Richard Currin

DEATH NOTICE: see Cape Archives, MOOC 6/9/753, No 1358.

Richard Currin was born in Grahamstown in April 1846. It is not known when he moved to East London but it is known that he worked there as a market agent and produce merchant, later in the employ of the municipality.

In February 1902, he chose to become involved in municipal politics and was elected unopposed for Ward 2 (East Bank) and was re-elected in 1903 and in 1906 but resigned from the Council in June that year.

This was an era of unprecedented growth for East London. During the 1890s, the town became awash with money as a result of trade from the Witwatersrand goldfields. The Anglo-Boer War served to boost trade even further as the Imperial Army bought goods locally.

The war, however, was followed by a prolonged recession which faded only in about 1910, the year that the four colonies of South Africa chose to become a union.

The prosperity, however, would be short-lived because in August 1914 the European nations chose to go to war with one another. Currin , however, would not witness this momentous event. He died on 19 May 1914 at the age of 68. He was buried at East London.