2 - MY INCENTIVES
MY INCENTIVES TO FIND THE HISTORY OF WHY I AM, WHY HERE IN THIS POINT IN TIME, WHY NOW HERE IN SCOTLAND.
We ie my family of my wife and two daughters felt the urge to emigrate from South Africa to Scotland in 1999. This was a fairly smooth process as there was an inherited house to come to and we had all been to Scotland before. In a modern world, it is usually just a case of getting the approvals and jumping on a plane. Yes, there is much more to it than that, but imagine going off to a country with little knowledge of it than from what officials or agents have persuaded you. Sometimes that “country” has not even been an established entity yet.
I really admire those who come to the UK with minimal knowledge of English or of the country. At least they can find out and share information through their mobile phones. Many manage to get here against all odds through shear necessity – political upheavals, even war, usually also dire economic conditions.
But imagine individuals or even large groups going out to a place like the bushveldt just beyond the edges of the Cape Colony. They would know little of what was to await them other that what agents would have told them.
We know that they were attracted by visions of an idyllic landscape, in fact lots of land. From an English, Welsh, Scots or Irish imagination this was amazing. Few of them even had a veggie patch. What came to mind were images of verdant land something at least a bit like the country cottage they had seen, Such images were promoted by the Government and its agents.
Only one side of my family actually went out at that time with the 1820 Settlers, Millers by name, but through time and marriage they became amongst others, Watsons, such as ourselves.
This is a colonial scene. An elderly couple sit on the deck of a ship before sailing from the river port of East London in the Eastern Cape and are visited by their daughter and grandson. Also there is the black nanny. That is me in the middle aged about 1 and a bit (c1952). I am held by my mother Pam Watson. To the left of her is my nanny, Tiny. She was quite small, but I would be carried around in a blanket tied to her waist in the traditional manner. My grandfather was “Da” ie Cuthbert (Bert) Wells originally from Norfolk and my granny was “Nana” ie Annie / “Pat” Wells originally from Belfast. The ship would have been a Union Castle Mailship that plied from the UK to South Africa with some cargo, but incorporating passenger decks. While air travel certainly existed, local trips were more common by rail, railways owned coaches and even ship. Visiting a ship as a non-passenger was easy then. Security was then light.
The above scene is “Colonial” in that here we have a white family with a black servant, a privileged class in retrospect, but taken as normal at the time. Queen Elizabeth was newly on the throne or was about to be crowned (6 February 1952 ) and the family thought of themselves, at least those of British origin, as British. My maternal grandfather in the photo had come out as a young man attracted by a secure job, possibly recruited in the UK. We do not know what motivate my maternal grandmother to come out, but we do know that a sister had come for health reasons and she probably followed. They probably met through the common interest in Christian Science, then still a relatively new religion.
Even when I became a Boy Scout, the British side was evident, not just because of Baden Powell, but the lingering wording in the handbook, etc.
I never met my paternal grandfather.. He died when his 5 sons were young. My father noted :Alex (our Dad) was in the Cornish Bank for some 13 years before resigning as cashier in February 1901. He had received a letter from the London Branch of the Standard Bank of South Africa Limited dated 21st February, 1901 appointing him in the Colonial Services of this Bank to a clerkship at £225-0-0 per annum. As the Bank bore the cost of his passage he had to stay for a minimum of 2 years. His fidelity had to be guaranteed in an amount of £1,000-0-0.
His wife, my paternal grandmother, was descended from the 1820 British Settlers of which we will learn more later. She was born in East London, South Africa. While being the only one of the 4 grandparents NOT born in the UK, she was the most devout “colonial” and would try to make me as a child stand up when God Save the Queen played on the radio at end of broadcast late in the evening.
So what created this scenario in which my family found themselves?
