"Howick Covered", Doreen honours our mother Estelle Wedderburn

My sister Doreen has a graphic design business in Hilton and has just completed the first publication of "Howick Covered", a book featuring the local businesses, schools and institutions.

She used this opportunity to honour our mother, Daphne Estelle Wedderburn and show case her wonderful art.

The Wedderburn family moved from Vanderbijlpark to Howick in 1980. Mom got involved in many things during her stay in Howick and we are particularly proud of the drawings she did of the historical buildings around town.

I love what Doreen has done, she has created a Historic Howick page and featured two of Mom's line drawings, the Anglican Church and the Howick Falls Hotel. They are both well known landmarks and well loved buildings. The "Howick Covered" gets delivered to all the businesses and residents, no doubt they are going to enjoy seeing these drawings.

For Doreen: your talent is remarkable. Thank you for thinking of this special tribute to Mom, she would be so proud of you and she would have loved to see her worked featured in this professional way.

The story of William Argyle's petition for a divorce

What a twist when I read this first petition document in the divorce file I have just received from the United Kingdom National Archives.

In the November of 1902, when William Argyle, my great-grandfather was petitioning for a divorce, he was in Pretoria on active service with the 92 Company of the Royal Garrison Artillery!

This is so interesting as I have been wondering when, how and why he ended up in South Africa and what caused him to leave the Isle of Wight.

I have mapped the William and Kathleen timeline from all the documents and research I have done:

• William born in 1869 on the Isle of Wight, to John  and Anne Argyle (nee Sibbick).
• Kathleen born in 1878, to Frank and Jane Guster, from Freshwater on the Isle of Wight.
• They have a registry marriage on the 25 September 1897.
• They lived at Church Place for about a year and at No 2, Chartree Villas, for eleven months, both places in Freshwater on the Isle of Wight.
• Their first child, a daughter called Edith, was born in 1898, baptised on the 13 May and died on the 15th August 1898.
• Nellie Winifred, my Nan, was born on the 29 May, 1899.
• William is ordered to leave the Isle of Wight on the 13 November 1899 for active service in South Africa.
• He is 30 years old in 1899.
• Little Nellie is not even 6 months old when he leaves.
• The 1901 Census record has Kathleen and Nellie with her parents at 16 Church Street in Christchurch.
• William remains in active service in South Africa and does not know when he shall be able to return to England.
• Kathleen, on the 12 April 1902, starts her affair with Arthur Merchant.
• Kathleen and Arthur reside at 13 Albert Street in Ryde, Isle of Wight.
• William's younger brother, Ernest, writes to William and informs him of the facts about Kathleen and Arthur.
• William first hears about his wife's adultery in this letter from Ernest on about the 10th May 1902.
• William acts on the information and instructs his brother to take proceedings on his behalf to abstain a divorce against his wife.

• The petition is filed on the 12 December 1902 by Turner and Co, Solicitors at 61 Carey Street, Lincoln's Inn, WC. Lincoln's Inn is a fascinating historical set of buildings in London. Worth a visit I think.
• In the meantime from Pretoria, William organises his documents under the signature of JHL Findlay who is a Justice of the Peace for the District of Pretoria in the Colony of the Transvaal. 
• The documents have both his signature and initials on them, William has a good handwriting, open and clear but certainly with a lesser flourish than the esteemed Findlay.
• He lays out his case for his marriage to Kathleen to be dissolved.
• William also requests that he have the custody of the child Nellie.
• Findlay also requests that the co-respondent, who is Arthur Merchant, may be condemned in the costs of these proceedings.
• Also that the petitioner may have further and other relief as may seem fit.
• On the 26th may 1903, the Decree Nisi - Jury, noting that the respondent and the co-respondent did not appear  and did not defend the suit, pronounced that the petitioner had sufficiently proved the contents of his petition. 
• The document confirms the 50 pound claim and more importantly gives William custody of Nellie.
• On the 7th December 1903 the Decree Absolute was brought before Sir John Gorell Barnes, a Juctice of the High Court, Strand in the County of Middlesex, and the marriage was declared dissolved.

An artefact that Bert has made by William Argyle

Goodness me, I suppose William then sends for Nellie and at some point he decides to remain in South Africa. 

All I have of William Argyle is the odd black and white photo. When I met Bert Cornell, Mom's cousin, he showed me this artefact that his grandfather William had made. Looking at it now, it makes a bit more sense given William's military history.

So here I am, generations later looking at William and Kathleen's story and trying to understand how it must have impacted my Nan. I assume she never saw her mother again and had no communication with her either. 

William does remarry one Fanny Murray, has three more daughters but he dies in 1919 at the age of 50.

I feel the need to breathe deeply and put this story aside.

Census data showing William's younger brother is Ernest. 

An envelop arrives from The National Archives

I have been eagerly watching my postbox for the last few weeks, waiting for this envelop from The National Archives in the United Kingdom.

The postal slip arrived yesterday and I dropped everything to fetch my letter parcel.

The envelop contains all the documents relating to the divorce of my great-grandparents, William and Kathleen Argyle, my maternal grandmother, Nellie's, parents.

I was immediately struck by this stamp, "CLOSED UNTIL 2004", these documents were sealed for 100 years!

As I hoped, reading the petitions and the Court Minutes has shed more light on this part of my family history.


Nan, or Nellie Winifred Argyle, grew up in Pretoria with her father William and stepmother Fanny and her 3 half-sisters, Edith, Elsie and Kathleen. It was only after I met Mom's cousin Bert Cornel, Kathleen's son, that I learnt that my Nan and her father had come to South Africa from the Isle of Wight and that very little was known about her mother. This got me doing the research and discovering the divorce of her parents online. I then paid the National Archives to have these document photocopied.

The timeline is shown on this cover page:

• Petition Filed: 12 December 1902
• Setting Down Cause: 16 March 1903
• Decree Nisi: 26 May 1903
• Final Decree: 7th December 1903

The first document confirms their civil marriage on the 25th September 1897 at a Register Office on the Isle of Wight, William was 28 and Kathleen 23 years old. The marriage was witnessed by by Frank and Annie Guster, Kathleen's parents. I notice William was living at Church Place, Freshwater and this is where they start their married life. William gives his 'Rank or Profession' as Carpenter and it is blank for Kathleen.

The certified copy of the Marriage of William Argyle to Kathleen Guster in 1897, provided to support the divorce process.

Well lets dip into the documents and recreate their story.

"S'il vous plait...dessine-moi un mouton!"

My book, inscribed from Florence in May 1987.

I wrote this commentary from Anne M Lindbergh in my copy of Antoine de Saint-Exupery's Le Petit Prince:

The Little Prince comes down to earth from his miniature planet, touching several other worlds briefly en route. He is confused and distressed by what he finds on these outer realms. He meets a king who only wants to wield authority; a conceited man who lives for applause; a businessman who counts the stars; a geographer at a desk with his nose buried in scientific data; and a lamplighter, obeying outworn orders. None of these planetary beings can give him any reason for their occupations, or any sense of life. 
At last, on Earth's African desert, he meets a snake and a little fox who give him some answers. What is the point of life? What is essential?

 "What is essential" says the little fox, "is invisible to the eye, one can only see with the heart."

What is important are the bonds that link us to one another in a concept greater than oneself.

There was a moment in France, while we were watching the production of Le Petit Prince in Paris at the Lucernaire, that I felt connected to the language, I felt understanding happening and in my letter to Mom I write: 'We were quite enchanted and just so proud of our progress that we could understand the play!'

Fred's Mom had offered to babysit and we had taken ourselves to the theatre to see this French classic, and it has stayed with me, the experience, the illustrations, the story and the expression; 'S'il vous plait...dessine-moi un mouton'.
"So you can imagine my surprise when, at daybreak, I awoke to a funny little voice, saying "Please... draw me a sheep."

My mother-in-law comes for a visit

Fred's mother in Paris, July 1987

Summer at last, the little plastic pool.

On the 6th July 1987, I was loving the long, wonderfully hot and sunny French summer days, throwing open the French doors, Shawni was running freely in the garden and Barry was happy to play in the little plastic kiddies pool that we bought for them.

And my mother-in-law, Greet Kersten was visiting.

Fred and I have a delightful image of her using a ladder to scale the fruiting cherry tree in our garden just outside the summerhouse, she was so happy and Fred so alarmed that he was going to miss out on the warm, ripe cherries.

She did enjoy making the summerhouse her little home and popping into the house to use the bathroom. She was strong, loved going into Paris but I do see from the letter that I was tiring her out
'we walked the length of the Champs Elysees and Rue de Rivoli'.

'Shawni ranged from enthralled to terrified'

"The kids had spent a year on the project"

One of the pleasures of having the littley's with us in France was finding special places, shows and exhibitions geared for children. I remember loving it all as much as they did.

I see from this extract of one of my letters sent to Mom after our boating holiday on the Charente in the June of 1987, that we went to a marionette show at a 'chapelle' in Saintes, which is in the Charente -Maritime province.

Each young boy had made a puppet as an art project, then a story was written around the puppets. What a creative idea, will let Inel know as an idea for her school too.



So 'Barry was wide-eyed, Shawni ranged from enthralled to terrified, especially when the narrator has a bad dream and life-size, weird looking puppets come on stage." 

Nearly time for Shawni and Craig's visit

This time last year we were 'roaming around the USA' as Shawni's Postcard says. What I love is the symmetry of time. This time last year Fred and I were anticipating Shawni and Craig's visit and here we are a year later doing the same, just in a different part of the world.

Last year they spent two weeks with us in Oregon and Montana, a glorious adventure taking in Mt. Hood, Portland, Seattle and Yellowstone National Park. Since then they have moved to Wellington, New Zealand and they are popping back to Johannesburg for some family time.

Cannot wait.

Their wedding Thank You Postcard is so original and reflects the attention to detail around their wedding. It truly was 'the most magical and special day'. A perfect day.