Passengers to Natal: 1866

The arrival at Natal of the Aberdeen Direct Clipper, Umgeni, one of John T Rennie’s line, was reported in the Natal Mercury of 27 February 1866. A passenger list in the Shipping Intelligence column offers an example of how information as well as pointers towards further research can be gleaned from such a source.*

A group of Government Immigrants on board is a reminder that the scheme introduced in 1857, enabling those already settled in Natal to nominate and stand surety to others wishing to settle in the Colony, was still operating. The sureties could be relatives or prospective employers to whom the immigrants were contracted.

There were cabin passengers on the Umgeni, too, notably three missionaries including Rev. August Prozesky who worked among the Zulus at Konigsberg (Newcastle, Natal) from 1868 – 1900, and built the Lutheran Mission Church there.**

Passengers per Umgeni from London (as reported in the Natal Mercury):
Cabin: Revds. Carl Richter, Theodore Glockner and August Prozesky; Mr and Mrs John Gavin and child, Mrs Robert Forrest, Mrs Payne, Miss A Hubbard.

Government Immigrants:
Mrs E E Parker
Mrs E Gadd
Mrs F Hansen
Mrs S Keith
Messrs:
Bath
Campbell
Goodwin
Hosking
McCabe
Milne
Thos Williams
Misses:
M A McIntosh
M Mullins
M Roper
A Forester
Mr & Mrs Barrett
Mr & Mrs Drew & infant
Mr & Mrs Harmsworth
Mr & Mrs Harmsworth jnr
Mr & Mrs Jacob & 4 children
Messrs Hansen (2)
M Cleeves

Selecting a few names at random, interesting stories emerge: Thomas Bath was contracted to the sugar planter John Vacy Lyle of the farm Fenton Vacy on the North coast of Natal. A by-product of this estate was the fiery Fenton Vacy rum. The 19 year-old Maria Roper, whose surety was the tailor Ebenezer Beves, later became Mrs Beves: whether this was planned prior to Maria’s arrival in Natal, or a case of love at first sight, history doesn’t relate.

Annie Forester appears to be a solo passenger but in fact, aged 8, was travelling with her mother and stepfather, Mary and George Drew and the Drews’ infant son, Ernest. Fanny Hansen, with her two sons Benjamin and George, was joining her husband, William Hansen, a bricklayer who had settled earlier in Durban. The Barrett couple – John and Sarah - were going to employment on a farm at Weenen. John Campbell’s surety was the mason, William McIntosh, in Pietermaritzburg. Mrs Parker is a mystery passenger as she doesn't appear in the immigration records; perhaps she called herself by a different surname  for her new start in the Colony.

John Gavin, a well-known colonist who originally arrived in Natal on the Globe, made more than one voyage between the Colony and England. He was to meet a dreadful fate in 1875, falling into a pan of boiling sugar juice.

The Aberdeen Clipper Umgeni, 1864

The ship Umgeni brought further immigrants to Natal in five sailings between 1866 and 1874. The following year she was re-rigged as a barque - fewer crew members were then required to sail her. She ended her career as a coal hulk at the port of Durban.








*   Stating the obvious? Perhaps, but a blog visitor asked: ‘What’s all the fuss about passenger lists? They’re just lists of names.’ Indeed.

** The book Hope Farm: Mission Stories was translated from the German by Prozesky’s great grandson Oscar Prozesky.

Heritage Month: Desecration of Prince Imperial Memorial and Intombi Military Cemetery

Prince Imperial Memorial: damage (Natal Witness)

In July 2012 it was reported that the memorial to the Prince Imperial, near Nqutu in the Dundee district, had been the target of vandals for the second time in six months. The marble cross marking the site was destroyed and the supporting structure seriously damaged.

This served no purpose: the site is a memorial – there are no human remains buried there and nothing of value is hidden below the surface.

The Prince Imperial

The cross commemorates the death of Prince Louis Napoleon who was the only son of the Emperor Napoleon III and the Empress Eugenie, and was also the great-nephew of Napoleon I.

The Prince Imperial, who had been educated towards a military career, obtained permission from Queen Victoria to sail to South Africa with British reinforcements as a special observer during the Anglo-Zulu War, arriving in Cape Town on 26 March 1879 and later continuing his journey to Durban and subsequently to Pietermaritzburg. He was attached to the staff of Lord Chelmsford as an extra aide-de-camp; the responsibility for the Prince’s safety rested heavily on Chelmsford, especially as that young gentleman was an enthusiastic soldier.

In June, the Prince was among a detachment, including Lieutenant Carey, sent to choose a camp for the army’s march on Ulundi. During this patrol the troops came under surprise attack and the Prince was killed. His body was recovered and returned to England. A year later the Empress Eugenie sailed to South Africa to visit the place where the Prince had died, and where the commemorative memorial had been set up.

Intombi Military Cemetery: damage (Natal Mercury)

The incident at the Prince Imperial memorial site followed hard upon the heels of the desecration of the Intombi Military Cemetery near Ladysmith, earlier in the year. A grave was dug up, creating a hole 2m deep, and a headstone was damaged.

From the photograph taken at the site the headstone appears to be one of the distinctive Border Mounted Rifles’ memorials. I believe the headstone could be that of William Dixon Smith, Lieutenant Quartermaster of the BMR, who died at Intombi in January 1900 – not a faceless soldier to me, but a real person, whose Siege letters I’ve read and whose life and family history I have researched in depth. The situation is deplorable no matter which grave has been disturbed.

A spokesman for Amafa/Heritage KZN believes that buttons, badges and other military items were the object of the illegal excavations, though such items would not have been buried in this formal cemetery. It was therefore wasted effort on the part of the vandals and restoration of the damaged section will be expensive. It is an offence to remove any relic from a battlefield or grave site and any person found guilty of the crime faces a prison sentence; there is a reward offered for information leading to a conviction.

A disturbing aspect of the incidents is that, according to Amafa, relic hunters pay locals to unearth valuable collectors’ items from these sites. This may be the case in certain instances but if relic hunters are knowledgeable about collecting militaria they would presumably do their homework before delegating any excavations: it seems unlikely that a site such as the Prince Imperial memorial would be targeted since no militaria could be expected to be found where no body lies buried.

What price heritage?


Footnote:

In an earlier refurbishment programme at Intombi Military Cemetery, the cross (seen left) which should have been attached to a Border Mounted Rifles memorial has instead been cemented onto the plinth of an unknown soldier of the 2nd Battn Rifle Brigade. A number of memorial stones to men of the Border Mounted Rifles now lack the surmounting cross bearing the famous Boot and Spur of that regiment.

Heritage Month: Matjiesfontein and James Logan

The Lord Milner Hotel, Matjiesfontein, built in 1899, became
a British military hospital during the Anglo-Boer War.

Matjiesfontein is in the Klein Karoo, an extraordinary Victorian town which embodies the spirit of heritage in an all-encompassing manner.

Founded in 1884 by the Scottish railwayman-turned-entrepreneur James Douglas Logan, Matjiesfontein was transformed from a small railway halt in the middle of nowhere to an outpost of the British Empire visited by the rich and famous. These included Olive Schreiner, who lived in the town for two years, Rudyard Kipling, Lord Randolph Churchill, Cecil Rhodes as well as, during the Anglo-Boer War, high-ranking British Army officers such as Roberts and Haig.

Stories and legends of Matjiesfontein are legion, and the career of James Douglas Logan is well-documented. However, sources are hazy about his parentage. In the cemetery near Matjiesfontein, where Logan and family members lie buried, his memorial inscription mentions that he was born at Reston, Berwickshire, Scotland in November 1857.

Reston, in the parish of Coldingham, was a busy railway station and junction, an ideal spot for a railwayman's beginnings. In all likelihood, the birth entry for a James Logan dated 26 November 1857, to parents James Logan (railway labourer) and Elizabeth nee Dunn, is the relevant record. The precise place of birth is given as Muirmontrig (a small village in the parish of Coldingham - Reston was in the same parish). In 1861 the Logan family were still in Coldingham parish, James then aged 4. His father's occupation was unchanged.

It seems James junior followed in his father's footsteps, working for North British Rail before emigrating to South Africa. He had intended going to Australia, but fate took a hand: the ship he sailed on was wrecked and Logan remained at the Cape where he found work as a porter at the Cape Town railway station. He rose to the position of District Superintendant in the Cape Government Railways but other opportunities beckoned. After gaining some experience in the hotel trade, he bought land in an unlikely area over 200 kilometres north of Cape Town and developed his 'paradise in a desert': Matjiesfontein.

David Rawdon bought the entire town in the late 1960s and it was declared a National Monument in 1979.

Photos of Matjiesfontein courtesy of Syd Oram

Heritage Month: Point Settlers Memorial, West Street Cemetery

On Thursday 19 March 1896, The Times of Natal carried a report on the exhumation of those colonists buried at the Point Cemetery and the re-interment of their remains at the West Street Cemetery. The report includes a list of the buried, as far as it was possible to determine at the time. Was one of your ancestors among them?

Article from The Times of Natal:

POINT CEMETERY: EXHUMATION AND REMOVAL. LIST OF THE BURIED.

Within an obscure and unfrequented corner of the Point, amid the sand-dunes, bounded by bush and shut in with bramble, it was the custom for upwards of a generation to inter the dead. Here, upon high ground, near the end of the low-lying narrow tongue, the sailor, billow-beaten, was laid to sleep, lulled by the lapping wave; the soldier of the young Queen found recompense and repose after bivouac and duties done; and colonist and citizen have sunk to rest from labour upon the threshold of the sea. Between 1839 and 1882 the remains of five score and nine sojourners and residents were buried in this acre of sand above the shore; none had reached the Psalmist's span, although some were well up in years, and there were children whose lives were only in the bud. Fifty-seven years ago was seen the first graveside gathering in that weird and lonely spot, and 14 years have passed since the last burial service on the hill. But it is no longer lonely. The tide of trade has flowed about the sepulchre, and spring-floods of progress have now swept away the landmarks and memorials of the past. The peace of the early days is gone. The Union warehouse and Brown's foundry almost touch the sacred precincts, and the rush of machinery, the whistle of the locomotive, the roar of traffic, the bustle of business, the throb and babel of this latter life - even the intrusive habitations of the living - destroy the quietude of the place, and make a cemetery in the situation an anomaly. And the remains have been all disinterred, for final and more fitting sepulture (sic; burial) in the City of the Still. There, at the Point, was a jungle dark and in disrepute, and trace of even the best-known buried there was hidden. Trees interlaced their branches overhead, and sent their roots deep down into the grave; and the surface sand was rank and wild with thicket and creeper; it was a dustbin for refuse and the habitat of snakes. Here, in the west of Durban, the bones of the dead will be laid reverently to rest, order and decency will be preserved, and on the spot now set apart a general memorial will be erected.

The following is a List of those buried.

1 Pte W McKay, 72nd Regt 18.5.1839 41y
2 Pte J Donnett, 72nd Regt 26.6.1842 -
3 Pte Terence McNab, 27th Regt " -
4 Pte George Ford, 27th Regt " -
5 Pte M Neagle, 27th Regt " -
6 Pte Jennings, 27th Regt " -
7 Pte Hugh Richmond, 72nd Regt " 28y
8 Pte Richard Duncan, 72nd Regt " -
9 Lance Corpl R Arthur, 25th Regt " 25y
10 Ensign J Morley, 45th Regt 24.2.1860 37y

The above represents all that can be ascertained in regard to the military men. The first named died in the year of the withdrawal of the British troops. Numbers 2 to 8 were probably among the party of nine who were drowned on the bar by the swamping of a boat of HMS Southampton when she came to the rescue of the garrison, or were killed, on the 26 June 1842. In the list from which this is copied, 1840 is the date given for numbers 2 and 3, but this is probably an error; there were no troops in Natal on that date. These had tombstones of Bluff rock, but the rain has worn out the inscription. Numbers 7 and 8 are given as 1843, but this also appears to be incorrect. There was no fighting at Port Natal in that year. The headstone of Lance Corporal Robert Arthur sets forth that he was 'killed while effecting a landing for this place, then in the hands of the emigrant farmers'.

Below are six names for which there are no particulars, saving that E. B. Ledson died at the age of 57 and was related to Nos 19, 48 and 69.

Unknown.
11 David Robertson
12 Charles Davis
13 Jack Cetton
14 E B Ledson
15 Geo A McIntyre
16 -- Vincent

Register of Addington, Dr. Ikin, Rector

17 Sarah Ratcliffe 20.1.1861 16m
18 Geo James 7.7.1861 6½y
19 Frank B Ledson 12.10.1861 11m
20 Walter J Archibald 26.10.1861 88y
21 John McGregor 20.11.1861 19y
22 John C Wilson 23.11.1861 23y
23 Thos H Brown 22.1.1862 7m
24 -- (no name) 19.3.1862 --
25 William Lumley 17.11.1862 41y
26 Elizabeth Richardson* 31.1.1863 39y
27 Chas F Spradbrow* 6.1.1862 14y
28 John Ost 28.4.1863 30y
29 Chas Ireson 8.3.1863 21y
30 Geo Abernathy 26.7.1863 --
31 Noah Bedell* 17.11.1863 7y
32 Mary A Thompson 6.1.1864 6m
33 William Norton 9.1.1864 22y
34 Andrew J Morrisson 12.2.1864 6y
35 William D Morrisson 17.3.1864 10½m
36 William Welch 19.3.1864 --
37 Robt P Bonham 17.4.1864 2y
38 -- (no name) 23.6.1864 --
39 -- (no name) 16.10.1864 --
40 Jas Phillips* 17.3.1863 --
41 Esther C Evans 19.5.1865 17m
42 Charles Jones 12.12.1865 30y
43 Andrew Morrisson* 6.1.1866 --
44 Kate Wilson Sept 1866 7m
45 Robt W Morton 27.3.1867 15y
46 Emma Z Dowley 3.2.1868 8m
47 Louisa Wilson 17.9.1868 5w
48 Alfred Ledson* 18.10.1868 9d
49 Mary A Tucker* 2.12.1868 47y
50 D A Engerstroom 1.1.1869 36y
51 William Bell* 10.4.1869 61y
52 Sylvester Ellwood 10.3.1869 39y
53 Julia Taylor -- 27y
54 Infant Taylor -- 1d
55 -- Deane May 1873 --
56 Robt J B Tucker* 24.1.1874 54y
57 Susan E Drimrie 21.1.1875 16m
58 Albert B Anderson 27.8.1875 3d
59 William H Mathias 2.12.1875 4½y
60 Maud A Oliver 20.3.1877 2m
61 Mary Allecc (or Allece) 10.8.1877 2d
62 Charles Ashby 15.11.1877 18m
63 Fredk W Ridder June 1878 9d
64 Thos Hickson 26.3.1878 13m
65 Thos Hickson snr 23.3.1878 48y
66 Mrs M Phillips* 13.6.1878 54y
67 Geo A Armstrong 21.6.1878 38y
68 Sarah Bowers 28.?.1870 4y

Other names.
69 E E B Ledson 18.?.1837 (error?) 15½m
70 John Cameron 1864 37y
71 W Harris Nov 23 (no yr) 55y
72 Jabez Crowsen 1871 31y
73 Capt H Bucholdt 6.1.1873 41y
74 Martha S Mathias 13.9.1876 2½y
75 Winifred H Mathias 16.9.1876 9m
76 Catherine Hunt 15.10.1879 18m
77 Alex Maxwell 13.10.1880 17y
78 Mrs M Nelson 1882 39y

On the list of 52 supplied from the Addington Register, 14 marked * have been identified, and the remains of all contained in the other three lists have also been identified from internal evidence, this affording the only clue to the names. Thus there are 38 identified in name and remains, 38 whose names are known but whose remains cannot be identified, and 33 of whom nothing is known, save that they were, and that bones are now all that is left of them. The remains of children found were 34 in number, and as 28 are identified above, there remain but 6 out of the 33, so that 27 were of maturer years, where name and memory were lost. In 1882 interment ceased altogether, the cemetery was 'closed', and although efforts were made towards the removal of the remains, nothing was done by the powers that were. The cemetery was allowed to remain in neglect and disorder - for the sake of £300. In the month of June last a sum of £400 was passed by the Legislative Assembly to provide what decency and respect for the dead demanded. Mr S Dove was asked to go over the ground, and the initial survey had to be undertaken upon hands and knees beneath the bending boughs, amid the underwood and the waste and rubbish thrown in desecration of God's acre. Upon his report, the task of exhumation was placed in his hands, and with eight coolies and a foreman Mr Dove commenced active operations on Saturday fortnight the work taking some 12 days. A week earlier the manufacture of coffins was commenced, and 34 have been made for children, 75 for adults, but when as many as 20 remains were recovered in one day, the carpenters had difficulty in keeping pace with the demand. Some days the search was entirely fruitless, although a depth of eight feet was reached. It was, of course, comparatively easy to find and identify remains where headstones were erected. In some cases the breast plate supplied required information, and when nothing else afforded a clue buttons or boots, or ammunition indicated what history did not reveal. Sometimes a skeleton was not complete, once a skull was absent, in several instances the legs of the dead appeared to have been broken, the bone having grown together, shortening the stature. Only one skeleton, of a woman, was found without a coffin, and she had been buried within 2½ft of the surface - the two facts pointing, in the opinion of some, to a dark deed of days gone by. One remarkable fact was that the skulls of the older interments showed the finest sets of teeth, those of a later date evidencing deterioration. In one case there could be seen the broken teeth of the confirmed smoker, and a short clay pipe with the remains of the last smoke, was brought to light. Old Mr Spradbrow buried a son and daughter (Nos 27 and 78) in the cemetery, Mrs Nelson being the last of all to be interred; and although he keenly felt the necessity to disturb their remains he is now quite satisfied with the manner of exhumation and the reinterment. D Robertson (11) shut off with white palings, was father of Mr J Robertson of Johannesburg, late of the Point Railway Station. Capt (56) and Mrs Tucker (49) were the parents of Mrs Geo Smith . G A Armstrong (67) was the first husband of Mrs Bryant of the Castle Boarding House, and her child was buried near by. Of other children there are those of C Vincent (16), A Drimie (57), J T Anderson (58) and J Mathias (59,74,75). In addition to the stone set up to Richmond, Duncan, and Arthur (7,8,9) the three Morrissons (34, 35, 43) were laid beneath one slab of slate. J Phillips (40) who - like 53 - was drowned in the Bay, was the husband of 66. The grave of G A McIntyre (15) was surrounded by lattice work. Over Charles Jones (42) was the text: 'The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.' The head-board of R W Morton (45), drowned in the Bay, bears the words: 'So my Father orders it, His will be done'. Below are other inscriptions:-

(73) 'Kaptein Helmer Buccholdt, geb in hadersleben, D 6 Aug 18 1873, gest D 6 Jenseits sehen wir unscieder' (illegible) .

(76) 'In loving remembrance of Annie Catherine, beloved daughter of Thos and Alice Hunt, 1 year 9 months 1 day 'Suffer the little children to come unto me'.

(51) 'Captain William Douglas Bell, 25 years port captain of this port, died 10th April, 1869, aged 62. At the taking of Port Natal from the insurgent Boers, he rendered valuable service by towing into port, under fire of the enemy, the boats of the Southampton frigate, and through his after career in life was held in esteem, and as a faithful servant of Government. A good husband and an affectionate father'. [This inscription is on the plaque below Captain Bell's obelisk, not far from the Point Settlers Memorial.]

The Minister of Lands and Works sent Mr Wolhuter, the oldest colonist, a railway pass to enable him to attend the funeral and the hale and hearty old man, now in his 82nd year, came down from Maritzburg yesterday for the purpose of being present. An opportune call from him enabled us to verify some of our data. He told us that he knew Captain Bell from the year 1831, when second officer of the Thorne. In that year the barque got becalmed in a fog on leaving Table Bay, and went ashore on Robben Island. As to Morrisson, on Mr Wolhuter's third visit to Natal in 1844, after leaving Port Elizabeth in the Pilot, with a strong westerly breeze, Andrew (second officer) was put on the yard arm as look-out. At 11 o'clock at night he heard the captain say, "Isn't that land"? And Morrisson's reply was, "Yes, and we are in the breakers already". Had he not been on the yard arm, the danger could not have been averted in time to save the ship. Mr Wolhuter also knew Ensign Morley and attended his funeral. He was in command of the Point, where he was stationed for 15 years. He came from England as sergt-major in the Rodney battleship of 93 guns, in the year 1845, and received his commission by next mail.

Heritage Month: Old Court House, Durban

This building, the Old Court House, was Durban's Post Office from 1866 until the first Town Hall (now the main Post Office) was opened in 1885. When Natal was proclaimed a British Colony during the 1840s no postal services existed. In 1851 an Ordinance was passed fixing postage rates in Natal. Mr Francis Spring was appointed first postmaster in the Colony in the same year. It wasn't until 1859 that the first printed Natal stamps were issued (before that embossed dies were used to stamp letters).

The Local History Museum, housed in the Old Court House since 1965, includes among its valuable items of postal history a set of the earliest Natal stamps as well as the Hurst Collection of Stamps and the Stephen B Rich Collection of Zululand stamps.

All mail came to Natal by ship and was sent by messenger from the Customs House at the Point to the town of D'Urban, the very first post office being the home of Mr Schonneberg at the beach end of Gardiner Street.

The Court House circa 1870,
before addition of north and south wings

The Old Court House was the first public building in Durban, opened on 24 May 1866. It was designed by  P Patterson, Colonial Engineer, and consisted of what is now the central portion of the structure. The court proceedings were held in the large central hall. A north wing was added in 1891 and a south wing in 1897.

In 1879, the Court House was loopholed (providing gaps for defensive action). In 1910 the building was taken over for municipal purposes - the Estates Department was housed there until 1961. There was a danger that the building might be demolished but fortunately it was saved from this fate. Renovation took place in 1965 and the following year (100 years after the original opening) the Old Court House became the home of the Local History Museum under the inspired and knowledgeable curatorship of Mrs Daphne Strutt.

Heritage Month: Dick King Statue and Ensign Prior memorial

Dick King Statue, Esplanade, Durban;
unveiled August 1915.

Conflict at Port Natal 1842: the Siege and Relief of the British Camp at Itafa Malinde*

* 'The Plain of the Look Out', also known as 'Commetjies Flat', later the site of The Old Fort.

Captain Thomas Charlton Smith, forced to retreat after the skirmish against the Dutch at Congella on the night of 23 May 1842, returned with his men to the British camp. Of the 138 British who marched to Congella only 87 survived, reaching camp at 2 a.m. on 24 May.

After the 24 hours allotted for burying the dead, Smith, playing for time, asked for an armistice of 7 days so that he could consider his position: it was an unenviable one for any commander, 'with close to 500 people jammed into a crowded laager, low on food and with no good water' and no imminent prospect of relief.


Clearly, it was essential that the authorities at the Cape should be told of the situation, and as quickly as possible - but how could that be achieved?

There were two trading vessels, the Pilot and the Mazeppa, at anchor in the Bay; several Natal settlers had taken refuge aboard these ships. George Cato, at no slight risk to himself, went out in a boat to the Mazeppa to bring Richard ('Dick') King back to the British camp where Smith made the proposition that King should ride the 600 miles south from Port Natal to Grahamstown to carry the news of the besieged garrison and request reinforcements. King took up the challenge, leaving Port Natal in company with Ndongeni. Two of the best horses in the detachment of Cape Mounted Rifles were supplied, the Cato brothers, George and Christopher, ferrying King and his companion (the horses swimming at the stern) at dusk from the inner shore of the Bay to the Bluff. King covered the distance to Grahamstown in 10 days (including two days on which he was too ill to travel) - a journey which would normally take 17 days. Ndongeni, who rode bareback, had to return when the pair reached the country of the amaXhosa.


As a direct result of this feat, reinforcements were soon dispatched to Port Natal, HMS Southampton embarking with troops from the Cape, and the schooner Conch from Algoa Bay, commanded by Captain William Bell, with a company of the 27th Foot under Captain Durnford. (Dick King having recovered from his exertions was also on board the Conch). The schooner arrived first at Port Natal, followed shortly by the Southampton - this frigate drew too much water to cross the Bar at the entrance to the harbour and in order to land the troops the smaller Conch took Southampton's boats, packed with soldiers, in tow and made for shore, running the gauntlet of enemy fire from the Bluff, while the frigate shelled the Dutch encampment.

Once the landing had been achieved, resistance faded and the trekkers withdrew from their encampment at Congella. Smith's besieged force was relieved, but it was evident they had been through a hard time under incessant rifle and canon fire. Seriously wounded men, some of them amputees, and others suffering from dysentery, lay in shallow trenches. There was no sanitation and virtually no medical supplies. Horses had been killed for food and the stench of hides and offal pervaded the air. There was no wood for cooking, and the water from a well dug within the camp was of poor quality. The garrison had been living on 10 ounces of horseflesh and biscuit dust per day.


Ensign Prior of the 27th Inniskillings was killed during the one sortie from the camp. He is remembered on the memorial to his regiment, which now stands in front of the Old Fort, Durban.


See The Song of Ndongeni:
http://www.archive.org/stream/balladsofveldlan00lystrich#page/30/mode/2up

Richard Philip King (1813-1871) born in Chatham, England, came to South Africa with his family as part of what is now known as the 1820 Settler emigration initiative, settling in Albany in the Cape Colony. When Dick, as he was always called, was about 15 the King family moved to Port Natal. He became a trader and colonist at this small frontier settlement and was intimately acquainted with a number of historic personalities. His famous ride of 600 miles in 10 days to carry the news of the besieged British garrison at the Port was his moment of glory, earning him a place in the history books. What is less well-known is that King had already distinguished himself in 1838 after the massacre by Dingane's forces of Pieter Retief and his followers at Weenen, when King undertook a 4-day journey from Port Natal on foot in an attempt to warn other trekker groups of the impending danger.

Heritage Month: Durban Post Office, City Hall and Farewell Square

Now the Main Post Office, this building dating from 1885 was previously Durban's Town Hall. From its steps, Winston Churchill made a speech after his escape from captivity at Pretoria during the Anglo-Boer War, arriving at Durban on 23 December 1899.

A plaque on the exterior of the building commemorates this occasion. See http://www.flickr.com/photos/anthonyuk/6931230731/

The current City Hall, at right in the foreground of this postcard photo, was opened in 1910. The open space which used to be known as the Town Gardens, opposite both buildings, was later renamed Farewell Square.  Read about Lieutenant Francis George Farewell (1793-1829):

http://natalia.org.za/Files/4/Natalia%20v04%20article%20p8-13%20C.pdf

Heritage Month: Vasco da Gama Clock and Currie Memorial Fountain Durban

The Vasco da Gama clock and drinking fountain was erected in 1897 in Durban to mark the 400th anniversary of the Portuguese explorer's sighting and naming of Natal on Christmas Eve 1497.

Manufactured by Macfarlane's Saracen Foundry in Glasgow, Scotland (who also made the Currie Memorial Fountain pictured below) the decorative cast iron structure was originally placed at the corner of Point Road and Southampton Street near the Point Docks. It was moved to the Victoria Embankment in 1969.

In 2010 it was proposed that the clock should be restored and relocated prior to the World Cup in June of that year; the Embankment site was deemed 'inappropriate'. The relocation did not take place, probably because the cost of the exercise (R500 000) for the dismantling, refurbishing and moving of the clock was found to be prohibitive. However, various other locations have subsequently been suggested and the fate of the clock hangs in the balance. The decision rests with eThekwini municipality and Amafa (Heritage KZN).

For an excellent photo of the clock see http://www.flickr.com/photos/kleinz/2666433477/

also see http://memorialdrinkingfountains.wordpress.com/2013/08/26/da-gama-clock/

Currie Memorial Fountain

The Currie Memorial Fountain, which previously stood at the corner of Point Road and West Street, is now at Durban Botanic Gardens.

One of the water-carriers

.

The plaque below the fountain reads as follows:

H.W. Currie Memorial Fountain.Erected in 1889 in grateful remembrance of Mr H W Currie, for many years a Town Councillor and Mayor in 1879-1880, through whose resource and perseverance this town was saved from a serious water famine by the establishment in 1878 of the wells and pumps known as Currie's Fountain at the foot of the Botanic Gardens.


http://memorialdrinkingfountains.wordpress.com/2013/09/10/currie-memorial-fountain/

September 2012 Heritage Month in SA

Heritage: the Oxford dictionary defines it as that which is or may be inherited; not particularly satisfactory as definitions go. Elsewhere it is described as the handing down of practices, tradition and customs from one generation to another. In addition, it is said (tautologically) to be a birthright or status that is often acquired from birth as well as property which may be inherited.

The SA Government Information site states that Heritage Month recognises aspects of South African culture which are both tangible and intangible: creative expression such as music and performances, our historical inheritance, language, the food we eat as well as the popular memory. We’re offered no detail as to what constitutes ‘our historical inheritance’ or what is currently considered to be included in or excluded from this apparently all-embracing term.

I remain clear on at least one point: that history – historical events - happened and cannot be erased, glossed over or pushed out of sight. Heritage means different things to different people. History is immutable.

If the debate interests you, Google history versus heritage.

Fort Nongqai, Eshowe, KZN, previous
HQ of the Nongqai (Zululand Native Police), a force raised in 1883.
The fort is now a museum and well worth a visit.

Barbados and the Gadsden connection

And now for something completely different.

Barbados first assumed significance for me through its connections with the Gadsden surname. In November 1715, Thomas Gadsden (1688-1741), born in Stepney, London, married Elizabeth Terrey in the parish of St Michael, Bridgetown, Barbados. Elizabeth was Barbadian born, daughter of an Irish sea captain, Christopher Terrey. The sea featured largely in Thomas Gadsden’s career, too. His father, another Thomas, had been a merchant captain sailing his own ship, the Mary & Elizabeth, between Britain and her American colonies and dying - in all likelihood of fever - at Nevis in the West Indies in 1691.

Thomas Gadsden the younger joined the British Navy as a midshipman in 1702, climbing the ladder to the rank of Lieutenant within five years. Discharged on half-pay in 1712, he returned to the sea in the merchant service, trading in various commodities as his father had done before him between the New World colonies and Britain. During this time Barbados would have been a regular port of call and Thomas undoubtedly took advantage of the brisk trade between Barbados and Charlestown (later Charleston) on the mainland of South Carolina.

Thomas established useful contacts in Charlestown and he and his wife Elizabeth moved there permanently, Thomas graduating to the important post of King’s Collector of Customs. Their first three children died in infancy. A fourth child, a son, was born and named Christopher after Elizabeth’s father.

Christopher Gadsden

Christopher Gadsden (1724-1805) was destined to become famous as a leader of the South Carolina Radicals, serving in the Continental Congress which enacted the Declaration of Independence on 4 July 1776. During the Revolutionary War he was a Brigadier General of forces defending Charlestown.

His story is told in numerous sources, among them Godbold and Woody’s Christopher Gadsden and the American Revolution (University of Tennessee Press, 1982). Read my brief account  at www.infobarrel.com/Christopher_Gadsden_1724-1805

Barbados July 2012, coastal view; could be Natal.

As usually happens, the search for context – the backdrop to events - draws family historians to a wide variety of topics, including in the case of Gadsden research the strong ties which existed between Barbados and South Carolina. I also found a number of intriguing similarities between Barbados and Natal, both sugar-growing colonies which experienced attendant labour difficulties.

St Michael's 

St Michael’s, Bridgetown, the church where Thomas and Elizabeth Gadsden were married in 1715, was a wooden structure put up in the 1660s and taken down by a hurricane in 1780 (hurricanes were prevalent in Barbados). Consequently, the building now on the same site is not the original church, but one constructed in 1789.

The Great Hurricane of 1831 attempted, though failed, to destroy this replacement edifice built of coral stone. Now officially the Cathedral Church of St Michael’s and All Angels (Diocese of Barbados) it is still in use but in urgent need of restoration. In the churchyard, gravestones – some of very early date - show signs of vandalism, lead picked out of memorial  inscriptions.

East Point Lighthouse, Barbados

General dilapidation extends to other man-made landmarks, including the lighthouses at Harrison’s Point and East Point.

Despite inevitable concessions to tourism, the scenic beauty of Barbados remains untouched: wide white sands and limpid turquoise sea, palm trees and green fields of sugar cane. This
is not the place to comment on the darker threads in the island's tapestry: pirates and slaves.

At Bathsheba

Further reading:

Warren Alleyne and Henry Fraser: The Barbados-Carolina Connection (Macmillan, Caribbean 1988)