Good Morning all ! I am trying to put some life into this personality for the 125th anniversary of the Cape Town Photographic Society, as he was twice our President in the early 1900's. He appears to be the founder of JD Cartwright's, and responsible for building the 7 story edifice that became known lovingly to Capetonians as Cartwright's Corner. I am looking for interesting personal snippets about him - something to do with photography will be an added bonus ! Many thanks Joy Wellbeloved --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. http://www.avast.com

Information of that kind doesn't seem to exist on the internet. Like so many of the fine old Cape Town shops, Cartwright's is long gone; the building was acquired by developers, and has been refurbished as a block of apartments for people visiting Cape Town or indeed staying in town for easier access to work, but like all such developments it is ruinously up-market and the plebs just have to put up with the not always satisfactory public transport system. Cape Town is of course not alone in that: when I first arrived in Melbourne in 1961, the close inner suburbs had over the previous 50 years or so degenerated into slums, but since then the trend has reversed, they have become gentrified, and are back to the close-packed residential use they had in the 19th century, only even further up-market -- again, because of the vagaries of the public transport system and traffic-jammed roads. It is made worse by the tendency of small country towns to die and the folk who used to live there flocking to the major cities, and primarily to the Melbourne Metropolitan area, now several times larger than it was before World War I. It's a world-wide problem, particularly severe in Australia, much less so in New Zealand and the UK (or at least in Middle England) and the principal European countries, these last not suffering from the interposition of large more or less arid areas between population centres. Andrew Rodger rodgera@audioio.com On 23/02/2015, at 7:53 PM, joy via wrote: > > Good Morning all ! > > I am trying to put some life into this personality for the 125th anniversary > of the Cape Town Photographic Society, as he was twice our President in the > early 1900's. > > He appears to be the founder of JD Cartwright's, and responsible for > building the 7 story edifice that became known lovingly to Capetonians as > Cartwright's Corner. > > I am looking for interesting personal snippets about him - something to do > with photography will be an added bonus ! > > Many thanks > > Joy Wellbeloved > > > --- > This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. > http://www.avast.com > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SOUTH-AFRICA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >

Hi Joy Cartwright, John Dean (*Nantwich, Cheshire, Eng., 9.4.1845 - †Cape Town, 16.10.1930), merchant and politician, was the son of Sampson Edward Cartwright, a baker, and his,wife, Ellen Dean. After attending school at Nantwich and King Edward's School in Birmingham, C. left England with his father in 1856 for Natal, where the latter took up sugar planting. In 1859 C. joined the Cape Town firm of provision merchants, Jacob Watermeyer and Co., and receiving an inheritance from his mother in 1866 invested in that business, taking it over completely in 1873. Under his direction and enterprise the firm grew and prospered, changed its name to J. D. Cartwright and Co., and shifted from Strand Street to bigger premises in Adderley Street in 1888. Ten years later, on the corner of Adderley and Darling Streets, he erected the six-storeyed Mansion House which became the firm's headquarters, and for generations thereafter 'Cartwright's Corner' was to become Cape Town's centre of social gravity. Early in the 1920s the fashion house next door, Fletcher's, amalgamated with Cartwrights, and Fletcher and Cartwright's grocery, chinaware and Manchester departments became nationally renowned. C. was elected to the Cape House of Assembly in 1898, retaining his seat in the 1904 elections as one of the five Cape Town representatives. Though not a very frequent speaker in debates he was a watchful guardian of Cape Town's interests. During the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) he raised a company of a hundred men, 'The Mansion House Company', which he commanded. >From 1907 until the time of Union he was a member of the Legislative Council of the Cape parliament, and afterwards represented the Rondebosch division in the Cape Provincial Council, of which body he was chairman for five years. He was one of the founders of the Y.M.C.A. movement in the Cape and of the East End Public School in De Villiers Street, Cape Town. He acted as a government nominee on the Cape School Board and served on the board of trustees of the Somerset Hospital. He also had other business interests, including a firm which dealt in curry-powder, and was a director and chairman of the Atlas Insurance Company. He was a prominent tennis player, becoming vice-president of the Western Province Lawn Tennis Association. C. was married three times: he first married Dorothy Maud Woolhouse and after her Annie Watermeyer. His third wife, Lottie Mason, survived him. He had seven children, three sons joining the firm as partners. A photograph of C. appears in S.A.W.W. (infra). Source - dictionary of SA Biography There is also a book called The Corner House by AP Cartwright 1965 The house of the De Wit family boasts one f the finest rococo-wavy parapets ever built, on the corner of Adderley street now Cartwrights builiding – source African Note and News March 1975 vol 21 no 5 Search the National Archives section on photos - there should be lots as there are many mentioned in the DSAB Regards Heather From: Andrew Rodger via <south-africa@rootsweb.com> Reply-To: Andrew Rodger <rodgera@audioio.com>, <south-africa@rootsweb.com> Date: Tuesday, February 24, 2015 at 6:07 AM To: joy <joy.wellbeloved@telkomsa.net>, <south-africa@rootsweb.com> Subject: Re: [SOUTH-AFRICA] John Dean Cartwright - died 1930 Information of that kind doesn't seem to exist on the internet. Like so many of the fine old Cape Town shops, Cartwright's is long gone; the building was acquired by developers, and has been refurbished as a block of apartments for people visiting Cape Town or indeed staying in town for easier access to work, but like all such developments it is ruinously up-market and the plebs just have to put up with the not always satisfactory public transport system. Cape Town is of course not alone in that: when I first arrived in Melbourne in 1961, the close inner suburbs had over the previous 50 years or so degenerated into slums, but since then the trend has reversed, they have become gentrified, and are back to the close-packed residential use they had in the 19th century, only even further up-market -- again, because of the vagaries of the public transport system and traffic-jammed roads. It is made worse by the tendency of small country towns to die and the folk who used to live there flocking to the major cities, and primarily to the Melbo! urne Metropolitan area, now several times larger than it was before World War I. It's a world-wide problem, particularly severe in Australia, much less so in New Zealand and the UK (or at least in Middle England) and the principal European countries, these last not suffering from the interposition of large more or less arid areas between population centres. Andrew Rodger rodgera@audioio.com On 23/02/2015, at 7:53 PM, joy via wrote: > > Good Morning all ! > > I am trying to put some life into this personality for the 125th anniversary > of the Cape Town Photographic Society, as he was twice our President in the > early 1900's. > > He appears to be the founder of JD Cartwright's, and responsible for > building the 7 story edifice that became known lovingly to Capetonians as > Cartwright's Corner. > > I am looking for interesting personal snippets about him - something to do > with photography will be an added bonus ! > > Many thanks > > Joy Wellbeloved > > > --- > This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. > http://www.avast.com > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > SOUTH-AFRICA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SOUTH-AFRICA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message