What's in a name? (Or a bit of fake news)

I’ve been researching and writing about lesser-known individuals and unusual or obscure historical events for quite a few years now and one thing I learned early on is never to fully trust sites like Wikipedia or other secondary sources that often copy or cut-and-paste wrong information ad infinitum.

Also, one has to be careful drawing direct attention to errors with certain historical societies and interest groups as they often don’t like anyone meddling with things taken as gospel and will stubbornly stick to old incorrect facts even if new evidence shows otherwise.

And, of course, one has to be careful with archival newspapers as they are just as bad as our modern ones with sensationalist reporting, blind copying of errors and outright “fake news”.

This leads me to an example that seems to be fixed as fact when it comes to the origins of a name of a place in Australia.

Penneshaw is a community of around 300 permanent residents on Kangaroo Island, South Australia. 

Penneshaw and its beach

According to numerous sources, the name came about when the Governor of South Australia, William Francis Drummond Jervois [pronounced “Jarvis”], renamed the town of Hog Bay. He served as Governor from 1877 to 1882 and named or renamed a few places in his time. It’s understandable if the Colony was hoping to attract new residents to Kangaroo Island that Hog Bay might not sound like the most appealing address.

Wikipedia states the town’s origin is as follows:-

“Penneshaw was named after a combination of the names of Dr. F.W. Pennefather, private secretary to Governor Jervois, and Flora Louisa Shaw, The Times colonial editor, a visitor to Government House.”

I stumbled upon this information while researching the life and times of the fascinating Flora Louise Shaw and was immediately sceptical.

Flora Shaw, c. early 1890s

The story certainly goes back to early 20th Century as it is mentioned in this 1908 article in the Evening Journal of Adelaide on the Nomenclature of South Australia, suggesting it rests with someone called E.H. Hallack who wrote about early Kangaroo Island. This “contributed” story from the Kangaroo Island Courier in 1935 reinforces the idea:

How Penneshaw Was Named

(CONTRIBUTED)

Penneshaw is a double barrelled name (Penne-shaw). Penneshaw was named after Miss Flora Shaw, now Lady Lugard, she married Lord Lugard a distinguished Governor of British colonies at Nigeria in Africa and elsewhere. Miss Shaw married Lord Lugard in 1902. Before her marriage Miss Shaw was for several years a member of the staff of The Times, a London newspaper. She became head of its Colonial Department, where her work was to collect news of Britain beyond the seas.

The Times sent Miss Shaw to Australia and New Zealand to study on the spot the problems of those far away countries. She came to Adelaide and stayed at Government House, and her abilities impressed the Governor and all who met her. At that time the Governor’s private secretary was Mr William Pennefather, later he became Professor Pennefather at the Adelaide University.

During Miss Shaw’s stay in Adelaide the Governor had to name a town situated on Kangaroo Island. By combining the names of Mr Pennefather and Miss Shaw, His Excellency made Penneshaw.

 

Just before Jervois was reassigned to be Governor of New Zealand, the first announcement of Penneshaw appears when blocks of land were being offered for sale. The first notice was published in the Adelaide Evening Journal on 13 January 1882. (See also South Australian Government Gazette.)

Frederick W. Pennefather can be traced through the records. He was a barrister-at-law and aged 28, and is shown on a passenger list from London into Williamstown, near Melbourne, arriving on 3 July 1881 in the clipper ship “Superb”. He was appointed Private Secretary to Jervois on 28 November 1881, see Adelaide Observer.

I haven’t investigated how Pennefather was appointed to the position, but it was most likely through connections with persons of high standing in the colonial service, both in England and Australia. He would later become a QC and lecturer in law at Adelaide University.

So, sometime between his appointment in late November 1881 and the gazetted announcement of the sale of land at Penneshaw in early 1882, the decision to give him half of the name was made. It seems Governor Jervois had named a few places in South Australia after people who worked for him (e.g. as in this A-Z of South Australia’s towns)

One has to ask what was the reasoning for splitting the name between two individuals and how is it even remotely possible that the “Shaw” half came from Flora Louise Shaw who was nowhere near Australia in the early 1880s.

Born in England in 1852, Flora was one of fourteen children of an Army Major. In her twenties she was already a published author of children’s books but she had not yet embarked on her extraordinary journalism career that would eventually see her become the Colonial Editor of The Times of London.

Like many women of that era, it was quite acceptable for her to write children’s literature under her own female name but she was not expected to take on serious journalism. When she did begin writing articles for newspapers in the mid-1880s, she used the name of “F. Shaw”, and would later be known as “The Thunderer”. It was not until after she had written some amazing reports that her true identity became more widely known and she was grudgingly acknowledged by male editors.

But back in 1881, she was not yet 30 and living a somewhat impoverished existence as a housekeeper or nurse companion with her income supplemented by her writing. She also did charity work with the poor in the slums of London. Flora had been forced to leave home after clashes with her father’s new wife. As she struggled to support herself, she lived in a rented room in a small village in Surrey.

The furthest she had been abroad in the early 1880s was to family in France. The likelihood of her making the expensive, long and often arduous voyage to Australia and visiting Jervois in Adelaide is highly improbable. Nothing in the summary of her life in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, or the latest biography which is based on her own letters, diaries and other academic sources suggests she made such a journey around that time.

Flora Shaw did not have a formal education, but from a young age was fortunate in having mentors like John Ruskin, Thomas Carlyle and George Meredith to encourage her in spite of her sex. She certainly would count governors, diplomats and politicians among her friends and acquaintances, but all of this came much later in life when she was well-established. At the age of 50 she married Lord Lugard, who would become Nigeria’s first Governor General and who was also the Governor of Hong Kong.

So, is there a chance she was a good friend of Jervois or his family? I can find nothing to connect them, apart from the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich where Flora sometimes did use the library when a girl and where Jervois had trained as a young man, but whether their paths had ever crossed and Jervois was so impressed by her that he kept her in mind for some naming acknowledgement seems doubtful. 

Then there is the romantic angle. Could Flora have had some connection to F. W. Pennefather as they were about the same age, both with Irish family origins? Did they know each other and could he have been one of her many spurned younger suitors and he suggested to Jervois the combined name? It is possible, but how to prove is another matter!

It was in 1892-93 that she travelled to South Africa and then Australia for the first time and officially as a correspondent, very likely visiting Government House in Adelaide, but this was over 10 years after Penneshaw came into existence and a different Governor was in office. 

I then wondered if the “Shaw” part of the town’s name could be attributed to someone else entirely and it didn’t take long to discover another man called James Shaw.

He was a building contractor who helped to develop South Australia. He was instrumental in the construction of many of Adelaide’s fine public buildings during the time of Governor Jervois, and also the new Government House. Active in community service, he was an Alderman and would eventually be a Mayor of Adelaide. Surely this would have qualified him for some sort of acknowledgement? Even today, his track record would make far more sense than naming part of a remote town after a fiction author and budding female journalist, as Flora Shaw still was in 1881.

Somewhere along the line, the story behind the naming of Penneshaw got twisted or someone (possibly E.H. Hallack) decided it sounded better to have the name of a successful and charismatic woman included in the town’s name, rather than just another pompous official or business figure.

If anyone can disprove the story about the naming of Penneshaw and/or provide me with evidence that Flora Shaw was beyond doubt the recipient of this honour, then please do contact me!

This extensive document detailing the origin of South Australian place names repeats the usual legend although it does mention that someone thought it was to honour Alfred Shaw, a local physician, so that shows some people weren’t so sure about the Flora Shaw connection.

And when it comes to naming places, Flora Shaw is allegedly the first person to give Nigeria its name and although this is based on an article written by her in 1897, some researchers are now starting to question it - so possibly a whole other story about fake news!

Flora was an avid believer in populating the Empire with poor or disadvantaged English people but this cartoon from Punch suggests that Australia wasn't too keen on the idea!

Miss Australia to Miss Shaw -"Thank you so much, my dear, for all the nice things you've said about me. But - don't send out the invitations until I am quite ready to 'receive'.