This book itself gives no information to a date printed. SABIB volume 1 page 243 gives the following information: Historical sketch of the Kimberley Hospital. Issued on the occasion of H.R.H. Princess Christian's visit to the hospital, 12 September, 1904. SABIB mentions only one copy.
67 pages. Patterned wrappers. Inscribed and signed on preface page: To Reg Harding with the best of good wishes, from J R Booth. A few foxing spots. A good copy. Seven pages with pictures of the Kimberley hospital buildings.
In 1904 Princess Christian, accompanied by her daughter Helen Victoria, undertook the long journey to South Africa to visit the grave of her son. When on Friday afternoon 23 September 1904, she stood at her son’s grave, reading the inscription: I HAVE FOUGHT THE GOOD FIGHT, I HAVE KEPT THE FAITH, I HAVE FINISHED MY COURSE, she would surely have given a thought to the multitudes of mothers who would never be so privileged even to know the place where their sons, who had also fought their good fights, had been buried.
Princess Christian’s visit to SA stops in Kimberley, Johannesburg, Ladysmith and Pietermaritzburg with numerous official functions to perform on behalf of her brother, King Edward VII.
Her Royal Highness Helena, Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, Princess of Great Britain and Ireland, was born on 25 May 1846, the fifth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Helena married prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein in 1866. The couple had four children, one of whom was eventually to find a grave six thousand miles from home. It was only three years after his death that his mother was able to visit her eldest son’s grave.
The son was Prince Christian Victor Ludwig Ernest Anton von Schleswig-Holstein, born on 14 April 1867. Having completed the conventional education of the British aristocracy, Prince Christian embarked on a military career, spending the rest of his life in the service of the British Empire. During the second Anglo-Boer War (1899 -1902) he had a brief spell on the Natal front as an officer in the 4th Battalion of the King’s Royal Corps, followed by an appointment as an extra aide-de-camp to Lord Roberts, stationed in Pretoria after the takeover of the city in June 1900. On 29 October 1900 Prince Christian died of enteric fever, three months before his grandmother, Queen Victoria, who seemed to have been very fond of this soldier-grandson of hers.
In accordance with his wish to be buried among his comrades, Prince Christian Victor found his last resting-place in the Church Street West Cemetery in Pretoria, in a coffin suitable for a British Prince, one that had been prepared for the President of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, Paul Kruger, who was spending his last years in voluntary exile in Switzerland. President Kruger died on 14 July and his body was returned to South Africa to be laid to rest in Pretoria on 16 December 1904.
- Binding Condition: Good
- Overall Condition: Good
- Size: 8vo (210 x 140 mm)
