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11 unusual facts about Natal Province


Arya Samaj in South Africa

Another preacher, Swami Mangalanand Puri, came to Natal in 1913.

Edward Curzon, 6th Earl Howe

He married secondly, on 30 April 1946, Grace Lilian Wakeling (married firstly to Captain A. N. Barker), who died on 24 December 1985, daughter of Stephen Frederick Wakeling, of Durban, Natal, South Africa.

Joyce Barker

Joyce Barker was born in Mooi Rivier, a small town in Natal.

Maryon Lane

Maryon Lane was born Patricia Mills on 15 February 1931 in Zululand, South Africa.

Oliver Wakefield

Oliver Wakefield (born 29 May 1909, Mahlabitini, Zululand, South Africa; d. 30 June 1956, New York, USA), was a popular British actor and comedian active from the 1930s until his death in 1956.

Peter Blaikie

In 1958 Blaikie was chosen as one of two Quebec Rhodes Scholars, a distinction shared with his father who had earlier gained a Rhodes scholarship from Natal where the family was then living.

RAF Chailey

RAF Chailey hosted 131 Polish Wing, with three squadrons, as well as No 18 Fighter Section, controlling three winds of three squadrons, five of which were also Polish (302, 306, 308, 315 and 317) as well as squadrons from Mysore (129), Natal (222), Belgium (349) and New Zealand (485).

South African Constitution of 1961

In Natal and the Orange Free State, which each elected less than twenty-five members of the House of Assembly, the provincial councils consisted of twenty-five members.

South African general election, 1910

This grouping was composed of the governing parties of three of the colonies being united and some individual politicians from Natal (which did not have a pre-Union party system).

Stoffel Botha

Jan Christoffel "Stoffel" Botha (1929–1998) was a South African politician, a member of the National Party, elected representative of Port Natal (until 1989), administrator of Natal Province (1982–1984), Minister of Home Affairs (1985–1989) in the P.W. Botha government.

The River Detectives

After playing the Splashy Fen festival in the Natal Province, the band received further invitations to tour in the country and relocated to Durban for a year before returning to the UK in 2000 to take a break.


Battle of Laing's Nek

The first British camp on the march lay some 4 miles short of Laing’s Nek, a ridge in the foothills of the Drakensberg mountains that blocked the road between Newcastle and Standerton in Natal, South Africa.

Canonesses of St. Augustine of the Mercy of Jesus

They became established as well in South Africa, where communities were founded at Estcourt, Natal, Durban, Ladysmith, and Pietermaritzburg.

Francis Farewell

Lieutenant Francis George Farewell (1784–1829), the founder of the Port Natal Colony in South Africa, was born at Holbrook House near Wincanton in the Blackmore Vale in 1784.

Gardenia thunbergia

It grows largely in forest or on forest margins, occurring in the Eastern Cape, Natal and Transkei in South Africa.

George Thomas Napier

He was governor and Commander-In-Chief of the army in the Cape Colony from 1839 to 1843, during which time the abolition of slavery and the expulsion of the Boers from Natal were the chief events.

Green swordtail

Feral populations have established themselves in southern Africa, including Natal, Hawaii, Madagascar and eastern Transvaal in South Africa and Otjikoto Lake in Namibia.

Gustav Fritsch

Along with his medical studies, Fritsch was also known for his ethnographical research in southern Africa (1863–66), during which time he traveled from Cape Town through the Orange Free State, Basutoland, Natal and Bechuanaland.

Hartley Alleyne

Hartley Leroy Alleyne (born 28 February 1957 in Derricks, St James) is a former Barbadian cricketer: a right-handed batsman and right-arm fast bowler who played for Barbados, Worcestershire, Kent and Natal between 1978-79 and 1989-90.

Jack Siedle

Born on 11 January 1903 in Berea, Durban, Natal, Siedle was the youngest son of Otto Siedle, who was born in Woolwich, London of southern German stock and who trained as a watchmaker, subsequently emigrating to Durban where he became prominent in the shipping business and public affairs.

John Medley Wood

John Medley Wood (1 December 1827 Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England - 26 August 1915 Durban) was a South African botanist who contributed greatly to the knowledge of Natal ferns, is generally credited with the establishment of sugarcane mosaic virus immune Uba sugar cane in Natal and for his extensive collection of Natal plants.

Maitland Hathorn

Christopher Maitland Howard Hathorn (7 April 1878 in Pietermaritzburg, Natal – 17 May 1920 in Johannesburg, Transvaal) was a South African cricketer who played in 12 Tests from 1902 to 1911.

Mozambique spitting cobra

The distribution includes Natal,Mpumalanga Province Lowveld region , south-eastern Tanzania and Pemba Island and west to southern Angola and northern Namibia.

Ossie Dawson

Oswald Charles Dawson MC (1 September 1919, Durban, Natal – 22 December 2008, Umhlanga, KwaZulu-Natal) was a South African cricketer who played in 9 Tests, all against England, in the 1947 and 1948-49 series.

White-spotted Izak

The white-spotted Izak or African spotted catshark, Holohalaelurus punctatus, is a cat shark of the family Scyliorhinidae, found in the western Indian Ocean off Natal, South Africa, southern Mozambique, Madagascar, Kenya and Tanzania between latitudes 4° S and 37° S, at depths of between 220 and 440 m.

Yellowspotted catshark

The yellowspotted catshark, Scyliorhinus capensis, is a rare cat shark of the family Scyliorhinidae found in the southeast Atlantic from Lüderitz, Namibia to central Natal, South Africa between latitudes and 37° S.