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Charles Abercrombie Smith
Sir Charles Abercrombie Smith (12 May 1834 – 1 May 1919) was a Cape Colony scientist, politician and civil servant. Early life Charles Abercrombie Smith was born on 12 May 1834 in St Cyrus, Kincardineshire, Scotland, and studied physics and mathematics at the University of Glasgow. In the 1850s he worked as an assistant to Lord Kelvin on experiments with thermo-electricity but, after a serious health breakdown, he emigrated and settled in the Cape Colony in 1860. He initially working as a land surveyor in the Eastern Cape (near Kat River) for a few years, where he became somewhat acquainted with the Xhosa people, language and culture, as well as with the pressures on their communities. He developed an interest in systems of land tenure that might better enable the Xhosa to combat white settler encroachment, and in the development of Xhosa farming settlements using new crops and livestock. His 1864 proposal, with Charles Pacalt Brownlee, for individual land ownership to replace ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King Williams Town
Qonce, formerly King William's Town, is a town in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa along the banks of the Buffalo River. The town is about northwest of the Indian Ocean port of East London. It has a population of around 35,000 inhabitants and forms part of the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality. The town lies above sea level at the foot of the Amathole Mountains in an area known for its agriculture. The town has one of the oldest post offices in the country developed by missionaries led by Charles Brownlee. History For thousands of years, the area was roamed by Bushman bands, and then was used as grazing by the nomadic Khoikhoi, who called the Buffalo River ''Qonce''. Xhosa people lived alongside the Khoikhoi eventually taking over the land after Queen Hoho lost the war with King Ngqika kaMlawu. King William's Town was founded by Sir Benjamin d’Urban in May 1835 during the Xhosa War of that year. The town stands on the site of the kraal of the minor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saul Solomon
Saul Solomon (25 May 1817 – 16 October 1892) was an influential liberal politician of the Cape Colony, a British colony in what is now South Africa. Solomon was an important member of the movement for responsible government and an opponent of Lord Carnarvon's Confederation scheme. Early life and background Saul Solomon was born on the island of St Helena on 25 May 1817. Although his family were St Helenan, they had close links to Cape Town. Saul spent his first years at a Jewish children's home in England, where he suffered from the malnutrition and rickets that physically affected him for the rest of his life. He then had a rudimentary formal education in South Africa before beginning work as an apprentice in a printing business. He later acquired the business and built it into the largest printing business in the country, founding the '' Cape Argus'' newspaper. He was also one of the founders of Old Mutual, today one of the largest insurance firms in South Africa. As rep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cape Colony Politicians
A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment of any length that hangs loosely and connects either at the neck or shoulders. They usually cover the back, shoulders, and arms. They come in a variety of styles and have been used throughout history for many different reasons. Semantic distinction In fashion, the word "cape" usually refers to a shorter garment and "cloak" to a full-length version of the different types of garment, though the two terms are sometimes used synonymously for full-length coverings. A shoulder cape is thus sometimes called a "capelet". The fashion cape does not cover the front to any appreciable degree. In raingear, a cape is usually a long and roomy protective garment worn to keep one dry in the rain. History The first known usage of capes is unknown, but some early references we know of are from Ancient Roman military uniforms. Later on, capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. They ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fynbos
Fynbos (; , ) is a small belt of natural shrubland or heathland vegetation located in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. The area is predominantly coastal and mountainous, with a Mediterranean climate. The fynbos ecoregion is within the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome. In fields related to biogeography, fynbos is known for its exceptional degree of biodiversity and endemism, consisting of about 80% (8,500 fynbos) species of the Cape floral kingdom, where nearly 6,000 of them are endemic. The area continues to face severe human-caused threats, but due to the many economic uses of the fynbos, conservation efforts are being made to help restore it. Origin of the term The word '' fynbos'' is often taken literally to mean ''fine bush'', as in Afrikaans '' bos'' means '' bush'', whereas in this instance ''bush'' refers to the type of vegetation. Typical fynbos foliage is ericoid rather than ''fine''. The term in its pre-Afrikaans, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Society Of South Africa
The Royal Society of South Africa is a learned society composed of eminent South African scientists and academics. The society was granted its royal charter by King Edward VII in 1908, nearly a century after Capetonians first began to conceive of a national scholarly society. The 1877 founder and first president of the society was Sir Bartle Frere (1815–1884). Fellows are entitled to the post-nominal letters FRSSAf. History The society has its origins in the South African Institution, dating from 1825. The museum of the South African Institution eventually formed the present South African Museum in Cape Town. In 1877, the South African Philosophical Society was founded. In 1908 the society was granted a royal charter along the lines of that of the Royal Society of London and with the title of the Royal Society of South Africa. In the same year, the ''Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa'' began to appear, immediately succeeding those of the South African Philosophi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diocesan College
The Diocesan College (commonly known as Bishops) is a private, English medium, boarding and day high school for boys situated in the suburb of Rondebosch in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The school was established on 2 October 1849 by the Anglican Bishop of Cape Town. History The college was founded by Robert Gray, the first Anglican bishop of Cape Town. Robert Gray along with his wife Sophy Gray, founded a number of other schools including the sister school, St. Cyprian's School, Cape Town. The school's scholarship system was proposed by Lewis Michell, a South African banker, who wanted to represent the British culture in the country and create Anglican church schools based on the English public school system. The school's staff were British and came from an Oxbridge background. In 1901, in ill health, Cecil Rhodes was persuaded to establish a scholarship system at the school, where successful graduates could progress to Oxford or Cambridg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
University Of The Cape Of Good Hope
The University of the Cape of Good Hope (), renamed the University of South Africa in 1916, was created when the Molteno government passed Act 16 of 1873 in the Cape of Good Hope Parliament. Modelled on the University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ..., it offered examinations but not tuition, and had the power to confer degrees upon successful examination candidates. Today, this function still exists within the Department of Music where, for over 100 years, music pupils have been examined. List of chancellors *1874-1876: *1876–1880: William Porter *1880–1884: Sir Henry Bartle Edward Frere *1884–1890: The Earl of Carnarvon *1890–1898: Sir Langham Dale *1898–1901: Justice Charles Thomas Smith *1901–1912: the Duke of Cornwall and York ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Union Of South Africa
The Union of South Africa (; , ) was the historical predecessor to the present-day South Africa, Republic of South Africa. It came into existence on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the British Cape Colony, Cape, Colony of Natal, Natal, Transvaal Colony, Transvaal, and Orange River Colony, Orange River colonies. It included the territories that were formerly part of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State. Following World War I, the Union of South Africa was a signatory of the Treaty of Versailles and became one of the Member states of the League of Nations, founding members of the League of Nations. It was League of Nations mandate, mandated by the League with the administration of South West Africa (now known as Namibia). South West Africa became treated in most respects as another province of the Union, but it never was formally annexed. The Union of South Africa was a self-governing dominion of the British Empire. Its full sovereignty was confirmed with the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Civil Service
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service official, also known as a public servant or public employee, is a person employed in the public sector by a government department or agency for public sector undertakings. Civil servants work for central and local governments, and answer to the government, not a political party. The extent of civil servants of a state as part of the "civil service" varies from country to country. In the United Kingdom (UK), for instance, only The Crown, Crown (national government) employees are referred to as "civil servants" whereas employees of local authorities (counties, cities and similar administrations) are generally referred to as "local government officers", who are considered public servants but not civil servants. Thus, in the UK, a civil servant is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Auditor-General (Cape Colony)
An auditor general, also known in some countries as a comptroller general or comptroller and auditor general, is a senior civil servant charged with improving government accountability by auditing and reporting on the government's operations. Frequently, the institution headed by the auditor general is a member of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI). Auditors general of governments Africa *Auditor-General of Ghana * Office of the Auditor-General (Kenya) *Auditor-General (South Africa) Americas *Auditor General of Canada ** Auditor General of Alberta ** Auditor General of British Columbia ** Auditor General of New Brunswick ** Auditor General of Manitoba ** Auditor General of Newfoundland and Labrador ** Auditor General of Nova Scotia ** Auditor General of Ontario ** Auditor General of Prince Edward Island **Auditor General of Quebec ** Provincial Auditor of Saskatchewan *Comptroller General of the United States Asia / Pacific * Auditor- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Charles Molteno
Sir John Charles Molteno (; 5 June 1814 – 1 September 1886) was a politician and businessman who served as the first Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1872 to 1878. Early life Born in London into a large Anglo-Italian family, Molteno emigrated to the Cape in 1831 at the age of 17, where he found work as an assistant to the public librarian in Cape Town. At the age of 23 he founded his first company, ''Molteno & Co.'', a trading company that exported wine, wool and aloes to Mauritius and the West Indies, and opened branches around the Cape. In 1841, he undertook Southern Africa's first experimental export of fruit, loading a ship with a range of fruits (necessarily dried, as no refrigeration existed yet) and sending it to Australia to test foreign markets. The experiment ended in disaster when his ship was wrecked in a storm – pushing Molteno close to bankruptcy. Disposing of the remains of his mercantile businesses, he immediately bought some land in the arid Bea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southern Africa
Southern Africa is the southernmost region of Africa. No definition is agreed upon, but some groupings include the United Nations geoscheme for Africa, United Nations geoscheme, the intergovernmental Southern African Development Community, and the #Definitions and Usage, physical geography definition based on the physical characteristics of the land. The most restrictive definition considers the region of Southern Africa to consist of Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, and South Africa, while other definitions also include several other countries from the area. Defined by physical geography, Southern Africa is home to several river systems; the Zambezi, Zambezi River is the most prominent. The Zambezi flows from the northwest corner of Zambia and western Angola to the Indian Ocean on the coast of Mozambique. Along the way, it flows over Victoria Falls on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Victoria Falls is one of the largest waterfalls in the world and a major tourist a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
