The South African
Military History Society
Die Suid-Afrikaanse Krygshistoriese Vereniging


Military History Journal - Vol 7 No 3

Society news

The Society's monthly meetings in the J C Lemmer Auditorium at the South African National Museum of Military History continue to attract very good attendances with members and friends, indicating the interest shown in the lectures. Major Darrell D Hall's ten minute slide shows entitled 'Military Magazine' and produced by 'Metro Goldwyn Hall', and given at the start of each evening's proceedings, have been continued and are enjoyed by members. This routine was changed slightly at the March meeting when Dr Ron Sinclair gave a short slide show of a trip he made to Berlin in August, 1945. Both the Durban and Cape Town branches have continued with their activities and monthly lectures of a high standard.

Following a successful year as Chairman, Mr Ian S Uys was unanimously re-elected as Chairman for the ensuing year at the Annual General Meeting held on 9 April, 1987, when the members whose names appear below were re-elected to the Executive Committee:

The Roderick G Murchison Memorial prize for the best contribution to the Military History Journal in 1986 was awarded to Dr Stanley Monick for his article 'The Poet Under Fire - Four Poets of World War I: Brooke, Grenfell, Sassoon and Owen' which appeared in the June issue of the Journal.

The Society's Scribe continued with his interesting newsletters, which were supplemented at the end of last year and the beginning of this year by comments by Cmdt S Bourguin on the television series of 'Shaka Zulu' thus correcting, for the information of members, the glaring historical inaccuracies in the series.

Arrangements were concluded for the production of a Society tie and these have been made available to members at a reasonable cost. The tie consists of the Society's logo in silver and black on a blue background offset at intervals by two narrow oblique red and silver stripes.

Another very successful tour to the Vryheid/ Ulundi area was arranged by the Military History Museum over the long week-end of 9 to 12 October, 1986, and attended by a large number of enthusiastic members and friends. The Society arranged another one-day tour to the Pretoria area on Sunday, 22 March, 1987, visiting Rooihuiskraal and Fort Tullichewan in the morning, when the lecturers were Mr Rob Jordan and Mr Richard Tomlinson, and No 1 Military Hospital at Voortrekkerhoogte in the afternoon. The Society is indebted to Cmdt (Dr) Ian Copley for kindly making the latter visit possible.

These notes would be incomplete if mention were not made of the retirement of Colonel George R Duxbury, the Director of the South African National Museum of Military History at the end of March, and we wish to pay tribute to him for all his support and assistance to the Society since its founding in October, 1966. Colonel Duxbury, who is one of the few Honorary Life Members of the Society, has been a good friend and loyal supporter of the Society, and as a small token of esteem and thanks the Executive Committee entertained he and Mrs Uylet Duxbury to a dinner at the Country Club on Tuesday, 21 April.

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South African Military History Society / scribe@samilitaryhistory.org