The Great War

Letters and Diaries of a South African family 1913-1920

by John Stanford

From 1913 to 1920, the Molteno-Murray family published a private
journal called “Chronicle of the Family”. It appeared three times a
year, providing news of the family scattered throughout South Africa,
Britain, and Kenya – a means, as one of the editors put it, “of
preventing the younger members growing up strangers to each other.” When
war was declared in 1914, the Chronicle began to include letters from
family serving in the military and medical corps in diverse contexts,
including the war fronts in German East Africa and South West Africa,
the trenches of France,and naval battles. News from home continued with
accounts of life on a Karoo farm, a horse trek in Basotuland, a leftist
political rally in London, and reminiscences of older family members.

£27.00

About the author

John Stanford

John Stanford has farmed all his life, first in East Griqualand and since 1981, in Knysna. He is over 90 now, still farming, and philosophical about most things except the weather. He is the author of East Griqualand Anecjokes (2010), Three Ducks Came to Candlewood (a children’s book, 2015), Ukufika Kwamadada Amathathu eCandlewood (the children’s book inXhosa translation. 2017) and Canada 1952 (an account of a year in Canada as a young engineer, 2018) – all published by Mvusi Books. He is the editor of The Great War: Letters Home – Letters and Diaries of a South African family (Mvusi Books, 2020)