John Frederick Craig

Headstone in St. Patrick's Churchyard, Lower Donaghmore, Co. Donegal (church between Killygordon and Lifford.) Death date and age at death on stone.

John Craig and his sister Margaret Gwynne Craig mentioned in his grandfather John Craig's will of 1848; identified in his father John Craig's will of 1863 as the eldest son. Both wills online at Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI).

Trinity College, Dublin, 1866: BA , 1894 MA Listed as associate member of The Institute of Civil Engineers, May 4, 1880, living in Queenstown, South Africa; listed in his father-in-law Frederic Bate's death notice as living in East London, South Africa in 1903. In 1912 his wife Gertrude and he are listed as enumerators at the vote for Irish Union at the voting hall, the Presybterian Church in Donoughmore Parish, Co. Donegal. On September 28, 1912, John Craig, his wife Gertrude, and children Kathleen and Eric signed the Ulster Covenant (PRONI) so they had returned to Ireland by September 1912. As they are not listed in the Irish Census of 1911, one can infer that they moved to Ireland in late 1911 or in 1912.

From short family history written by his grandson John Lewis Craig, "The first to come to South Africa was my grandfather, John Craig M.A.I . M.I.C.E. He was a civil engineer who had taken his degree at Trinity College, Dublin....he had built railways in India, Russia and South America, and came to South Africa to do the same. He was resident engineer on the construction of the line from East London to Rosmead. For a time, he was District Engineer at Queenstown. Later, he came to the Cape & built the line from Cape Town to Caledon and to Protem, where it stopped before being taken through to Swellendam main line, which incidentally, never happened."

He married Gertrude Bate, a descendant of South African 1820 Settlers (Turvey's Party) William and Isabella Wright and the daughter of the bank manager in Queenstown, Frederic Calder Bate. He returned to Killygordon, Co Donegal, in his retirement and resided in the family home, Finnview.

From a letter written by his grandson Philip Homan: "... of course Donegal was part of the Irish Free State, much to the disgust of Grandfather Craig I might add, who is alleged to have burnt the portrait of Lord Carson on his lawn in front of the household in protest [of Donegal's separation from the rest of Ulster in 1922]."

Probate notice: Craig, John of Finnview, Killygordon, Co Donegal died 23 January 1923. Probate Dublin to Gertrude Blanche Isabel Craig widow and Robert Knox Gilliland, Esquire (first cousin on mother's side). Effects 1877 pounds 14 s in England. Sealed London 7 June.