Frank Leslie Green, known for much of his life as “Dusty”, was born in Yorkshire in November 1897, the youngest son of Alderman Norman Green, who served as the 522nd Lord Mayor of York during 1911-12, and Margaret Wilson Green. Like so many other young men of his time, Dusty served in the Royal Navy during the First World War, first as a pilot in the Royal Naval Air Service, then as a signals officer in the RNVR. His understanding of warfare and the costs of war can be seen throughout his commentaries.

Dusty’s closest sibling, Norrie, was killed on the Somme in France during the war, and the loss devastated Dusty. After the war, he travelled to Rhodesia [later Zambia and Zimbabwe] to try his hand at farming. While he had planned to go on to Australia, he met Andrew McPherson, who persuaded Dusty to first go to Queenstown, South Africa, where Andrew’s brother A K McPherson was engaged in business and owned and ran the local newspaper, the Daily Representative. Dusty fell in love with Queenstown, and went to work for the Daily Representative in 1924, marrying Ruth McPherson in 1929. He served in a variety of roles, wrote many interesting articles and columns, and eventually became managing director in 1957, retiring in 1969. Green died in October 1974.

Queenstown, now officially named Komani, was established in the Eastern Cape Province in 1853. A community newspaper, the Free Press, soon followed in 1859, and years later it became the Queenstown Daily Representative. It became a newspaper of some renown, covering not only community news, but also national and international affairs. It was the only English language newspaper in South Africa to cover Germany’s surrender in 1945 on the day it occurred and was singled out by Buckingham Palace for its coverage of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation and jubilee. The newspaper has now become a weekly newspaper and online presence in modern times, and is known simply as “The Rep.” The “Weekly Notes” column ran in the Queenstown Daily Representative from 1940 to 1947 (though Green continued to call his albums of press cuttings by that name after that date).