Alfred Elias Collier Lambert MABERLEY (1858-1943)

Alfred Elias was born Alfred Elias LAMBERT on Jan 16th,1858 in Camden Town, Middlesex, UK, the son of John and Sarah (née Colyer) Lambert. His father was a plumber and house painter. He attended the Westminster Choir School in London at the age of 12 and 13.

At some time around 1883 he left England for Kimberley, South Africa, centre of the diamond mining industry. Here he "bought" a farm (Klein Karee Pan) and in 1885 married local girl Martha Gertrude Mathewson. Six of their ten children were born on the farm. In 1898 he announced his discovery of gold on the farm and £15,000 was raised locally to exploit the claim. Around 1905 he returned with his family to London where the last of his children was born before emigrating again, this time to Calgary, Alberta. After declaring he was going to help fight in the Mexican revolutionary wars he set off southwards and was never seen by his family again. He apparently met and "married" a woman (Elizabeth Shirley) in California in 1925 and died in Los Angeles on Mar 9th 1943.