Histories

In fact, on 15 February the following year, Torrens replied that the Duke of York was in favour of the formation of a Garrison Company of the "invalid soldiers belonging to the Regiment stationed there" and added that aside from "the military benefits arising from the formation of a stationary corps, considerable advantage may attend the measure, as an introduction to British settlers". It was recommended that a complement of 150 men commanded by a Captain, two Lieutenants and an Ensign be stationed at Algoa Bay.

 

On 25 March 1813, the new officers were commissioned: Frances Evatt, Captain ; William Slater and Martin Fleischer, Lieutenants; and William Gardner, Ensign. Returns of troops serving at the Cape were compiled regularly, and an entry dated 25 August 1813 lists the 113 men of the Royal Garrison as being stationed at Wynberg. They must have been transferred to the Eastern Cape soon thereafter, for the entry of 25 April 1814 states that there were 140 men stationed at Algoa Bay. Four months later the Company of 141 men included ten sergeants and four trumpeters and drummers. The Cape Almanac of 1814 lists the officers of the Royal Garrison, along with those of other regiments.

The existence of this Company of soldiers in service at Algoa Bay, explains the grant on 8 February 1815 of the estate Chelsea for the use of the officers stationed at Fort Frederick. In addition, the Company was granted a piece of land adjoining the vlei on the Hill (present day Trinder Square) for the purpose of establishing a garden. This land was later ceded to Francis McCleland who, in turn, sold it to Alfred Jarvis.

The Garrison Company was short-lived. By 1815 the Napoleonic Wars were over and the British Government was anxious to reduce the cost of maintaining the large military contingent which was by then stationed at the Cape. There was no longer a need for a strong military presence at Algoa Bay, and men could be seconded from those doing their tour of duty at the Cape. The return of troops of 25 December 1816 shows 135 members of the Company at Algoa Bay. In April 1817 the contingent is listed for the first time amongst the frontier posts, which would seem to suggest that the attention of the colonial government had turned away from the possibility of foreign invasion to the unsettled eastern frontier. The return of 25 June 1817 makes no mention of the Royal Garrison and it must be assumed that it had been disbanded in the interim.

All four of the above-mentioned officers were numbered amongst the sixty- six men of the Royal Garrison Company who remained at the Cape after the dissolution thereof. Frances Evatt is probably best known on account of his lengthy association with Fort Frederick. Formerly a Lieutenant in the 21st Light Dragoons, on 4 April 1817 he was appointed Commandant of Fort Frederick with the rank of Captain, although on half pay. He was described as being of "the late Garrison Company" It is probable that with the dissolution of the Company, Evatt was granted sole use of the Chelsea estate. He remained at Fort Frederick until his death in 1850.

Of the other three officers we know very little. William Slater had been a quartermaster with the 83rd Foot Brigade and served at the Cape from 1806. He had a wife named Mary, and two daughters who were baptised in Cape Town. In 1815 he applied for a large grant of land in the Baakens Valley the same lot later granted to Captain Moresby and known as Rufane Vale. Home for these officers was probably Uitenhage and Slater bought a house there in 1818.

One of his daughters, Mary Anne, married Hermanus Johannes Berry, son of the early settler, John James. They had a son, born in 1836, who was christened William Slater in memory of his grandfather. Slater, like Evatt and Gardner, were each granted an erf in Main Street, but this lot and that of Gardner's went to others in 1820.

The other officer, Martin Fleischer, had been a quartermaster in the 21st Light Dragoons before being commissioned in the Royal Garrison Company. His wife was also named Mary and a son was baptised in Cape Town in 1807. In 1815 he was a founder member of the Uitenhage Turf Club. Sophia Pigot records in her diary that she met a Miss Fleischer from Uitenhage in 1820. Thomas Philipps also records that he met the family when he visited the town. Phillips described Fleischer as a widower retired from the army - he thought he had been with the 20th Dragoons - with five children of whom the eldest, John, had recently been made an Ensign in the Cape Corps. A daughter, Margeret, married the then young teacher, James Rose-Innes, in 1823 and both are buried in St George's Park Cemetery.

William Gardner, Ensign in the Company and later Lieutenant, married Johanna Magdalena Oosthuizen, widow of Jacobus Andreas Rudolph. Johanna inherited the farm Papenbiesjiesfontein (Paapenbietjesfontien) from her father, Gerhardus Oosthuizen, and from her it passed to her sons by Rudolph. She married Gardner, himself a widower with children, in Uitenhage on 24 February 1817. The marriage was, however, apparently unsuccessful because in November the following year Gardner advertised that he was not responsible for his wife's debts, and five years later he was given permission to leave the Colony on a ship bound for Buenos Aires. The innumerable land transactions relating to South End and Humewood which mention the "widow Gardner" thus refer to the former Miss Oosthuizen/Mrs Rudolph.

Sources:

Cape of Good Hope Almanacs. Philip, P., British Reisdents at the Cape, 1795-1819, David Philip, 1981.

Philip, R., 'Discharged soldiers and sailors who were granted permission to remain at the Cape', Familia, 16, 1979, No. 3 supplement.

Philipps, T., Philipps, 1820: Settler, Shuter and Shooter, 1960.

Pigot, S., The Journals of Sophia Pigot, Rhodes University/Balkema, 1974.

Scott, J B., The British Soldier on the Eastern Cape Frontier, 1800-1850' (Ph.D., University of Port Elizabeth, 1973).

Theal, G.M., Records of the Cape Colony, Cape Government, 1897.

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