A group portrait showing the identified figures and eight other Europeans posed beside a row of wagons, the nearest of which bears the legend ‘James Stanton, Builder, Grahamstown’. Rev. John Smith Moffat had left the LMS in 1879 and was at this time the British Representative in Matabeleland. Sir Sidney Shippard was the Administrator of British Bechuanaland. The Civil Commissioner and Resident Magistrate at Mafeking from 1890-2 was A.G. Hatchard. Also identified (beneath the following plate) are Dan Judson and Tillard, presumably telegraphists. The British South Africa Co. started construction on the telegraph line from Mafeking on May 12 1890.