Charles Collier Michell - Cape of Good Hope

Cape of Good Hope

Michell was appointed as surveyor-general at the Cape in 1828, (having probably heard of the post through his cousin Rufane Donkin) at the same time holding the positions of superintendent of public works and civil engineer. For performing these functions, he received an annual salary of £800. The surveyor-general's duties included taking charge of the detailed surveys needed to produce a good map of the Colony, improving passes and roads and surveying the Colony's border accurately. He was an outstanding architect, designing various churches such as St. Paul's in Rondebosch and St. John's in Bathurst. He suggested improvements to Table Bay Harbour and designed lighthouses at Mouille Point, Cape Agulhas (supposedly modelled on the Pharos of Alexandria) and Cape Recife.

He acted as assistant quartermaster in the Sixth Frontier War in 1834. His most active area was in the planning and construction of roads, as well as their improvement, being responsible for the planning of Michell's Pass near Ceres - a vast improvement on the old Mostert's Hoek Pass - and the Houw Hoek Pass near Elgin, both carried out by Andrew Geddes Bain, as well as Sir Lowry's Pass and the Montagu Pass, the latter constructed over the Outeniqua Mountains by an Australian road-engineer Henry Fancourt White in 1843-47. Besides all his other skills, Michell was an accomplished water-colourist, particularly of landscapes. His illustrations appeared in Narrative of a voyage of observation among the colonies of Western Africa and of a campaign in Kaffirland (1837), written by his son-in-law, Capt. Sir James Edward Alexander. He was granted a pension in 1848 and returned to England where he died on 28 March 1851 at Eltham.