The World Sculling Championship on the Zambezi

[Images can be found at

THE WORLD SCULLING CHAMPIONSHIP ON THE ZAMBEZI.

With the prospect of another International Regatta at Livingstone this year as part of the celebrations marking the Centenary of the birth of Rhodes, interest is being taken in early regattas and contests.

We said something about the first regatta in the last number of the journal. In a recent Sunday Mail, Mr. R. H. Christie Secretary of the Hunyani Rowing Club in Southern Rhodesia, wrote about the professional sculling championship held on the Zambezi at Livingstone in 1910.

Barry was world champion and the contest was the first world championship sporting event ever to be held in Rhodesia. Mr. Christie says:

" The race was organised by Guy Nickalls (who rowed in the winning British Olympic crew of 1908, at the age of forty), and was over a course of approximately four miles.

" Barry's opponent was Arnst, the Australian, and after the first three miles both scullers were so overcome by the unaccustomed heat and altitude that they stopped dead, unable to row another stroke. To Barry's despair, Arnst, who had a chest expansion of ten and a half inches, recovered his breath first, and paddled home the winner.

" Barry still regards that race as the hardest of his long career, during which he frequently won the world championship."

THE PHOTOGRAPH OF BUILDING THE FALLS BRIDGE.

In No. V of the Journal, we published a photograph by Mr. R. B. Dan showing the Falls Bridge only partially completed and a load being crossed on two cables. We said that we had inserted the cables because the photograph was so faint and now Mr. Dean points out to us that we put the cables in the wrong place. Loads were actually crossed on one cable, known as the " Blondin " after the famous tight-rope walker, stretched from bank to bank. Running along this one cable was a single cable attached to a pulley. In the photograph we put in two cables. The error is regretted.

NEW CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS NUMBER.

Errol Button, M.B.E.., is now District Commissioner (Rural) at Lusaka. He is a man of many parts. We published a line drawing of an elephant drawn by him in an earlier number to accompany a letter about the weight of elephant tusks and another drawing accompanies his article in this number. He paints bird pictures with no mean skill and he is a hunter as well as a naturalist. The Pinkbill Association in Ndola still talk of the way birds would fall to his gun in a darkening sky from great heights and he is one of the very select band of Civil Servants left in this modern age that nonchalantly knocks over a big bull elephant and sells the ivory to pay the children's school fees.

David Peters is Provincial Agricultural Officer, now in Mongu, who has many articles to his name as well as a couple of Rhodes-Livingstone Papers.

Nigel Watt is Photographer in the Information Department. His fame stretches beyond Africa and he has exhibited three times at the Royal Photographic Society and in 1952 took two prizes in an international contest run by the American journal, Photography. He has been on the Editorial Committee of the Journal since its inception.

Major G. Tylden served in the South African War of 1901-2, in World War I and again in World War II from 1940 to 1945. He is adviser on firearms to the Africana Museum in Johannesburg and to the South African Museum in Cape Town. He contributes to many journals, including that of the Society for Army Historical Research and to Africana Notes and News.

J. H. Venning is a retired Provincial Commissioner who has lived in Abercorn since he retired in 1930.

" BOBO " YOUNG.

In the first number of the Journal we asked for any stories or memories of the well-known Native Commissioner, "Bobo" Young, who in the 1890's was responsible for the pacification of the Bemba country in North-Eastern Rhodesia.

Sir Stewart Gore-Browne (in litt) says: " In the first issue of the Journal you ask for stories or reminiscences of Young. The best one, which I think Melland told me but I'm not sure, is that when the British South Africa Company started to institute monthly returns on the state of the country 'Bobo', when pressed to expedite his, for the six previous months or so, sent them all along in a bundle, blank, but endorsed 'Trust the man on the spot'. Another of Melland's of how, when Young made that very courageous visit to Mwamba, and the chief told him to sit on the floor, Young asked for a seat, Mwamba replied 'Give the other chief a chair', is unfortunately inaccurate. Young told me himself about the visit, and it is true that he, Young, did ask for a seat. Mwamba, however, refused, so Young sat down on a bale of cloth which was in the hut.

"I stayed with Young at Chinsali in May, 1914. He was extremely kind and hospitable, and as you can see from his letter to me [to be published in the next Journal.— Editor] did everything he could to help me. I arrived with a letter of introduction from Cholmeley, couched in glowing terms. Mrs. “Bobo” was extraordinary kind, too, and I remember particularly the good food she cooked and provided for my journey. She had been a music hall performer and had played in Scotland with Harry Lauder.

Figure 1 - Mrs. "Bobo" Young, one-time music hall star with Harry Lauder, photographed

with her husband and child

[Photo: Sir Stewart Gore-Browne

' Bobo' told me he saw her out walking, and asked his companion who she was, saying ' That's the woman I want to many '. It was the strangest thing imaginable to see how she had settled down to what really was a wild, isolated life in those days. The Reverend Macminn afterwards described her to me as 'a mother in Israel[1]'; I must say it hadn't struck me that way, though she'd one very nice little daughter. ' Bobo' told me he'd been a private in the Scots Guards, but his people bought him out. He was in Southern Rhodesia for a couple of years before coming up here with the police. He told me a lot about the early days and about the Chiwali defence, and the scrap with Ponde, but I think you've got most of that. The Chiwali show is apparently well described in a

paper published by the African Society, and written by Mr. Pirie in October, 1906. Do you happen to have seen it? It is quoted several times in The Great Halter.

" Young retired as you know about 1917, after having, largely through his own very great personal interest with the natives, managed to recruit a record number of army carriers from the Chinsali District. After the war he had a recruiting job in Nyasaland, and eventually died in England while watching a cricket match. I remember talking to some of the British South Africa Company directors about his services to this country. They struck me as not being remarkably well informed. In the district on the contrary, as you well know, he is remembered and beloved everywhere. One of his Boma messengers, who is now a leper, was in hospital here for a long while recently, and he was always talking about him and all he did. My own servant, Henry's father, was also one of his Boma messengers and thought the world of him."

SHIWA NGANDU.

Sir Stewart Gore-Browne also points out in his letter that " Bobo " Young did not discover the lake that Codrington named after him. It was, of course, discovered by Livingstone and we apologise for the slip. It is now perhaps more commonly known as Shiwa Ngandu, popularly translated as "the lake of the royal crocodiles”. [The crocodile is the token of the Bemba royal chiefs and as such is called Ngandu, the ordinary name for crocodile being ngwena. Refer also to a mention of the lake in JournalNo. II.— Editor.]

Sir Stewart goes on: "Apropos of the lake. Livingstone named it Chitane's Water, after the little dog, and it is recorded as such in the map he drew which is reproduced at the end of Vol. 1. of the Last Journals. He also called the hill, which is really Nachipala (' Bareback' on Croad's map), “Chitane's Mountain”, after he'd climbed it and made remarkably accurate observations for latitude and longitude there. I've often thought it would be a good spot for a memorial to Livingstone, except that it wouldn't be seen from the main road. It was close to the spot where his medicine case was lost and he 'received his death sentence'.

" Also apropos of the lake. It isn't quite correct to say my estate is on its shores. It's rather the other way, the lake is on my estate. As you say it's most lovely, and seems to grow more so every year ".

THE " MAY PARTY " IN ABERCORN.

Before the outbreak of the 1914 War, which was to swirl across so many of the farms an our northern border, a tradition had already been established among the young, pioneering farmers of Abercorn—and that was the " May Party ". Mr. Gordon H. Lobb, a well-known Abercorn farmer of those distant days and who now lives in Broken Hill, has described the last one held before the war stopped them for ever. Even in those days the sense of permanency among the settlers of a young country pervaded their outlook. As Mr. Lobb says of 1914—" There had always been a party in Abercorn every May."

He goes on: " We little thought that the party given by the C. W. Blythe and ourselves on my farm' Mule' in the Saisi Valley in May, 1914, was to be the last of its kind. There had always been a party in Abercorn every May. It had always been given by the Provincial Commissioner before. Tambalika Marshall and Mrs. Marshall asked everybody in the district on these occasions. It lasted three to five days, and was the great social event of the year. The first one I ever attended was in 1906. We used to have a shoot on the range at 200, 300 and 500 yards against Fort Jameson, each on our own range. It was great fun waiting for the other score to come in by wire to see who had won. I had had a slight go of fever just before May, 1914, and did not go down to the range with the others. On the way down I met an ostrich. I had never met one before, and had been told they could rip you open with their spurs, so I ran like the deuce and, looking over my shoulder, ran into a tree and fell to the ground. The bird stood and looked at me with a peculiar expression on its face, and I stayed down until I was rescued by a boy who knew the bird. I did see know till afterwards that it was a tame one belonging to Tambalika. I might have been even more frightened if I had known that ostriches do not inhabit the Northern Province.

Figure 2 - Lake Shiwa Nganda [Photo: Nigel Watt

" As I had a steeple-chase course on the farm, two and a half miles long with eight jumps plus a water jump and a nine-hole golf course and tennis court, I suggested to

Figure 3 - The May Party(Photo: G. Lobb

Standing (left to right): Messrs. Woods, Scott-Brown, Sealey, Miss Brunton, Mrs. Draper, Mrs. Gouldsbury, Mrs. Munro, Mrs. Lobb, Mrs. Blyth.

Sitting (left to right):Lionel Smith, C. Gouldsbury, Gordon Lobb. Messrs. Morton, Charlie Blyth, Baird, Draper, Deacon

the Blyths that we might give the party that year for a change, and give the Boma a rest. This was arranged. Of course, everybody wanted to ride, but as we had not enough horses to go round we did the best we could to let as many as we could ride. I let Woods, the Vet, as topweight, ride my best horse, Lumsden, who was full of tricks, and knew all about things. lie said he could make the weight and trained on Epsom salts. He did this so well that on the day of the race he had to dash with the hone behind an anthill, at the side of the course, and had to stay there until he felt like coming home. This cost me quite a bit, as I fancied Lumsden a lot. Always wanted to ride him myself as I knew his moods so well. I forget now the different winners of the races. Woods made up for it by winning the golf. I don't remember about the tennis either. We had four to five days of party altogether. People brought their own tents and camped round the house. None of the missionaries accepted our invitation as I suppose horse racing was not in their line. We managed to get some quite good beer over from Kasanga, in German East Africa, from the Indians. Beer was more or less unheard of in those days, but one could get plenty of whisky from Broken Hill at £5 a case (good days those). We played golf and tennis in the afternoons. Racing took place in the mornings. To get the right weights, my wife made weight-cloths which we filled up with cartridges. We had a large spring balance with a very big tray to sit on, all

very professional We had jackets and caps of our chosen colours. Boots, mostly mine, I lent to the others. Woods borrowed an old pair, but could not get out of them so had to have them cut off and I was glad they were my worst ones. We ended up the last night with a fancy dress dinner. The beer past lasted out. So ended a good party.

" The Germans burnt my place down in the war. All my good furniture, made by Bernard Turner and Freshwater of the London Missionary Society, of local wood which one does not get these days, went up in flames. Thinking that' 'Mula' was our home for our lifetime, I had spent a lot of money on it.

" During this last party the following people were there. They could not all stay there all the time so the Boma people took it in turns to come: C. P. Chesnaye, C. P. Oldfeld, Mr. and Mrs. Draper and son Dick, Mr. and Mrs. Gouldsbury and son Guy, also Miss Brunton, Mrs. Gouldsbury's companion, Woods, the Vet., John F. Sealy, Lionel Smith of Mpanga, Gerald Morton of Chereshia. who afterwards joined the Boma, Beird of the African Lakes Companies, John Deacon, a trader, Mr. and Mrs. C. W. Myth and daughter and son, ' Scot' Brown, a cinematograph operator to the Leisea Expedition, and myself, wife and two daughters.

" The day war broke out our boys told us that ' Scot ' Brown and two other white men had been interned at Tabora. This turned out to be true. The natives must have got the news by bush telegraph (drums). ' Scat' Brown's collection of photographs were taken from him so we never saw the photos of the races taken by him, or of some taken of me driving my tandem in a dog cart that I had bought at Fife Boma from the Government.

" The traditional ' May Party' was not renewed after the war. Abercorn took a long time to recover."

FIRST RECORD'S— No. 3. THE FIRST CRICKET MATCH.

According to Mr. R. B. Dean, the first cricket match ever played in Northern Rhodesia took place at the Maramba Railways Compound at Livingstone on 9th July, 1905. It was between the indoor and outdoor staff of Paulings, the rail way contactors. There were not enough Europeans for two full teams; the indoor team had only eight men but they managed to score some forty-sevenu runs; the outdoor section managed to raise a full team of eleven, but they only scored thirty-nine runs.

On the 23rd July, Livingstone (Old Drift) played its first match against the Construction Cricket Club (Paulings), the latter having a full team, but Livingstone only being able to raise ten men. Construction scored 102 runs, two men retiring hurt owing to the very bumpy ground. Livingstone scored ninety-six. There Were some interesting characters in the Livingstone team: L. F. Moore (later Sir Leopold) was run out for a duck; Foley, a policeman, scored forty-three. He was later stationed at Walker's Drift on the Zambezi and was not heard of for some time. Someone went down to see what had happened to him to find he had died in his bed some time previously and was stillthere. Also in the Livingstone team were Goodrich, a post of official who married
Jock Powell's daughter, Dipper, a mineral water maker, Gallagher, a Public Works Department bricklayer, and Downing, a trader with Mopani Clark. In the Construction team were Mr. R. B. Dean, who is still farming close to Lusaka, Skinner, a British South Africa Company official, who later went farming at Lubombo, and Oakley Thompson,

who not only died himself in the Luangwa Valley, but lost hls wife and family also them, presumably of sleeping sickness.

Another interesting match took place on the 25th and 26th November, 1905, when Paulings played at Kalomo, which was then the capital of Northern Rhodesia. In the first innings Paulings scored 210 runs and Kalomo 54. In the second innings Paulings scored 208 and Kalomo 94 for seven, Paulings thus winning by three wickets. Kalomo team contalned such famous characters as Coloner Harding, Ken. Fairbairn, " Skipper " Swanson, Shelmerdene, Lanigan O'Keeffe, then Secretary to the Administrator, and the Administrator himself, R. T. Codrlngton.