Charlotte Hughes

Charlotte Hughes -- aged 16 -- was a servant girl from Dublin when recruited to come to South Africa as part of the "Kennaway Girls", i.e. women brought out to British Kaffraria in 1857 ostensibly to become brides for the members of the British-German Legion.

She would have been among those who stayed in King William's Town as she married Edward Hollins -- a private in the Cape Mounted Rifles, in the Holy Trinity Church on 1 February 1860.

The couple had moved to Grahamstown by 1862 but returned to the United Kingdom in 1864, when two squadrons of the CMR were disbanded. Edward later became a policeman, stationed in various places in the West Midlands.

He died in 1886 and was buried at Napton, Warwickshire. The 1881 census shows that Charlotte was then still alive.

Edward and Charlotte had two children in South Africa:

• Emma: b. 15 December 1860 in King William's Town; d. 11 April 1864 in Canterbury, England;
• Elizabeth; b. 1 March 1862 in Graham Town; d. 28 March 1863 in Graham Town.

Once back in England, they had another seven children between October 1863 and March 1876.