Souvenir Saturday: Bill Gadsden in Durban High School Group 1880s

                                     From 'The Durban High School Record 1866-1906'

One evening my uncle arrived at our family home unexpectedly bearing a leather-bound volume entitled The Durban High School Record. The book was in poor condition but all the pages were there. He triumphantly pointed out a group photograph entitled The School in the Eighties and drew our attention to a name in the caption: 'Bill Gadsden'. My father was the only 'Bill Gadsden' I'd ever known or heard of - and he certainly wasn't around in the 1880s, having been born in 1910.

His father was Sydney Bartle Gadsden, born in 1880, and not a contender for the 'Bill' in the photo.

This was the beginning of a search for the unknown Bill Gadsden who had attended the Durban High School during the 1880s. For a start, the caption of the photo was not helpful in identifying which boy was meant to be Bill Gadsden - the rows are made up of inconsistent numbers of boys and masters and there are some missing names. However, it seems likely that Bill Gadsden is 4th from the right in the 3rd row - the 3rd row from the front, that is, ignoring the rows' numbering given in the caption.

This Bill Gadsden, as research was to prove, was my grandfather's brother, William Gadsden of whom my father had no prior knowledge. The brother had never been mentioned in the family and the only two of my grandfather's siblings of whom my father knew were his father's sisters, Faith and Hope.

After the loss of my grandfather's parents he and his sisters were farmed out to various families until the children reached adulthood. It's possible they never saw their brother William who on leaving school was employed as an apprentice on the Natal Harbour Works, later apparently moving to Verulam on the North Coast of Natal where he worked as a carpenter. He married and had one daughter. My father had had no idea this young man existed and was astonished to see the photograph and to hear the results of my research into our mystery family member. To begin with my father was sceptical and found it hard to believe my grandfather wouldn't have spoken of such a close relation. Still, the brothers must have grown apart with the break up of the family and growing up in different foster homes. Whether there were other causes of estrangement remains unknown.

We must also consider that William died in his early twenties - 24 - of enteric fever (a common cause of death in colonial Natal resulting from impure drinking water) on 22.12.1900 at Verulam, Natal. He was probably buried at Verulam cemetery; his grave has so far not been found. His death notice refers to him as Colonial Englishman. My father William Bell Gadsden was born ten years after his uncle's death and remained unaware that there was a widow and a daughter - a first cousin - living not far away from the rest of the Durban Gadsdens.

William attended the Durban Boys' High School from 1888-1892. His address during that time was 'The Point, Durban'. His father was then employed by the Natal Harbour Works.

The Natal Witness carried a brief announcement of William's birth thus:

Gadsden 18-July-1876 (date of event), 28-July-1876 (date of advert) at the Bluff the wife of Mr Thomas Gadsden of a son. 

Thomas Gadsden's wife was Eliza Ann Bell, daughter of Port Captain William Bell. The couple lost a son named Phillip born in 1879; there is a record of Phillip's baptism at St Paul's Church, Durban. 

Fatal Accident at Bluff Lighthouse; Keepers' Rules

Bluff lighthouse

On 10 April 1898 Head Lighthousekeeper at the Bluff, Frederick STEPHENSON, wrote to Charles CROFTS, Engineer in Charge of the Natal Harbour Works, to report "a serious accident which happened about 4 p.m. yesterday whereby a man named WILLS ... fell from the top of the Lighthouse to the enclosure below. He was immediately attended to by the Dr. of the Naval Corps and removed to the hospital." 

The 2nd Lighthousekeeper, who was on duty at the time, had been asked by four Naval Volunteers to conduct them on a tour of the lighthouse and when entering the gate two civilians also came running up and asked if they might be included. When in the lightroom the civilians and some of the Natal Naval Volunteers went outside on to the balcony, while the keeper was explaining the workings of the light to one of the other men. There was a sudden shout that a man had fallen over.

WILLS had ascended the ladder leading to a small footway round the lantern, used by the keepers when cleaning the glass of the lantern, and fell from this to the ground, a distance of over 70 feet. He died in hospital at 9.30 the following evening. Charles Crofts reported to the Minister of Land and Works that WILLS had been employed in one of the shops owned by Randles Bros & Hudson in Durban.

From the official Instructions to Lighthousekeepers, it would seem that the keeper on duty had allowed six visitors to enter the lighthouse at the same time, when three was the maximum number laid down in the regulations - which were many and detailed:

"The lightkeepers are expected to conduct themselves with civility to strangers by shewing the premises at such hours as are convenient, and do not interfere with the proper duties of their office, it being expressly understood that strangers will not be admitted into the lighthouse after sunset and before 10 a.m. No children under ten years of age to be admitted into the lightroom at any time. No money or other gratuities shall be taken from visitors on any pretence whatever. No more than three visitors shall have access to the lightroom at one and the same time. The lightkeeper must not on any pretence whatever admit persons in a state of intoxication. No visitors entering the lightroom shall be permitted to handle any part of the Apparatus or make drawings thereof or to take any dimensions unless he produce a written authority for so doing from the Colonial Chief Engineer and on no account is any visitor to be allowed to enter the lightroom or to remain in it without one of the lightkeepers being present. No smoking to be allowed by visitors within the lightroom, nor are they to be permitted to bring food or liquor into the lighthouse under any pretence. No dogs are to be allowed to enter the lighthouse."

Whether the unfortunate WILLS was "in a state of intoxication" or merely succumbed to an attack of vertigo, history doesn't relate.

The lightkeepers' rules also mention that "a book shall be kept at the lighthouse in which all visitors are to enter their names. This book is to be under the charge of the Head Lightkeeper."

If that visitors' book were to have survived, what a wealth of names from Durban and elsewhere it would offer. Apart from this volume, the Head Lightkeeper kept a daily journal, of which a copy was sent to the Colonial Engineer every month, as well as a report book in which remarks as to incidents which might occur during the watch were noted as well as the times at which the keepers came on and off duty. Sadly, none of these records are still in existence.

For my article Keeper of the Bluff Light see:
molegenealogy.blogspot.co.za/p/keeer-of-bluff-light.html