Margaret Mitchell Dr Margaret Mitchell started her career as a doctor in the casualty department at Coventry and Warwickshire hospital and became a renowned specialist in the treatment of eye diseases. Dr Mitchell’s interesting life started at the age of 22 when she was awarded the Croix de Guerre for her services as a…
Frances Persons (nee Jessop) 1913-2004 Frances “Lois” Jessop was born in Chadwell, England March 1913. She came to the United States in 1929. After graduating from the Chicago Evangelistic Institute she enrolled at Asbury College, but interrupted her studies to service as a missionary with the Methodist Episcopal Church’s Old Umtali Mission in Southern Rhodesia beginning…
William Rausch 1862-1900 William Rausch was born in Cape Colony, South Africa in 1862. Eventually he made his way to Bulawayo where established himself as a photographer. His earliest photos date from 1895. He is one of four photographers listed in Matabeleland during this time: C. Hines, C. H. Newberry, J. Parkin, and W. Rausch….
James Hay Upcher 1854-1931 James Hay Upcher (7 January 1854 – 17 March 1931) was Archdeacon of Mashonaland from 1925 until his death. Upcher was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge was ordained deacon in 1877 and Priest in 1878. After curacies in Halesworth, Sudbourne, Barnham Broom and Bury St Edmunds he held incumbencies at Sprowston, and Sculthorpe. In July 1892, Upcher arrived in Pretoria with Alfred Dykes Sylvester and travelled up to Rhodesia. Sylvester…
Edmund Henry Allott (1881-1964) Edmund Henry Allott was born 15 October 1881 in Walton, Warwickshire the son of Henry Hepworth Allott, a Curate with the Church of England and his wife Alicia Georgina. At the the age of 19, Edmund was employed as a Land Agent’s Assistant. On 25 June 1901 Edmund Henry Allott joined…
The Smart Set Entertainers The Smart Set Entertainers started in 1892. Previously known as the Light Opera Singers and The Follies, Walter George brought the Smart Set Entertainers to Australia via South Africa and America in 1912. The 10-member troupe disbanded in 1915 when he and partner Georgie Martin joined Edward Branscombe’s Dandies. They reformed the…
John Mitchell Watt 1892-1980 Prof John Mitchell Watt was a 20th-century South African physician and pharmacologist. He served in both World Wars and made extensive catalogues of traditional African medicines. He was born in Port Elizabeth in South Africa on 1 December 1892 and was educated at the Grey Institute High School in Port Elizabeth. His family…
Joseph Lazarus Joseph Lazarus first arrived in Barberton, South Africa during the gold boom from Britain and established J & M Lazarus, with his brother Marucie, in Lourenço Marques, Portuguese East Africa in 1899. Their last advertisement appears in 1907, although their box number is still listed in the 1909 edition. They sold their studio…
Dale Evans Dale Evans was born Lucille Wood Smith on October 31, 1912 in Uvalde, Texas. She had a tumultuous early life. Her name was changed to Frances Octavia Smith while she was still an infant and spent a lot of time living with her uncle. At age 14, she eloped with and married Thomas F. Fox,…
John Simco Warren 1869-1929 John Simco Warren was born in England in 1869. He was a chemist who worked in Bulawayo. In 1907, he married Frances ‘Fanny’ Garrod. Garrod had arrived with her first first husband, John Knox, from Port Elizabeth by ox wagon. She was a qualified nurse and was in the Bulawayo laager…
