1922 The Revolt on the Rand (signed) plus New testament with inscription by Taffy Long

"Revolt on the Rand" (1966) a careful and sympathetic account of the 1922 Witwatersrand strike is inscribed to and signed by Norman Herd to the wife of Samuel Alfred "Taffy" Long, one of the strike leaders. Long was born in Monmouthshire, Wales in 1891, served with the British Army in India, Dardannelles, the Arabian Desert and France, where he was seriously injured in the Great War. He came to South Africa after going to Australia at the end of the War, and took up a position as a security officer at Crown Mines. Long was arrested and tried (during the course of the Rand Revolt) for the "murder" of Fordsburg shopkeeper Marais, accused by the strikers of being a police agent. Long's first trial ended inconclusively, but he was subsequently convicted in a second trial despite controversy, which continues to this day, over whether witness descriptions of the "executioner" as short and fair, matched that of Long, who was over 5' 8", stocky and dark haired. He was executed by hanging in November 1922. His young wife, Elizabeth Maria (Ria)Long, then just 17 and pregnant, sent a petition and made a personal appeal to General Smuts, which failed, despite Smut's promise to look into the case. Long maintained his innocence until the end. The second item here is a small 1917 New testament bible which bears Long's hand-written inscription which reads "In remembrance of the strike, in gaol, not guilty for what I am in here for, time will tell. SET Long." There follows some indescript writing in pencil, and then the words "remanded until the 19th April, tried again and remanded till the 25th April." At the back of the Bible, his wife Maria has written "S Long sentenced 20th October 1922, executed 17th November 1922. but he still remains innocent to me, his loving wife and baby boy, Marie and Thomas Long. Married on 30th July 1921, separated 15th March 1922, widow on 17th November 1922". Maria (Ria) remarried, and later moved to the Margate area on the lower Natal south coast, where it seems she lived for many years. The books were discovered in Margate.