Hugh Marshall Hole

Hugh Marshall Hole, (1865 - 1941) was an English pioneer, administrator and author. Born in Tiverton in Devon, England, Marshall Hole came to South Africa in 1889 and met the mine magnate and politician Cecil Rhodes in Kimberley. Rhodes offered him a job, and in 1891 Marshall Hole took up the position of private secretary to Dr Leander Starr Jameson in Mashonaland, later becoming Administrator of North West Rhodesia.

Marshall Hole is best known for issuing "Marshall Hole currency" in Bulawayo in 1900. During the Anglo-Boer War there was a shortage of small change and circulating coinage in Rhodesia. Marshall Hole, who was then serving as Government Secretary for Matabeleland and Civil Commissioner of Bulawayo, authorised the issue of small cards bearing a British South Africa Company postage stamp on the obverse, and an official handstamped signature on the reverse, and these cards circulated as emergency currency between 1 August 1900 and their withdrawal on 1 October 1900. Smith (1967: p332) says "£20,000's worth of stamps were used, and when circulation ceased... it was found that almost exactly £1,000's worth was still outstanding... This £1,000... was clear profit to the Administration and compensated Mr Hole for the ridicule the experiment provoked when he first proposed it."

The currency cards were issued in denominations of 2d, 3d, 4d, 6d, 1/-, 2/-, 2/6, 4/-, 5/- and 10/-, and bore two types of validation stamp. One type is inscribed "ADMINISTRATOR'S OFFICE * BULAWAYO". The other type is inscribed "ADMINISTRATOR'S OFFICE". The validation stamps were applied at Marshall Hole's office.

References

*Smith, J. C., 1967. "Rhodesia, A Postal History - Its Stamps, Posts & Telegraphs", Published by the author, Salisbury, Rhodesia.