If you go back through my blogs (or is a regular follower), you may notice that for some strange reason I have a peculiar interest in historic graves and cemeteries. I used to work very close to the South End Cemetery and placed a Geocache there so I visited it quite often to check up on the container. Since changing jobs a year ago I haven't been back that often but stopped by last week and took a stroll through…
Making my rounds through Uitenhage on a Geocaching expedition a week or so ago I got to visit the MOTH garden for the first time. The garden is where the grave of Joseph Crow is located.Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Petrus Hendrik Crowe VC (12 January 1826 – 12 April 1876) was the first South African-born recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and…
The Anglo Boer War (1899 - 1902) is one of the big turning points in South Africa's history along with the arrival of Europeans in the country, the Great Trek, the Apartheid years and a new democratic South Africa. Okay, so the history is about more than just those five turning points but that is what came to my mind just now. One of the most significant things that happened during the Anglo Boar War was that it was the first time ever that…
On my last visit to Cradock I went in search of the grave of Harry Potter. Harry Potter, you ask? Well, Cradock's cemetery holds the grave of one Harry Potter who was a ‘beloved husband’ and died on July 27, 1910 at the age of 46. Was he magical? Who knows? I unfortunately didn't find him. I did find this scene of this car track through the grave yard that I especially liked. Since coming back home I have discovered GPS coordinates…
he Lovemore surname is closely linked to Port Elizabeth and it's early history, specially out in the western side of the city. This is all thanks to one Henry LOVEMORE who left England to settle in Port Elizabeth in 1820. Although he came at the time of the British Settlers who settled east of the city around Grahamstown and Bathurst, Lovemore paid for his passage and purchased Bushy Park, then known as Klaas Kraal, for the princely sum of one thousand pounds.Lore has it that…
Regular followers of my blogs would know by now that one of my strange travel quirks is historic cemeteries. On a recent visit to Oudtshoorn in the Klein Karoo I decided to revisit the Kerk Street Cemetery in the town for a closer look. The graveyard is an old one with most graves having disappeared over the years. In some cases there are headstone that look like they stand in the middle of nowhere and in other places you can see a grave mound…
Port Elizabeth has some wonderful historic cemeteries, one of them the Scottish Cemetery in St Georges Park. The first cemetery in Port Elizabeth was St Mary's Cemetery which started as a military cemetery, but after the arrival of the British Settlers it was assigned to the St Mary's Collegiate Church and opened for the burial of all Christians in the town. The growth of the town increased the demands placed upon St Mary's Cemetery and allocations of small pieces of land on…
Browsing through the historic cemeteries in Port Elizabeth I often find the graves of people who were prominent Port Elizabeth residents back in its early days. One of the graves I found in the St Mary's Cemetery belongs to George Impey who died in 1890 and was the editor and part proprietor of the Eastern Province Herald and the first president of the Newspaper Press Union.
Over the last two years every time I visited the St Mary's Cemetery I've had a look for Rev Francis McCleland's grave without any success. Grizel Hart, the curator at No.7 Castle Hill, explained to me where to find it and on my last visit - after again walking right past it twice - I found it. Rev Francis McCleland came to to Algoa Bay in one of the 1820 British Settler parties and became colonial chaplain in Port Elizabeth. He bought…