Valentina Grey by Sandi Toksvig 2012 230pg Boer War story.

 This is fiction but covers a lot of historic facts on the period of the Boer War and the British colonial attitude    23/12/2023

The narrator was born in 1882 in Assam where her parents ran a tea plantation. Her mother died and her father sent her  to live with his family in London  at Inkerman House in 1897 when their was a heavy fog in the city. She was meant to stay 3 months but an earthquake and avalanche her had killed her father.  The Aunt Caroline who had been so busy training her to become a high class lady that she felt trapped. to enter the marriage market.

The aunt belonged to the Primrose League was an organization for spreading Conservative principles in  Great Britain. It was founded in 1883. It later led the suffragettes . Valentine mother had been an actress.

1893 Shangani Patrol in Southern Rhodesia where 34 members of the army died fighting after being ambushed by Matabele under Lobengulu.

The Boer War broke out and a regiment of volunteer was called for, to fight for the British Empire which is the greatest Empire the world has seen. The city of London would finance the 1000 volunteers. Ladysmith, Mafeking and Kimberley were under siege. His  father sighed Reginald  up to volunteer the get him to make something of himself. A bicycle corps would be developed as so many horses had been killed. One of the British excuses was that outlanders were not given a vote in the  SA Republic, this was a time when women in England  had no vote.

Aunt Caroline was hit by a van and killed. As a widower , the uncle wanted to take an adventure to New Guinea to find a great butterfly. She took Reggies uniform and she went into  regiment in his army unit to save effeminate Reggie who would not cope as a sodier. Bramdaante was  the greatest female knight in Literature. She took Reggies place and they were taken to Southhampton on the ship to Cape Town, stopping over in Madeira. They reached CT in 21 days. 

Good-bye Dolly Gray was the great patriotic song during the Boer War.

Reggie said "one gets married because you are supposed to or it is expected of you"

 Frank has book of photos of  Barron William von Gloeden  His work, both landscapes and nudes, drew wealthy tourists to Sicily, particularly gay men uncomfortable in northern Europe,

Valentine "swagger a little and drink a lot and I was a man. They were given a little book to learn Dutch with. There purpose was to stop SA being Dutch and make it part of the Empire. Now that gold had been found in the Transvaal Britain wanted control of this wealth. "War seldom enters but where wealth allures."

Canadians , Australians and New Zealanders mixed with English , Scots and a few Irish and were at the Green Point Camp. A soldier attacked Valantine and claimed she was a mandrake , molly , bugger he's a bloody Sodomite but she was protected  by her friend Cooper.

They were taken to De Aar where they had some training , the book describes a locusts infestation that year. Of the volunteers many had different reasons for coming adventure, , ones wife had left him with his son. There were American press photographers there. The relief of Kimberley was a big article in the press with a photo of  Field Marshal Lord Roberts.

The first signs of battle were cartridge cases littering the fields, then looting farms became common practice. The Boer farmers had colonized vast areas but could not spread further north because of the Tzetse fly infestation there and the fever it caused..

Condy's Fluid was a general disinfectant used on wounds. Dying soldiers whether Boer or Brit their final cries were for their mothers. The news of the relief of Mafeking did not cause much cheer to the exhausted  soldiers. The Boer farmers were all away fighting and the farms were in the possession of women and children. The battle of Doornskop was the last stand by the Boers to stop the Brits getting into Johannesburg. Today this is part of Soweto.

Hundreds of soldiers were ill with enteric fever ,dysentery and were dying of Pneumonia and it filled every hospital.  Relative few died of wounds compared to those of fever.  There were Indian recruits that were stretcher bearers. When Lord Roberts gave a speech in front of the Kruger Statue in Pretoria they thought the War was over as they had captured the Boer capital , but the Boers did not surrender.

1885 Criminal Amendment Act under which Oscar Wild was jailed as a homosexual. Reggies friend Frank is jailed for this same reason." This French and pagan plague has crept into the healthy fields of English life."

Valentine is helped recover by  a Boers wife whose male servant treat her knowing she is a women. There was no communication as wires and railway lines were cut.

The British begin  slaughtering the meager livestock and destroying the farms and rounding up the women and children to get the Boers to capitulate.  These people were rounded up in camps  at Klerksdorp, Volksrust , Bronkhorstspruit, Betulie and some were sent to Ceylon, Bermuda and St Helena, where women and children died.

Valentine gets out by reverting to a women and is sent home to London.

Reggie ends  up in an asylum there were many in those days at Caterham , Darenth and Leavesden. 

The book has a strange ending. When Reggie hears he was supposed to have died honorable  in S. Africa he took the opportunity to hang himself and Valentine organizes a military funeral for him.

She now remembers that she was supposed to help the Boer women  and takes a stand in that. She has dealings with the Primrose League who are worried about her reputation and laughs at them. With her fighting experience has little time for these Victorian values.  Now Valentine works at women's rights and suffrage..

The Imperial Adventure was paid for by the British tax payer, with British soldiers dying to benefit the British millionaires like Cecil Rhodes. 

Destination Palestine: The Story of the Haganah Ship Exodus 1947 by Ruth Gruber 1948 128pg.

  30/11/23

1946 Ruth Gruber was the correspondent for the New York Post  for the Anglo - American Committee of Enquiry for Palestine. In 1947 she was assigned by the New York Herald Tribune as their correspondent in Europe and the Middle East at the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine UNSCOP .That year the Odyssey of the Exodus was the most important event that  occurred.

In Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem1947 posters were put up that the Exodus had broken the through the blockade and would broadcast at 22.00 that night. it was carrying 4554  refugees including 655 children. The British had rammed the ship causing a few deaths and wounding 120.  In the Jewish sector in there was a strike of shops and workers against the British who were stopping the landings. The ship looked like a matchbox that had been splintered. The refugees from the Exodus were searched by the CID for knives, raisers that could be used as weapons and their cameras were taken away. The people were transferred to 3 British prison ships. They were assured they  would be taken the Cyprus and reunited the next day.. The sick and wounded were taken to hospital in Haifa. The British had taken all their bags of clothing and possessions. A few had ID cards from UNRRA saying that the were DPs at Feldafing or Landsberg in Germany. Everyone was now dusted with DDT against anything that crawls.

Before the Hagana bought this ship The President Wakefield it  had been used for excursions in the Chesapeake Bay and it had fenders to stop it bumping pilings. which stopped it from breaking in half when rammed. The commander in chief was a young Palestinian, the crew and captain were all ex Merchant |Marine men and US sailors. Most of these Jewish sailors were not Zionist but one hearing of the holocaust were determined to help the Jews. It was fitted  out in Baltimore for the ocean crossing, then headed out and was damaged in a storm and had to return  the US, before  it went again. In the Azores the British had agents trying to stop them but they managed to get fuel and water. They spent 7 weeks in an Italian port and had to sneak out and then came to the French port Sete. 

Their documents indicated to the French that they were taking on 4500 refugees Jews to Colombia. They heard that the British had asked the French to stop them so that night struggled to get the ship out of the French port without the help of a pilot or tugs.

In the Mediterranean there were British escorts waiting who suspected what they were. The crew got to understand the survivors background that once the war ended they had moved from Eastern Europe into Germany moving away from what had been their homes where they were unwelcome and they no longer had families there. On the ship news was broadcast in 4 languages. Many births were taking place on the ship many by women who had lost their original families. 

Cyprus. the British army had prepared Famagusta for ships that did not  come. Inside the camps everyone prepared place for people who did not arrive. The author decided to fly to Cyprus from Lydda Airport and went with the director if the JDC  The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.  In the camp there was no water and when the British brought a tanker, people ran with cans and buckets to get to the spigots.  Cyprus was a British Protectorate from 1878 and a  British Crown Colony between 1914 and its independence in 1960.

They hoped that by putting the refugees in Cyprus it would discourage others from following but instead more arrived. In 12 months 25,000 refugees arrived on 23  ships. The British now started allowing 750 Jews a month to go to Palestine. 500 orphans children would be sent on the day of this announcement. However the ship could not go as a ship the Empire Lifeguard had been sabotaged in Haifa 23 July 1947and the port was closed for a month,

  In the first year 500 babies were born there. People set up shoe repair shops , tailors, making toys for children. Schools were set up for children and some 16 year old's started school for the first time. 

In  Germany 250,000 Jews were waiting, and in Geneva UNSCOP supported. partition  of Palestine into a Jewish and Arab state. The Exodus passages arrived in Port de Boue, not far from Marseille, on 3 ships prisons. With a whole press crowd there the local pub was doing a good trade. Both the JDC and French relief agency Entr'aide Francais were supplying food. French doctors went to aid on the 3 British ships that were described as floating Auschwitz's

The ships had food but no water and the British wanted to starve the people to get off. The French said not in their territorial water. Ruth met up with some of the French police and they were going on a launch to see the ships and managed to get a ride with them. The French police told her that they had suffered the German occupation and imprisonment for 5 years and understood what the homelessness meant to the refugees. They couldn't get onto the ships but she took some photos.  The French government announced that it would give asylum to the refugees but they refused to voluntarily come of the ship. The refugees put up a notice "we will get off in Europe only as dead men." The British thought the heat would force people off the ships. In London Ernest Bevin was the Foreign Secretary of the Labour Party  was getting all the reports. He took an extremely anti-Semitic view and would not budge. The older people on the ship started teaching the children's especially Hebrew. The British had taken away their musical instruments but a few had hidden harmonicas and put on entertainment every evening and discussions. Clothing was washed with a little water and hung up on the barbed wire fences. The British had taken and burned all books in Hebrew script they found, thinking it might be propaganda. 

Mordechai Rosman 1917 to 2014 was one of the leaders of the Warsaw uprising, later led the immigration to the west and finally had come on the Exodus. He led defiance now against the British. He later fought in the battle of the Negev.

Then the people went on a hunger strike and the food delivered was sent back. The British said there was no hunger strike and French journalist said this was a lie.   The French doctors worked hard to keep the people healthy and stop  the outbreak of diseases. Where ever  people had rashes their skin was covered with gentian violet. The motley crew of guards thought they were taking a short trip to Cyprus and had no extra clothing.

Hagana boats came alongside and tried to make announcement saying "you are not alone" but the British put on sirens to drown them out. No correspondents were allowed to  go with the ships for the trip The ships went to Gibraltar to refuel to go to Germany. As the ships left the little French port the following day was to be a celebration of the liberation from the Nazi's in August 1944

Ruth was now back in |London where British official were filled with a sense of guilt and uneasiness about sending refugees to Germany. People remarked that the act of sending refugees to Germany will result in the birth of a Jewish State.

From Hamburg the people were moved  to 2 winter DP camps in the area under British control at Emden and Wilhelmshaven. They were left to live like other DPs. The population of these camps appeared to stay stable and the British thought the people were settling down. However the Exodus people crawled slowly out of these camps and headed to the secret ports of France and Italy. Within months these people had left the British Zone of Occupation and had run the British's blockade into Haifa where they were on 15th May when Israel was born.

Exodus Refugees had certificates and were given special privilege's when they arrived..

Oswego haven  Jewish refugees were given a haven at  Fort Ontario in Oswego, New York, from August 1944 until February 1946.  This was organized by Roosevelt and allowed 1000 refugees  to come. Their was an argument if they should be allowed to stay. Harry Truman arranged for them to cross into Canada where they were able to return to the USA with immigration papers and settled in the US.

The book has a lot of photos taken by the  author at the time..