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

Continue reading

Port Elizabeth of Yore: The First Sources of Water

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 0 Comment

As David Raymer points out in his excellent book on the water supply to Port Elizabeth entitled ‘Streams of Life’, “until 1880 the greatest problem [that] the settlement of Port Elizabeth faced was the question of a dependable and adequate supply of fresh water for the residents”.

This blog covers the first attempt to address this challenge.

Main picture: One of the original wells in Port Elizabeth

Continue reading