Royal Commonwealth Society : Ernest Gedge lantern slides

Royal Commonwealth Society

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Y30468K(LS)1 consists of lantern slides illustrating the 1888-91 African expedition, many of which are duplicates of prints stored at Y30468K. The majority of the other items in the collection are largely uncaptioned and further research will be needed to identify their subjects. Y30468K(LS)2 was probably acquired during Gedge’s time in India. Y30468K(LS)3 contains reproductions of the artist William Hogarth’s prints and Y30468K(LS)4 is composed of family scenes in England and photographs of Africa perhaps taken after 1891</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Ernest Gedge (1862-1935) was the son of the Reverend Augustus Gedge, rector of Ludborough, Lincolnshire, 1854-1909, and his wife Lucy. He was educated at Queen Elizabeth College, Guernsey; Queen Elizabeth School, Ipswich; Rossall School; and the training ship H.M.S. Worcester. He was the assistant manager of a tea estate in Assam, 1879-1888, before joining the Imperial British East Africa Company. Gedge travelled with Sir Frederick J. Jackson on behalf of the I.B.E.A. Co. to Uganda in 1889 making treaties with chiefs and remained in Uganda in 1890 to represent the Company after Jackson left. Gedge placed himself under Lugard on the latter's arrival in Uganda 1891 and was ordered to the coast to recuperate. He was the correspondent for The Times in Uganda, 1892-1893, covering Sir Gerald Portal's mission, and during the Mashonaland campaigns in 1893 although this assignment was curtailed through ill health. He married Caroline Carr in England in 1894 and went on business trips to Bulawayo and Johannesburg, 1895 and 1897. He became Chairman of the Bassiar and Pelly Exploration Company, and went prospecting in the Yukon, 1898-1899. In 1900 he investigated mineral resources at Inyanga in Rhodesia, prospected in Malaya, Borneo and Java 1911-12, visited USA and Havana 1912-13 and the Middle East in 1919.</p>