Admin
history |
Sir James Sivewright was born in Fochabers, Morayshire on 10 December 1848 and died on 10 September 1916 in Llandrindod Wells, Wales. He was son of William Sivewright and Jane Shand. He married Jane Eliza Page, daughter of John Page, Bloemfontein, on 27 April 1880. He and his wife had no children. After schooling in Fochabers, Sivewright studied at Aberdeen University. He then taught at a school in Blackheath, England, 1866-1869. In 1869 he won first place in Britain's telegraphy exam, and for the next eight years worked in the English telegraphy business. In 1877, he travelled to the Cape Colony, South Africa, to report on their telegraphic service, and thereafter spent many years developing telegraphic services in that area. This work gave him an entrée to politics, and in 1888 he was elected the Bond member for Griqualand East. In 1890 he was Commissioner of Crown Lands and Public Works in the first ministry of Cecil Rhodes. For the next eight years he held significant office during a troubled era in Cape politics and was knighted in 1892. He sought to cement English-Dutch relations, being a particular friend of Transvaal's President Paul Kruger. There were, however, accusations that he used his office to favour a friend, and from 1899 he ceased involvement in Cape politics. He returned to Scotland, where he bought the Tulliallan Castle estate (now the home of the Scottish Police College), his home for the rest of his life. He still maintained considerable business interests, including frozen meat storage and supply, and was involved in a railway scheme in Ecuador.
On his death, there was a long-running court case about the validity of wills he had created in the last months of his life. Judgment was in due course made in favour of his nephew, James Shand Sivewright, as the principal heir to his fortune. Another nephew, Alexander Sivewright (1871-1953), was a well-respected teacher in Fochabers and elsewhere. |