Thomas Neilson

[alllegs]

Hi Izabel,

This is a total stab in the dark but you never know unless you try.....

Here goes..

I have a newspaper article which mentions my great great grandfather, Thomas Neilson.  It is about the life of Peter Lee, he became the 1st Labour chairman of Durham County Council and later had the town Petelee named after him, anyway back to the point.  Thomas Neilson was born in Scotland in 1868 and at some point went out to South Africa "Off to the Rand of Gold".  Thomas met Peter Lee who was struggling for money and Thomas gave him half of his worldly goods, Peter Lee says that without the help of Thomas Neilson he would never have survived.  Basically I was wondering if there was any info about where Thomas and Peter went, what they did, anything really about their lives in South Africa.

This is a snippit from the article....
"The Rand was working badly and employment was difficult to find, (Peter) Lee was down to his last half crown when he met Thomas Neilson, a scotsman, whom he afterwards described as one of the nobelest men he had ever known.  Certainly Neilson showed generosity which not one man in a hundred would have showed in similar circumstances.  He had £6, and although his own prospects were uncertain and he had never spoken to Lee in hi life he loaned the Durham man half of it.
This is how it came about.  A few years before, Neilson (who late kept the Princess of Wales Hotel at Wheatbottom, Crook, where he died) had been one of four Scots who came to work at Station Town, a colliery near Wingate.  One of the four was killed in a mine and it was this fatality which led Neilson and his companions being pointed out to peter Lee on day while they were visiting Wingate.  So that, although he knew Neilson by sight - he was a man over 6 feet in height -  had never spoken to him until that day at Springs near Johannesburg.
Alone in a strange country and with anxiety beginning to get a grip on him the Durham man felt his spirits rise within him at the sight of a familiar face.  Recognition was mutual. "I don't know how you are off for money, but this is not a bad country to be in if you're short of it," said Neilson.  When Lee admitted he only had half a crown Neilson insisted on lending him the £3.
The men parted and in later years Neilson often remarked laughingly to Peter Lee "When I bade you good bye I said to myself theres another three quid gone west, You were the only man who paid me back out of your first pay packet."
.....
12 months later Neilson was ill with fever and made his way to the coal mine where Lee was wrking near Middleburg.  The latter helped him get work after his recovery and they were ever afterward close friends.

Thats all that mentions my great great grandfather.  I know that Peter Lee arrive in South Africa in February 1896, in Cape Town from London.  I assume that Thomas Neilson arrived sometime before, he was certainly back in England by October 1897 as that is when he married.  Any info about Thomas would be great.

Sorry it's all so vague!  Don't worry if you don't know where to start - I'm just being nosey and wanting to know more about Thomas!

Best Wishes and Happy New Year
Love
Legs
xxxx

[liverpool annie]

Boy Legs!

That Peter Lee was all over the place - he was in America too!!

Peterlee is one of the North East's new towns, though few know it is also the site of a deserted medieval village called Yoden. The modern town was created in 1948, to rehouse growing populations from nearby mining villages. It is named after Mr Peter Lee, an important miner's leader who became the chairman of England's first all Labour council at Durham in 1909.Lee was born in 1864 at Trimdon Grange, a colliery village in eastern Durham and at the age of ten he started work as a pony driver at Littletown Colliery, just outside Durham City. By the age of sixteen he had achieved the status of a coal hewer. In 1886 Lee emigrated to the United States, where he worked in the mines of Ohio, Kentucky and Pensylvania, before returning to County Durham in 1887. He died in 1935 at the age of seventy.

Annie 

[izabel]

Hi El, Annie is quite right he was all over the place.  Foiund this website - has a biography on him, Im sure it will answer all your questions, Izabel

http://www.wheatleyhill.com/peterlee.htm

[alllegs]

Thank you Izabel and Annie.

Much appreciated

Love
Legs
xxxx