IDA EMILY NEWMAN (nee Miller)
Ida Emily Miller was born at Kariega on the 15th March 1861.
Ida married Angus William Newman on the 15th May 1911 at Woodlands, Arnoldton near East London. Below is their marriage certiifcate. My photocopy has Ida's singing teaching certificate attached.
They had 5 children:
- Angus Miller Newman
- Nevill Edwin Miller Newman
- Margaret Helen Newman
- Ella Maud Newman (my paternal grandmother)
- George Clifford Newman
- Thomas Walter Newman
- Frederick Alexander Newman
On the section on A. W. Newman I posted a picture of "Mrs A. W. Newman and family", a rather formal family portrait. This is an extract from that picture of Ida. She seems to be well dressed (as were her family), but not happy.
Norma van As covers several of those of and descended from the the 1820 Settlers in her book A Small World.
Ida Emily Miller married Angus William Newman on Woodlands in 1882. Angus had come to the Colony for health reasons. A letter of recommendation from Cook, Son & Co., of 22 St Paul's Church Yard, London, reads, in part as follows : 'This is to certify that we have known Mr T. W. Newman....for many years. Mr Newman has a son Mr Angus Newman, until recently in the employ of Messrs. I. R. Morley, Wood Street, but unfortunately the youth seized with a violent attack of rheumatic fever, which compelled him to relinquish his situation and although he has quite recovered from the fever, his medical man urges that he must get a situation in a warmer climate and with that view, he visits the Colony.
Angus Newman became a highly successful businessman in the fields of auctioneering and shipping, and was later elected to the Town Council of East London, playing a prominent role in the civic affairs of the town.
After the Anglo-Boer War, in which Ida and Angus's eldest son and served as a trooper in Brabant's Horse, the Newman family went to England. Emily Miller wrote to Daniel Webber of their trip: ' Ida and family have gone to England for some years. She married a Mr Newman from there. He has got on splendidly and is a nice fellow'.
When the family returned to East London, they lived in St Peter's Road, Southernwood. Ida, an excellent gardener, planted the first hibiscus hedge to be grown in South Africa, ships' captains, who were Angus' business associates, having brought the slips form the East. That same hedge still flourishes today.
Angus was hard hit by the post-war slump in the property market and sustained considerable losses. He died very suddenly in June 1912, and, the family finances being in a precarious state, Ida's eldest son, Angus Miller (Putt), was summoned home from the Bushtick Mine in Rhodesia to try to save the family business, which he did.
After the death of her husband, Ida Newman remained a key figure in the lives of her children and their families. A forthright, charming and eminently practical woman, she was never idle, and could not bear idleness in others. She died in East London in 1930.
Of Ida's grandchildren, Nevill Edwin Miller (Nogs) Newman, was awarded the Order of the British Empire in February 1978, in recognition of his services as the honorary British consul in East London. His sister, Alison Marion (Sally) Newman, now Mrs Harry Starke, is a well-loved Aunt Sally of the Cape Times Squirrel Club, a children's feature which she, as a member of the editorial staff, launched and edited in the World War II era. The Squirrel Club drew members from all over the country, and Sally had a tremendous following. During the waar, the Squirrels 'adopted' a South African minesweeper, and sent bundles to Britain for bombed-out babies.
She died in East London (SA) on 30th November 1930.
