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W. G. Atherstone
William Guybon Atherstone (1814–1898) was a medical practitioner, naturalist and geologist, one of the pioneers of South African geology and a member of the Cape Parliament. Life He arrived in South Africa with his parents as 1820 Settlers. His father, Dr John Atherstone, was appointed District Surgeon of Uitenhage in 1822. William, a young man of wide interests and outstanding ability, received his first training at Dr James Rose Innes's academy in Uitenhage, being at first apprenticed to his father and then serving as Assistant-Surgeon in the Sixth Frontier War 1834-1835. In 1836 he studied medicine in Dublin and was admitted as M.R.C.S. the following year, obtaining an MD in Heidelberg, Germany in 1839, returning to Grahamstown in the same year and joining his father in practice. He carried out research in lung-sickness, horse-sickness and tick-borne fever and was in 1847 the first surgeon outside Europe and America to perform an amputation using an anaesthetic. This ...
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Fellowship Of The Royal College Of Surgeons
Fellowship of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons (FRCS) is a professional certification, professional qualification to practise as a senior surgeon in Republic of Ireland, Ireland or the United Kingdom. It is bestowed on an wikt:intercollegiate, intercollegiate basis by the four Royal Colleges of Surgeons (the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (chartered 1784), Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (chartered 1505), and Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow). The initials may be used as post-nominal letters. Several Commonwealth countries have organisations that bestow similar qualifications, among them the FRCSC in Canada, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, FRACS in Australia and New Zealand, FCS(SA) in South Africa, FCSHK in Hong Kong, FCPS by College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan in Pakistan and FCPS by College of Physicians & Surgeons of Mumbai in India. The intercollegiate FRCS examinations are administered by ...
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Peter MacOwan
Peter MacOwan (14 November 1830 in Hull, England – 30 November 1909 in Uitenhage, Cape Province) was a British colonial botanist and teacher in South Africa. Early life and education He was the son of Peter McOwan, a Wesleyan minister from Scotland. After finishing school he taught at Bath, Colchester and Leeds, and in 1857 taught chemistry at the Huddersfield College Laboratory. That same year he graduated in chemistry from the University of London, becoming professor of chemistry at Huddersfield. Botanical work The year before, he married Amelia Day from Bristol. A severe lung condition, possibly asthma, caused him to move to South Africa and take up the post of principal at the newly established Shaw College in Grahamstown. His health rapidly improved and leaving chemistry behind he resumed studying botany in which he had become interested while still in England, having started a collection of flowers and mosses. This interest was furthered by his association with Dr W ...
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Guybon Atherstone
Guybon Damant Atherstone M. Inst. C.E. AKC (1843 - 1912), South African railway engineer. Education Atherstone was the son of William Guybon Atherstone (medical practitioner, naturalist, geologist and MP) and was born in Grahamstown on 20 June 1843, he attended St. Andrew's College, Grahamstown and King's College London where he qualified as a civil engineer. Railway engineering Atherstone was employed at the Cape Government Railways as an engineer from 1873 to 1896 during which he built the railway line between Alicedale and Grahamstown. The house in which he lived during the construction is adjacent to a stone arch railway bridge which he built. On completion of the railway project Atherstone's house was converted into an Anglican church, St. Cyprians Anglican Church, which was dedicated on 29 November 1893. This church is part of the Diocese of Grahamstown The Diocese of Grahamstown is a diocese of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. It is centred on the hist ...
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Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demographia, the Johannesburg–Pretoria urban area (combined because of strong transport links that make commuting feasible) is the 26th-largest in the world in terms of population, with 14,167,000 inhabitants. It is the provincial capital and largest city of Gauteng, which is the wealthiest province in South Africa. Johannesburg is the seat of the Constitutional Court, the highest court in South Africa. Most of the major South African companies and banks have their head offices in Johannesburg. The city is located in the mineral-rich Witwatersrand range of hills and is the centre of large-scale gold and diamond trade. The city was established in 1886 following the discovery of gold on what had been a farm. Due to the extremely large gold de ...
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Geological Society Of South Africa
The Geological Society of South Africa (GSSA) is a learned society for geological science that was founded in 1895, making it one of the oldest such societies in Africa. The GSSA publishes the peer-reviewed scientific journal, the ''South African Journal of Geology'', and annually awards the Draper Memorial Medal (in honour of David Draper) to recognise achievement in geology, and the Des Pretorius Memorial Award (in honour of Desmond Pretorius) to recognise exceptional work on economic geology in Africa. The GSSA collaborates internationally with other professional organizations such as the European Federation of Geologists (EFG). References External links Geological Society of South Africa website''South African Journal of Geology'' website South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the nor ...
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Andrew Geddes Bain
Andrew Geddes Bain (baptised 11 June 1797 – 20 October 1864), was a South African geologist, road engineer, palaeontologist and explorer. Life history The only child of Alexander Bain and Jean Geddes, both of whom died when Bain was still a young boy, Bain was baptised 11 June 1797 in Thurso, Scotland. He was raised by an aunt who lived near Edinburgh. Here he received a classical education, but no vocational training. In 1816 he emigrated to Cape Town accompanied by his uncle Lieutenant Colonel William Geddes of the 83rd Regiment, who was stationed in the Cape. He married Maria Elizabeth von Backstrom on 16 November 1818 and had 3 sons and 7 daughters. In 1822 he bought property in Graaff Reinet and carried on for some years the business of a saddler. In 1825 he accompanied John Burner Biddulph on a trading expedition to Kuruman, the mission outpost on the edge of the Kalahari and home of Dr. Robert Moffat (father-in-law of David Livingstone). They explored further north an ...
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William Jackson Hooker
Sir William Jackson Hooker (6 July 178512 August 1865) was an English botanist and botanical illustrator, who became the first director of Kew when in 1841 it was recommended to be placed under state ownership as a botanic garden. At Kew he founded the Herbarium and enlarged the gardens and arboretum. Hooker was born and educated in Norwich. An inheritance gave him the means to travel and to devote himself to the study of natural history, particularly botany. He published his account of an expedition to Iceland in 1809, even though his notes and specimens were destroyed during his voyage home. He married Maria, the eldest daughter of the Norfolk banker Dawson Turner, in 1815, afterwards living in Halesworth for 11 years, where he established a herbarium that became renowned by botanists at the time. He held the post of Regius Professor of Botany at Glasgow University, where he worked with the botanist and lithographer Thomas Hopkirk and enjoyed the supportive friendshi ...
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South African Republic
The South African Republic ( nl, Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, abbreviated ZAR; af, Suid-Afrikaanse Republiek), also known as the Transvaal Republic, was an independent Boer Republic in Southern Africa which existed from 1852 to 1902, when it was annexed into the British Empire as a result of the Second Boer War. The ZAR was established as a result of the 1852 Sand River Convention, in which the Government of the United Kingdom, British government agreed to formally recognise independence of the Boers living north of the Vaal River. Relations between the ZAR and Britain started to deteriorate after the British Cape Colony expanded into the Southern African interior, eventually leading to the outbreak of the First Boer War between the two nations. The Boer victory confirmed the ZAR's independence; however, Anglo-ZAR tensions soon flared up again over various diplomatic issues. In 1899, war again broke out between Britain and the ZAR, which was swiftly occupied by the British mil ...
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Namaqualand
Namaqualand (khoekhoe: "Nama-kwa" meaning Nama Khoe people's land) is an arid region of Namibia and South Africa, extending along the west coast over and covering a total area of . It is divided by the lower course of the Orange River into two portions – Little Namaqualand to the south and Great Namaqualand to the north. Little Namaqualand is within the Namakwa District Municipality, forming part of Northern Cape Province, South Africa. It is geographically the largest district in the country, spanning over 26,836 km2. A typical municipality is Kamiesberg Local Municipality. The semidesert Succulent Karoo region experiences hot summers, sparse rainfall, and cold winters.Discover South Africa: Your Online Travel Directory. Discover Namakwa. Great Namaqualand in the Karas Region of Namibia, is sparsely populated by the Namaqua, a Khoikhoi people who have traditionally inhabited the Namaqualand region. Tourism The area’s landscape ranges from an unexploited coast ...
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Albany Museum, South Africa
The Albany Museum, South Africa is situated in Grahamstown in South Africa, is affiliated to Rhodes University and dates back to 1855,Chinsamy, Anusuya. (1997). "Albany Museum, Grahamstown, South Africa." ''Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs''. Edited by Phillip J. Currie and Kevin Padian. Academic Press. p. 6. making it the second oldest museum in South Africa. The natural history and geology collections of the '' Eastern Province Literary, Scientific and Medical Society'' were used as its nucleus. The herbarium is staffed by the South African National Biodiversity Institute and has material dating back to 1812, collected by William John Burchell, and a collection of 240 specimens donated by Constance Georgina Adams in 1919, as well as geological material gathered by Andrew Geddes Bain and W. G. Atherstone. It also houses a large collection of invertebrate, vertebrate and tetrapod fossils (some of which are from the world renowned Waterloo Farm lagerstätte), and palaeolithic stone tool ...
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Kimberley, South Africa
Kimberley is the capital and largest city of the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It is located approximately 110 km east of the confluence of the Vaal and Orange Rivers. The city has considerable historical significance due to its diamond mining past and the siege during the Second Anglo-Boer war. British businessmen Cecil Rhodes and Barney Barnato made their fortunes in Kimberley, and Rhodes established the De Beers diamond company in the early days of the mining town. On 2 September 1882, Kimberley was the first city in the Southern Hemisphere and the second in the world after Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States to integrate electric street lights into its infrastructure. The first stock exchange in Africa was built in Kimberley, as early as 1881. History Discovery of diamonds In 1866, Erasmus Jacobs found a small brilliant pebble on the banks of the Orange River, on the farm ''De Kalk'' leased from local Griquas, near Hopetown, which was his f ...
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Jagersfontein
Jagersfontein is a small town in the Free State province of South Africa. Origin The original farm on which the town stands was once the property of a Griqua Jacobus Jagers, hence the name Jagersfontein. He sold the farm to C.F. Visser in 1854. Mining Diamond rush A diamond rush started in 1870 after farmer J.J. de Klerk found a 50 carat (10 g) diamond. This was about three years before diamonds were discovered 130 km away at Kimberley. Jagersfontein is known for many great finds, such as: *the 972 carat (194.4 g) Excelsior Diamond of 1893 and *the 637 carat (127.4 g) Reitz Diamond of 1895. Jagersfontein Mine Jagersfontein Mine together with the Koffiefontein mine produced some of the clearest diamonds of all mines in the early 1900s, despite being overshadowed by the mines at Kimberley. Streeter called Jagersfontein's diamonds of the "first water". The Reitz diamond was first named after Francis William Reitz, then state president of the Orange Free State in wh ...
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