Northern Rhodesia

I ' ' THEY CAME TO NORTHERN RHODESIA Compiled by RICHARD SAMPSON, f.r.s.a.. ac.w.a. 1956 THEY CAME TO NORTHERN RHODESIA Being a record of persons who had entered what is now the Territory of (Northern Rhodesia) Zambia today by 31st December. 1902 Compiled by RICHARD SAMPSON, f.r.s.a., ac.w.a. FAMILY HISTORY LIBRARY 35 NORTH WEST TEMPLE SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH 84150 To those persons who came but whose names are not recorded in this book. INTRODUCTION In this book Mr. Sampson has put on record information which every Northern Rhodesian ought to know and which every Northern Rhodesian will need to know at some time. He gives us a selection of facts about the people who came to Northern Rhodesia before the end of the South African War, when Northern Rhodesia was in the process of being discovered by the outside world. He tells us when they came, where they came from and why they came. He tells us what manner of people they were—the people who came—and how they fared when they came He does all this with a remarkable economy of words and he presen ts his story in a most readable form. I commend this work to IS orthern Rhodesians of all races. I know that Mr. Sampson's rosea:rches are still continuing and I will await with interest his next literary venture. A. T. Williams, Cape Town, Chief Secretary, November, 1955. Northern Rhodesia Government. AUTHOR'S NOTE BELLINGS OF PLACE NAMES ARE IN SOME CASES INCONSISTENT IN THE CONTEXT OF THIS BOOK. I HAVE TAKEN IN ALL INSTANCES THE SPELLING USED BY THE PIONEERS, AS I FEEL THAT IT WOULD BE WRONG TO ALTER THEM. iv PREFACE The Commission for the Preservation of Natural and Historical Monuments and Relics, in accordance with its policy to publish records of interest connected with the past history of Northern Rhodesia and of the monuments and relics that are preserved here, is pleased to be able to follow up its Handbook to the Victoria Falls and the Check List of Old Boma Sites with the present publication They Came to Northern Rhodesia. This work has been compiled by Mr. Richard Sampson, a.c.w.a., and provides as complete a list as possible of all Europeans known to have visited the Territory up to the end of the year 1902. This work has taken the author many months to complete and the Territory is in his debt for having provided us with such a valuable record, which will be a source-book of use for many years to all those wishing to investigate further the history of European penetration and settlement north of the Zambezi. v ABBREVIATIONS A.L.C African Lakes Corporation Ltd. (Lakes Fisheries of Zambia Ltd.). The African Trans-Continental Telephone Co. Ltd. A.T.T (Posts and Telecommunications Corporation). Belgian Congo (Zaire). B.CB.C. A British Central Africa (Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi). B.S.A The British South Africa Company. B.S.A. Police ....The British South Africa Company Police Force. Cdr Commander. D.R.M Dutch Reformed Mission. F.C.S The Free Church of Scotland and other Churches forming the Livingstonia Mission. Flotilla Co The African International Flotilla and Transport Co. Ltd. L.M.S The London Missionary Society. Lt Lieutenant. Meth. Miss Methodist Mission or Methodist Missionary. M.O.H Medical Officer of Health. N.C.E.C The North Charterland Exploration Co. Ltd. N.E.R North-Eastern Rhodesia (Eastern, Northern, Luapula and Central). N.R Northern Rhodesia(Zambia). N.W.R North-Western Rhodesia (Southern, Copperbelt, Part of Central, Western, North-Western Lusaka). P.B.M Plymouth Brethren Mission and persons later associated with this group. P.E. A . .. Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique). P.M.S . .. The Paris Missionary Society. P.W.A. .... Portuguese West Africa (Angola). R.A. .. Royal Artillery. R.E . .. Royal Engineers. R.G.S... .. .. Royal Geographical Society. vii Rhod. Cone Rhodesian Concession Co. Ltd. R.N Royal Navy. S.A South Africa. S.R Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). Tang. Cone The Tanganyika Concession Co. Ltd. V.F Victoria Falls. viii EXPLANATORY NOTE This book is an attempt to record for posterity the names and background of some of the persons who had entered what is now the Territory of Northern Rhodesia by the 31st December, 1902. It will be apparent that after a minimum time lapse of over fifty years I have not had the benefit of many personal interviews with pioneers of those days, and as a result I have, to a large extent, had to rely on written records. This has immediately presented its own problems. Not only has it been necessary to trace the available records but problems of reliability and accuracy have also arisen. The biggest single problem I have had to face is to ascertain whether or not the person under consideration for inclusion in this record actually entered Northern Rhodesia within the date limit covered by this book. Before accepting any record I have put it to the following test: (a) From the general context, is it a bona fide record and not fiction? (b) Are the dates of the incidents mentioned in the record sufficiently clear to be sure they had occurred by the 31st December, 1902? (c) Were the persons mentioned clearly within the boundaries of what is now known as Northern Rhodesia? Only in the case of visitors to the Victoria Falls have I given any person the benefit of the doubt as to whether they actually entered Northern Rhodesia or not. I have given latitude in these cases as most recordings of the early visits to the Palls are extremely vague and are not clear whether or not the person actually entered Northern Rhodesia. As, however, the Zambezi is a Northern Rhodesian river (Southern Rhodesia ends on the southern bank) one foot into the water, so to speak, means they were in Northern Rhodesia and would be qualified without doubt for inclusion. In all other cases I have provided no latitude whatsoever and I have insisted that the record does show the person was within the present boundaries of Northern Rhodesia. It is quite clear to me that in keeping to this standard I have excluded many persons who would, were the facts known, be entitled to inclusion in this record. I am anticipating a spate of communica¬ tions indicating the names and details of further people who should be included. This I do not mind as it will pave the way for a more complete record some time in the future. However, what I have wished to avoid is being challenged on the entitlement of any person included and, bearing in mind the degree of proof I have required, the possibility of this is, I think, remote. Why 31st December, 1902 ? To a great extent it was fixed arbitrarily. I wished to avoid the large influx of people who came to ix the Territory after the South African War and the large parties of Europeans who came with the building of the railway. To include these would have made my task unwieldy. In the event 1902 appears to have been a fairly good date limit although I was surprised at the number of persons entering the Terri¬ tory from the east during 1901 and 1902. The European population of what is now the Northern and Eastern Provinces must have been higher in those years than is generally supposed. It will be noticed in this record that no African names appear. I have excluded these because whilst the African from South Africa played a comparatively large part in the first penetrations of this country, in most cases the records only show Christian or first names which would be meaningless in a roll of this nature. However, although I have not mentioned it in the record, a few of the persons with European names were not in fact of the European race. With regard to the details shown under each name,"I wish to point out the following limitations: (a) No attempt has been made to show the later history of these individuals, i.e. after the 31st December, 1902. In many cases, although it would not be recognised from the content, the persons noted have had distinguished careers. Conversely several of the persons listed had to be forcibly removed from the Territory. (b) The dates of entry shown are the earliest I have been able to verify. In cases it is certain that the person actually came into the country at an earlier date than has been verified. (c) Many of the employing companies mentioned in the text appear to have co-operated to a considerable degree in sharing staff. I have, in most cases, indicated the main company with which the person was employed but in actual fact many of the employees were actually with more than one of the companies listed in the abbreviations. This is quite understandable in connection with the African Lakes Corporation and the British South Africa Company, as the latter company took over the administration of the African Lakes Corporation in 1902. It is not clear why this should be in the case of other companies who had, as far as I can trace, no apparent connections with each other. (d) Not all references available for each person are shown in the book. In compiling this record I have examined approximately 20,000 letters, books, newspapers, gazettes and official documents. Of these it will be seen that I have selected over 300 for mention in this record.

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