David Crombie Greig

My mother's grandparents on her father’s side were Peter Greig, and Elizabeth Greig who were married on 10 April 1856 at Geelong, Australia. He was a merchant and shipowner and quite how they came to be in Australia, I don't know. My mother's father, David Crombie Greig was born on 16th February 1868 at East Port, Crail, Scotland. David Crombie Greig married my grandmother, Helen Usher Crease,( who was the daughter of William Crease and Margaret Balmer Graham, who had married on 31 July 1866), on 5 September 1895, in London at the Scotch National Church Crown Court in the District of the Strand.The occupations given on the marriage certificate were as follows: David Greig, sharebroker, (place of residence Savoy Hotel, Strand). Peter Greig, shipowner. William Crease, Gentleman. Helen Usher Crease, Spinster As far as I can remember from what I have been told, David Greig set off for South Africa about 1888 at the age of twenty, to seek his fortune and told his fiancée, Helen that he would return to marry her when he had established himself. She waited seven years for him. I think they immediately set off for South Africa, and am fairly sure that they went to Johannesburg, but the next hard information I have is my grandfathers obtaining a seat on the Johannesburg Stock exchange in 1899, but his place of residence is given as Pietermaritzburg, Natal. He was a war correspondent during the Boer War, 1899 -1902 and was for many years a Johannesburg City Councilor. He is reputed to have prevented the spread of a typhoid epidemic by insisting that night soil from infected houses was kept separate from uninfected residences by painting the buckets from the infected houses yellow. He was chairman of the Johannesburg stock exchange from about 1908 to 1918, and I believe that this is the longest that anyone has ever held that position. He is mentioned in the official history of the stock exchange "On Change".I quote: "The Johannesburg stock exchange reopened on January 5 1915 and D.C. Greig, the chairman, took the opportunity to tell members - their numbers depleted through enlistments as well as through diversion into other forms of business: "The constitution of the stock exchange is so rigid that it does not permit any latitude to meet emergencies. Hence, to meet the events of the crisis brought about by the declaration of the war and the prolongation of hostilities, the committee has applied for and has been granted special powers by the Union Government. The resulting emergency regulations have been framed to cover the intricacies of the Share Market trading and foreign exchange in time of war." More than a quarter of a century later, in another and equally grave situation, the wisdom of these measures was proved anew." He had a sharebroking firm D.C. Greig and Co, where my father worked from the mid 1920's to about 1942. He had many other interests including a small gold mine and a farm in Swaziland, near Lake Chrissie. In due course four daughters were born and my mother was the third. He was so disappointed at the birth of yet another girl, that she was christened Helen David.

(Thank you to Robin Allison for this information)