John Bruce was an Edinburgh historian (1745-1826) who was befriended by Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, Secretary of State for War. Through Melville's influence he was given several posts, including that of patent of King's Printer and Stationer for Scotland, Keeper of State Papers Office and Secretary for Latin language and historiographer to the East India Co. (See D.N.B.).

He compiled several valuable works, including some which were privately printed for the confidential use of members of the government.

Robert Brooke joined the East India Company as an ensign in 1764 and had a distinguished career in India, taking part in many military campaigns. When he went on leave in 1774 he invested his fortune in a scheme to grow cotton in Ireland.

When this scheme failed in 1787 he applied to the East India Company to be reinstated. This they would not do in full but appointed him governor of St. Helena.

During his years as governor at St. Helena, from 1787-1801, he strengthened the defences and recruited and drilled troops for service in India.

Despite the fact that his plan to capture the Cape of Good Hope was anticipated by the British attack under General Baird, he was highly commended by the government and in 1799 was presented with a diamond-hilted sword as a mark of esteem. He had to resign in 1801 due to ill health and died shortly afterwards.

Rev. John Mackenzie was born in Scotland in 1836. He first came to South Africa in 1858 as a missionary in Bechuanaland. After his return in 1869 he took residence at Kuruman. He rendered his service to Sir Charles Warren on the occasion of the Langeberg Expedition of 1878.

Baron Adolf von Koerber was born in 1891 on the Island of Rügen of a distinguished Prussian family. His father was a Doctor of Law and Landrat of Rügen and his mother was of an old Prussian military family. He was educated at military gymnasiums in Stettin, Potsdam and Lichterfelde. In 1909 he was appointed an ensign of cavalry and in 1910 a Lieutenant.

From 1910-1912 he saw service with the Danzig Black Hussars and it was during those years that he became interested in flying. In 1913 he had a year's leave during which he visited Italy, the Netherlands and Scandinavia to study art, literature and military science. His travels came to an end with the outbreak of the first World War, in which he served in the Air Force until he was invalided out in 1917.

After the war von Koerber went to Munich to practise the profession of journalism. His interest in political journalism was stimulated by the plight in which Germany found itself. He became correspondent for Finnish newspapers and came into contact with many political figures including Adolf Hitler. Like many young men he was captured by the ideals of the National Socialists and on 22 November 1922 joined the Nazi Party with the number 11640. He took part in the Putsch of 1923 and in this year wrote a biographical sketch of Hitler. From the beginning he saw the contradiction between the high ideals of the National Socialists and their actual conduct and soon became disenchanted with the Party.

In 1926 von Koerber visited France, where in conjunction with Arnold Rechberg, he worked hard for a Franco-German rapprochement. In an article of 6 May 1927 in the Berlin democratic organ "Vossische Zeitung" he prophesied that Hitler was seeking a dictatorship. From 1926 he was on Hitler's black list and came under increasing threats from the Nazis. Living in Berlin, he was Chief Correspondent for the "Neues Wiener journal" but wrote for many other newspapers as well.

After the Putsch of 1933 his career in journalism was virtually finished and because of his ant-Nazi feelings his house in Berlin was watched, his telephone tapped and his movements restricted. His wife travelled outside Germany on his behalf to keep in touch with those, like Father Muckermann, who had been forced to flee the country. His support of his Jewish friends brought him further into Nazi disfavour. By 1938 he knew war was inevitable and warned the British military attache in Berlin of this (See Documents of British Foreign Policy 1919-1939. Ed. by E. L. Woodward & R. Butler, 3rd series, vol. 2, 1938, N0. 595).

On the outbreak of the second World War von Koerber was forbidden to travel and had to remain on the island of Rügen. He continued his illegal activities and passed information to the British Broadcasting Corporation in London and to foreign newspapers. After the war he claimed that he helped to encourage the growing antagonism to Hitler, particularly amongst military men. He was arrested on 21 July 1944, the day after the unsuccessful plot to kill Hitler and was imprisoned in Sachsenhausen. His wife, despite her ill health, was sent to a labour camp. On 15 February 1945 he was liberated by the Russians, went to Potsdam and joined free Germany as Comrade 179. Thereupon he claimed that he was a victim of fascism and worked for the de-nazification of Germany. His private affairs were in a bad shape, his house at Hinz plundered and his house in Berlin bombed.

In 1946 von Koerber went to Berlin, where he was licensed as a journalist by the Information Central Board, and in 1948 he was flown out of the Eastern Section by the British and went to Baden-Baden as chief editor of the "Europaeische Illustrierte". The following year he became Press Chief of the French zone of the Economic Co-operation Administration of the Marshall Aid Plan. In 1952 he went to Bonn to work for the Arbeitgemeinschaft Demokratischer Kreise. From 1958 he lived in Nice until 1968 when, disillusioned with Europe and its politics, he immigrated to South Africa, settling in Johannesburg until his death on 19 November 1969.

Herman Eugene Schoch (1862-1947)

Born on 10 September 1862 at Herisau, Switzerland. His parents were Wilhelm August Schoch (1834-1910) and Ida Schiess. His father was a clerk in an import-export firm in England and later set up his own business at Herisau, importing English cloth. A very religious man, he felt a call from God to go to Africa and set sail with his family on the s.s. Asia, arriving in Cape Town on 4 May 1868.

From 1868-1873 the Schoch family lived at Wellington in the Cape, farming, but religious feelings compelled them to move again and after a journey lasting from 17 October 1873 to 9 March 1874 they settled at the farm Boschdal in Rustenburg. Life was very spartan and Herman was taught at home by his father and aunt. In November 1878 Herman left the Transvaal to be apprenticed to Mr. Schunke, Land Surveyor in the Cape and from 1878-1883 worked in this capacity. His formal education took place at Neuchatel Gymnasium in Switzerland and Edinburgh University from 1884-1887. In 1888 he attended surveying clauses at St. Andrew's College, Grahamstown, coming first in his examinations for Cape Colony.

From 1892-1899 he worked as a Surveyor in the Transvaal in partnership with George Greathead. In 1895 he went out with the Rustenburg commando to intercept Jameson's column and in 1899 was called up for service with the Boer forces. He served with the Rustenburg commando which besieged Mafeking 1899-1900 but when Mafeking was relieved he handed in his weapons and swore allegiance to the British crown. In 1900 he worked in a temporary capacity in the mapping section of the Surveyor General's Office in Pretoria. In 1908 he became a member of the Institute of Land Surveyors of the Transvaal and in 1912 gained the Mine Surveyor's Certificate of competency. His career advanced steadily and he ended as Surveyor General of the Transvaal, retiring in 1922 at the age of 60. He was a member of the Angola South West Africa Boundary Commission of 1920 which delimited the boundary between the two countries. In 1923 he worked in a temporary capacity helping to survey what is now the Kruger National Park. He married Elizabeth du Plessis and had a son, Walter, and a daughter, Eileen. He died on 12th October 1947.

Jan Christiaan Smuts, 1870-1950

Born on the farm Bovenplaats outside Riebeek West, Cape Colony, on 24 May 1870, his education took place at Victoria College, Stellenbosch, and Cambridge, where he read for the bar. He served with distinction in the South African War, 1899-1902, and in the first World War during the East African campaign. Smuts had a distinguished career in politics, being Prime Minister twice. During the second World War he played an important part and helped to draft the covenant for the United Nations.

For a full biography see the Dictionary of South African Biography Volume 1, edited by W. J. de Kock

Jeremiah Idelson was a musician, born in Libau, Latvia. He came to South Africa in 1912 and founded and was chairman of several musical societies, including the A.Z.Idelson Group and the Society of South African Composers. A revisionist and a Freemason, a mountaineer and a Hebraist, a musician, a religious reformer and vegetarian. He was a pioneer of broadcasting in South Africa. He also founded and was the first chairman of the Transvaal Mountain Club and life member of the Mountain Club of South Africa, and founder of the Johannesburg Vegetarian Society. He was also founder of the Bohemian RAC. He conducted many concerts of his compositions, some published in South Africa and overseas.

He married Miss Anne Sacks, the well-known concert violiniste, 15 December 1940. His recreations were swimming and mountaineering. He died in June 1974 and his widow, Mrs A.Idelson, transferred his papers to the Library, University of the Witwatersrand.

The papers are of interest to the historian of music in South Africa and illustrate the part played by the Jewish community in fostering the arts. There are boxes of papers, spanning the years 1906-1974 and include minutes of musical societies, correspondence, printed items, press clippings and musical scores.

J.R. Pim was born on 27 September 1862 at Greythorn, County Dublin, the son of James and Elizabeth Pim, and was educated privately at Trinity College, Dublin, where he distinguished himself in Science and Mathematics. He graduated M.A., took up the profession of accountancy and came to South Africa in 1890 to organise the accounting system of the British South Africa Company. He practised in Kimberley, where he was besieged during the Anglo-Boer War, and in Johannesburg, founding the firm Howard Pim and Hardy.

Pim was a man of many and varied interests, active in Johannesburg municipal affairs, serving on the first elected Town Council and organising the raising of the first municipal loans. He was interested throughout his life in politics, particularly race relations and native welfare. For his service on several important commissions he was awarded a C.B.E. in 1919. He was a founder member of both the Joint Council of Europeans and Africans and the South African Institute of Race Relations. One of his last public acts was to draw up the report on the economic position of the Transkei, under the auspices of the Carnegie Commission.

His other interests were education, art and literature. He helped to found in Johannesburg the Public Library, Art Gallery, Bridgman Memorial Hospital (the first non-white maternity home in Johannesburg) and Bantu Men's Social Centre and also the Fort Hare Native College in the Cape Province. A life-long Quaker, he assisted those in need of all races. He married Rosamund Undecima Bere in 1898 and had one son and two daughters. He died on 29 April 1934.

Full details of Pim's life can be found in the Dictionary of South African Biography, Vol.1. Edited W.J. de Kock.

Joane Pim was born in 1904 in Johannesburg, South Africa, of Irish-English Quakers, Howard and Rosamund Pim. Her father was a prominent figure in South Africa in accountancy, philanthropy and art. Her preliminary schooling was at St. Andrews School, Johannesburg, and later at the age of fourteen, she went to England, where she attended St. Stephens in Folkestone, followed by a period of two years in Paris studying singing and French.

She returned to South Africa and spent several years of enjoyment with no fixed occupation and then became interested in horticulture and the maintenance of private gardens. She subsequently worked in an architect's office to learn draughtsmanship and worked with a professional horticulturist. She was ill for three months and went to England to recuperate, where friends suggested that Brenda Colvin, P.P.I.L.A., President and Founder of the Institute of Landscape Architecture, Great Britain, and leading landscape architect of the day and who is still one of the active leading landscape architects in Europe, would welcome a pupil. From that day on she had no other thought and her one desire was to qualify as a landscape architect.

During the war of 1939-1945, she was occupied in other fields and only started to practice in 1946, being accepted by the British Institute in 1947.

She was appointed Consultant to the Anglo-American Corporation in 1952, which position she held until her death, and entrusted with the landscape and garden planning of an area of virtual desert, 24 miles square, the layout or rehabilitation of fourteen mines and mine villages under the control of the Corporation and the landscaping of a town designed to accommodate 30 000, the plan of which had already been approved.

This appointment proved to be the forerunner of many others and her interests covered a wide field. Her landscape developments covered all Provinces of the Republic, Zambia, Rhodesia, Botswana and Swaziland. In 1954 she was appointed as Consultant to the Harmony Gold Mining Company and other mining groups. Travel by air and road averaged 48,080 miles per annum and schemes were planned for six different climates.

She was twice guest lecturer at the International Federation of Landscape Architects Congress in Zurich. In 1963 she was invited to address a similar Congress in Israel. She was a part-time lecturer in the Architectural and Town Planning Department at Witwatersrand University. She lectured in Pretoria and was instrumental in starting a degree course in Landscape Architecture at Pretoria University, as well as lecturing at the University of Stellenbosch and the Pietermaritzburg Architects' Forum. She contributed to many landscape Architectural journals, her most important publication being her book, 'Beauty is Necessary' published by Purnell & Sons (S.A.) (Pty) Ltd. Cape Town, in 1971.

Her other interests were Youth Clubs, of which she was also founder and chairman, as well as horses, dogs and photography.

Miss Joane Pim died suddenly on 27 November 1974.

George Macartney was born on 14 May 1737 at Lissanoure, Ireland, and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, graduating M.A. in 1759. He then travelled extensively on the Continent and then made the acquaintance of Stephen Fox, brother of Charles James Fox. In 1764 he was knighted and went as envoy extraordinary to St. Petersburg, where he concluded a commercial treaty with Russia. He was returned to Parliament for Cockermouth in 1760, but resigned when elected for Antrim in the Irish House of Commons, in view of his becoming Chief Secretary for Ireland, a post he held from 1769-1772.

From 1775-1779 Macartney was Captain-General and Governor of the Cariboo Islands (Grenada, the Grenadines and Tobago). He was at his post in Grenada in 1779 when the island was attacked and captured by the French. Macartney was taken to France as prisoner of war but was soon exchanged. In 1700 he was sent on a confidential mission to Ireland and in the same year was appointed Governor and President of Fort St. George (Madras) by the East India Company. On his journey back to England he called at the Cape of Good Hope in October 1705.

Macartney's next missions of importance were to Pekin (Beijing) in 1792 and Italy in 1795, where he negotiated with Louis XVIII of France, then in exile in Verona. Other honours fall to him; in 1772 he was made K.B., in 1776 Baron Macartney of Lissanoure (Irish peerage), in 1792 Earl Macartney and Viscount Macartney of Dervock in the peerage of Ireland and in 1796 Baron Macartney of Parkhurst, Sussex, and of Auchinleck, Kirkcudbrightshire.

In failing health, Macartney, on 30 December 1796, reluctantly accepted the appointment of Governor of the newly captured colony of the Cape of Good Hope. He arrived there on 4 May 1797 and remained until November 1798 when his health compelled his return to England. Because of his continued ill-health, he refused all further offices offered to him.

Macartney married the Lady Jane Stuart, second daughter of John Stuart, Earl of Bute, but there was no issue of the marriage. He died on 31 May 1806.

In youth Macartney was considered one of the meet handsome and accomplished young men of his day. He had scholarly tastes and possessed a fine library. It has been said of him that no public servant over left office with purer hands