Description
“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.
“The Great War: Letters Home was edited by John Stanford, whose mother, Effie Anderson, was one of the Chronicler’s founding editors. In their home on their farm in East Griqualand was a collection of the Chronicles which Effie used to read to her children, and which John later reread many times. Impressed by their eloquence and their “delightful respect and courtesy” he decided to make a selection of these historical documents available for a wider readership. After 100 years, they still retain the immediacy of first-hand experience.”
