The Upfill-Brown Collection

An important group of four awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel Hugh Marshall Hole, former Private Secretary to Dr. Leander Starr Jameson and one of the most prominent of the early Rhodesian pioneers, administrators and writers

THE MOST DISTINGUISHED ORDER OF ST. MICHAEL AND ST. GEORGE, C.M.G., neck badge in silver-gilt and enamel, converted from breast badge, chips to one arm and both centres; BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY MEDAL 1890-97, reverse Rhodesia 1896 (Lieut. & Adjt., 5. FF.); QUEEN'S SOUTH AFRICA 1899-1902, 1 clasp, Rhodesia (Lieut., S. Rhoda. Vol.); CORONATION 1902, silver, light edge knocks and contact marks, otherwise very fine(4)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The AA Upfill-Brown Collection.

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Hugh Marshall Hole studied law at Balliol College, Oxford before emigrating to South Africa and, while working for a firm of solicitors in Kimberley in 1899, met Cecil John Rhodes. He joined the British South Africa Company in 1890 and in 1891 moved to Mashonaland where he became private secretary to Dr. Leander Starr Jameson, the Administrator, a post he held for three years. Thereafter, he served as Civil Commissioner at both Salisbury and Bulawayo, took an active part in the fighting during the Mashona rebellion, but was obliged to retire later in the year because of ill health. He returned to Matabeleland in 1898, held a number of important administrative positions, later served in the Boer War and, later still, in the Great War. After the war he resumed service withthe B. S. A. Company, in London, eventually becoming Managing Secretary from 1924 until1928. He was made C.M.G. in 1924 and retired to England in 1928. A first class historian and a cultured man of varied interests, he achieved wide recognition as an author. Among his better known books are 'The Jameson Raid, ' 'Rhodesia Days' and 'The Making of Rhodesia' all of which he was uniquely qualified to write about from personal experience.

Marshall Hole Money Cards
After seeing active service in the Boer War with the Southern Rhodesia Volunteers, Marshall Hole took up a civilian position as Government Secretary for Matabeleland. Residing in Bulawayo early in 1900 it was Marshall Hole's responsibiliry to find a way around the great currency shortage then being experienced as a result of the war. Holding large stocks of postage stamps, he introduced his now famous Money Cards bearing on one side his signature and the stamp of the Administrators Office, and on the other side a B.S.A. Company postage stamp of varying denominations. Sold with this lot is an example of a one shilling card.