Hugh Marshall Hole

Marshall Hole came to Cape Colony in 1889 and met the mine magnate and politician Cecil Rhodes in Kimberley.

Rhodes offered him a job as the first clerk to the newly formed British South Africa Company.

In 1891[Guide 1] Marshall Hole took up the position of private secretary to Sir Starr Jameson in Mashonaland (who was shortly to be appointed Administrator of the company's territories).

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.

This £1,000... was clear profit to the Administration and compensated Mr Hole for the ridicule the experiment provoked when he first proposed it."