Contact Artefacts please if you have any comments or more information regarding this record.	Menu Home Upfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon		Commemorative Lamp Poles - James Lamont Komani (Queenstown), Eastern Cape

Date: 1915 Type: Memorial Status: Extant   Click to view map Coordinates: 31°53'49.51" S 26°52'25.42" E Alt: 1081m

A fine pair of cast iron commemorative lamp poles are situated outside the main entrance into the Queenstown Town Hall on Cathcart Street. The lamp poles were cast by Walter Macfarlane & Co's Saracen Foundry and appear in their catalogue of 1882 (6th edition). The pillars are item No. 32 and the lanterns are Item No 230. Each lamp pole has a dedication recorded in raised letters on a curved cast iron badge. The badges are mounted on the lower portion of the decorative classical columns - facing one another. The two dedications are transcribed below: IN APPRECIATION OF THE SERVICES OF JAMES LAMONT MAYOR 1909 - 1915 _______________ ERECTED BY TOWNSMEN OF QUEENSTOWN 1915 James Lamont was born in Braemar Scotland on 19 June 1856, and came to South Africa in 1881. He traded in Queenstown from 1883 as Lamont Bros. He was the member of a number of Boards and chief of the Local Caledonian Society and Mayor of Queenstown from 1909 to 1915. The square bases of both lamp poles are unfortunately defaced with pasted advertising leaflets. Lamont died in East London on 21 April 1920 and is buried in the Main Cemetery in Queenstown. William Martinson, February 2020.