william arthur mallandain + elizabeth margaret anderson
William was born on 9 December 1844 in Lambeth, the son of George Robert Mallandain and Jane Galer. When he was five years old, William sailed with his family to the Natal in South Africa on board the Henry Tanner where they settled first on a farm in the Byrne Valley before moving to Harrismith and then Pietermaritzburg.
William married Elizabeth Margaret Anderson on 14 July 1872 in Pinetown near Durban. Elizabeth, known as Lizzie, was born near Richmond, Natal in April 1851 and she was the first child born in the settler community in the Byrne Valley. Her parents, John Anderson and Mary King, had travelled from England to Durban on board the Minerva in 1850.
William and Lizzie’s first son, William Arthur John, was born on 8 April 1873. Charles Henry was born on 7 July 1874 and six years later, Robert was born 4 July.
On Valentine’s Day 1899, William Arthur John married Elizabeth Norgate Dales and they went on to have five children: Joyce, Arthur, Hughes, Charles and Dales. Each one of their children was given the name Valentine as their middle name, no doubt in honour of the day their parents married.
William tried desperately to contact his remaining family in England, particularly his older brother, John Elliot, but failed to find him prior to his death in 1886. In 1898, he hired a researcher, Joseph Marshall of the French Hospital in London, to investigate his family pedigree and trace his niece, Ida Mallandaine; unfortunately, Joseph Marshall was never able to trace Ida. William died on 9 February 1905 but he never gave up hope of finding his niece and left her a substantial legacy but even his trustees could not locate her.
Charles married thirty-five year old Annette May Jackson on 7 July 1905 at St Mary the Virgin in Johannesburg but it is not known if they had any children. Robert married Laura Margaret Oliver in 1912 and they had two daughters, Laura Margaret born in 1914 and Joan Mary in 1917. Laura was a widow and had two young sons. Charles died in 1920, aged only 46 years, and his brother Robert died only two years later in a car accident; he was 42 years old. Charles’ wife, Annette, sailed alone to England in 1931 and while her proposed address was a hotel near Hyde Park, the passenger list also notes that she intended to make England her permanent residence. One year after Annette left South Africa, Lizzie Anderson died.
In 1936, William Arthur John and his wife Elizabeth sailed from Durban to Plymouth in a first class cabin on board the City of Nagpur. The passenger list notes that their intended destination was the Clarendon House Hotel in Hyde Park, London and it also lists William’s occupation as a farmer. Three years later, his sister in law, Laura Oliver, sailed to England with her two daughters, 25 year old Laura, a book keeper, and 22 year old Joan, a typist. They arrived on 5 June 1939 and stayed at the Strand Palace Hotel in London.
Their last surviving son, William Arthur John, died in 1959 and his wife Elizabeth Dales predeceased him by one year.