A journey

Stories

Walk the line from Wapping to Gore. If a chapter is wrong, write to us.

1. 01 · London

   Wapping, 1817

   The soap works

   

   John opened a soap and candle works in Wapping in 1817. Sons joined. The firm became John Knight & Sons, then Royal Primrose — Primrose, Knight’s Castile, Family Health Soap. A prize at the 1851 Exhibition. The company warrant is about 1903, Edward VII then George V, after John had died. John Knight Ltd 1906, later Lever / Unilever. Silvertown closed 1959. No NZ descendant stayed in the business. Castile sold in Australia and New Zealand; a vintage cake in a NZ museum is brand presence, not proof the Gore man worked for the firm.

2. 02 · London to Port Chalmers, then home

   Sidney Herbert, 1853–1928

   The Black Sheep years

   

   Sidney Herbert left the works. 1881: cab proprietor, Chelsea. 20 May 1882: divorce petition, Jeanie alleged with William Henry Knight (Tim: not a relative); custody of two living sons to Sidney. The Marlborough sailed 12 Sep 1883 with Sidney Herbert, Jeanie, Sidney and Alfred. Infant Annie Emily was already dead in England. Dunedin courts: 1884 drunk and disorderly; 1885 assault; 1886 both boys to Caversham Industrial School. He is back in England by 1901. Married Fanny in 1910, registered as widower though he was divorced. WW1 private, 19th London Regiment. Ambrose’s will left him £50. Year of death 1928 is locked; the day is not.

3. 03 · Dunedin

   Caversham, Dunedin

   Industrial School, 1886

   

   The Evening Star of 18 Dec 1886 records both boys — Sidney Alfred and Alfred Cyril — sent to Caversham Industrial School. That document is why the English sons exist as people in this archive independently of the Gore household. It does not prove who died in Gore in 1922.

4. 04 · Otago / England

   Tuapeka Times

   The 1908 recall

   On 1 Jul 1908 the Tuapeka Times sought Alfred Cyril — “news to his advantage.” He returned to England and died there in 1963. That is why only one son-line remains in New Zealand in the family story.

5. 05 · Gore, Southland

   Waverley Street, 1922

   The Gore household

   

   A drover died at Waverley Street, Gore, on 16 Nov 1922, aged 42. Progressive muscular atrophy eight years, cardiac failure four days. Buried Gore 18 Nov. The stone names Sydney Herbert and Elizabeth Templeton. The 1938 Ranfurly marriage of SAYK is the strongest NZ document tying Barry’s line and Cuth to this couple. It does not prove the Gore man was born 3 Feb 1877.

6. 06 · Otago

   1950–1957

   The Ysker will

   Drafted 27 Jun 1950. Residual share to children of his step-son “Sydney Herbert Knight.” 18 Apr 1957: SAYK received £47.12.3. Coleen holds a copy. Barry’s remittance-parking theory stays labelled inference.

7. 07 · Dunedin

   1923–2005

   Cuth

   

   Posthumous. A photograph of Cuth and mates in football kit started Simon’s search. Green Park RSA, Dunedin. Family: rugby, boxing; 387 Taieri Road and 38 Erin Street. Bought Kaikorai allotment 4 from Elizabeth’s estate 14 May 1947 for £1,000. The so-called disgrace line is the one that reaches Perth and Seattle. That story does not require collapsing 1877 onto 1922.

8. 08 · South Dunedin

   44 Glasgow Street, South Dunedin

   Aunty Tate

   Rachel — Aunty Tate — sat at 44 Glasgow Street. Married Peter Lowe in 1925, later Dick McCormack, who had also married her sister Mavis. Barry names eight children across those two marriages: Georgina, Kenneth, Joyce, Phyllis (m Ron Gurling); then Nancy, Natalie, Leo and Coral. That Coral is not Brian’s wife Coral Johnston. Rachel is missing from the 1922 living-issue list. The Ysker will still names her. C-006 stays open.

9. 09 · Dunedin / Brisbane

   Les Cleveland, OBE

   A Promise Made, a Promise Kept

   Agnes Jean Knight married Bernard Cleveland (1904–1972). Barry names four sons: Bernie, Les, Ian, Doug. Les — Mr Daffodil, OBE — wrote A Promise Made, a Promise Kept and died in Dunedin 15 May 2013. Bernie (Bernard Melville) died in Brisbane 5 March 2014. Table 1 once parked that 2014 death on the husband. The husband is already dead in 1972. Edward Sydney Cleveland 1926–2004 is a fifth name on this branch — do not merge him with Les.

10. 10 · England and Gore

    Identity, not lore

    Why C-001 stays open

    A 2026 briefing argued that the Gore drover was Sidney Alfred, born 3 February 1877, who later assumed his father’s name and it stamped the case resolved. We do not. Age 42 on 16 November 1922 is not a 1877 birth — that would be 45. The stone and death copy are not a birth certificate. The 1938 Ranfurly marriage names a drover father: household, not a London birth day. The briefing also printed the father’s death as 15 January 1928 (the day is C-002) and had him home in the late 1880s (Dunedin courts run through 1896). Two PersonIDs until certificates close it.

11. 11 · Sydney and everywhere they landed

    Belonging

    People who married in

    A Knight by marriage is on the tree. Rosie Baselgia Knight is not a guest. Tony and Rosie are the parents of Simon, James and Kate. Rosie’s parents can sit above her when she names them — that starts a Baselgia chapter, not a second database. Empty boxes are not kindness.