From Ladysmith : 21.9.82

From Ladysmith

21.9.82

Dear mum,

                                Everything you say about Ladysmith is true. It was named after a Spanish wife of Sir Harry Smith. The next town is called Harrysmith. There was a siege here from 1/11/99 to 2/4/01. The Afrikaaners didn’t get the town then but they control it now. There are guns in the main street used in the defense of the town. They have just been painted as PW Botha came to town. A church across the road lost one of its crosses and its never been replaced.  Apparently at the time the last guns were fired for the day then everybody was safe till the next day.

                Winston Churchill was captured here and he wrote a book “From London to Ladysmith” about the Boer war. The dentist I’m working for, his father was locked up in Concentration Camps by the British but they tell me that nowadays all the whites have to stick together.

                You said something about Australian newspapers. Well you can’t get such things in the country.

                The pictures of animals were taken in a game park near Pietermaritzburg. Pamela should be able to tell you if Swaziland is a separate country or not.

                                Regards Alan