Acknowledgements

Since my liberation, in 1999, I have been the beneficiary of the scholarly largesse of the University of Pretoria and, more recently, of the Institute for the Advancement of Scholarship. I have been provided with a uniquely congenial and supportive environment in which to conduct research and writing. In 2012, I was the recipient of the Inaugural Oppenheimer Fellowship at the WEB Du Bois Institute at Harvard University where I enjoyed a spell of unparalleled productivity. Professors Robin Crewe, in Pretoria, and Henry Gates, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have overseen my personal and professional well-being in exemplary ways, for which I thank them most sincerely. Generous funding from the National Research Foundation (NRF) has enabled me to undertake the research for this and a previous work. I am happy to acknowledge the support of the NRF for historical research at a time when few institutions in this country offer meaningful support for such unfashionable enquiries.

The personal vicissitudes of the curmudgeonly are less easily catered for. I assume that my closest friends and family, including my sister and wife, do not need to be identified by name. They know who they are and have all at one point or another been seared by the fires of frustration and impatience that light up the darkness of authorial retreat. But they should also know that my greatest debt, by far, is to all of them. Without their confidence, generosity, love and reassurance this book would not have been completed. It is the collective ‘you’ who allow and enable me to write history. It is a special privilege that sets aside those who write from those otherwise locked into quotidian time and space. I am happiest when allowed to roam and many have encouraged me.

Eugene Ashton, Keith Beavon, Tim Couzens, Karen Harris, John Higginson, Bruce Murray, Ian Phimister, Paul la Hausse, Bill Johnson, Robert Kaplan and June Sinclair have all helped me in countless personal and professional ways over many years. They and many other friends and associates defy easy categorisation. Each one of them possesses attributes and skills which have either enriched my understanding of the material that I try to shape into something approaching an integrated narrative or have provided me with wise counsel, sometimes both. Thank you all.

Crafting the biographies of great men and women is often facilitated by substantial collections of official or personal documents housed in easily accessible, well-known public or private repositories. The documentary footprints of the famous are usually well preserved. Writing the biography of the obscure forces one to travel lesser-known paths in search of often faint traces. In the country of the well-hidden, knowledgeable insiders are indispensable. Only they will know where the secret lairs and trails of the quarry are to be found. No hunter of tales should embark on such an expedition without the help of experienced locals and this work would not have been possible without the unflagging assistance of the finest of such guides. I would be failing in a pleasant duty if I failed to identify them, so let them step forward.

Deborah Green knows how to find and mine every archival pit of history opened during the Industrial Revolution. I have benefited from the advice of Alan Kidd whose knowledge of the history of early Manchester is exemplary. Graham Seal, Sue Summers and Shane White helped me negotiate the Australian outback and, in New Zealand, Graeme Dunstall not only assisted me but enriched my understanding of the island country’s rich but lesser known histories by directing me to specialist studies. India and Kolkota are entirely unknown to me. Without the assistance of Priyanker Dey, Harald Fischer-Tiné, Bodishsattva Kar and Radhika Singha, I would never have traced Jack McLoughlin’s passage through Kolkota. He was as lost as was I and, without the assistance of Janaki Nair, I would be even more ignorant than I am about the labour history of the Kolar goldfields.

I would also like to thank Jon Hyslop – who knows more about much of the historical terrain covered in this book than do I – for helpful commentary on an early version of the manuscript. I am indebted to him for his encouragement and support over many years. His scholarship is exemplary. Philip Stickler, as always, has provided me with a wonderful set of maps for which I thank him. My thanks to Jeremy Boraine and his hard-working production team; also to Angela Buckley and Robin Smith for filling two gaps in the photo section.

The only biography that really interests me is that which is cemented in detail. It is when the beam of history is refracted through the prisms of process and structure and the emerging spectrum highlights personal attributes that historical behaviour, such as that at the Red Lion, becomes more comprehensible. And, if the author is intent on searching out minutiae, he or she will be dependent on the help of scores of others. All the people listed below have assisted me in this quest to find the specific. I list them here in the way that the alphabet renders anodyne, if not offensive. For that, my apologies. Every one of them has contributed directly to the joy of writing a close-as-possible biography. If the whole exceeds the sum of the parts then my sincere thanks is due to each of you.

S Ally, C Anderson, Y Ashworth, P Atwell, P Badassy, C Bailie, C Beasley, E Bell, JH Bergh, DW Boardman, H Bornman, JP Brain, M Brown, RN Buckley, K Burns, C Burns, JL Cartwright, L Changuioun, N Clay, A Cobley, P Comensoli, LM Connell, I Cornelius, EM Crooke, A Daimon, J Dasgupta, A Davies, P Dawson, J Desoldato, G Dominy, J Duckworth, S du Plooy, U Fecteau, R Foster, R Grantham, A Graves, J Grenham, J Grobler, T Groom, A Hampton, A Harper, J Harrison, G Hendrich, L Hiorns, D Hughes, D Hume, M Hurst, J Irwin, B Jeffery, K Kalopulu, A Kanduza, M Karabus, V Kasi, PJ Kenney, E Knight, G Krozewski, BC Lategan, M Law, P le Roux, M Lewis, T Lodge, A Mahlangu, J Martens, JH Martin, S Mathieson, P Maylam, H Maxwell-Stewart, A McCallum, U McGarrigle, D McCracken, P McCracken, T McCarthy, J McGuire, J McQuilton, A Mentz, A Mlambo, J Mujere, C Muller, ME Mubai, S Ojha, J Pieterse, R Pilossof, J Phillipson, K Priestley, S Raath, JG Rechner, N Roos, D Schafer, D Seagrave, R Snowden, D Somerville, F Soysal, B Strydom, E Talbot Rice, A Tambe, J Tempelhoff, AS Thompson, T Tomlinson, WT Turner, R Tombs, C Townsend, S Turner, J Twist, H Unwin, AJ van der Walt, N Valman, S van Gaalen, M Ward, R Williams, G Williams and M Whittle.

Finally, my apologies to all of those who have also contributed in countless other small but valuable ways whose names I may, unintentionally, have failed to record and thank.

Charles van Onselen

Johannesburg, January 2015