Port Elizabeth of Yore: Biographies of William Fleming Senior and Junior

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 0 Comment

These biographies have been created by ChatGPT. I included photographs from my collection to provide some colour and interest. The reason why I selected this father and son combination as my first blog created by AI was to assist me in disentangling the lives of two men with the same name. Fortunately for biographers, even though William Junior’s son was also christened William, he was not prominent in Port Elizabeth affairs and exited the scene by relocating to Cape Town. Secondly, William Junior married my second great aunt, Adelaide, who was Rev Francis McCleland’s daughter.

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: Charles Lovemore’s Last Year, 1885

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 0 Comment

This blog is an extract from the excellent book simply entitled The Lovemore Story by Bernard Johnston. Unlike his father, Henry Lovemore, who married four times over his life, Charles only married once, being the norm for the era. Charles’ occupation was that of a farmer and had inherited Bushy Park from his father Henry. In addition, he had acquired a great deal of other farmland and town property in his lifetime. Besides being a Justice of the Peace, he was an active member of the Divisional Council and the Licensing Court.

Harradine describes him as a “kind friend and genial companion” and “his voice and burly form will be missed from the morning market.”

This blog is enlightening as it covers the contemporary social and economic issues. Ironically many of the issues correlate with those under discussion today such as the closing time of drinking establishments.

Main picture: Charles Lovemore

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: Horse Racing in the Bay

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 0 Comment

As racing horses is as old as riding these hoofed herbivorous mammals, the exact origins of horse racing are lost in the mists of time. Uitenhage preceded Port Elizabeth in establishing a Turf Club in 1815. However the first authentic records of organised racing give results of racing held in 1817 and include reports of a racing meeting held in the grounds of Cradock Place, the palatial home of Frederick Korsten on the Papenkuils River. Korsten matched his horses with those of the garrison officers from Fort Frederick.  The current Governor, Sir John Cradock, was also a keen racing man and with his support racing naturally flourished.

Main picture: Fairview Race Course 

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Robert Hamilton McCleland: With the Pioneer Column to Rhodesia

By Dean McCleland in McClelands, Other Personal 0 Comment

In line with my philosophy of using The Casual Observer as a platform to propagate my views concerning the events in the world, I also wish it to become a repository of the articles on the McCleland family. We are fortunate in having a printed family history entitled The Reverend Francis McCleland: Colonial Chaplain to Port Elizabeth 1825 to 1853. Hopefully this is the first of many such articles but for that to materialise, I require information on the family from recipients of this blog.

The first in the series highlights the achievements of Robert Hamilton McCleland who was a member of the Pioneer column which occupied Mashonaland in 1890

Main picture: Robert Hamilton McCleland from the Draaifontein Collection

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