St. Vincent Erskine papers

MS Shelf: 
ERS
MS Date: 
1868 - 1906
MS Original collection number: 
27083
MS Extent: 
16 files
MS File list: 
Available at KCAL
MS Historical note: 

St Vincent Whitshed Erskine, Natal public servant, surveyor, explorer, cartographer, hunter, was born in England in 1846 and died c1904. He was a son of David Erskine, Natal Colonial Secretary, and arrived in Natal with his parents in 1858. He joined Karl Mauch on an expedition in the Eastern Transvaal in 1868, and made an independent expedition into the territories of Mzila, King of Gaza, the first of three expeditions into this part of Southern Africa. In 1870 he was married to Alice Lindley Buchanan and in 1876 the family moved to East Griqualand where he worked as a surveyor. They were in Kokstad during the Griqua rising of 1878. Erskine later became a mining engineer in the Transvaal

MS Title: 
St. Vincent Erskine papers
MS Scope and Content: 

Many of Erskine's diaries are in bad and fragile condition owing to flood damage. Collection comprises 16 files containing journals, diaries, maps, correspondence (including letters to his son from David Erskine). Six files contain journals and writings of Alice Erskine, including her stories for children. There is one photograph of St Vincent Erskine (pasted into his journal recording his expedition to the Limpopo - File 1)

MS Provenance: 
Original collection
MS Local system number: 
KCAL310138
MS Physical description: 
manuscripts, typescripts, maps, articles, photograph

Manuscript Inventory:

INSPIRING GREATNESS