Personal contribution to WWI centenary

[Kathie]

I thought I would just mention  a very personal contrtibution which I  have been making to the centenary of the War.   

 

First,   each year  1914 onwards I have been invited by the University of Cape Town to  give a weeks course on that years war events.  I am not an expert but an amateur researcher into South African experiences in the war.

 

So 1913 - I did five lectures with lots and lots of powerpoint pictures as an introduction to the War - Lights gone out and Egypt,  the Somme,  East Africa,  Flanders 1917,  1918 and British retreat,  Remembrance.

 

That led to the current series on SA involvement.

 

1915 -  Why join up,   Conssider your verdict 1 and 2 being analsysis of cases of war such as German internment, confiscation of goods,  treason and rebellion where I had four barristers argue the cases and  the audience voted,  nurses training and Medical Journal articles  and the SA Amublance in Cannes with Nurse Betty Freund as the central person.

 

1916 -  Women in the War and we did Alexandrina and her family connecdtions throughout Europe,   Sophie and the repercussions to her death,   Beatrice and the letters of the Prime Minister to her,   Dorothy and her influence on her Generral husband,  Issie and her marriage to the Defence Minister of SA,  Cleopatra and the importance of her country and its canal.   We did  German East Africa and the diary of Grahame Munro   then the music of the War and we had two choirs and everyone sang along,  the Somme and  SA soldiers,   Delville Wood and Butte de Warlencourt and the Pattison brothers and others.

 

1917 -  we did politics of 1917 through cartoons,  SA Native Labour Corps and the sinking of the Mendi and nation building through acknowledgement of a common history,  Margaret Dewar and the War in Serbia and her autograph album,  the RFC  and design of planes and Airman Clive Halse,  and then passchendaele where Roland Hilll and Allen Purdon disappeared and Menin Gate.

 

Each year we have several hundred particticpants and many have fascinating stories about their own relatives  or other stories.  So now we are producing a book by the UCT Summerschool course - about 30 stories by participants on their grandparents and other relatives,   postcards by German internees, the story of the Dutch General who took the Kaiser into custody,   the  dfiaries of many family members,   the story of a holiday home for retuirned War Nurses in Hermanus outside Cape Town,   the letters of General Dawson who commanded the SA Infantry and was captured and so on.  I hope it comes off and will be a good read.

 

I myself,  as my little contribution have procuced three books so far.   1.  Your loveing Son Yum - the edited  letters of Grahame Munro from German South West africa and East Africa with the  family and region story.   1.  For the glory of SA and the Empire - the lives and deaths of Hubert Openshaw,  Les Mandy,  Vic and Joe Pattison and Bernie Olyott at Delville Wood and Butte de Warlencourt with their own and their brothers letters and much personal information.    3.   A Burnt Sacrifice - the story of the Halse family who were colleagues of Rhodes,  ranched,  all went to England  - two brothers to servie one in the RFC and the other in the Cambridgeshires, a sister nursing in France until 1920 and parents and younger sibling in London.     Next year my last book will be on 24  SA nurses who died and on two particular autograph albums (Margaret Dewar and Dorothea Bolus) and will be dedicted  with gratitude to Sue Light.

 

I also took a group of 8 friends on an 8 day hike of relevant battles in Belgium and France in 2016.

 

Any other ideas on commemoration???????

 

Kathie

[Harper]

I am at a loss for words other than saying "well done and congratulations."

[The Scorer]

I can but agree - well done!