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Category Archives: British History
Words of endurance: Memoirs of an Infantry Officer
This is one of a series about memoirs, novels, and poems authored by combatants of the First World War. All page numbers below refer to Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of an Infantry Officer. New York: Penguin Classics, 2013. Embedded within the pages … Continue reading
Posted in British History, History, Military History
Tagged Battle of Arras, Craiglockhart, Mametz Wood, Robert Graves, Siegfried Sassoon, Somme, Wilfred Owen
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Words of endurance: Poems of Wilfred Owen
This is one of a series about memoirs, novels, and poems authored by combatants of the First World War. This is a short selection of poems by Wilfred Owen, who served as second lieutenant in the 2nd Manchesters. After suffering … Continue reading
Posted in British History, History, Military History, World War I
Tagged "Disabled", "Dulce et Decorum est", "Futility", "The Chances", Wilfred Owen
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Words of endurance: A Passionate Prodigality
This is one of a series about memoirs, novels, and poems authored by combatants of the First World War. All page numbers shown below refer to Guy Chapman, A Passionate Prodigality: Fragments of Autobiography. Fawcett Crest Books: Greenwich, CT, 1966. … Continue reading
Union Jack at Fort Salisbury
This is the eighth installment in a series about Rhodesia. It concludes this portion of the series. We will leave Rhodesia for a while to explore other topics, but we will return to the subject to cover the Matabele Wars … Continue reading
Posted in African History, British History, History
Tagged Cecil Rhodes, E.G. Pennefather, Frank Johnson, Frederick Selous, Lobengula, Paul Methuen, Pioneer Column
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The friendly Dr. Jim
This is the seventh installment in a series about Rhodesia. The party of Royal Horse Guards in their dashing uniforms had brought the Queen’s message to Lobengula: the “wisest and safest course” for him was to carry out his agreement … Continue reading
The betrayal of Lobengula
This is the sixth installment in a series about Rhodesia. Lobengula had investigated the white concessionaires and the missionaries, and determined that the Rudd concession was a fraud. Its sole purpose was to deceive him into giving away his country. … Continue reading
From Bulawayo to London
This is the fifth installment of a series about Rhodesia. Lobengula’s envoys and the two white men who accompanied them, Maund and Colenbrander, arrived in Southampton early March, 1889. Babayane and Mshete wore western-style hats and three-piece suits, not any … Continue reading
Repercussions of the Rudd concession
This is the fourth installment of a series about Rhodesia. When Lobengula first put his mark to the Rudd document, he must have felt satisfied. He’d finally solved his problem of dealing with the swarms of white petitioners who came … Continue reading
Posted in African History, British History, History
Tagged Cecil Rhodes, Edward Maund, Lobengula, Lord Knutsford, Rudd concession, Sir Hercules Robinson
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Cecil Rhodes and British expansionism
This is the first of a series about Rhodesia. “I contend that we are the first race in the world, and that the more of the world we inhabit the better off it is for the human race.”*—Cecil Rhodes It … Continue reading
1870 to 1918 