Reg attended Prince Edward School from 1951 to 1955. He was a keen sportsman, playing all ball sports and excelling at rugby. He was very popular amongst his fellow boys and especially with those in Rhodes House (where he was a boarder).
Reg played rugby for Combined Old Boys, “The Green Machine,” as well as Mashonaland. He captained Rhodesia and served his country well.Reg remained a popular person with many people and with the Rugby fraternity in particular. His passing will leave a void difficult to fill.
Many thanks to both Shane Simmonds for the article and to Louis Hartley for sending it on to ORAFs.
Msasa Books.
As promised Sheila has provided a list of Rhodesian Books that are for sale from Msasa Books.
Rhodesia before Zimbabwe ruins Arthur Cunningham
Cry Zimbabwe Peter Stiff
Rhodesia Peter Baxter
Assignment Selous Scouts Jim Parker
Battle for Zimbabwe Geoff Hill
Taming the Landmine Peter Stiff
Selous Scouts Peter Stiff
Elite Pictorial Barbara Cole
Images of War Peter Badcock
Winds of Destruction Peter Petter-Bowyer
Wankie Ted Davison
Beneath a Rhodesian or Zimbabwe Sky
The Matopos Dr. Nobbs
The Elite Barbara Cole
The Elite (pictorial H/Cover) Barbara Cole
Rhodesian Reprint Library (full Set)
4000 Days Roy Welensky
Smith of Rhodesia Matthew White
96 Rebellion (Rhod reprint) BSA Company
Valiant Years Beryl Salt
Rhodesia Rugby 1898-1979 Jonty Winch
Set of Four John Osborne Books:
A Guiding Son African Son Dial
In the Shadow of the Baobab, A Ranging son
The Great Betrayal Ian Smith
Robert Mugabe Martin Meredith
Commando Deneys Reitz
Africa House Christine Lamb
Hunter’s Wanderings in Africa F.C. Selous
Diplomat’s Story Peter Wolfaardt
Dinner with Mugabe Heidi Holland
Tatenda Brick Bryson
Witchcraft and Murder In Zimbabwe Henry A. Clark
Sanctions Double cross Jorge Jardim
Goodbye Dolly Gray Rayne Kruger
Anatomy of a Rebel Peter Joyce
Rulers of Rhodesia Oliver Ransford
Fireforce Chris Cocks
Rhodesia Peter Baxter
Operation Zambesi Peter Armstrong
The struggle for Zimbabwe (Chimurenga War) David Martin/Johnson
Call it Rhodesia W.A. Ballinger
The past is another country Martin Meredith
Goodbye tomorrow Robert Cary
The battle for Rhodesia Douglas Reed
Rhodesia Martin Loney
Hawks of Peace Peter Armstrong
You must be new around here Dick Pitman
Zimbabwe –A Rhodesian Mystery Roger Summers
Chimurenga Moorcroft and McLaughlen
Rhodesia and Independence Kenneth Young
History and extent of Tribal War Harold Child
One Man’s Land (Coughlan J.P.R. Wallis
Where we have hope Andrew Meldrum
Shiela has left the prices of each book off due to fluctuating prices dependent on the Rand /US Dollar rate. For those in South Africa, I know that Sheila uses a courier service, which was very affordable and quick rather than using the good old SA Post Office and luck!
For further information on purchasing any of the above please contact Sheila at an...@icon.co.za
Rob Halstead.
A few members have forwarded the following article which seems to have come from facebook -
I wonder how many of you remember this match....some of you might have been there.
Truly one of the iconic photos of our era.
Rob Halstead "Barbel' a man amongst men !" walks after being sent off against Transvaal for booting Moaner van Heerden in the back of the head after Moaner rucked Nick Topping. The incident got ugly when Dave Frederikson, the Tvl hooker, came up behind Rob who was on his way off the pitch, and head butted him.
Al Mansfield saw it coming and raced across to stop it from happening but arrived too late. So he booted Frederikson up the ****. and made a quick tactical retreat before the rest of the pack of forwards came after him.
Frederikson wasn't the smallest of hookers. He was the same size as Moaner.....
The next day Moaner was quoted as saying; "Aagh that's rugby man. No hard feelings."
Transvaal crowds had averaged 8,000 for home games and on that day they pulled in more than 30,000.
The incident took place in 1977 on the old Wanderers ground which was also to be the last game to be played at the ground.
Not only was Rob Halstead as strong as an ox, he had that never say die attitude that would lift his team mates..
An over used word but in this case warranted.....he was a legend. Must have been an awesome match! Thanks to those that sent this article in.
Red Arrows Tail Fin Redesign.
Peter Allen sends in the following link for our aviation enthusiasts.
Thanks Peter, much appreciated.
Seeking Jock Bain.
Nigel Fotheringham is asking if anyone has contact details of Jock Bain. Jock was last heard to be living in Perth, Australia.
Laager Days in Salisbury.
(Salisbury in June, 1869. The goal can be seen faintly on the extreme right.)
The writer of this article, Lieut.-Col. H. Marshall Hole, was Civil Commissioner and Magistrate of Salisbury, 1893 - 1897.
He is the author of several works on Rhodesia.
On June 16th, 1896, two prospectors at the Beatrice Mine were murdered in cold blood by a party of Mashonas, who flung their mutilated corpses into a shaft. They were the first victims of a ghastly massacre - the climax of the tragedies of that unhappy year. During the next few days 120 white people, including woman and young children, were stabbed, hacked and clubbed to death by natives mad for blood. These horrors occurred in every district simultaneously, and so thoroughly did the butchers do their work that in a week, except for little groups holding out at Hartley, Abercorn, Enkeldoorn and the Jesuit Mission, not a single European was left alive with in a hundred miles of Salisbury.
Both Government and settlers were caught napping. True the same thing had happened three months earlier in Matabeleland, not far away, but all knew that the Matabele were habitual shedders of blood. Only half subdued in 1893, they had waited for a chance to retaliate, and thought it had come when their conquerors, Jameson and his Rhodesian troopers, had capitulated to the Boers at Krugersdorp. These Mashona, however, had no grievance. Since the occupation they had seemed contented - outwardly a poor-spirited lot, cowed by half a century of Matabele tyranny and incapable of aggression. Yet abundant evidence was afterwards forthcoming that the revolt was a deliberate plot, cunningly devised by their witch-doctors, and carried out in a concerted plan.
They chose their moment well. 150 of our best men had marched away in April to the relief of the sister province, taking with them all available horses and rifles. Our main line of communication was closed by the fighting on the west, and the ox-transport, on which we depended for supplies from the Beira side, was paralysed by the rinderpest. One mistake they made - fatal to their project. They began by slaughtering such isolated whites as they could catch in the outside districts. Had they been bold enough to tackle Salisbury first they could have wiped out the small population there in the night, and have hunted down the scattered remainder at their leisure.
When the relief column left Salisbury nobody raised a protest, for nobody anticipated trouble nearer home. In fact, Colonel Beal's little force would have been doubled had there been enough horses and men. As a general precaution the authorities formally warned the outside settlers that there was some risk, and advised them to give prompt information to the nearest official if they detected signs of native unrest. Steps were also taken to accumulated provisions at the gaol, which, as the only brick building of any size in Salisbury, was made ready to accommodate any who might deem it wise to come in. But two months passed and nothing happened. The warning was forgotten, and, except round Hartley - the nearest district to Matabeleland - farmers and wayside storekeepers took no special precautions, and prospectors and traders moved about without any forebodings of the fate awaiting them.
The news of the first murders created some uneasiness in Salisbury. A public meeting was held and a defence committee formed, which with the approval of the Acting Administrator, Judge Vintcent hurried on the preparation of the gaol.
(Salisbury Laager)
Next day rumours of further outrages reached us , and when it became know that a well known farmer, not far from the town, had been brutally done to death with his whole family the community was seriously alarmed. Salisbury was in those days a straggling settlement, with lonely houses on the outskirts. On the advice of the Committee, therefore, Vintcent ordered a general occupation of the laager on the following day; pickets of burghers and volunteers were posted around the town, and some of the residents sent their wives and families to the hospital and public offices for safely during the night.
Early on the 19th another farmer galloped in to report that he had been surprised by a horde of 200 Mashonas and had narrowly escaped with his life, and an hour later bodies of rebels were stated to be missing in the bush close to the township. The news spread like wildfire. Hastily seizing such light belongings as they could carry, numbers of the townspeople flocked to the gaol, to the embarrassment of the Committee, whose preparations were incomplete. A scene of indescribable confusion ensued. From all quarters arrived Cape-carts, Scotch-carts, even wheelbarrows, laden with household goods; women clutching wailing children; native servants staggering under loads of blankets or driving donkeys and other live-stock. To add to the general discomfort there was a violent dust storm.
Fortunately a few capable men kept their heads and, by taking summary measures, contrived to restore order. The usual occupants of the gaol were displace - there was no danger of them running away - to make room for the non combatants, who by nightfall were safely under cover. An inebriated citizen who had brought with him nothing but a case of whisky was seized, and in default of the normal accommodation for "drunks", was secured by leg-irons to a veranda post, where his bibulous protestations and abuse furnished a much-needed comic element. All able-bodied men were enrolled for military service, and told off for various duties. In some miraculous way a commissariat department was organised, and rations distributed. A block of cells was appropriated for hospital purposes and sanitary measures taken in hand. By strenuous exertions the gaol was rapidly converted into a rough and ready, but impregnable, fort ; the walls were topped with sand bags emplacements; maxim guns were mounted at the angles; barb-wire entanglements and an external line of earth works commenced; a number of wagons was drawn up in laager formation at one end of the main building, and a strong line of outlying pickets posted in a ring round the whole.
(Parade of Salisbury Garrison. The Officers in front are; R.G. Snodgras (nearest camera), R.K. Eustace, T.E. Harrison, O.H. Ogilvie.
That night must have been purgatory for the woman, huddled as they were five or six together in cells meant to hold one prisoner, but there was hardly any grumbling The Dominican Nuns, under their devoted Superior, Mother Patrick, set a fine example of fortitude, and with several voluntary assistants went quietly to work in the make-shift hospital. They soon had their hands full, for many wounded were brought in, and two babies were born in the first week. the remainder accepted their disagreeable situation with surprising good temper. Orders were cheerfully obeyed, and the machinery of the impromptu garrison began to run steadily.
It was well that this was so, for there was desperate work to be done elsewhere. We were terribly handicapped by the shortage of horses, but all who could raise a mount - even a bicycle - formed patrols and dashed off to succour small parties defending themselves at various outside camps. The relief of Mazoe by a handful of volunteers under Captain Nesbitt and Lieutenant Judson in a classic episode, but it was only one of numerous gallant sorties by men who, in many cases, had never been under fire, to rescue their hard pressed countrymen. By great good fortune we were able to intercept and recall a squadron of trained volunteers from Natal, who were on the road to Matabeleland, and whose arrival, with spare horses and maxim guns, was an immense encouragement to the local troops.
Those in laager were at first kept at fever pitch by the reappearance, generally after dark - of men and woman who had been given up for dead, but managed to creep in, often wounded, and always with the same sad story of sudden attack, murder and pillage. Several spies were captured red-handed by pickets, and at night watchers from the walls could see homesteads blazing beyond the commonage, and savages dancing round the flames. Towards the end of June, however these excitements failed. When half-a-dozen miners at Abercorn had been rescued, and the Jesuit Fathers brought in from Chishawasha, there were no more white men left to relieve. After their first furious outburst the courage of the rebels flickered out. Instead of attacking they skulked in their caves and kopjes, and until reinforced the Salisbury defenders were not strong enough to take the field or attempt serious reprisals. A patrol which tried to reach Hartley was in fact driven back with considerable loss. Still a good deal of useful work was carried out by dismounted patrols in the surrounding neighbourhood. One after another the kraals with in reach were attacked, and gradually the country within a radius of 15 miles was cleared of the enemy-not without some casualties on our side, for although the rebels seldom came into the open they were expert at taking up concealed positions among the rocks, from which they were able to use their antiquated muzzle-loaders and blunderbusses with deadly effect. Their ammunition was of a most varied character - pot-legs, short bits of telegraph wire, the glass stoppers of Worchester sauce bottles, rusty nails - nothing came amiss to them, and all were capable of inflicting horrid wounds at close range. In the course of one engagement, not far from town, the troops lighted on a kraal where the marauders had dumped an enormous collection of goods taken from the homesteads of murdered settlers and from a convoy of waggons which they had raided on the Umtali road. From the latter they had looted a quantity of trunks and personal baggage, the contents of which they had overhauled and repacked according to their own ideas of value. When brought into the laager the sorting and identification of these provided some surprises and no little amusement. A bride, freshly arrived from England, found to her chagrin that many of her trousseau garments, bearing obvious traces of recent native wear, had been tied up in one messy bundle with a number of embroidered vestments consigned to the English Padre!
The inclusion in the defence force of every man capable of bearing arms led to some curious anomalies. Among those enrolled as privates was a former Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, well on in years - Sir Thomas Scanlen, who had been an eye-witness of several **African wars, and, as a child, had narrowly escaped being one of the victims of a massacre round Grahamstown in 1834. Another private was the Vicomte E. de la Panouse, who had been A.D.C. to Marshal MacMahon druing the Franco-Prussian war and had had many other campaigning adventures. I still have a vivid recollection of this gallant little Frenchman, clad in the blue fisherman's jersey which was issued to the troops, and wearing a row of decorations, including the ribbon of the Legion of Honour.
At first, owing to the cutting of the telegraph line, very meagre information of our plight reached the outside world, and even when communication was restored the ignorance of local conditions led to some queer errors in the English and Colonial Press. We had a helio station on the Kopje, from which a sharp lookout was kept over the surrounding country. One day the observers reported a body of rebels advancing towards the race course, but before preparations could be made for sending out a patrol, signalled that the supposed enemy proved to be only a troop of tsessebe. this item of information found its way to the Cape papers, one of which gravely supplemented it by a note explain that "the Tsessebe were a tribe of friendly natives residing on the outskirts of Salisbury!"
But there were other anxieties for those in laager. Fresh meat and milt were unobtainable, and the scanty rations of flour had to be eked out with mealie-meal. The air was tainted with the stench from the carcases of rinderpest oxen laying about the commonage, and sickness began to appear. There was nothing to beguile the tedium. Garrison duties and daily foraging patrols kept the men occupied, but the confinement and forced discipline grew wearisome to the women. Some of them, in defiance of orders, tried to steal off to their homes in order to see after their cherished possessions, and strongly resented being brought back under escort. As the telegraph line had been cut it was some time before we learnt that troops were being pushed up to our relief, and five weeks elapsed before the return of our own column, and the simultaneous arrival of "Greys Scouts" from Bulawayo eased the situation and induced the authorities to permit the break up of the laager, and the release of those who had "done time" in the Salisbury gaol.
Officers of the Salisbury Force.
Back row (standing), left to right, Finch-Smith (Natal), Strachan, Graham, Drummond, Eustace, Capt. Turner (West Riding Regt.), Hoffman, A. Nesbitt, Briggs Hardboard, Ogilvie, Moberly, St. Hill Boardman, Cloete, Capt. R.n. Nesbitt, V.C. , Robinson.
Middle row (sitting); Capt. Stamford -Brown, Major MacGlashan, Judge Vintcent, Major Smith, Capt. Harrison.
Front row; Fitt, Marshall-Hole, Fleming, Judson, Lingard, Snodgrass.
This article was extracted and recompiled by ORAFs from The Rhodesian Annual 1931 which was kindly donated to ORAFs.
Please note that I have replaced the original word in the article for **African* due to the sensitive/offensive word originally quoted in the magazine.
No monetary gain is intended nor gained from the use of any materials in the Newsletter, rather it is a sharing of history.
Many thanks to all that contributed this week and especially all those who sent in condolence messages to families who lost a loved one.
Reminders -
AFA (Gauteng) Monthly Prayer Meeting
Interpretation of the week - BIOSCOPE ; CINEMA (c1980S -2000) / MOVIES (c 2000 to present)
___________________
Sent in memory of Eddy Norris Paul Norris & Denise Taylor Irene RSA & Lake Country Canada
