And then a rather longer one.
It quickly became clear to me that the collection was, in fact, a quite remarkable time capsule. The items were mostly routine and unexceptional but were, nevertheless, the sort of bits and pieces that would be kept by an expatriate couple who knew that they would be here for only a shortish period of time. Thus the collection comprised photos, letters, cuttings mostly from the Daily News, menus and formal invitations. It is the latter, the extraordinary number and variety of formal invitations which indicate that the collector was not just another expatriate on a short-term contract. The couple were in fact, Derek and Vera Haldane, he being twice, the Manager of the President Hotel. Go back to the immediate post Independence years when the only two hotels in Gaborone were the grotty old Gaborone Hotel at the station and the President and it will be realised that a young, popular couple running the latter were likely to be welcome society figures. It is hard to see the first manager of the President in that role, a gent called Massey Hicks or indeed to imagine that the manager of the President today or even any manager of today’s hotels would be automatically invited to whatever was going on, as were the Haldanes. But then none of today’s managers is likely to get a Xmas with the handwritten note, ‘And if you do go, do please remember to come back, again. We do need you and Vera and we need you badly, (signed) Quett and Gladys’.
