The following text is adapted from 'Footsteps Through Time - A History of Travel and Tourism to the Victoria Falls', researched and written by Peter Roberts and published in 2017. Please visit the Zambezi Book Company website for more information.

Visit of the Duke and Duchess of Connaught

The Duke and Duchess of Connaught - son and daughter-in-law of Queen Victoria - and their daughter, Princess Patricia, visited the Victoria Falls towards the end of 1910 when on their way from opening the new Union Parliament in Cape Town. They travelled in the first Royal Train, and did not stay at the Victoria Falls Hotel, but instead spent for four nights at Livingstone on their train, which they also used to make the short trip to the Falls for sightseeing.

A pilot train ran ahead of the Royal Train and an emergency train followed 30 minutes behind. A feature of the Royal Train was the haulage of a bogie truck carrying four cows to supply fresh milk each day. These survived the three weeks' tour and clocked up considerable mileage.

The Duchess of Connaught smiles as her female companion, probably her daughter Princess Patricia, leans over the edge of the Zambezi above the Victoria Falls.

Croxton (1967) records:

It was in November, 1910, that Rhodesia welcomed its first royal train when the Duke and Duchess of Connaught and Princess Patricia included the Victoria Falls and Livingstone in their tour of the new Union of South Africa.
It is recorded that the train stopped in the centre of the bridge for quite some time to give the royal party a good view and then proceeded to Livingstone for a four-day stay during which it was used on several occasions for short trips back to the Falls.
An interesting feature of this tour was that the pilot train included a bogie cattle truck carrying four cows which supplied the fresh milk throughout the journey. The animals safely survived the whole tour which lasted over three weeks. Was this a record rail journey for cows?

Pincess Patricia admires the Victoria Falls (1910).

Wright, in his History of the Northern Rhodesian Police (year of publication unknown) records:

On 14 November 1910, 168 men of the [Barotse Native] Force were on parade at Livingstone for inspection by Field Marshall His Royal Highness The Duke of Connaught. ... The Duke complimented the men on their steadiness on parade and the manner in which they went through their drill movements. A brass band had been formed in 1909 and was, of course, on parade. The Duke, as Colonel of the Corps of Royal Engineers, gave the Barotse Native Police permission to adopt as their own the quick march Wings, the march of the Royal Engineers.

Marchpast for Duke of Connaught, Livingstone, 1910

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