John Clifton Ingle, farmer, storekeeper, soldier and amateur ornithologist, spent most of his adult life in the vicinity of Lydenburg, Sabie and Pilgrim's Rest, a region now part of Mpumalanga. In November 1894 he applied to the government of the South African Republic (Transvaal) for a permit to import a rifle. Around that time (in 1895) he lived on the farm Spitzkop and in 1899 imported a shotgun via Lydenburg. At some time he and E.L. Banger bought a trading store at Bosbokrand (in the Lowveld some 30 km east of Pilgrim's Rest) and in 1903, shortly after the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902), they requested a permit to import ammunition. In 1907 Ingle's address was given as Sabie. In 1918 he rented the western portion of the farm Sandford No. 46, district Lydenburg, as an addition to the farm Boschhoek No. 47, and in 1925 bought Boschhoek and other land in the Lydenburg district. In 1938 he bought the farm Sandford, which was then in the Pilgrim's Rest district. He married Mabel Charlotte Gibbs at Pilgrim's Rest and they had a son and two daughters.

By 1909 Ingle was a Fellow of the Zoological Society of London (FZS). He became a member of the South African Ornithologists' Union in 1907 and later contributed the following paper to its Journal: "A list (with notes) of the birds of the Sabie District, Eastern Transvaal" (December 1914, Vol. 10(1), pp. 8-15). In 1916 the Union amalgamated with the Transvaal Biological Society to form the South African Biological Society and Ingle became a founding member of the latter. He was still a member in 1920.

List of sources:

Journal of the South African Ornithologists' Union, 1909, Vol. 5(3), Roll of members; 1914, Vol. 10(1), paper by Ingle.

National Archives Repository (TAB), Source MHG, Vol. 0, Ref. 8914/59: Death notice and antenuptual contract, John Clifton Ingle.

National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System (NAAIRS), at http://www.national.archives.gov.za/naairs.htm Documents relating to John Clifton Ingle / J.C. Ingle / Ingle and Banger.

South African Journal of Natural History, 1918, Vol. 1(1), pp. 8-15: Roll of Foundation Members [of the SA Biological Society]; 1920, Vol. 2(2), Roll of members.

Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa (SESA). Cape Town: NASOU, 1970-1976.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2020-04-23 17:30:14