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Stella Court Treatt
Stella Maud Court Treatt, FRGS (née Hinds; 1895 – 1976) was a South African filmmaker, author, and adventurer who with her first husband Chaplin Court Treatt undertook the Court Treatt Expedition 1924–1926, the first successful attempt to drive a motor car from Cape Town to Cairo.
Stella Maud Hinds was born in Blaauwbank, the South African Republic, on 11 March 1895. Her father was Thomas Charles Hinds, a burgher of the South African Republic with a farm near Magaliesburg. Stella's sister, (Hilda) Grace Hinds, was the mother of John Cranko, the South African ballet dancer and choreographer. Grace's husband, Herbert Cranko, helped to raise money and secure permissions for Stella's subsequent expedition with Chaplin Court Treatt from the Cape to Cairo.
In 1923, Stella married Major Chaplin Court Treatt, a Royal Flying Corps officer who had been tasked with surveying and constructing airfields for the southern portion of the Trans-African air route. In 1924, after an interval securing permissions in England, Stella and Chaplin Court Treatt, together with Stella's brother, Errol Hinds, and several others, undertook a seventeen-month car journey from Cape Town to Cairo. In 1926, the Treatts traveled to Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, to film a wildlife documentary. Stella Maud Treatt and Chaplin Court Treatt divorced after several trips together sometime in 1935 or 1936. In 1937, Stella married Robert "Bob" Mosley Yeo, a doctor who had been treating her in South Africa, and they moved to India. Stella eventually returned to South Africa with Robert Yeo. Stella Maud Mosley Yeo died in Johannesburg on 20 December 1976.
The Court Treatt expedition was the first successful attempt to drive a motor car from Cape Town ("the Cape"), South Africa, to Cairo, Egypt. The party consisted of Stella Court Treatt, Chaplin Court Treatt, Thomas A. Glover, a cinematographer, Fred C. Law, special correspondent for the London Daily Express, Stella's brother Errol, Julius Mapata, the expedition's guide and translator, and Captain F.C. Blunt and Mr. McEleavey, representatives of the Crossley Motor company.
On 13 September 1924, they set off from Cape Town in two Crossley 25/30 cars with light truck bodies. They reached Cairo sixteen months later, on 24 January 1926. Their route was so winding and full of detours that it was reported they had travelled more than 19,000 kilometres (12,000 mi). The expedition was explicitly modeled after the fashion of Cecil Rhodes' "red line" connecting Cape Town to Cairo, and they restricted their route to territories under British rule. Fred Law's account of the beginning of the trip, Woman Pioneer of Empire: Cape to Cairo venture Begun (Daily Express, 24 September 1924), began with an invocation of Rhodes' vision of a network of roads and railroads linking up British colonial possessions to afford white settlement and the more effective domination of the continent and its people: "The second step towards the fulfilment of Cecil Rhodes' scheme to open up the routes through darkest Africa began this morning, when Major and Mrs. C. Court Treatt left Capetown in an attempt to reach Cairo by motorcar." Stella observed the difficulties that the imperial route presented; "[had we taken an alternative route] our problems would have been simplified [. . .] we would have found roads [. . .] and we could have avoided bridgeless rivers and swamps. But the desirability of blazing a trail through British Africa was superior to every other consideration." Their route took them from Cape Town through Britstown, Pretoria, Polokwane (formerly, Pietersburg), Bulawayo (in Zimbabwe, formerly, Rhodesia, where they visited Cecil Rhodes' grave), Livingstone (in Zambia, formerly Northern Rhodesia), Kabwe (in Zambia, formerly called Broken Hill), Mbala (in Zambia, formerly called Abercorn), Karonga (Malawi, formerly Nyasaland), Mwaya (Tanzania, formerly Tanganyika), Nairobi (Kenya), Mongalla (South Sudan, formerly the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan), Rumbek, Wau, Al-Ubayyid (Sudan, formerly Anglo-Egyptian Sudan; spelled, 'El Obeid,' by Treatt), Ed Dueim, Khartoum, Wadi Halfa, and finally Aswan (Egypt) to Cairo in Egypt.
The expedition left Nairobi on 10 October 1925 and reached Mongala eight days later, where they were received by Major Roy Brock, Deputy governor of Mongalla Province. After declining an offer to transport their cars by steamer to bypass the Sudd, South Sudan's great central wetlands, they set off again on 25 October 1925 with the aim of reaching Terekeka, which lay about 100 kilometres (60 mi) north. Their route took them through Rumbek, Tonj, Aweil, and across the Lol River and then the Kiir River and eventually to Muglad and Al-Ubayyid, which they reached on 20 December 1925. They rarely made more than 13 kilometres (8 mi) per day, frequently needing to rely on people (often hundreds at a time) living along the route to drag and pull and raft or float their cars across rivers and haul them through swamps.
The Treatts completed the objective of their expedition on 24 January 1926 when they arrived in Cairo. After stopping briefly for Christmas at Al-Ubayyid, they resumed their journey on Christmas morning, reaching the west bank of the Nile River on 27 December, and spent the night at El Doueim, where they were provided lodging by the Governor of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan while a steamer transported their cars across the Nile to the east side. They arrived at Khartoum on 28 December, drove to Omdurman across a bridge at the confluence of the White Nile and Blue Nile on 29 December, and spent New Year's Eve at the small town of Shendi. On 5 January 1926, they reached Halfa in Egypt, getting to Luxor on 20 January and were on relatively good roads on the last leg of their trip. On the morning of 24 January, they were welcomed by the press and a reception committee at the pyramids of Giza, and drove past crowds of well wishers along the Kasr el Nil road, arriving in Cairo in the afternoon to finish the first trip by motor vehicle from Cape Town to Cairo.
When the Treatts returned to England, "their journey was celebrated as a triumph of the British spirit and the superiority of British engineering." In 1927, not long after their return, Stella published Cape to Cairo: The Record of a Historic Motor Journey and the film of the expedition, Cape to Cairo, was screened in Britain and the United States, "accompanied by lectures and numerous interviews starring the glamorous Stella Court Treatt". Newspapers and advertisers transformed the Treatts into celebrities, with Crossley Motors and the North British Rubber Company running advertisements alongside interviews with Stella.
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Stella Court Treatt
Stella Maud Court Treatt, FRGS (née Hinds; 1895 – 1976) was a South African filmmaker, author, and adventurer who with her first husband Chaplin Court Treatt undertook the Court Treatt Expedition 1924–1926, the first successful attempt to drive a motor car from Cape Town to Cairo.
Stella Maud Hinds was born in Blaauwbank, the South African Republic, on 11 March 1895. Her father was Thomas Charles Hinds, a burgher of the South African Republic with a farm near Magaliesburg. Stella's sister, (Hilda) Grace Hinds, was the mother of John Cranko, the South African ballet dancer and choreographer. Grace's husband, Herbert Cranko, helped to raise money and secure permissions for Stella's subsequent expedition with Chaplin Court Treatt from the Cape to Cairo.
In 1923, Stella married Major Chaplin Court Treatt, a Royal Flying Corps officer who had been tasked with surveying and constructing airfields for the southern portion of the Trans-African air route. In 1924, after an interval securing permissions in England, Stella and Chaplin Court Treatt, together with Stella's brother, Errol Hinds, and several others, undertook a seventeen-month car journey from Cape Town to Cairo. In 1926, the Treatts traveled to Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, to film a wildlife documentary. Stella Maud Treatt and Chaplin Court Treatt divorced after several trips together sometime in 1935 or 1936. In 1937, Stella married Robert "Bob" Mosley Yeo, a doctor who had been treating her in South Africa, and they moved to India. Stella eventually returned to South Africa with Robert Yeo. Stella Maud Mosley Yeo died in Johannesburg on 20 December 1976.
The Court Treatt expedition was the first successful attempt to drive a motor car from Cape Town ("the Cape"), South Africa, to Cairo, Egypt. The party consisted of Stella Court Treatt, Chaplin Court Treatt, Thomas A. Glover, a cinematographer, Fred C. Law, special correspondent for the London Daily Express, Stella's brother Errol, Julius Mapata, the expedition's guide and translator, and Captain F.C. Blunt and Mr. McEleavey, representatives of the Crossley Motor company.
On 13 September 1924, they set off from Cape Town in two Crossley 25/30 cars with light truck bodies. They reached Cairo sixteen months later, on 24 January 1926. Their route was so winding and full of detours that it was reported they had travelled more than 19,000 kilometres (12,000 mi). The expedition was explicitly modeled after the fashion of Cecil Rhodes' "red line" connecting Cape Town to Cairo, and they restricted their route to territories under British rule. Fred Law's account of the beginning of the trip, Woman Pioneer of Empire: Cape to Cairo venture Begun (Daily Express, 24 September 1924), began with an invocation of Rhodes' vision of a network of roads and railroads linking up British colonial possessions to afford white settlement and the more effective domination of the continent and its people: "The second step towards the fulfilment of Cecil Rhodes' scheme to open up the routes through darkest Africa began this morning, when Major and Mrs. C. Court Treatt left Capetown in an attempt to reach Cairo by motorcar." Stella observed the difficulties that the imperial route presented; "[had we taken an alternative route] our problems would have been simplified [. . .] we would have found roads [. . .] and we could have avoided bridgeless rivers and swamps. But the desirability of blazing a trail through British Africa was superior to every other consideration." Their route took them from Cape Town through Britstown, Pretoria, Polokwane (formerly, Pietersburg), Bulawayo (in Zimbabwe, formerly, Rhodesia, where they visited Cecil Rhodes' grave), Livingstone (in Zambia, formerly Northern Rhodesia), Kabwe (in Zambia, formerly called Broken Hill), Mbala (in Zambia, formerly called Abercorn), Karonga (Malawi, formerly Nyasaland), Mwaya (Tanzania, formerly Tanganyika), Nairobi (Kenya), Mongalla (South Sudan, formerly the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan), Rumbek, Wau, Al-Ubayyid (Sudan, formerly Anglo-Egyptian Sudan; spelled, 'El Obeid,' by Treatt), Ed Dueim, Khartoum, Wadi Halfa, and finally Aswan (Egypt) to Cairo in Egypt.
The expedition left Nairobi on 10 October 1925 and reached Mongala eight days later, where they were received by Major Roy Brock, Deputy governor of Mongalla Province. After declining an offer to transport their cars by steamer to bypass the Sudd, South Sudan's great central wetlands, they set off again on 25 October 1925 with the aim of reaching Terekeka, which lay about 100 kilometres (60 mi) north. Their route took them through Rumbek, Tonj, Aweil, and across the Lol River and then the Kiir River and eventually to Muglad and Al-Ubayyid, which they reached on 20 December 1925. They rarely made more than 13 kilometres (8 mi) per day, frequently needing to rely on people (often hundreds at a time) living along the route to drag and pull and raft or float their cars across rivers and haul them through swamps.
The Treatts completed the objective of their expedition on 24 January 1926 when they arrived in Cairo. After stopping briefly for Christmas at Al-Ubayyid, they resumed their journey on Christmas morning, reaching the west bank of the Nile River on 27 December, and spent the night at El Doueim, where they were provided lodging by the Governor of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan while a steamer transported their cars across the Nile to the east side. They arrived at Khartoum on 28 December, drove to Omdurman across a bridge at the confluence of the White Nile and Blue Nile on 29 December, and spent New Year's Eve at the small town of Shendi. On 5 January 1926, they reached Halfa in Egypt, getting to Luxor on 20 January and were on relatively good roads on the last leg of their trip. On the morning of 24 January, they were welcomed by the press and a reception committee at the pyramids of Giza, and drove past crowds of well wishers along the Kasr el Nil road, arriving in Cairo in the afternoon to finish the first trip by motor vehicle from Cape Town to Cairo.
When the Treatts returned to England, "their journey was celebrated as a triumph of the British spirit and the superiority of British engineering." In 1927, not long after their return, Stella published Cape to Cairo: The Record of a Historic Motor Journey and the film of the expedition, Cape to Cairo, was screened in Britain and the United States, "accompanied by lectures and numerous interviews starring the glamorous Stella Court Treatt". Newspapers and advertisers transformed the Treatts into celebrities, with Crossley Motors and the North British Rubber Company running advertisements alongside interviews with Stella.
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