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Gervas’ office First St, Que Que.  After the war broke out, petrol was rationed and men went back to their horses. Horse Power Makes a Comeback Gervas, a bloke with no shoulder muscles due to his bout with polio, could tip his hat, use a hammer, fire a gun, run

Gervas Hughes bought the first fifteen ton Leyland Hippo lorry for transporting timber. Petrol Power Gervas bought a fifteen ton Leyland Hippo lorry for transporting timber, securing a notice to the tail gate: You are behind the biggest lorry in Rhodesia: Drive Carefully. Petrol Power Gervas had Brian drive the

Barbara,  Tim and Angela Hughes, 1939 Back and Forth and Ups and Downs Barbara Hughes loved her childhood home at Herschel in the Cape and went there again the following year.  She’d often leave the babe with her younger sister Joan and go off with her Dad. Meanwhile, Gervas

Gervas Hughes had eleven sixteen foot bullock wagons that transported firewood to the G and P mine.  Three cords made a load. – See more at: https://www.oncecalledhome.com/2012/12/muscle-and-wood-power/#sthash.JMvgZ77s.dpuf Acacia logs were dragged onto the wagon by oxen from the opposite side, one of

Loading  Maize A City Lad Gets Down to Work  Gervas Hughes, in addition to his office on Main Street, bought the first industrial site east of town, made available by the Lands Department of Que Que (see location on aerial photo published last week).  One acre in size it cost

Gervas Hughes’ wagons for transporting firewood to the mines were always in need of repair Rhodesian Ingenuity  Rhodesia was not  regarded as the promised land for those seeking a fortune in the early years before WWII.  Rather it was a place where those who found it hard to get a

Gervas’ office & mill  on Main Street Que Que , 1939 Settling in a New Chum After Brian Freyburg recovered from the measles at Barbara’s parental home Herschel in the Cape, he heard that Gervas wanted a learner for his farm at Que Que.  A failed engineering student, he had

Gervas’ parents, Charles and Cecily Hughes, on one of their many visits to Que Que standing outside Gervas’ office 1930 Outlawing the In-laws on Both Sides     It was 1937 and after the trip to see the Seventh Wonder of the Natural World, Victoria Falls, Barbara returned with her parents to

Greenham house 1939 Water from the Que Que River about a mile away was carted by ox drawn water tanker to  Greenham Farm to supply the house hot water system. A Dog’s Grave of a Garden Greenham Farm didn’t have a normal sign post to direct people.  ‘The

Barbara Millard and her brother John  at their family home Herschel in the Cape, 1913. Getting  Married in the Saddle Barbara Forster Millard was the eldest child of Dr. Philip and Ursula Millard and had a privileged life as a doctor’s daughter.  She was a tubby child. Her native

Gervas and Barbara paddling in the Que Que River 1936 Intoxications at Que Que Hotel   The Que Que Hotel, on Main Street, facing the Railway station, was run by ‘Hacker’ Matthews an ex-pugilist. Next to the hotel was a large wood and iron hall, where Hacker staged boxing matches. Foolishly,

Gervas Hughes Two Ton Model A Ford Truck parked outside his office and workshop on First Street, Que Que 1928. A Suitable Girl in the Bundu  The sixteen voyages Charles Wylde Hughes made to Africa to visit his sons provided ample opportunity to meet interesting people from all over the

Que Que’s First Street, 1930. (Notice the baboon on the donkey’s back) Jacks of All Trades When Gervas Hughes arrived back in Que Que in 1928 there was still no electric power for Que Que, but the G&P Mine supplied water from their pipeline, originating from

Loading Gervas Hughes wagon with logs for the Globe and Phoenix Mine, 1929. Sobering Up After Repairs By the mid 1930s, Gervas Hughes was doing well in Que Que.   He had built a new building to house a mill and a larger office which Mrs. Byerly, sister of Mesdames Birch

Gervas Hughes’ ox wagon inward bound with a load of firewood on the Gokwe Road, 1929. N.B. Gervas’ brand GK3 and the Rhodesian yoke Making a Fast Buck by Ox Wagon For the third time in seven years Gervas Hughes arrived back in Que Que in 1928 having  recovered

Dorothy Crowther-Smith (far L) and Gervas Hughes (far R) baling hay at her farm in Bordon, Hampshire during his recovery from polio.  (N.B. Gervas’ withered R arm and shoulder) Milking a Recovery After a month at the  two-bed G&P Mine dispensery in Que Que under the care

A bogged wagon on Que Que’s early roads. The Lure of Africa Before the Great War, as a schoolboy in Llanbedr, near Crickhowell in a remote Welsh valley, Gervas Hughes collected  double headed stamps from the Globe and Phoenix MIne sent by his half-brother Tom (Reginald).  At university his

In 1936 G.W. Hughes of  Greenham Farm, 13 miles west of  Que Que, home delivered milk by bicycle Hughes Milk Gervas Wylde Hughes, came from a remote Welsh Valley and arrived in Que Que to stay with his broher on the Globe and Phoenix Mine in 1921 at the