| Something of an enigma, this Carte de Visite is inscribed to a Mrs. Sheppard from her old friend "F. B.". F. B. was had bee previouly identified by another collector as Fred Bucknall of the Natal Carbineers but the man in this photograph does not look like the FredBucknall of the Natal Carbineers pictured (c. 1867) on Plate 3 of the Rev. John Stalker's The Natal Carbineers 1855-1911. The above photograph also post dates the Bucknall image in Stalker by quite a few years. From the style of the photo as well as its card mount I would date this photograph to sometime after of the Anglo-Zulu War (1879). At first glance F. B.'s uniform appears very close to that worm by both the Natal Carbineers and the Natal Mounted Rifles. The uniform pictured here lacks the twisted white shoulder cords that were a feature of that worn by the Carbineers so I am going to assume that F. B. was a member of the later volunteer unit. I have still been unable find any definitive reference as to the actual identity of F. B. even after consulting Eric Goetzshe's work Rough But Ready: The Official History of the Natal Mounted Rifles. Carte de Visite J.H. Murray - Photographer Church Street, Pieter-Maritz-Burg, Natal, South Africa c. 1880 |
