George Macleroy

I Discovered this while doing some research

Document 94 of 145
DEPOT NAB
SOURCE CSO
TYPE LEER
VOLUME_NO 738
SYSTEM 01
REFERENCE 1880/379
PART 1
DESCRIPTION GEORGE MACLEROY. REQUESTS THAT THE REMAINS OF HIS SON, WHO WAS
KILLED AT ISANDHLWANA, MAY BE LEFT UNDISTURBED WHERE THEY WERE
BURIED BY A PARTY OF THE NATAL CARBINEERS.
STARTING 1880
ENDING 1880

Springy,

If you want to do any research into George MacLeroy Jnr. pm/e-mail me, I am a close friend of the family.

I can also confirm that George Jnr.'s body was removed from the battlefield, where his marker is and was buried alongside his father, George Snr. in the Commercial Road Cemetery, PMB, at the request of his mother, Agnes, following the death of her husband in 1881.  It was one of the last acts that Agnes did prior to leaving Natal forever with her only surviving child, Margaret.

Margaret suffered not only the loss of her brother at iSandlwana, but the man she intended to marry - against the wishes of her father - was killed at Ulundi.  At the family's request I edited Margaret's diary from 1877-1881, amongst it was a dance-card from 1880 detailing officers stationed at Fort Napier with whom she'd danced.  Almost all the names on the list perished in the 1st Anglo-Boer War of 1880-81.

John Y.

Such a shame to see dilapidation!

Going by the state of the grave, he would have been better off laying at Isandlwana.

JY wrote:

At the family's request I edited Margaret's diary from 1877-1881

Was this diary ever published. Or was it just for familey?

Les & Chard1879,

George's headstone was fine until September 1991, I found it smashed-up in September of that year whilst visiting the then Natal Museum Service, which had offices adjoining the cemetery.  I was told by the head of museum service that a drunken/drugged Zulu had attacked graves which had a connection to the Anglo-Zulu War.  

The cross headstone of the grave was made from a local sandstone, and was severely damaged in the attack, but I was assured that the grave would be repaired to its former condition.  

Some months later David Jackson and I attended the house of my late friend, Kenneth Griffith, where we were introduced to the descendants of George's sister, Margaret, who had with them a number of personal items relating to Trooper MacLeroy.  It was interesting to say the least as David discovered the MacLeroy's and he had a common forebear, a certain Sir William Wallace.

The family and I discussed the condition of the grave and they made local arrangements and supplied the funds for the grave to be restored.  It was only when I saw the photograph that Tim posted I saw that the restoration had never taken place.  I can only conclude the money disappeared in a country which was then in a state of flux in 1992, and found its way into the wrong pocket.

Last year I brought this to the attention of the current head of the family, and he is determined to go to KwaZulu-Natal and have the grave restored to how it was.

As to Margaret's diary it has never been published, I will speak to the family and see if we attempt to do now.  However, the letters that George wrote home to his sister prior to meeting his fate were published in the Journal of the Anglo-Zulu War Research Society in a three-part article entitled Dear Megs.

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The graves of George MacLeroy Senior & Junior, photographed in 1881.
Private Collection

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An enhanced close-up of G. T. MacLeroy's grave.
Private Collection

John Y.

What can you do with a drunken Zulu
early in the morning! The Victorian's!
was there ever a more golden age. i
think the culprit in the main was the
choice of stone coupled with old
father time..sandstone..i would opt
for a nice slab of white carrera marble
or a dollop of granite! the pics show
what a beautiful grave it once was. i
suspect you have a thousand anecdotes
JY, times jogging on.crack on.ten pages
a day.

JY
Im running a couple of lines of research at present, it was while doing this that I came across this document. I posted it more of interest for the forum members so they could see what is still buried in the files.
But to answer your question John Im not doing anything in this area.

Regards

Its taken a while to bring this topic to full circle but here are the documents I refered to in the opening post.
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Cheers

Is there a record of those colonial relatives who were allowed to remove the remains of their Kin from Isandlwana, prior to the mass burials?

There is an article in the Natal Witness 27th April 1881 about the funeral of his father being laid to rest in the vault alongside the stone which commemorates the death of Geo. Macleroy who fell at Isandhlwana

Hi Kate
I have read previously that the heartache of losing his son George at Isandlwana unfortunately hastened his own demise , as you're aware George is Buried next to his Father in the Pietermaritzburg Cemetery .
90th

Morning/Evening Gary
Thats right.
I was standing by his stone last November which thankfully is still in good order.

Kate,

George Snr.’s stone might be fine, but George Jnr.’s has been damaged since 1991. The descendant family - who are well known to me - did send out sufficient funds to repair the damaged headstone. Which still remains damaged and the money disappeared in the New South Africa.

I will be talking to them soon and see if something can be done.

Any chance you can forward the text of George Snr.’s funeral to me.

Thanks in anticipation,

JY

Sorry John I meant his other stone
I will send you the article
K

Here you go John since reading it, I've learnt how to paste articles onto the forum from the Natal Witness.
I didn't want to type the whole thing out before.

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Natal Witness 27 April 1881

There was also this John
Natal Witness 26th April 1881
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Kate,

Thanks for that.

George Snr.’s widow and their daughter left Natal shortly afterwards, her property in England neighboured another widow who had lost a son in the Zulu War - the Empress Eugenie.

JY

Kate,

It is so strange, no sooner had typed my reply on Wednesday than I discovered some documents relating to the transfer of plot of land in D’Urban on EBay, guess who had signed them.

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(John Young Collection)

JY

Spooky

JW
WOWWWW ! , That is weird !
90th

Modesty Blaze and Willie Gavin called it the Flux.

Frank,

You are showing your age there!

JY

Doubt if any of this lot has a clue what Im talking about John.

Frank,

I used to prefer Garth and his various adventures…

JY

Cmon John, Modesty in action? Like Purdy on steroids

Frank,

Given the timeframe - more like Emma Peel I’d say.  

JY