A nice Anglo-Boer War era cabinet photograph with a marginal, but interesting connection to the Anglo-Zulu War of some twenty years earlier.

The photo depicts a rather stern-looking young lad dressed in a paramilitary costume/uniform. His name appears in ink along the lower left margin of the photo and looks to possibly read “Jamsie Boyce”.  The side brim of his hat is held up with a generic Scottish thistle badge which
seems appropriately fitting with the Boyce surname. I have not been able to turn up any definitive information on this young man.

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The Anglo-Zulu War connection is through the photographer who took the picture, in this case, Henry Edward Fripp (1851 -1920). Henry Edward was the elder brother of the war
correspondent/artist Charles Edwin Fripp (1854-1906) is possibly most famous for his epic painting “The Battle of Isandlwana” shown below.

The brothers – two of at least nine siblings – came from an artistic family. Their father, George Arthur Fripp was also an artist as was a grandfather. Henry Edward immigrated to South
Africa in 1870 and became a prominent photographer in and around Cape Town and Port Elizabeth.