My Great Grandfather was born in 1843 in Dover Kent. At an early age he left home on a voyage to the Mediterranean and Black Seas and had “a wonderful deliverance from shipwreck one dark stormy night on a leeshore, near the mouth of the Dardanelles”. He visited the fever plague-spots on the Danube where “it was quite common to see the people dying in the streest with the epidemic with which they had been suddenly stricken.” A few years later found him gold-seeking in Australia “where home influences, and the restraints which society necessarily imposes, were thrown off, and every wild passion of the natural heart indulged; some-times with a pocketful of money ’seeing life’ in the towns or city; at other times wandering barefooted and hungry through bush and plain.”
In later life George (now Manager of the Timaru Herald) wrote long religious tracts which sometimes included stories of his past. He told how: “On one occasion in New Zealand, after walking about twenty miles in snow, two feet deep, with nothing to eat, tired and cold, I arrived at a sheep station towards night, but the manager refused to give me shelter, telling me of an accommodation house a few miles distant. I replied that I was unable to go further, and that if he refused to take me in I should lie down outside, which I did under cover of a dray. I said, perhpas he might yet know what it was to want a shelter. A few years later I was present at an inquest held over him, he having been found under a flax bush – frozen to death. As they lowered his remains into the grave, half-filled with water, the ‘Warden’ reading the burial service, God spoke loudly to my conscience. My tears flowed freely, and I felt deeply the vanity of all earthly pleasure, and the danger of my sinful life.”
There is a record of a George Gardner, a seaman on the “Himalaya”. In Lyttelton on 6 February 1866 he “went on shore with a boatload of passengers’ luggage and deserted from her.”
If this was my Great Grandfather he was indeed a mighty traveller, for he was in Dunedin being married just one week later on 13 February, to Alicia King. On the marriage register his occupation is given as Storeman.
When he died in 1925 his obituary stated that he was connected with the early days of Timaru, and was actively associated with the commercial life of the town and district, having been Manager of the Timaru Herald for 20 years from 1866. “A man of strong rel;igious convictions he was known as one diligent in business, and who set a high moral standard, and he was respected accordingly.” He later lived in Wellington and Christchurch, and in both cities his home was called “Te Maru”. This is the older version of Timaru, and means “place of shelter”. George, his wife, and three of their daughters are buried at St Peter’s Anglican Church, Riccarton, Christchurch.
This picture shows George William, seated centre, with his family.
“When recording his many acts
Rather than blog, he authored tracts.”
It must be amazing to be able to read your Great Grandfather’s words. I love his description of Australia, and it seems as if karma got the manager of the sheep station (I think there is a lesson to be had there, but I like the way he was so sad and didn’t blame the man).
When I lived in Shetland, George William was still a popular traditional name for boys there.
Comment by Helen — 2 March 2008 @ 11:09 pm