C.W. Cousins
Clarence Wilfred Cousins was born in Madagascar in 1872. He was the son of Reverend William Cousins, a senior London Missionary Society missionary in Madagascar, who translated the Bible into Malagasy. Having matriculated from Oxford High School in 1891, he went on to Lincoln College in Oxford where he read Modern History. His plan to attain honours in this subject was cut short when he was compelled to take work as a school master. He came to South Africa in 1897 to take up an appointment as Assistant Master at the Victoria College School for Boys. Cousins married Ethelwyn Edith Agnes Ruthven Murray, daughter of Sir James Murray, compiler of the Oxford English Dictionary, and sister of Wilfred Murray, one time registrar of the University of Cape Town. They had four children: Alison, who became a missionary, David, a farmer, Cedric, a geologist who discovered the Free State Goldfields, and Alan, an astronomer. Aside from tutoring and lecturing, Cousins held various appointments in the Civil Service, including Inspector of Prisons, Principal Clerk in the Local Government and Health Branch, Principal Immigration Officer, Justice of the Peace for several districts of the Cape Colony, Chairman of the Statistical Council and Director of the Census. He had a keen interest in politics and particularly sided with the United Party, as is evident in letters and press cuttings held in the collection. He produced a self published book, Reflections of a nineteenth century immigrant in 1950, in which he outlined public life in the Cape and examined immigration and race relations. After some 35 years of work in the Civil Service, Cousins retired to a farm in the Transvaal. He died in 1954.