Brief Profile

Robert was born in Outram Street Invergordon, the youngest of the seven children of Robert John McIntosh Senior and Annie Munro.

In 1882, aged 16, he set off for Cape Colony, South Africa. On the steamer he concluded the diamond mine in Kimberley was a better destination. Not afraid of hard work in dangerous conditions he quickly made good money there, sending generous sums home.

When nearly 17 he decided to give up diamond mining and to make for Salisbury Fort, 900 miles to the north. There he set up as a general merchant in a prominent site, prospering enough over the next 12 years to return home a wealthy man – to marry his sweertheart.

Unusually he took his bride with him back to Africa, adventures and dangers.Their first two children were born in Salisbury Fort but the threats to their health were such that a return to Scotland was inevitable.

He set up business in the London House, Invergordon where he raised his family of eight children (sadly losing the eldest son born in Africa.) He prospered sufficiently to leave each of them one of the properties in which he had invested in and around the town.

Obituary

Robert John Macintosh was the youngest of the seven children of Robert John McIntosh Senior and Annie Munro.

Leaving school at 14 in 1880, he dutifully followed his father’s wishes becoming apprenticed to John Munro tailor in Invergordon. After two years, with the blessing of his family, he gave up his apprenticeship and set off for South Africa.

He was given five shillings by each of his two sisters, a Bible and a pound by his parents, the good wishes of his brothers, and, most importantly, a golden half sovereign by Miss Annie Munro, daughter of his apprentice master.

Thus armed, in 1882, aged 16, he set off to South Africa, destination Cape Colony. On the steamer out the talk was of the ‘ Kimberley big hole,’ the diamond mine.

Impressed by a fellow passenger who engaged him in chess, he decided instead ‘to go north’ to Kimberly. Arriving there, at six one frosty morning to find himself among a crowd of diamond workers on their way to work, he joined them and thus became a diamond miner.

In cosmopolitan Kimberly the temperature in the shade was 97.8 F [37deg C] and in the sun 160degF [71degC] while dust pervade everything.

As a diamond miner Bobby John or RJ as he was now known was able to send substantial sums home to his family. But it was dangerous work. When the lift cage of the main shaft broke down, every miner had to make for the surface up an almost vertical relief shaft, hand over hand, for 200 metres, with only an E shaped steel piton for hand and foot hold.

Wisely, after 6 months as a miner, RJ decided to set off for pastures new. He assembled a bull wagon and headed north, in the first place for Bulawayo, capital of Matabeleland in Rhodesia. And thence he made his way to Salisbury Fort (now Harare.) It was not a journey for the faint-hearted. Progress over 900 miles was slow, in a wagon drawn by eight pairs of oxen.

Making astute use of the capital he now had, and with hard work, he built up his business as a general merchant from an ever-expanding base in Pioneer Street in the booming city of Salisbury Fort. It was almost 12 years before he decided that he was sufficiently established to leave the business for a time to come home and get married.

Meantime back in Invergordon, Anne Munro waited for her Bobby John. She became a governess-companion to a Mrs Gilchrist in Invergordon, probably doing most of the work around her house.

They were married in the National Hotel in Dingwall in March 1894. They spent their honeymoon on the long voyage back to Fort Salisbury. This was unusual enough to merit mention in the Scotsman of the time, taking in Rome, Pompeii, Cairo, the Suez Canal and Beira in Portuguese Mozambique.

Beira to Salisbury was about 300 miles, the first part of the journey being up river for 40 miles then by bull wagon to the Rhodesian border, through un-charted open veldt, saturated with mosquito and tsetse fly.

Neither seem to have had qualms about starting their married life and family in Africa. At that time the number of Europeans in Salisbury Fort was under 1,000; most, like RJ, seeking fortune not fame. In their first year 1895, their eldest, Violet was born in interesting circumstances; in 1857 their son, Munro arrived uneventfully. But when she fell pregnant with their third child, in 1900, Annie contracted malignant malaria with the complication of Black Water Fever. The doctor insisted, Boer War or no Boer War, that she returned to Scotland at once. The route home was via Beira, thankfully now on a new railway and accompanied by three trusted servants. Then from the heel of Italy to Invergordon, also by rail – a daunting journey for an ill, pregnant, underweight Annie, speaking only English and Gaelic, and with two boisterous children to take care of.

JR  stayed in Salisbury Fort only long enough to dispose, profitably, of his business before following his family back to Invergordon.  There he set up business in the London House where he raised his family of eight children (sadly losing the eldest son, Munro, born in Africa.)

Now leading a more sedate life he took to bowls with enthusiasm, applied his mind to the needs of the naval officers and men on leave from the fleet and set up businesses to their and his advantage. On his wife’s early death he saw to the education of both their boys and girls. He  prospered sufficiently in his remaining years to leave each of the children one of the properties in which invested in and around Invergordon.