George Pilkington (1786-1858)
Captain George Pilkington (1786-1858) R.E., Colonial Civil Engineer of Cape Government
c1829 Birth of son Woodford Pilkington
1858 July 3rd. Died.
Family History.[1]
The South African Pilkingtons are descended from George Pilkington of Dublin, who was born in 1761 and died in 1805. He married first Elinor, daughter of Councillor Dickson, "Father of the Irish bar," and second Emily, daughter of General Cunningham, R.E.
The eldest son, George Pilkington (the one who settled in South Africa) was born in Dublin in 1786, received a commission in the Royal Engineers in 1804 and attained the rank of captain in that corps; on leaving the army he was appointed in 1816 Civil Engineer to the Colony of Sierra Leone; in 1821 he held a similar position at Trinidad, and ultimately, in 1848, he was appointed by Earl Grey to be Colonial Engineer of the Cape of Good Hope, where he died in 1858; at St. George's Cathedral, Cape Town, there is a mural brass to his memory.
The family of this Captain George Pilkington consisted of three sons and three daughters; the eldest of the sons, George William Pilkington (born at Trinidad in 1822, died In Cape Town, 1908) left a numerous family; George William Pilkington, his son and heir, is private secretary to the Honourable the Minister for Railways in the Union Government of South Africa ; and his daughter Augusta, who was created a Lady of the Royal Red Cross in 1902, is the wife of Sir Ernest Kilpin, K.C.M.G., J.P., of Linford, Kenilworth, near Cape Town, for many years Clerk of the House of Assembly, Cape Town, and in 1908-9 Chief Secretary to the South African National Convention which led to the establishment of the Union of South Africa.'