A Blantyre man has told how he raised a glass to Scotland’s national bard at a Burns Supper for 100 people in NIGERIA. Civil Servant David Smith, 24, celebrated poet Robert Burns at a diplomatic event hosted by officials from the British High Commission and the Department for International Development (DFID), based in the […]
I was absolutely thrilled at the end of July 2018, when brothers Archie and Hugh Simm informed me that 30 Blantyre Project books were distributed to various schools in Africa. Archie kindly bought 30 books, which not only benefited local Blantyre good causes here directly, but the books ended up also helping others on […]
By August 1934, it had taken seven years to bring to completion a movement to erect a memorial to David Livingstone at the Victoria Falls, Africa, which he was, (so far as is known), the first white man to see. Livingstone was bom at Blantyre, in Scotland, and as a boy and young man worked in […]
Thanks to Andy Bain who took these great photos whilst walking through David Livingstone Centre recently. Photographed in October 2014, they show the gardens still in full bloom, despite Autumn being well and truly there at the time. I have to say the gardens are looking remarkably well tended recently, a credit to the centre […]
This photo from the earliest days of photography in 1860 shows the ‘Ma Robert’, Dr Livingstone’s ship on the second Zambesi expedition of, photographed on the Zambesi at Lupata, Africa. It was captured by Livingstone’s colleague Edinburgh doctor Sir John Kirk. The date is likely as being around 1860. The Zambesi Expedition (1858-1864), which was […]
The Victorian explorers who went to Africa helped to create new ways of seeing the world for the British public beyond Britain and Europe and played an important part in the history of empire making. These Victorian travellers included men such as Blantyre man, David Livingstone and women such as Mary Kingsley. Several African people […]
There’s no doubt about it, the second world war years must have been tough on the people of Blantyre. So, what better way to lift morale and community spirit by having none other than the King and Queen visit Blantyre in 1942. We would know her as the current Queen’s mother. King George VI and […]