Seeing Mom's Wedderburn Book with new eyes

The Wedderburn Book made by Estelle Wedderburn, 1970-80's

At last I can appreciate the work Mom put into her mammoth Wedderburn Book.

It is physically huge, heavy, the pages are thick sheets of card, it is loaded with original photos and letters as well as her typed notes, photocopied pages, documents, reprints of old family photos and her handwritten family trees.

There is nothing quite like crawling around on the carpet, putting my nose into the letters, deciphering old handwriting and enjoying the wonderful old photos.

I need to buy a magnifying glass.

I was drawn to a letter with its envelop on Mom's page about our Grandfather, Percy Wedderburn.

The small grey envelop is addressed to Right Honorable WP Schreiner, the High Commissioner for South Africa in London and it says:
"To introduce Mr Percy Wedderburn".

( William Philip Schreiner (30 August 1857 – 28 June 1919) was a barrister, politician, statesman and Prime Minister of the Cape Colony during the Second Boer War. Schreiner was on holiday in England at the outbreak of the First World War and was asked by Gen. Botha to fill the post of High Commissioner for South Africa in London. He died in office on 28 June 1919, the day the Treaty of Versailles was signed.)

The letter is sent from Bloemfontein on the 21 September 1918 and Percy would have been 29 years old.

 I cannot make out who is sending the letter though, the signature is quite magnificent with its flourishes but not decipherable. 

Anyway, he writes that Percy is well known to him and leaving for Britain with the next draft for service overseas 'and is now anxious to join the Officer's Training Corps in order to qualify for a Commission in the Artillery.'

The writer mentions that Grandpa Percy served the Union as a Volunteer in the Kimberley Regiment during the Rebellion in 1914 and also through the German West African Campaign and is in possession of good bodily health. I love the turn of phrase too - 'I have no hesitation in commending him to your favourable notice and guidance'

Seeing that this original letter is in the Wedderburn Book, I wonder whether he left for London,  'like so many others of our South African young men prove himself competent and worthy of confidence in his service'?

It would seem not, he marries Nanny Ina and Alexander William Wedderburn (Uncle Bobby) is born on the 9 July 1922.