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CHAPTER 2:

CHARLES LENNOX STRETCH (1797-1882)

If you refer back to Chapter 1 you will see a CHARLES LENNOX STRETCH, born 1797, who was
the younger brother of RICHARD ALDWORTH STRETCH born ten years earlier, in 1787.
This Charles Lennox married ANN HART in 1820 and the couple had only one child named
James St Leger Stretch who was born and died in infancy in 1822.
The following information is taken directly from the Google entry where Charles Lennox
Stretch, is described as ‘Soldier, Official, Surveyor and Politician born in 1797 in Bristol,
England and died on 13th October 1882 at Glen Avon in Somerset East, South Africa. This
photo was amongst Denis’ papers.

THE HON CHARLES LENNOX STRETCH: 1797-1882

‘Captain Stretch arrived in Cape Town with the 38th Regiment in 1815. He served on the staff
of Col. Thomas Willshire during the defence of Grahamstown in 1819 and afterwards as
government surveyor and engineer during the construction of Fort Cox and Fort Beresford.
‘He took part in the Sixth and Seventh Frontier Wars (1834-1835 and 1846-1847). Appointed
in 1836 Government agent to Gaika and the Imidange and Amabele tribes, with headquarters
at Fort Cox, he was transferred later to Block Drift (near Lovedale). He supported Lt. Gov.
Andries Stockenström’s frontier policy and corresponded with Rd. John Philip, John Fairbairn
and Stockenström. During the Seventh Frontier War he commanded a Fingo unit, but fell into
disfavour with the Governor, Sir Henry Pottinger, and was dismissed in 1846. Stretch was a
great friend of the missionaries, especially those at Lovedale.
‘The colonists named him the ‘philanthropic commissioner’ and the ‘peacemaker’. After his
dismissal he resumed his surveying and served in Parliament (1854 – 1873), first as the
representative of Fort Beaufort in the Legislative Assembly and afterwards in the Legislative
Council.
‘His diary is preserved in manuscript in the Cape Archives, and his original property in GraaffReinet was purchased and renovated as Stretch’s Court by Historical Homes of South Africa
Ltd.’
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