| Something of an enigma, this Carte de Visite is inscribed to a Mrs. Sheppard from her old friend "FB". FB was first identified as Fred Bucknall of the Natal Carbineers but the man in this photograph does not look like the Fred Bucknall 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. The uniform could just as easily be that of the post 1881 Natal Mounted Rifles although I have yet to find any member of that unit with the initials of "F. B." in Eric Goetzshe's work Rough But Ready: The Official History of the Natal Mounted Rifles. From the style of the photo as well as its card mount I would date this photograph to within a few years of the Anglo-Zulu War (1879). Given that apparent time frame I have tried to narrow down the possibilities based upon the various muster rolls in Stalker's work. No one with the initials "F.B." appears in the of the roll for the coronation of Zulu King Cetewayo (1873), the ill-fated encounter at Bushman's River Pass (1873) or in the roll taken before the start of the Anglo-Zulu War (1879). It should be noted that none of these muster rolls are definitive and only list those members of the Carbineers who took part in that specific action and not all members of the regiment. Carte de Visite J.H. Murray - Photographer Church Street, Pieter-Maritz-Burg, Natal, South Africa c. 1880 |
