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


Military History Journal - Vol 8 No 5

Activities/Aktiwiteite

The Annual General Meeting was held on Thursday evening 11th April, 1991, when the retiring Chairman, Prof Ian B Copley, presented his review of the Society's activities during the past year and the Honorary Secretary/Treasurer, Mr M J C Marsh, presented the financial statements. Unfortunately, the latter showed a deficit of R446 due mainly to the sharp increase in the costs of printing the Military History Journal.

Professor Copley was unanimously elected to the Chair for a further year, and the members whose names appear below were elected to the Committee

Maj Gen Philip Pretorius, Director of the SA National Museum of Military History, to whom we are indebted for the continued use of the Lemmer Auditorium for the monthly meetings and who was invited to take the Chair during the election of the Chairman, drew attention to the serious financial difficulties being experienced by the Military History Museum, as well as all the other museums in the country, and outlined the steps being taken to raise funds for the Museum. He also referred to the need for members of the Society to assist, through the Friends of the Museum organization, with the selling of admission tickets at the main entrance, helping to man the Museum shop and acting as guides over weekends and public holidays. He drew particular attention to the very high costs of printing the Military History Journal and the inability of the Museum to continue subsidising the Journal with the result that its publication might have to be discontinued. A general discussion followed on this.

At the conclusion of the Annual General Meeting Mr T C D Leaver gave a very interesting lecture on 'Capt R C Nesbitt, VC, and the Mazoe Patrol, 1896', which patrol went to rescue the Alice Mine settlers. During this operation extreme bravery was shown by certain civilians who should have received gallantry decorations as well.

The Roderick Murchison Memorial Prize for the best contribution to the Military History Journal in any one year was awarded to CaptJ H A Speir for his two articles 'Operation Chromite: MacArthur's Masterstroke' and 'The Aircraft of the Battle of Britain' which appeared in the June and December 1990, issues of the Journal.

Mr David Panagos conducted a tour of the Boer War forts around Pretoria on Sunday 24 March, 1991. This one-day tour, which was well attended, was a resounding success and our thanks are due to Mr Panagos for this.

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South African Military History Society / scribe@samilitaryhistory.org