Officers

On a few rare occasions I got to draw some of the brass at the base - that is, 1 Intelligence Unit, which, as shown in the last posting, was situated just south of Kimberley and still seems to be there, in some guise, nearly 30 years since I "klaared out" in June, 1981, after spending some 21 months there. About 18 months were spent in the unit's media centre, where I had brief dealings with the odd larnie.

This is a photograph of a drawing I did from a photograph of the regimental sergeant major, "Sammajoor" Blignaut. I think I had to do this sketch for the unit and it was presented to him, possibly after he'd reached some or other milestone. I even signed the thing, which one of my colleagues photographed for me, printing me a copy. That means we would have had a darkroom there too. Ah, the wonders of the steam age!

I don't know who the oke at the top of the page is, but below is one Major Nel, who seemed to be the officer in charge of us. I remember he would not let us use black in our work. He said it meant death. Not sure if this was a racial thing.

How I got to do this quickie of our Commandant, the top-ranking officer at the unit, I can't recall. I'm pretty sure it was not done from life - possibly also from a photo. His name eludes me.