Some time after their marriage my father  left Natal with  group of young Europeans from neighbouring New Guelderland, and went to Rhodesia. This was the time of the Matabele Rebellion - as it is called - and my father went to serve in some capacity with the Rhodesian forces. I can do no more than speculate about the attractions which this venture held for him - probably he was young and curious, and felt like a change.
   
     When hostilities ended he stayed on, attached to a Seventh Day Adventist mission near Bulawayo as an evangelist and interpreter. At this stage my mother, who in the meanwhile had suffered the death of one of her two sons, the the remaining son, Alfred, and dutifully went up into the unknown to join my father. I was born a while later on Rhodesian soil. My father died not long after my birth, and his mortal remains lie buried at Solusi mission, about thirty mile from Bulawayo.

,, l. ”