Wednesday, May 30, 2018

SOUTH AFRICA PRETORIA / JOHANNESBURG. THE DIAMOND MINES OF KIMBERLEY STAR OF AFRICA DIAMOND * EUREKA DIAMOND *1893


SOUTH  AFRICA
 PRETORIA   /  JOHANNESBURG  
  THE DIAMOND MINES OF KIMBERLEY   
STAR  OF  AFRICA  DIAMOND  *  EUREKA DIAMOND


WORLD TOUR OF GEORGE BULLOUGH 1892-1895
  
Article 27 of 28  *  Time of visit September / October 1893.
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Article twenty-seven continues the recollections of the 1892-1895 world tour made by
George Bullough, (later Sir George, Baronet, Kinloch Castle, Isle of Rum, Scotland)
and his travelling companion, Robert Mitchell, in a series of twenty-eight articles
by Mitchell published in the local Lancashire newspaper the Accrington Gazette in 1896.

Explanatory, numbered notes relating to the text, written from first-hand research by 
George W. Randall, are to be found following the published article. 

GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS  -  PRETORIA
Album X  *  Image 9  * Detail from full size 8 x 6 inches

The Raadsaal Building, Church Square, Pretoria, housed the parliament of the South African Republic from 1891 to 1902. RIGHT: A corner of the Dutch Reformed Church demolished 1905.  

Pretoria was founded in 1855 on ground  purchased by the Boer Government from Marthinus Wessel Pretorius, (1819-1901), first president of the South African Republic. Marthinus  was born in Cape Colony son of Voortrekker leader, Andries Pretorius, (1798-1853), who was instrumental in the creation of the South African Republic.

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Government Building overlooked Church Square, named after the adjacent Dutch Reformed Church, part of which is visible right.

The Dutch Reformed Church in Pretoria was established in 1854, the first church being built two years later, its location becoming the centre of the town. This first building burnt down in 1882, the photograph depicts its replacement which was demolished in 1905.

This large open space around the church was used for out-spanning or resting animals, particularly the dozens of teams of oxen and mules used for hauling wagons every day 
prior to the railway connection. 
Following the Anglo/Boer War, 1899-1902,
the church, being deemed “unsafe”, was sold to the town authorities the proceeds
 being utilised to build two new churches, it was demolished in 1905.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Encyclopædia Britannica 11th Edition
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ROODEPOORT CENTRAL GOLD MINING COMPANY
Album X  *  One of six block-cuts on image 8  *  Size 2 x 1½ inches
(Very much enlarged)

Roodepoort is north-west of central Johannesburg.

GOLD CRUSHING BATTERY – ROODEPOORT (GOLD MINE)
Album X  *  One of six block-cuts on image 8  *  Size of original 2 x 1½ inches
(Very much enlarged)

Roodepoort Gold - December 1890 crushing produced 1,215 ozs. gold

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FRUE VANNERS ROBINSON GOLD MINING CO.
Album X  *  Image 7  *  Size 11½ x 10 inches.

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FRUE VANNERS ROBINSON GOLD MINING CO.
Album X  *  Image 6  *  Size 11½ x 10 inches.

From: Diamond Mining in the Kimberley Field by Charles V. Allen 1903

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MAIN REEF JOHANNESBURG  -  LINE OF REEF
Album X  *  Image 5  *  Size 8 x 6 inches.

Pneumonia, not accidents was the prime cause of death for black workers. 
The increasing prevalence of this disease, much less so in the early to mid-1880's
when the major cause of death was due to poor sanitation in overcrowded compounds;
resulted from deep-level digging in poorly ventilated underground passages where 
temperatures ranged from 56F near the surface to 93F at the work face.
In the early 1890's pneumonia accounted for two thirds of fatalities recorded at De Beers
two compound hospitals. The remaining third was due to accidents and natural causes.
The native death rate at Kimberley mine in 1891 was 41 per thousand,
 a year later it had risen to fifty-five per thousand. 

Extract from: "South Africa's City of Diamonds..."  - William H. Worger - Yale University - 1987.

MAIN REEF JOHANNESBURG  -  LINE OF REEF
Album X  *  Image 5  *  Size 8 x 6 inches.
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UPDATED 16 OCTOBER 2022

George W. Randall Research and Photographic Archive.

Monday, May 21, 2018



SOUTH AFRICA  -  JOHANNESBURG 
 WORLD TOUR 1892-1895 of GEORGE BULLOUGH 

Researched and written by George W. Randall 
co-founder in July 1996 
and former Vice Chairman Kinloch Castle Friends' Association.

Article 26 of 28  *  Published in the Accrington Gazette on the 28th of November 1896.
Images of Johannesburg from George W. Randall Research and Photographic Archive.

Time of visit: September 1893.

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GENERAL VIEW OF JOHANNESBURG
Album IX  *  Image 29  *  Detail from original size 6½ x 4 inches. 

The Witwatersand gold reef was discovered on Vogelstruisfontein Farm 
in June 1884 by forty-four year old explorer/prospector Jan Gerritse Bantjes. 
Within two years, the Witwatersand Gold Rush as it became known, 
created Johannesburg, a rough and tumble place made up of miners 
and fortune seekers 
from all over the world that within ten years had a population of 100,000.

The city lies at 5,735 feet above sea level, the mean annual temperature 
being 61° Fahrenheit. 
The population within its metropolitan area today being six million.
GENERAL VIEW OF JOHANNESBURG
Album IX  *  Image 29  *  Detail from original size 6½ x 4 inches. 
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Article twenty-six continues the recollections of the 1892-1895 world tour 
made by George Bullough, (later Sir George, Baronet, Kinloch Castle, 
Isle of Rum, Scotland)and his travelling companion, Robert Mitchell, 
in a series of twenty-eight articles by Mitchell published 
in the local Lancashire newspaper the Accrington Gazette in 1896.

Explanatory notes written from first-hand research by George W. Randall.

>>  <<  >>  << >>  <<  >>  <<>>  <<  >>  << >>  <<  >>  <<   


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THEATRE ROYAL OF JOHANNESBURG
Album X  *  Image - one of six on page 8  *  Size 3¾ x  2¼ inches. 
Woodcut print.
Below the Theatre Royal sign reads: Proprietor Lusc. Searelle.

The first Theatre Royal, a portable and demountable structure, gave its first performance
in Market Street, Johannesburg, on the 15th of June 1887.

The second Theatre Royal, pictured above and below, a fixed corrugated iron building on the
corner of Commissioner Street and Eloff Street was built in December 1888.
The proprietor, whose name appears over the door was leading impresario, Luscombe Searelle.
The first season opened with the ballad opera “The Bohemian Girl” by Irish composer
Michael William Balfe, 1808-1870; and the three act opera“Maritana 
by Irish composer and musician, William Vincent Wallace, 1812-1865.


THEATRE ROYAL
Image from: Theatres in Early Johannesburg - Suburb by suburb. Published 1912.
Proprietor Lusc. Searelle

William Luscombe Searelle, son of Thomas, a miller, and his wife, Harriet, (nee Pullman) daughter of a sea captain, was born at Chudleigh Knighton, South Devon, England on the 13th of September 1853. Harriett Searelle is described as a “highly disciplined, well-educated somewhat proper woman in the Victorian model.”

By the 1860’s the economy of rural England was in serious decline. The industrial revolution driven by steam power was decimating cottage industries; factories as centres of employment were being built, spelling a better more secure future for their employees in towns and cities. Rural Devon was geographically isolated; the local millers’ future was bleak. Thomas and Harriet Searelle wishing to maintain their financial independence decided to emigrate. On the 15th of March 1865, with their six children, Harriet, and Thomas taking the tools of his trade including two mill-stones, boarded ship at Gravesend, England bound for Christchurch, New Zealand, arriving Lyttleton on the 18th of June, 1865.

Despite being a child prodigy at the piano, thirteen year old Luscombe ran away to sea. Later, on his return to Christchurch, he used his talents as a pianist, and composer to direct theatrical productions.
After writing several unsuccessful operas, his “Estrella” became a smash hit world-wide with performances in London, New York’s Standard Theatre and, in October 1883, Philadelphia followed by Australia in 1884 by the Montague-Turner Opera Company. In May 1885, after fifty performances in Sydney, Australia, his comic opera, “Bobadil” opened in Melbourne. Other acclaimed operas followed including, “Wreck of the Pinafore”.
Despite enormous success and favourable reviews - “Mr. Searelle is a sworn foe of dullness and a warm friend of variety” - by 1886 Searelle was bankrupt.
1886 was the year gold was discovered in South Africa, and so it was to the Witwatersand gold fields which Luscombe Searelle turned his attention.
In 1889 he landed at Durban, and with several heavily laden ox-wagons set off for the rapidly burgeoning “gold town” of Johannesburg. His trek ended on the corner of Commissioner and Eloff Streets where his wagons were unloaded, their corrugated iron loads being quickly hammered together to build the Theatre Royal, which immediately became the leading venue for stage and musical entertainment.
Completed, the theatre had a stage, dressing rooms and costumes for the stars. For the audience there were the usual stalls, a gallery, comfortable boxes, plus a bar, which also conveniently faced the main street, with beers by Phillips & Campbell.
It indeed seems strange that in this raw, rough and dusty three year old mining town, where apparently there was a bar for every five men, the first performances were the operas, “Maritana”, a three act opera by William Vincent Wallace, and “The Bohemian Girl”, a ballad opera by William Michael Balfe, which includes the ever popular aria, “I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls.”
Searelle it seems, had both energy and genius to deal with the often excessive exuberance of his audiences, who were not averse to shooting-up bars and flinging chairs around if management failed to play the National Anthem.
Despite the Wild West atmosphere of Johannesburg and its first citizens, as an impresario Searelle was highly successful at securing the appearances of innumerable theatre celebrities, the most famous of the time being the soprano/actress Genevieve Ward who arrived in 1891 and performed in sixteen plays, including six by William Shakespeare.
Despite his successes, Searelle, described in the Australian weekly magazine, Table Talk, as “a veritable musical genius”, made a number of bad business decisions; consequently he was hounded all his life with litigation and debt.

His last opera, “Mizpah”, was produced in San Francisco c.1905.
Luscombe Searelle died of cancer in England on the 18th of December 1907, he was fifty-four years old. 


Note: A number of sources incorrectly claim William Luscombe Searelle was born Isaac Israel and later changed his name to Luscombe, apparently after a small town in Queensland, Australia; Searelle being, and I quote, “an imperfect anagram of Israel.” 
Records held at St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Papanui, New Zealand, record he was the son of Thomas and Harriet Searelle, formerly of Chudleigh Knighton, Devon, England.

The date of departure for New Zealand also varies, some reports stating it was in 1862.


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FIRE STATION  -  JOHANNESBURG
(Very much enlarged.)
Album X  *  Image - one of six miniatures on page 8 – 
Original size of image 1¼ x 1 inch.  Woodcut.

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FIRST (STOCK) EXCHANGE, COMMISSIONER STREET, JOHANNESBURG
Album X  * Image one of six wood-cut miniatures on Page 8 * Size 3¾ x  2¼ inches.


The First Stock Exchange, was located on the corner of Commissioner Street and 
Symmonds Street to a design by architect Fred Holman and completed in 1887, 
a year after the founding of Johannesburg. 
Six years later, September 1893, the time of George Bullough and Robert Mitchell's visit, the First Exchange had been replaced at a cost of £125,000 
by the second further along Commissioner Street, with an impressive 
Neo-Classic façade and much more spacious 
trading hall completed in 1890 to a design by Lennox Canning and Goad.  
A third Stock Exchange was built in 1904 and demolished in 1958 to make way for 
Johannesburg's fourth Exchange which finally rose from the rubble in 1961.
A fifth Exchange opened in 1979 
to be replaced by the current building at Exchange Square in 2000. 

                                                                    Reference: The Heritage Portal - James Ball 2017
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Saturday, May 19, 2018


  SOUTH   AFRICA
Natal - Orange Free State - Transvaal
WORLD TOUR 1892 - 1895 of GEORGE BULLOUGH 

Researched and written with explanatory notes from first-hand research by George W. Randall co-founder in July 1996 and former Vice Chairman Kinloch Castle Friends’ Association.

Article 25 of 28 published in the Accrington Gazette on the 21st of November 1896
continues the recollections of the 1892-1895 world tour made by
George Bullough, (later Sir George, Baronet, Kinloch Castle, Isle of Rum, Scotland)
and his travelling companion, Robert Mitchell, in a series of twenty-eight articles
written by Mitchell and published in the local Lancashire newspaper 
the Accrington Gazette in 1896.

Time of South Africa visit: September 1893.
No reports published in the 7th or 14th of November editions of the Gazette.

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NATAL HILL SCENERY
Album IX  *  Image 14  *  Size 7 x 4 inches

KwaZulu Natal, the breathtaking landscape of these valleys 
and hills have been home to the Zulu people for centuries.

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THIS ARTICLE BY ROBERT MITCHELL WAS PUBLISHED IN NOVEMBER 1896 
IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE JAMESON RAID, THE BOTCHED RAID 
LAUNCHED ON THE 29th OF DECEMBER 1895 AGAINST 
PRESIDENT PAUL KRUGER’S TRANSVAAL REPUBLIC CARRIED OUT BY 
AN ARMED FORCE OF OVER 500 MEN UNDER THE GENERAL CHARGE 
OF DR. LEANDER STARR JAMESON AND THE MILITARY COMMAND OF LIEUTENANT-COLONEL SIR JOHN WILLOUGHBY BACKED BY 
CECIL RHODES, CHAIRMAN DE BEERS CONSOLIDATED MINES,
 AND OTHER LEADING FIGURES OF THE TIME. 

THE RAID WAS INTENDED TO TRIGGER AN UPRISING PRINCIPALLY 
BY BRITISH EXPATRIATE WORKERS - KNOWN AS UITLANDERS - 
IT TOTALLY FAILED.
See Note 11


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POSTED BY GEORGE W. RANDALL  19th MAY 2018
Reviewed 17 OCTOBER MMXXII