Link With Pioneer North Otago Families

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26849, 13 August 1948, Page 2

Link With Pioneer North Otago Families

Mrs Helen Sandwith, daughter of the late Mr St. John Buckley who built •• Redcastle,” now St. Kevin’s College, Oamaru, is at present in Oamaru. The Buckley family left for England some 30 years ago after the death of Mr Buckley. and this is Mrs Sandwith's first visit after that long lapse of time. Her mother, now Ladv Young, is a daughter of the late Sir Henry John Miller, an old-time Speaker of the Legislative Council, and a member of the first Waitaki High School Board of Governors. Mrs Sandwith is interesting herself in the history of her .family and of John McLean, her grand-uncle, who with his brothers owned some 500,000 acres in Otago and South Canterbury in the early days, and who owned Redcastle Estate as well as Morven Hills. She has gathered much historical information and hopes to obtain more, so that on her return to England she may have sufficient material for a volume on pioneering by the McLeans, Buckleys and Millers. Another grand-uncle was Allan McLean, whose imposing mansion in Christchurch, known as McLean Home, was bequeathed for the purpose of establishing a home for idigent gentlefolk. The sweet-sound-ing town clock at Oamaru was the gift of Mrs Sandwith’s father, Mr St. John Buckley.