Southern African Collections : Photographs of Mashonaland and Matabeleland

Surridge, Frank Harold, d 19470

Southern African Collections

An album containing mounted prints measuring approximately 240 x 180 mm, with captions beneath the prints written in a fine copperplate hand. The photographs show scenes taken between June and September 1890 during the Pioneer trek in what was later to be Southern Rhodesia [now Zimbabwe]. On July 9 1891, soon after his return to England, Surridge delivered a lecture to the Royal Colonial Institute (an earlier iteration of the Royal Commonwealth Society), entitled 'Matabeleland and Mashonaland'. This talk was illustrated with lantern slides of which these prints are presumably the originals. The captions have been used as titles and may contain offensive, inappropriate or outdated terms. They have been retained to reflect the context of their creation. The ordering of the prints in the album bears little relation to the chronology of the trek itself and possibly reflects the order in which the lantern slides accompanying Surridge's lecture were shown. A more correct order would be (showing print number, then area, then approximate date):14, 17, 18 Umzingwane River, July 15th; 11, 12 Banyailand, July; 15, 16, 20 Nuanetsie River, July 28th; 10, 13, 21 Lundi River, August 2nd; 19 Savana Buli Rock, August 2nd; 2, 3, 6 Tokwe and Tokwani Rivers, early August; 8, 9 Somoto's Kraal, August 20th; 1, 4, 5, 7 [?] unspecific or unidentified locations.Reverend Frank Harold Surridge had originally gone to South Africa to take up a position as Chaplain to the Archbishop of Cape Town but instead accepted the post of Church of England Chaplain to the Pioneer Column. Surridge did not settle in Mashonaland and later accepted a chaplaincy in India. He died in Chelmsford, England, in May 1947.Related material: The text for the lecture is printed in: Royal Colonial Institute (1891), 'Matabeleland and Mashonaland', 'Proceedings of the Royal Colonial Institute', vol. XXII, pp.305-331, London: Royal Colonial Institute.Immediate source of acquisition: The album was presented to the Royal Colonial Institute in June 1891.