Cincinnatus D’Abreo

By Menin Rodriquez

He was born on 24 September 1862. His  father, Manuel D’Abreo had migrated
to Sindh in 1846. Cincinnatus was married to Maggie Gomes with whom he had five
children, Joe, Maggie, Alfred, Gwennie and Bill.
He was educated at St Patrick’s High School, Karachi. However, he had to
discontinue his studies at the age of 16 and earn a living, due to the unfortunate death
of his father. He was first employed by the Civil and Military Gazette Press as a
clerk. Two years later he joined the British business, Forbes, Forbes and Campbell,
engaged in the import and export trade. In 1889, at the age of 27, he joined the Sind
Commissioner’s office as a clerk. In 1895 he was promoted to the position of
assistant collector of Sukkur and finally was elected president of the municipality.
In 1897 he returned to Karachi, where he occupied various posts such as assistant collector of customs, and shipping master. He was appointed acting collector of customs on two occasions. He was a councillor of Karachi Municipality for many years and made a remarkable contribution to civic life in Karachi.

D’Abreo was instrumental in starting the Karachi Goan Association. He also played a
part in the launch of the Indian Flour Mills, the Union Press, and the Indian Life
Assurance Company, of which he was secretary for many years. He was also one of the
directors of the Karachi Building and Development Company.
In 1917 he retired from service and devoted himself to various social activities. He was
held in high esteem by the people of Karachi, who named him among the 12 leading
citizens of Sindh. He died on 25 January 1929.
D’Abreo acquired 1,000 acres (4.0 km 2 ) of land outside the cantonment. In 1908, this
was developed into Karachi’s first planned township named Cincinnatus Town, which
today forms part of Garden East (Wikipedia)

MENIN RODRIGUES (MR Archive 2010)
MORE: In the beginning of the 20th century, as Karachi blossomed into a scenic
littoral region and its demographics began to change bit by bit, residential areas were
developed in those parts of the city where there was room for constructing new
houses. As a result, some very well-planned colonies came into being. One of them was
Cincinnatus Town. Cincinnatus Town was named after Cincinnatus Fabian D’Abreo, a kind-hearted gentleman who significantly contributed both to the well-being of his
community and to beautifying Karachi landscape. The locality later came to be known
as Garden East and Garden West….The Garden vicinity, before partition of the
subcontinent, used to be a clean-as-a-whistle part of the city. (Source: (Dawn:
Metropolitan, Page 21, March 31, 2013)