The Journals of John Adams Pringle

INRODUCTION
My father, Dr John Pringle, PhD Wits, was very much a man of the twentieth century, having spanned the years from 1910 to 2002. He was a biologist, a historian and a leader in his many fields of interest. He was also a very devoted family man and was anxious that his children, grandchildren and all present and future members of our extended family should be able to read a personal family story of those fascinating times.
After retirement in 1975, John embarked on the massive task of researching and writing a history of wildlife conservation in South Africa. This was published in 1982 by T.V. Bulpin and Books of Africa (Pty) Ltd., under the title The Conservationists and the Killers’
That done, he finally he had time to tackle the long story of the family history. He sat down at his desk, armed with his fountain pen, bottles of ink and glue, plenty of paper, piles of documents and photographs and, most importantly, his own excellent memories of days gone by. These original journals, written, longhand, in the last days of the twentieth century and bound by John himself, gradually took shape and are now safely held by my brother Robert John Pringle and myself.
Long after Dad passed away, Rob and I, having both eventually retired from work, were able to embark on the task of typing and editing the texts and copying the photos and documents into their correct positions. We finally completed the first four volumes. I then passed printed copies of Volume 1: ‘The Farmers – Dapple and Poppie’ to John’s grandchildren who found them enormously interesting. They suggested that all volumes should be placed on the Internet. The task was given our eldest grandson, Roland Gerron Elferink.
In addition to the extended family, all volumes (listed at the end of Volume 4) should be of interest to museum and scientific communities, also to historians and historical societies.
On the advice of the archivist at William Curren library at Wits University I have decided that that the original bound volumes, currently in my care, will in later years remain in the family, starting with Roland. It will then be his responsibility to pass them on to a suitable family member of the next generation. The other originals, which are currently in my brother’s library will eventually be in the care of the 1820 Settler Memorial in Grahamstown.
Copyright for all of them will be with my brother Robert John Pringle and myself and our immediate descendants until 2052 which will be fifty years after our father, the author, passed away.
Margaret Elferink (Pringle)

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4