Sources
The wedding of Honor (left) to Frank Anderson. In the background are Honor’s parents, Albert Young Hassell (far left) and his wife Ethel (far right).
The Anderson/Wright family archive is the principal source for this book. It consists of memoirs, diaries, letters, photographs and some printed material. It is planned that this archive will be preserved in a British institution, to be made available for consultation by students of colonial history, particularly that of Tanzania for which it represents a substantial resource.
Within the story, various objects are mentioned, ranging from a silver watch worn at Gallipoli in 1915 to a Japanese Imari vase. Many of these are now housed in the permanent collections of the Western Australia Museum in Perth, and have been displayed in exhibitions. Further exhibitions are planned.
Although some family correspondence was lost in Japan’s Great Kanto earthquake of 1923, an astounding amount has survived. Family members were all prolific letter-writers, and the archive notably includes sets of letters written across continents, where both sides of the correspondence have been carefully preserved.
Ernest John ‘Jack’ Wright, husband to Patricia
Other key documents include Frank Anderson’s Gallipoli diary, and eye-witness accounts of the Great Kanto earthquake. There is an important collection of monochrome photographs taken by Frank Anderson and produced in the darkroom at “Rasharasha”. They mainly date from the 1930s when he was one of the pioneers of East African photographic safaris. He was supported in this venture by his wife Honor and daughter Patricia.
Another notably resource is a set of love-letters written between Patricia and her future husband, Jack Wright. Patricia wanted Jack to join the family at “Rasharasha”, and her letters to him provide a detailed account of managing a farm in colonial Tanganyika (now Tanzania).
In addition, for the period during which the family lived in East Africa, there is a detailed memoir, written by Patricia after reaching safe haven on the island of Mallorca in 1972.
Rasharasha: To Africa for a Rose also draws from the memories of Jeannine Cook, the only surviving family member.
Giraffe at Rasharasha, by Frank Anderson, 1930s