William John Atherstone, a surveyor, was the son of Walter Atherstone and his wife Mary Ann Hornsby Blake Atherstone, and a grandson of Dr John Atherstone*. He was educated in Grahamstown and London and matriculated through the University of the Cape of Good Hope in 1889. Two years later he passed the university's examination for the certificate of proficiency in the Theory of Land Surveying. He worked as a surveyor in the Transvaal from 1892 to 1894, was admitted as a land surveyor in the Cape Colony in 1895, and worked as a surveyor in that colony from 1895 to 1898. In the latter year he married Annie Liddle Dallas, with whom he had two children.

In July 1898 Atherstone joined the Surveyor-General's office in Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe) as surveyor to the British South Africa Company. He became assistant examiner of diagrams in that office in May 1901, and Surveyor-General of Rhodesia in December 1903. In March 1904 he attended the geodetic congress in Cape Town, where the surveyor-generals of southern Africa and Sir David Gill*, Her Majesty's astronomer at the Cape, planned the further geodetic survey of the sub-continent. He was still Surveyor-General in 1923, but by 1927 was director of the Department of Lands of Rhodesia, stationed in Salisbury. He became a member of the Rhodesia Scientific Association in 1924.

List of sources:

British 1820 Settlers to South Africa. William John Atherstone. Retrieved on 21 January 2023 from https://www.1820settlers.com/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I3611&tree=master

Cape of Good Hope. Report of the Surveyor-General, 1895.

Liebenberg, E.C. Die topografiese kartering van Suid-Afrika, 1879-1972; 'n histories-geografiese ontleding. MA-verhandeling, Departement Geografie, Universiteit van Suid-Afrika, 1973.

National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System (NAAIRS) http://www.national.archives.gov.za/naairs.htm Documents relating to W.J. Atherstone.

Rhodesia Scientific Association. Proceedings, 1930-1931, Vol. 30, list of members.

South African who's who, 1908, 1909, 1917/8, 1919/20, 1923/4, 1927/8, 1931/2.

University of the Cape of Good Hope. Calendar, 1893/4.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2023-01-21 12:18:57