I wonder whether any members of the community might be able to help with a question regarding South African history. I am working on an exhibition by a Cambridge artist, Rita Genlloud, who published a book of sketches of Cambridge courts and alleyways in 1933. (One of them is in Peterhouse, the college of which I am a fellow, hence the interest). Only one other picture by her, a watercolour, is known (see main image).

I am confident it is in South Africa, since in 1919 she married a South African, Cyril Webster. He had been serving with the Black Watch during World War I (his family was of Scottish origins). We know that she went back with him to East London in 1919, and I suspect that the painting was done soon after. The story does not end happily. Cyril committed suicide in a hotel room in Durban in 1926; Rita was by then back in Cambridge, so I am assuming the marriage had broken down. There is no evidence that she visited South Africa again, although her uncle lived in the Transvaal (there are still quite a few Genllouds in South Africa from this branch of the family).

I have spent many hours searching images on the web but I have not been able to find it. The cannon in the front suggests something military — perhaps, given it was so soon after World War I, a memorial to that of some kind, or a memorial to the Boer War? It is striking that one can see straight through the building, which suggests it may have been little more than the veranda.

If anyone has any information or suggestions, I would be very grateful.

Prof Richard Holton | Faculty of Philosophy | University of Cambridge | rjh221@cam.ac.uk

[Update - Several readers confirmed the building is the old tea room at the Johannesburg Zoo. See postcard below. Thank you to everyone who responded.]

Postcard of the tearoom at the Johannesburg Zoo.jpg