Fairall Family History & Genealogy

This is a news paper article which was done by my Grand-Father and written by the Daily News in Durban South Africa. I have kept the article for many years as it is a great story of our family. This was written way back in the 1960's and there have been many children born after this was done.
I hope that some one out there will find this as interesting as I have;-

A FAMILY OF NEARLY TEN CENTURIES:
DEVONSHIRE PLACE:

A most remarkable Natal family are the Fairalls, the 13 sons and daughters of Edwin Fairall, who came to South Africa as a bandmaster with the Gordon Highlanders in the 1870's, and his wife Sarah.

There were seven daughters of the marraige and six sons, all born in Natal, all still alive and all but one of them more then 60 years old.

This comes to a staggering figure of 930 years - nearly ten centuries.

To get a better picture of it, consider this: IF the Fairall brothers and sisters had lived their lives consecutively and not con-currently, the eldest child would have been born in the year 1030, 36 years BEFORE the Battle of Hastings.

To tell me more about this remarkable record of longevity, was the eldest son, 78 year-old Mr. George William Fairall, of Broad Street - Durban.

BORN AT SEA.

Their father, Edwin, he says was born in England in 1845 and died in Pietermaritzburg in 1931 at the age of 86.
Their mother, Miss Sarah Johnson, was born in 1856 on board ship en route to the Cape.
She died ata the age of 60, after bringing 13 children into the world, in the space of 26 years - a pretty good average of one child every two years and not one set of twins.

Their first child, Maria, was born in Maritzburg in 1876. She is now Mrs Swan.

Then in order come Elizabeth,(82), now a Mrs Young in Maritzburg; Mary (80), now Mrs Goodwin and also in Maritzburg; George (78) of Durban; Arthur Henry (76) of Maritzburg; Amy (74) now Mrs Walker, of Durban; and Walter Charles, aged (72)

The 'youngesters' of the family are; Fred (70) of Pinetown; Percy (68) who is living in Rhodesia; Norah (65) of Durban; Alice (63) of Durban; Richard (60) and Gladys (58) who is now living in England.

Mr George Fairall tells me that the whole family have always enjoyed good health and I have no doubt that there will be at least one Centenarian among them, if not more!

The Fairall brothers have, between them served in three wars and the odd Native rebellion and have their own little 'War Museum' of 33 medals gained in various campaigns.
Mr Walter Fairall (72) of Maritzburg, served with the Natal Carbineers in World war 1 and is STILL a member of the Regiment with an unbroken service record of 57 years.

I didn't get around to adding up the ages of the many sons, daughters and grand children; their combined ages would have taken us back to some-where round the age of ancient Greece.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~