Garwood Alston

Name: Garwood Alston Residence Place: Great Bromley, Essex, England Gender: Unknown Christening Date: 03 Jun 1838 Christening Date (Original): 3 Jun 1838 Christening Place: Great Bromley, Essex, England Father's Name: Edward John Alston Mother's Name: Mary

Indexing Project (Batch) Number: I03391-6 System Origin: England-EASy GS Film number: 1702172 Reference ID: 73-74

Citing this Record "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JQ7Z-XKS : 11 February 2018, Mary in entry for Garwood Alston, ); citing 73-74, index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City; FHL microfilm 1,702,172.

Household Role Sex Age Birthplace Edward Alston M 25 Essex Mary Alston F 20 Essex Garwood Alston M 3 Essex Eliza Alston F 1 Essex Fanny Alston F 0 Essex

John Hempson M 25 Essex Robert Ede M 15 Essex Elizabeth Fowler F 20 Essex Susan Taylor F 20 Essex Susan Keeble F 15 Essex

Book Number: 8 Line Number: 20 Digital Folder Number: 101720307 Image Number: 00263

Citing this Record "England and Wales Census, 1841," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MQ2F-6FZ : 21 May 2019), Susan Keeble in household of Edward Alston, Great Bromley, Essex, England, United Kingdom; from "1841 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO HO 107, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey.

Name: Garwood Alston Event Type: Census Event Date: 1851 Event Place: Kelvedon, Essex, England Registration District: Witham Gender: Male Age: 12 Occupation: Scholar Institution: Kelvedon School Birth Year (Estimated): 1839 Birthplace: Bromley, Essex Page Number: 34 Registration Number: HO107 Piece/Folio: 1783 / 68 Affiliate Record Type: Household

Household Role Sex Age Birthplace Garwood Alston M 12 Bromley, Essex

Household ID: 1619865 Line Number: 16 Digital Folder Number: 101796858 Image Number: 00139

Citing this Record "England and Wales Census, 1851," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:SGVC-XJZ : 10 November 2017), Henry Holt in household of Jesse Brand, Kelvedon, Essex, England; citing Kelvedon, Essex, England, p. 34, from "1851 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO HO 107, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey.

Garwood ALSTON was born on 13 May 1838 in Great Bromley, Essex. UK and died in South Africa. His sons Edward and Herbert where made executors of his estate. His will was dated 11 March 1918. Edward at his deathbed. Died whilst visiting son Herbert.

Owned a farm called "Leewkolk", at Vanwyksvlei, (11 630 morgen) which was eventually sold for $3100 to settle the estate.

General Notes:

Ref 1851 ESS Census Garwood Alston aged 12 bn Gt Bromley ESS, scholar at Kelvedon School, Kelvedon. Folio 68 Parish KVD

(source; jamesbrautigam@hotmail.com)

Source: S2A3 Biographical Database of Southern African Science

Alston's interest in natural history is evidenced by a number of donations of specimens to the South African Museum in Cape Town. In 1891 he presented insects from British Bechuanaland (now part of the Northern Cape). These were followed by further donations of Coleoptera (beetles), many of them rare or new to the museum's collection, from Bushmanland and "the dry north-western parts of the Colony" in 1894, 1896 and 1899, and a few from Mashonaland (in present Zimbabwe) in 1897. His other donations included some snakes, scorpions, and solifugae from Vanwyksvlei in 1898 and 1899. The solifugae (1899) included several new species and were presented by G. and D.C. Alston (presumably Garwood and his son Daniel Constable, born in 1876). As a result of his donations he was named as one of only nine "correspondents" of the South African Museum in 1899 - a regular contributor of specimens who received the museum's publications free of charge.

Was a scholar att Kelvedon School. A qualified Civil Engineer and Land Surveyor (according to his death notice), he emigrated to South Africa at the age of 18. (About 1856)

Garwood married Elizabeth DE WIT on 14 Jun 1860 in Cape Town, South Africa. Elizabeth was born on an unknown date and died on 5 April 1895.

They had 11 children: Winifred, Edward Garwood, Bessie, Herbert John Bailey, Mary Frances, Edith Winifred, Harry Alexander, Charles Rowland, Daniel Constable, William, and Alice Egidia.

Bessie ALSTON was born on 16 May 1862 and died in 1863 at age 1.

Herbert John Bailey ALSTON was born on 26 Jul 1863 and died after 1922.

Mary Frances ALSTON was born on 21 May 1867.

Edith Winifred ALSTON was born on 16 Sep 1869 and died in 1879 at age 10.

Harry Alexander ALSTON was born on 13 Aug 1871 and died on 25 Aug 1925 Port Elizabeth, Sth Africa (source : http://home.st.net.au/~susanp/dat44.html#9)

Charles Rowland ALSTON was born on 9 Aug 1874 and died on an unknown date.

Daniel Constable ALSTON was born on 16 Jan 1876 and died on an unknown date.

William ALSTON was born on 27 Nov 1877.

Alice Egidia ALSTON was born on 6 Aug 1879 and died on an unknown date.

Noted events in his life were: Garwood Alston, was a land surveyor in the Cape of Good Hope who actively collected natural history specimens, published some meteorological investigations, and practiced agriculture in the Carnarvon district, particularly at Van Wyk's Vlei, during the latter part of the nineteenth century.

His career in surveying started with his admittance as a land surveyor in the Cape of Good Hope in 1861. During the next four decades the high quality of his work led to frequent government contracts to carry out important surveys. In 1871 and 1872 he was engaged to extend the survey performed by Thomas Maclear* to measure an arc of the meridian in the western parts of the Cape of Good Hope, by connecting Maclear's Kliprug and Kebiscow stations to the village of Calvinia by a double series of primary triangles. During 1894 he surveyed the boundaries of a proposed Bushmanland Game Reserve just south of the Gariep and west of Pella mission station. Nothing came of this proposal, but his survey showed that the river was in places up to 14 km further north than indicated on existing maps, so that the Cape Colony was larger than had hitherto been assumed. During 1898 he was engaged to perform the primary triangulation to connect the eastern end of the geodetic chain in British Bechuanaland with the northern end of the Kimberley arc surveyed by Colonel W.G. Morris*, a 110 km chain of triangles along the Kimberley-Vryburg railway line. This was followed by a similar survey to connect the western end of the British Bechuanaland chain to the northern end of Maclear's arc of meridian. He completed the field work in October 1899 and recommended several improvements in the construction of beacons (then piles of loose stones) and in observational procedures. Even Alston's earliest work was so highly regarded that the Surveyor-General decided in 1901 to integrate a survey he had carried out in 1864 into the secondary triangulation of the Colony, which was then in its early stages.

Alston's work required him to move about the Colony and adjacent territories regularly. During the eighteen-eighties he lived mainly at Van Wyk's Vlei, where he managed an agricultural settlement which was started in 1884. During 1888 and 1889 he was at Parys in the Free State, and in 1890 at Klerksdorp in the Transvaal, but from 1891 to after 1900 again had his base at Van Wyk's Vlei. In 1906 and 1907, when he would already have reached retirement age, his address is given as Roodepoort (an agricultural settlement near present day Koppies) in the Free State. His interest in natural history is evidenced by a number of donations of specimens to local museums. In 1885 and 1886 he sent many insects, with natural history notes, to the South African Museum from Van Wyk's Vlei, following this up with further donations of insects from Parys in 1888 and 1889, Klerksdorp in 1890, British Bechuanaland in 1891, Bushmanland in 1894, 1896 and 1899, and from Van Wyk's Vlei in 1897, many of them rare or new to the museum's collection. His other donations included some semi-fossilized shells, snakes, scorpions, and solifugae from Van Wyk's Vlei in 1897 to 1899. As a result he was named as one of only nine \"correspondents\" of the South African Museum in 1899: a regular contributor of specimens who received the museum's publications free of charge.

Alston's botanical collecting was on a smaller scale. He sent some succulents from the Carnarvon district to the Government Herbarium in Cape Town in 1895, and again from around Garies in Namaqualand in 1897. The next year he donated plants collected during his survey in British Bechuanaland. He also sent live succulents from Namaqualand to the Albany Museum in Grahamstown in 1899. He is commemorated in the species names of the succulents Trichocaulon alstonii and Adromischus alstonii.

In 1886 the Colonial Botanist, P. MacOwan, obtained seeds of the Australian salt bush, Atriplex nummularia and A. inflata, from Australia and gave them to Alston for test planting at Van Wyk's Vlei. He raised the plants successfully and in 1893 distributed seed to farmers in many parts of South Africa. He described the experiment in a pamphlet published in Cape Town by the Department of Lands, Mines and Agriculture in 1893. In some of the saline soils of the Karoo the first-named species has spread widely and is an important fodder plant. It is popularly known as Alston's Saltbush. Another of his contributions to agriculture was an article in the Cape Quarterly Review (Vol. 1(4), July 1882, pp. 616-620) on the detection of break-outs by ostriches or other animals from their camps by incorporating the fence in an electric circuit - a very early application of electricity in South Africa.

Alston's first contribution to meteorology consisted of a short paper on meteorological data in the Cape Monthly Magazine (Series 2, Vol. 7, 1873, pp. 31-32, 383-384) in which he advocated that meteorological observations should be made systematically at selected stations. In 1882-1883 he published a description of the climate of the region between Calvinia-Carnarvon in the south and the Gariep in the north in the Cape Quarterly Review (Vol. 1, pp. 544-554; Vol. 2, pp. 135-150, 312-320). Years later he made a comparison of the water supply (precipitation) and loss (evaporation, run-off, and percolation) at Brandvlei Dam in the Karoo to conditions in New South Wales, Australia. The study was published in the Transactions of the South African Philosophical Society (Vol. 9, 1895-6, pp. 8-19). He became a member of the society around this time, and was still a member of its successor, the Royal Society of South Africa, in 1917. His other publications included a paper on Van Wyk's Vlei (Transactions of the South African Philosophical Society, Vol. 8, 1890-1895, pp. 35-40), a response to the Report of the Commission on Van Wyk's Vley in 1892, and an open letter to the Commisioner for Public Works on Van Wyk's Vlei in 1906.', gender='M', serial_number='0052', title='Mr', compiled_by='C. Plug', list_of_sources='Albany Museum. Report for 1899.

Cape of Good Hope (Colony). Report of the Surveyor-General for 1879, 1880, 1894, 1898, 1899, 1901.

Gunn, M. & Codd, L.E. Botanical exploration of southern Africa. Cape Town: Balkema, 1981.

Royal Society of South Africa. Transactions, 1908, Vol. 1, 1917-18, Vol. 6, lists of members.

Smith, C.A. Common names of South African plants (Australian salt bush). Pretoria: Botanical Research Institute, 1966.

South African bibliography to the year 1925. London: Mansell, 1979.

South African Museum. Report for 1885 to 1899.

South African Philosophical Society. Transactions, Vols 8-18, 1890-1907.

Part time naturalist: He provided botanical specimens to the National Museum.

Alston also continued collecting natural history specimens which this year [1899] included three species of coleoptera new to the South African Museum." Source: Cape Town Museum:

Specimens collected Donations to South African Museum: 1893 (Lepidoptera and Coleoptera from Concordia, Little Namaqualand); 1894 (Pella); 1896; 1897. Source - http://www.museums.org.za/bio/people/alston-g.htm National Archives of South Africa (NASA) Database: Cape Town Archives Repository