Author: Charles Pettman
Date of birth: 1851
Date of death: 1935
Website:
Charles Pettman, the son of Richard Pettman and Mary Wells was born in Whitstable on 14 August 1851 i. Brought up as a Baptist, he became a Methodist local preacher while in business in Folkestone. He attended the Richmond Theological College from 1873 to 1876, ii where after, ordained, he went to South Africa. There he became the first minister of any denomination to serve in East London. He laid the foundation stone of the Central Methodist Church in East London; thereafter serving in Port Elizabeth, King William's Town, Graaf-Reinet, and Kimberley. He married Annie Alicia Glanville, daughter of Thomas Burt Glanville on 6 Nov 1880 in Grahamstown.
He went to Queenstown in 1907 where he remained for the rest of his life. For 5 years, he was secretary, and in 1910 President, of Conference of Methodist Church of Southern Africa. In Queenstown, he was member of Town Council and chairman of the library committee. A respected clergyman and pioneer philologist and lexicographer, he became best known for his writings about South African place names and colloquialisms, embodied in his treatise Afrikanderisms. He died in Queenstown on 4 April 1935. In his will, Charles Pettmann left his books, stamps and savings of £ 3178 / 4 / 2 to the Queenstown Library directing that "the Africana be kept together and intact".
