Many of the “coloured” St. Helena and Mauritian immigrants married whites. This photograph shows the Frost family, then of Henrietta Street, Pietermaritzburg. Mr Frost had been stationed with a British regiment at Fort Napier. Mrs Frost (right), a St Helena immigrant, was employed at Hilton college. Mrs Newnham, wife of the founding headmaster of the school, wrote of the early 1870s: “We were greatly troubled by the want of servants. We got two very good women from St Helena, who did all the laundry work and mending for the College.”

Preliminary sketch of the Bushman’s River Pass Incident by Thomas Baines.

Bambatha Rebellion: Return of pageantry. Band of the Cameron Highlanders marching down Church Street, watched by the curious, 1906. (Natal Archives Depot)