TOPIC:

Rupert Bernard Gettliffe

Railway Employee, Imperial Military Railways – Anglo Boer War
Lt Colonel, Railways & Harbours Brigade, Active Citizen Force – post WWI
Assistant General Manager (Commercial), S.A.R. & H.

- Queens South Africa Medal to MR. R.B. GETLIFFE. IMP: MIL: RLY:
- Jubilee Medal 1935 GVR – unnamed as awarded



Rupert Gettliffe was an important man. From humble beginnings he rose through the ranks of the South African Railways system to become second only to the chief honcho before he retired after a lifetime of service.

Born in Leek, Staffordshire on 17 November 1869 he was the son of Wine & Spirit Merchant George Gettliffe and his wife Sarah Jane, born Sky. At the time of his baptism in the Leek Parish Church on 21 December 1869 the family were living at the Old Plough Vault – Mr Gettliffe’s place of business.

Two years later, at the time of the 1871 England census, the family were 20 St Edward Street in Leek. From the census return it became apparent that Rupert was not the first-born. This distinction fell to older brother Simon Uitenhage Gettliffe (5). The family were well-to-do in that they were able to employ a Nurse in the form of Olive Goldstraw who, at the tender age of 12, wasn’t much older than her charges.



It would be worthwhile to mention, in the way of context, that Sarah Jane Gettliffe had been born in the Cape Colony and had married George Gettliffe in Paarl on 4 February 1863. Simon had been born to the couple at Addo Drift in the Eastern Cape in 1866 – a place not far from the town of Uitenhage (hence his name.) Gettliffe senior had returned to England with his wife and taken up residence in Leek only to return to the Cape at some point where, having changed lanes, he was a Railway Contractor and Superintendent of Works responsible for laying many of the old Cape lines. He was accompanied back to South Africa by his family.



As a young boy, Rupert Gettliffe was sent home to England to be educated under the tutelage of Mr Stephen Beesley at Macclesfield. His education completed, he returned to South Africa where, on 1 January 1886, he took employment as a Junior Clerk in the Traffic Department of the Cape Government Railways. He was transferred the following year to the Accounting Department of the CGR and, in 1888, appointed Clerk in the Traffic Department. Thereafter he served in the Traffic Departments at De Aar and Beaconsfield (near Kimberley) where in the same year (1888) he was detailed to the Goods Department at Cape Town where he remained until 1892, when he was appointed to a position in the General Manager’s Office.



Gettliffe spent the next six years in that position until, with the outbreak of the Anglo Boer War on 11 October 1899, a change was necessitated and, on 1 April 1900, he was temporarily transferred to Bloemfontein – which had just fallen to the British Forces – on loan from the CGR. A secondment to the Imperial Military Railways, employed as a Chief Clerk in the Johannesburg office, followed on 1 July 1900. He took office very shortly after Johannesburg had surrendered to the British forces and a very urgent need to get the railways, and rolling stock in particular, “back on track” after the ravages of the war.

The war over on 31 May 1902 Gettliffe was issued a Queens Medal off a roll dated at Pretoria in August 1902. He now took up employment with the newly constituted Central South African Railway (C.S.A.R), which was from 1902 to 1910 the operator of public railways in the Transvaal Colony and Orange River Colony.

A quick return to the Cape was made in order to tie the marital knot with Constance Maud Beesley at the Church of St James the Great in Sea Point, Cape Town on 1 November 1904. Constance was none other than the daughter of his old schoolmaster, Stephen Beesley.



His temporary transfer, from personal assistant to the Chief Traffic Manager to the General Manager’s staff was announced in August 1907. This was to last until January 1908 when he returned to his position in the Traffic Manager’s Department. By 1910 he was ranked as superintendent of the Commercial and Administrative Branch of the Railways and, as a comic aside, was slightly involved in a humorous encounter in January of that year. The S.A.R. & H Magazine reporting under the heading “Catering for a Live Turtle at Park Station, Johannesburg” that:-

“A gentleman arriving from Lourenco Marques, bringing with him a live turtle which turned the scale at 220lb, a clean receipt being given for the consignment. The gentleman asked permission for the turtle to remain in the parcels’ office whilst he went to Kazerne to clear a crocodile packed in ice which had arrived there for him. Permission granted, the gentleman then going away, but without leaving any address; and he did not put in an appearance for four days.

The staff at Park Station were faced with the problem of catering for the turtle but none of them knew what to do. The genial stationmaster was appealed to, but alas! in this instance he proved to be a broken reed. At last the head office, through Mr Gettliffe, was appealed to for instructions as to disposal and for advise as to the bill of fare to be provided for the delectation of the turtle but he too was non-plussed and suggested that the newspapers be approached to raise the hue and cry.
As a result of the paragraph in the newspapers the owner eventually came out and claimed his pet, and the Park Station staff heaved a sigh of relief when they saw the last of the live turtle.”

Gettliffe’s star was still on the ascendence and his appointment from chief railway storekeeper to chief assistant to the General Manager (administrative and commercial branch) was published in January 1921. An important service change was announced the very next year wherein Gettliffe, who was Acting Assistant General Manager and Chief Railway Storekeeper in Johannesburg, was to take over control of System “C,” with effect from 1 December 1921 and, from 1 February 1922 was to be Assistant General Manager, Johannesburg, relinquishing the position of Chief Railway Storekeeper.



Having emerged so recently from the Great War the Railways had organised their own Railways and Harbours Brigade, under the auspices of the Active Citizen Force. It was now time for Gettliffe to step forward. On 9 November 1922 he completed the Statement in the case of Candidates for Commissioned Rank in the Active Citizen Forces, Union Defence Forces wherein he confirmed his address as 33 St David’s Road, Houghton Estate, Johannesburg and his Anglo Boer War service. He was nominated for appointment as Lieutenant Colonel (Assistant Director) of the Railways & Harbours Brigade with effect from 14 June 1922 and duly took office in that rank; a rank and position that he held until resigning his commission on the disbandment of the Brigade in 1929.



1929 was a momentous year for Gettliffe in another respect as well. On 12 July a function was held at headquarters to commemorate his retirement after forty-four years service. The function was presided over by J.R. More, the General Manager, who said that it was wonderful to think that during such a long service Mr Gettliffe had devoted himself unsparingly and with such conspicuous ability to his work. Gettliffe, in thanking the GM, pleaded guilty to a habit of looking after the “baubees,” as he had found in practice that the big things in finance could look after themselves.

The Staff Magazine published an article in its July 1929 issue which read, in part, thus:-

“ After 43 years public service, Mr R.B. Gettliffe, Assistant General Manager (Commercial), officially retires on 17th July. Mr Gettliffe, who in 1886 joined the old Cape Government Railways, when he was seventeen years of age, has had a distinguished record, his faculty for administrative work winning him early and well-deserved promotion.

From the status of a junior clerk, with a salary of £48 per annum, he, by sheer ability, rose to his present high appointment, in which he has consistently maintained that efficiency which characterised his work in less important spheres. He is extremely popular in the Service, in connection with which, apart from his official duties, he took an active interest in the Mutual Aid Society and Sick and Benefit Funds.

Appointed clerk in 1888 he was detailed to the Goods Department at Cape Town where he remained until 1892, when he was appointed to a position in the General Manager’s Office. During the Great War period he was Assistant Director of Railways and held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the 3rd Infantry Brigade (Active Citizen Force).”

Now finally in retirement he kept up his connection with his old colleagues and was, as an ex-member of the S.A.R. & H. Administration, on the list of those awarded the 1935 King’s Silver Jubilee Medal.



This old workhorse passed away in the Johannesburg Hospital on 27 December 1958 at the age of 89 leaving the not inconsiderable sum of £24 118 to his wife and six sons.

Acknowledgments:

- South African Railway Magazine – Various
- Ancestry and FMP for baptism/census/probate details
- S.A.N.D.F. Archives for Force Orders and Candidate for Commission forms