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If you want to know a bit more of his background, try Googling 'Who was Adolphus Ellis'! It's amazing what pops up out of the ether.....I wondered why JDF seemed to disappear for a few years....
I was sceptical at first, but an 1891 census put Adolphus in a hotel in Liverpool. Listed below him was an 'Arthur P Low', solicitor. Fast forward to JDF's death and the contact for winding up his estate was - 'Arthur Percy Low', solicitor.
Adolphus Ellis = John Douglas Forster

Hello Brett,
I'm sorry, I merely read your first post and assumed you were talking about the Rand Club itself, whilst it does, of course occupy a special place in history, it is very important to remember that there were many other locations that were rather more private, that had an equal part to play.
Kind regards Frank

Brett Hendey wrote: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannesburg_Reform_Committee

When I posted the news about the Rand Club, I was hoping that someone well-informed about the role its members played in events leading up to the Boer War would share their knowledge on this forum. Very much second best is the Wikipedia link given above. For those who do not know, it was members of the Rand Club who formed the Johannesburg Reform Committee and plotted the overthrow of the Transvaal Government. This led first to the Jameson Raid, and, later, contributed to the Boer War itself. It was also Club members who founded the Imperial Light Horse, the outstanding Colonial regiment of the war. Perhaps someone can still write an essay on 'The Rand Club and the Anglo-Boer War' for this forum.

Brett

Brett Hendey wrote: Durban's morning newspaper, The Mercury', reports that the Rand Club in Johannesburg is "to close its doors after more than a century." "However, nothing of historical value is being sold or thrown away, from Zulu spears thrown on the battlefields of Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift to the dead members' billiard cues that still stand, by long-standing tradition, in racks in the basement."
Viewing from his heavenly perch, Cecil Rhodes will again be feeling thoroughly disgusted.

Brett

To inoculate a smidgin of ABW connotation into a singularly curious topic.

Few - ? any, and to be sure no students at UCT - would concur that CJR could be in heaven ... wearing of course both a QSA and Kimberley Star that 'experts' wrangle about whether he had or had not been awarded ... applying his mind to shenanigans at a watering-hole he had never seen, and a mining town wherein he had never set foot (altho' urban legend has it that CJR himself actually decided the site of the first Rand Club?).

Rather he would be trying to beat the heat in a different theological department - one not monitored by the saintly Peter, but guarded by the formiddable Cerberus! To pipe-dream briefly, in such an insalubrious surround would he not ponder things loftier than a handful of moldering primitive iron-age implements and some warping table-gaming sticks, but contemplate sage bons mots the likes of ...

"One thing that history teaches men is that men learn nothing from history" ... or

"Those who do not learn the lessons of history suffer the punishments of history"
... and having studied Latin at school, would perhaps especially relish the insightful saw attributed to Euripides ...

"Quos deus vult perdere, prius dementat".

The aformentioned enlightened vociferous visionaries prowling UCT, laying waste in the cause of Liberty-Equality-Fraternity (good reactionary stuff) would hasten to salute Rand Club's exeunt as a forward stride in their frenzied quest to obliterate any residues and icons of paternalistic exploitation and Colonial Despotism, with those not gung ho about the sanitization process being not part of the solution to the problem but part of the problem to be solved!

That as may be, in the bowing out of the City of Gold's historic League of Gentlemen and edifice of Victorian gender discrimination, the world must lament the concomitant passing of one quite unique specialty - the highly desirable and delectable Rand Club Major! Sir Walter R must be outraged!!

In reprise - you will mebbe pose what is singularly curious about this topic? Well, just checkout the chirp of one "Slainte" on the OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE CITY OF JOHANNESBURG that gives no intimation of a closure of the Rand Club and, quite to the contrary, presents the vigorous robust operation of a facelifted social club-for-all, at

www.joburg.org.za/index.php?option=com_c...iew&id=948&itemid=58

Fare U well & as Confucious once said "May you live in exciting times".
amb

Brett,
Reading between the lines, this is all truly shocking and very sad news indeed, I see most of the staff left last month, just how secure is the future of the building and of course, all it's precious contents?
Regards Frank

LOL, I dare say this particular correspondent enjoyed himself some eight years ago, I would be interested to see if he would manage it today, perhaps, he might be willing to serve himself of course!

[quote="absentminded beggar"
In reprise - you will mebbe pose what is singularly curious about this topic? Well, just checkout the chirp of one "Slainte" on the OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE CITY OF JOHANNESBURG that gives no intimation of a closure of the Rand Club and, quite to the contrary, presents the vigorous robust operation of a facelifted social club-for-all, at

amb[/quote]