George McCall Theal

George Theal was born at St Johns, New Brunswick, Canada on 11th April 1837 – †Wynberg, Cape Town, 17.4.1919), historian, was the eldest of the nine children of William Young Theal, doctor of medicine, and his wife, Mary Bell. T.’s ancestors came from Rye in Sussex, England, but emigrated to the state of Connecticut before moving to New Brunswick, Canada, in 1783 together with other ‘New Empire Loyalists’. T., who was therefore Canadian by birth, was educated at the Grammar School at St. Johns, acquired a sound knowledge of French and Latin and also began to study Greek. He read widely and was particularly interested in historians such as E. Gibbon, E.F. Parkman, J.L. Motley, and W.H. Prescott.

T.’s father wanted him to enter the church but at the age of seventeen he left home and became independent. He worked in the USA until he had saved enough money to cross to his uncle in Sierra Leone where he hoped to make a living. In 1861 he had saved enough for a voyage to Australia but when the ship touched at Port Elizabeth he decided to remain in Africa. He was twenty-five years old, had a roving disposition, was eager to learn and prepared to work hard. He easily learnt new languages and in order to learn Dutch taught at a farm school near Knysna where he both spoke and wrote the language.
When he was proficient in Dutch he walked from Knysna to King William’s Town where he was employed by a merchant as a bookkeeper, acquiring meanwhile a sound knowledge of the multiracial population, and then became a reporter on Het Hollands Nieuwsblad at Maclear. He grew to know the Xhosa people, learnt their language, and three years later was editor and proprietor of The Kaffrarian Record in East London.
When measures of economy caused the harbour works in East London to be discontinued, T.’s newspaper closed down and he accepted a post as a teacher at Dale College, King William’s Town. In 1870 the discovery of diamonds tempted him to Kimberley, all these experiences being of value in his later career as an historian. He did not make a fortune and a year later he settled as an instructor at the Lovedale Missionary Institution where in the absence of the head, Dr James Stewart*, he was also responsible for the printing works.

T.’s first work South Africa as it is, a pamphlet of sixty-four pages, was printed on this press in 1871. Besides printing four of his own books in the next five years he edited a newspaper in Xhosa and published several school books. His Compendium of South African history and geography (Vol. I) was a book of 176 pages that appeared in 1873; this and Volume II, of 200 pages, printed in 1874, formed the most complete publication of its kind on South Africa at that time.
Because of his interest in the Xhosa and the Mfengu T. conducted many interviews with their leaders in their own language and acquired knowledge about their past, later describing this historical research based on oral tradition as the most lasting and irreplaceable part of his career as historian. The information he collected in this way was ready for publication in 1877, but did not appear in book form in London until 1882, under the title Kaffir folklore.

When the Ninth Frontier War broke out in September 1877, T. was asked by the then Governor Sir Bartle Frere* to use his influence to keep Oba, the ‘bloodthirsty Gonyama’ (Lion), from joining in the struggle. The task was not without risk, because more than sixty Whites were murdered during the fighting and T. lived for five months as the only White man among the tribe. Oba had enough faith in T. to accompany him first to Port Elizabeth and then to Cape Town where he had an interview with the Prime Minister, Sir Gordon Sprigg.

After seventeen years T. knew the country and its people well and had studied historical works on them; a catalogue of these works appeared in his Compendium of South African history and geography printed by the Lovedale Press in 1872 and 1874 and reprinted in 1876 and 1878.

In 1877 he took a post as stationery clerk in the Department of Finance in Cape Town and was sent to various magistrates’ offices to study the documents kept there. At Stellenbosch he found some which were nearly two hundred years old and which strongly appealed to him. He studied the 17th century handwriting and realised the value of these manuscripts for South African history. Discovering next that there were similar documents in the office of the Surveyor-General, he examined and arranged them after office hours. For this work, which kept him occupied from 18.3.1879 to 31.12.1880, he received £100 per annum. His findings were published in several issues of the Cape Monthly Magazine (1879) and include the following articles: ‘Characteristics of the first colonists in South Africa’ (July, September, December); ‘A few leaves from the Stellenbosch records’ (V.18, January); ‘A glance at the old records of Swellendam’ (V.18, January), and ‘The beginning of the European occupation in South Africa 1649-1653′.

In 1880 T. published a catalogue of documents dating from 16.9.1795 to 21.2.1803 and in the same year the colonial government decided to combine the posts of colonial archivist and parliamentary librarian. On 3.6.1880 J.H. Hofmeyr (Onze Jan)*, referring to T.’s catalogue of documents which covered sixty-three pages and the articles and books which had brought him renown, declared in the House of Assembly that T. was the most suitable candidate for the post. T. worked hard, believing that he would be given the post, and he and his friends were thus sorely dismayed when Sir Gordon Sprigg announced in January 1881 that H.C.V. Leibbrandt* had been appointed. This caused a serious controversy in the press and reaction in parliament. Under protest T. was transferred to the Department of Native Affairs and in March 1881 was made magistrate at Tamacha (Tamara) near King William’s Town, but wrote to the Secretary for Native Affairs saying he had no desire to be in charge of Blacks and that he wished to spend his life studying. He asked to be transferred to a post more in keeping with his aptitude and objected to the salary of £300 per annum on which he could not adequately support his family. On 14.4.1881 he addressed another letter to the government, asking to be sent to the Archives in The Hague to trace old documents and maps relating to the history of the Cape. His first source publication Abstracts of debates and resolutions of the Council of Policy from 1651 to 1687 had appeared in the meantime (1881), and an article of his, ‘A few Kaffir proverbs and figurative expressions with explanatory notes’ was published in The Cape Quarterly Review . . . (October 1881).

On 9.5.1881 Thomas Scanlen* formed a new cabinet and the next day one of the members, Saul Solomon*, proposed that the post held by Leibbrandt should be given to T. The motion was defeated in the House of Assembly by one vote, but T. was determined to prove that he had been done an injustice. The competition that developed between him and Leibbrandt was to the advantage of South African history. Most members of the government were well disposed to T., who was allowed to go overseas, and for ten months he worked diligently in libraries in England and the Netherlands but mainly in the Rijks-archief (Government Archives) in The Hague, tracing and transcribing documents and maps which related to South African history; many of these are today (1979) kept in the Archives Depot in Cape Town. His first significant historical work Chronicles of Cape commanders appeared in 1882; in the same year ‘An abstract of original MSS. in the Cape Colony’, and ‘Notes upon books’ were published in The Cape Quarterly Review.
Immediately after his return to South Africa the then Secretary for Native Affairs, J.W. Sauer*, instructed T. to transcribe and publish all the sources in connection with the history of Basutoland (Lesotho). Assisted by clerks of the Department he achieved wonders, because three bulky volumes came out in 1883: Basutoland records, Volume I (1833-1852), Volume II (1853-1861) and Volume III (1862-1868). The fourth volume was also completed but never printed.

While Leibbrandt was occupied with his Rambles through the archives (1887), three historical works by T. were brought out in 1886; they were A fragment of Basuto history, Boers and Bantu, and The Republic of Natal. A more voluminous work The history of the Boers in South Africa, consisting of 392 pages and with 24 maps, was published by Swan Sonnenschein and Company in London in 1887. Between 1886 and 1900 the same printers published his History of South Africa (five volumes). At this time T. was still employed by the Department of Native Affairs and all his writing was done after office hours.
He now began to gain recognition for his work: through the efforts of Pres. F.W. Reitz* an abridged version of the History of South Africa was translated into Dutch and through the agency of the Colonial Secretary, J.W. Sauer, it was printed in 1891 by the Dutch firm of Marthinus Nijhoff. In the same year T. was promoted colonial historian.

In 1892 he was ordered by parliament to complete the Geslachtregister der oude Kaapse familiën (Genealogy of old Cape families) on which C.C. de Villiers had worked until his death in 1887. Assisted by W.J. Vlok T. was able to bring out the first volume, covering the letters A to J, the following year. More data came to light, with the result that Volume II (A to O) and Volume III (P to Z) are more voluminous, and the three volumes together, comprising 1 596 pages, were printed in 1893 by Van de Sandt de Villiers.
In 1894 T. left once more for Europe and in March 1895 signed a report on his work in London where he had traced documents in the British Museum, the India Office, and the Public Record Office. In this report he claimed that the summaries of documents by Leibbrandt were useless and that all source publications should be done verbatim et literatim. In addition to this archival work, which was part of his commission, T. contributed South Africa to T. Fisher Unwin’s Story of the Nations series, the eighth impression of which appeared in 1916.

After his sojourn in London T. resumed his activities in The Hague and in 1896 published Volumes I and II of the series Belangrijke historische dokumenten. Volume III appeared in 1911. In the same year his The Portuguese in South Africa, a work based on Portuguese documents found in the British Museum, was brought out.

In 1897 T. once again went overseas and from 1897 to 1905 thirty-six volumes of the Records of the Cape Colony were published, nine volumes of the Records of South Eastern Africa appearing between 1898 and 1903. In his reports to parliament T. mentioned that from Monday mornings to Saturday nights he was working twelve hours a day. In addition to his monumental Records of the Cape Colony two shorter books, A little history of South Africa and How to read the news were also published in 1900. Progress of South Africa in the 19th century and The beginning of South African history appeared two years later.
After working for more than five years without a rest or a break, T.’s request to spend a short holiday in Cairo to do further research was refused and he was instructed to complete the volume of the Records of the Cape Colony on which he was working and then discontinue the work, as the ministry of L.S. Jameson*, then in power, had decided to economise. Since T. already had copies of documents that would fill eighteen volumes of the Records, he rushed this work through the printers in less than twenty months. This brought the Records to 1828, which was a phenomenal achievement for work of this kind.
Parliament granted T.’s request to retain the position of colonial historian, with the remuneration that was attached to it, for life. His pension was calculated according to the salary he had earned as a civil servant.
Although the work on the source publications was discontinued, T. found publishers for the following: The yellow and dark-skinned people of Africa south of the Zambesi (1910), which was revised in 1919 and reprinted as Ethnography and condition of South Africa before A. D. 1505; Catalogue of books and pamphlets, relating to Africa south of the Zambesi in the English, Dutch, French and Portuguese languages (1912); Documents relating to the Kaffir War of 1835 (1912) and Willem Adriaan van der Stel and other historical sketches (1912). He also began revising and editing a reprint of his work that was to appear after his death in eleven bulky volumes as the ‘Star edition’ of George Allen & Unwin in London. Thus until the last day of his life T. remained occupied with the work he loved.
With regard to his source publications, his methods kept on improving. He certainly was a pioneer in this field. The Utrecht rules did not exist at the time and the two source publications compiled by D. Moodie* and J.C. Chase* were, as far as Moodie is concerned, for the most part disconnected translations of documents of which the originals were missing. Chase contributed simply a massive collection of documents. T.’s source publications can still (1979) be compared with the original documents and anyone prepared to make a comparison of, for example, his Belangrijke historische dokumenten with the original sources would be filled with admiration at the high degree of accuracy he achieved.
T. began to arrange the archival documents, but his wish to be appointed full-time archivist was never granted. Although towards the end of his career he served on the Archives Commission, he had no respect for it and wrote in 1912: ‘As a matter of private opinion I should strongly object to a competent archivist being interfered with in any way by untrained men’.
As a historian T.’s pioneer work was internationally recognised, but a new generation of historians criticised it. In the 20th century men like J.S. Marais, W.M. MacMillan and C.W. de Kiewiet accused him of bias. Others doubted the accuracy of his facts and because T. did not refer to sources he was open to this kind of criticism. However, if one takes the trouble to analyse these accusations, as P.J. van der Merwe did in his work Die Kafferoorlog van 1793 (1940), it becomes clear that his critics were in the wrong.
Although T. realised the necessity of source references he was as a government official continually reminded that the costs of publications should be kept as low as possible. His historical sketch ‘Chronicles of two leaders of the great emigration Louis Triegard and Pieter Uys’ (in Willem Adriaan van der Stel and other historical sketches, 1913) begins with the words ‘No history has yet been written that cannot be improved upon’. Looking back on the fifty years during which he wrote his History of South Africa he regretted having always had to earn his living and that he had not been able to devote himself entirely to research. Given the time and money he would have learnt Arabic and visited India, as he thought this would eliminate the gaps in his history. His impartiality earned him many enemies – as he put it: ‘from the extreme wings of both sections of the community’. This was even more true after his death.
T.’s style is without pretension and very lucid, so that some of his critics have labelled him an ordinary chronicler. For instance I.D. Bosman* (infra), in his essay on T., objected to T.’s not indicating how he had arrived at his conclusions and found his history mainly a chronology of events. Moreover he maintained (and others agree with him) that T. paid insufficient attention to the influence of European events on South African history, that geographical factors were not adequately indicated and that the economic history in his works contained too many dry statistical data, reflected without having been processed and analysed. Yet anyone with a knowledge of archival research will admit that T. was the first historian in South Africa to base his comprehensive work on sound archival research. As far as this aspect is concerned, his work will remain important. No final evaluation has been made of T. as a historian. Like historiography, the assessment of history and historians is a continuous process.
However, T. did receive general recognition as a historian. After his first visit to Europe in 1882 he was made a member of various societies, including the Maatschappij der Nederlandsche Letterkunde of Leyden, the Historische Genootschap (Utrecht), the Commission pour L’Histoire des Eglises Wallones, the Koninklijke Nederlandsche Academie voor Wetenschappen, the Royal Historical Society of London and the Geographical Society of Lisbon. In Canada, Queen’s University of Kingston, Ontario, conferred (1895) an honorary LL.D. on him and in 1899 the University of the Cape of Good Hope awarded him an honorary D.Litt.
After his death his friends and admirers, especially F.W. Reitz, campaigned for the establishment of a memorial fund, and with the money that was collected E. Roworth* was commissioned to paint a portrait of him. This is now kept in the South African Library in Cape Town.
T. was married in East London to Mary Stewart (†23.11.1911), born in Argyllshire, Scotland. She was a daughter of John Stewart and his wife, Jeanette Fowlds. Two children, Martin William, and Hannah Catherine Hester, were born of the marriage. T. spent the last years of his industrious life with his daughter at Wynberg, where he was buried.

Saul Solomon – Statesman, printer and newspaper proprietor. Born in St. Helena on the 25th May 1817, he was of Jewish parents, Joseph and Hannah Solomon, of Kent who joined Joseph’s brother Saul, who was the leading merchant in the then flourishing island of St. Helena. Saul Solomon died in Kilcreggan (Scotland) on the 16th October 1892.

Young Saul was sent to England in 1822 to be educated with his elder brother Henry, under the care of a Jewish schoolmaster. (In later life he joined the Congregational Church, but did not sever all ties with the Jewish faith.) When the South African College was inaugurated in Cape Town in 1829, Saul, who had returned from Europe, was sent to Cape Town to become one of the college’s first students, and he was the principal prizeman at the first public examination.

His parents’ circumstances obliging him to end his formal education in 1831, he was apprenticed to the bookseller and printer George Greig. Saul rose to a partnership and about 1847, with his brother Henry, who had also been employed by Greig, acquired the proprietorship of the firm, since then called Saul Solomon & Co. The brothers printed the Government Gazette and, from its foundation in 1857, the Cape Argus, of which Saul became owner in 1863. For many years he did the bulk of all printing work at the Cape.

Saul Solomon played a leading part in the commer­cial progress of the Colony and accelerated the move­ment for the construction of the Cape Town docks and breakwater. In his day he was reproached for having been chiefly instrumental in ‘originating the railways, the docks and the telegraphs’. He played a great part in the Anti-Convict Agitation of 1849 and was among the founders of the Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Company, the Cape of Good Hope Gas Company, the Cape of Good Hope Savings Bank, and the Equitable Fire Office.

In 1854 Solomon was elected to represent Cape Town in the first Cape parliament, and he remained the member for Cape Town for 28 years. He declared himself opposed to ‘all legislation tending to introduce distinctions either of class, colour or creed’. From the first he became a leading figure in the House of Assembly, although he was so short that he had to stand on a footstool when addressing Parliament. His trunk was of normal size, but his legs were distorted and very short, as a result of inadequate treatment for rheumatic fever, followed by rickets, when he was a child. He could walk, but had to be assisted when boarding a cab. In one of his rare public references to his disability he said he had `the aspirations and passions of a man in the frame of a child’.

Solomon played a major part in securing responsible government for the Colony and when in 1872 it was achieved he was invited to form the first ministry, but declined because his physical handicap would have precluded much traveling, which he regarded as essential for a prime minister.

As early as 1854 he expressed himself in favor of an ultimate federation in South Africa. His Voluntary Bill to abolish State aid to churches and thus to extend equality of treatment to all religious denominations, first introduced in 1854 and repeatedly rejected over many years, was carried in 1875. He assiduously opposed unjust treatment of Natives and successfully opposed the sepa­ratist movement that emanated from the Eastern Province. Although he never took office, he was said to have made and unmade ministries. In Parliament he was the bench-mate of ‘Onze Jan’ Hofmeyr and evidently influenced him. ‘I believe that it would have been hardly possible’ , wrote Anthony Trollope, ‘to pass any measure of importance through the Cape legislature to which Solomon offered a strenuous opposition’; and the historian Froude found Solomon to be ‘the one politician at the Cape who never had an object in view except what he believed to be right and just’. In 1883 he retired from Parliament on account of ill health, and in 1888 went to live at Bedford in England, later in a village on Clydeside. His personal letters were presented to the South African Library by his 92-year old daughter Daisy in December 1972.

When Saul Solomon was 56 years of age, he married the 29-year-old Georgiana Margaret Thomson from Abbotsford, Scotland, who had taught in Liverpool until she was persuaded, in 1873, by Dr. Charles Murray of Edinburgh to accept the post of principal of the newly founded Good Hope Seminary in Cape Town. She married Solomon the next year. A highly intelligent woman, she was a fine public speaker and after her husband’s death, took part in the women’s suffrage movement in England and, with her youngest daughter, was rewarded with a month in Holloway prison.
The plight of Boer families ruined by the war in South Africa brought her back to further the interests of Boer women and children in the Transvaal in 1904. She wrote eloquent articles ap­pealing for funds and founded the Suid-Afrikaanse Vrouefederasie, which is still in existence. Mrs. Solomon died at Eastbourne on 24 June 1933. Of the Solomons’ five children, Margaret (Maggie) was drowned at the age of five; George died as a child; Saul became a judge of the Transvaal Supreme Court; W. E. Gladstone, who entered the Indian civil service, became a Cape landscape and portrait painter and wrote his father’s biography; and Daisy Dorothea, who did not marry, played a prominent part in women’s organisations in England.

P113L. W.E.G. Solomon: Saul Solomon, the member for Cape Town (1948); John Noble: South Africa past and present (1877); R.W. Murray: South African reminiscences (1904); P.A. Molteno: The life and times of Sir John Charles Molteno (1900); Ralph Kilpin: The romance of a colonial parliament (1930).

Source: SESA (Standard Encyclopedia of Southern Africa) Electronic Copyright Ancestry24

The story of Saul Solomon

Born on the Island of St Helena, 25 May 1817 and died in Kilcreggan, Scotland, 16 October 1892, printer, newspaper proprietor and Cape parliamentary leader, Saul was the second son of Joseph Solomon, a member of a Jewish family living in Kent, England. Joseph’s elder brother had established himself on the flourishing island of St Helena, where he became the leading merchant, high sheriff, and consul for France and Holland. There his brothers, Joseph and Benjamin, and subsequently his sister’s son, Nathaniel Isaacs, joined him. Joseph was married on the island to Hannah Moss, to whom he had been engaged in England. His two elder sons, Henry and Saul, were sent, at the ages of five and four respectively, to their grandmother in England, where they were initiated into the covenant of Abraham by the chief rabbi, Dr Solomon Herschell, and taught by an orthodox schoolmaster in Ramsgate.

When they returned to their parents on St Helena it was found that both boys had been suffering from ill-health and, as a consequence, it is supposed, of defective treatment, their lower limbs had ceased to grow. Both were dwarfed, and Saul remained so short that throughout his parliamentary career he was obliged to stand on a stool when he addressed the house. His torso was normal, however, and his head massive and high-domed.

On St Helena the two boys attended the English East India company’s school, but family tradition has it that in 1829 Saul was sent to Cape Town and enrolled in the newly established South African college. His name does not appear, however, in the official examination lists until 1831. In that year the family settled in Cape Town, and circumstances obliged Saul’s parents to end his formal education.

He was apprenticed to George Greig, printer and bookseller, his brother Henry becoming Greig’s bookkeeper. On 7 September 1834 Greig sponsored Henry’s baptism at St George’s (Anglican) church, but there is no record of Saul’s ever having been baptized. Saul and Henry, as well as their brothers and sisters, were influenced by the Rev. Dr John Philip and afterwards became members of the Congregational Church. There is evidence that Saul’s sympathy with the religion of his fathers was not altogether alienated; for in 1849 he subscribed to the fund for establishing the first synagogue at the Cape and in 1856 he helped to bring from England the Rev. Joel Rabinowitz, a Jewish minister with whom he maintained an intimate friendship for over thirty years. These facts are not without significance in view of his persistent efforts, over a period of twenty years, to have the Cape parliament pass the so-called Voluntary bill.

Saul rose rapidly in Greig’s printing business, in time becoming manager and subsequently acquiring a partnership in the firm. In 1847 he and Henry took over the business, which became Saul Solomon & Co. They printed the Cape of Good Hope Government Gazette, and from its foundation in 1857 by Darnell and Murray, the Cape Argus, as well as their own commercial paper, the Cape Mercantile Advertiser. In 1863 Saul became the proprietor of the Cape Argus and directed its policy forthwith. By that time he had become a public figure and a power in the Cape parliament.

When, in 1854, the Cape Colony was granted representative government, Saul was elected a member of the first legislative assembly, being one of the members for Cape Town. This he continued to be for the next twenty-eight years, consistently adhering to those principles which he had laid down as his political creed in his reply to the original requisition inviting him to stand in the first election. He announced himself ‘a liberal in politics and a Voluntary in religion’, and wrote: ‘I shall consider it a sacred duty to give my decided opposition to all legislation tending to introduce distinctions either of class, colour or creed’.

From the first he became a prominent figure in the assembly. He was the leader of the ‘Westerners’, successfully resisting a demand for the ‘separation’ of the eastern from the western Cape. When, in 1864, parliament met (for the only time) at Grahamstown, he defended the representative constitution, moving a series of resolutions (which were unanimously carried), protesting against the arbitrary action of the imperial government and censuring the governor, Sir Philip Wodehouse. Saul. played a prominent part, equally with William Porter and John Charles Molteno, in securing responsible government for the colony, and when, in 1872, it was achieved, these three were in turn invited to form the first ministry. Porter’s ill-health precluded him from taking office and Saul declined to form a ministry in the absence of Porter.

According to his son and biographer, his motive for refusal was his difficulty, physically handicapped as he was, in freely travelling about the country in the primitive conditions of those days. He held that a prime minister, in particular, should be known to the people and acquainted with every part of the country. But he declined also the office of speaker. In fact, he preferred the freedom of an independent member, able to advance or attack any policy according to his principles. His influence in parliament was none the less for his refusal to take office.

Throughout the years of Molteno’s ministry Saul lent his powerful support to the government on many occasions. ‘I believe’, wrote the visiting English novelist Anthony Trollope in 1878, ‘that it would have been nearly impossible to pass any measure of importance through the Cape Legislature to which he offered a strenuous opposition’. His Voluntary bill, to abolish state aid to churches and thus extend equality of treatment to all religious denominations, was introduced in the first parliament in 1854. It was rejected, and came up year after year, until it was eventually passed in 1875.

From his youth Saul had been stigmatized by his opponents as a ‘negrophile’, but he bore the pejorative description like a badge of honour and determinedly opposed any legislation that might result in what he held to be unjust treatment of the natives of the country. A measure carried through in the face of strong opposition was his bill for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases act in 1872, a valuable social reform. He was also an early and ardent advocate of a South African federation, seeing in the future a United States of South Africa. Ever an assiduous reader of blue-books and ready with precise information, with facts and figures and relevant evidence to back up his arguments, Saul was a clear, fluent and persuasive speaker.

Outside parliament he was active in the initiation and support of numerous enterprises for the economic welfare of the rapidly developing colony and the mother city that he represented. As an original member of the Table Bay harbour board, and through the powerful advocacy of his newspaper, the Cape Argus, he accelerated the early construction of the docks and the breakwater in Table bay. He was a founder and the chairman of the Mutual Life Assurance company, of the Inland Transport company (originated by himself about 1870 for conveying goods and passengers to the diamond-fields), a director of the Cape of Good Hope Gas company and of the Cape of Good Hope Savings Bank society. In addition to his commercial undertakings he was a member of the committee of the S.A.P.L.; a distinguished alumnus of the South African college, he donated prizes to it annually, and for nine years served on the college council.

In 1874 he married Georgina Margaret Thomson, the first principal of the Good Hope seminary, who survived him until 1933. Of the children, notable are Saul Solomon (1875-1960), judge of the supreme court, Daisy Dorothea Solomon, a leader in women’s social and political organizations in England, and W. E. Gladstone Solomon (1880-1965), painter, writer on Indian art and principal of the Sir J.J. School of Art, Bombay.

In 1883 failing health obliged Saul to retire from public life and go to England; he returned to the Cape in 1885 ‘greatly improved in health and spirits’, only to find that his business, which had been left in the hands of two relatives, had been ill-managed and was on the verge of bankruptcy. His intensive attempts to rehabilitate his firm led to a further breakdown in health. Suffering from stone in the bladder, a painful malady from which he never recovered, he embarked for England with his family in 1888. Four years later he died in the Clydeside village of Kilcreggan, where his family had taken a villa.

In the houses of parliament, Cape Town, there is a portrait in oils by W. H. Schröder and also a sculptured bust presented by his widow and unveiled in 1894. The Africana museum, Johannesburg, has a pencil sketch by W. A. Watton (1877) and there is a portrait in the album collection of the S.A.P.L.

Source: Dictionary of South African Biography

Images: National Archives of South Africa

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

David Isroff - 7th Mounted Rifles 1916 Aberdeen

The Jewish links to South Africa are said to have originated with the Portuguese voyages of exploration around the Cape in 1452. Jews were involved in these early voyages as mapmakers, navigators and sailors.

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In 1652, Jan van Riebeeck led the first permanent settlement of Dutch colonists under the auspices of the Dutch East India Company. With his group were Samuel Jacobson and David Hijlbron, the earliest recorded Jews.

The Dutch East India Company controlled the Cape from 1652 – 1795 and only permitted Protestant Christians to reside at the Cape despite the significant number of Jewish shareholders in the company. Due to this, Jacobson and Hijlbron were baptized Christians on December 25, 1669, with records of these baptisms found in the registers of the Dutch Reformed Church. This was in contrast to the Dutch West India Company, which sent two hundred Jews to colonize Brazil in 1642.

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Colorful characters such as the soldier Isaac Moses, known as “old Moses the Moneychanger” and Joseph Suasso de Lima of Amsterdam, who started the first Dutch newspaper in SA, arrived. Nathaniel Isaacs, an early explorer of Natal who befriended the famous Zulu chief, Chaka, was a Jew. Early British families include De Pass, who played a major part in the establishment of the shipping, sugar and fishing industries. Saul Solomon founded the English press in Cape Town.

Increased religious freedom, permitted under the short lived Batavian Republic in 1803, continued after the British took control in 1806. In 1820, the British government gave assisted passage and land grants to people willing to settle in the wilds of the Cape Colony. The first group of settlers was known as the 1820 settlers. Early British Jewish immigration occurred with about sixteen Jews arriving amongst the 1820 Settlers. This included the Norden and Norton families who played a significant role in the early development of the Cape Colony. In the 1860′s, other European Jews started to arrive from Germany and Holland.

By 1880, there were about 4,000 Jews in South Africa. It is estimated that more than half of these were brought out from Hesse-Cassel, Germany, by the Mosenthal family, who developed extensive trading operations in the Cape Colony, the Orange Free State and Natal.

Jewish Refugees en route to South Africa, in Jews' Temporary Shelter

From 1880, Jewish immigration increased rapidly. The pogroms (1881-1884) and other catastrophes – droughts, floods, deportation and fires, particularly in Kovno Gubernia, the Russian province with Kovno ( Kaunas now) were major factors in the emigration. The choice of South Africa was determined by special circumstances and not, on the whole by the attractions it offered to the general run of settlers who were not refugees. There was strong potential for success – in particular with the discovery of the diamond fields in Kimberley in 1869 and the goldfields in the Transvaal in 1886.

Sammy Marks, from Neustadt, Suwalki Gubernia (province), is regarded as the pioneer of Lithuanian emigration – he became a friend of President Paul Kruger and was highly successful as an industrialist. Barney Barnato, London born, was a partner of Cecil John Rhodes in the formation of the De Beers Diamond Company (later control passing to the German Jewish family of Ernest Oppenheimer with the assistance of the Rothschilds).

Over 47,000 Jews were enumerated in the first nationwide census of 1911. Most of these were Lithuanian (Litvaks) from the then provinces of Kovno, Vilna (Lithuania), Courland (Latvia), Northern Suwalki (East Prussia and later Poland) and Minsk, Grodno, Vitebsk, Mogilev (Belarus).

Louis Noick, Ostrich feather dealer

As an undeveloped country, South Africa offered opportunities to early immigrants that were far better than anything they could have had in Eastern Europe. The travelling hawker or “smous” became an institution in the remote rural areas. Many settled in small towns as shopkeepers and tradesmen. A number of very efficient entrepreneurial farmers were founders of the wool industry, ostrich feather industry and the citrus industry.

The Contemporary Community

The distinctive characteristics of this community as compared to other new world communities are:

The predominance of Litvaks (Jews from Lithuania, Latvia and portions of Belarus), hence the unusually homogenous composition of the community.

The very strong influence of Zionism in the South African community.

The amalgam of Anglo-Jewish form and Lithuanian spirit which characterizes the institutions, both lay and religious of the community. The Jewish day school movement is a powerful educational presence and its pupils consistently get excellent scholastic results.

The distinctive situation where Jews had formed part of a privileged minority dominating a multiracial society. This has also led to Jews becoming prominent in the anti-apartheid and liberation movements.

In the past 30 years, there has been a large emigration of Jews to the USA, Canada, Australia, Britain and Israel. Political and economic change has led to an influx of Zimbaweans, Israelis and Russian Jews.

Immigration

At various times attempts were made to limit the influx of Jews, e.g., in 1903, by excludion on the grounds that Yiddish was not a European language. This was successfully countered in the Cape Legislative Assembly.

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Jewish immigrants came by ship with the major port of entry being at Cape Town (a small number entered at Port Elizabeth and Durban). The major waves of migration occurred from 1895 onwards. Shipping agents, Knie and Co. and Spiro and Co., had subagents in shtetls (small towns) who accepted bookings for passage to South Africa.

Embarking initially at the port of Libau (Latvia), a good proportion of the Jews were transported on small cargo boats under rudimentary conditions to England. A much smaller number passed through Hamburg or Bremen.
Upon arriving in England, many came first to Grimsby or London and were taken to the Poor Jews’ Temporary Shelter (PJTS) in Leman Street in the East End of London.

The Shelter inmates received assistance in the form of board, lodging, medical treatment and travel advice was given by the Shelter. In one year alone, from November, 1902, 3,600 out of 4,500 Shelter inmates went on the Union Castle Line to the Cape. In 1902, the fare was £10.10.0 (ten guineas) – more than the fare to America (For a more detailed discussion of these and shipping records see the article by Prof A Newman SHEMOT Vol. 1:3 1993).

Emigration Records from Great Britain

Ships’ Passenger Lists at the Public Records Office, Kew, London, are stored under reference BT 26 Passenger Lists, Inwards, 1878-1888 and 1890-1960, these lists give the names of all passengers arriving in the United Kingdom where the ship’s voyage began at a port outside Europe and the Mediterranean Sea.

Names of passengers who boarded these ships at European ports and disembarked in the UK are included in the lists. Passenger lists for ships whose voyages both began and ended within Europe (including the UK and the Mediterranean Sea ) are not included.

BT 27 Passenger Lists, Outwards, 1890-1960, give the names of all passengers leaving the UK where the ship’s eventual destination was a port outside Europe and the Mediterranean Sea. Passenger lists for ships whose voyages both began and ended within Europe (including the UK and the Mediterranean Sea ) are not included.

The Cape Town Archives also houses immigration records of Jewish people which are held in the CCP collections.

Jewish Sources

The Johannesburg Jewish Helping Hand and Burial Society (Chevra Kadisha). The majority of Jews have been buried in large cities. Johannesburg probably accounts for over 75% of all burials. The earliest record is that of Albert Rosetenstein in May 1887. Burials commenced in 1887 for Braamfontein cemetery, Brixton in 1914 and West Park in 1942).
Specific information about individuals or communities may often be obtained from the South African Jewish Board of Deputies.
Synagogues and communal records include:

Marriages: Marriage authorization certificates and copy Ketubot marriage certificates) and ‘Gets’ (religious divorce)

Religious Institutions:

Orthodox : The Office of the Chief Rabbi can give copies of marriage and divorce certificates. (United Hebrew Congregation). The vast majority of Jews in South Africa are Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazim. These are Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities of the Rhineland. Many later migrated, largely eastward, forming communities in Germany, Poland, Austria, Eastern Europe and elsewhere between the 10th and 19th centuries. There is also a strong Lubavich (Chabad branch of Hasidic Judaism founded by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi ) movement and smaller Sephardi (Sephardim are those Jews associated with the Iberian peninsula and whose traditional language is Ladino.The name comes from Sepharad, a Biblical location that may have been Sardes, but identified by later Jews as the Iberian Peninsula (and southern France). In the vernacular of modern-day Israel , Sephardi has also come to be used as an umbrella term for any Jewish person who is not Ashkenaz) and Masorti congregations. There are 48 Orthodox Religious groups listed in Johannesburg.

Reform communities keep separate records (United Progressive Jewish Congregation of Johannesburg). Many Jews remain with a strong identity but outside the religious net. Intermarriage is very common, but emigration is the main limiting factor to population growth. (Reform Judaism affirms the central tenets of Judaism – God, Torah and Israel – even as it acknowledges the diversity of Reform Jewish beliefs and practices. All human beings are created in the image of God, and that we are God’s partners in improving the world. Tikkun olam – repairing the world – is a hallmark of Reform Judaism as we strive to bring peace, freedom, and justice to all people).

South African Online Jewish Genealogy

The Southern Africa SIG (special interest group) was founded in 1998.The SIG publishes a quarterly newsletter. General information about the SA Community and genealogical research is on

The SA-SIG has an electronic discussion group with a free subscription on JewishGen WebForm Centre for Jewish Migration & Genealogy Studies
Our intention is to create a comprehensive database of records and information relating to Jewish immigration to South Africa.
The thinking behind the inception of the Jewish Migration and Genealogy Project is twofold:
to map the entire history of Jewish migration to South Africa with the aim of providing authoritative and definitive data for the Discovery Centre at the South African Jewish Museum (SAJM).
To integrate the genealogical data in multi-disciplinary research initiatives under the auspices of the Isaac and Jessie Kaplan Centre at the University of Cape Town.
The primary aim of the project is to research the estimated 15,000 core families who migrated to Southern Africa between 1850-1950 from England, Germany, Lithuania, Latvia and Belarus.
In broad terms, the research will focus on the locations where the families originated, patterns of migration to South Africa, where families first settled, communities they established, growth of families, and subsequent movements and emigration. As such, aspects such as passenger arrival lists, naturalization lists, community records, records of marriages, births and deaths, family trees, etc., will be looked at.
The centre is under the umbrella of the Isaac and Jessie Kaplan Institute for Jewish Studies at the University of Cape Town and will also have a public access section located at the South African Jewish Museum.
South African Jewish Rootsweb
South African Jewish Museum South Africa Jewish History Virtual Tour
S. A. Special Interest Group for Jewish Genealogy
Jewishgen – Jewish genealogy main site
Witbank Jewish Genealogy site
Jewish South Africa – the South African Jewish community on the Web. Beyachad South Africa Board of Deputies
African Jewish Congress
Telfed – the website for the Southern African Jewish Community in Israel

Notable Personalities, Civic affairs, charities:

Morris Alexander
Bertha Solomon
Dr Henry Gluckman
Helen Suzman

Medicine
Sydney Brenner
Aaron Klug
Sir Raymond Hoffenberg Philip V. Tobias

Law
Issie Maizels
Arthur Chaskelson
Albie Sachs

Arts
Irma Stern
Sir Anthony Sher
Ronald Harwood

Commerce and Industry
Mosenthal family
Oppenheimers

Agriculture
Esreal Lazarus – potato king
Ostrich industry
Citrus- Schlensinger
Motion Pictures- Schlezinger

Insurance
Schlezinger
Doanald Gordon
Sir Mark Wienberg

Acknowledgements and Source: Saul Isroff

An almanac is here taken to be a book containing a full calendar as well as information on social, economic and similar topics. It becomes a directory if it contains a list of people’s names and addresses, and in its most comprehensive form it becomes a year-book. The old almanacs and their successors are of great value in research into social, economic and cultural history, because they often contain data not easily found elsewhere. A complete survey of those published in South Africa cannot possibly be given, and only those preserved in public libraries will be dealt with here.The earliest South African almanacs appeared at the Cape in 1795-1797 and were printed by J. C. Ritter. A fragment of his Almanach for 1796 is the oldest piece of South African printing that has come down to us. Cape Town was the main centre for the publication of almanacs all through the 19th century. The most important issues, or series of issues, were the following:

1801-27 (1801 is preserved only in manuscript, and 1803 is missing. Known as The African Court Calendar (De Afrikaansche Staatsalmanak), this publication was published ‘under Government approval’ and consisted principally of an account of the Colony’s government as well as the civil list, the army list and the calendar itself, which was bilingual. The 1807 issue gives a summary of the history of the Cape Colony and has a supplement, African theatricals. From 1815 onward each issue includes Governor W. A. van der Stel’s century-old gardening calendar, and from 1810 a list of the principal inhabitants of the Cape.

1828-35. The South African Almanack and Directory , issued by the well-known publisher and printer George Greig. This was a private undertaking, as were all the succeeding almanacs. From 1830 it was considerably enlarged, and contained advertisements, articles and a ground-plan of Cape Town. From 1832 it included lithographs by H.C. de Meillon of important Cape buildings.

1836-50. Continuation of the previous almanac by B. J. van de Sandt. The name varies, but from 1841 is The Cape of Good Hope Almanack and Annual Register. In 1843 it contains an etching of Table Mountain and an account of the fight of Comdt. J. I. Rademeyer near Trompetter’s Drift in the Frontier War of 1835. The issues for 1845 and 1846 are, typographically and otherwise, editions de luxe, for example in the advertisements, which give a good picture of the times.

1852-62. Continuation of the preceding by Van de Sandt’s foster-son, B. J. van de Sandt de Villiers. The almanac has now a smaller and handier format. Attention is given to new parts of South Africa : Natal , the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, to the explorations of Livingstone and others, and to local events and politics. The almanac for 1853 contains lists of edible fishes, and that for 1855 lists of indigenous trees by C. W. L. Pappe.

1863. Continuation of the preceding by a new proprietor, John Noble. There was no issue in 1864.

1865-67. Continuation by C. Goode under the title of The Cape Town Directory . There are interesting articles on the history of the Cape Colony by A. Wilmot.

1868-97. The Almanac was taken over by Saul Solomon & Co., at first under the title (sometimes slightly changed) of The General Directory and Guide Book to the Cape of Good Hope and its Dependencies. In 1888 this became The Argus Annual and Cape of Good Hope Directory , from 1889 to 1894 The Argus Annual and South African Directory, and from 1895 to 1897 The Argus Annual and South African Gazetteer. The almanac had now become a statistical year-book and directory; it is comprehensive and instructive, and crammed with information about the whole of South Africa. Other important publications were the following: 1819: The Cape of Good Hope Calendar and Agriculturists’ Guide, by Geo. Ross, published for the British Settlers of 1820.

1826: The Cape of Good Hope Almanack, by W. Bridekirk, which contains a chronological list of events at the Cape in 1824-25.

1832-54 (probably with interruptions): De Kaapsche Almanak en Naamboek, by Joseph Suasso de Lima.

1840: De Zuid-Afrikaansche Blygeestige Almanak en Naamlyst, by J. J. de Kock (Cape Town), a remarkable literary almanac.

1850-1926: Almanak voor de Ned. Geref. Kerk van (since 1885: in) Zuid-Afrika. With alterations to its title from time to time, the well-known ‘Kerkalmanak’ has appeared regularly up to the present day. Its founder and compiler – until his death in 1882 – was Dr. Philip Faure. Immediately afterwards the Cape Synod accepted responsibility for the work, which was since then undertaken by the church administration of the N.G. Kerk. After 1926 the title appears in Afrikaans as hereafter.

1927-29: Almanak vir die Nederduits(-)Gereformeerde Kerke in Suid-Afrika. In 1927 the Almanak was taken over by the Raad van Kerke (Council of Churches) with the archivist of the N.G. Kerk, the Rev. A. Dreyer, mainly responsible for its compilation. He remained the central figure in the evolution of this work until his death in 1938. He changed its title.

1930-43: Jaarboek van die Ned. Geref. Kerke in SuidAfrika. In 1940 the work was entrusted to the Church archivist, Dr. J. A. S. Oberholster. He continued it until 1950, with a slight change in the title as hereafter.

1944-62: Jaarboek van die Gefedereerde Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerke. From 1950 until his death in 1964 the Rev. J. Norval Geldenhuys was the chief compiler.

1963- : Jaarboek van die Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerke (Mother, Mission and Bantu churches). Under its new title this work remains an indispensable source of information regarding ecclesiastical and related matters and is by far the oldest South African work of reference in this field.

1870 until today : Almanak voor de Geref. Kerk in Zuid-Afrika. The title later appears in Afrikaans.

1907 until today: Almanak voor de Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk in Zuid-Afrika (later: Afrika). From 1930 in Afrikaans, it developed greatly under Prof S. P. Engelbrecht.

1866-1908: The S.A. Agriculturists’ Almanac, by J. H. F. von Wurzburg-Schade (Wynberg).

1877-1918 with some interruptions: Die Afrikaanse Almanak, burgerlik en kerkelik , by the Rev. S. J. du Toit and others (Paarl). One of the principal publica ions of the First Afrikaans Language Movement.

1887: Deutscher Volkskalender , published by Hermann Michaelis at Cape Town . Continued 1912-14 as (Illustrierter ) Sud-Afrikanischer Volkskalender in Johannesburg. A rich source of knowledge about the German community and literature in South Africa.

1875: Descriptive Handbook of the Cape Colony : its condition and resources, by J. Noble.

1886: Official Handbook: History, productions, and resources of the Cape of Good Hope, by J. Noble.

1893 and 1896: Illustrated Official Handbook of the Cape and South Africa, by J. Noble.

1848-72: Eastern Province Annual Directory and Almanac, continued as Eastern Province Year-book and Commercial Directory, Grahamstown, 1872-78 (?).

1872-1874-8; 1883-90; 1892-93: Port Elizabeth Directory and Guide to the Eastern Province, Port Elizabeth.

1896-1910: P.E. Year-book and Directory, Port Elizabeth.

1888-89 et sqq.: The General Directory of South Africa, etc. by Dennis Edwards. This gradually supplanted the Argus Annual (see above). From 1909/10 it bore the title United South Africa.

Outside the Cape may be mentioned:
1863-?: The Natal Almanac, Directory and Yearly Register, P. Davis & Sons (Pietermaritzburg). A comprehensive and compendious almanac, which continued at least into the 1920′s.

1876: De Oranjevrijstaatsdshe Almanak ( Bloemfontein ). A kind of almanac of public affairs, which two years later became:

1878- 1939(?): De Boerenvriend Huisalmanak (Bloemfontein). Its title was afterwards preceded by the word ‘Express’; it was eventually published in Afrikaans. Carl Borckenhagen was the principal figure in its production.

1904-32 (or after): De Boerenvriend (afterwards Die Boerevriend ) Huisalmanak ( Bloemfontein ). An imitation of the above-mentioned almanac, which in consequence added the word Express to its title.

1893-94: Vijstaatsch Jaarboek en Almanak – Free State Annual and Trades Directory, Bloemfontein.

1892-99: Staats-Almanak der (later: voor de ) Zuid Afrihaansche Republiek. This was an official publication, a complete and dependable annual review of the government institutions of the Transvaal, with a historical calendar.

1877-98(?) with interruptions: Jeppe’s Transvaal Almanac and Directory. Compiled by the well-known F. H. Jeppe, cartographer and publisher.

1893 et sqq.: De Kaap Annual (Transvaal), printed at Barberton.

Towards the end of the 19th cent. the transition from almanacs to directories is much clearer, as appears from the following list:

1891; 1893-97: Natal Directory, later Braby’s Natal Directory.

1893: 1897-98: The Dennis Edwards Cape Town Directory

1894; 1896: Longland’s Johannesburg and Districts Directory

1897: Juta’s Directory of Cape Town

1898: Juta’s Directory of Cape Town and Suburbs

1899-1927: Juta’s Directory of Cape Town, Suburbs and Simonstown. There are further changes of title to Cape Peninsula, etc.

1899: The Dennis Edwards S.A. Year-book and Directory of Cape Town. This year-book appeared until 2932.

1899: Longland’s Transvaal and Rhodesian Directory

1900-03; 1906-0: Kimberley Year-book and Directory, by Mark Henderson.

1900; 1904-05: Donaldson and Hill’s Eastern Province ( Cape Colony ) Directory

1901 : Complete Guide to Cradock – professional and trade directory, compiled by W. Taylor and published by Thomas Scanes, Cradock.

1901/2; 1905/06;1908/09; 1909/10 et sqq.: Guide to South Africa for the use of tourists, sportsmen, invalids and settlers. This continued until at least 1949, with a change of title to Guide to South and East Africa, etc.

1901; 1902-04: Longland’s Cape Town and District

Owing to the growth of communal life year-books and directories became dominant in the 20th century as information and reference books concerning social, political and commercial conditions. The contents are usually sufficiently indicated by the titles. Among the most important should be mentioned:

1902/03 ; 1903/04: The South African Year Book , by S. M. Gluckstein ( London and Cape Town ).

1905-10: Het Z.A. Jaarboek en Algemene Gids, by G. R. Hofmeyr and C. G. Murray ( Cape Town ), (later B. J. van de Sandt de Villiers), the first complete general South African year-book in Nederlands.

1910 until today: Official South African Municipal Year Book. An indispensable source of information about cities and towns.

1911-12: The South African Almanack and Reference Book, by E. Glanville, Cape Town . Excellent summaries of a diversified nature.

1914 et sqq. (?): The South African Year Book, by H. W. Hosking, London

1914 et sqq.: Laite’s Commercial Blue Book for South Africa. A good and popular work in its field. Along with the General Directory of South Africa of Dennis Edwards, it belongs to the stream of bulky South African directories published during the present century, among which those of Donaldson and Hill (afterwards Ken Donaldson and Co., or Donaldson and Braby, or Braby, etc.) are particularly important.

They are indispensable sources of social and commercial information. Mention must also be made of:

1898 et sqq.: The Transvaal and Rhodesia Directory

1901 et sqq.: The Natal Directory

1902 et sqq.: The Orange River Colony Directory

1902/03 et sqq.: The Western Province ( Cape Colony ) Directory

1907 et sqq.: The United Transvaal Directory

1912/13 et sqq.: Cape Province Directory

In due course titles change (e.g. Colony becomes Province), as do regional divisions. So there are now Cape Times Directory of Southern Africa (1964, 31 st edition), Directory of Southern Africa and Buyers’ Guide (1964, 31 st edition ), Braby’s Commercial Directory of South, East and Central Africa (1964, 40th edition), to which may be added the special Braby’s Directories for Natal , Transvaal, the O.F.S. and the Cape, and many city directories.

Since 1907 Donaldson produced an annual South African Who’s Who, with photographs; the title for a time included the words Social, Business and Farming. Since 1961 Who’s Who of Southern Africa, under this new title, has been published by Wootton & Gibson, Johannesburg. It is an indispensable work of reference about people. The following English works of this Directory nature, with photographs, may also be mentioned:

1905, 1907, 1909: Anglo-African Who’s Who and Biographical Sketch Book with photos in 1909, by W. H. Wills ( London ).

1905: Men of the Times: Pioneers of the Transvaal and glimpses of South Africa, Transvaal Publishing Company, Johannesburg

1906: Men of the Times: Old Colonists of the Cape Colony and Orange River Colony , Transvaal Publishing Company, Johannesburg. A particularly valuable work, with excellent pictures.

1910: Souvenir of the Union of South Africa, Cape Town. People of political importance in the Union and the four provinces.

1913 : Women of South Africa, Cape Town, by C. I. Lewis.

1926: Sports and Sportsmen in South Africa, Cape Town

1929: Sports and Sportsmen in South Africa and Rhodesia, Cape Town

1933-34: The Arts in South Africa, W. H. Knox. Knox Printing and Publishing Co., Durban. Photos of artists are included.

1938: The South African Woman’s Who’s Who, Biographies Ltd., Johannesburg

1958/9 and 1959/60: Who’s Who in Entertainment and Sport in South Africa, by Don Barrigo, Johannesburg

Smaller, sporadic publications were The Natal Who’s Who, 1906.

Who is Who – Wie is Wie in Pretoria, 1951.

In Afrikaans there are no regular publications of this nature. The following sporadic publications may, however, be mentioned:

1930: Die Nasionale Boek, compiled by I. M. Goodman, Johannesburg, and dealing with the history, leaders and members of the National Party.

1942: Die Afrikaner Personeregister, Johannesburg, compiled by N. Diederichs and others.

1953: Die Triomf van Nasionalisme in Suid-Afrika (1910-53), compiled by D. P. Goosen and others. A commemorative album of the National Party.

1955: Die Afrikanerfamilienaamboek en Personalia, Cape Town, by J. J. Redelinghuis.

1958 et sqq. (irregularly): Wie is Wie in Suid-Afrika, Johannesburg, compiled by D. F. Kruger. Bilingual.

There are also, mainly in English, numerous national, provincial, and municipal handbooks and guide-books, generally well illustrated. Only a few can be mentioned here. From the S.A. Railways we have Natal, 1903; Cape Colony today, by A. R. E. Burton, 190 et sqq.; Natal Province, 1911; Travel in South Africa, 1921 et sqq. The Cape Town City Council came out with a series of handbooks: The Cape of Good Hope, 1909 et sqq., and the Pretoria City Council (with the Railways) with The City of Pretoria and Districts, 1913. An excellent handbook dealing with economic and social matters, Die Afrikanergids (1942-1944/5) by J. J. Haywood, was’specifically intended for the Afrikaner.

Particularly important is the Government’s Official Year Book of the Union of South Africa -Offisiele jaarboek van die Unie van Suid-Afrika, 1910-60, though it did not actually appear every year. In 1964 it was supplemented by a Statistical Year Book – Statistiese Jaarboek. Since 1957 there has also appeared an unofficial year-book State of the Union , in 1962 renamed State of South Africa. There are also the calendars of the various universities. Another important private publication is the Year Book and Guide to Southern Africa, compiled by the Union-Castle Mail Steamship Company since 1893, of which the 67th edition appeared in 1967. It was divided into two volumes in 1950, since when the Year Book and Guide to East Africa has been appearing separately each year. Both were edited by A. Gordon-Brown until 1967.

Another type of annual, of a literary nature, is represented by the many Christmas and New Year annuals appearing from time to time. Mention may be made, for example, of the Cape Times Christmas Number, 1899-1905, and Cape Times Annual, 1910-41; Ons Land Kerstmisnummer, 1906-29; Die Burger Nuwejaarsnommer (at first Kerstmis Nummer ), 1915-25; Suid-Afrika, 1938/39-40/41; the British S.A. Annual, 1915/16 et sqq.; the South African Annual , 1906 et sqq.; De (afterwards Die) Koningsbode Kerstnummer (afterwards Kersnommer), 1914 up to the present, etc. At the year’s end popular magazines such as Die Huisgenoot and Sarie Marais regularly issue bulky Christmas or holiday numbers.

Today there are also year-books for almost every industry in South Africa – for farming, mining, engineering, fisheries, textiles, footwear, finance, the hotel industry, medical services, etc.

The Cape Town Congregational Church started as a Church for the members of the 93rd Regiment of the Sutherland Highlanders.
With the arrival of James Read in 1800 a Calvinistic Society was formed with members pledging to help each other in Christian Life. With the arrival then of Rev. George Thom in 1813 members of the Fellowship on 6 May 1813 gave each other the hand of Christian fellowship, which constituted themselves into a church and the Rev Thom, conducted the first Free Church service ever held on South African soil. Out of 90 communicants, 63 were members of the 93rd Regiment of the Sutherland Highlanders. The following year this regiment was transferred to India leaving the membership of the church with 27 members.
On 3 April 1820 Dr. John Philip arrived in the Cape and was formally invited to the Pastorate of this Church. He accepted the offer however with the stipulation that the church should be governed by a Church Meeting – the start of the First Definite Congregational Church in South Africa came into being. They met in the Orphan Chambers in Parliament Street and moved later to a building in Church Square which later became the Cape Town Club, and was known as the Union Chapel. Later a Church was built in Caledon Square which became the headquarters of the Congregational Church in Cape Town.
This church however had a small membership. The group that met in Church Square had to vacate the premises and the Rev Pitt started the Trinity Congregational Church, quite independently from the one in Caledon Square, in the St. Martini's School room in Queen Victoria Street. The use of this building was kindly granted at a nominal rental by the German Evangelical Lutheran Church in Long Street.
The first service to be held in this room by the Rev Pitt was on Sunday 11 April 1896 and three adults and 5 children were present. It was decided to buy as site for a church in the area known as Tamboerskloof. Part of the Saasveld Historical Gardens was obtained and the new Trinity Church, Kloof Street was opened on the 13 February 1898.
A Management board was also formed. On 30 January 1907 the Trinity Church, Kloof Street and the Congregational Church Caledon Square united and the Union Church in Kloof Street were formed. Early in 1916 , Rev Pitt and his Church Council started looking for a larger site for the Church. In 1919 Rev Pitt's health became poorly and a young man was appointed to assist his as the members did not want him to retire. He died in July 1919 and was succeeded by the Rev. Penalligon. In 1920 the present site was bought and a church built was officially opened by Princess Alice Countess of Athlone in April 1925. In 1917 Rev Bowen also became the minister but died in 1928.
The Stephenson Hall was added in 1935, in 1964 Louis Bosman Hall and in 1968 the Chapel.
Many ministers of the church occupy a notable place in South African History, including Dr. John Philip, Rev James Cameron, Rev T.D. Philip and the Rev John Mullineux.
But perhaps one of the most prolific people was the famed explorer Dr. Livingstone would preach at the desk which is now the communion table inside our church.
One of the other prominent members of the church was actually invited to serve as Prime Minister; the man was Saul Solomon founder of the Cape Argus.
The organ was bought from St. Mary's in Woodstock, and completely renovated after the last war in memory of Messrs Ernest Hammond, Jack Van Niekerk, Duncan Bowen, Neville Bellamy and Jack Mills who paid the supreme sacrifice during the 2nd World War.
If you look near the entrance to the Graafs Trust Building, you will see a circular blue plaque reading "Site of Union Chapel. First Congregational Church in South Africa 1921"
The following churches were also then established: Claremont Congregational Church 1840, Sea Point 1893, Observatory 1894 and Rondebosch 1903.
The church records for the Trinity Church which go back to 1821 are now housed in the Kloof Street Church. The Sea Point Church records are also available at the church as well.