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| Bluff Lighthouse and Signal Station circa 1870s |
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Extract from the Natal Almanac 1878 giving names of employees in the Engineer's Office Port Office, Customs Excise and Lighthouse. My great grandfather Thomas Gadsden was earning 125 pounds per annum. His brother in law Douglas Bell as Assistant Keeper was earning 100 pounds. A tidewaiter, incidentally, was a customs officer who checked goods when a vessel landed, to make sure duties were paid. You may find an ancestor's name among those listed. This edition of the Almanac appeared the year before the Anglo-Zulu War took place, and the year before Thomas Gadsden's son Phillip was born on 14 May 1879, only to die in infancy. |
