Sunday, November 19, 2017

GEORGE BULLOUGH WORLD TOUR  1892-1895
( Article 1 of 28 )   INTRODUCTION    
Written from first-hand research and and illustrated from his personal archive 
by George W. Randall co-founder in July 1996 and former 
Vice Chairman Kinloch Castle Friends' Association.

Copyright September 2013 © George W. Randall Archive 

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INTRODUCTION   ARTICLE

George Bullough (1870 – 1939, later Sir George, Baronet) was three days short of his twenty-first
birthday when his father John died on the 25th of February 1891 at the age of fifty-two.
Nineteen months later in September 1892 twenty-two year old George 
embarked on a thirty five month long world tour with his friend  Robert Mitchell 
returning to Britain in August 1895 to be soon followed by what was termed a 
“six-month supplementary cruise” arriving back at The Rhyddings, 
Bullough’s home in Accrington, Lancashire, England, in April 1896.

A twenty volume photographic record of their travels is located in the library at 
Kinloch Castle, Isle of Rum, Scotland, Bullough's Highland hunting lodge built 1897-1900.
Regrettably each picture has only the briefest title, sometimes no title and no date.

Fortunately Mr. Bullough agreed to have published a series of reports of their travels 
Part of the introductory article from
The Accrington Division Gazette
published 2 May 1896.
in The Accrington Division Gazette, the local newspaper and
 location of the family business and source of his wealth,  
Howard and Bullough, Ltd., Globe Works, 
manufacturers of a complete range of cotton spinning machinery to the world’s cotton industry. 

I am indebted to Accrington Library who supplied photo-copies of the twenty-eight articles, "Mr. Bullough's Three Years' Tour" published in The Accrington Division Gazette between 
2 May and 12 December 1896 and the late broadcaster, 
Magnus Magnusson, K.B.E, at the time Chairman of Scottish Natural Heritage, (the agency responsible for the island of Rum and Kinloch Castle), who gave me permission (1996) to archive and photographically record the contents of Kinloch Castle including the 600 plus half-plate images of George Bullough’s World Tour.

Commencing with this Introductory Article, (left), published 
in May 1896, and the twenty seven subsequent Gazette reports, (the last, Pretoria, Johannesburg, the Discovery of Diamond Citypublished on the 12th of December 1896), I have added at the end of each numbered Explanatory Notes sourced from my archive of contemporary publications, including the 9th and 11th editions of Encyclopædia Britannica
I have also drawn extensively from numerous sites on Google, 
a resource  I hereby acknowledge and recommend to those readers who wish to research further.

The world Robert Mitchell recalls in these articles and the accompanying photographs taken in the 1880 / 1890's  
give us today a unique insight into that world, and human attitudes over one hundred and 
thirty years ago at  the height of the British Empire and Queen Victoria's reign. 

My additional notes at the end of each chapter, written from contemporary publications, are intended to help the reader see and understand this late 19th century world as twenty-three year old George Bullough would know it by giving brief historical background and understanding to the articles and hopefully encourage further reading and research. 

 THE TWENTY WORLD TOUR PHOTOGRAPH ALBUMS  14½ x 10¾ inches.

I   Ceylon / India * II   Ceylon / India * III   India * IV   India * V   India * VI   India / Burma * VII   Australia
VIII   Cape Town * IX   South Africa * X    South Africa / Madeira / Hobart    XI * Tasmania / New Zealand
XII   New Zealand * XIII   Natives Africa / New Zealand * XIV   Japan * XV   Numea / Batavia / Singapore
XVI   China * XVII   China / Japan * XVIII   New Zealand / New Caledonia * XIX   Honolulu / California
XX   Salt Lake City                 (Note: there are two albums marked XIV and no XVIII.)


George Bullough (left) and his travelling companion
Robert Mitchell standing by a fine specimen of ficus elastica,
the Indian rubber tree in the 
Royal Botanic Gardens,
Peradeniya, Ceylon,
since independence in 1972, 
Sri Lanka.

This is one of only three of the 600+ album photographs in which they appear together.

(Greatly enlarged from original below.)
George Bullough and Robert Mitchell by a stand of ficus elastica
in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, Ceylon.
Album 1  *  Image 18  *  Original photograph measures 10½ x 8½ inches.
(George W. Randall Archive)
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PART TWO
 COVERS:
DEPARTURE FROM LIVERPOOL STREET RAILWAY STATION, LONDON 

TO GRAVESEND,
EMBARKATION ONTO THE P & O LINER SS OCEANA AT GRAVESEND, 
FELLOW PASSENGERS AND LIFE ON-BOARD
THROUGH BAY OF BISCAY TO GIBRALTAR.



George W. Randall Research and Photographic Archive

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