The connection between Egypt and South Africa dates back to 1829 when the well-known Egyptologist Flinders Petrie’s paternal grandparents, Margaret Mitten and William Petrie, resided at the Cape of Good Hope. William Petrie senior was a British army officer stationed in Cape Town.
Their eldest son, William Petrie junior married Anne Flinders, daughter of Ann Chappell and Captain Matthew Flinders, the explorer and cartographer of Australia. Their only child, William Matthew Flinders Petrie, later called Flinders, was born on 3 June 1853. He later became known as ‘The father of Egyptian and Palestinian archaeology’.
Another South African connection is Guy Brunton (1878-1948) and his wife, Winifred, who lived in South Africa. Brunton later became assistant director of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo in 1931, but on retirement he and his wife returned to South Africa to White River. His wife Winifred Newberry, an artist in her own right, grew up on the family farm Prynnsburg near Clocolan in the Free State province of South Africa. Her father, Charles Newberry (1841–1922) immigrated to South Africa in 1864 and made his fortune in the Kimberley diamond mining industry.
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![]() William Petrie, Flinders Petrie’s father, was a senior British army officer stationed in Cape Town in the 1800s.
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![]() Winifred Brunton and her husband Guy Brunton, who became the assistant director of the Eyptian Museum in Cairo in 1931, lived and retired in South Africa.
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