Rev Percival William Alston "Alston" GEILS [8447]

  General Notes:

In an undated paper headed "Antecedants of Robert Dives" Percival wrote some personal notes including:
"My grandfather insisted that my Christian names included William Alston. My first Christian name Percival was after my uncle Percy James Dives. My mother's second name was Evelyn possibly an echo of the Evelyn Baronetcy. I have a letter from Robert Dives written to me on my first birthday, dated 27 July 1909, the address being 124 St George's Street Durban. He left for England 2 months later."

UPBRINGING:
I was baptised in 1908 at Saint Cyprian's Church, Smith Street, Durban, by its vicar Maurice Octavius Hobson, who was prominent also in the municipal life of Durban, and became its Archdeacon. My parents had been married in that church by William Tuzo Alston the previous year. My maternal grandfather was prominent in the life and work of the original Saint Cyprian's in Commercial Road, and it was at his insistence that my Christian names included William Alston, because Alston was an English family surname, relating me distantly to Canon W. T. Alston, who was later to become the beloved priest in charge of Saint Raphael's, Durban and St Luke's Pietermaritzburg. Besides his hobby in being an expert photographer, his interest in tracing family antecedents led him to intensive research on my behalf, presenting me eventually with my own family tree from Norman origins. In this the name William Alston occurs frequently, as it does in the Alston family papers which I was allowed to rescue from his belongings after Canon Alston died. In these latter papers, the name Graham Alston is also mentioned, which confirms my belief that the present Rector of Mooi River belongs to a branch of the same family. Indeed he admitted to me recently that a copy of Stemmata Alstoniana is in the possession of his family. This copy is probably typewritten from the original and very rare book by that name which relates to the history of the Alston family, which I have not yet seen. The name William Alston is commemorated on several grave stones and on some memorials in Elmdon church near Birmingham. These interested me greatly when I found them myself, after discovering a road called Alston, so named, as an inhabitant told me, because Squire Alston once lived at Elmdon Hall, since demolished and its grounds now a park. My maternal grandfather, already mentioned, born the name of Robert Dives, which links the surname with Dives in Normandy. I found his baptismal entry in the Lamberhurst parish church register, near Tunbridge Wells in Kent. Among my own family papers, I find the name of William Alston Dives who remembered my mother in his will. One of my treasured possessions is a Victorian sampler, exquisitely worked by my maternal grandmother at the age of 7 in the year 1859. Surrounded by the letters of the alphabet, numerals and many lovely illustrations, it enshrined the following very moving words:
Jesus Permit Thy Gracious Name to Stand
As the First Effort Of an Infant's Hand
And While Her Fingers On the Canvas Move
Engage Her Tender Heart To Seek Thy Love
With Thy Dear Children Let Her Have a Part
And Write Thy Name Thyself Upon Her Heart.
Ref: A Geils 2013.

Alston married Barbara WARD [15022] [MRIN: 1747] on 28 Apr 1937 in St James Durban SA. (Barbara WARD [15022] was born on 18 Oct 1911 and died on 20 Jul 1973.)