Port Elizabeth of Yore: John Geard – Ironmonger with a Social Conscience

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 1 Comment

Two members of the Geard family gained prominence in Port Elizabeth – Charles Geard and his son John Geard.  Despite the blog’s title, it will encompass the lives of both Geards. The death of John Geard was an “inconvenient” loss because at the time of his death he was compiling a biography of their lives. Such a loss inevitably reduces the depth of the resulting end product. So it is in this case.

This blog encompasses the two segments of John’s life; first the autobiographical section and then the rest of his life recreated by the author of the biography A Memoir of the Late John Geard from “scraps of paper, correspondence and newspaper clippings“.  

Main picture: John Geard

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: The multi-racial Union Chapel and School

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 2 Comments

The Congregational Union Chapel in Chapel Street was never one of the foremost churches in Port Elizabeth but in two ways it was unique in that it held mixed services with khoikhoi and whites as well as mixed schooling. It might not have been a prominent church but it went into use in May 1828 which was four years ahead of St. Mary’s making it de facto the first completed church building in Port Elizabeth.

Main picture: Chapel Street. Union Chapel was enlarged in 1882 to plans by John Thornhill Cook & was demolished in 1964.

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