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Auction: 19015 - The Philatelic Collectors' Series Sale
Lot: 1795

Rhodesia
The Pioneer Column Mail
Puzey Correspondence
Arthur Puzey
1890 (1 July) lettersheet to his mother in East London, bearing Bechuanaland 1887 2d. cancelled with two Mafeking datestamps of 16 May, the reverse with Kimberley (20.7) and East London (23.7) datestamps; the long letter gives his parents an introduction to the early life of the Pioneer Column. They expect to be attacked so the wagons are formed in a laager at night and they were sleeping in their clothes with weapons to hand. They are building a fort to be the main Base camp to be named Fort Tuli, reference to him having a bathe and twenty armed Matabele come peacefully and go. A fascinating letter and the third earliest of the correspondence. ArP. 3 in the Drysdall & Collis handbook. Photo

Note: Arthur Henry Winder Puzey was born in Ireland in August 1866 and joined "B" Troop of the Pioneer Corps when he was just 23. He wrote a number of letters to his family. After the Pioneers were disbanded, Arthur and his partners went prospecting in the Mazoe and Hartley Hill areas. A year after this letter was written he was serving with the Gwelo Volunteers. He died at Selukwe hospital in 1902 as a result of dysentery

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Sold for
£4,000