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The Pratten Family and the Shop on Windsor Road Kalk Bay

Noel Pratten

Introduction

The first recorded Pratten, William John Pratten, landed in Algoa Bay on 15 May 1820 from
a ship named the Aurora. The trip had taken three months and seven days from England. He

was a bricklayer and single, but sometime thereafter he married Elinor Frankfort who had a

son from a previous marriage. By 1849 he had sired four children - a daughter and three sons.
In 1870, on the 50th anniversary of the 1820 Settlers, he planted a tree in Graham’s Town as

one of the original settlers still alive. He died in November 1872.

John Joseph Pratten was one of William’s sons, born in 1835. He married Margaret Ingle

from Cambridge England and had three children, all born in Graham’s Town. Edward Henry

is the son connected with our story.

Edward H Pratten

Edward was an engine driver. He was married at Holy Trinity Kalk Bay to Miss Annie

Caroline Margaret Fish on 25 May 1895. (The Fish Family story was in the Cape Argus or

Cape Times a few years ago.) In those days it was fashionable for the well-heeled British to
come to live in South Africa in the early 1800s and to sort of retire. The Fish’s bought and

built Windsor House and then the flats at the back. Edward and Annie produced three

children in 1896, 1897, and 1898 but they all died, the eldest reaching three and a half years,
and the other two only eight months and one week, respectively. Their graves are right next

to the wall at the Anglican Church. Four more children were born one of whom was my
father Arthur William, and the others were his brother Eddie and sisters Olga and Marie.

EH owned properties and a general dealer business in Windsor Road, named King’s Road in
those early days. (Fig. 5.23.) His first wife, who had seven children, pre-deceased him and he

promptly got married again. His second wife’s name was Dolly and they had two daughters.