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Rafferty was a very young entrant to the Boer War - he was also, as events will show, a bit of a bounder who met with an untimely demise

John West Rafferty

Assistant Ganger, Imperial Military Railways

- Queens South Africa Medal with clasps Cape Colony and Orange Free State to Mr. J.W. Rafferty, Imp. Mil. Rly.

John West Rafferty was a slip of a lad when the Anglo Boer War broke out in October 1899. Born at Waterfort in the Eastern Cape the son of Denis West Rafferty and his wife Elsie Susarah Aletta Maria Rafferty (born Nel) in about 1887 he must rank as one of the youngest “men” to see service during the war.

Being so young it was only in 1902 that he appears to have joined the Imperial Military Railways. This entity came into being as a similar system to that adopted upon the Cape Government Railways and was put in force when Lord Roberts advanced into the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. The Imperial Military Railways (I.M.R.) were then created. The obstacles to smooth handling of traffic in the Orange Free State were at first serious ; the bridges at Norval's Pont and Bethulie (giving access to the railways of Cape Colony) were broken, all rolling-stock on the north bank of the Orange river had been withdrawn by the retreating enemy, and no staffs remained at the stations.

As the Orange Free State and Transvaal fell into British hands, so the mileage under the control of the Imperial Military Railways increased. In the absence of a railway working staff it became necessary to create one; though many of the members were military officers, the technical and controlling staffs were kept distinct.

Gangers like Rafferty patrolled the line at dawn, and all military posts reported alarms to the nearest telegraph station, which in turn informed the Deputy Superintendent of Works, who telegraphed his orders to the construction train situated nearest to the break. In the Orange River Colony alone, during eight months of the war, seventy-eight destructive raids were made on the railway. Chaps like Rafferty were thus kept very busy.

Unlike the movements of soldiers attached to regular army regiment which are well reported on and documented, the details of quite what individual I.M.R. employees got up to are non-existent. Rafferty for his troubles was awarded the Queens Medal with clasps Cape Colony and Orange Free State off the roll issued at Pretoria in August 1902.

With peace now declared and the hostilities over he betook himself to Natal where he continued with the railways in its new guise as the South African Railways – a combination post Union – of the various colonial era railway establishments which had operated autonomously previously.

On 17 December 1913 he took a bride for himself in the form of Cornelia Hester Kriel, an 18 year old girl whom he married in the Dutch Reformed Church in Pietermaritzburg. It is worthwhile mentioning that in both case of his father and his paternal grandfather, they had both taken for their wives women of Dutch descent. The nett effect of this was that the families became Afrikaans speaking in the main. Rafferty was a Fireman with the S.A.R. at the time and he continued in this occupation.

All was quiet on the home front until, on Tuesday, 3rd September 1929, he appeared before the Honourable Justice Tatham in the matter Rex versus John West Rafferty charged with the crime of having intercourse with a native. The charge sheet read thus.

“In that on or about the 16th day of July 1929 and at or near Fort Napier, Pietermaritzburg, in the Province of Natal, the accused, being a European male, did wrongfully and unlawfully attempt to have illicit carnal intercourse with Zanyane Mvelase, a native female, in circumstances not amounting to rape, an attempt to commit rape or indecent assault.”

This was a serious matter, those familiar with South Africa’s history will know all about apartheid, the policy of separate development, perpetrated on the country by the National Government from 1948 onwards. But this was 1929 and some of the laws governing whom you fraternised with were already on the statute books.

Rafferty’s address was provided as Railway Cottage No. 30, Fort Napier, Pietermaritzburg and it was here that the alleged crime was committed. Witnesses were called the first being the lady herself. Mvelase stated that,

“My kraal has now been removed to Bergville, but I do not know where. I know the accused. I was employed by him as a Domestic Servant. I started work for him on Saturday 13 July 1929. The following Tuesday evening, 16 July, accused came into the kitchen at about 6.30 p.m. and asked me if I would be taking a walk. I said “Yes” accused said “Do not lock the door of your room, as I will come and get fowl food” At 7 p.m. as I was in my room, accused came along and got some fowl food. When he got to the door with this fowl food in a dish, accused called me and said we should go along to feed the fowls. It was dark at the time. Then he went up into the long grass behind the fowl house. I stood at the edge of the yard and accused called me to come to him. I went along and stood beside him. He was sitting down. He then told me to sit down. I asked him why and he said because we should feed the fowls.

Accused then pulled me by my overcoat and then he caught me by the neck and made me lie down. I then cried out and he shut my mouth with his hand. He then opened the fly of his trousers and said that if I cry out he would not give me my money. When accused had unbuttoned all his fly a European and a Native Constable came in sight. Accused then said I should get up and run away. I said I cannot run away as you brought me out of my room saying that we should feed the fowls whereas you are going to get into mischief with me.

Accused attempted to run away but was stopped by the European Constable. When accused opened his fly I saw his penis. It was in a state of erection. I was lying right down on the ground and accused had lifted my clothes right up. My person was exposed as I was not wearing drawers. Accused had not yet done anything although he was on top of me. He was prevented from having sexual connection with me by the arrival of the police. I was crying in the hopes that the mistress would arrive and then the police arrived. I was arrested and sentenced to three months imprisonment with hard labour, suspended for three years.”

Next up was the European Constable – one Phillipus Christoffel Snyman – he stated that,

“On the evening of 16 July 1929 I took up a position at Fort Napier for the purpose of keeping observation on any likely trespassers on Railway property. I was in a crouching position and not far from the boundary fence of the accused’s residence. Shortly after I had been there, I saw the accused coming towards me and towards the fence that was between me and him. I then saw accused lie down in the grass about three yards from the fence between Fort Napier railway grounds and the Mental Hospital grounds.

Almost immediately, the last witness Zanyane arrived and first knelt down and then lay down alongside him, I then saw the accused lift her dress and then he got on top of her. My police boy was just at the back of me and I signalled him to follow me. I rushed forward towards accused and this girl. I had to get over a fence. When I and the Native Constable reached them the accused was right down alongside of her with his fly open and his penis exposed and in a state of erection. Zanyane’s clothes were right up and her person was exposed. I arrested both of them.

I did not hear Zanyane cry out as though she was in distress. She made no complaint to me that she had been indecently assaulted. She was not upset and did not appear to me to be otherwise than a consenting party.

Rafferty reserved his defence and was granted £40 bail. The outcome of the trial is not known but it appears to have bene very much a case of Rafferty being in the wrong place doing the wrong thing at the wrong time. What Rafferty’s wife made of the entire affair is open to speculation although she was still with him to the end of his life.

After his run-in with law for being caught in flagrante delicto all went quite on the Rafferty front – he continued in the service of the Railways as a Driver and faded into the background. All this was to change however with the tragic events of 1 December 1937.

On that awful day Rafferty was the Driver of a passenger train on the run between Kloof and Hillcrest just outside Durban in Natal. An official telegramme was released which read as follows under the heading Derailment of Passenger Train No. 31: Kloof- Hillcrest” 1st December 1937;

“At 9.10 a.m. date engine and tender and three coaches on No. 31 passenger train derailed 26 ¼ miles between Hillcrest and Kloof Natal Province stop engine and tender overturned driver killed fireman and guard slightly injured No injuries to passengers stop cause not yet known”


A locomotive of the class that Rafferty was driving on the day he died

The authorities immediately set about convening a Board of Inquiry and to report their findings to the Governor General. By a strange twist of fate the Magistrate appointed to chair the proceedings was none other than Justice Fannin who had presided over Rafferty’s indiscretions eight years earlier.
The history of the day was provided thus,

“No. 31 passenger train with a load of 266 tons left Pietermaritzburg at 6.36 a.m. (scheduled time), en route for Durban via the old main line.
From Pietermaritzburg the train consisted of a class 14 engine No. 1713, six coaches and a perishable truck for Richmond. It was worked by Driver J.W. Rafferty, Fireman M.J. Olckers, Guard H. Fairley and Ticket Examiner R.H. Meyer.

No. 31 train is scheduled to depart from Hillcrest Station at 9.09 a.m. and according to the records at that station, left two minutes late. Shortly after leaving Hillcrest, when the train was travelling on a 300 ft. radius the engine and tender overturned on the curve and the first two coaches became derailed. The engine came to rest on its right hand side over the high leg of the curve and at that side of the curve. The rest of the train was not derailed.
At the time of the accident there were three European and ten Non-European passengers on the train, but they escaped with a shaking. The first and second coaches were unoccupied."

On 22 December 1937 speed tests were carried out with a train similar to the one wrecked. The curve at the scene of the accident was negotiated at 20 miles per hour and, having checked the rest of the train for defects of which none were found, it was determined by the Board that Rafferty had been speeding to make up time. A tragic mistake of which he was the only human casualty.

Thus it was that Rafferty’s life came to an untimely end at the age of 52 years. His place of residence at the time he died was 6 Walker’s Lane, Greyville, Durban and he was survived by a multitude of children and his wife of many years.

Possibly divine justice but his wife whom he had been unfaithful to all those years ago petitioned the court to be allowed to marry again in December 1952.

Well that make for an unusual read, Rory!