Mirelle Runciman

GEDCOM Note

Biography

She always said she never had a chance in life since she was number 13, forgetting her two brothers who had died young. “Babs was a very attractive person with a delightful sense of humour (according to Shelagh Gallwey (Gallwey-11)). She was a very clever mimic and would tellfamily anecdotes with a droll humour, and we always regretted that she did not write a family chronicle — it would have been most amusing! Soon after William Gallwey and girls returned to Maritzburg in 1914, she went to live in Durban where she worked in an insurance company.I (Shelagh) have vivid memories of her wonderful kindness in coming up to Maritzburg to look after our whole family during the pandemic Spanish influenza in 1918 when millions of people died, all over the world. Babs had had some nursing experience when she had gone to the Johannesburg Hospital to train as a nurse, at the age of twenty. Howevershe was sent for, to come home, when her mother heard, to her horror,that she had been required to wash a male patient”. She told Shelagh she bitterly resented having been made to give up her training, and Shelagh grieved to think of her having been denied the chance to live her own life. She was for some years Housekeeper at Michaelhouse School, Balgowan, Natal. It gave her the confidence in her later years to have a boarding house called Clareinch Guest House near the bottom part of Montpellier Road in Durban on the corner of Gordon Road. She had a lot of the Runciman furniture there. (The house name came from the ancestral Buchanan island, owned from 1225, near Loch Lomond, Scotland). Her Zulu cook was one “Fanyaan” and Rupert and Jeremy Hooper (sons of Gallwey-10) often went there for meals when they were kids. Later on Rupert went there with his mother to play Canasta with the olddears who lived in the place. Mike Gallwey’s children remembered her as very amusing and eccentric.

Name ===: Name: Mirelle /Runciman/ <ref>Source: #S2333 Page: RUNCIMAN mailing list resources, (http://www.guernsey.net/~sgibbs/runciman/) pdffile on brothers John and William RUNCIMAN in Sth Africa, written by Mrs Mary RUNCIMAN, extracted Sep 2005 Note: (from 1961 dth notice Mirelle RUNCIMAN)</ref>

Birth

: Birth: :: Date: 26 MAR 1891:: Place: Pietermaritzburg, NAT, SAF<ref>Source: #S2333 Page: RUNCIMAN mailing list resources, (http://www.guernsey.net/~sgibbs/runciman/) pdf file on brothers John and William RUNCIMAN in Sth Africa, written by Mrs Mary RUNCIMAN, extracted Sep 2005</ref>

Death

: Death: :: Date: 07 DEC 1961:: Place: Durban, SAF<ref>Source: #S2333 Page: RUNCIMAN mailinglist resources, (http://www.guernsey.net/~sgibbs/runciman/) pdf file on brothers John and William RUNCIMAN in Sth Africa, written by Mrs Mary RUNCIMAN, extracted Sep 2005 Note: (from 1961 dth notice Mirelle RUNCIMAN)</ref>

Data Changed

: Data Changed: :: Date: 12 SEP 2006 Prior to import, this record was last changed 12 SEP 2006 .

Christening

: Christening: :: Date: 09 APR 1893:: Place: Pietermaritzburg, NAT, SAF<ref>Source: #S2333 Page: RUNCIMAN mailing list resources, (http://www.guernsey.net/~sgibbs/runciman/) pdf file on brothers John and William RUNCIMAN in Sth Africa, written by Mrs Mary RUNCIMAN, extracted Sep 2005</ref>

Sources

• WikiTree profile Runciman-255 created through the import of RUNCIMANDavidBROWNMargaretLineage1a4MyHeritageWikiTree.ged on Oct 22, 2011 by L Henderson. See the Changes page for the details of edits by L and others.
• Source: S2333 Title: Rootsweb Msge Board, Url: http://boards.rootsweb.com Abbreviation: Rootsweb Msge Board

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