Highest award for gallantry a British soldier of the monarch’s realms can receive, requiring a ‘single’ act of most conspicuous bravery, or some daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice, or extreme devotion to duty in the presence of the enemy. Since the Victoria Cross inception in 1856 only 1358 awarded of which 62 were South Africans. Each a story of remarkable bravery.

Victorian Cross via MACH.jpg

• Venue: Hartbeespoort Cableway Great Hall
• Saturday 28 October at 10h00
• Bookings at info@machbookings.co.za
• Price of R150.00pp includes coffee/tea
• MACH book shop open
• Cableway trips at R170.00 for guests

Prof John Lambert - Emeritus Professor, Department of History, University of South Africa and a member of the Pretoria Management Committee of the University of the 3rd Age.

John read History and Theology at the University of Natal, obtaining a BA, BA Hons and MA by 1976 and a D. Litt et Phil at the University of South Africa in 1986. He lectured in the Department of History at Natal University and then from 1973 at the University of South Africa. In 2004,  he moved to management in the College of Human Sciences. He was responsible for research assistance to lecturers in the College until retiring in 2008 and was then contracted to provide research assistance to lecturers in all the university’s colleges before finally retiring in 2015.

John has published widely in the field of Natal history concentrating on the African peasantry in colonial Natal. After tiring of peasants at the end of the 1990s, his main field of research has been recreating the history and identity of white English-speaking South Africans.  He is fascinated by how British imperialism and the concept of being British impacted on the British diaspora in South Africa, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and what was then Rhodesia. John is working on a book on white English-speaking South Africans, the writing of which alas is having a long gestation period.

John has published a monograph, Betrayed Trust: Africans and the State in Colonial Natal and has co-authored a number of books and published numerous book chapters and journal articles He gives talks to associations and to various groups on topics ranging from ancient Africa and medieval Europe to those on South African history in the nineteenth and twentieth century.

John is married to Barbara. They live in Waterkloof in Pretoria and share their home with their Dalmatian, Kate. They are enthusiastic gardeners and avid readers and love travelling in South Africa and abroad.