Knockouts
With the decision firmly made to depart for Britain, six thousand miles away for an indefinite period, Edgar Whitehead searched for a reliable manager.
His efforts were fruitless. He did not want to risk the possibility of heavy financial losses on his return, so he made the hard decision to essentially shutdown Witchwood. In addition, in all honesty, he could not pretend that fruit was likely to be an essential product in wartime.
Besides his Parliamentary work in October and November, on the weekends he came home to sell his herd of Aberdeen Angus cattle, the poultry, the farm implements, the farm truck and the other movable farm assets. His valuable personal effects he sent for safe storage in Umtali. The everyday furnishings he left in the house. His assistant, Nat Williams, was going to stay on until he got his Rhodesian call-up papers. Beyond that Edgar hoped his solicitor might be able to let the house and get some revenue for it.
John MacDonald, had only been in Rhodesia since April. He had not had time to make many friends and was determined to return to England with Edgar to reconnect with his O.T.C. Cambridge friends.
Edgar arranged that his faithful servant Sumajeri would stay on for the duration of the war and look after the house. His solicitor would pay Sumajeri’s wages. He also spent a long time with Mukwishu, the headman, letting him know the arrangements for the twenty-six African families on the farm.
The last week of November, after the house rose from the Parliamentary session Edgar set off for Umtali. It was surprising how much he had accumulated in Salisbury. The car was loaded with Parliamentary books, reports and papers along with his personal belongings.
He planned to have dinner in Machecke sixty-eight miles from Umtali. He knew the joint proprietors of the hotel well, both veterans of WWI. As soon as they realized that he was actually on his way overseas they insisted on his coming for supper on their farm, a mile away, instead of eating at the hotel. The party got a bit wild, and it wasn’t until after one o'clock in the morning that he set off again for Umtali, descending through Christmas Pass arriving at sunrise. He went to the club and had a short sleep before breakfast and then went on to the farm.
Edgar liked to party. He had arranged to have a house-cooling party at Witchwood that night and invited all his neighbors. He wanted to use up his remaining stock of alcohol. Nat concocted a most potent fruit cocktail which tasted of nothing except passion fruit juice but produced sensational effects on those who drank it. Two of Edgar's guests who had not been on speaking terms for a considerable time since her dog had severely bitten his prize dairy cow and he had shot the dog in
retaliation. At the beginning of the party they were keeping at opposite ends
of Edgar's big sitting room and pretending not to notice each other. After
three fruit cocktails apiece they were sitting on Edgar's sofa holding hands.
Busy waiting on the guests, Edgar and Nat had had very little time to indulge in the 'knock out drops' themselves. When the refreshments were finished Nat and Edgar had to drive three families to their homes as they were quite incapacitated.
The next day, John and Edgar were due to leave for Britain. Nat decided to see them off at Beira. Haynes-Hill had arranged with the Party in Umtali to give a farewell at Brown's Hotel to as many constituents as cared to come along, on their way to the train.
There was a good turnout. Edgar was given a great send-off. But there was also a good deal of opposition. Many of his supporters felt that they had done Edgar a great honor electing him their Member of Parliament at such a young age. He had no right to walk out on them only seven months after his election. This section added that with his defective eyesight and hearing he would never get into the army and ought to carry on with his duties here. He even overheard, "He needn't trouble to come back and ask for our votes after the war."
As the train steamed out of Umtali, Edgar's sentiments were very mixed: He had closed down the farm which had taken nearly ten years of his life to build up; he had abandoned his home; had every reason to guess that he had forfeited his political career and would have to start again from the beginning; he had no certainty that he would ever return to Rhodesia and had shed every responsibility to go and start a new life. Had he had it?
The historical novel Whitewashed Jacarandas and its sequel Full of Possibilities are both available on Amazon as paperbacks and eBooks.
These books are inspired by Diana's family's experiences in small town Southern Rhodesia after WWII.
Dr. Sunny Rubenstein and his Gentile wife, Mavourneen, along with various town characters lay bare the racial arrogance of the times, paternalistic idealism, Zionist fervor and anti-Semitism, the proper place of a wife, modernization versus hard-won ways of doing things, and treatment of endemic disease versus investment in public health. It's a roller coaster read.
References:
- By permission, originally sourced from Sir Edgar Whitehead's Unpublished Memoirs, Rhodes House, Bodleian Library, Oxford University.
- Photo: Crossing Christmas Pass, Umtali, 1936. Scan by Colin Weyer, https://www.rhodesia.me.uk/umtali/