In the article below, Sarah Welham, founder of the Friends of Johannesburg Cemeteries, looks at the sad story behind one of the earliest gravestones in Braamfontein Cemetery. Clara Goad was the young wife of pioneering architect Frederick George Goad, whose early death left her young son orphaned by the age of eight.

Some may not think about the architects who have built Johannesburg. In the very early days, there were a number who arrived in this growing town and left their stamp on it, albeit a stamp that has practically disappeared from our skyline. Two of these were Frederick George Goad and Francis Lennox Canning who had been in partnership since 1884 in Queenstown and Bloemfontein.

In Bloemfontein, Canning designed the beautiful 4th Raadsaal and he and Goad had worked together on The Presidency, the home of the President of the Orange Free State in President Brand Street.

Old postcard of the Raadsaal Bloemfontein via Artefacts.jpg

Old postcard of the 4th Raadsaal (Artefacts)

Old Presidency Bloemfontein via Wikipedia.jpg

Old Presidency (Wikipedia)

In Johannesburg, they designed several landmark buildings including the 2nd Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Old Arcade Building, the Second Rand Club, the Doornfontein Club and Bettelheim House.

Second Johannesburg Stock Exchange - From Mining Camp to Metropolis.jpg

Second Stock Exchange Building (From Mining Camp to Metropolis)

Early photo of the Doornfontein Club via Artefacts.jpg

Early photo of the Doornfontein Club (Artefacts)

It is interesting to speculate why there were two architects in Queenstown in the 1880s. In the late 1800s, the town prospered and many of the magnificent sandstone public buildings that went up at that time are still standing today.

In Braamfontein cemetery is a beautiful brown cross headstone. This marks the final resting place of Clara Goad. Not much is known about her. She was born in about 1860 as Clara Pellon and on September 7, 1883, she married the Architect and Civil Engineer, Frederick George Goad in the Presbyterian Church in Queenstown. Both were 23 years old. Clara was the daughter of Thomas Pellon it seems (he was a witness at the church service).

Clara Goad Headstone Braamfontein Cemetery - Friends of Johannesburg Cemeteries.jpg

Clara Goad's Headstone in Braamfontein Cemetery

Frederick, who had been born in Plymouth in England, was working as an Architect in partnership with Francis Lennox Canning soon after his marriage and a short while after that he and Canning moved to Bloemfontein where they worked in partnership again. Later still, they moved to Johannesburg.

In April 1884, Clara gave birth to her only child, Charles Frederick Combes Goad. Sadly, Clara passed away in November 1887 at the age of 27, leaving her husband to care for their 3-year-old child.  

Unfortunately, Charles’ fortunes were to decline even further when his father died on September 16, 1892, in Ferreirasdorp, at the age of 31. Charles was only 8 years old.

It is not known who cared for Charles once he had been orphaned; but later records show that he became a Magistrate and married his first wife, Helen Susanna Keeton in October 1910 when he was working as a Civil Servant in Humansdorp. She died and he remarried in February 1940. At the time of his death on March 5, 1964, at the age of 79, he was a General Dealer in Bathurst. He died in the Settlers Hospital in Grahamstown from lung cancer and broncho pneumonia and was buried in the St John Anglican Cemetery in Bathurst. His wife died in 1976 and was also buried in St John Anglican Cemetery.

Clara’s grave in Braamfontein’s EC Section, is one of the cemetery’s earliest graves. It is in a section where there are few original headstones. As there were no headstones on the graves in the near vicinity, the area was reused as an ash grave section, so the dates of death on the headstones are much later than Clara’s.  Her husband is buried in the same grave. There is no memorial to Fred on the grave, and similarly, his partner, also an Architect and Engineer, Francis Lennox Canning, who died in 1895, is buried in the same section but with no headstone. He was 41 years.

Francis Canning married Charlotte Annie Barker in Queenstown on December 3, 1884, 15 months after the Goads got married in Queenstown. For those who are interested in the Rietfontein Hospital in the Linksfield area of Johannesburg, Charlotte died there in 1929 and was buried in the Rietfontein cemetery. Another sad piece of the jigsaw of these two couples and the contribution the Architects made to early Johannesburg.

Sarah Welham is the founder of the Friends of Johannesburg Cemeteries