John Blades Currey 1850 To 1900 – Phillida Brooke Simons

This essential memoir chronicles John Blades Currey’s fifty years in the Cape Colony, 1850 to 1900. An English immigrant, Currey pursued various careers—from soldiering and farming to civil service and diamond-mining—becoming an astute witness to South African history. He notably named the town of Kimberley and, despite a dismissal following the Diggers’ Rebellion, became a lifelong friend and political counsellor to future Cape Premiers Cecil John Rhodes and John X. Merriman. This is a vital, first-hand account of the turbulent rise of colonial South Africa.