first time in a week. The librarian welcomed him with a severe expression like a disapproving school ma'am. I thought we had seen the last of you, that you had given up. Oh no, by no means, Mark assured her, and again she softened and handed him the key to the reading-room.
Mark had mapped out a family tree for the Courtneys in his notebook, for it was confusing. There was a brother to Sean, who was also a colonel at the end of the Boer War, but also a holder of the Victoria Cross for gallantry, a distinguished family indeed. This brother, Colonel Garrick Courtney, had gradually become a noted and then a famous author of military history and of biographies of other successful soldiers, beginning with his With Roberts to Pretoria and Buller, a Fighting Soldier and going on to Battle for the Son2me and Kitchener. A Life. The books were all extensively and glowingly reviewed in the Lantern. The author had a single son, Michael Courtney. Prior to 1914, there were references to this son's business activities as managing director of the Courtney Saw Mills in the Ladyburg district, and his skills as an athelete and horseman in many local meetings. Then 1917, LADYBURG HERO DECORATED.
Captain Michael Courtney, son of Colonel Garrick Courtney V. C was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his exploits with the. 21 st R. F. C. Fighter Squadron in France. Captain Courtney has been credited with five kills of German aircraft, and was described by his commanding officer as a courageous and dedicated officer of high flying skills. Hero, son of a hero.
Then again, within months, a front-page article outlined in a square of heavy black type.
It is with great regret that we report the death in action of CAPTAIN MICHAEL COURTNEY D. F. C. It is believed that Captain Courtney was shot down in flames behind enemy lines and that his executioner was none other than the notorious Baron von Richthofen of bloody reputation. The Ladyburg Lantern extends its deepest and sincerest condolences to his father and family. A Rose plucked in full bloom. The activities of this branch of the family, its triumphs and tragedies were all reported in detail, and it was the same with the Sean Courtney family for the period from the turn of the century to May of 1910.
Sean Courtney's marriage to Mrs Ruth Friedman in I 903 was described in loving detail, from the bride's dress to the icing on the cake. One of the flower girls was Miss Storm Friedman, aged four, who wore an exact replica of her mother's dress. She makes a pretty new sister for Master Dirk Courtney. Again the mention of the name that truly interested Mark, and he noted it, for it was the last until May 1910.
Colonel Sean Courtney's achievements in politics and business and the more serious fields of recreation filled page after page of subsequent editions; his election to the legislative council of Natal, and later to Prime Minister Louis Botha's Cabinet; he became leader of the South Africa Party in Natal, and was a delegate to Whitehall in London, taking his entire family with him, to negotiate the terms of Union.
Sean Courtney's business interests flourished and multiplied, new sawmills, new plantations, elevation to new offices, the chairman of the first Building Society in Southern Africa, director of Union Castle Shipping Lines, head of the Government Commission on Natural Resources.
Chairman of the South African Turf Club, a one hundred and fifty foot luxury yacht built for him by Thesens of Knysna, Commodore of the Royal Natal Yacht Club, but no further mention of Dirk Courtney until May 1910.
The Ladyburg Lantern and Recorder's front page of the edition of 12th May 1910.
The Ladyburg Lantern takes great pleasure inannouncing that its entire paid up share capital has been acquired by Mr Dirk Courtney, who recently returned to Ladyburg after an absence of some years.
Mr Courtney tells us that the intervening years have been spent in travel, gaining both experience and capital.
Clearly they were not wasted, for immediately on his arrival home, Mr Courtney purchased a controlling interest in the Ladyburg Farmers Bank for a reputed one million pounds sterling in cash.
Ladyburg and all its inhabitants are sure to benefit enormously by the vast energy, wealth and drive that Mr Dirk Courtney brings to the district. I intend taking a close day-to-day interest in all aspects of my companies operations in Ladyburg, he said, when asked of his future plans. Progress, Growth, Prosperity for All, are my watchwords. Mr Dirk Courtney, The Ladyburg Lantern salutes you and welcomes you as a notable ornament to our fair community.
After that, hardly an edition of The Lantern did not contain fawning eulogies of Mr Dirk Courtney, while mention of his father and family was reduced to an occasional small article in the inside pages.
To find news of Sean Courtney, Mark had to turn to the other Natal newspapers. He began with the Natal Mercury.
Ladyburg Mounted Rifles Sail for France General Courtney Takes his Men to War once more.
That jolted Mark, he could remember the sea mist on the bay and the ranks of khaki-clad figures climbing the gangways, each of them burdened by kitbag and rifle. The singing, and the cries of the women, paper streamers and flower petals twisting and falling in gay and gaudy clouds about them, and the sound of the fog horns reverberating mournfully from the bluff. It was so dear in his mind still.
How soon he was to follow them, after exaggerating his age to a recruiting sergeant who did not inquire too closely.
Ladyburg Rifles Badly Mauled Attack fails at Delville Wood General Courtney: I am proud of them. Mark felt sudden stinging tears burn his eyelids as he went slowly down the long casualty lists, pausing as he recognized a name, remembering, remembering, lost again in those terrible seas of mud and blood and suffering.
A hand touched his shoulder arousing him, and he straightened up from the reading table, bewildered at his sudden return to the present. We are closing now, it's after nine o'clock, said the young assistant librarian softly. I'm afraid you will have to leave now. Then she peered more closely at him. Are you all right? Have you been crying? No. Quickly Mark groped for his handkerchief. It's just the strain of reading. His landlady shouted down the stairs to him as he let himself into the hall. I've got a letter for you. The letter looked as thick as a complete works of William Shakespeare, but when he opened it there were only twenty-two pages, beginning: My dear Mark, Of course I remember you so clearly, and I have thought about you often, wondering what ever had become of you,-so your welcome letter came as a marvelous surprise Mark felt a guilty twinge at the unrestrained joy that her letter voiced.
I realize that we know so little about each other. You did not even know my name! ! Well, it is Marion Littlejohn silly name, isn't it? I wish I could change it (that's not a hint, silly! ) and I was born in Ladyburg (I'm not going to tell you when! A lady never reveals her age! ) My father was a farmer, but he sold his farm five years ago, and now he works as a forem in at the sugar mill.
The entire family history, Marion's schooling, the names and estates of all her numerous relatives, Marion's hopes, dreams, aspirations, I'd love to travel, wouldn't you? Paris, London', were laid out in daunting detail, much of
