I am the great great granddaughter on my father's side of John Thomas Cowin, who was born in the Isle of Man, died in Mauritius. He was a captain and owner of a freighter trading sugar and sundries between the IoM and Mauritius. He was married in 1861 in St Louis, Mauritius, to Elizabeth Kidson of Holborn, London. They had 8 children (two of whom died) - John, Anna, Thomas, Douglas, Orry (1871-1953), Mona, Norris Tynwald (my great grandfather), & William. Mona and Orry never married. The boys were all taken to England on reaching the age of 7 and left in the care of a seaman friend known as 'Uncle Perry'. This is probably a William Perry, recorded in the 1891 Census as living at 85 Wallwood Road in Leyton, North East London.
According to my grandfather, Douglass Cowin's, research - which funnily enough I have been studying just today having unearthed it from the back of a drawer - Orry was a Captain in the Royal Navy until 1919 and retired to a fruit farm in Cape Province, South Africa.
Orry's brother Norris was born in Mauritius in 1875 and educated in London. He worked as a quantity surveyor in London. At the outbreak of the Boer War he joined the City Imperial Volunteer Regiment and fought in South Africa. After the war he decided to stay there, starting his own business and eventually working for and running his father-in-law's architectural practice. In 1892 he married Grace Ellis (1881-1961 in SA) and they had 6 children - Ethel, Kathleen (twin), Mona (twin), John, Douglas (my grandfather) and Grace.
John and Douglas became very successful architects in South Africa. My dad, Alistair Norris Cowin, was born in 1941 and spent his early years in Swaziland before moving back to the UK with his British mother in the late 40s. He has lived here ever since and acquired British Citizenship in the early 60s.
Douglass's elder sister, Kathleen Mary Cowin (1904-1980), married Sid Sauerman who was in tin mining and they lived in Rhodesia. Their daughter, Pam, met her Australian husband on a working holiday over there and she has been there ever since and has two sons (no grandchildren).
I am sorry if I'm repeating what many of you probably already know. Personally I have found it really interesting trying to work out how and why the Cowin family have spread across the globe! I only wish I knew more, but I will keep researching.
