Sir James Liege Hulett comes to Natal

Sir James Liege Hulett

Gillingham House School in Christmas Street, Gillingham, Kent

There would have been no Kearsney College if the school’s founder had not chosen to move from economically depressed England to the prospering colony of Natal 158 years ago.

The man we know as Sir James Liege Hulett was born in Sheffield on 17 May 1838, the son of school master James Liege Hulett and his wife, Mary Flashman. Sir Liege’s father had moved to Sheffield from Gillingham in Kent after the death of his own father (confusingly also James). For reasons unknown, James Liege soon returned to Gillingham and re-opened Gillingham House School.

Shortly afterwards, the Huletts moved to the village of Kearsney about five kilometres from Dover and there he established St Martin’s Academy.

Educated at his father’s schools, Sir Liege was a capable and diligent boy. He was also a devout Methodist and delivered his first sermon at the age of eighteen.

However, there were few prospects for a young man in the depressed economic conditions that followed the end of the Crimean War in 1856 and, after failing to secure employment in the civil service, Sir Liege responded to an advertisement in the Dover Mail placed by William Henry Burgess, a dispensing chemist and a family friend who had recently arrived in Natal as a Byrne settler. He had shops in Durban and Pietermaritzburg, and was also one of Natal’s first photographers.

Sir Liege was successful in securing the advertised position in Durban which carried a salary of £30 per annum a year all found.

To finance his journey he borrowed £25 from his uncle, George Flashman, a renowned Dover furniture maker, whose customers included members of the royal family. The loan was to be paid back at the rate of £5 a year.

Read about George Flashman