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Name: WATCHAM, Sarah, Mrs
Nee: Markham
Birth Date: 5 Sep 1841 Secunderabad, India
Death Date: 17 Dec 1916 Nairobi
First Date: 1901
Last Date: 1908
Area: Nairobi
Married: In Bangalore 27 Jan 1863 Robert Watcham b. 21 Nov 1835, d. 28 June 1896 Bangalore, India
Children: See below
Book Reference: Barnes
General Information:
Barnes - Nairobi South Cemetery - Sarah Watcham, died 17 Dec 1916, aged 75, mother of Patrick Edgar Watcham who is buried in the same grave
Info from Noel Clark: Sarah Markham died in Nairobi on 19th December 1916 of ‘gall stone, senile decay and heart failure’ and was buried the same day at Nairobi South Cemetery.The death register shows that she had been resident in British East Africa for 16 years.
Her children:
Dora Margaret Watcham was born 7th November 1863, baptised 19th November 1863 at Bangalore, India, and died sometime after 23rd February 1951 (when she witnessed her sister Mary’s will). She was sometimes referred to as Doris Watcham. She did not marry and is assumed to have had no issue.
- John Herbert Watcham was born 8th April 1865 and baptised 12th April 1865 at Bangalore, India. He is probably the “Herbert” buried with his father and grandmother in Hoosoor Road Cemetery, Bangalore..
- Mary Hannah Watcham was born 2nd November 1868, baptised 9th November 1868 at Bangalore, India, and died 8th July 1952 at the Princess Nursing Home, Johannesburg, South Africa. She married George Henry Newton-Wilson (details not known), but they had no children. The Newton-Wilsons were one-time neighbours of the Watcham family’s property “Riverside” in Nairobi.
- Patrick Edgar Watcham was born about 1870 in India, died 29th November 1945 in the Bydant Nursing Home, Nairobi, and buried the same day at Nairobi South Cemetery.4,5 He became a locomotive driver on the Larut Railway in the Malay State of Perak, and then moved to the East African Protectorate in July 1899 and
became a coffee planter and farmer; it was he who obtained the land later known as the property “Riverside” in Nairobi.
6,6a He did not marry and had no issue.
- Stanley Denehy Watcham was born 29th April 1873, baptised 12th May 1873 at Bangalore, India, and died 11th March 1948 at Lamu, Kenya. Stanley served with the Straits Settlements Police for 12 years before moving to Kenya and taking up farming. It is believed that he did not marry and that he had no issue.
- Sarah Louisa Ida Watcham (usually known as Ida) was born 11th January 1875, baptised 21st January 1875 at Bangalore, India, and died between 1938 and 8th February 1949, probably in Kenya. Her name was sometimes spelled incorrectly as “Iola.” She did not marry and I assume that she had no issue.
- Josephine Mary Watcham was born 11th April 1877, and baptised 20th April 1877 at Bangalore. No further trace of Josephine has been found and it is assumed that she died as an infant in India.
- May Frances Watcham is assumed to have been born about 1880, probably in Bangalore, India. She married William Neill Blain (junior) about 1915 and had two children. She died in Swaziland on 16th November 1950.
- James Robert Watcham was born about 1882, probably in Bangalore, India, died 9th May 1926 aged 44 in Nairobi, Kenya, and was buried the same day in Forest Road Cemetery, Nairobi. James was educated at St. Joseph’s College Bangalore, and obtained a First-Class Arts Degree at Madras University. He served with the Federated Malay States Police from September 1898 to May 1900, and then moved to East Africa. After working in the Uganda Railway Accounts Office from November 1900 to July 1901 he became an Inspector with the British East Africa Police in August 1901. He later became a coffee planter and farmer.7 It is believed that he did not marry and that he had no issue.
- Louis Watcham presumably died as an infant or child. No birth or baptism record has been found. He is buried with his father and grandmother in Hoosoor Road Cemetery, Bangalore.