels, or because of his gender confusion?   

Dr. James Barry’s headstone, Kensal Green

Dr Barry wanted to be understood as male in life and death.

When he died in 1865, the maid Sophia Bishop laid out the body for the funeral, and made an amazing discovery: Dr James Barry was a woman! She also noticed what appeared to be stretch marks on Barry’s stomach indicating an earlier pregnancy. Spec­ul­ation and scandal began to spread.

Barry was buried in Kensal Green cemetery, London. The grave stone says: Dr James Barry Inspector Gen­eral of Hospitals, died July 1865, aged 70 years. After the funeral, rumours ran wild. But despite Dr James having been Inspector General of Military Hospitals, high­est medical rank in the British Army, there was no post-mortem. The Medical Times also reported that the Army issued no obituary and forbade access to the doctor’s files for 100 years.

Two books to read the history of Dr James Barry. Historian Isobel Rae searched army files and wrote The Strange Story of Dr James Barry: Army Surg­eon and Inspector-General of Hospitals (1958). And Cape Town doctor Michael du Preez traced Barry’s family hist­ory in Dr James Barry: A Woman Ahead of Her Time (2008).

Denmark's and Kenya's favourite author: Karen Dinesen Blixen

Karen Dinesen (1885–1962) was born in Rungsted on Denmark’s Zealand Isl­and, one of 5 children. Her army officer father Wilhelm was an ad­ven­t­urer who worked as a fur trap­per in North America. He ret­ur­n­ed to Den­mark, after fathering a child in the U.S! Then he suic­ided in 1895 after being diagnosed with syphilis, when Karen was only 10. 

Karen Dinesen, 1914

photo credit: Blixen Museum

Out of Af­rica 

published in 1937

Karen went to the Royal Acad­emy of Art, Cop­enhagen, then spent her time studying in Paris, London, Rome and Switzerland. The foll­owing year she was accept­ed by the newly established women’s school at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Later as a writer, she wrote eloquently in both Danish and English, pub­lish­ing her short stories in various Danish period­ic­als in 1905!

In 1914 in Mombasa on the Eastern African coast, Dinesen marr­ied her Swedish cousin, Baron Bror von Blixen-Finecke, giving her the title Baron­ess Karen von Blixen-Finecke. The young couple oper­at­ed a cof­fee plant­at­ion gifted by their two fam­il­ies, and life for them was initially blissful. But the passionate ideals that the cou­p­le began with in Af­rica changed into chal­lenging hardships. They had formed a comp­any just as WW1 started, when the Ger­m­an-Brit­ish fighting in British East Africa created a shortage of workers and supplies.

Gregarious Bror was frequently away on safari, yet it was during this first year of marr­iage that Karen con­t­racted syphilis from the un­faithful Bror. Back then syphilis was treated with arsenic and mercury, treatments that con­tributed to her declining heal­th over the years. The couple separ­at­ed in 1921 and were div­orced in 1925, with Karen being left to run the prob­lematic coffee plantation. Bror was dismissed from his position in the Karen Cof­fee Co, but runn­ing the financ­ial­ly troubled farm alone was a daunting task for Karen.

While still in Africa, Karen fell in love with English big-game hunter Denys Finch Hatton, with whom she lived from 1926-31. They never married because of Karen’s health issues, and after sev­eral miscarriages, she was sterile. Worse, their relation­ship suddenly ended when Finch Hatton’s plane crashed in 1931. This trag­edy, com­pounded by the failure of the coffee plant­ation during the Great Depression, damaged Dinesen's heal­th and finan­ces. She was forced to sell the Karen Coffee Co. to a resident­ial dev­el­oper and had to ab­andon her beloved farm in 1931. In saying goodbye to Af­rica, she knew she’d never return again.

After returning to Denmark in 1931, Blixen completely immer­sed her­self in writing. Originally written in Afr­ica, Seven Gothic Tales (1934) was published in English under the name Isak Dinesen. Then a Danish version followed. Gothic Tales was a master­piece when it was first published in U.S and Britain, but failed to be celebrat­ed in Denmark.

Blixen’s second and best known memoir was enormously successful wh­ich established her esteemed reput­ation. Out of Af­rica 1937 was a semi-auto­bio­graph­ical book in which she told of her Kenyan years. But she didn’t share the sordid de­tails of her marr­iage and her aff­air with the English hunter. This book vividly des­cribed pion­eering a coffee farm, and the So­m­ali and the Masai tribes in Kenya.

When the Nazis occupied Denmark in WW2, Blixen started to write Win­ter's Tales (1942) which was smuggled out of the occupied country through Sweden. When the U.S joined the war, a pocketbook edition was given to soldiers fighting in the war. Then she wrote The Ang­elic Avengers (1944), her only full-length novel, one that alluded to Nazis horror.

Her writing during the 1950s consisted of story­telling that she began in Africa. The most famous was Babette's Feast (1950), looking at an old cook who was not able to show her true skills un­til she got a chance at a celebration. An Imm­ortal Story (1958), in which an elderly man tried to buy youth, was adapted onto the screen in 1968 by Orson Welles.

Blixen suffered permanent ill health eg loss of leg sensation that ?was due to use of arsenic as a tonic in Africa. She also suff­ered from panic attacks, describing it as walk­ing in a nightmare. Her health continued to deter­ior­ate into the 1950s; in 1955 she had her stomach reduc­ed due to an ulcer and writing became impossible. What­ever the truth about her diag­nos­es, the stigma attached to this ill­ness suited the Baroness’ purp­ose in cultivating a mysterious pers­ona for her­self. She died in 1962 at 77.

Karen Blixen received the 1950 Danish Ingen­uity and Art Award. She was nominated for the Literat­ure Nobel Prize twice, (1954, 1957); she was also shortlisted for 1962 Nobel Prize but owing to her sudden death, became inelig­ib­le.

In 1985 a film based on her autobiography, Out of Africa, opened and won 7 Academy Awards, including Best Pic­ture.

Blixen lived at the family estate Rungsted­lund, near Cop­en­hagen. This old estate had been operated both as an inn and a farm, then it opened to the pub­lic as a Mus­eum in 1991.

Museum  of Rungsted­lund, 

near Cop­en­hagen.

 

Her old Kenyan home Bogani House was home to various families until it was bought by the Danish government in 1964 and given to the Kenyans to mark Independence. The Nat­ion­al Museums of Kenya eventually acquired the house and furniture that Blixen had sold decades before. The Museum was opened in 1986, with farm tools including a contemporary tractor, wag­ons, ploughs and an orig­inal coffee proc­es­sing factory equipment. Tours are offered each day by multi­lingual guides, and the museum shop has a wide select­ion of pos­t­ers and post­cards, films and books.

Karen, the Nair­obi suburb where Blixen had lived and op­er­at­ed her Kenyan coffee plant­ation, has a Karen Blixen Coffee House & Museum!

Blixen Museum in Kenya

was opened in 1986

The best blog post is Poetry of R.E Slater.

Dr Livingstone, I presume. New medicine and anti-slavery missionaries (by Dr Joe)

Dr Livingstone, back in the UK, 1864

Scottish National Portrait Gallery

                                                                                 

David Livingstone (1813–73) was born into a relig­ious Glaswegian working class family. From 10, Livingstone worked in a cotton mill on the Clyde banks, followed by some schooling in the room he shared with his par­­ents and siblings. At 21 he planned to become a mission­ary, believing med­ical training and natural his­tory would help his plan.

Science fascinated him. But his devout Christ­ian father rejected a scientific education until pers­uaded that medicine would help Dav­id to do God's work. In 1836 he enrolled at Strathclyde University in Glas­gow to study anat­omy, chemistry, surgery, pharm­acology and practical an­atomy. Then he studied at Char­ing Cross Hosp­ital Medical Sch­ool in 1838–40, completing cl­inical learning in surg­ery, medicine, mid­wif­ery and phar­m­acology. He gained good pract­ical exper­ien­ce with scient­ific instruments and equip­ment, vital in Africa!

Once they graduated, the young doctors worked in schools attach­ed to the great hospitals and dispensaries. But having committed to medicine for religious reasons, Livingstone also did courses in Greek, La­t­in, Hebrew and theology. He attended theology lectures by the anti-slavery campaigner Richard Wardlaw at Congregational Church Col­l­ege and was accepted on prob­ation by London Missionary Society in 1838.

In Jan 1840 he attended more medical classes and learned clin­ic­al skills at the British & Foreign Medical School, Charing Cross Hos­pit­al, Ald­ersgate St Dispensary and Moorfields Ophthalmic Hosp­it­al. In Dec 1840 he graduated Medicine, was licensed by the Fac­ulty of Phys­ic­ians & Surgeons of Glasgow, and ordained as a miss­ion­ary.

                             

Livingstone' medicine chest covered in cow hide

Wellcome Collection

Livingstone set sail for Cape Town in South Af­rica in 1841, to spread Ch­rist­ianity and to end slavery. He would abolish slavery by exploring the continent and exposing the evil to the rest of the world. His great geograph­ical discoveries including Lakes Ngami and Nyasa (Mal­awi) and the Victoria Falls are well known, since Livingstone was the first to expose them to the European public.

In Zambia & Malawi, Livingston was blessed for his geog­r­aphical dis­c­overies and his role in changing British pub­lic opinion about sl­avery. Yet this was only poss­ib­le because his medical training all­owed him to of­fer tr­eatment to the Africans he sought to convert. And since resp­ecting local healers was vital to Living­stone, he never chal­­­l­­­en­ged their practice in front of patients. Mostly he was tol­er­ant of native medical pr­ac­t­ices, seeking to understand their ma­t­erials and methods.

It was quinine, from Peruvian cinchona tree bark, that allowed him to survive in Africa. Quinine mixed with jalap and rhubarb became his remedy of choice to remove malaria-related deposits in blood, later marketed by Burroughs Wellcome.

Livingstone's writings also recorded cases of hookworm, el­ephantiasis, leprosy and yellow fever. He noted that relap­s­ing fever was transmit­ted by the African sand tick. He showed that the presence of mosquito­es correl­at­ed with mal­aria, alth­ough he got their transmission process wrong.

Back in U.K late in 1856, Livingstone received a he­ro’s welcome with the gold medal from the Royal Geographic Society. Living­stone believed the land around the Upper Zambezi was perfect for Euro­p­eans and off­er­ed huge potential for expl­oiting natural res­ources. He set off for a second trip in 1858 to learn more. Alas many other mis­sionary famil­ies whom Livingstone had insp­ired to travel to Af­rica lacked his med­ical know­ledge and arrived in the Zambezi reg­ion woe­fully ill-prep­ar­ed. Malaria killed them, incl­ud­ing David’s wife Mary (1821–62). The fail­ed Zambezi ex­ped­ition shocked everyone.    

 
To restore his reputation, in 1866 Livingstone left for a third trip for Af­rica, to discover the source of the Nile. But the Brit­ish lost him, so in 1871 journalist Henry Morton Stanley (1841-1904) was sent by the New York Herald to find him. This he did, in Nov 1871, greet­ing him with the famous words: Dr Livingstone, I presume? Stan­l­ey failed to persuade him to return home. Ageing, lonely and sick, the explor­er re­­­t­urn­ed to the barren swamp lands which he’d be­lieved to be the Nile's source. By May 1873 he was immobilised, so was car­ried by his African empl­oy­ees to the village to die. The men buried his heart under a tree, embalmed his body, and carried it to a ship going home.   

Henry Morton Stanley met David Livingstone,

Nov 1871, Wiki

Dr Livingstone was the missionary who was able to change the medical world, so the Victorian estab­lishment made him the patron saint of the British Emp­ire. It was not until the post-colonial 1970s that hist­or­ians re­visited his story. Tim Jeal’s biog­raphy Livingstone (1973) used available notebooks and journals, corr­ecting 100 years of pro-Living­stone propaganda. The book concentrated on Livingstone's concern for Empire rather than local African issues, his rel­ation­sh­ips with slave-owners,  and neglect of his wife and 6 child­ren.

 Livingstone memorial at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

But Dr Livingstone’s contributions to medicine were vital. Read Central African Journal of Medicine, July 1965. In 1856 he was asked to report on the caus­es of illness on the Lower Zambezi. He attributed it to the low-lying nature of the land, poll­ut­ed expanses of water and de­c­omposing vegetable matter. He re­ported on a disease character­ised by a spread­ing gangrene of the rec­tum; he described the earth-eating habits of Northern Rhodesian nat­ives; he wrote a vivid account of slaves’ tropical ulcers; and he noted that Africans living on a high carbohydrate diet suffered from disturbed vision. Living­st­one recorded that the tick was the vector for relapsing fever; and he concl­ud­ed that quinine was effective again­st malaria, IF given early enough.

The next gener­at­ion of Scott­ish phys­ic­ian scien­t­ists went on to further ident­ify the caus­es and transmission of tropical dis­eases, based on Dr Living­st­one's records. 

Dr Livingstone's 3 trips across Africa

Britannica

By Dr Joe

If your comments don't appear, post them to helenw@bigpond.net.au

Oscar Pistorius - Olympic champion athlete or murderer?

Athletics
Oscar Pistorius (b1986) was born in the Transvaal, South Africa. As a toddler he was diagnosed with the rare medical condition, Fibular Hem­imelia. At a year old, both his legs were amputated below the knees.

He studied at Pretoria Boys High School, and played rugby. Oscar only stopped competitive rug­by when he sev­erely hurt him­self in a game. Instead, he tried wrestling, water polo and tennis. Disability was not an excuse for Oscar to isolate himself nor did being physically challenged dampen his spirits; he went on to become a renowned athlete.

Pistorius met coach Ampie Louw and prosthetist Fran­cois Van Der Watt early in 2004. The two men encouraged Pistorius to try profess­ional run­ning, Van der Watt helping him get perfectly cus­t­omised running blades. That year he partic­ip­ated in the 2004 Summer Para­lympics event, in which he achieved a 3rd place in the 100 ms.

He clearly shocked the sporting world with his amazing athletic skills, by winning more than a dozen gold medals in his events. In 2005 he part­icip­at­ed in the Paralympic World Cup. Plus he covered 400 metres in just 47.34 seconds in the able-bodied South African championship event.

Pistorius returned to Pretoria Uni in 2006. In 2007, he participated in the South African Senior Athletics Champ­ionship ev­ents, creating hist­ory by winning in the 100, 200 and 400 ms events in excellent times.

Oscar Pistorius won the T44 100m event
BT Paralympics World Cup Athletics in Manchester, May 2011

However Pistorius was criticised by the International Assoc­iation of Athletic Federations/IAAF. IAAF concluded that allowing Pistorius to partic­ip­ate was unfair to other athletes because his specially-made J-shaped artificially legs gave him an edge over them. Nonetheless a de­termined Oscar appealed to the Court of Arb­itration for Sport in 2008; the outcome was that Pistorius could continue running again.

His dream to participate in the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics was turn­ed down by a sports committee of South Africa. Instead he particip­at­ed in the 2008 Summer Paralympics event held that year. Oscar then took part in Manchester’s 2011 Paralympic World Cup and proved that he was one of the best sprinters in the world. 

His Olympic dream came true when he become the first amputee to compete in the regular Olympics, taking part in London’s 2012 Summer Olympics. He ran in a heat of the men's 400-meter and advanced to the semi-finals! Os­car even secured a place in Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World”.

The Laureus World sports award for Sportsperson of the Year with a disability, 

Feb 2012, The South African

Almost as an aside, Pistorius was indicted on 2 gun-related charges, before 2013. Both cases were in Johannesburg.

The Killing
Pistorius (aged 28) created a tragedy in 2013 when he killed his beau­t­iful live-in girl­friend-model Reeva Steenkamp (1983–2013) with his lic­ensed pistol. Al­th­ough his girlfriend was not in bed when Pist­or­ius jumped up, he still shot an “unknown” person 4 times through the locked bathroom door. He was long known to be very controlling of women, even when he heard Reeva crying. 

This handsome, university educated, white, famous athlete claim­ed the killing was not deliberate. So he was granted bail later that year, since the judiciary agreed the killing was unintent­ional. In 2014 the athlete was gaoled for 5 years after being charged with culpable homicide-manslaughter. Prosec­utors app­eal­ed against the manslaughter finding and secured a murder convict­ion in 2015.

Pistorius was sentenced to 6 years in prison for murder, but prosecut­ors re-appealed against what they called a shock­ingly lenient punish­ment. In 2017 the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein gave Pistorius the minimum 15 years prescribed for murder in South Africa, less time already served.

The handsome couple, Reeva Steenkamp and Oscar Pistorius

Parole

8 years after murdering Reeva, Pistorius became legally elig­ib­le for parole after serving half his sentence but it was a huge surprise for Bar­ry and June Steenkamp when corrections officials contacted them in Oct 2021. They bel­iev­ed their daugh­ter’s murderer would not be eligible un­til 2023!  That scheduled parole hearing was delayed because a full report on Pistorius’ time in prison was unav­ailable. 

So Pistorius’ face-to-face meeting with the Steenkamps still must happen before a parole hear­ing can go ahead, as is their right und­er South Africa’s victim-offender dialogue policy. The Steen­kamps need to challenge Pistorius on why he shot Reeva in her bath­room! And Oscar knows that parole boards DO consider the opinion of victims families before rel­easing any offender.  

The double-amputee blade-runner champion from South Africa did not even lose his eight Paralympic medals (6 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze) after being found guilty of murder. So all my South African friends are not at all confident that the star will be kept securely in gaol for the rest of his sentence.

 

Strengthening the British Empire via ...sport!

Sport was a key branch of British Cultural Imper­ialism, like trade, English and Protestantism. The most popular sports, including cricket, football and ten­n­is, were org­an­ised & codified in C19th Brit­ain, but the motiv­ations behind a sport programme across the vast British Empire were unclear.

 

With colonial ex­pan­sion, Cricket came to In­dia with the East India Trading Co. Their first cricket match was played between sail­ors and then the Calcutta Cricket Club est­ablished in an Imperial outpost in 1792. Some Indians were actively involved in making the foreign sport their own. The Par­s­is of Bombay, an ethnic minority peop­le in trade, copied their boss­es in both business and sport. Parsi sons used free time to play the cricket they’d learned by watch­ing Englishmen on Army parade grounds. The Parsi boys founded their first cricket club in 1848, Orient­al Cricket Club.

Older British sports such as cricket, horse racing and rowing were quickly established; in fact New Zealand was only slightly behind Britain in taking up newly organised sports such as rugby and tennis.  The earliest recorded game of cricket, which involved the children of English settlers and Māori players, was in the Bay of Islands in Dec 1832. The earliest organised horse racing was held in the Bay of Islands in 1835, with the first race meeting in Auckland in 1840 under the Lieut-Gov William Hobson. The Wellington Cricket Club for prominent colonists and an Albion Cricket Club for working men opened in 1842.

The Aboriginal XI  Cricket Team left Sydney in Feb 1868, the first time an organised sporting group had travelled to England as Australian representatives. English pride was only dented when the national cricket team lost to Aust­ralia in 1877, in the first international Test Match in Melbourne. And Eng­land’s first cricketing loss to Aust­ral­ia in London in 1882 was hurtful blow to the British imperial psyche; they burned the stumps!

Another Australia national cricket team toured England 

1884, Wiki.

British paternalism suggested games grew ch­ar­acter, so players could show leadership, loyalty, sacrifice and self-cont­rol. Thus the use of sport as a moral­is­ing ag­ent was imp­ortant for the British, as they cl­assed many nat­iv­es as “sav­age”. Snobby Vic­t­or­ian class ideals onto the colon­ies. Maint­aining the Bri­t­ish Emp­ire meant the Empire had a moral dimension, help­ing re­af­f­irm class and rac­ial divisions that were cen­t­ral to Vict­orian life. 

Especially in white settler col­on­ies like South Africa. James Logan (b1857) left Scotland for South Africa as a rail­way worker in 1877. His business flair helped estab­lish his cat­er­ing est­ablish­ments along South Africa’s railways; as he became weal­­th­ier he exten­d­ed his influen­ce by joining the Legis­lative As­sembly in 1894. And he built a 1st class cricket ground in South Africa.

As the Empire expanded, young men were needed to travel to isolated sites, to live in grim conditions. These young, middle-class men had been instilled with imperial values at public school. Headmaster Thom­as Ar­n­old at Rugby and headmasters at Winch­est­er, Har­row and Eton sub­scribed to Imperialist imperatives and devoted their schools to those who’d be soldiers or administrat­ors. The development of this muscul­ar el­ite via sp­ort dev­el­oped fitness, self cont­rol, health, team­work, solidarity and especially duty.

But not just sport; British imperial school­ing relied on heavy Chris­t­ian ev­an­gelic­alism. Miss­ion­aries who travelled out to the colonies had been ins­t­illed with the imperial ethic at public school, to spread the mes­s­­age of Christ­ianity. Like sport, Christianity encour­aged a level of obedience and conform­ism, curing the colonies of savagery.

Crick­et provided comfort to homesick Eng­lish­men, a means to rec­reate memories of home. And these leisure activities allowed dif­f­er­ent col­on­ial classes to assemble and to promote social mobility. The noble, manly game of cricket was brought to Canada, by Vancouver Island's first settler, Capt William Grant in 1849. Many fur-traders that pop­ulated Fort Victoria, before settle­ment began, were British but it was the later set­t­lers who brought “civilisation” to Britain's North Amer­ican out­post.

From 1870 political imperialism changed; educat­ed classes saw the British Empire having to meet the threat posed by grow­ing Europ­ean po­w­­ers eg Fr­ance, Ger­many and Italy. These nations exp­anded as they saw that their own Empires could help their ailing economies. Brit­­ain claim­ed her colonies mainly had a moral dim­ension, a Mis­sion to Civ­ilise, to just­ify the conquest of Asian & Af­rican countries. [Nonetheless the British colonies still had strategic and trading value!]

In the ear­lier C19th, Britain relied on nat­ive sold­iers in war­, especially in In­dia. And in administration. In India 1000 Bri­tish civil servants gov­er­ned 280 million people but the British civil servants respons­ible for the Raj could not have done so alone. Mill­ions of Ind­ians cooperated and fill­ed the ranks of the army, bureau­cracy and pol­ice. Britain had to make the Indian elite feel part of the Raj, and keep them fit. The 1857 Ind­ian Up­ris­ing showed what happened otherwise.

Indian Cricket Team in the UK
1911. BBC

Rugby wasn’t play­ed much in the public schools where future admin­is­t­rators of the Emp­ire were educated. Nor was it suited to the hot clim­­ates in the Emp­ire. However in many col­on­ies rugby devel­oped a sense of fair play, nationhood and man­hood; victories against Bri­t­ain became evidence of the maturing of colonies. Rugby, and box­­ing, promoted the British de­sire to be seen as strong and mascul­ine

Tennis was another game played over the Empire, provid­ing times for so­cial contact, and many imperial administrators built ten­nis courts in their houses or civil buildings. Golf and tennis bore the historic­al imprint of the middle-class. Horse racing was pop­ular, all­owing all classes to meet. In India polo and hunt­ing bec­ame pop­ular am­ongst the officer class, where the elite could socialise. Snook­er be­came popular among the elite, ent­ert­ainment on long winter evenings.

 

Colonial administrators and their families

Socialising at the tennis courts

 

So, did sports bind the Empire together? It was cricket that became the symbol of solid­arity that exemp­lif­ied imperial amb­ition and ach­ieve­ment. As the cul­tural exp­er­ience of cricket differed from one colony to the next, of the coloured crick­eting nat­ions of Empire, the West Indies did the best. The first Test series to be played in the West Indies against Eng­land in 1929–30, and the West Indies was first victorious in the 1934–5 series. This experience changed the view that crick­et was forced down on a compliant, colonised people.

Before India’s independence in 1947, fierce debates raged over British influen­ce. Yet in 1971 the Indian cricket team def­eated the former colonisers at their own game, on their own turf. And in 1983, Ind­ia won the cricket World Cup at Lord’s Cr­icket Ground.  Additionally, India turned cricket into a huge industry.

In the early Empire, Britain had of course more skilled and more civ­il­­ised. So if the introduction of sports was to help colonisers affirm their cultural superiority and justify their rule upon the Emp­ire, it was ironic that sports empow­er­ed the colonies, not supressed them. Was colonial success a justification for being granted self govern­ment?

Thanks to  Brian Stoddart  & Thomas Fletcher.

Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa, 1960 - a violent tragedy

From 1963-66 inclusive, my closest friends outside school were South African teens of my own age. Their brave parents had made the dec­is­ion to leave the country of their birth, a beautiful land filled with safari holidays, national parks, exotic animals and flowers,  beaches and amazing cities. It must have been a tough decision since my friends’ parents had no siblings or friends in Australia, no promised jobs and they were not allowed to bring their savings with them. But as apart­heid in South Africa became worse, a few anti-apartheid citizens felt they could not stay in their beloved homeland any longer.

Sharpeville and Johnnesburg, South Africa

What was the mid C20th history of apartheid in South Africa? I recommend and thank Britannica, Human Rights Canada  and The Conversation.

The Hert­zog Government achieved a major goal in 1931 when the British Parliam­ent passed the Westminster Statute, which removed the last remainders of British legal authority over South Africa. Racial seg­reg­­ation, sanctioned by law, was widely practised there be­fore, but the National Party gained office in 1948 and extended the pol­icy, giving it a formal name. Apartheid (i.e apart­ness in Af­rik­aans) was a policy that governed relations be­tween the nation’s White min­or­ity and non-White major­ity; it sanc­t­ioned racial segreg­at­ion, and pol­itical & economic discrimination, ag­ainst non-Whites. The implement­ation of apartheid was made possible by the Pop­ul­ation Regist­rat­ion Act of 1950, which classified all South Africans as Bantu (Blacks), Coloured (mixed race) or White. Later a fourth category was added: Asian (Indian and Pakistani).

The Group Areas Act of 1950 established urban residential and business sect­ions for each race, and members of other races were bar­red from living, operating businesses or owning land there. In prac­tice this Act completed a process that had begun with similar Land Acts adopted much earlier; the end result was to set aside 80+% of South Africa’s land for the White minority. To help enforce the seg­reg­ation of the races and limit Blacks from go­ing into White areas, the government st­rengthened the existing Pass Laws that req­u­ired non-Whites to car­ry documents authorising their presence in restricted areas. Other laws forbade most social contacts between the races, au­thorised seg­regated public facilities, estab­lish­ed separate educat­ion­al standards, rest­ric­ted jobs according to race, limited non-White lab­our unions, and denied non-White participation in government.

Under the Bantu Authorities Act 1951 the government re-created tribal organisations for Black Africans, and the Promotion of Bantu Self-Gov­ernment Act of 1959 created 10 Bantu­stans i.e Black homelands. Later on the Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act made every Black South Af­ric­an, irrespective of actual residence, a citizen of one of the Bantust­ans, thereby excluding Blacks from the South African body pol­itic. 4 of the Bantustans were granted indep­end­ence as repub­lics, and the rem­aining had varying degrees of self-government; but all re­mained politically and econom­ic­ally dep­en­dent on South Af­rica.

Bullets in the back and clubs on the head continued

at the Sharpeville anti-apartheid demonstration, 1960

Getty Images

The wounded lay on the ground after the dead bodies had been removed

in Sharpeville, 1960. 

Britannica

The Pan-Africanist Congress/PAC created in 1959. In Mar 1960, the PAC organised a country­wide dem­onstration regarding the abolition of South Africa’s Pass Laws. Many thousands of Blacks gathered near a police station at Sharpeville, c50 km south of Johannesburg, instructed to surrender their Passes and to invite arrest. After the demons­trations began, the police violently opened fire with sub­-machine guns and sten guns ; c69 Blacks were kil­led and 180+ wounded, including 50 women and children. A state of emergency was decl­ar­ed in South Africa, 11,000+ people were detained, and the PAC and ANC were out­lawed.

The mass burials that followed the Sharpeville Massacre

msn news

Reports helped focus inter­nat­ional crit­icism on the nation’s apart­heid policy. South Africa was forced to withdraw from the British Commonwealth in 1961 when it became clear that other British count­ries found ap­artheid abhorrent. In response to the resulting internat­ional economic san­­ct­ions, South Africa's government abolished the Pass Laws in 1986, although Blacks were still prohibited from liv­ing in some White areas and the police won broad emerg­ency powers.

A new constitution enfranch­is­ing Blacks and other racial groups was not adopted until 1993 and took effect in 1994. All-race national el­ec­t­ions in 1994 produced a coalition gov­ernment with a Black majority led by anti-apartheid hero Nelson Man­­dela, the coun­try’s first Black president. Yet even after apartheid formally ended, racism continued.

How appropriate that following the dis­mant­l­ing of apartheid, President Nel­son Mandela chose Sh­arpeville as the site for signing the coun­try’s new constitution into law in 1996.

Conclusion 3.5+ million Black South Africans had forced to live on arbitrary reservations called Bantustans, depriving them of political power and proper incomes. Yet amongst the many oppressive conditions in the nation, it was the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960 that horrified anti-apartheid supporters and caused them to go into exile.

Even at the end of apartheid in the early 1990s, White South Africans (10% of the 58 million citizens) owned c90% of South Africa's land as a result of all the Land Acts. By 2018 there were c190,000 South Africans ex-pats living in Australia, but that is a story for another time.