Provenance

This canteen of cutlery was originally ordered, as a commemorative Mayoral gift to Major Walter Baxendale, in recognition of services provided by him in his capacity as Mayor of Bulawayo, an office which he had filled over two terms, from 1904 to 1906, and from 1912 to 1913.

Before the canteen could be presented to him, Baxendale as a member of the Southern Rhodesian Volunteers, was killed in action against the Germans at Ngominyi, in Tanzania, during the course of 1916, and was subsequently buried in the war cemetery at nearby Iringa. Had he lived to take delivery of his gift it would, in the course of time, have been inherited by his son, Oliver, and then by his eldest daughter, Margaret.

After his death, the canteen was put up for auction, and was bought by William H B Douslin, Director of Public Works in Bulawayo.  Douslin and Baxendale shared a common link in having both come to Rhodesia as Pioneers in 1895.  Having no direct descendants of his own, William left the canteen to his nephew, H B J (Baffie) Dugmore, who in turn left it to his son, Peter. Peter, in 1961, married Walter Baxendale’s granddaughter Margaret – so the canteen, which would, in the normal course of events been hers by inheritance, instead found its way back to her by marriage.