International

Hearing about the death of Michael Sutton, architect extraordinaire, on the 22 May 2024 at the age of 96, was a terrible shock, despite knowing it was imminent.

Many of us know Michael Sutton as a brilliant architect who designed masterpieces in South Africa and Greece. His life was extraordinary and his achievements were impressive.

My own association with Michael Sutton goes back to 1972 when I was privileged to work in the office of Michael Sutton and Walker for a year before studying architecture. Thereafter, I worked for the partnership at every opportunity in vacations and then again after graduating. Initially I wasn't sure I wanted to be an architect, but working with him was an inspiration and I quickly made up my mind. The office was a rollercoaster of ideas, always exciting and challenging. With the encouragement of both partners and by example, I knew that I wanted to follow in their footsteps. This is where I met Mohammed Hans, Marcus Holmes, Lynnette Alan and Robert Stasio who all shared my admiration for Michael and all of whom were lifelong friends with Michael.

Michael was born totally deaf in 1928. His sister Ann was also born deaf. Both went to school in England where they were taught to lipread. Neither of them learned to sign which, if it had been their sole means of communicating, would have made integration with the broader society far more difficult. Lipreading made it possible for them to communicate in a natural way with...

On first inspection, this small map (20 x 14 cm) is unimpressive and would seem to be of little heritage interest to South Africa. But why the four small insets in the corners? Once I had confirmed the source of the map, I started to delve into the stories it revealed.

The map

The title of the map is in Latin (Insula de S Lauenty, i.e., the Island of St. Lawrence) as is the page headline Insula Madagascar alias S. Laurentii Dicta, & huius conditio (The island of Madagascar, otherwise called St. Lawrence, and its condition). Despite the Latin title, many of the place names are in Portuguese.

Not unexpectedly, the small chart includes a ship sailing through the Mozambique Channel, two compass roses from which rhumb lines (compass bearings) emerge.

There are tiny inset maps in each corner of the map boundary: Insula de S. Maria (Island of Saint Mary); Baija Antongil (Antongil Bay); Porto de S. Augostine (The port of Saint Augustine) and Caemetrium Battavorum (Dutch Cemetery).

The text below the map is also in Latin and provides the key to the letters on the insets.

‘Madagascar is drawn here, with its sands and rocky cliffs: “A” is the place where we first anchored, “B” Is the island where many of the sailors were buried in the Dutch Cemetery, “C” a fresh-water lake, “D” a stream of fresh-water, “E” the Dutch trench, “F” the corner of the port of St August, “G” A small island to...

"The geographical map ... although static, implies a narrative; it is ... an Odyssey." Italo Calvino, Collezione di Sabbia, Milan 1984.

I had just completed cataloguing the Schrire Africana map collection of more than 600 items that had been dormant for almost half a century. Catalogues tend to be formal, technical and predictable. One of the maps was a scarce sea chart (see main image and click here for a high res version) I had not seen before and that was not mentioned in any of the reference books on maps of southern Africa. In a sale catalogue I found a brief description of the chart. it piqued my curiosity.

Here is an English translation of the full title: “Sea chart of a Part of the Ethiopian Sea; stretching from Rio St. Lucia to Cabo del Cado, along the coasts of Suffalo (Sofala) and Mozambique, also containing the island of Madagascar and its dependent islands. In Amsterdam by Johannes van Keulen, sea chart and book seller at the corner of the New Bridge Alley.”

The map title

The detailed title did not...

In the article below, author and history enthusiast Lennie Gouws looks at the story of one of South Africa's forgotten Olympians. The piece first appeared on Lennie Gouws's website where she writes about the rich history of Potchefstroom. Click here for more great stories.

Rudolph Ludewyk "Okey" Lewis (12 July 1887 – 29 October 1933) was a South African road racing cyclist who won the gold medal in the road race at the 1912 Summer Olympic Game in Stockholm in Sweden. This, in itself, is a huge achievement, but if you realise from where this man came to achieve this, it seems almost impossible.

Lewis was born on a farm near Pretoria in the Waterberg district and grew up in Germiston. Prior to the 1912 Olympics, he worked a full-time job for nine years underground in a gold mine and in his spare time trained in cycling, boxing and skating.

Okey Lewis in his Springbok colours at the Olympic Games, sporting his racing number “2” (Wikipedia)

Okey Lewis was South Africa’s only entrant in the cycling race at the Olympic Games. The South African trials for the Olympic Games were held in the Transvaal on 30 March 1912. Lewis was the only one of five...

When the marathon athlete, Kennedy Kane McArthur, won the Olympic marathon on 14 July 1912 in Stockholm, Sweden, he created a record that has never been broken. McArthur, a Potchefstroom policeman and his Springbok team mate, Christopher Gitsham, won the gold and silver medals in the marathon.

Since then, no country in the world could produce the first and second place winners in the Olympic marathon. McArthur ran the 40.2 km in a time of 2:36:54,8 sec. Although the route was two kilometres shorter than the one of 1908, his time was accepted as an Olympic record.

Another record that was never broken is that he is the only athlete in the world that won all the marathons he took part in.

This photo of Kennedy Kane McArthur appeared in the Potchefstroom Herald on 13 February 1910

KK McArthur was born on 10 February 1881 in Dervock, County Antrim in Northern Ireland. He is the second of five children of Robert Jamieson McArthur and Mary Ann McArthur. Before he came to Potchefstroom he was the local postman. He did not participate in athletics in his birth country, but was often observed running while doing his rounds as a postman.

He came to Potchefstroom in approximately 1901 when he was recruited as a member of the newly founded South African Constabulary.

McArthur in Potchefstroom 

The South African...

On a recent trip to Vancouver, Canada I went off to visit Vancouver Island. The island is surprising large being 456 km long, 100 km at its widest point and has a total area of 32,100 km2. It is the largest by area and the most populous of the islands along the west coasts of the Americas. The capital of British Columbia, Victoria, is on the island and has some beautiful Victorian buildings.

The southern part of Vancouver Island and some of the nearby Gulf Islands are the only parts of British Columbia or Western Canada that lie south of the 49th parallel. The 49th parallel is the boundary between the United States and Canada.

Indigenous peoples have inhabited Vancouver Island for thousands of years, long before the arrival of Spanish and British naval expeditions in the late 18th century.

The Spanish and British conjointly named it Quadra's and Vancouver's Island in commemoration of the negotiations in 1792 between the Spanish commander of Fort San Miguel in Nootka Sound, Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, and British naval Captain George Vancouver. It is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, who between 1791 and 1794 explored the Pacific Northwest.

Map of Vancouver Island (Wikipedia)

It is separated from the mainland of British Columbia by the Johnstone Strait and Queen Charlotte Strait...

Modern High Speed Rail (HSR) is regarded as being an independent railway dedicated solely for passengers and built to standards which allow trains to travel along its rails at speeds in excess of 300 kph (185 mph); thus enabling it to compete with short haul airlines. A case in point is the “Eurostar” service, between London (St Pancras) and Paris (Gare de Nord) that has a journey time of two and a quarter hours, via the Channel Tunnel, with the benefit to the traveller of going from city centre to city centre.

In the last six decades, many HSR services have come into being, commencing with the Japanese “Shinkansen” (a.k.a. Bullet Train) that was inaugurated in 1964, between Tokyo and Osaka, with an initial speed of 200 kph (125 mph). In the years since, the “Shinkansen” has been extended eastwards of Tokyo and westwards of Osaka with the services now travelling at speeds of 300 kph. This need for speed has been replicated in France, Germany, Spain and China, with Indonesia being the latest to join the club with its own brand of HSR called “Whoosh”, between Jakarta and Bandung, which was launched as recently as the 17th October 2023, to coincide with the “Chinese Belt and Road” Summit which took place in Beijing.

I could expand more on modern day HSR’s, and discuss the merits of the French TGV (Train a Grand Vitesse) or the German ICE (Inter City Express), but there is so much information out there that I...

It has been just over a year since I made the move from South Africa to the UK to work for the National Trust. What a journey it has been. Several people have asked me to reflect on the experience so far, so here we go...

The National Trust's 'oldest stately home'

The Trust is known for its grand homes, superb gardens and special collections. There are over 500 properties in the NT portfolio and I have found my way to a unique site, a 1700 year old Roman Villa and what some people fondly call the Trust's 'oldest stately home'. In its heyday in the 4th century AD, it was one of the grandest villas in Roman Britain with underfloor heating, running water for the latrine, spectacular mosaics and two bath houses. We still don't know how the owners made their money (there are several theories) but we do know from the scale of the structure and the spectrum of artefacts found here that they would have been part of the elite. I love the place and have become very attached in a short space of time.

Bluebells during springtime at the Villa. The pillars in the room on the left are the remains of a hypocaust (underfloor heating system).

Every morning...

A large collection of maps of the African continent, southern Africa and surrounding oceans has been dormant for almost half a century. Nevertheless, its maps and sea charts were a crucial primary source for R.V. Tooley’s seminal, collectors’ guide to Africana maps.

In May of this year, Jonathan and Gail Schrire called me: would I be interested in looking at their large collection of historical maps of Africa? What a question! A penny had dropped as soon as I heard the combination of Schrire and maps of Africa.

I have now completed the provisional cataloguing of what is arguably one of the largest and most important collections of printed historical maps of the African continent (106), Southern Africa (285), and related sea charts (114). There are also duplicates, and miscellaneous items (184) that do not fall into the primary geographical categories.

Provenance

Ronald Vere (‘Mick’) Tooley (1898-1986) was a pioneering London dealer who found maps for private and institutional collectors. He also visited libraries to study the books in which most had been bound. Between 1961 and 1976 he sourced and sold Africana maps and sea charts to David Schrire (1908 - 1991). Schrire was a South African who...

The mere mention of Winston Churchill’s name conjures up in one’s mind a man with an indomitable spirit, a British Bulldog, the man who steeled the resolve of freedom loving people (around the globe) to fight against the odds and be victorious over Hitler’s Axis of Evil. When he was called upon to lead Great Britain in its 'Darkest Hour' and be its Prime Minister and War Leader, he accepted the challenge as a fulfilment of his destiny, at an age of 65 years when most men would have been happy to retire.

Portrait of Churchill circa 1941 (Wikipedia)
 

That Darkest Hour was during the Second World War (1939-1945), on the 7th May 1940 when the British Parliament no longer had any confidence in Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister and he was told, by Leo Amery, “Depart I say and let us have done with you. In the name of God go”. Amery was paraphrasing Oliver Cromwell, as would David Davis in 2022, when telling Boris Johnson to resign. Johnson had (still has) delusions of being another Churchill, but many argue he is just a pale imitation.

The Second World War began when the Germans invaded Poland on the 1st September 1939. Britain and France had given Poland assurances should it be attacked and they duly declared war on Germany on the 3rd September. However, after...