From Russia with Love

Dear Maria: letters to Australia from Petersburg and London

Letters in an age without telephones and email were important - more so when the people involved lived far apart. Pen, ink and paper brought families together. Here are portions of letters from Maria's sisters and cousins and sons which fortunately have survived across the years. They have been transcribed by John R. Kane, who has managed the extremely difficult job of reading handwriting that is sometimes almost indecipherable. They report on events, advise of rites of passage and open a window on a world long gone. English equivalents of the family's Russian names are mostly used in these letters.

From Catherine Smirnov (London) to Samuel Cooper, Maria's son (Australia)
undated (probably 1853)


My sister(Elizabeth Smirnov) and self, dear Samuel, are most anxious to hear something about you all, for it seems as if you were all migrated to immense distances and foreign parts (Samuel and several of his brothers had already left India for New South Wales). I do not know whether before this is closed to send to you we shall have received any letters as we now and then do hear of Australian mails arriving, but nothing as yet comes for us, and we fear that perhaps some letters have been lost, as since your mother wrote to us she was upon the eve of her departure (Maria was soon to join her sons in Australia) there have been many rough storms and heavy weather during all last winter, and the great uncertainty as to whether your mother had really left India...

From Catherine Smirnov (London) to cousin Maria (Australia)
Autumn 1862

Your first note, dear, reached us in the middle of preparing for a time to change our neighbourhood, as my bedroom in Charles Street requires fresh papering and we have been much fatigued with packing. Ceilings in some rooms have to be white-washed and sundry jobs obliged us to break up our little household, except the cook, and bring our maid with us to these pretty little apartments...in Regents Park, not far from London and yet near enough to Primrose Hill and Hampstead to have a nice change of air. We are upon a terrace on a very cheerful road and the park opposite looks all along like a shrubbery...London is unusually crowded this year owing to the Exhibition...we are anxious to hear what you will say of dear Sarah Begbie who has indeed a share of troubles. I....received a letter from her and...she mentions the loss of her child, her husband's and her own illness, poor soul. (Sarah lost her son Alfred in 1862). Your penchant for wild names is inconceivable - now this is to be addressed to Wooolooomoooloooooo...(Maria was living at this time in Wooloomooloo, Sydney)

Helena to Maria Feb 20 1870

from Helena to Maria

From Leonard, Maria's son (Sydney) to Maria (Manning River)
February 22nd 1866

...it happened thus: John (Maria's son, later to own Woodside, where Maria is buried in a private cemetery) reached Taree...he then got a blackfellow to row him down the river towards the bar and after getting halfway he, the blackfellow, would not go any further. So John persuaded him to row to Mansell's and at their invite he remained there for a week...Throughout the voyage he escaped sea-sickness until nearing the heads where it was extremely rough...I hope he will enjoy himself during his stay in Sydney...

From Catherine Smirnov (London) to her cousin Maria (Australia)
August 26 1869

We have at length finished the box which I think will contain some useful articles of ladies apparel belonging to my late sister and one or two dresses of my own which I trust will be useful to yourself and Mrs Begbie...some information of your grand children George, Robert and Hugh Chalon (children of Maria's eldest daughter Maria Louisa). The elder one George is now 19 years of age, preparing himself for a military career at Sandhurst. The next Robert, about 17, is gone to Natal intending to be an agriculturalist or cattle dealer. The third and youngest, Hugh, about 13 years of age, is at school at Hereford...I have just received a letter from my cousin Waldemar, poor Stephen's son. His visit to this country now seems very doubtful. He writes to me in English for which I am very glad for I have forgotten my French...

From Baroness Helena Rosen (Russia) to her sister Maria (Australia)
February 2nd 1870

...you are, thank God, much improved in health and very busy about your sugar plantations (Maria must have written about experiments in sugar cane plantings at Norwood on the Upper Manning)...

You are perhaps aware, dearest Maria, that Waldemar Smirnov (son of Stefan Ivanovich Smirnov, whose children were Waldemar, Sophia, Boris and Olga. Stefan was Minister of Petitions, Member of the Privy Council.and Councillor of State in St Petersburg)) received, with the patent of nobility belonging to our late uncle Smirnov, a magnificent present from our cousin Catherine, consisting of a valuable diamond cross with a beautiful gold chain and three most superb diamond rings, given to our uncle by the Emperor Alexander I and some other members of our Imperial family. We are all enchanted at the reception of of those precious jewels and pray God send that she would favour him again with her kindness if ever they meet again...

From Catherine Smirnov (London) to her cousin Maria (Australia)
September 7, 1870

I was sorry to see, my dear Sarah (Sarah and Maria both lived at Norwood) by your letter that you have been in a very delicate state of health...I'm afraid this letter will reach you at not the most favourable time....I wish you were all at Sydney for I cannot but think that you would be more comfortable and much less liable to so much flooding, damp and wet as you describe...I have a very nice old friend, a Rear Admiral Garven, who kindly lends me his carriage to take a ride in Regents Park...everyone at this time are anxiously looking forward to what may be the result of this dreadful war, which has broken out between the French and the Prussians...since writing the above, a very unexpected event has taken place...the resignation of the Emperor of the French...France is at present declared a Republic...you see I am turned politician but it is impossible to be otherwise at this present time...

From Baroness Helena Rosen (Russia) to her sister Maria (Australia)
February 16th 1872

My dearest Maria

I do not presume that you ever doubted my constant desire to write to you oftener, but to my great disappointment, months pass and I am not aware of what I have been doing...our dear cousin Catherine Smirnov (Catherine Yakova Smirnova, daughter of Yakov Smirnov and cousin to Maria) died on 25th December, Christmas Day...she was gradually getting weaker as the symptoms of dropsy increased...she seems to have suffered no pain except at times the difficulty of breathing. She went to bed and at about 9 o'clock she sat up asking her night attendant for a little water; her breath became difficult and then ceased. She passed away without difficulty or warning.

...the deposition of the Will of dear benefactrice cousin Catherine...is quite simple and short, bequeathing the sum of £7000 to Waldemar Smirnov besides a box of plate, £2000 to me and £1000 to our sister Anette.

This last summer I had the pleasure to see all my children except Stephen...but in autumn he will pass to Petersburg. My second Alexander and my eldest Ferderic (Frederic Rosen, professor at Kazan) are in Kazan together and thank God they are well settled...the youngest, Nicholas (Nikolai Rosen) got a good place at Saratow...I hope you are in good health and my dear Sarah (Sarah Matilda Cooper, daughter of Maria and married to Alfred Daniel Campbell Begbie) is getting better...

From Anette Brelewich (in St Petersburg) to her sister Maria (in Australia)
January 22nd 1874. Written by a helper, as Ann's hands by this time trembled too much for letter writing.

My dear and beloved sister:

Your letter reached us in the spring of 1872 and caused us great joy. I am very happy to hear that you live content and surrounded by your family. It is very painful for me to inform you that it has pleased God to call to a better world the year before last our nephew Nicholas (Nikolai Pruth, son of Louisa Pruth nee Smirnov, sister of Maria, by her first marriage. Louisa later married Colonel Alexandrov) and lately also our beloved sister Helen (Helena Rosen nee Smirnov, Baroness, sister of Maria, died 20 Oct 1873) You will have passed your Christmas surrounded by the flowers of summer and enjoying all the advantages of your happy climate, while we are buried in snow and ice...I am not able to go out at all, being unwell all this year...it is a great consolation for me to have you, dear sister, because, even though the ocean separates us, still we love each other can can always think of one another and be united in spirit. I am very ill and cannot even move without the aid of a servant, but the doctor gives me hope...pray write to me, it will be my only consolation...I am very poor but the children of my sister help me...I must be economical, especially as everything gets dearer and dearer...my nephew Alexander (Helena's children were Frederick, Alexander, Maria, Stefan and another Nikolai) is now in Petersburg for two years with his wife and child. It is he who passed his examination at the Military Academy. He lives very far from me and is very poor as the income of an officer is but little. I am sorry I cannot help him. They are expecting another child. Our sister-in-law lives in Petersburg and the daughters also, the sons are in Smolensk...I must add still that our sister died on October 20th and she is buried near our mother...

I beg you to give my love to your children, and I kiss them all from my heart.

Your ever affectionate sister Ann Brelewich

You know by the gazette about the wedding of our Grand-Duchess. My letter would have been written a long time ago but the lady who had undertaken to write it fell ill and afterwards he mother was ill...

From Ann Brelewich (in St Petersburg) to her sister Maria (in Australia)
August 20th 1874

My dear and beloved sister: your letter has caused me great joy and I am very thankful to you also for your dear portrait as well as for your offer to send me some money. Ten pounds makes seventy roubles...my health is still very bad...my fits of trembling are dreadful, my weakness very great and I have become quite thin...As for the means of forwarding me the money, please give it to a banker in Sydney and he will enter into communication with a banker in Petersburg - perhaps not in a direct way but through London or Hamburg...

The Orthodox Connection

Yakov Smirnov was the brother of Ivan Smirnov. As we have seen, both were born Linitsky, in the Ukraine, sons of an Orthodox priest. Yakov, with a name change, was ordained into the Russian Orthodox church and was for sixty years in charge of the chapel attached to the Imperial Russian Embassy, in London. Born on 16th October 1755, he died on April 28th 1840.

From all accounts, he was quite a character, and his duties at the Embassy included from time to time covert intelligence gathering, lobbying on behalf of the Russian Government (and his Empress, Catherine the Great) and investigations into British agriculture. He became a legendary Yakov-of-all-trades.

Count Evgraf Fedotovich Komarovsky (1769-1843), then acting as a diplomatic courier, had high praise. "Out of all the officials attached to our mission in London" he enthused, "there was only one remarkable man: he was the priest of our church, Yakov Ivanovich Smirnov, who was used in the diplomatic sector." A few years later, Russian journalist and author Petr Ivanovich Makarov (1765-1804) called on Smirnov. "I was led into a room which was very well furnished" he reported, "and some minutes later there appeared a man who was fairly young, fairly handsome, tall, well-built, erect, impressive in bearing and dressed with the greatest care but without the least hint of unbecoming foppishness: in a word, a young, well-educated Lord - and this Lord was Mr S-v, the Russian priest at the Embassy." Aleksandr Ivanovich Turgenev (1784-1845), the second of the famed quartet of brothers, was escorted, on his visit to Parliament early in 1826, by "the respected Smirnov, whose appearance was in accord with his calling and good reputation." Fedor Ivanovich Iordan (1800-1883), Rector of the Academy of Arts, left us an evocative portrait of Yakov, very similar to Makarov's. "Yakov Ivanovich pleased me greatly, dressed like a lord of an earlier age: in a long frock coat with tails which reached down almost to his heels, with buckles on his shoes, in gaiters (shtiblety), with a low, wide-brimmed hat and carrying a large sturdy stick with a silver knob. His whole appearance inspired sincere respect. He walked along quietly, describing circles with his stick, and with respectable appearance, and his hair in a plait, heavily powdered and brushed back at the temples, he seemed to me a living portrait of the seventeenth-century Dutch school."

A last glimpse of Yakov Smirnov, a year before his death, is a poignant portrait of an emigree surrounded by memories of homeland and heritage. "It seemed to me" Nikolay Ivanovich Grech (1787-1867) wrote, "that I had visited a pious hermit living on a lonely island amidst stormy waves of a foreign ocean. Russian icons, the portrait of Russian tsars, Russian books and a Russian heart - that is all he had saved from the shipwreck. Sufficient for this world - and the next." Upon his death, his effects were inherited by various family members.

Yakov lived for much of the time in an Embassy residence, No 36 Harley Street. He had three daughters, Sophia, Elizabeth and Catherine and two sons, Constantine and John. His daughters are all buried with their father in Grave 2491 at Kensal Green Cemetery, London. Catherine Smirnov wrote many letters to her cousin Maria out in Australia and also received mail from Maria's sisters still living in Russia.

On July 29, 1815, Yakov wrote to Count Karl Vasilyevich Nesselrode, (1780-1862) a Russian statesman who entered diplomatic service under Czar Alexander I, became state secretary in 1814, and attended the Congress of Vienna (1814-15). In 1816, he became Russian Foreign Minister, guiding Russian policy for 40 years. Nesselrode was a leading conservative statesman and his efforts to expand Russian influence in the Eastern Mediterranean at the expense of the Ottoman Empire and his miscalculations of British and French tolerance of this policy contributed decisively to the outbreak of the Crimean War (in which, incidentally, Yakov's nephew and Maria's younger brother John - Ivan Ivanovich Smirnov - died in 1855). Nesselrode also served as Chancellor from 1845 to 1856. Nesselrode was, therefore, perfectly placed to help Ivan's widow and children:

The Nesselrode letter

His Excellency K.V. Nesselrode

London July 29/August 10 1815

Your Excellency

Dear Sir!

Karl Vasilyevich


From the report delivered, as I heard, from Rotterdam, to Your Excellency, there are no doubts that all the details on the circumstances relating to the unfortunate demise of my brother, former Consul General in Amsterdam, are better known to you rather than myself, for I have only been informed by his widow that my brother being in Rotterdam on a business trip was attacked without any reason by violent murderous hand of a certain Russian officer with the rank of Major, that after having sustained multiple deep wounds on the head and arms and after terribly suffering for about three weeks he finally died, survived by wife and six little children who mourn his death and their misfortune. His elder daughter has not reached the age of nine and his youngest son is, I understand, not even five months old, and there is not a single kopek to support this unfortunate family. And there is fear that there are many debts.

It is known to Your Excellency that since my brother left this position together with the minister G. Akopeus till by proposal of Your Excellency, Tsar the Emperor was pleased to appoint him as Consul General in Holland where he took over his position only in the beginning of this year, the political situation in Europe was such that he, just as a ship in stormy weather was pushed around from one place to another, having problems and incurring losses with his big family, while he was always zealously and diligently performing his duties, especially in Holland (where he was appointed as Charge d'Affaires after Duke Dolgorukov left), and because of the then person who shattered European's peace and quiet, he had to extensively travel and did not have an opportunity to come back to the Fatherland, and all these circumstances led to exhaustion and ruin of my brother's domestic position.

I am fortunate to rely on experience indicating both kindness of your heart and your favourable and protective attitude to my unfortunate late brother, and that is why I dare to approach Your Excellency with this humble request to kindly take the trouble to bring to the attention to our most kind Tsar the Emperor the most grievous state of this family bereft of their natural protector by cruel fate, and ask His Majesty the Tsar to cast a kind and favourable glance on this family and to instruct kindly to make arrangements to sufficiently finance both bringing up of the unfortunate orphans and meals for the widow and orphans since they do not have any hope to get financial support from anywhere. For such your paternal protection of orphans, Your Excellency, you will be blessed by God and you will receive eternal gratitude from the family as well as myself, while I remain, with deep and utmost loyalty to Your Excellency,

Your most obedient and humble servant

Priest Yakov Smirnov

Yakov's Will

Note: English spellings are used for family names throughout this Will - Yakov himself listed as James Smirnove

In the name of the Father, Lord and the Holy Ghost.

This is the last will of me, James Smirnove, of Welbeck Street, Cavendish Square, Chaplain to His Imperial Russian Embassy by the blessing of the Almighty, enjoying yet perfect state of sound mind but considering the uncertainty of human life, my advanced years and many infirmities attending upon it and remembering also my peculiar situation in which it pleased providence to place me …that of having had the honor to fill the office of Chaplain to the Imperial Russian Embassy since the year One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty inhabiting the house provided by His Majesty’s Government which circumstance after my death might cause some misunderstanding and trouble to my family in as far as regards books, prints, pictures and other domestic effects, wines, goods chattels and furniture of every kind which is my own property purchased either with my own money or presented to me by my friends; all Church vessels and vestments as also all that are called church books used in performing divine service of course belong to His Imperial Majesty’s Embassador’s Chapel of which a proper list well be made out.

I do hereby give and bequeath

all my said household effects of every description equally between my three good daughters Elizabeth, Sophia and Catherine at their full disposal and as after my decease they will be soon obliged to quit the Government house in which we now reside I advise them if they think proper to select what furniture they may wish to preserve for furnishing their future habitation and to have all the rest sold by public auction. With respect to my library which is of considerable value particularly in the Greek Church Fathers and both Latin and Greek Classics, I recommend all the Latin and Greek Books to be sold by public auction for the benefit of my said three daughters; of the English, French and Russian Books, my two sons and daughters may select for their own use what they may consider proper and the remaining both French and English also be sold by public auction for the benefit of my daughters but the remaining Russian books I bequeath to my two Nephews Stephen and John, sons of my late brother John Smirnove (Ivan Smirnov) now at Saint Petesburg. All stock monies or cash belonging to me in the English Funds as also what ready cash may be due to me in the hands of my old worthy friends and Bankers Messieurs Barman and Company of Old Broad Street and all other my personal estate in England after paying my lawful debts I also leave to my said three daughters to be divided in equal portions among them but I recommend to them not to sell out the principal but to try to lie upon the interest of it which small as it is will go much further if enjoyed by them together than if separated. I give and bequeath all the capital and stock belonging to me in the Russian Funds and whatever other money or property besides there may be due to me in Russia at my death whether in the hands of my worthy friends and Agents Messieurs Auberson and Moberly of St Petersburgh or elsewhere to my two sons Constantine and John Smirnove to be equally divided between them for their own use and benefit. My eldest son Constantine being a great invalid and unable to take an active part in the execution of this my will I appoint and constitute my younger son John Smirnove, my oldest daughter Elizabeth Smirnove and his Excellencey General Count Michel Woronzow Executors of this my will hereby revoking all other wills by me at any time heretofore made and declaring this only to be my last Will.

In witness whereof I the said James Smirnove to this my last Will have set my hand and seal this 2/14 day of November in the year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty One — James Smirnove Signed sealed published and declared by the said Testator as and for his last Will in presence of us who at his request in his presence and in the presence of each other have hereunto set and subscribed our names as witnesses Edmd. Barlow R N. Henset

This is a Codicil to my will.

I appoint my Friend William Moberly of 28 Great Winchester Street Esquire an Executor of this my Will jointly with my son John Smirnove, my daughter Elizabeth and his Excellency Count Woronzow In witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name this 27 day of December 1831 — James Smirnove — Witness P. B. Robinson Essex Street.

This is a second Codicil to my will

of the Second of November 1831 whereas by my said Will I have given my household furniture and effects equally between my three daughters now I do hereby recommend my said daughters in the first place to offer the said furniture and effects to the Russian Embassy in London at a fair valuation in case the said Embassy should think proper to purchase the same and whereas by my said will I have bequeathed all my Russian stock money and other property hich I may leave in Russia at the time of my death to my two sons Constantine and John Now I do hereby revoke the said bequest and in lieu thereof I do hereby give the whole of the said stock and money to my son Constantine for his own use during his life but no longer and on his death I give the same to my son John for his use for ever and in case my said son John shall die in the lifetime of his brother leaving a widow then his widow shall have that interest and dividend of the said stock and money for her life and on her death the principal of the said stock and money to be divided equally amongst the children of my said son John in case he shall leave any child or children and in case he shall not have any child then the principal of the said stock and money to be equally divided among my three daughters or such of the them as shall be then living share and share alike. In all other respects I do confirm my said will as witness my hand this twentieth day of November 1839 — James Smirnove — Signed by the said testator James Smirnove and declared by him to be a codicil to his will in the presence of us who had signed our names hereto in the presence of each other, William MacIntyre London M. D. - I B Robinson, Essex St Strand.

I do hereby nominate and appoint Sir James Leighton Knight o be one of the executors of this my will jointly with the other executors already named dated this twenty first day of November Eighteen hundred and thirty nine. - James Smirnove

Harold Begbie talking to Bramwell Booth, son of the Salvationist founder, at the 1914 World Congress

Harold Begbie

Harold Begbie (born in 1871) was one of the sons of Mars Hamilton Begbie - brother of Alfred Daniel Campbell Begbie and therefore my grandfather Herbert Smirnoff Begbie's cousin. Born and raised in England, Harold became a journalist, author, poet and playwright. His books included political satire, comedy, fiction, science fiction, and studies of the Christian religion. He wrote using his own name and at least three pseudonyms. In the early 1920s, Harold attended meetings of what was later to become the Oxford Group - and began correspondence with the founder Frank Buchman. This led (in 1922) to him personally witnessing the work Buchman was performing with undergraduates at several universities in England. As a result, Begbie authored the book Life Changers, which details lives turned around thanks to Buchman's teachings.

Another of Harold's books, Twice Born Men, is set in the gutters and slums of London. It is a chronicle of the despair caused by poverty, the birth of the Salvation Army and the difference this new movement made to the lives of men and women. One story in the book titled The Puncher tells of a slum youth who idolized prize-fighters and whose life became a drunken mess. Ultimately he was thrown into jail, dead drunk. One Sunday, Harold writes "he was in his cell...mad with the rage of a caged beast...when he heard the sound of the Salvation Army's brass band coming though his cell window." He was released that afternoon, still drunk, but went to the hall where the Salvation Army conducted their services. With tears of remorse, his life began to change.

Harold Begbie hated socialists, divorce, jazz, the rich, current fiction, and women who smoked. He was a harsh critic of high society and of politicians, and thought that the moral tone of both groups was "pitiably low." He wrote for the Daily Chronicle towards the start of the war in 1914. This newspaper was a popular tabloid of the time. Sent to America as a correspondent for the Chronicle, he campaigned while there for America's support during the conflict. But he didn't make his name as a writer until after the war, when he contributed articles to The Pall Mall Magazine under the pseudonym A Gentleman with a Duster who had "come to wipe away the dust and mists that concealed the truth about post-war England." He collected these articles into books.

The Angel of Mons was one of the great myths of the First World War and Begbie wrote about it in a work titled On The Side of the Angels. He recounted the testimony of an officer who described to him, in detail, a sighting of the angel in August 1914 when British forces were fighting a hopeless rearguard action against the Germans. The lieutenant reports watching the angel - or rather angels, because there were three of them ranked together - for over 45 minutes. It was around eight o'clock at night. There was a tall central figure flanked closely by two smaller figures on either side, high above the city of Mons

Begbie's war poetry, some of which can be found in Fighting Lines and Various Reinforcements (Constable: London, 1914) contained a poem that was initially popular but was to become one of the most despised poems of World War I. Martin Stephen (in The Price of Pity) calls it "one of the most revolting poems to have been written during the war" and goes on to say "the poem illustrates the negative pressure applied to those who did not enlist, the fear of being mocked and humiliated."

The jingoistic Fall In was soon to be set to music and played throughout the nation:

FALL IN

What will you lack, sonny, what will you lack,
When the girls line up the street
Shouting their love to the lads to come back
From the foe they rushed to beat?
Will you send a strangled cheer to the sky
And grin till your cheeks are red?
But what will you lack when your mate goes by
With a girl who cuts you dead?

Where will you look, sonny, where will you look,
When your children yet to be
Clamour to learn of the part you took
In the War that kept men free?
Will you say it was naught to you if France
Stood up to her foe or bunked?
But where will you look when they give the glance
That tells you they know you funked?

How will you fare, sonny, how will you fare
In the far-off winter night,
When you sit by the fire in an old man's chair
And your neighbours talk of the fight?
Will you slink away, as it were from a blow,
Your old head shamed and bent?
Or say - I was not with the first to go,
But I went, thank God, I went?

Why do they call, sonny, why do they call
For men who are brave and strong?
Is it naught to you if your country fall,
And Right is smashed by Wrong?
Is it football still and the picture show,
The pub and the betting odds,
When your brothers stand to the tyrant's blow,
And England's call is God's!

Supposedly, by the end of the war, Begbie came to regret his "patriotic" advocacy of war, a change of heart that led to a poem of bitter irony - the antithesis of his earlier poem.

WAR EXALTS

War exalts and cleanses: it lifts man from the mud!

Ask God what He thinks of a bayonet dripping blood.

By War the brave are tested, and cowards are disgraced!

Show God His own image shrapnel'd into paste.

Fight till tyrants perish, slay till brutes are mild!

Then go wash the blood off and try to face your child.

Katie Miller

Katie and Callie

Katie Miller, my great-aunt and sister to Emily Augusta Begbie and Charys Begbie, my aunt, were characters who could have been invented by Truman Capote or Tennessee Williams. Both were one-time missionaries in an Africa that has disappeared forever.

Katie's whitewashed mud house in Berega

Katie's diaries are now in the Mitchell Library, Sydney

Katie, born in Sydney in 1879, sailed for East Africa under the auspices of the English Church Missionary Society in 1905. She worked in Tanganyika, then a part of German East Africa, until the advent of World War I, when she and her fellow missionaries were interned. During the time in confinement (in Tabora) she and the others surreptitiously collected bits of coloured fabric, to make a flag.

"Rev David Deekes found a piece of white calico in the bottom of his trunk. Mrs Doulton... contributed a small red turkey-twill table cover, while Miss Elizabeth Forsyth discovered an African child's blue overall. While others kept guard, the Archdeacon measured out with careful precision the lines of the flag, after which, still in guarded secrecy, the ladies of the party sewed together, with tiny stitches, the thirty two small pieces of material. The Union Jack was ready! Carefully it was hidden away from their German captors until on 19th September 1916, the Belgian army marched into the district and the prisoners were free. The missionaries' first act that morning, when they awakened to find their captors had fled during the night, was to fly their flag..."

Katie and fellow missionaries display their Union Jack, now preserved in Sydney

Katie was to remain in Tanganyika, mostly at Berega (which I visited years later, to peek inside her whitewashed mud hut) until the 1940s, when she reluctantly returned to retirement. She was a memorable character - tiny, chirpy and bossy, recalling incidents (the cobra curled up in her slippers beside her bed), writing to her "boys" in Swahili, dreaming of her beloved Africa, until death took her gently away.

Charys Begbie, Nairobi, June 7th, 1929

Charys, or Callie as she was called, was born in Sydney in 1898. I remember her as reed slim, with large dark eyes and a strong nose, a quiet, somewhat hesitant manner and a passion for working out the exact date of the Second Coming. She went to Africa, too, but in the 1920s, and not to the hinterland like Katie but to a children's hospital in Nairobi. This slender, fragile spinster rode around Nairobi's dusty streets on a powerful Harley Davidson and her efforts, though this was the last thing she wanted, were rewarded in true Colonial style - with an MBE, presented to her by the visiting Prince of Wales, just a year or two before he met Wallis Simpson.

Poor health brought Charys back to Australia, but not before an incident which she was to speak of with awe for the rest of her life. One evening, in Nairobi, after her hospital rounds, she'd retired for the night. She lived alone. Halfway through the night, she awoke to find an intruder in the house, an aggressive native armed with a panga. Friends, passing by, heard a commotion, and the intruder was held fast. But he didn't resist, in fact was quite quiet. When asked later why he hadn't attempted to harm Callie, which had been his intention, he said, "I didn't because of the man standing beside her..."

The Fighting Begbies

The Begbie military tradition in our family line starts with Peter Begbie's son Peter James (1804-1864). He lived the greater part of his life in India. After completing his training at the military academy at Addiscombe, he arrived in India in 1823, at the age of 19, as a lieutenant in the Madras Artilery. Three years later he married Charlotte Morphett. He rose quickly through the ranks, becoming a captain in 1833 and a major in 1846. He was employed with the Jaulnah light field force in the southern Mahratta country during the siege of Kittor (1824-25) and was a participant in the East India Company's wars against Burma in 1824-26 and against Naning, in Malaya, in 1831-32. Peter's handwritten journal describes a sea voyage from the Malacca Straits to Madras - "A succession of squalls from 4pm with much rain till 8pm; passed Malacca between 7 & 8pm..." He was stationed in the Malay Peninsula from 1836-8, but spent his remaining years in India.

The Major General.......putting down uprisings seems to have been a family occupation

Peter used his pen to write about several military campaigns and his sketchbook to capture scenes in India and Malaya. His book, The Malayan Peninsula, contains, among other things, an account of the Dutch administration in Malacca, a general view of the British rights to Naning (and their war against that district, in which he took part) and the story of the foundation of Singapore - as well as a broad survey of the history and customs of the Malays. This scholarly work, printed in 1834, reflects the attitudes of early British writers on colonial subjects and it was reprinted by Oxford University Press in 1967.


He was multi-lingual and was sufficiently acquainted with Hebrew to be able to read the Old Testament in the original. He received the Burma Medal. He died suddenly at the age of 60, leaving a large family, including several sons who served in India, Burma, Abyssinia and elsewhere with great distinction. He is buried in the UK.

His son Francis Richard, for example, had a military record straight out of the Boys Own Annual, filled with tales of derring-do - the Jowaki Flying Expedition 1877; Jowaki Expedition 1877-78 (India Medal with Jowaki Clasp); Afghan War 1878-79 - Capture of Ali Musjid; Afghan Medal with Clasp; Mahsud-Waziri Expedition 1881; twice Mentioned in Despatches; Lushai Expedition 1888-89 - Clasp, Chin-Lushai Expedition 1889-90 - Mentioned in Despatches; Chitral Relief Force - Movable Column 1895; and Tirah Expeditionary Force 1897-98;
1895 India Medal with three Clasps.

His son Elphinstone's military record was similarly impressive. He was awarded a DSO and also made Commander of the Bath, and he was, moreover, a diligent letter-writer. From India, in 1899, to his brother Alfred in Australia, he talks of life and the cost of living: "You get off wonderfully with 17 shillings a week for wages. Our servants come to 10 pounds and 10 shillings exactly a month, although we do not keep a trap. It is a fallacy to suppose that India is cheap. The climate in the hills is delightful and we live comfortably, but not economically. The rates and taxes in Ootacamund come to 18% of the annual rental." Elphinstone was directly responsible for much of the family history contained on these pages. The Begbie family around the world is much in his debt.

Elphinstone Begbie CB D.S.O.

Peter James had several brothers - one, Alfred William Begbie, became a High Court judge and another, Mars Hamilton Begbie entered the Church. Mars' son Harold became controversially involved in World War I thanks to a poem glorifying war.

Peter James' son (and my great-grandfather) Alfred Daniel Campbell Begbie was not a military man. As a young man, he was in the merchant marine, ultimately journeying to the new colony of New South Wales, leaving the Raj and life on the high seas behind him. Here he married and settled on the Manning River in northern NSW (see Maria's story).

The Farming Begbies

The Begbie family name means "small field or place" (baig=small, by/bie=field)and is thought to be from the 10th century Norse settlement in the foothills of the Lammermuirs in Scotland. The original family might have been Norse, intermarrying with local families. What we do know is that "the lands of Begbie" were granted to the Mother House of the Nunnery of St Mary, Haddington, near Edinburgh, by Countess Ada of Northumberland. Ada was the wife of Prince Henry, heir to King David 1st of Scotland, who had given her the town of Haddington as a wedding present. She died in 1178.

Begbie Village, close to Bolton, lower left of map

Whether the Begbies had other land is not known; few official records exist of them being land owners after this. We do know of a Begbie family in Haddington who built a house called Tynepark in the 18th century and who had previously taken the road tolls for entrance into the town. Most Begbies, however, appear to have been tenant famers in family records which date from the sixteenth century.

Begbie Farmhouse, south view, as it is today

In my Family Tree I see, first, James Baigbie (1584-1621) who married Barbara Martine in 1608. Their 5th son, John (1617-1657) married Isobel Bell; their 4th son George (1656-1698) - by now the spelling of the name had been changed - married Jennet Cunninghame. Their 3rd son Alexander (1690-1735) married Margaret Walker. Their 5th son Alexander (1725-1783) was the first to break away from the farm, moving to Thames Street, London where he was a merchant. His 5th son Peter was a Broad Street, London, businessman. Bankrupted, he afterwards worked at the Stamp Office in Somerset Street, where he must have made a good impression, for he was granted a coat of arms.

The Bolton hearse carried many Begbies to the graveyard

Tenant farmers in those days had a hard but reasonably self-supporting life. The Border Country Begbies farmed Westfield Farm, Nether Bolton Farm, Houston Hall Farm, Phantasie Farm and Prestonkirk Farm - all of which were clustered around what is now Begbie Farm, near Haddington. The Begbie Farm Account Book 1729-70, which is kept in the National Library of Scotland, makes fascinating reading. Wages for example were around 11 Scots Pounds (18/4 Sterling) per half year and crops were wheat, oats and pease. The book deals largely with crops and wages; the Laird to whom rent was paid seems to have been Sir James Suttie of Balgone. 50 bolls of oats were paid as part-rent in 1729 and in the following year Sir James received 202 Scots Pounds and 49 bolls of oats. In 1763, two thraves of wheat straw thatch were delivered to the Laird. The Farm Book contains items as diverse as a note that, in 1770, 1 shilling was paid for a seat in the kirk in the fore-pew, a purchase of a gown for "Pegie" and a remedy for "Deafnes with headack & buzzing in the head. Peell a clove of garlick dip in hony and put into your ear at night with a little black wooll..."