On the 24th of June the governor had a conference with Gaika, at which a formal agreement of friendship was entered into. The Fish River was declared to be the boundary between the two races, and the chief promised that none of his followers except official messengers should cross it. He gave an assurance that if the Kaffirs in the Zuurveld would return to their own country he would not molest them, but he declined positively to make overtures of peace to Ndlambe. He consented to expel the European renegades who were living with his people, but desired to make an exception in favour of Coenraad du Buis. That individual, however promised the governor that he would return to the colony, and a few months later he kept his word. As for the others, several were delivered to the Colonial authorities and were placed where they could be watched eight or ten fled to distant tribes, and one – Jan Botha – was murdered by Ndlambe’s people.From the Kat river, General Janssens proceeded to the northern border of the colony, to ascertain the condition of the white people and the Bushmen. At Plettenberg’s beacon on the Zeekoe River a messenger met him with a despatch announcing that on the 12th of May, less than three months after the restoration of the colony, war had broken out again between Great Britain and France. The Batavian Republic was so closely allied with the latter power a necessarily to share its fortunes. The governor therefore hastened back to Cape Town, without being able to do more than gather what information could be obtained in a very rapid journey.

It was now resolved to reduce the garrison of Fort Frederick to half the strength at first intended. Captain Lodewyk Alberti, who was about to take over the command from Major Von Gilten, was instructed to continue urging the Kosas in the Zuurveld to cross the Fish river without delay. In August that officer made a tour among them for this purpose, but was unsuccessful. In the following month Cungwa came to terms with Gaika, and promised Alberti to leave the colony as soon as his crops were gathered. Ndlambe’s people at this time were making gardens on the western side of the Bushman’s river, though the chief had undertaken not to do so. Parties of them were roaming about lifting cattle wherever they could find an unprotected herd. The war between them and Gaika’s clan was being carried on actively, and Kawuta had been applied to again for assistance, but declined to give it.

Soon after this another combination was formed. Cungwa and Jalusa joined Gaika, and together they attacked Ndlambe in the Zuurveld, but did not succeed in dislodging him. The belt of land along the coast east of the Bushman’s river was thus kept from being reoccupied by the farmers, but the remaining portion of the district of Graaff-Reinet was in a fair condition of tranquillity.

Upon learning of the renewal of hostilities in Europe General Janssens devoted all his attention to putting the Cape peninsula in a condition for defence, and to the increase of his military strength. But soon instructions were received from Holland that he must send his best regime the 23rd battalion of infantry, to Batavia, as the mother Country was unable to furnish more men, and troops were urgently needed in Java. In February 1804 this regiment left South Africa. The governor did what he could to make up for its loss, by increasing the Hottentot corps first to five hundred, and soon afterwards to six hundred men. But to the burghers he looked chiefly for the defence of the colony, if it should be attacked.

The English East India Company had a large amount of property in Capetown under charge of its agent, Mr. John Pringle. On the 29th of September 1803 this was declared confiscated, on account of war, and was seized for the government. There was a great quantity of salt provisions and 11,351 L. in money, which proved very serviceable, as the funds in the treasury were low. Mr. De Mist brought with him from Holland 8,333 L in money and 33,333 L in bills of Exchange, but that was nearly all expended, and, except for the maintenance of the troops, nothing could be expected from Europe after the renewal of the war. The yearly average of the colonial revenue from January 1803 to January 1806 was only three hundred and sixty-nine thousand six hundred and thirty eight rix-dollars equal at the estimated rate of exchange to 61,606 L.

On the 9th of October the commissioner-general left Cape Town for the purpose of making a tour through the Colony and becoming acquainted with the condition and wants of the people. He took with him a number of attendants and a military escort, so that the train had quite imposing appearance. Proceeding first in a northerly direction, he visited Saldanha and St. Helena bays; then turning inland, he passed through Pikenier’s Kloof, and kept onward to the Hantam, From the Hantam he made his way over the Roggeveld and the Bokkeveld to the land of Waveren – now the Tulbagh basin, where he remained some days to refresh his cattle. He then kept down the valley of the Breede River, and after passing the site of the present village of Worcester he turned to the south to visit the Moravian mission station in Baviaans’ Kloof.

More people were residing at that station than at any other place in the colony except Cape Town, but it had still no distinctive name, for there were several Baviaans’ Kloofs in the country. It was only on the 1st of January 1806 that General Janssens confirmed the name Genadendal – Vale of Grace – which the missionaries at his request had just previously given to it. At the time of Mr. De Mist’s visit, there were nearly eleven hundred people attached to the mission. They occupied about two hundred wattle-and-daub cottages, small and scantily furnished, but a great advance upon Hottentot huts. Each little cottage stood in a garden, in which vegetables and fruit trees of various kinds were growing. There was an air of order and neatness over the whole place, and marks of industry were apparent on all sides. The most thriving of the residents were naturally the halfbreeds, many of whom had really comfortable homes; but even the pure Hottentots had made advances towards civilisation. Some of the men belonging to the station were away in service with farmers, but at stated intervals they returned to their families with their earnings. There were five missionaries, two – Rose and Korhammer by name – having come from Europe in 1799 to assist the three who founded the station. They were living in plain, but comfortable houses. They and their wives were all engaged during stated hours of the day in teaching industrial occupations, and in the evening the whole community assembled in a large and neat building to join in the worship of God. The missionaries, having power to expel unruly persons from the place, maintained strict discipline among the Hottentots; but it was the kind of discipline that parents enforce upon children, tempered by love and interest in their welfare. Nothing more admirable than this excellent institution could be imagined, and Mr. De Mist and the officers of his train had a difficulty in finding words to express their pleasure and satisfaction with what they saw.

From the Moravian village the commissioner-general went eastward through Swellendam to Fort Frederick at Algoa Bay. Here he was visited by the reverend Dr. Van der kemp, with whom he had been acquainted in Holland thirty five years before. Dr. Van der kemp was dressed in coat, trousers, and sandals; but was without shirt, neck-cloth, socks, or hat. In a burning sun he travelled about bareheaded and thus strangely attired. Yet his conversation was rational, and his memory was perfectly sound.. He had formed an opinion that to convert the Hottentots to Christianity it was necessary to descend in style of living nearly to their level, to be their companion as well as their teacher and being thoroughly in earnest he was putting his views into practice Mr. De Mist and his party visited the London society’s station of Bethelsdorp, where Dr. Van der kemp and the Reverend Mr. Read were residing. They found no indication of industry of any kind, no garden – though it was then the planting season, – nothing but a number of wretched huts on a bare plain, with people lying about in filth and indolence. The Hottentots having settled there so recently, it was not to be expected that the place would present the- appearance of Genadendal, and Mr. De Mist was well aware that the London missionaries were not in as favourable a position as the Moravian brethren. They had to deal with a wild people, who had been less than a quarter of a century in contact with Europeans, and to whom expulsion from the station would be no punishment The Moravians, on the other hand, were working with people who had own up among farmers who could appreciate the advantage of a fixed residence, and who were accustomed to the use of such food as could be derived from gardens and orchards. It was not therefore the absence of improvement that gave Mr De Mist and those who were with him an unfavourable impression of Bethelsdorp but the absence of any effort to induce the Hottentots to adopt industrious habits, and the profession of principles that tended to degrade one race without raising the other. The missionaries themselves were living in the same manner as the Hottentots, and were so much occupied with teaching religious truths that they entirely neglected temporal matters. Dr. Vanderkemp was loud in complaints against the colonists in the neighbourhood, because they gave nothing towards the maintenance of the station, as he held it was their duty to do, and because they often tried to induce some of the people to leave the school and enter into service. More with a view of keeping the Hottentots out of mischief than with any expectation of this institution becoming useful, the commissioner-general made a small grant of money from the colonial treasury towards the funds of the place, and added to the gift some sensible advice.

From Bethelsdorp Mr. Be Mist and his train travelled north-eastward through the Zuurveld. They found parties of Kosas wandering about the country begging and making themselves a nuisance to such colonists as had returned to the devastated farms, but not committing any open hostilities. Messengers were sent to Ndlambe, Cungwa, and Jalusa, to invite them to a conference on the Bushman’s river; but they did not appear, and it was not found possible to meet them. A messenger was also sent to Gaika, who appointed a place for an interview, but on Mr. De Mist’s arrival he was not there. One of his councillors appeared instead, and requested the commissioner-general to proceed still farther, as the chief was anxious to see the great captain of the white people. He stated that Gaika was then preparing to attack Ndlambe, and therefore could not leave his kraal. Mr. De Mist, however, did not choose to put himself to any more trouble, so from the Fish river the party turned homeward.

The route now followed was by the way of Bruintjes Hoogte to the village of Graaff-Reinet. Here a detention of several days was made, for the purpose of arranging the affairs of the eastern part of the colony. When this was completed the party moved on, and after suffering greatly from heat on the Karoo passed again through the land of Wayeren and arrived at the castle on the 23rd of March 1804.

Jacob Abraham De Mist, Commissioner-General, 21 February 1803 to 25 September 1804.

Lieutenant-General Jan Willem Janssens, Governor, installed 1 March 1803, capitulated to an English army 18 January 1806.

Lieutenant-General Jan Willem Janssens

In the evening the principal houses in Cape Town were illuminated, and a series of festivities followed.
The amnesty did not include the Graaff-Reinet farmers who had been nearly four years in prison, as they had been sentenced by a court of law. But they were not left long in doubt concerning their fate. Adriaan van Jaarsveld had died in confinement. The others were set free on the 30th of March.

The landdrost, secretaries, and in general all the clerks who had held office during the English administration retained their appointments. So did the collector of tithes and the wine tax, Christoffel Brand, and the receiver-general of revenue, Arend de Waal, who had succeeded Mr. Rhenius in April 1797. Mr. J. P. Baumgardt had left the country on its transfer to its old masters, and in his stead as collector of land revenue Mr. Be Mist appointed Sebastiaan Valentyn van Reenen, who had suffered heavy losses under the late administration by being detained for a long time in arrest on suspicion of having communicated with the Dutch fleet under Admiral Lucas.

The burgher senate was enlarged to seven members, but in the following year was reduced to five. Those now chosen were Cornelis van der Poel, Gerrit Hendrik Meyer, Anthony Berrange, Pieter van Breda, Jan Andries Horak, Jacobus Johannes Vos, and Jan Adriaan Vermaak. Cajus Jesse Slotsboo was appointed secretary. After the reduction in number took place, the senate consisted of a president and four members. At the end of every year one retired, when a list of four names was furnished to the governor, from which to select a successor. At the same time the governor appointed one of them to act as president during the ensuing twelvemonth.

On the 3rd of April Governor Janssens left Cape Town to visit the eastern part of the colony, and ascertain how matters were standing with the white people, the Kosas, and the Hottentots. At Port Frederick he found Dr. Van der Kemp and the Hottentots under his care, who had abandoned Bother’s farm some time before. Upon close inquiry he learned that many of these people who had once been in service with farmers had good reason of complaint on the ground of ill-treatment. He fully approved of the plan contemplated by General Dundas, of assigning a tract of land for their use, where they could be under the guidance of missionaries; and he offered for this purpose any vacant ground that was available. A commission, consisting of the commandants Botha and Van Rooyen, Mr. Dirk van Reenen, and Mr. Gerrit Oosthuizen, was thereupon appointed by the governor to act in conjunction with the reverend James Read, Dr. Van der Kemp’s nominee, in selecting a suitable place. They chose a tract of land about six thousand seven hundred morgen in extent, lying along the Little Zwartkops river, between the loan farms of Thomas Ferreira and the widow Scheepers. On the 3lst of May the governor gave his formal consent in writing to the occupation of this place by the Hottentots under supervision of missionaries of the London society, and at Dr. Van der kemp’s request named it Bethelsdorp. The permission thus given was confirmed by Mr. De Mist a few months afterwards.

One hundred and fifty men of the Waldeck regiment, under command of Major Von Gilten, had in the meantime arrived by sea, and had occupied Fort Frederick. Order could therefore be enforced in the immediate neighbourhood. The governor found it advisable to remove two farmers, who were much disliked by the Hottentots on account of their harsh conduct. Thomas Ignatius Ferreira he ordered to reside in the neighbourhood of the drostdy of Swellendam, and Jan Arend Hens he sent to Stellenbosch.

Two parties of Hottentots who had not chosen to place themselves under the guidance of missionaries were living near the Sunday River. The governor sent friendly messages to their captains, Klaas Stuurman and Boesak, the first of whom accepted an invitation to visit Fort Frederick and make his wants known. Stuurman stated that his followers were thoroughly impoverished, and most of them would be very glad to take service with the colonists, if they could be assured of peace and good treatment. He asked for a tract of land on the left bank of the Gamtoos river, where he and his people could have their homes, while those who were so disposed could engage themselves to the farmers. The governor did not immediately give a decision upon this request, as he wished Stuurman’s clan to move farther westward; but he came to a friendly understanding with the captain. The past was to be forgotten on both sides, or, if it was remembered, the misdeeds of the Hottentots during the war were to be regarded as a set-off against the ill-treatment which some of them complained of having received from colonists. The Hottentots were assured of complete protection of person and property, and it was arranged that when any of them went into service a record of the terms should be kept by the landdrost, who should see that strict justice was done.

By the governor’s directions, on the 9th of May an ordinance was published by the council, requiring contracts between farmers and Hottentots to be made in triplicate, upon certain prescribed forms, before an official of position as no notice would be taken by the courts of law of complaints against servants engaged in any other manner.

On the 19th of June the governor instructed Captain Alberti, the second in command of the garrison of Fort Frederick, to select a suitable tract of land on the Gamtoos River, and give it to Stuurman for the use of his people. A great many of these in the meantime had gone into service. The captain was then away hunting buffaloes, and the next that was heard of him was that his gun had burst and shattered one of his arms, from the effects of which he died in November. His brother David Stuurman then became captain of the clan, and in February 1804 a location was assigned to him on the Gamtoos river.

Boesak and his followers wandered about for a time, but did not molest any one, and ultimately they also settled down peaceably.

Master Builder of Cape Town

William J. Morris was born on the 11th February 1826 in Oxon, England, and was employed by the Duke of Marlborough as a game keeper when he developed pulmonary tuberculosis during the severe winter of 1856. His doctor recommended that he move to a sunnier climate.

Not long after this William was accepted, together with his wife and three children, for the Sir George Grey Immigration Scheme. In screening the prospective applicants, there were some basic requirements: good health, sober habits, industrious, good moral character, and in the habit of working for wages (as promulgated by Act No. 8 of 1857). From these regulations it would seem that a person with T.B. would certainly not have been accepted, and as the gentleman in question lived to the grand age of 90, and certainly worked industriously on arrival in the Cape (not conducive to a sickly person) the circumstances appear to dispel such a legend.

Standard Bank, Adderley Street

The journey to the Cape was aboard the vessel named “Edward Oliver” under the command of Master J. Baker. The ship departed from Birkenhead on 10th July 1858, and after 57 days at sea arrived in Table Bay on 5th September 1858. Little is known about the voyage excepting 14 deaths were recorded and seven births took place on board. Listed as the ships surgeon was Dr. Fred Johnson as well as trained teacher Mr. Tom Gibbs who were to care for the passenger’s health and education. It is possible that it was not a pleasant journey for the Morris family remembering that the three children Richard, Kate and William were still young and the latter being under twelve months of age.

The majority of the artisans and tradesmen had been fixed up with immediate employment, as there was a great demand for skilled and semi-skilled men for the new railway track being constructed from Cape Town to Wellington, as well as the harbour construction project in Table Bay.

Not long after Williams arrival he leased some land at the top end of Duke Road in Rondebosch, then a distant suburb of Cape Town, and very reminiscent of Wychwood Forest and his native Oxfordshire. This piece of land was developed into a market garden and the family lived in a nearby cottage.

It was whilst William J. Morris and family were living in Rondebosch that on 29 April 1862 their youngest son Benjamin Charles Morris was born and baptized in St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Rondebosch, whereby his father (William) declared his occupation as a “gardener” and place of residence as “Rouwkoop Road”, Rondebosch. Click here to search these church records.

Benjamin Charles Morris's Baptism Record

Richard H. Morris was still a growing boy of just 8 years old. By the age of 14 years and still living in Rondebosch, he was indentured to Alexander Bain, a shipbuilder/shipwright of 17 Chiappini Street, Cape Town as an apprentice carpenter/shipwright.

Although the new suburban railway from Cape Town to Wynberg had been opened to the public in 1865, Richard was obliged to walk from Rondebosch to the North Wharf in Dock Road, Cape Town as transport was too expensive for his meager earnings. However, he was soon organized in getting a “lift” from the coachman he befriended who worked for the governor of Rustenburg House. Richard secured his free lift on the footman’s place at the rear of the coach, where he would sit in reasonable comfort for the journey which took him to the Castle. Unfortunately this mode of travel did not operate for the return journey home, nor did it operate during the winter months, so Richard just had to “jog”.

It would appear that the last train from Cape Town to Wynberg in the afternoons was scheduled for departure from the city at 5pm, but needless to say as an apprentice, Richard was still working at the shipyard. Despite the arduous circumstances of his youth, the enforced exercise proved most beneficial a few years later when he entered into competitive sport i.e. race rowing, especially as Richard was just over 5ft. tall and weighed less than 60 kilos.

During 1870, the Bain’s Shipyard was taken over by Mr. Christopher Robertson, as specialist in sailing ships and wooden masts, and as Richard was learning his trade with three other young apprentices, he was taught the art of shaping a sailing vessel’s mast with the hand spokeshave. The firm from then on was known as “Robertson & Bain” which continued operating in Dock Road, Cape Town for several decades, specializing in the supply of wooden masts for sea-going sailing ships.

Before carrying on with the life story of Richard H. Morris it is important to mention that the Anglican Church of St. Johns on the corner of Long and Waterkant Street had been built in 1856. It was at this church that during the 1860′s Richard became a choir boy and in 1872 a Sunday School Teacher.

In 1876 the Templar rowing club started in Cape Town where Richard and his brother were both members and enthusiastic oarsmen.

The christening of the personally constructed fast rowing boat by Richard came as no surprise by the owners of Robertson and Bain. The name of the boat was called the “Alpha”.

In 1882 the construction of a row of cottages built by Wm. J. Morris and his brother Richard (father & son) was started in Upper Church and Longmarket Streets and were to be called “Lorne Cottages” in honour of the Lorne Rowing Club which was started in Cape Town in 1875 and named after the Scottish Firth near Island of Mull of Kintyre.
On Saturday 6th June 1885 Richard married Helen Ann Lyell in St. John’s church. The newly married couple went that day to “Lorne Cottages” to make their permanent home and raise a family.

Richard and Helen Ann Lyell's Marriage Certificate

Helen was in fact a little girl of ten years old when she first encountered Richard. That was when he was in his twenties and he was late for work and was running along the road when he accidentally knocked over a little girl. He tried to console her, and from this time onwards a very special friendship developed.

It was in the same church that Richard’s younger brother William John married Matilda Jane Altree on 25th August 1886 and a younger brother married in St. Paul’s in Rondebosch on 14th September 1887. It is interesting to note that St. John’s Church was deconsecrated after the last evening service in June 1970 as the ground and building was sold, after much pressure from business interests, for an astronomical amount, and the church was completely demolished to make way for the present modern commercial complex known as “St. Johns Place”. Click here to search these church records.

In 1884 Richard Morris as cox and his brother of the “Templar Club” had their first win as champions winning both “Maiden Oarsmen” and “Championship of Table Bay” events.

In June 1878 Richard H. Morris went into partnership with friend & neighbour Chas. Algar from Rondebosch, who had known the Morris family for quite some time. Little known to Chas was that Richard was to be the future brother-in-law to his sister Bertha Algar.

The first workshops of Algar and Morris were at 39 Shortmarket Street, Cape Town. (between Long and Loop Street ). But misfortune was the cause of the break-up of the working partnerships as the 30-year-old Chas Algar died suddenly on 4th October 1883.

Banking institutions were now playing a major role in the economy of the country and in 1883 Richard Morris landed the contract to build the Standard Bank in Adderley Street for the amount of £32,000 – the two storied building was designed in neo-classical style by Charles Freeman. Two additional floors were added on by Morris in 1921.

Richard made a repeat performance in May 1885 wining the 2 mile race in 15 minutes and 55 seconds.

March 1886 saw the arrival of Richard and his wife Helen’s daughter Kate as well as Richard wining the “Champion of Table Bay” for the third consecutive year.

Eleven years after the death of Chas Algar, Richard Morris secured the construction contract for the new City Club in Queen Victoria Street for a sum of £22,000.

Between the years of 1888 and 1895 Helen Morris gave birth to Edith, Bertha and William Henry Morris, the only son to Richard.

By 1896 Richard H. Morris had become known as a builder of distinguished quality and workmanship and the fame of R.H. Morris had spread. Herbert Baker had met Richard on several occasions and took immediately to this man who built with such fine quality and precision. It was then that R.H. Morris secured the prestige contract for the restoration of “Groote Schuur”, after the building had been extensively destroyed by fire.

Richard H. Morris by 1899 had workshops in both 52 Rose Street and 173 Longmarket Street. In 1902 Frank Lardner joined the staff of R.H. Morris and in 1911 he became the manager.

Father, William James Morris, died at the old age of ninety years on 22 March 1915. In 1919 the company of R. H. Morris (Pty) Ltd was officially formed to cope with the new lumber contract in Knysna. It was from this time onwards that R.H. Morris was renowned throughout Southern Africa for the excellent workmanship and quality in carpentry all starting from old Mr. Morris himself. School desks, church pews and altars were manufactured in their joinery shop for years to come. The items were delivered as far away as Botswana, Rhodesia, Zambia and Mozambique. Along with the desk and school equipment Morris ink wells and stands were also produced.

The Morris workshop also manufactured one of the very few original gramophones that were ever produced in South Africa and which was called a “melophone”. Many of these items can be seen on display in the Educational Museum in Aliwal Road, Wynberg today.

Sadness unfortunately halted joy when Richard and Helen Morris celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary on 6th June 1935 and then on 24 July Helen tragically passed away at home as well as Bertha, wife of Benjamin Morris, on the 6th December.

Richard at the age of 83 years old in 1936 retired from the construction industry and handed the reigns over to Frank Lardner. Frank ran the company until 1942 when he passed away. The business was then handed over to a young civil engineer, Clifford Harris. The existing premises of Rose and Longmarket Street were finally vacated when the furniture workshops and Building /Civil Engineering were consolidated and new premises built in Ndabeni.

In April 1949 Richard Henry Morris succumbed to natural causes and passed away at the age of 95 years and 5 months.

This was certainly not the end of an era for R.H. Morris Pty Ltd – as in 1952 the company was given financial backing for the New Municipal Market at Epping in Cape Town by the British Engineering giant Humphreys. The firm is no longer associated with the family. Later the company was taken over by the Fowler Group and is now in the hands of Group Five Construction who have retained the image of the name in perpetuating the fine record of the founder Richard Henry Morris.

Many of the other buildings in Cape Town which were either completed by or alterations were performed on, include the University of Cape Town, Diocesan College in Rondebosch, Music School at U.C.T. as well as many Sir Herbert Baker buildings.

In 1995 when much of this research was done I managed to find a second “melophone” and an original “Morris” desk for sale which ex-Managing Director Frank Wright was extremely grateful for me finding these wonderful company artifacts. Shortly before the final documents were found I also located the grand nephew of R.H. Morris who very kindly gave me the medal won by Richard in the “Championship of Table Bay”. This is now on display in the boardroom of Group Five Construction in Plum Park, Plumstead in the Cape.

Authors: Heather MacAlister and H.W Haddon

Soldier, Official, Surveyor and Politician born in 1797 in Bristol, England and died on13th October 1882 at Glen Avon in Somerset East, South Africa.

Captain Stretch arrived in Cape Town with the 38th Regiment in 1815. He served on the staff of Col. Thomas Willshire during the defence of Grahamstown in 1819 and afterwards as government surveyor and engineer during the construction of Fort Cox and Fort Beresford.

He took part in the Sixth and Seventh Frontier Wars (1834-1835 and 1846-1847). Appointed in 1836 Government agent to Gaika and the Imidange and Amabele tribes, with headquarters at Fort Cox, he was transferred later to Block Drift (near Lovedale). He supported Lt. Gov. Andries Stockenström’s frontier policy and corresponded with Dr. John Philip, John Fairbairn and Stockenström. During the Seventh Frontier War the commanded a Fingo unit, but fell into disfavour with the Governor, Sir Henry Pottinger, and was dismissed in 1846. Stretch was a great friend of the missionaries, especially those at Lovedale.

The colonists named him the ‘philanthropic commissioner’ and the ‘peacemaker’. After his dismissal he resumed his surveying and served in Parliament (1854 – 1873), first as the representative of Fort Beaufort in the Legislative Assembly and afterwards in the Legislative Council.

His diary is preserved in manuscript in the Cape Archives, and his original property in Graaff-Reinet was purchased and renovated as Stretch’s Court by Historical Homes of South Africa Ltd.

The Stretch Family Tree

a1 Stephen Stretch x Margaret
b1 Richard Stretch x Elinor Coakley (daughter of Abraham and Mary Coakley)
c1 James St Leger Stretch x Catherine Devenish
d1 Ellen x John Mears Devenish
e1 John Donald
e2 James
e3 William
e4 George
e5 Charles
e6 Anthony
e7 Sarah Caroline
e8 Ellen
e9 Marcelle
e10 Catherine
e11 Elizabeth
d2 Catherine x George Bennett
e1 John
e2 Lennox
e3 James
e4 Michael
e5 Thomas
e6 George
e7 Ellen
e8 Catherine
e9 Anne
d3 Susan x Edward Parr xx John Pringle
e1 Susan x James Atwell
d4 Charles Lennox x Ann Hart
e1 James St. Leger
? aged 3 months
d5 Richard Aldworth x Maria Botha
e1 James St. Leger
e2 William
e3 Aldworth
e4 Anne
e5 Polly
c2 Coakley
c3 Michael
c4 Aldworth
c5 Charlotte
c6 Susan
c7 Mary
c8 Elicia
c9 Anne

Charles Lennox Stretch

Source: SESA (Standard Encyclopedia of Southern Africa)

(Sir Harry) Soldier and governor. Whittlesey (England)
(28.6.1787 – London 12.10.1860)His father was John Smith, a surgeon, and his mother Eleanor, daughter of the Rev. George Moore, of Whittlesey.

Educated by the Rev. George Burgess at Whittlesey, Harry (as he was known all his life) was commissioned as ensign in the Rifle Brigade (at that time the 95th Foot) on 17 May 1805. He saw service in South America in 1807, fighting at the siege and surrender of Monte-video, and was with the British force that surrendered at Buenos Aires. From 1808 to 1814 he fought in the Peninsular War, and he was wounded at the River Coa in 1810. In 1814 and 1815 he served in North America in the war against the United States. After this he was appointed assistant quartermaster-general under the Duke of Wellington and fought at Waterloo.

He was promoted lieutenant on 15 Aug. 1805, captain in 1812, major in 1814, and lt.-colonel in 1815. To escape the atrocities that followed the fall of Badajoz (17 April 1812), two Spanish ladies fled the city and threw themselves on the mercy of two young British officers, John Kincaid and Harry Smith. The younger lady was a convent-bred fourteen-year-old girl, Juana Maria de los Dolores de Leon (27.3.1798 – 10.10.1872), whom Harry Smith married a few days later. She was with him throughout the Peninsular campaign and was involved in many adventurous situations; she was in Belgium during the Battle of Waterloo and accompanied her husband to India and South Africa. Although brought up as a Catholic, she conformed to the Church of England from the time of their first residence at the Cape. This was indeed a most successful marriage, although they had no children.

In 1825, accompanied by his wife, Harry Smith sailed with his regiment for Nova Scotia, where he became aide-de-camp to the Governor, Sir James Kempt. ‘I thus learnt much of the administration of a Government, which was afterwards of the greatest possible use to me when administering a Government myself’, he wrote. He was appointed deputy quartermaster-general in Jamaica in 1827 and in 1829 deputy quartermaster-general at the Cape of Good Hope.

Stationed at Cape Town from 1829 to the end of 1834, he was sent to the Eastern Province on the out break of the Sixth Frontier War, with full civil and military powers. He rode post from Cape Town to Grahamstown in six days, starting on 1 Jan. 1835 with one Hottentot attendant. He proclaimed martial law, strengthened the defences of Grahamstown, and reoccupied Fort Wiltshire. After the arrival of the Governor, Sir Benjamin D’Urban, Smith served as second in command.

From February to June he was occupied in clearing the country of the enemy, and when the Governor returned to Grahamstown, Smith was appointed to take charge of the new Province of Queen Adelaide with headquarters at King William’s Town, where he was joined by his wife. They worked hard at settling the province and civilising the Xhosas until Lord Glenelg reversed D’Urban’s policy, ordering Queen Adelaide Province to be abandoned and Andries Stockenström to succeed Smith on the frontier. Smith was promoted to the rank of colonel on 10 Jan. 1837. He was much fêted in Cape Town for his zealous, humane and enlightened administration on the frontier. He left the Cape in June 1840 on being appointed adjutant-general to the British forces in India.

He was knighted (K.C.B.)for his part in the Gwalior campaign and for his services at the Battle of Maha­rajpur (Dec. 1843); in 1845 and 1846 he saw much fighting against the Sikhs, won a great victory at Aliwal, where he led the final charge in person, and commanded a division at Sobraon. In 1846, for his services in India, he was given the Grand Cross of the Bath and created a baronet, with the unusual appella­lation ‘of Aliwal on the Sutlej’. Having returned to England in 1847, Sir Harry was made a freeman of London and Glasgow, received an honorary degree at Cambridge, and as from 9 Nov. 1846 was promoted major-general. On 3 Sept. 1847 he was appointed Governor of the Cape Colony, High Commissioner and commander-in-chief. With Lady Smith he landed at the Cape on 1. Dec. 1847, The Seventh Frontier War had just ended and Smith left Cape Town on 11 Dec. for King William’s Town to meet the Bantu chiefs. On 17 Dec. at Grahamstown he issued a proclamation greatly extending the boundaries of the Colony, and on 23 Dec. 1847 at King William’s Town, in the presence of the Xhosa chiefs, he proclaimed British Kaffraria a British sovereignty.

On this occasion he made each chief touch either the staff of peace or the staff of war and kiss his foot. Another great meeting of chiefs was held on 7 Jan. 1848 when Sir Harry made them take an oath to obey the laws, to cease the practice of witchcraft, to abolish the sin of buying wives, to listen to the missionaries, etc. In order to impress on them what would happen if they broke their word, he blew up a wagon full of explosives.

On 28 Dec. 1847 the Governor annexed the port and village of East London to the Cape Colony, and in 1848 settled discharged soldiers in the new villages of Ely, Woburn, Auckland and Juanasburg. Having proclaimed the territory between the Orange and Vaal Rivers a British sovereignty and determined the form of government, he defeated the Boer forces tinder Comdt.-Gen. Andries Pretorius at the Battle of Boomplaats.

Although strongly opposed to the use of the Cape as a convict settlement, it was Smith’s duty as gover­nor to give effect to the Order in Council establishing it as such. In forwarding to Earl Grey, Secretary of State for the Colonies, numerous petitions against the proposal, Smith hoped that ‘the decision of rendering this Colony a penal settlement, so objec­tionable to myself and obnoxious to the inhabitants, may be revoked’. When the Neptune arrived with convicts aboard it was his duty to settle them, and he refused to send the Neptune away, but agreed not to allow the convicts to land until he had made further representations to Earl Grey.

His determined stand against adopting the extreme measures demanded by the Anti-Convict Association brought him much unpopularity at the time, while his refusal to allow the convicts to land brought him a severe reprimand from Earl Grey, who later admitted that in the circumstances Smith could not have acted otherwise.

When Smith thought that he had brought the frontier to a state of tranquility and had returned to Cape Town, the Eighth Frontier War broke out. He hastened to the front, where he was besieged at Fort Cox and broke through the hordes of savages and arrived safely at King Williams Town. He took part in the fighting in the early months of 1851 and continued to direct operations until he was superseded as governor and commander-in-chief by Sir George Cathcart. There were many differences of opinion about the recall of Smith, but he was greeted as a great victor. Promoted lt.-general in 1854, he commanded the Northern military district in England from 1854 to 1859.

Sir Harry Smith was small in stature and slight in build. He was a great soldier, energetic and decisive, a strict disciplinarian, but humane to the men under his command – a man of firm purpose, but of a romantic temperament and given to theatrical gestures. Not only his sterling qualities but also his eccentricities endeared him to both soldiers and civilians.

Various places in South Africa have been named after him or his wife or after places with which he was associated: Harrismith, Fauresmith, Smithfield, Ladysmith, Ladismith, Juanasburg, Aliwal North and Whittlesea. Sir Harry received many decorations and medals.

Juana Smith

Sir Harry Smith

Source: SESA (Standard Encyclopedia of Southern Africa)

Old Map of Harrismith, Free State

Source: SESA (Standard Encyclopedia of Southern Africa)

Benjamin Osler also known as Bennie born in Aliwal North on 23rd November 1901 and died in Cape Town on 23rd April 1962, Springbok rugby player, was the son of Benjamin and Isobel Osler. Bennie’s ancestors have been traced back to Edward Osler, a prominent merchant and ship-owner, with a hint of piracy involvement.Bennie went to various schools, including the Western Province Preparatory School, Rondebosch Boys’ High School, and Kingswood College, Grahamstown. From 1921 he read law at the University of Cape Town, qualifying in 1925. During this period he represented the University on the rugby field, but from 1926 to 1930 played for Hamiltons and from 1931 to 1933 for Villagers. He acted as captain of all three clubs and on various occasions captained Western Province, which he represented from 1922 to 1933.

He gained his Springbok colours in 1924, when he played against Ronald Cove-Smith’s British team in all four test matches. Four years later (1928) he also played in all four tests against Maurice Brownlee’s New Zealand touring side, and in 1931-32 captained the Springbok team (which went to the British Isles) in all the tests of that series. He rounded off his rugby career in 1933 by playing in all five tests against the visiting Australians, acting as captain in the second test. He had scored forty-six points in the seventeen consecutive tests in which he played Osler is generally regarded as the best fly-half South Africa has produced so far (1979), a man who could dictate play. The decade during which he was a Springbok is even called the ‘Osler Era’ by sports writers, owing to his influence on the game. While he played for South Africa the country won all the test series, his province carried off the Currie Cup throughout, and each club for which he played won the Grand Challenge Cup. He had no equal as a tactical kicker and it was in particular his almost perfectly-placed corner kicks to wings which gained many tries for the Springboks. He could launch long outside kicks from any corner and as a drop-kicker he often clinched matches. Nobody was more feared by opponents than Osler.

He was also an attacking fly-half who could send his full-backs off with incredible speed when circumstances permitted or, if not, could himself shoot through an opening like lightning. Autocratic on the field, he would tolerate no passes from scrumhalfs that were above waist height; if the centres next to him blundered even once, he usually mistrusted them afterwards and would rather kick the ball – a course of action which can be regarded as one of his few weaknesses. As a captain he attached great value to tactical planning before a match, and he believed in strict team discipline.

During the Second World War (1939-45) Bennie went with the South African forces to East Africa where he contracted both malaria and amoebic dysentery which probably contributed to his relatively early death.

Unlike other great players Osler had little interest in coaching or the administration of the sport when he retired. After working as a salesman for a long time, he eventually went farming on a small scale, at first near East London and later near Bellville.

The brothers Bennie and Stanley Osler

He married Gladys Hobson and had two children. Photographs of him appear inter alia in The Bennie Osler story and Springbok saga (both infra).

Osler’s Cornish Connections

Benjamin. Falmouth born circa 1776 son of Edward and Mary (Paddy) Osler of Falmouth and husband of Jane (Sawle) Osler born 1775. father of Susannah, Stephen Sawle, Mary Anne, Amelia, Elizabeth, Sarah, Joseph, Jane, Benjamin, Phillippa and Julia. Leader of W.J. Cornish 1820 Settlers. Returned to Cornwall with wife and some members of his family 4.1822.

Stephen Sawle born in Falmouth 27th September 1804, died 21st October 1867 in Simonstown. Son of Benjamin and Jane (Sawle) Osler and husband of Catherine Osler (born Dakins, formerly Wright) of Llaway Glen, Montgomeryshire, Wales. 1802-1881. father to Benjamin, James Goodriche, Catherine and Jane; and also Christina, dtr of Orange Kleyne (Klein). Founder of the Osler family in SA.

Susannah Osler born in Falmouth circa 1800. daughter of Benjamin and Jane (Sawle) Osler married 1st John Coleman (1792-1829) of Cock’s party at Reedfountain, Eastern Cape on 17th June 1820, 2nd time to Mr Fineran from Quebec.

The small Cornish party, under the leadership of Benjamin Osler of Falmouth, Cornwall, sailed in the ‘Weymouth’, which left Portsmouth in January 1820. Having arrived in Albany so that he might supervise the first arrivals, Sir Rufane Donkin considered that a more central and accessible site should be chosen for the administration of the settlement. Ignoring the fact of Graham’s Town’s better defensible position and that it was already established as a military base, the site he chose on 9 May 1820, was just west of Thorn Ridge. This was to be the centre of the civilian administration and also the seat of magistracy. Sir Rufane declared it was to supercede Graham’s Town as the capital town of Albany, and it was to be named Bathurst in honour of Earl Bathurst, Secretary for the Colonies. In his enthusiasm Donkin allotted plots to the Earl and also his own sons and nephews, while 500 acres of Glebe were allotted for a clergyman and chaplain of the Church of England, the vacant post to be filled in due course by a suitable man. The post of administrator, however, was filled by the transfer to Albany from the Western Cape of Capt Charles Trappes.

By 9 June the Cornish party of Benjamin Osler was enroute to their location from Algoa Bay. Osler’s party, it had been decided, was to be located some 12 miles southwest of the new town of Bathurst, and halfway to the Kowie River mouth. This was in the curve of the Mansfield River, a left bank tributary to Kowie River, today known as Grove Hill. Osler named the location Pendennis in memory of the similarity the area bore to his Cornish hometown of Falmouth and its Pendennis Castle.

Pitching their tents for protection from the cold winter nights and the intermittent drizzle, the party immediately set to clearing the land so that ploughing and sowing of their first crop could be done. Soon after arrival, they were to be joined by a young man, John Coleman, 28 years of age and a gardener from Cock’s party who had sailed with them in the Weymouth. Coleman was not altogether an unexpected arrival, for he had made his intentions clear earlier and on the 17 June, he was married by the Rev William Shaw to Benjamin Osler’s eldest daughter, Susannah. Theirs were the first marriage in the whole settlement.

The proximity to Bathurst of Osler’s location at Pendennis meant that these settlers were closely concerned with the early development of that town. Lots were already being offered for sale and the Colonial Secretary had ordered erection of a prison. The building of the Bathurst Residency got under way by October. All this activity afforded employment to bricklayers, carpenters, slaters, sawyers and stone-masons, who were able to direct their energies into a rewarding field while they waited patiently for the crops to ripen. Hopes for the future were bright, but by the end of November it became apparent that ‘rust’ had affected practically all the wheat sown since their arrival and the crops were useless. With little resources to withstand such a disaster, the administration decided that the issue of rations was therefore to be continued, but they became an additional charge against the deposit money. When that had been exhausted, it was a liability for future repayment. By Christmas Day that year, the circumstances of many were desperate and prospects for the future grim.

Undaunted by these hardships and their considerably reduced circumstances, the settlers sought what work they could find. The Bathurst Residency, long delayed in its completion by the number of unfortunate disputes that had arisen, was still an avenue for employment. William Mallett, a mason with Osler’s party joined with Thomas Marham of Bethany, James’ party’s location, and together they contracted on 5 November 1821, for slating and plastering work on the Residency to the value of £16. 10. 0d.

Lots had continued to be sold at Bathurst and houses built on them, but again, as a year earlier, ‘rust’ began to appear in the wheat and by the end of the year it was apparent to all that the wheat crop had once again failed. This was now a major calamity. Though rations were continued, they were reduced to half portions. Despite what the settlers had previously received, and even for those in dire need who had no money or hope of ever redeeming what they already owed, a parsiminous administration ruled they were only to get half a pound of rice per adult per week. Meagre indeed, but to ameliorate their difficulties, the stringent pass laws restricting settlers to their locations were relaxed and many now went in search of work, not only in Albany, but further afield if they could afford to get themselves there.

Lord Charles Somerset had by now returned to the Cape from his bride hunting furlough in England, and once again took up the reins of office as Governor.

He was furious to find the number of rather illogical decisions taken by Sir Rufane were actually detrimental to the scheme as he had originally envisaged it. He thus immediately set about reversing them. Bathurst was demoted from its pre-eminent position, which consequently caused another sharp depression when the Magistracy was summarily removed to Graham’s Town and the many settlers who had invested their small capital in establishing business premises in order that they might better serve the community, now faced ruin and impoverishment as it was quite evident the town of Bathurst would stagnate. It did and many then returned their attention to trading. Fairs were permitted at Fort Willshire and to these came the native tribesmen from beyond the Colony’s borders. James Weeks was one of the Cornish settlers who took to offering the more conventional manufactures. He and others traded tobacco and cloth in exchange for hides and skins, ivory, cut wood and simple items of use that could either be sold again in Graham’s Town or taken down to Algoa Bay and bartered there for the farming implements in such short supply. But the air of depression continued, it was no good having the basis for an exchange of goods if the majority the inhabitants, both settler and tribesmen, were so impoverished that goods and hard cash were virtually an unknown commodity amongst them. Osler left his location in April 1822 to return with his wife and five younger children to Cornwall. What remained of Osler’s party slowly broke up. Headed by John Dale, it began to disintegrate further. Osler’s daughter, Susannah and her husband decided to make their home at Simonstown where they were to be joined by her brother, Stephen Sawle Osler, who had elected not to return to Cornwall. By the beginning of 1824 William Mallett had moved away to Uitenhage and matrimony was to call Joseph Richards to a date in Graham’s Town where on 23 September that year, he was married to Sarah Attwell, the seventeen year old daughter of Richard Attwell of Crause’s party. Grace Weeks had died and the end of the year saw Charles Pearse returning to England to rejoin his wife with and family who had been unable to embark with him.

The small party of Cornish settlers, comprising only eleven men and their families at the outset, was already diminished in number by nearly half, and the few that did remain on Pendennis were to become so insignificant numerically that from then on their story melds with that of the settlement itself, conversely reflecting their great adaptability and absorption into the new country.

Source:
Dictionary of South Africa Biography Vol 5.
Cornish Immigrants to South Africa by Graham Dickason.
History of South African Rugby Football (1875 – 1932) by Ivor Difford

Further reading and resources:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~bathonia/OslerBathFrancisConnections.htm

Osler Library – http://www.mcgill.ca/osler-library/

Acknowledgements: Michael Bath

Cetshwayo, son of Mpande - Source: Cape Archives, E3248

What were our ancestors doing in 1882?

Who was making the headlines and What did they talk about around the supper table?

Here is a look at some of the people, places and events that made the news in 1882.

Huguenot Memorial School

The Huguenot Memorial School (Gedenkschool der Hugenoten) was opened on the 1st February 1882 on the farm Kleinbosch in Daljosafat, near Paarl. It was a private Christian school and the first school with Afrikaans as teaching medium.

The school was under the auspices of the Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners. Past pupils included the writers Andries Gerhardus VISSER, Daniël François MALHERBE and Jakob Daniël DU TOIT (Totius). The first classes were given in a small room but soon an old wine cellar was converted into a two-storey building which housed two classrooms downstairs and the boarding school upstairs. The first Afrikaans newspaper, Die Patriot, as well as the first Afrikaans magazine, Ons Klyntji, came from this school.

The Coat of Arms of "Die Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners"

The school was closed down in 1910 as by then Afrikaans was taught in government schools. In 2001 renovation work was started after a fundraising campaign brought in more than R1-million. Most of the money came from readers of the Afrikaans newspapers, Die Burger and the Volksblad. Naspers, the Stigting vir Afrikaans and KWV also made important contributions. The renovated building was opened in March 2002. It has an Afrikaans training centre upstairs and guest rooms downstairs.

The main people behind the renovation project were writer Dr. Willem Abraham DE KLERK (1917 – 1996) and Fanie THERON (chairman of the Simon van der Stel Foundation and the Huguenot Society, deceased 1989). Others who were also very involved included Sr. C.F. ALBERTYN (Naspers director), Van der Spuy UYS and Dr. Eduard BEUKKMAN. In 1985 they launched the Hugenote Gedenkskool Board of Trustees and with a R10 000 donation from the Helpmekaarfonds, a servitude on the building and land was bought. De Klerk’s wife, Finnie, and Theron’s wife, Anna, were at the official opening as their husbands did not live to see their dream come to fruition.

Dutch as official language

After the second British occupation of the Cape in 1806, English became the only official language. In 1856 J.A. KRUGER, the M.L.A. for Albert, asked for permission to address Parliament in Dutch. His requested was denied, and this started a campaign to get Dutch recognised as an official language in Parliament. On the 30th March 1882, Jan Hendrik HOFMEYR (1845 – 1909), also known as Onze Jan, appealed for the use of Dutch as an official language in Parliament alongside English. He was supported by Saul SOLOMON, a Jewish newspaper publisher and printer in Cape Town. On the 9th June the campaign finally got a positive result when an amendement was made to the Constitution allowing the use of Dutch in Parliament.

Official status was granted on the 1st May and the Act was later passed. On the 13th June, Jan Roeland Georg LUTTIG, the Beaufort-West M.L.A., was the first to officially deliver a speech in Dutch. There is no official record of the speech in Dutch, but the English version was published in the 14th June 1882 Cape Argus newspaper. The other version is in the Cape Parliament Hansard.

It was a short speech – “Meneer die Speaker, ons is baie dankbaar dat die opsionele gebruik van die Hollandse taal in albei huise van die parlement toegelaat is. Wanneer ek sê dankbaar, dink ek praat ek namens diegene wat die twee huise met hul petisies vir dié doel genader het. Ek put vreugde daaruit dat my Engelssprekende vriende die voorstel nie teengestaan het nie, my komplimente gaan aan hulle.

Ek hoop om die raad in die toekoms ook in Engels, in my ou Boere styl, toe te spreek. Sodoende kan dié Engelse vriende wat nie Hollands verstaan nie, die geleentheid hê om te verstaan wat ek probeer oordra. Ek vertrou ook dat alle nasionale verskille in die toekoms sal verdwyn en dat mense van alle nasionaliteite en standpunte hand aan hand sal beweeg om die welvaart en vooruitgang van die kolonie te bevorder”. According to the Hansard, the Speaker pointed out that the Act had not yet been proclaimed, so members could not yet make speeches in Dutch, but that the House would accommodate him this time.

On the 15th June, Cape school regulations were amended to allow the use of Dutch alongside English.

On the 26th and 27th June, the town of Burgersdorp celebrated the use of Dutch. The celebrations were organised by Jotham JOUBERT (M.L.A. and later a Cape Rebel ) who also proposed a monument to mark the occassion. A country-wide fundraising campaign was launched. The monument was built by S.R. OGDEN of Aliwal-North for £430. It consisted of a sandstone pedestal on which stood a life-size marble statue of a woman. She points her finger at a tablet held in her other hand on which the main inscription reads “De Overwinning de Hollandsche Taal “. The monument was unveiled on the 18th January 1893 by D.P. VAN DEN HEEVER, with Stephanus Jacobus DU TOIT (1847 – 1911) delivering the main speech.

During the Anglo-Boer war, the monument was vandalised by British soldiers who took parts of it to King William’s Town where they buried it. After the war, Lord Alfred MILNER had the rest of the statue removed from Burgersdorp. After much protesting, the British eventually provided Burgersdorp with a replica in 1907. This one was unveiled at ceremonies on the 24th and 25th May 1907 when former President M.T. STYEN and the author D.F. MALHERBE addressed the crowd. The original monument was found in 1939 and returned to Burgersdorp. In 1957 the damaged original monument was placed next to the replica.

In 1883 knowledge of Dutch was compulsory for some government positions. In 1884, it was permitted in the High Courts and in 1887 it became a compulsory subject for civil service candidates. Afrikaans only gained equal status with Dutch and English as an official language in South Africa via Act 8 of 1925. Dutch remained an official language until the 1961 Constitution stipulated the two official languages in South Africa to be Afrikaans and English.

Goosen and Stellaland republics

In 1882 a group of Boers established the short-lived republics of Stellaland and Het Land Goosen (aka Goshen ) to the north of Griqualand West, in contravention of the Pretoria and London conventions by which the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek had regained its independence.

On the 1st April the republic of Het Land Goosen was declared. The terms of the Pretoria Convention of August 1881 had cut away part of the Transvaal. This led to problems as local Chiefs disputed the boundaries. Britain did not help matters by acknowledging Mankoroane as Chief of the Batlapin and Montsioa as Chief of the Barolong, both beyond their traditional territories. Supporters of Moshete, under the leadership of Nicolaas Claudius GEY VAN PITTIUS (1837 – 1893), established Het Land Goosen. One of the co-founders was Hermanus Richard (Manie) LEMMER, who later became a General in the Anglo-Boer War. Het Land Goosen later merged with the Stellaland republic to form the United States of Stellaland.

Stellaland was also a short-lived republic established in 1882 by David MASSOUW and about 400 followers, who invaded a Bechuana area west of the Transvaal. They founded the town of Vryburg, making it their capital. The republic was formally created on the 26th July 1882, under the leadership of Gerrit Jacobus VAN NIEKERK (1849 – 1896). In 1885 the British sent in troops under Sir Charles WARREN, abolished the republic, and incorporated it in British Bechuanaland.

Shipping accidents

Shipping accidents (wrecks, groundings, etc…) were common along the South African coast. In 1882 there were quite a few:

January – James Gaddarn, a barque, off Durban

February – Johanna, a barque, off East London

March – Poonah, off Blaauwberg

March – Queen of Ceylon, a barque, off Durban

April – Gleam, a barque, off Port Nolloth

April – Roxburg, off East London

April – Seafield, a barque, off East London

May – Francesca, a barque, off East London

May – Louisa Dorothea, a schooner, ran aground at Mossel Bay

May – Clansman, a schooner, off East London

May 28 – two ships, the Agnes (Capt. NEEDHAM) and the Christin a (Capt. G. LOVE), run ashore at Plettenberg Bay

June – Bridgetown, a barque, off Durban

June – Louisa Schiller, a barque, off Cape Hangklip

June – Ludwig, a schooner, off Algoa Bay

June – Gloria Deo, a barque, off Quoin Point

July – Elvira, a barque, off Durban

July – Erwood, off Durban

December – Adonis, a steamer, off Portst Johns

December – Zambezi, a schooner, off Durban

Smallpox

A smallpox epidemic broke out in District Six in 1882. This led to the closure of inner city cemeteries, and the construction of drains and wash-houses in the city. These improvements didn’t go as planned. The cemetery closures led to riots in 1886. The cemeteries along Somerset Road were not in a good condition, so Maitland cemetery was built. As the Muslim community carried their dead for burial, Maitland was too far for them, and along with the Dutch, they protested against Maitland for two years. Once the inner city cemeteries closed, the Dutch compromised but the Muslim community did not. They buried a child in the Tanu Baru (first Muslim cemetery) in protest. About 3 000 Muslims followed the funeral procession, as police watched. After someone threw stones at the police, a riot started and volunteer regiments were called out. One of the Muslim leaders, Abdol BURNS, a cab driver, was arrested. In the end, neither the Dutch nor the Muslims used Maitland. They found a piece of ground next tost Peter’s cemetery in Mowbray and used it as their cemetery.

The smallpox threat was felt further afield. It was believed that smallpox could be beaten by whitewashing the walls of homes, and for this reason lime and carbolic acid was distributed free to residents in Beaufort West. At Modder River, about 35 km from Kimberley, the settlement was used as a quarantine station to keep smallpox away from Kimberley. Travellers enroute to Kimberley had to produce a valid vaccination certificate or be vaccinated at the station.

Zulu King in London

Cetshwayo reigned as King of the Zulus from 1873 to 1884. He made an alliance with the British in order to keep his long standing enemies, the Boers, away. The alliance collapsed when the British annexed the Transvaal and supported Boer land claims in the border dispute with Zululand. This led to the 1879 Anglo-Zulu War where the British suffered defeat at the Battle of Isandlwana and Zulus at the Battle of Ulundi. Cetshwayo was captured and taken to the Cape. In 1882 he travelled to London where he met Queen Victoria on the 14th August. On his return he was reinstated as King in a much reduced territory and with less autonomy. He died on the 8th February 1884.

Sporting moments

Ottomans Cricket Club was founded in the Bo-Kaap in 1882. The Rovers Rugby Club was founded in Cradock on the 6th September 1882. The first rugby match in Mossel Bay was played on Saturday, 2nd September 1882. Mossel Bay Athletic Club played against George Athletic Club. The first bowling green was laid out in 1882 when a club was established atst George’s Park in Port Elizabeth. In 1882 the Jockey Club was founded by 10 horse-racing members at a meeting held in the Phoenix Hotel in Port Elizabeth. The first South African soccer club was Pietermaritzburg County. On the 17th June 1882, its delegates met at the London Restaurant in Durban ‘s West Street and the Natal Football Association was founded.

Transit of Venus

The transit of Venus was observed from stations in Durban, Touws River, Wellington, Aberdeen Road (a railway stop) and at Cape Town ‘s Royal Observatory.

Banking

District Bank was established in Stellenbosch in 1882. It paid between 5 to 6% on fixed deposits and 2% on current accounts, compared to the Standard Bank which paid an average of 3.5% on fixed deposits and no interest on current accounts. The District Bank did not charge cheque fees or ledger fees. It was later taken over by Boland Bank. The Natal Building Society (NBS) was also established in 1882, in Durban.

New brewery

The Old Cannon Brewery in Newlands was established in 1852. In 1882 it merged with Ohlsson’s Cape Breweries.

Steel industry

South Africa ‘s industrial development has heavy roots in its mining industry. With virtually no steel industry of its own, the country relied on imported steel. The first efforts to introduce steel production dates back to the creation of the South African Coal and Iron Company in 1882. The first successful production of pig iron occurred only in 1901, in Pietermaritzburg.

Mariannhill Monastery

The monastery near Pinetown was founded as a Trappist monastery by Father Francis PFANNER in 1882. It became a renowned missionary institute with schools, a hospital, an art centre and a retreat.

Boswell’s Circus

The BOSWELL family has been involved in the circus business since the 1800s in England. James BOSWELL was born in 1826 and went on to perform in various English circuses as a clown, horseman and equilibrist. He died in the circus ring of Cirque Napoleon in Paris in 1859 while performing a balancing ladder act. He had three 3 children, all of whom performed in circuses. His eldest son, James Clements, opened his own circus, Boswell’s Circus, in 1882 in Yorkshire.

Boswell’s Circus toured England and was very popular until it closed in 1898. James Clements and his five sons – Jim, Alfred, Walter, Sydney and Claude – continued performing in theatres and music halls, and eventually put their own show together called Boswell’s Stage Circus. Madame FILLIS, who owned Fillis’ Circus in South Africa, saw one of their performances and signed them up for a six-month contract. In 1911 James Clements, his sons, Walter and Jim’s wives, six ponies, a donkey and some dogs set sail for South Africa. The family and their animals were stranded when Fillis’ Circus closed down some months later. Fortunately for generations of South African children, this did not stop them and they went on to build a successful business that is still in existence.

Pretoria

A public sale on Church Square, Pretoria, in the 1890's

Church Square was created in 1855, on the orders of M.W. PRETORIUS. The DEVEREAUX brothers, town planners, designed a square for market and church purposes. Pretoria expanded around Church Square. During its early days the square was also used as a sports field and in 1883 the long-jumper Izak PRINSLOO set the first world record by a South African. The first church on the square was completed in 1857, but burnt down in 1882. Burgers Park was established as Pretoria ‘s first park in 1882. On the 14th June 1882, the Transvaalsche Artillerie Corps was formed under the command of Cmdt. H.J.P. PRETORIUS.

Stephanus Johannes Paulus KRUGER, later President of the Zuid-Afrikaanse Republiek, was born on the 10th October 1825. He was so respected by his people that the first Kruger Day was celebrated on the 10th October 1882. The following year it was declared a public holiday. After the Anglo-Boer war it lost official status, until it was again declared a public holiday in 1952. In 1994 the day again lost its official status.

Kimberley

On the 2nd September Kimberley became the first town in the southern hemisphere to install electric street lighting. It was an initiative of the Cape Electric Light Company. Electric lighting was also installed in Parliament in 1882, and an arc-lighting installation was commissioned in the harbour. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, Christmas 1882 saw the world’s first electrically-lit Christmas tree installed in the New York house of Thomas EDISON’s associate Edward H. JOHNSON.

The Kimberley Club was founded in August 1881 and opened its doors on the 14th August 1882. Cecil John RHODES was one of the men behind the club’s establishment. Amongst the first members were Charles D. RUDD, Dr. Leander Starr JAMESON, Lionel PHILLIPS and J.B. ROBINSON.

Knysna

The farm Melkhoutkraal was laid out in 1770. In 1808 George REX, who arrived at the Cape in 1797, bought the farm. In 1825 Lord Charles SOMERSET decided to establish a town on the lagoon, to make use of the surrounding forests for ship building. George REX donated 16 ha of land for the new village, named Melville for Viscount MELVILLE, First Sea Lord from 1812 – 1827. Knysna was formally founded in 1882 when the two villages, Melville and Newhaven (founded in 1846) amalgamated.

Muizenberg

In 1882 the railway line reached Muizenberg. The area was originally a cattle outpost for the VOC before it became a military post in 1743. It was named Muijs se Berg after the commander Sergeant Willem MUIJS. Muizenberg was a staging post between Cape Town and Simon’s Town. After the railway line was extended, the area developed fast and became a popular holiday destination.

One of Muizenberg’s prominent residents was Professor James GILL. He was born in Cornwall in 1831 and came to the Cape in 1860, where he took the post of professor of Classics at Graaff-Reinet College. In 1871 he moved to Cape Town as Classics professor at the Diocesan College. He was an opininated man who did good things throughout his career but was also involved in many controversies. He was dismissed from the College in 1882. He opened a private school in Muizenberg and became the editor of the Cape Illustrated Magazine. He died in Muizenberg on the 1st February 1904.

Villiers

The town of Villiers, on the Vaal River, was established in 1882 on the farms Pearson Valley and Grootdraai. It was named after the owner, L.B. DE VILLIERS. In 1882 the Volksraad was requested to open a post office there, and this led to Villiers being proclaimed in 1891. In 1917 it acquired municipal status.

Newcastle

The first government school in Newcastle was established in 1882 as a junior primary school with 47 boys and 30 girls.

Okiep

The Cornish Pump House was built in 1882. It was used to pump water from the mine and this pump house is the only remaining one of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.

East London

A view of East London in the 1880's

The prison in Lock Street was built in 1880, replacing the old one on the West Bank. It was built by James TYRRELL and comprised an officers’ quarters, administration block, hospital, kitchen and two single-storey cell blocks to hold 100 prisoners. The first execution happened in 1882, for which a drop gallows was placed in the hospital yard. St.Andrew’s Lutheran Church was established by German settlers in 1872. It is the second oldest church in East London and was dedicated on the 30th November 1882.

Grahamstown

City Hall was officially opened on the 24th May 1882 by the acting Mayor Samuel CAWOOD. The foundation stone was laid on the 28th August 1877 by Sir Henry Bartle FRERE, Governor of the Cape.

Durban

Durban Girls’ High School was established in 1882. The old theatre Royale was built in 1882 and had seating for 1 000. It was closed in 1937. The Natal Herbarium was started in 1882 by John Medley WOOD, then Curator of the Durban Botanical Gardens. It was initially known as the Colonial Herbarium but changed its name in 1910 when it was donated by the Durban Botanical Society to the Union of South Africa.

Port Elizabeth

South End Cemetery in Port Elizabeth was started. The country’s oldest art school, Port Elizabeth Art School, was founded in 1882. It later became the College for Advanced Technical Education, originally situated in Russell Road, Central. In 1974 it moved to Summerstrand and became the PE Technikon in 1979.

Kaapsehoop

In 1882 gold was discovered in the Kaapsehoop valley. When a larger deposit of gold was found near the present day Barberton, most of the prospectors moved there. The first payable gold was mined at Pioneer Reef by Auguste ROBERTE (aka French Bob) in June 1883. Barber’s Reef was the next big find in 1884. Sheba ‘s Reef, the richest of all, was discovered by Edwin BRAY in May 1885.

Port Shepstone

Port Shepstone came into being when marble was discovered near the Umzimkulu River mouth in 1867. It flourished from 1879 when William BAZLEY, one of the world’s first underwater demolition experts, blasted away rock at the mouth to form the Umzimkulu breakwater. The town was named after a Mr SHEPSTONE, one of the area’s prominent residents. Before 1901 the area depended solely on a port that was developed inside the river’s mouth. Boats were often wrecked and blocked the harbour entrance, but it provided a vital transport link for the tea, coffee and sugar cane grown by farmers along the river’s banks.

Supplies were brought in on the return voyages from Durban. With the arrval in 1882 of 246 Norwegian, 175 Briton and 112 German settlers, this shipping service became more important. The Norwegians arrived on the 29th August aboard the CHMS Lapland. The new settlers were offered 100 acre lots around the town at 7 shillings and 6 pence an acre. Port Shepstone was declared a full fiscal port in 1893 and, after Durban, became the region’s second harbour. Eventually, with the ongoing ship wreckages and the arrival of the railway, the harbour was closed down.

Harding

In 1882 the first hotel was opened in Harding. The village then consisted of three trading stores and four private homes.

Dundee

Dundee was established on the farm Fort Jones belonging to Peter SMITH, who had bought it from a Voortrekker settler, Mr DEKKER. He named the town Dundee, in memory of his original home in Scotland. By 1879, as a result of the Anglo-Zulu War, a tent town had sprung up on a portion of the farm. British soldiers attracted traders, missionaries, craftsmen and hunters but after their departure the tent town ceased to exist. With his son, William Craighead; son-in-law Dugald MACPHAIL; and Charles WILSON, Peter proclaimed the town in 1882.

Dewetsdorp

The Anglican Church was inaugurated on the 17th December 1882 by the Anglican Bishop of Bloemfontein. It was named St. Bartholomew’s. Before this, Anglicans held services in the town hall. The church’s foundation stone was laid on the 18th August. It cost £395 to build and seated 60. Rev. L.A. KIRBY was the first minister. The first baptism was on the 7th January 1883, that of Arthur SKEA. The church was declared a national monument in 1996.

Fort Hare

Fort Hare was built in 1847. It was named after Lt.-Col. John HARE and remained a military post until 1882, when part was given to Lovedale and part to the town of Alice.

Kuruman

The London Missionary Society (LMS) established the Moffat Institute in Kuruman in 1882, as a memorial to Robert and Mary MOFFATT and in the hope that it would revive the mission station.

Upington

Upington’s history starts with Klaas Lukas., a Koranna chief, who asked for missionaries to teach his people to read and write. In 1871 Rev. Christiaan SCHRODER left Namaqualand for Olyvenhoudtsdrift as the Upington area was then known. He built the first church, which today houses the Kalahari-Oranje Museum. In 1879 Sir Thomas UPINGTON visited the area to establish a police post, which was later named after him.

In 1881 SCHRODER, Abraham SEPTEMBER and Japie LUTZ helped build an irrigation canal. Abraham (Holbors) SEPTEMBER, said to be a Baster and the son of a slave from West Africa, was farming in the area in 1860. He was married to Elizabeth GOOIMAN. He devised a way to draw water from the river for irrigation purposes. In 1882 he was granted land facing the river. In 1896 Abraham and Elizabeth drew up a will, bequeathing the land to the survivor and thereafter to their three sons. Abraham died in 1898. In 1909 Elizabeth appeared before the Court in Upington on a charge that squatters where living on the land. It was here that she heard that Willem DORINGS, a smous, was claiming the land as his. This claim was to have repercussions, even in 2000 when the great-great-grandchildren of Abraham were still fighting for the land in the Land Claims Court.

Elizabeth and her sons owed Willem £326, but Willem produced documents that they sold him the land for that sum. The family were under the impression that they had a debt agreement with Willem. They refused to leave the farm and Elizabeth died there in 1918. In 1920 the family were removed from the farm by the new owners who had bought it from Willem. According to Henk WILLEMSE, Abraham’s great-great-grandson, the family started action in 1921 to get their land back. He has documents dating back all these years, which also show that Willem DORINGS was William THORN. Part of their land claim was for the land on which the Prisons Department building stands in Upington’s main road. This belonged to Abraham’s eldest daughter, Elizabeth, who lost it when service fees were not paid. In 1997 Nelson MANDELA unveiled a memorial plaque to Abraham.

The Waterfront

A view of East London in the 1880's

The Victorian Gothic-style Clock Tower, situated near the site of the original Bertie’s Landing restaurant in Cape Town, has always been a feature of the old harbour. It was the original Port Captain’s office and was completed in 1882. On the second floor is a decorative mirror room, which enabled the Port Captain to have a view of all activities in the harbour. On the ground floor is a tide-gauge mechanism used to check the level of the tide. Restoration of the Clock Tower was completed in 1997. The Robinson Graving Dock was also constructed in 1882, as was the Pump House. The Breakwater Convict Station was declared a military prison in 1882. This allowed military offenders from ships and shore stations to be committed for hard labour.

Sources:

Drakenstein Heemkring

Afrikanerbakens; Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurvereniginge publication

Burgersdorp: http://www.burgersdorp.za.net/burgersdorp_photos.html

Maritime Casualties: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ridge/2216/text/MARITIME.TXT

The Will of Abraham and Elizabeth September: The Struggle for Land in Gordonia, 1898-1995; by Martin Legassick; Journal of African History, Vol. 37, No. 3 (1996)

Land Claim Case: http://www.law.wits.ac.za/lcc/wp-content/uploads/jacobs2/jacobs2.pdf

Rapport newspaper, 23 Jan 2000

Boswell’s Circus: http://www.boswell.co.za/

Article researched and written by Anne Lehmkuhl, June 2007

A large number of beauty contests have been held in South Africa since 1910. The most important being those in which the winners are entered in overseas contests.

The first beauty contests

In 1910, a beauty pageant was held in Cape Town to celebrate the newly formed Union of South Africa. Each province sent a representative that was picked by a prominent man in her region.
The first national beauty contest was organised by the magazine Stage Cinema in 1918. Three women were chosen to star in films based on Rider Haggard's books.

Edna JOYCE was chosen to play the Queen of Sheba in King Solomon's Mines. Mabel MAY and Elise HAMILTON were chosen to play twin sisters in Allan Quatermain.

Many contests held after World War I were mainly fund-raising efforts, often for the Governor-General's fund. In 1925 Mavis ALEXANDER won the Cape Argus Queen of the Gala competition.

The first woman to carry the Miss South Africa title, unofficially, was Winnie COMYNS of Cape Town, who won a national contest organised by the South African Lady's Pictorial in 1926. Blanca Borckenhagen was Queen of the Orange Free State; Ethel Jagger, Queen of the Cape, Gyn Hathorn, Queen of Natal, and Blanca van der Hoven, Queen of the Transvaal.
In 1927, the Cape Town city council banned beauty contest as they felt that they are undignified and not for the good of the city.

In 1930 Molly LAMONT, a dancing teacher from Scottburgh, won the Outspan Film Candidate competition. Her prize was a holiday in England and a film test at Elstree Studios. She went on to act in more than 50 films in England and the USA.

In 1938, the Sunday Express held a Marlene Dietrich look-alike national contest, which was won by Thelma Fairlie of Kensington, Johannesburg. In 1963, Thelma met Marlene Dietrich during her visit to South Africa.
During the late 1930s and early 1940s, there were many Wool Queen contests across the country. Local winners went on to regional and provincial contests, from which one girl would become the overall winner. However, the final stage was never reached. Doreen O'Neill was Midlands Wool Queen in 1939, but only four more regional queens were chosen and when World War II broke out, the contest was abandoned.

After the war, the Wool Board partnered with Photo News magazine and Metro Goldwyn Meyer Films to create a national Meet the Stars contest. The winner was to be known as Miss South Africa 1948. Forty-nine finalists spent a week in Johannesburg. General SMUTS, then Prime Minister, crowned Avelyn MACASKILL of Bloemfontein as winner at the Johannesburg City Hall. Her prize included a trip to Hollywood as the guest of MGM, visits to New York, Holland, London, Paris and Canada, and a diamond ring.

A few days before Avelyn's crowning, Stage & Cinema ran a readers' contest which gave the winner an entry in Universal International's Hollywood Beauty Contest. June FULTON of Durban won. Her prize included a six-month film contract and being photographed with film stars.

In 1944 Avelyn MaCASKILL won a beauty pageant. In 1949, Wynona CHEYNEY won a beauty pageant and reigned from 1949 to 1951.
Before the 1950s, most of the larger contests were organised by magazines such as Stage & Cinema, South Africa Pictorial and Outspan, or by newspapers, often in partnership with African Consolidated Theatres. Women submitted a photo and from these photos finalists would be chosen and published. The readers would vote for their favourite.

Beauty contests were racially segretated until the late 1970s. In the 1950s, Drum magazine, aimed at black readers, started running model and beauty contests. Later on a Miss Black South Africa pageant was held. Other popular contests were organised by the Ellerines furniture chain, and football associations.

In 1952, Outspan magazine and African Consolidated Theatres started a contest to find an entrant for the first Miss Universe pageant that year. Catherine HIGGINS, a short-hand typist from Johannesburg, wanted to become an actress. She entered the contest and won, taking her to Long Beach, California, where she was placed 7th and voted by the other contestants as Miss Friendly Spirit.

In 1956, Piet BEUKES, editor of Die Landstem, obtained the right to send a South African representative to the Miss World pageant in London. In 1960, the Miss Universe pageant in Miami Beach, Florida, and the Miss International Beauty pageant in Long Beach, California, also gave Die Landstem the right to enter a South African representative. Die Landstem, in partnership with the Sunday Times, arranged the contests for the Miss World entrant. The Sunday Express was in the partnership to choose the entrant for Miss Universe.

Beauty competitions were held in Margate where Miss Hibiscus was chosen and entered in the Miss Universe pageant. The Miss Hibiscus organisers re-named their title to Miss Protea in 1968.

The history of the Miss South Africa contest

The first official Miss South Africa contest was held in 1956. This was after the Afrikaans newspaper, Die Landstem, acquired the rights to enter someone in the Miss World pageant in London. Together with the Sunday Times, a South African English newspaper, they organised the first official Miss South Africa contest. It wasn't a pageant yet as entrants only sent in their photos and the newspaper readers voted for their favourites. The finalists' photos were again published and readers selected Miss South Africa. There was no crowning ceremony.

In 1964 and 1965, the selection system changed. The finalists and the winner were selected by the newspapers' editorial staff. In 1966 and 1967 the finalists were still selected by the newspapers, but the winners were selected by the readers.

In 1968, Die Landstem closed down and the Sunday Times took over the contest, bringing in another Afrikaans newspaper, Dagbreek. The selection process in 1968 still saw the finalists selected from photos but the winner was selected by a panel of celebrity judges meeting in Johannesburg.
The selection process changed again in 1970. Regional pageants were held and the regional winners appeared before celebrity judges in Johannesburg. The winner and runner-up were announced at a cocktail party in Johannesburg, after being announced in the newspapers. In 1972, the Miss South Africa contest became a pageant and Stephanie REINECKE was crowned in front of a live audience in the Johannesburg City Hall.
Regional pageants were not held in 1975. The finalists were selected after nationwide auditions. This system remained in place until 1994.

In 1978, the Miss South Africa pageant was opened to all races.
In 1994, Doreen MORRIS, a former M-Net presenter, went into partnership with Sun International to run the Miss South Africa pageant, after Rapport and the Sunday Times withdrew due to political interference from the ANC's Youth League. Sun International took full ownership of the pageant in 2000.

In the spotlight

Beauty pageants, especially Miss South Africa, crown came with many opportunities and most of the winners made good use of them. After their reigns, many beauty queens launched busy careers, while others found domestic life pleasing. Here we take a look at what happened to some of them.

Mavis Alexander

In October 1925, a Cape Town newspaper, the Argus, sponsored a beauty contest. Close to 800 contestants entered by sending in their photos which went on public display. On the 14 November the winner was crowned in the Tivoli Theatre in Cape Town.
Mavis ALEXANDER, a school teacher from Montagu won. Her prizes included a cheque for 25 guineas, theatre seats, a camera, a hat, a dress, silk stockings, shoes, an umbrella, lunch for six people for a week, a perm, a one-seater sofa, a watch, dance lessons, and a photo frame for her winning photo. She was also driven around Cape Town in the car which the Prince of Wales had used in Cape Town shortly before the contest.
Mavis later moved to the Strand, where her mother lived. She went back to teaching and spent 26 years teaching at Somerset West Primary. After her mother's death in 1950, she married a life-long friend, Bertie MITTEN. A few years later Bertie passed away. Mavis became involved in charity work and the Methodist church in Strand. In her will she left money to the Rotarary Club. In 1994, the Rotary Anns of the Strand, erected a clock in Beach Road in her memory. A bronze plate has the following inscription: "Tyd vir vrede, time for peace, Ixesha Ngo Xola. A gift to the community from Strand Rotary Anns. In memory of Mavis Mitton. 1994

Avelyn Macaskill

After her reign, Avelyn went to London where she attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art for two years. When she returned to Bloemfontein, she married businessman Jannie WESSELS and they had three children. After Jannie's death, she married Ronnie VAN REENEN. They moved to Cape Town in 1983, where they were involved with the Capab Opera Chorus and the Philharmonic Choir. In 1994, they bought an apartment in Spain 's Costa del Sol, and divide their time between Cape Town and Spain. Avelyn enjoys working in her gardens and painting in oils.
Winnie Comyns

Winifred (Winnie) Nora Mary Florence COMYNS married Egmar WESEMANN, but was divorced in 1951.

June Fulton

After returning from her prize trip to California, June met Antony BURTON from London. They got married and had two daughters. The family lived in Portugal for 11 years, where June ran a modelling school. They moved to England, where June died of cancer in 1990. June had acting roles in The Gal Who Took the West (1949) as a dance hall girl, and in Yes Sir That's My Baby (1949) as Mrs. Koslowski.

Catherine Edwina Higgins

Catherine became a successful model in South Africa. She was known for her diamond smile, as she had a diamond embedded in one of her front teeth. She was the daughter of James Arthur HIGGINS and Christopholina Edina VAN RENSBURG (MHG reference 10845/71, her father's death notice). She had an aunt and uncle, Mr and Mrs F.C. TOWNSEND who lived at 86 Moore Street, East London, in 1952. This was her mother's sister. Catherine's uncle on her mother's side, Freddie VAN RENSBURG, was a national professional snooker and billiards champion. He passed away in 1997 at the age of 88.

Ingrid Mills

Now Ingrid DE HAAST, she is a successful glass artist in Somerset West, after starting out as a potter more than 20 years ago. She attended classes in Corning, USA, as well as in Oregon. The former Miss South Africa 1953 also had a role in a Hollywood film. Ingrid was crowned in Johannesburg in May 1953. Her runner-up was Una DE BEER (Miss East London). Ingrid was Miss Salisbury, and was born in East London.

Penny Anne Coelen

Penelope Anne was born in Shepperton, Middlesex, on April 15, 1939, she lived in the Cape, in Witbank, Pretoria, Swaziland, Benoni and Estcourt before the family finally settled in Durban.  When she won Miss World in 1958, it was the 8th Miss World pageant and had 22 contestants. Penny was an 18-year-old secretary. After her reign, she tried acting in Hollywood with James GARNER's help, but failed her screen test. After returning to South Africa, she married her first love, Michael REY, whom she met when she was 16. Michael was a suger-cane farmer at Umhlali, outside Durban.
They had five sons – Michael, Jean-Paul, Dominic, Nicholas and Christopher. Penny ran a beauty salon and gave lectures. She used to do promotional work, marketing and sales for American Airlines. In 1991, the ATKV awarded her a Vrou vir Vroue award for her involvement in charity and environmental work. Penny has her own clothing range, and endorsed beauty products. Her hobbies include gardening, painting, and learning languages.

Anneline Kriel

In November 1974, Helen Morgan, Miss UK, was crowned Miss World. Four days later, it was discovered that she was an unmarried mother and the title was passed on to the runner-up, Anneline KRIEL (19). She was born in Witbank on 28 July 1955 to Johannes (Hannes) and Marie. Her father passed away in Pretoria in November 1997. Anneline's siblings are Renette and Ernst. Renette was married to Graham McKENZIE, an Australian cricketer.

Anneline was Joolkoningin at Tukkies. She was Miss Northern Transvaal when she won Miss South Africa. After her Miss World reign she appeared in films (she studied drama at the University of Pretoria), including Someone Like You (1978), alongside Hans STRYDOM; Kill and Kill Again (1981), alongside James RYAN, Bill FLYNN and Ken GAMPU; and Reason to Die, alongside Arnold VOSLOO. She also had a role in the TV series, Ballade van 'n Enkeling. In 1986 she acted in the play, The Marriage Go Round.

In 1976, a scandal erupted when her naked pictures appeared in the Sunday Times. Ray HILLIGEN, a bodybuilder, had taken them while Anneline was sunbathing next to his pool.

Anneline also tried her hand at singing, releasing a record, He took off my romeos, in 1981. At the age of 39, she posed for Playboy magazine, draped in the new South African flag.
When she won Miss World she was dating fellow student Jacques MALAN but the relationship did not stand the strain. A relationship with Richard LORING, the singer, followed. He recorded a song for her, called Sweet Anneline. Another short relationship followed with the wealthy Italian baron and industrialist, Rudolf PARISI. In 1979 she dated Henk PISTORIUS of Johannesburg for awhile. Anneline married three times – first to Sol KERZNER, hotel magnate, in 1980 in the Randburg magistrate's office (they divorced in 1985). On 10 October 1989 she married Philip TUCKER, a show jumper, but they divorced in 1993. They had two children, Tayla and Whitney. On 29 March 1996, she married current husband, Peter BACON (Sun International executive). They live in Cape Town where she is involved with charities such as Child Welfare and the Cancer and Heart Foundations. Her business interests include marketing her clothing range her beauty products and perfumes.

Margaret Gardiner

Margaret, born in Woodstock, was 15 when she was discoverd as a model by the then Rapport photographer Bernard JORDAAN. In 1978 she was crowned as Miss RSA. Later that year she won the Miss Universe pageant in Acapulco, Mexico, becoming the first African winner, and the only South African winner to date. Her mother, Dawn, lives in Table View. Her father passed away in 2000. Her sister, Sandy BRONKHORST, lives in Klerksdorp. Sandy was a finalist in the 1976 Miss South Africa pageant.
Margaret married André NEL, son of Kay, in Cape Town on 14 February 1987 at St. George's Cathedral. He is a medical researcher at the University of California in Los Angeles, where the couple have lived since 1989.
Margaret has faced some serious health issues. She had TB as a child. In 1993 she was close to death after suffering an ectopic pregnancy. In January 1995 she gave birth to Brandon. He was christened at St. George's Cathedral in 1996. Margaret had breast cancer in 1998.
She has a degree in psychology from Charleston College in South Carolina. In the early 1990s she took small roles in a TV series, a film and in theatre plays. In 1994 she published a book for aspiring beauty queens, Die wenpad vir modelle en skoonheidskoninginne, published by Human & Rousseau.
She is now a freelance journalist and TV reporter, and a member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Margaret often reports for the SABC show, Top Billing. Her articles regularly appear in the You, Huisgenoot and TVPlus magazines.

Norma Vorster

Later changed her surname to FOSTER and went on to make TV documentaries.

Mitzi Stander
Mitsianna (Mitzi) died in a car accident while driving her sports car in Victory Park, Johannesburg, on 18 June 1973. She was married to David Johannes FOURIE at the time (her death notice: MHG 6664/73).

Denise Muir
She died at her home in Sandton in 1992.

Monica Fairall
Monica became a radio presenter in Durban.

Yvonne Hulley
Her father served in the South African Air Force. Her parents retired to Hermanus where they had a restaurant.

Nickey Carras
She married Bobby VERWEY, the pro golfer.

Ellen Peters

She was Miss Africa South 1973 and placed in the final 15. In 1976, she entered Miss RSA and came second. Afterwards she went to live in Greece and met Israeli-born Naaman SKOLNIK, a businessman. She converted to Judaism and was married in Israel. They live in Hertzelia Pituach, where Ellen is an Orthodox Jew. (see picture)

Kazeka Ntantala
It's not everyone that hits the headlines thirty years after their moment of glory, but in the case of former Miss South Africa, Kazeka Somhlahlo (nee Ntantala) this is exactly what happened. BARBARA HOLLANDS recently caught up with her. Kazeka, of Idutywa then but now living in Amalinda, won the Miss South Africa 1970 pageant in Umtata, which was under the auspices of the South African Non-White Cultural Syndicate. Tandiswa BAM of Umtata was second. Kazeka's prize included cosmetics from Elida Gibbs, a bedroom suite, a radio display cabinet and clothing vouchers. The main prize of a trip to the USA was cancelled because the organisers ran out of money. She was a teacher in Idutywa. She endorsed Karoo Cream in magazines. In 1972 she was in a car crash near Willowvale, which left her with facial scars. Kazeka ended up marrying the social worker who was driving that night and they had two children. After marriage she taught in Alice and later worked for an insurance company before joining Zingisa Educational Project where she is still a regional co-ordinator.

Liz Bunting
In 1977, Liz was the first non-white contestant to place in the Miss South Africa pageant.

Ellen Liebenberg
Ellen was until recently the wife of Jannie Engelbrecht , former Springbok rugby player and owner of Rust en Vrede. She was Miss Matieland 1962. In 1963 she got engaged to Jannie in Sea Point and they went on to have three children – Jean, Angeline and Judy (married to GRAAFF). They met during her student days at the University of Stellenbosch. Ellen left her studies in 1963 shortly before her wedding, to represent South Africa at the Miss Universe pageant in Miami. Ellen was Miss South West Africa, which made her an automatic finalist in the Miss South Africa contest. The Engelbrecht family was broken up recently when Jannie divorced Ellen, and a court case followed whch involved the farm Rust en Vrede.

Vera Johns
Vera married the All Black rugby player, Alan SUTHERLAND. They have a horse stud farm, Somerset, near Mooi River. She has a rose named after her.

Wilma van der Bijl
She was a qualified pharmacist when she won the crown. She married the Greek businessman, Ari TAPANLIS, owner of a toy company. In 1995 Wilma's first child passed away two days after being born.

Yolanda Klopperss
She married Walter WARD, a doctor, and had a stormy marriage.

Karin Sickel
Karin married show jumper Errol WUCHERPFENNIG.

Odette Scrooby
She married Willie JOUBERT and they owned a nature reserve near Warmbaths for a while. Her sister, Olivia, was runner-up in Miss South Africa 1990.

Leanne Hosking
Leanne married an Australian cricketer, Mike HAYSMAN.

Letitia Snyman
She converted to Judaism in 1991 before marrying businessman Geoffrey RUBENSTEIN.

Andrea Steltzer
She owns a modelling agency in Edenvale. She is the only Miss South Africa to represent another country in the Miss World contest. In 1989, she won the Miss Germany contest as she was of German origin and still had a German passport. In 2002 she was engaged to the Springbok rugby player, James DALTON. Tat same year, a rose was named after her at the Bloemfontein Rose Show.

Sandy McCormack
She married businessman Richard BARKHUIZEN and lived in Knysna.

Janine Botbyl
She has a son and lives in Johannesburg.

Diana Tilden-Davis
Her grandmother was Thelma Fairlie, who was also a beauty queen. Older sister Janine BOTBYL won Miss South Africa 1988, and her sister Leanne was a finalist in 1982. Diana had a role in the horror film Howling IV and the action adventure Captive Rage. While doing a documentary in the Okavango, Diana met Chris Kruger. They were married at the Momba camp. They live in Maun in their safari business.

Michelle Bruce
She has a son and lives in Cape Town. Some of her business ventures included edible underwear and marketing condoms.

Suzette Van der Merwe
She was married to Greg VOGT, but later divorced.

Amy Kleyhans
Amy was the first Coloured woman to wear the Miss South Africa crown. Amy married a New Zealander, businessman Leighton CURD. The couple have a son, Thomas. She is involved in educational ventures.

Jacqui Mofokeng
Jacqui was the first black woman to win Miss South Africa. She was nominated by the ANC in the elections but she declined. In 1994 Jacqui appeared in the film, A White Man in Africa, in the role of Hazel, an illiterate rural woman who has a relationship with an Australian diplomat. Today she is involved with human resources and production companies, and serves on the boards of several companies.

Basetsane Makgalemele
Basetsane was a popular beauty queen. She was born and bred in Soweto. After her reign she became a TV presenter. She went on to become a shareholder in Tswelopele, the company that produces Top Billing. She has two older sisters, Lerato and Johanna, and a younger brother, Abbey. Her parents are Philip and Beatrice. She is married to Radio Metro station manager Romeo Khumalo and has a son, Nkosinathi.

Peggy Sue Khumalo
Peggy Sue (21) was Miss South Africa 1996. Five days afer her crowning, it was discovered that she was Peggy Priscilla Erasmus (24) and had changed her name first to Peggy Priscilla Khumalo and subsequently to Nonhlanhla Peggy-Sue Khumalo, as was publised in the Government Gazette on 04 April 1996. She was born in Newcastle on 07 December 1972 to Jumaima Khumalo and James Erasmus, a coloured or white farmworker. She was raised by her white grandmother, Afrikaans-speaking Cornelia Susanna Dunn. She attended Chelmsford, a coloured school in Newcastle, and matriculated from Haythorne High School in Pietermaritzburg. Peggy caused a public outcry when she said that she would slaughter a goat and several cows if she won Miss Universe or Miss World. After establishing her own PR company she went to study further in the UK, where she is a fund manager for Investec.

Kerishnie Naicker
Kerishnie had an honours degree and planned to open her own pharmacy. She was the first Indian woman to wear the crown. She grew up in Reservoir Hills, Durban, with her parents Amra and Joey, and two siblings. After obtaining a first class Matric, Kerishnie enrolled for a Bachelors Degree in Pharmacy, and later a Masters in Pharmacy. During her final year, her father passed away from a heart attack. He was a self-employed businessman and Kerishnie got involved in the family's business interests. In 1997, whilst practicing as a pharmacist, Kerishnie entered the Miss South Africa pageant and won. She participated in both Miss Universe and Miss World. Kerishnie is involved in many business ventures, health research, is a television presenter, producer, master of ceremonies and public speaker. She helped secure funding for the building of 12 community health clinics, and played a key role in getting the Chatsworth Youth Centre up. She is also director of her own company, KJN and Associates, a consultancy facilitating corporate social investment projects.
Jo-Ann Strauss
Now a TV presenter, businesswoman and speaker, Jo-Ann was 19 when she won Miss South Africa in 2000. She started presenting the magazine programme Pasella in the same year, and joined Top Billing in June 2005. She speaks English, Afrikaans and Xhosa. Jo-Ann was head-girl at Hottentots Holland High School in 1998. She graduated from Stellenbosch University with a B.Comm (Law) degree. In July 2002, Jo-Ann participated in the Celebrity Big Brother reality TV show to raise R2 000 000 for five children's charities. She finished in second place. She has her own communications company.

Heather Hamilton
Heather has a Bachelors in Commerce from the University of Kwazulu-Natal. She became a fund manager and joined a prominent asset management firm working as an investment consultant. In 1994 she won the South Africa Junior Equitation championships. Her brother was instrumental in exposing canned lion hunting.

Sonia Raciti
One of Sonia Raciti's dreams is to release her own CD. She was a member of the National Youth Choir for three years, having started singing at 13. Sonia, from Estcourt, studied for a higher diploma in education at Edgewood College of Education.

Joan Ramagoshi
Miss South Africa 2003 was rcently marred to Jeff. Khanyisile Mbau. She was a part-time model from Pretoria. Joan speaks five languages: English, Afrikaans, Northern Sotho, Tswana, and Zulu. After completing a PR diploma, she started her own PR agency.

Claudia Henkel
Claudia was a second-year top law student at the University of Pretoria when she entered the Miss South Africa pageant. She has two sisters, Anica and Nicola. Her father Irmin is an ear, nose and throat surgeon, and mom Linda looked after the family home in Pretoria East. Claudia attended Pretoria Girls High and was a finalist in a model search competition in Matric. She spent two months in Italy and finished Matric through correspondence while modelling. Claudia could not represent the country at Miss World in Sanya, China, as it was held on the same night as the Miss South Africa finals in Sun City. Her runner-up, Dhiveja Sundrun, was sent in her place.

Dhiveja Sundrum
She represented South Africa at the Miss World pageant in 2005. Dhiveja was a fifth-year University of Cape Town medical student. She lives in Gardens, Cape Town. The Miss World competition was the third pageant she'd entered. Her first one was Rapport's Miss Cape Peninsula in 2004, which gave her automatic entry into the Miss South Africa pageant. She's appeared in TV ads and fashion catalogues, and was a TV presenter. Her father Dayalan is an orthodontist and mom Veena is a former teacher.
South Africans in the Miss World pageant
Miss South Africa has done well in the Miss World pageant, with Penny (1958) and Anneline (1974) taking the top prize.

Politics got involved and from 1978 to 1991, Miss South Africa was barred from Miss World. In 1970 a non-white South African was chosen to compete in Miss World and was given the title of Miss Africa South. This continued until South Africa was expelled from Miss World after the 1977 pageant.

In 1975, Vera JOHNS was not allowed to take part in the Miss World as she did not meet the pageant's residency requirements. She had been Miss Rhodesia in 1972 and had not lived in South Africa for 5 years. Her first runner-up, Crystal Cooper, refused to enter Miss World unless she was awarded the Miss South Africa title and prizes.

The second runner-up, Rhoda Rademeyer, competed at Miss World 1975 and was finished in the top 15. In 1976, the presence of a black Miss Africa South and a white Miss South Africa, caused 9 countries to withdraw their contestants in protest against South Africa's apartheid system. In 1977 ten countries withdrew in protest against the presence of a white Miss South Africa. After 1977, Miss World organizers did not accept South African contestants until 1991, with the end of apartheid. Diana TILDEN-DAVIES represented South Africa at the 1991 Miss World contest, ending the ban.
From 1992 to 1995, and 2001, the pageant was held at Sun City, South Africa. In 2002, Vanessa CARREIRA boycotted the pageant which was held in Nigeria, in protest against the Amina Lawal affair. Claire Sabbagha, runner-up, was sent as a replacement when the pageant moved to London. This led to confusion as the Miss World organisers said that at 25, Claire was too old. Karen Lourens (19), Miss Junior Africa, of Roodepoort, was also sent in as a replacement but after two days she was sent home without being allowed to participate.

Contestants at the Miss World Pageant

1957: Adele KRUGER, third
1958: Penelope Anne COELEN won the title
1959: Moya MEAKER, semi-finalist
1960: Denise MUIR, third
1961: Yvonne Brenda HULLEY, semi-finalist
1962: Yvonne Maryann FICKER, fourth
1963: Louise CROUS
1964: Vedra Karamitas
1965: Carrol Adele Davis
1966: Joan (Johanna) CARTER, semi-finalist
1967: Disa DUIVESTEIN, semi-finalist
1968: Mitsianna (Mitzi) Stander
1969: Linda Meryl COLLET, sixth
1970: Pearl Gladys JANSEN (Miss Africa South), second, and Jillian Elizabeth JESSUP (Miss South Africa) fifth
1971: Monica FAIRALL, semi-finalist, and Gaily Ryan (Miss Africa South)
1972: Stephanie Elizabeth REINECKE, semi-finalist, and Cynthia Shange (Miss Africa South)
1973: Shelley LATHAM (Miss South Africa), fifth, and Ellen PETERS (Miss Africa South), semi-finalist
1974: Anneline KRIEL won the tile, and Evelyn Peggy WILLIAMS (Miss Africa South), semi-finalist
1975: Rhoda RADEMEYER, semi-finalist, and Lydia Gloria Johnstone (Miss Africa South)
1976: Veronica Rozette Kuki Matsepe (Miss Africa South) and Lynn Massyn
1977: Vanessa Wannenburg (Miss South Africa)
1991: Diana TILDEN-DAVIS, third
1992: Amy KLEINHANS, fifth
1993: Palesa Jacqueline (Jacqui) MOFOKENG, second
1994: Basetsane Julia MAKGALEMELE, second
1995: Bernalee DANIEL, semi-finalist
1996: Peggy-Sue KHUMALO, semi-finalist
1997: Jessica MOTAUNG, third
1998: Kerishnie NAICKER, fifth
1999: Sonia RACITI, third
2000: Heather Joy HAMILTON
2001: Jo-Ann Cindy STRAUSS, semi-finalist
2002: Boycotted the pageant in Nigeria, but then joined in London
2003: Cindy Nell
2004: Joan Kwena Ramagoshi
2005: Dhiveja Sundrum, semi-finalist

South Africans in the Miss Universe pageant

The Miss Universe pageant has been held annually since 1952. It was started by the Californian clothing company Pacific Mills to showcase its Catalina swimwear brand. In 1996 Donald Trump acquired ownership of the pageant. Various beauty contests had the right to send a South African representative to Miss Universe.

In 1952 the winner of the Miss South Africa (Universe) contest represented South Africa. In May 1952, Catherine HIGGINS, Miss Johannesburg, represented South Africa. Her runners-up were Jean BROWNLEE (Miss Cape Town), Stella COUTTS (Miss Durban) and Helena VAN DER LINDE (Miss East London). In 1953 the winner of Miss Golden Jubilee competed in Miss Universe.

From 1960 until 1967, the South African representative for Miss Universe was elected at the Hibiscus Queen contest in Margate. The contest existed prior to 1960 and still continues today. From 1969 to 1974 South Africa did not take part in the Miss Universe pageant. In 1975, Rapport, an Afrikaans newspaper, acquired the rights to send a representative to the Miss Universe pageant. They sponsored the Miss RSA regional pageant and the winner went to Miss Universe. Gail Anthony was selected to represent South Africa in 1975. In 1978 the Miss RSA pageant became a national pageant. Jenny KAY, Miss RSA 1980, did not compete at Miss Universe 1980 in Seoul as the Korean government did not recognise the government of South Africa and refused to grant her a visa.

In 1982 the newspaper changed the name Miss RSA to Miss South Africa. This followed after a dispute about the national title and international participation. In 1982 and 1984, the dispute led to two beauty pageants – each sponsored by a Sunday paper – Rapport, and the Sunday Times, an English paper. Rapport argued that as the only pageant to have entry to an international pageant, their winner should be known as Miss South Africa. This is why there are two Miss South Africas in 1982 and 1984. In 1985, the newspapers agreed to join forces and one Miss South Africa pageant was held.

Miss South Africa did not compete in Miss Universe from 1985 to 1994. In 1985, Andrea Steltzer was not allowed to compete in the pageant. Andrea went on to become Miss Germany 1988 and was a semi-finalist in the 1989 Miss Universe pageant. As Miss Germany 1988 she was not allowed to enter Miss World because of her South African background.

In 1995, South Africa was again allowed to participate in the Miss Universe pageant. A new title, Miss Universe South Africa, was created but was discontinued after the 1997 pageant, as the Miss South Africa organisation acquired the right to send their winner to the Miss Universe pageant. Miss South Africa now represents South Africa in both international pageants.

Contestants at the Miss Universe Pageant

1952: Catherine Edwina Higgins, semi-finalist
1953: Ingrid Rita Mills, semi-finalist
1954-1959: no entry
1960: Nicolette Joan Caras
1961: Marina Christelis
1962: Lynette Gamble
1963: Ellen Leibenberg, semi-finalist
1964: Gail Robinson
1965: Veronika Edelgarda Hilda Prigge, semi-finalist
1966: Lynn Carol De Jager
1967: Windley Ballenden
1968: Monica Fairall
1969-1974: no entry
1975: Gail Anthony
1976: Cynthia Classen
1977: Glynis Dorothea Fester
1978: Margaret Gardiner, winner
1979: Veronika Wilson, semi-finalist and 2nd runner-up for Best National Costume
1980: no entry
1981: Daniela Di Paolo
1982: Odette Octavia Scrooby
1983: Leanne Beverly Hosking
1984: Leticia Snyman, runner-up
1985: Andrea Steltzer did not compete
1986-1994: no entry
1995: Augustine Masilela, semi-finalist
1996: Carol Anne Becker
1997: Mbali Gasa
1998: Kerishnie Naicker, semi-finalist
1999: Sonia Raciti, third
2000: Heather Joy Hamilton, semi-finalist
2001: Jo-Ann Cindy Strauss
2002: Vanessa Do Ceu Carreira
2003: Cindy Nell, third
2004: Joan Ramagoshi
Miss Africa South
The Miss Africa South competition, for non-white women, was first organised in 1970, with the winner taking part in the Miss World pageant.
Winners:
1970: Pearl Jansen
1971: Gaily Ryan
1972: Cynthia Shange
1973: Ellen Peters
1974: Evelyn Williams
1975: Lydia Johnstone
Miss International Beauty Winners:
1960 Nona Sheriff
1961 Dina Robbertse
1962 Aletta Strydom
1963 Madie Claassen
1964 Lorraine Mason
1965 Dianne Webster
1966 Dawn Duff-Gray
1967 Mary Macdonald

Sources:

Naspers newspapers
Generations – A South African genealogy newsletter, Vol. 3, Iss. 19
http://www.pageantopolis.com/international/world.htm
http://www.pageantopolis.com/international/universe.htm
http://www.geocities.com/southafricanbeauties/
http://www.jimmyspageantpage.com/sa.html
http://www.golive.co.za/52/

Written by Anne Lehmkuhl

I have been asked by the Author of this Volume to write “something” relative to the recruitment of the Cape Corps. Search our Cape Corps records.

It may be said at once that there are two gentlemen who could have under-taken this task with greater credit. I refer to Colonel Sir Walter Stanford, Chairman of the Cape Corps War Recruiting Committee, and to Colonel T. J. J. Inglesby, one of its valued members. Both were associated with the movement from its commencement, both keenly interested in the possibility of the Coloured man as a fighter able to share with the white man the privilege of taking part in the Great War, and both particularly well qualified to lead such a movement.

The Machine Gun Company at Sidi Bishr

There were times when, as we all know, the Mother Country was almost pathetically calling to her sons to come forward voluntarily in the cause of humanity and Empire. Men were stirred as they never were before, and perhaps never will be again.

The appeal got hold of the Coloured man and gripped him, and with the help of his many friends strong representations were made to the Union Government to give him his chance.

But it was only on General Botha’s return from the German South-West African Campaign that those earnest representations were seriously considered.

The acceptance of the principle that the Coloured man should be allowed to become a soldier took concrete form in the month of September, 1915, when the Imperial Army Council accepted the offer of the Union Government to raise an Infantry Battalion of Cape Coloured men for Service overseas.

A telegraphic despatch was received in Cape Town from the Director of War Recruiting at Pretoria (Sir Charles Crewe) asking Senator Colonel the Hon. Walter Stanford, Sir John Graham, Dr. A. Abdurahman, the Mayor of Cape Town (Mr. Harry Hands), Colonel T. J. J. Inglesby and Mr. Eames-Perkins (Hon. Secretary of the Cape Town War Recruiting Committee), to meet him to discuss the formation of a Cape Coloured Regiment.

The formation of such a Unit was entirely in the nature of an experiment. A section of the people of the Cape Province resented the idea of raising such a force for employment in the fighting line. On the other hand there were many who resented the exclusion of such an organised force from the German South-West Campaign, and saw no valid reason now why the Coloured man should not be given an opportunity to serve his King and Country and follow in the footsteps of the white men and coloured races throughout the Empire then flocking from all its corners to take part in the great struggle for human freedom.

The Empire was calling for men, more men. The Cape Coloured man asked for and was given his chance and a new chapter in the history of the Coloured people of the Cape opened.

Prudence demanded that a very high standard should be aimed at, and it was decided that only men of exceptionally good character, between the age of 20 and 30, minimum height 5 ft. 3 in., chest measurement 33% in., unmarried and without dependents of any description, should be accepted for service in this unit.

On enrolment the Coloured man became an Imperial soldier, under the Army Act, for the period of the War and six months afterwards, or until legally discharged, with Imperial rates of pay, viz. :

and with Pensions and Gratuities as for the British West Indian Imperial Service Contingent.

The foregoing details and instructions having been determined, the Cape Corps War Recruiting Committee was formed, with Headquarters at Cape Town, for the purpose of enrolling Coloured men for active service with the Battalion of the Cape Corps.

Colonel Grey (Commissioner of Police), Major G. A. Morris of the Natal Carbineer’s (Special Service Squadron), Captain J. C. Berrange, and Captain H. G. Wilmot were mentioned in connection with the Command.

The mantle fell upon Major George A. Morris, son of Mr. J. W. Morris, a former Transkeian Magistrate.

Major Morris was duly gazetted as Lieut.-Colonel and Officer Commanding the Cape Corps on October 5th, 1915.

The following gentlemen accepted the responsibility of a seat on the Cape Corps Recruiting Committee, viz. :

Senator Colonel Walter Stanford, C.B., C.M.G., Chairman ; Major G. B. Van Zyl, M.L.A., Vice-Chairman ; Mr. A. Eames-Perkins, Hon. Secretary. Colonel T. J. J. Inglesby, V.D.; Lieut.-Colonel John Hewat, M.L.A.; Lieut.-Colonel F. W. Divine ; Captain W. D. Hare ; Sir John Graham, h.C.M.G.; Sir Frederick W. Smith, Kt., J.P.; Rev. Canon Lavis ; Rev. George Robson ; Advocate Morris Alexander, M.L.A.; Mr. J. W. Jagger, M.L.A.; with the following leaders of the Cape Coloured community, viz. : Dr. Abdurahman, M.P.C.; Mr. H. Hartog ; Mr. P. Ryan ; Mr. M. J. Fredericks ; Mr. J. Currey. NOTE.-Several other gentlemen joined this Committee later and Sir Harry Hands, P.B.E. (Mayor of Cape Town) became Chairman of the Committee-vice Colonel Stanford who went to Pretoria to become Director of War Recruiting-and Canon S. W. Lavis, Vice-Chairman. (Vide Illustration, page 17.)

Lieut-Colonel Morris C.M.G. and Captain H. Edwards with the Regimental Band taken at Mustapha Camp, Alexandra, Egypt in June 1919

The Cape Corps War Recruiting Committee had the good fortune to secure the services of Sergeant-Major Samuel Hanley Reynard as a member of the Staff. No choice could have been better. His cheerfulness and conscientious performance of his work throughout the Recruiting Campaign won the esteem and respect of all who came in contact with him. Though a veteran he never flinched in carrying out of his very arduous duties.

During especially busy times the assistance of the Boy Scouts was asked for, and they never failed to answer the call made on them. Valuable assistance was willingly given, and the boys who were detailed to the Recruiting Committee by the Secretary of the Boy Scouts’ Association well earned the War Certificate that the performance of their duties at the City Hall entitled them to.

A large crowd of Coloured men and women gathered outside the Recruiting Station at the City Hall, Cape Town, in the early morning of 25th October, 1915, aroused into action by announcements in the Press that the Coloured man’s opportunity was now open to him. The crowd surged into the Vestibule when the doors opened at 10 o’clock, and it became necessary to erect barriers and to provide a squad of Police before the men could be handled. To witness the inauguration of this circumstance of significance many prominent personages, Civil and Military, visited the Recruiting Station, including the General Officer Commanding in South Africa (Major-General C. W. Thompson) and his Staff.

Captains W. R. Cowell and C. G. Durham, Officers of the 1st Cape Corps, with Colonel T. J. J. Inglesby and Lieut.-Colonel Divine, members of the Recruiting Committee, had charge of the proceedings. By noon well over a hundred recruits had passed through the hands of the Military Medical Officers, but only a small percentage succeeded in passing the very strenuous test imposed. As a result of the first day’s recruiting twenty-two men were entrained at Cape Town for Simonstown, where the Mobilisation Camp for the reception of the enlisted men had been established, there to receive their first instruction from competent instructors and to have instilled into them habits of discipline, etc., as well as to meet their future comrades who were journeying from such places as Stellenbosch, Worcester, Port Elizabeth, Kimberley, and the Mission Stations of Saron and Mamre, etc.

Considering the strenuous conditions of enlistment laid down the first day’s result was not unsatisfactory, but there were some who had got their “tails up.” “The pay was insufficient “”There was no separation allowance “! To ventilate those views a meeting of Coloured men was held on the Grand Parade, and no blame could be attached to the women who kept a strict watch on the actions of the men who supported them. Though, as a matter of fact no men were accepted for service in cases where there were dependents, and the Officers of the Cape Corps and the members of the Recruiting Committee zealously guarded instructions to that effect from Headquarters. And no wonder! They were not out to pauperise women and children.

There could be no burking the fact that at Cape Town the class of man required was holding back, and this reluctance to come forward was due solely to the question of no separation allowances and the insistence that there should be no dependents. Reports from other recruiting centres for the Cape Corps in this connection were illuminating; for example: -Worcester was asked to supply 6o men; that number was obtained in one day. Port Elizabeth provided 31 men out of 45 required. Johannesburg was only asked to supply 30 recruits, and those left for Simonstown on the clay recruiting for Coloured men opened. Kimberley’s quota was 50 men, and they were secured also in one day and were entrained for Simonstown.

In addition, other country places intimated that they could supply a certain number of men, while districts which had already furnished their quota expressed willingness to add to the number already secured, and the Mission Stations at Saron and Mamre each volunteered to furnish a company.

The Mother City of Cape Town found itself in this peculiar position that while she had taken the lead in expressing the desire for Coloured men to serve in the War, it seemed that the Coloured residents of the Peninsula would be ill represented in the first coloured fighting force to be established, whilst places other than Cape Town collared the honour. One loop hole in this peculiar situation presented itself, viz.:-the Governor-General’s Fund. But all hopes in that regard was quickly dispelled by the definite instructions of the Director of War Recruiting that no man with dependents would be accepted. Indeed, it was hardly a fair request to make that the Governor-General’s Fund should provide for dependents.

The very real grievance 9c pay and allowances was immediately tackled by the Recruiting Committee, and in November, I915, Colonel Inglesby and Mr. Brydone were deputed to go to Pretoria to endeavour to obtain better conditions, whilst Colonel Stanford, the Chairman, and the members of the Recruiting Committee in force waited upon General Smuts in Cape Town in the sane pressing connection. Meanwhile a slight concession was made by the Governor-General’s Fund, viz.: that they would give assistance in special cases, when brought to their notice.

It was about this time that the Cape Corps Gifts and Comforts Committee came into being. Later this committee became affiliated to the South African Gifts and Comforts Committee and did splendid work in supplying comforts for the men of the regiment.

“I have been informed,” said Lord Buxton at the Recruiting Conference held at Pretoria on November 14th, 1915, “that the successful operations in German South-West Africa have had a great moral effect in the European sphere of operations and caused great depression in enemy circles. The successful subjugation of German East Africa will bring about even greater moral effect to the advantage of our side all the world over.”

To take part in that subjugation of the enemy’s outposts Lieut.-Colonel Morris was now busy training his men at the camp at Simonstown, which, notwithstanding the many difficulties encountered, was steadily swelling its population.

” They are as keen as mustard,” said their Commanding Officer, ” and in their spare time are drilling on their own,” so that when His Excellency the Governor-General, accompanied by Major-General Thompson, inspected the Cape Corps at Simonstown on the 3oth November, 1915, they were complimented by him on their smart and soldierly appearance and workmanlike bearing.

That outside forces were in fullest sympathy with the men of the Cape Corps was shown by many thoughtful incidents. Two may be given.

“Tango” was enrolled. He was a smart Airedale terrier presented by Master Jack Ashley of Bellville as a mascot to the 1st Cape Corps. In the proverbial canine fashion he wagged himself into the affections of officers and men alike during his short stay at the camp at Simonstown, and Lieut.-Colonel Morris, in expressing his thanks to the juvenile donor, wrote: “I am sure that he will bring us luck.” “Tango,” when the Battalion embarked for East Africa, was called upon to show the stuff he was made of, for the Commander of the “Armadale Castle” was compelled to refuse to allow him to embark. With the persistence of his kind, however, “Tango” found another way of circumventing official opposition. A flying leap from the quay landed him on deck among his pals and the ship’s Commander had no heart to eject him.

The following letter speaks for itself: -

Wellington. “Dear Sir,

I am a coloured woman. It is a very little money that I send this is the money for the Cape Corps fund which I buy flowers from my own money and sell out again. I think it is very little but it will help too, my husband is gone to the front.”

(Signed)             (Mrs.) D.S.

A postal order for fifteen shillings was enclosed.

During the months of October, November, and December, 1915, very strenuous work was done by the Recruiting Committee to enable the full complement of men (about one thousand and twenty) to be secured. The methods employed varied. Bands, Street Parades, Meetings in outlying Suburban Districts, Speeches at Bioscopes, Stirring Posters, Press Notices (the value of which cannot be overestimated) all had their turn. Ours was, of course, the job to induce those who were hanging back for various reasons to come to the recruiting stations. Once there the conditions were fully explained to the men, and the presence on duty of officers and non-coms in the smart uniform of the Cape Corps swept away all hesitation, if there were any, and made them all long to emulate those who had already joined as soldiers of the King. Having made up their minds they were then invited to interview the selection officers appointed by Lieut.-Colonel Morris.

These had their tables in the vestibule of the City Hall, Cape Town, and with drafts continually arriving from other centres, were kept pretty busy.

The officers in charge were Major Durham (a strict disciplinarian) and Captain Cowell (a kindly and just officer and beloved by his men, who later made the great sacrifice). They accepted or rejected the men. The accepted men were then passed on to the inner room (Reception Hall) for medical examination.

I remember one particularly strenuous morning. The vestibule was a busy hive with the hum of many voices, and, a not particularly savoury odour of old clothes-clothes that reeked with the sweat of hot and honest daily toil. The folding doors from the Reception Hall opened and a waft of sweet music floated through. The City Orchestra in the Main Hall was rehearsing. Instinctively drawn to breathe the music’s divine message, I was met by the Military Medical Officer, stethoscope in hand. He came to invite me to witness between sixty and seventy coloured men stripped for examination. These men had just previously been handed over to him. Then I realised that the clothing makes (or mars) the man. Now, lined up and smiling, naked to the world, they were fine specimens of strong brawny manhood. So splendidly developed were many of them that it might have been a parade of prize fighters, and, ugly in physiognomy as many of them undoubtedly were, their smiles revealed dentures that many a woman would have sacrificed a good deal to call her own. It is perhaps needless to say that every one of those men passed as medically fit for active service. They were attested and sent to the camp right away.

Early in December, 1815, the Cape Corps was nearing its full complement, and recruiting definitely closed on 12th December, 1915.

At that date the Nett result of the recruitment for the Cape Corps was one thousand and sixteen men. Considering the difficulties in regard to pay and allowances, which all the efforts of the Recruiting Committee had so far failed to get altered, it did vast credit to the young coloured man without encumbrances and showed quite clearly the spirit that was in him to assist his country in time of need.

On the world’s day of rejoicing, Christmas Day (1915), the Camp at Simons-town was thrown open to relatives and friends of the men of the Cape Corps, and full advantage was taken of the concession.

Amongst the old time customs, plum puddings and music and bands were provided and dancing and joviality took place as though no red war existed and in spite of the gloomy news that trickled through over the cables. It was just for the day, the work with all its seriousness and earnestness, was for the morrow.

Mr. Harry Hands (the Mayor) in his message to the citizens of Cape Town clearly gave the key note in reference to the position as it was at that time.

“We are on the eve of Christmas,” he said, ” and at the end of another year, a year of war, and, for many hundreds and thousands of human beings, of suffering and sadness, a year in which death has taken a heavy toll of the Empire’s manhood. From many a home in the Peninsula loved ones who have gone forth at the call of duty will be absent this Christmas. There must there-fore, be a note of sadness in our greetings, but we can still find comfort in the old, old message. Seventeen months of war have not shaken our confidence and our conviction that right must prevail, and though we may be sore let and hindered we shall endure to the end, and the end will be victory.”

In January, 1916, with the full complement of recruits secured, courtesies were exchanged between the Senior Officers of the Cape Corps and the members of the Cape Corps War Recruiting Committee in the form of simple luncheons at the Camp at Simonstown and at the Civil Service Club at Cape Town. The main reason for those proceedings was to wish ” God Speed ” and ” Good luck ” on the eve of departure on the one hand, and on the other the expression of thanks (none of course were needed) to the Recruiting Committee for what they had accomplished.

When the Cape Corps’ embarkation date arrived, very naturally the South African Military Command did not take any chances. A smoke-screen was thrown over the movement of all troops. That notwithstanding, a great crowd assembled at the docks at Cape Town, and all the approaches thereto, to witness the departure of the Battalion for East Africa on 9th February, 1916.

It was a true South African summer’s afternoon. Three train loads of men steamed into the Docks, direct from Simonstown to the ship’s side.

H.M.T. “Armadale Castle” was waiting to receive the Officers and men of the Cape Corps. The embarkation was speedily and smartly accomplished. Many a mother strained with tears of pride in her eyes to get a glimpse of her son; many a young Coloured woman, who had a very particular interest in her newly–made soldier friend, moved in the crowd in the hope of a last farewell.

With the Band playing martial airs and the men leaning over the great ship’s side anxious for a last good-bye, and the sun shining upon a sea of helmets and dark skinned faces and flashing upon the trappings of the uniforms, it was difficult to believe that these were the same men, who only a few months before had come to enlist at the City Hall, many- ill-clad and anything but smart.

The transformation was so complete. Straight, and smart and smiling, with boots, buttons, and equipment polished to a turn, they were a fine workmanlike body of healthy men, and for cheerfulness, dignity of hearing, and soldierly appearance the Officers in Charge would not have been easy to beat in any regiment.

Then, God Save the King, every one stood to attention, and the great Troopship steamed majestically away (I fancy “Tango” barked). As evening came she dwindled to a speck on the sea, and finally vanished from sight.

The Cape Corps had gone on the great adventure, taking with them the hearts and the hopes of thousands of their kinsfolk in the Union. The reputation of the Coloured community of South Africa was in their hands.

The Recruiting Committee could rest on its oars until casualties and disease thinned the ranks of the departed warriors and a new recruiting Campaign was ordered to fill the gaps.

C. Ruiters

It became evident soon after the departure of the “Armadale Castle” that a number of the men of the Cape Corps had left women and children dependents unprovided for, notwithstanding the care that had been exercised by the Selection Officers and the Recruiting Committee. It was unthinkable that these should be left to suffer. The situation was taken in hand at once by the Recruiting Committee, and a list of married men with dependents prepared. Commercial establishments who had employed such men before enlistment were approached, and guarantees obtained in most cases that half civil pay would be given to proved dependents, until Military separation allowances were secured.

The New Year (1916) was scarcely one month past w hen General Smuts took charge of the East African Campaign. From that time calls for reinforcements for the Cape Corps were frequent, with the authorisation that married men could be accepted for Service, and that Separation Allowances would be paid upon the following basis, viz.:-is. 1s. per diem to wives, and 2d. per diem for each child under the age of 16, or in cases of widowless and motherless children, 4d. per diem. Proved Dependents of unmarried men were placed on the same scale, always provided that the soldier allotted to the dependent half his pay. This placed recruitment for the Cape Corps upon a better footing, more especially as grants from the Governor-General’s Fund were left entirely in the hands of the local Committees of that Organisation.

The foregoing may, it is hoped, convey some idea of the activities of the Cape Corps War Recruiting Committee in the earlier stages of the Recruiting Campaign as well as of the feeling held by that body relative to the care of the families of the enlisted men, during their period of active service.

Frequent calls came later from the Director of War Recruiting, Pretoria, for men, more men, who, by dint of hard work and the beating up of Suburban and outlying districts, never failed to materialise. For instance, during the period 27th February to 27th April, 1917, 1,457 Coloured men were attested for the Cape Corps, whilst a large number were turned down as unfit for Active Service.

In all, during the Recruiting Campaign, 6,000 men were enrolled for the 1st Cape Corps, and 2,000 for the 2nd Cape Corps.

Other Coloured units were formed, of a different character to the Cape Corps it is true, but all useful in their different spheres, and all dovetailing and harmonising into the great fighting machine of the Empire. For instance, the Cape Corps War Recruiting Committee were requested to find one thousand men for the Cape Coloured Labour Battalion, with reinforcements as required, whilst they were interested in and consulted with reference to the formation of the South African Native Labour Contingent, in which ten thousand men were enrolled.

In addition, the Recruiting Committee were called upon to supply Coloured men to the S.A. Artillery (Drivers and Leaders) and for the Cape Auxiliary Horse Transport Companies, etc., etc.

The exact total figures of Coloured men obtained by the Cape Corps Recruiting Committee are not before me at the present time, but it is certain that they were in the neighbourhood of twenty-five thousand, over rather than under. It is in my opinion a fair calculation to make that 4 to 1 of the men who presented themselves for enrolment were turned down as medically unfit, and if this basis is correct, it shows the handling of one hundred thousand Coloured men.

Amongst the rejected there was genuine disappointment and not a little grumbling. Many such men, especially the younger ones, hung about the recruiting station for weeks hoping by hook or by crook to be allowed to go, while the spectacle of their “pals” in the smart uniform of the Cape Corps heightened their misery at being left behind.

Every post brought letters from men in the country districts, bitterly complaining that the medical officer either did not know his job, or that he had mistaken their case.

Covering some ten closely written pages, smatterings of English and Dutch, a Coloured boy at Clanwilliam, 19 years of age, bemoaned his fate because he was two inches under the regulation height to enable him to join the Cape Corps. He begged to be allowed to join as a bugler; he knew that he could get one cheap if the money was sent to buy it, and, he added, “God would bless the Recruiting Committee.”

Besides the actual recruiting of Coloured men, the Recruiting Committee took upon its shoulders other matters closely connected with the men enrolled. For instance

• The obtaining of maternity grants relative to children born after the soldier’s enlistment.
• The question of free Education for Coloured children during the soldier’s period of active service.
• The remission of the fee for the Marriage Certificate-it being a regulation that this must be produced before Separation Allowance could be claimed or assessed.

Medicine and Comforts for Sick wives and children of soldiers.

The witnessing of the Signature on Military Cheques for monthly allowances in order to satisfy Banking requirements, etc., etc.

A batch of from thirty-five to forty coloured women, some with babies at the breast, others leading ragged and bare-footed children by the hand-little things that the soldier of the Cape Corps had left behind him to be cared for by the country whose freedom he was helping to keep intact-came to the recruiting station one slack morning. Sergeant-Major Reynard was pounced upon in the vestibule of the City Hall. He stood their fury and anger like the good old soldier that he is until explanations were possible.

When order was restored out of the chaos, they were invited to appoint one of their numbers to interview the writer in an inner room.

It was not hard to enter into the feelings of these women. Their separation allowances as has been stated were very small, just enough to provide food to keep them and their children alive and with no hope of putting anything by to meet an unforeseen emergency. However, they were content to suffer the hardships that white and coloured alike were called upon to bear at that time.

But the least delay in the payment of the allowances due created more difficulties than they were prepared to endure. A delay of some days had already taken place in the arrival from the Paymaster of the usual monthly draft, and the children were without food. They had already applied to the Paymaster of the Cape Corps, but he was powerless to assist them in their trouble, and had to explain that there would be a further delay of three or four days-due entirely to the change of office from one centre to another. The Cape Corps Gifts and Comforts Committee found the matter was one that did not come within their scope, and no tangible result accrued as the result of an application to the local Secretary to the Governor-General’s Fund. Finally the Cape Corps War Recruiting Committee was approached as described.

The writer’s own application to the then Secretary of the Governor-General’s Fund shared the same fate as the women’s appeal, and it became necessary to bring the full force of the Recruiting Committee into action. The result was entirely successful, and each family or individual went away with a sufficiency to tide over the awkward period. The women were satisfied and even grateful and dispersed to their various homes in outlying parts of the Cape Peninsula. The same method was adopted in cases where difficulties arose with landlords, who either wished to eject dependents of soldiers on account of the men being on active service, or to increase the rent on threat of ejectment if they did not agree to pay.

In fact there was no genuine grievance connected with the dependents of the enlisted men, which the Recruiting Committee was not compelled to redress.

There were, of course, some strange incidents connected with the recruiting of the coloured units. The following may be cited:

Private John Jacobs of the 1st Cape Corps had, by good fortune-or otherwise-obtained leave of absence from his Regiment during a lull in its activities, and found himself in the Cape Peninsula. Resultant upon his good-or evil-fortune he took it upon himself to form fresh attachments and responsibilities in domestic life.

The sequel to this visit was revealed in a letter, businesslike in its brevity and very much to the point, to the Hon. Secretary Recruiting Committee, as follows : -

“Hon. Sir,

I married John Jacobs a week ago. He has gone back. We have ten Children. Please let me know how I stand.

Yours truly,……..”

On a tour of the Eastern Province of the Cape quite recently the writer had the good luck to have as a companion on the journey an ex-officer of the Cape Corps who had served in the East African campaign and in Palestine. During the journey opportunity was afforded of hearing something of the doings of the Cape Corps in the actual fighting line, some of which no doubt will be set down in this volume. That officer’s praise of his men, of their manly courage and pluck, of their discipline and cheerful endurance in times of hard-ship and difficulties, served to confirm the reports one had heard of the splendid work and behaviour of the men in camp, on the march, or under fire.

At most of the stations at which the train halted, coloured men stepped out from somewhere, and, in their working clothes, stood to attention and saluted-they were so obviously glad to see their old officer, and to have the opportunity to refresh in a few words their memories of the time when they had served under him in the Great War.

It was the same in many of the places we visited during the tour. There was generally some coloured man who halted in his work to salute the officer, notwithstanding that both wore civilian clothes. Indeed, on the train by which we travelled, an ex-member of the Cape Corps brought us our nightly bedding, and the chef’s coloured assistant in the dining-car tendered his respectful greetings and was recognised.

On some of the farms visited at which ex-officers of the Cape Corps had entered into possession, the servants, the farm hands, and those employed in other capacities were all, wherever possible, returned soldiers of the Cape Corps. In some of the town’s ex-officers of the Cape Corps who had embarked upon new ventures since release from service employ men in their offices who have seen service in the Battalion. This continued association in civil life of European officers and Coloured ex-soldiers who served under them during the Great War is of course only natural and may in course of time evaporate and become only a memory. But what seems to be forced upon one is that this sympathetic understanding and respect between the white officer and the coloured man who served with and under him, if fostered in some way, should prove of inestimable value to the State.

South Africa, we are told, is a land that is merely scratched upon the ‘surface. Could not some semi-military body be formed from what is left of the Cape Corps for its greater development?

By Mr. A. Eames Perkins.

Extracted from the publication The Story of the 1^st Cape Corps 1915 – 1919 by Captain I.D. Difford

(*Ormiston, East Lothian, Scot., 21.12.1795 – †Leigh, Kent, Eng., 8.8.1883), missionary of the L.M.S., Tswana linguist and Bible translator, was born of humble parentage, the third son in a family of five sons and two daughters. His father, Robert Moffat, was a custom-house officer, his mother was Ann Gardiner, of Ormiston. His sketchy elementary education was supplemented by the teaching of the minister and by the influence of his kind, but sternly religious mother.

After serving his apprenticeship as a gardener he from 1809 found employment first in Fifeshire, then in Cheshire, and, subsequently, in 1815, with a nursery gardener named James Smith at Dukinfield, near Manchester. Smith was of a strongly religious turn and his daughter, Mary, was a pious young woman with ‘a warm missionary heart’. M.’s own heart was set on missionary work and in 1816 he was accepted by the L.M.S. A Presbyterian by upbringing, M. had, while serving as a gardener in Cheshire, come under the influence of some earnest Wesleyan Methodists. He had resolved to devote his life to religious work and to become a missionary.

He sailed for South Africa in October 1816 in the company of the missionaries J. Kitchingman, J. Evans, J. Taylor and John Brownlee and arrived in Cape Town on 13.1.1817. During his stay at Dukinfield he had fallen in love with Mary Smith (1795-1871), and she with him. James Smith, however, was determined that his daughter should not go abroad, and it was not until three years later that this objection was overcome.

M.’s destination was Great Namaqualand, north of the Orange river, but to his disappointment the local authorities, for political reasons, at first refused him permission to proceed there. M. usefully filled in the time of waiting by going to Stellenbosch to acquire a working knowledge of Dutch. He also accompanied the missionary Dr George Thom to mission stations of the L.M.S. and reported many irregularities. Permission was eventually obtained; he left Cape Town in October 1817, crossed the Orange river at Pella drift, and reached Great Namaqualand in the following January.

The people among whom he was to work were ruled by Jager (Christiaan) Afrikaner, formerly a notorious Hottentot freebooter who lived at Afrikanerskraal, some distance to the east of the present Warmbad in South-West Africa. M. made a considerable impression on Afrikaner, and persuaded him to go with him on a joint visit to Cape Town . Meanwhile he had journeyed far north in South-West Africa with Afrikaner, but saw no hope of establishing a mission there, and travelled eastward to Griquatown and Dithakong in Bechuanaland before returning to Afrikanerskraal and to Cape Town. His early observations on the geology of the Griqua and Bechuana country are of particular interest in view of later mineral exploitation of this region.

On his arrival in April 1819, M. found in Cape Town a deputation from the L.M.S. This consisted of Dr John Philip and John Campbell, who had been sent out to investigate various allegations that had been made against the society’s missions and missionaries. The deputation invited M. to accompany them as their interpreter in Dutch, but their tour was cut short by the Fifth Frontier War (1819) on the eastern border of the colony. M. returned to Cape Town in time to welcome his fiancee when she landed in South Africa for the first time. Robert and Mary were married in St George’s church, Cape Town, on 27.12.1819.

It was an ideally happy union; Mary had faith and courage of a high order, for without these she could not have left her home and parents to sail to the other end of the world. She also had a will of her own and her views on people were direct and uncompromising. At the same time she was wholly engrossed in her husband’s work and found her fulfilment in supporting him with a care that grew more constant with the years.

Apart from his marriage M.’s visit to Cape Town had other important consequences. He was persuaded by the deputation to abandon Namaqualand and to take over the society’s station among the Tswana. He arrived at Dithakong, one hundred miles north of Klaarwater (Griquatown) in March 1820. Permission to live there was at first withheld by the authorities, but was given after M. had temporarily returned to Griquatown. In May 1821 the Moffats again took up residence at Dithakong.

The people among whom M. laboured were the Tlhaping, the most southerly of the tribes collectively known as Tswana (Bechuana). They were not unknown to Europeans, having been visited by Truter and Somerville in 1801 and thereafter by several travellers. Their chief was Mothibi, son of Molehabangwe, who in 1813 had invited John Campbell to ‘send instructors’ to his country, at the same time promising to be ‘a father’ to them.

The first missionaries sent in response to his invitation, John Evans and Robert Hamilton, were, in fact, rebuffed, but the. elder James Read and Hamilton obtained a foothold at the end of 1816. In the following year Read persuaded Mothibi to move the tribal capital southwards from Dithakong (Old Lithako) to the Kuruman river. Read was transferred and Hamilton then struggled on alone until M.’s arrival.

The Moffats had not long settled at Dithakong when there began a period of considerable excitement and anxiety. In 1823 one of the hordes, part refugees, part banditti, set in motion by the wars of the Zulu chief Shaka invaded southern Bechuanaland . M. acted promptly and enlisted the help of some of Andries Waterhoer’s Griquas, mounted riflemen, who put the invaders to flight.

Although the immediate danger of invaders from the east had been averted, the following years were difficult and depressing, as can be gauged from M.’s letters and journals of the period 1820-1828, published in 1951 (Schapera, infra ). The people remained deaf to the missionaries’ teaching; bands of marauders roamed the countryside and sometimes threatened the station; Mothibi drifted away with most of his people. The missionaries refused to be discouraged and in 1829, as if miraculously, the sky seemed to clear and thereafter there was peace. In that year, too, the first converts were baptized. Meanwhile the station itself had moved. In 1824 M. persuaded Mothibi to transfer the tribal capital from New Lithako (Maruping) to Seoding, the present site. This was further up-stream and nearer the famous ‘eye’ of Kuruman, where a veritable underground river bursts into the open.

By instinct and training a gardener, M, used the water of the river to raise crops by irrigation. His efforts to teach the natives better agriculture, though not quickly successful, showed results in the long run.

The year 1829 was not only memorable for an improvement in the fortunes of the mission. It also saw the beginning of M’s extraordinary friendship with Mzilikazi, chief of the Matebele. This chief, his curiosity aroused by tales about the white men, sent two headmen to Kuruman on a visit of inquiry. M. accompanied them to Mzilikazi’s town near the site of future Pretoria. At their first meeting Mzilikazi conceived an extraordinary affection for M. which remained undiminished for thirty years. M. visited Mzilikazi again in 1835 at Mosega in the western Transvaal , this time accompanying the great expedition to the interior led by Dr Andrew Smith. After the Matebele had moved beyond the Limpopo to Bulawayo , M. paid three more visits to Mzilikazi in 1854, 1857 and 1859. The extensive journals kept by M. and dealing with these occasions were discovered in 1942 and published in 1945 (cf. L P. R. Wallis, infra).

It was never remotely likely that Mzilikazi would become a Christian, but, short of that, he went to extraordinary lengths to please the man whom he revered. He moderated his laws, mitigated his punishments, submitted meekly to many harsh reproofs for his depravity, and in his old age actually permitted the L.M.S. to establish a station in his country at Inyati.

Almost as soon as he had mastered the Tlhaping dialect of the Tswana language, M. began to translate the Bible and to prepare other devotional and educational publications in this language. Of his first Tswana spelling and reading book (published in London in 1826) only a fragment has survived. With the help of Rogers Edwards this became the Buka ea Likaélo tsa ntla … (Kuruman, 1842), of which a third edition, with variation of contents, appeared in 1843, other editions following in 1850 and 1857.

In his early years at Kuruman M. also prepared the first Tswana catechism, a translation of the catechism of Dr Brown, of Edinburgh , to which he added the third chapter of St John (printed in Holborn, London, in 1826). Various later editions appeared at Kuruman and in London until 1848, all containing, besides questions, extracts from the Holy Scriptures.

By 1830 M. had completed his translation of St Luke, which he took to Cape Town and composed for printing with his own hands at the government press. The book was printed under the supervision of B. J. van de Sandt, from whom M. learned to set up type, to print and to bind. This knowledge he was to apply when, in 1831, he brought his hand printing-press by ox-wagon to Kuruman and started the printing of his own Tlhaping work, as well as literature produced by his missionary colleagues of the Paris Evangelical mission society at Mothito, who used the Rolong dialect of Tswana.

While working on his Bible translation, M. published a collection of hymns ( Lihela tsa tuto le puloko tsa Yesu Kereste, Kuruman , 1831), with later editions and a supplement in 1855. With Edwards he wrote and printed at Kuruman a book of Bible lessons ( Likaelo tsa ri tlauchoeng mo Bibelieng … ) in 1833, with a second edition of 5,000 copies in 1841, and this was evidently used in teaching at other mission stations, too.

M.’s publication of the gospel of St Luke in 1830 had been the first published translation of a portion of the Bible in any South African native language. By 1836 he had struck off on his press part of his translation of St James, and in 1839 took to Cape Town for printing his translation of the whole New Testament. As he could not arrange for the printing to be done in Cape Town, he took his manuscript to Britain where his Tswana New Testament appeared the following year ( Kholagano enca ea Yesu Keresete … London, 1840). This was the first complete translation of its kind into a South African native language, and was followed in 1841 by the publication in London of his translation of Psalms, which he had actually done while in Britain.

On his return to Kuruman M. continued his monumental task of also translating the Old Testament with the help of his colleague, William Ashton (1817-1897), also printing it on his trusty old mission press (now preserved in the Kimberley public library) in two parts: the first in 1853, the second in 1857. When M. presented the final parts of his Bibela ea boitsépho to Sir George Grey in November 1857, it was the first full translation of the Bible in any South African native tongue. Likewise, through M.’s initiative and energy, Tswana was the fifth language in Africa to have a translation of the New Testament, and the third to have a complete translation of the Bible. At the same time M. had confirmed his claim to a place among the great translators by completing this herculean labour.

During his sojourn in Britain from June 1839 to the beginning of 1843, he wrote and published his Missionary labours and scenes in southern Africa ( London, 1840), which aroused unprecedented public interest. The fourth edition appeared in 1842 while he was still in Britain, and by 1846 eleven thousand copies and a French edition had been printed. M. appeared before enthusiastic gatherings, preaching and lecturing, and some of his addresses were published: Africa: or, gospel light shining in the midst of heathen darkness. A sermon on Isaiah IX2 … preached … before the directors of the London missionary society ( London, 1840); African scenes; being a series of anecdotes … related by the Rev. R. Moffat, at public meetings … (Sunderland, 1843); Incidents in the life of the Rev. R. Moll at, being an address delivered by him … 1842 ( Birmingham, 1842); The farewell services of Robert Moffat, in Edinburgh, Manchester, and London. Edited by John Campbell ( London, 1843).

His visit also gave rise to a number of publications by others on his work in South Africa . It was in 1841, too, that M. met young David Livingstone, then studying for his ordination in London, directed his interest to Africa and secured his services for the mission to the Kwena. By the end of 1843 he was back at Kuruman.

M.’s fourth visit to Mzilikazi in 1857 had as its object a mission to the Matebele. It was on this journey that he persuaded Mzilikazi to release from military servitude Matsheng, rightful chief of the Ngwato. In doing so he innocently brought much trouble on that tribe (cf. Sekgoma I and John Mackenzie).

In 1858 irresponsible Tlhapings raided the O.F.S. and the Transvaal republic, suspecting that the Kuruman missionaries were in league with the tribesmen. The Transvaal seemed disposed to frustrate the expedition which Moffat was to lead to Matebeleland. At the same time burghers were reported to be making preparations to attack Kuruman. M. appealed to Sir George Grey, governor of the Cape Colony, who obtained from President M. W. Pretorius a repudiation of the plan to attack Kuruman; nor was anything more done to stop the proposed journey. M. accordingly led a missionary party to Matebeleland and returned to Kuruman in August 1860, leaving his companions at the new station of Inyati. One of the Matebele party was his own son, John Smith Moffat.

After this date M. did not undertake any more long journeys. He remained at Kuruman, devoting himself to the work of the station and out-stations, where there was more than enough for him to do.

In 1848 he had translated and published at Kuruman Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s progress; his third visit to Mzilikazi he described in a pamphlet in 1856, and in 1863 appeared an account of his work in the mission field, entitled Rivers of water in a dry place. An account of the introduction of Christianity into southern Africa, and of Mr. Moffat’s missionary labours.

(London, 1863, with new editions in 1867 and 1869).

M.’s last years were saddened by family bereavements. He preached at Kuruman for the last time on 20.3.1870 and a few days later the patriarchal pair set out for Britain and retirement. Mary Moffat died in Brixton in January 1871. M. continued to travel about the United kingdom, preaching and advancing the cause of missions. He revised his translation of the New Testament, of which a new edition, as well as an edition of the whole Tswana Bible appeared in 1872. In the same year the University of Edinburgh conferred on him the honorary degree of D.D.

He went to live in London, where he was present at the funeral of David Livingstone in 1874, and at the unveiling of the Livingstone statue in Edinburgh in 1876. In 1877 he visited Paris by invitation to address a great gathering of French children. In 1879 he went to live at Leigh, near Tunbridge, and on 7.5.1881 he was publicly honoured in London at a dinner attended by leading figures in the religious, and philanthropic world, and representatives of both houses of parliament.

M. lies buried in Norwood cemetery, beside the remains of his wife. There is a monument to his memory in Ormiston, his birthplace. He and his wife had ten children, four sons and six daughters, of whom two daughters and a son died young. His eldest daughter, Mary Moffat (1821-1862), was the wife of David Livingstone; the second daughter, Anne Moffat (1823-1893), married a French missionary, Jean Fr6doux (1823-1866), of Mothitho; the eldest surviving son, Robert Moffat (1827-1862), was a trader; Helen Moffat (1829-1902) married J. Vavasseur; the youngest son, the missionary John Smith Moffat, was also the biographer of his parents; Elizabeth (Bessie) Lees Moffat (1839-1919) became the wife of Roger Price, and the youngest daughter, Jane Gardiner Moffat (1840 to 1927), died unmarried.

M. was a simple man of extraordinary zeal, de-termination and courage. He was essentially evangelical, holding that the missionary’s chief task, indeed his only task, was to ‘teach poor heathen to know the Saviour’. Any other interest he held to be irrelevant and likely to obscure this supreme objective. He disapproved strongly; for example, of John Philip’s ‘political’ activities, al-though these were aimed at improving the lot of the native peoples. He had no interest in native customs and traditional usages, which he either condemned as sinful or dismissed as silly and squalid.

He was also strangely insensitive to the devotion which he inspired in Mzilikazi, which he neither understood nor appreciated. Although M. missed so much, his writings, which consist of letters, reports and an autobiography, nevertheless contain much historical material concerning the native peoples, as well as many vivid sidelights on the trials and triumphs of a missionary’s life. It has been suggested that his overwhelming personality allowed little scope for the development of a strong succession; that he centralized too much and fostered initiative too little; that his prestige obscured the contribution made by other workers in his field. Even if true, this does not detract from his achievements. Under his guidance Kuruman became not only the focus of Christian civilization in southern Bechuanaland, but also a springboard for the exploration and evangelization of the still more remote interior. M.’s place is among the great nineteenth-century missionaries.

Portraits of M. are to be found in the three volumes of his published journals and letters, the biography by his son, and most other works on his life. The frontispiece of the 1843 edition of his Missionary labours contains the Baxter print of the youthful missionary; an etching of the portrait by Leon Richelson at the time of M.’s visit to Paris in April 1877 is in the Africana museum, Johannesburg. The stone church at Kuruman, built by M. from 1830 to 1833, was proclaimed as a national monument in 1939. M.’s home, though dilapidated, was still in existence in 1964.

Source: Dictionary of South African Biography (Volume 1)

Some information on Robert Moffat’s wife, Mary Smith Moffat:

Mary Smith Moffat (1795-1871) was missionary wife of Robert Moffat, and mother of Mary, the wife of David Livingstone. Born in New Windsor, England, she married Robert Moffat in December, 1819 at Cape Town, South Africa. They settled at Kuruman in Bechuanaland and established a mission there. They had ten children: Mary (who married David Livingstone), Ann, Robert (died as an infant), Robert, Helen, Elizabeth (died as an infant), James, John, Elizabeth, and Jean. The Moffats returned to England in 1839 for their only furlough. In 1870, the aged missionaries returned to England to stay. Mary died shortly thereafter.

Robert Moffat

Mary Smith