 |
|
|
 | | |  |
Zimbabwe – or was it Rhodesia? |
 |
Tasmanian temptation
But life was not all a social whirl. Brian stayed in the Civil Service, which offered opportunities for moving around different departments, particularly through promotions. He started off in the Education Department, supplying schools and boarding hostels with their furniture needs. He then moved through the pay section and on to the Department of Roads and Road Traffic, where he stayed for seven years.
In 1956 he faced a family crisis. With a yearning to move to Tasmania, he was offered the post of Assistant Town Clerk in the small town of Birnie. But he reversed his decision after being offered a Committee Clerk post in the Southern Rhodesia Legislative Assembly.
Government photographs were as laborious as school photgraphs
© Brian Oliver |
"For some time I had been interested in the Parliamentary debates and occasionally noticed one particular chap coming to the space behind Mr Speaker and passing a note to the messenger. He would go around the floor of the House, first to Mr Speaker, then to the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and others, who would read the note with varying degrees of pleasure or agitation. It all looked very hush-hush. And, sure enough, when I was appointed to that self-same chap’s job, it was my turn to listen to the wireless in the Papers Office and to write out the note which contained the latest cricket or rugby score!
Rhodesian independence
"I ascended the career ladder becoming a 'Clerk at the Table', wearing wig and gown sitting in front of Mr Speaker - and, believe me, those barristers' wigs, made of horsehair, could be very uncomfortable in the hot weather, particularly to one of my colleagues who was bald. It was seen as bad form to fidget on the floor of the house, 
Averil Oliver was Private Secretary to Dr Edison Zvobgo and was engaged on official visits too
© Brian Oliver |
but the poor fellow would have to go out every half-hour or so, looking very official while doing so, and have a jolly good scratch!"
After returning to the Civil Service in 1963, when the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland collapsed, Brian took further promotion to the Department of External Affairs, the equivalent to Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He was in charge of the United Nations desk, maintaining contact with all the UN agencies then operating in Rhodesia. However, the political row between Rhodesia and Great Britain over the issue of Rhodesian sovereignty came to a head.
On 11th November, 1965, Mr Ian Smith, the Rhodesian Prime Minister, on behalf of his Government and people, declared UDI, a Unilateral Declaration of Independence.
Your comments
| |
 Print this page |
|
Archive
Look back into the past using the Legacies' archives. Find nearly 200 tales from around the country in our collection.
Read more > |
| | |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| The 大象传媒 is not responsible for the content of external Web sites. |
| | | |
| | |
| |
|
