One of the problems of the typical Victorian family was that because of its size there was always a chance that one or more of its members would not be a credit to the family. This problem occurred with William and Louise. They had nine children who reached maturity, five sons and four daughters. We can leave aside the daughters, none of whom disgraced the family name, and look only at the five sons. Two of these sons became Admirals in the Royal Navy and a third ran a successful preparatory school. It is reassuring to be able to report that these three sons proved to be eminently respectable. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of the remaining two brothers, Russell and Robert. They caused their long suffering parents considerable anxiety and expense in their youth, and the latter continued to trouble his siblings until he died in the 1930s. Of the two brothers Russell initially caused the most serious problems and it is his remarkable story that is about to be told.
EARLY YEARS
Russell was born 21st August 1854 in Weymouth while his father, in command of Bulldog, was serving in the Baltic during the Crimean War. We know nothing about his childhood and the first news we have of him comes from his brother George’s diaries in May 1873. This entry describes a visit to the Doctor and the symptoms described are remarkably similar to those connected with his death 10 years later. From other entries of this period Russell appears to be living at home in Devonport with his parents and having a job in a local bank. The following year the troubles began.
Sometime in late 1873 or early 1874 Russell moved up to London and obtained a job with the Oriental Bank. On a visit to London in May George has a talk with Russell’s manager and receives a very discouraging report of his performance. He also discovers that his brother is seriously in debt and in danger of cheques, to the value of £65, ‘bouncing’ in the near future. To clear Russell’s debts he makes him a loan of £70 [the equivalent of 5 months pay for a Lieutenant. Ed]. For the remainder of that summer George’s diaries are full of entries describing the irresponsible behaviour of his brother. His feeling are perhaps summed up by the two entries of 1st July and 21st August. We do not know much about Russell’s life for the next two years. In 1875 his mother had died in Devonport and later in the year the family moved to London, with their father, William, on half-pay. The few references that we have are not complimentary and indicate that he was still very careless with money and seldom held a job for any length of time.
In the spring of 1877 this phase of Russell’s career ended abruptly. In an entry in George’s diary dated the 7th April we learn that Russell had that day sailed for Melbourne on board a sailing ship the British Commerce. The reason for his sudden departure was connected with his business dealings with a lady who passed under the name of Baroness Nelson and Bronte. The details of Russell’s connection with this lady are best learnt from reports of the proceedings of two court cases held in May and June [PAGE6931].
RUSSELL IN AUSTRALIA and ELSEWHERE
Although it is unlikely that he appreciated it at the time, his father had done Russell a good turn by sending him to Australia. As we have seen, up to the age of 22, his life had not been a success. The next six years in Australia and other parts of the world where to show that, although he still had some weaknesses, he also had remarkable qualities which had not been apparent in England.
Russell arrived in Melbourne in the last week of August 1877. In part of a letter that has survived [PAGE6935] he describes his voyage out and his arrival in Melbourne. He appears to have been quite cheerful at the prospect of life in Australia and it is likely he had some form of introduction which would have helped him to get started on his new life. Our next firm contact with Russell is dated June 1878 when we learn from George King-Hall’s diaries that he is working with the Chirnside family. By the 1870s the Chirnsides were one of the largest landowners in Victoria with at least sixteen holdings covering nearly 500,000 acres. We don’t know much about Russell’s early days with the Chirnsides except that he appears to have acted as a companion to Andrew S., who was the second son of the Andrew who had founded the family fortunes. A.S., as he was known, was born in 1855 and therefore almost the same age as Russell. He was a skilled horseman and well known in Australian hunting and racing circles. In 1878 he and his elder brother Robert had taken some of their horses to England and Scotland where they had hunted and taken part in other equine activities. Robert soon returned to Australia, but A.S., except for a short visit to South Africa, remained in England.
In early 1879 Andrew was joined by Russell. They had decided to go big game hunting in what is now the southern part of Malawi in Central Africa.
AFRICAN ADVENTURE
In outline their plan was to start their expedition from Quilimane, a town in Portuguese Mozambique which lay some 1800 miles NE of Cape Town; join the Zambezi some 60 miles above its entrance, which was not navigable, and then take the Shire River up to Lake Nyasa (Malawi). Most of their journey would be by boat, but there were two stages where the rivers where not navigable and the boats had to be carried. In the late 1870s this expedition was both a courageous and foolhardy venture. Although the Portuguese had controlled the coastal areas for several centuries, the interior had only been recently opened up by Livingstone’s great explorations. Having discovered the Victoria Falls in 1856, between 1858 and 1863 he led The Zambezi Expedition which discovered Lake Nyasa (Malawi) and explored the area between it and the Zambezi. Following Livingstone’s discoveries the Church of Scotland Missionary society had set up a number of stations in the area. However apart from these centres of Christian civilisation, life was still very much continued as it had for centuries. This was the setting into which Andrew and Russell, both still in their mid 20s, were about to travel. It was to be a very different experience to the average 21st Century ‘gap-year’ . This section of the website only contains a brief description of the expedition as the first six months of their travels have been excellently described in A Land of Sorrow [PAGE6932], an account which was written by Russell on his return to Australia. Any reader who has any interest in the early exploration of Africa is strongly recommended to read this unique and extremely well written account of the adventures of Andrew and Russell.
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Having called at Cape Town and Durban they arrived at the port of Quilimane on the 21st July. After a week sorting themselves out they set off on the next stage of their journey which consisted partly of a river passage up the Quakwa river, followed by an overland portage of about six miles to the settlement of Mazaro on the north bank of the Zambezi river. Their method of transport was a 22 ft gig. On the evening of the 5th August they had reached Mazaro and the next morning where able to admire the mighty Zambezi. After resting a few days the party embarked on board the Lady Nyassa, a 60 ft vessel owned by the Livingstonia Trading Company, a commercial offshoot of the Mission Station. They set sail at 11 am on the 9th August with the Bella in tow. A week later, after a number of adventures, including grounding on a rock, they left the Zambezi and entered the lower reaches of the Lower Shire River. Progress was slow and the Lady Nyassa, with her wood burning 16 H.P. engine, took the next five days to cover the 120 miles upstream to the village of Katunga, the end of the first part of their river trip. As they arrived Andrew and Russell went down with their first attack of fever. It was also in this village that they met Herbert Rhodes, the elder brother of the famous Cecil Rhodes, who was passing through on his way from Blantyre to Quilimane. On the 21st, having partially recovered from their fever the party set off for Blantyre, some 30 miles away, on foot.
They stayed in Blantyre for a week while they recovered their strength. During this time they noted with concern the manner in which the station was run by the Church of Scotland Missionary Society. They also attended the wedding of Dr Laws, their fellow traveller since leaving Quilimane, to a Scottish lady who had come out to Africa to join him. Andrew and Russell then left Blantyre and after a two day journey arrived at Pimbi, a stockaded village and home of Herbert Rhodes, which lay about 30 miles N of Blantyre.
On Mon. 1st Sept the Bella arrived having been carried past the Murchison Cataracts on the Upper Shire river by 40 men. They were now in a position to fulfil the main purpose of their expedition; the hunting of big game. Andrew and Russell spent the next six weeks at Pimbi and A Land of Sorrow gives a vivid account of their various adventures. These included being charged by and shooting elephants and buffaloes; being nearly capsized in their boat by aggressive hippopotami. and a meeting with slave traders. Between all these excitements they intermittently suffered from fever and dysentery.
After leaving Pimbi the party continued up the Upper Shire river towards the southern end of Lake Nyasa, their destination being the Mission Station at Livingstonia, about 120 miles to the north. On reaching the open waters of Lake Nyasa, they were struck by a violent storm and very nearly lost both their boats. The next day, 18th October, the weather improved and they were able to round Cape Maclear and arrive at the comparative safety Free Church Mission Station of Livingstonia. Here they were warmly welcomed by Mrs Laws. Dr Laws had been away visiting the northern end of the lake, but returned that evening. After a week at the Mission Station Andrew and Russell had recovered sufficiently to continue their journey. Their plan was to set up camps on the west shore of the lake from which they could hunt in the surrounding country.
For the next few weeks they enjoyed the usual adventures of charging elephants, roaring lions, biting ants and bouts of fever. They also visited a number of local native villages. On one occasion this created an extremely threatening situation. One of their party by mistake discharged a revolver and killed one of the villagers. The village chief saw this incident as an opportunity to relieve Andrew and Russell of their stores and equipment. Some fairly tense and aggressive negotiations followed and on the 13th November our party were lucky to get away relatively unscathed. Having extricated themselves from this situation they continued up the west shore of the lake, and on the 18th arrived close to the village of Mareinbe which lay opposite the island of Kota Kota. They were now in region ruled by an Arab chieftain who was closely involved with the slave trade. Slaves where brought in by their fellow Africans to Kota Kota where slave caravans were then formed. These caravans then crossed the lake before making the 300 mile journey to Kilwa on the shore of the Indian Ocean, where the slaves and the products such as ivory, which they had carried, were sold.
It is at this point that A Land of Sorrows ends its account of the travels of Andrew Chirnside and Russell King-Hall. The reasons for this abrupt ending is explained in the next section.
RETURN TO AUSTRALIA
Andrew and Russell returned to Australia in March 1880. They brought back with them a large number of their hunting trophies some of which were displayed at the Melbourne International Exhibition, which opened in October of that year, and some of which can still be seen at Werribee Park to this day.
On their return from Africa Russell and Andrew appeared to have spent the next two years at Carranballac, a Chirnside Estate 30 miles W of Ballarat and 100 miles from Melbourne. While they were there Andrew bought, a newspaper, the Ballarat Star, and made Russell the editor. We get a glimpse of Russell’s life during this period from a letter he wrote to his brother George in February 1881 [PAGE6933].
Russell’s editorship of the Ballarat Star had two important outcomes. The first was welcome. In a series of articles between January and November 1882 Russell wrote in the Agricultural Section of the paper an account of their adventures in Africa, which have given us the material that make up A Land of Sorrow. The second result was less fortunate. Under the stewardship of Andrew and Russell the Ballarat Star took an active part in local politics and published a number of articles that resulted in a series of libel cases which in turn led to substantial damages being awarded against the paper. Andrew’s father was not amused and forced his son to sell the paper. From our point of view the most serious result of this action was the abrupt ending of the A Land of Sorrow leaving our heroes in the middle of Africa.
In parallel with his editorial duties Russell had other interests which are hinted at in his letter to his brother George. Sometime in late 1880 or early 1881 Russell had met a young lady called Buttercup Gash whom, from research carried out by a descendant of one of Buttercup’s sisters, appears to have come from a different social strata to the Chirnsides, and indeed the ‘squatter’s daughters’ referred to in the letter. We do not know the exact relationship between Russell and Buttercup, but some time in 1882 or perhaps late 1881, while Russell was editor of the Ballarat Star, Buttercup had a daughter whom they named Violet.
Russells connection with the Chirnside family seems to have ended at the end of 1882 when Andrew was banished by his family to Queensland. He appears to have returned to Melbourne. (For the benefit of members of the family this subject in treated in more detail in a separate note. See [PAGE6934]. Six months later Russell was dead. He died on the 7th July 1883 Russell at 2 Albert Terrace Melbourne from a tumour of the brain. In his final days he had been nursed by Sarah Gash, a sister of Buttercup. Robert, his ne’er-do-well brother who had recently arrived in Australia, was also with him.
VIOLET KING-HALL AND HER DESCENDANTS
Our story does not end with the death of Russell. It has at least another hundred years to run. When her father died Violet was probably a baby of about six months age and therefore with her mother. We know nothing of Violet’s early years except that at some stage she went to live with her Aunt Sarah and grew up with her in Adelaide. In 1904 she married a William Luker, but this marriage does not seem to have been a success and by 1911 we find both her and Aunt Sarah living in Fremantle, W. Australia.
We must now return to the King-Hall family. In 1911 George King-Hall, Russell’s eldest brother was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Australia Station. About 9 months after his arrival we learn from his diaries that he received a letter from Violet. He appears to have been rather surprised and uncertain what to do about it. As matters turned out he did not have the opportunity to meet her while he was Commander-in Chief because, rather surprisingly, his duties never took him to W. Australia. In October 1913 George handed over his Command to the newly formed Royal Australian Navy and embarked on board the S.S. Nestor to return home. His first port of call was Fremantle where he met Violet and Aunt Sarah. This meeting, which was a great success, is best described in George’s own words from the entry in his diary. [PAGE6910]
After 1913 the connection between the King-Hall family and Australia lapsed for the next eighty years. As far as is known none of George’s children knew about their Australian 1st cousin and it wasn’t until the early 1980s that the editor of this Website, a grandson of George King Hall came across the entry referred to above. He remembers being very intrigued by the news, and was curious to know what had happened to Violet.
About 15 years later his curiosity was satisfied. In February 1992 a cousin, the eldest daughter of Stephen King-Hall, received a very tentative letter from an Australian scientist who was in England carrying out research work. From the contents of his letter it was immediately apparent that he was a grandson of Violet and that he was 2nd cousin of both the recipient of his letter and the editor of this website. A meeting was immediately arranged from which a number of friendships have emerged. Both sides of the family have visited each other in Australia and England. Today [2008] the Australian connection is flourishing. Although Violet had only one son, she has four grandchildren, fifteen great grandchildren and seven great great grandchildren living today.