TOPIC:

Alfred Shillito

Civilian Government Employee, Telegraph Department, Natal – Anglo Boer War
Assistant Superintendent, Union General Post Office

- Queens South Africa Medal to A. SHILLITO.



Alfred Shillito was born in Leeds, Yorkshire on 9 October 1877 to George Shillito, a Master Painter and his wife Sarah Ann. He was baptised in Christ Church, Leeds on 18 January 1878 at which time his parents were living at 62 Great George Street in the city.

According to the 1881 England census the Shillito family were still at the above address. Mr Shillito had a successful Painting and Decorating business employing four men and two boys. Young Alfred, aged 3, was the youngest in the house with older siblings Harold (7) and Amy (4) completing the scene of domestic bliss.

Sadly Mr Shillito passed away at the age of 39 on 23 February 1885 leaving his wife to fend for herself and three children. She would appear to have taken on the business after her husband’s death and, according to the 1891 England census, was a Painter & Decorator living at the same address as before. 17 year old Harold was a Pattern Maker whilst Alfred (13) was still at school.

Having completed his education Alfred successfully applied for a position as a Sorting Clerk and Telegraph Learner with the General Post Office. His success was announced in the London Gazette of August 14, 1894.

A short few years later Shillito was head-hunted to fill a position in the Natal Colonial Administration. A Minute Paper in the Natal Archives from the General Manager of Telegraphs to the Assistant Under Secretary, dated 14 February 1898 read,

“Colonial Secretary, Mr Shillito has arrived in the Colony. Will you please cause a letter of appointment to be issued to him?” Shillito, as part of his appointment, was required to make a 2 Shilling monthly contribution to the Guaranteed Fund. It was quite a rigmarole to get anyone approved; a decision had to be made by the Colony’s Executive Council. This was duly done on 25 March 1898 and Shillito, his medical certificate proving to be satisfactory, commenced employment.


The grand edifice where Shillito would have been put to work

An attached letter from the Agent General in London stated that, “Mr Alfred Shillito, a telegraphist selected by Mr W.H. Preece for service in Natal, and for whom I have booked a second class passage per S.S. “Goth” sailed from Southampton on the 5th February. Mr Preece informs me that he has now engaged all the men required viz: - 12 in all.”

But there was to be no free ride – Shillito was required to sign an undertaking that he would repay the amount advanced at the rate of £3 per month, the total owing amounting to £24.

With effect from 5 February 1898, he was appointed as a third-class clerk in the telegraph department of the Natal Post Office. Assigned to the Telegraph Office in Durban, his income was £144 per annum with an annual increment of £12. A goodly sum for one so young (he was only 21 years old.) The department was a relatively small one – ten clerks under the auspices of Assistant Controller B.R. Cullen who reported to the Controller, Mr J. Younghusband.

A year later the Permanent Under Secretary for the Colony of Natal wrote to the Auditor General recommending that Shillito and a colleague who had started at the same time, one E.J. White, be granted an increase in salary stating that, “Submitted and recommended. These officers have performed their duties satisfactorily.” This was after Shillito had penned a request on 6 February 1899 to the Assistant Superintendent saying that, “I respectfully beg to apply for my increment which fell due on the 5th instant.”

As is the way with all flesh, Shillito wasn’t averse to falling ill. This happened in July 1899 with a motivation being required to pay him for the period he was absent from work – 13 July until 25 September. Doctor’s notes were supplied from Dr David J.M. Campbell who wrote on 31 August 1899, “This is to certify that I have been attending Mr Shillito since July 27th. He is much improved but will not be able to resume his occupation for a least one month.”

In another note from the good Doctor the nature of Shillito’s malaise was revealed as “a severe strain of the eyes (Hypermetropia) which requires a holiday to recover his health.”

Later that year, on 11 October 1899, Natal and her inhabitants found themselves embroiled in a war not of their making. The Anglo Boer War between the two Boer Republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State and the might of Great Britain disturbed the peace and tranquillity which reigned supreme as the century neared its end. First in the Boer firing line as they pursued their strategy to take Pietermaritzburg and then Durban, was Ladysmith. This garrison town was laid siege to from 2 November 1899 until 28 February 1900. With the Boers on the defensive and slowly being driven out of the Colony, freedom of movement became possible.


Shillto would have traversed the expanse between Durban and Ladysmith during the ABW

Shillito, a telegraphist of some standing, was sent up to Ladysmith from where he reported to his seniors on 10 October 1900. It is not known how long he remained there but he was telegraphing messages from the town as the year ended.

For his services in the war he was awarded the Queens Medal from the Civilian Government Employees roll dated at Pietermaritzburg in July 1904.

The war over Shillito turned his attention to affairs of the heart, returning to England where, at St George’s in Leeds on 10 September 1903, he wed Mabel Allatt of 31 Springfield Place. The couple had met when they both worked as Sorting Clerks and Telegraphists in Leeds. Mabel had the jump on Alfred in that she had started work on 8 August 1892 – a year or so earlier than him. She was required to resign “with a view to marriage,” with her last day of work being 22 August 1903. Her superiors wrote about her that, “Miss Mabel Allatt has discharged her duties with diligence and fidelity to the satisfaction of her superior officers.”

At the time of their nuptials she was 27 whilst he was 26 years old and referred to as a Civil Servant of Natal. Once the knot had been tied the couple returned to Durban.

All went quite on the Shillito front until a complaint was received from him by the Health Department in January 1908. Entitled “Complaint of nuisance caused by an Indian rice field being a breeding ground for mosquitoes,” Shillito wrote thus from his Mayville, Durban home on 5 January 1908:-

Dear Sir

I am taking the liberty of addressing a query to you, in the hope that you can enlighten me, if you will be so kind. About a mile beyond the Durban Boro boundary, on the main road to Pietermaritzburg, there are numerous European residences and the distribution can accurately be described as “thickly populated,”

Away from the road, but within a fair distance of these residences, an Indian has turned a hollow into a rice field, (after first enlarging the hollow to some three or four times the extent of the natural hollow) keeping the same under water to the best of his ability.

Prior to the planting of this rice, there were very few mosquitoes in this locality. Now the house contains simply thousands of these insects. We are simply swarmed with them.

The query I wish to pose is:- Is this pest at all likely to affect the health of the Europeans hereabouts? In putting a further query, I fear I am crossing from Medical to Legal concerns, but I would be glad if you could give me some assurance that 30 to 50 Europeans can not be driven out of this district by one Indian, and if such is the case, which is the better way of preventing this gentleman from inflicting this nuisance upon us at the next planting season.

Of course we are agreeable to bear it this present season, providing we have the satisfaction of knowing it will be the last of its kind. Trusting this will not be too great a trouble for you to answer and thanking you in anticipation.

Yours truly
Alfred Shillito”

The Health Inspector was called upon to conduct an in loco inspection, his findings tallying with Shillito’s complaint. The Indian, one George Gengan, was required to sign an undertaking which read: -

“I, George Gengan do hereby agree to drain the water off and remedy the nuisance as soon as I have reaped the present crop of rice on my property at Mayville. Dated 1/2/09”

The nuisance taken care of Shillito subsided into silence once more, but there was trouble in paradise – at Durban on 17 November 1922 a Deed of Separation was entered into between him and his wife, Mabel. This was to culminate six years later by which time both parties were living in Johannesburg, in court proceedings where Mabel, the Plaintiff, sued, Alfred, the Defendant, for Restitution of Conjugal Rights, failing which a decree of divorce. In papers before the court on 3 May 1928 it was claimed that “Prior to November 17th 1922 quarrels arose between the parties for which defendant was to blame. In consequence of defendant’s treatment of plaintiff cohabitation became intolerable.”




Quite obviously a reconciliation was not on the cards and Shillito ignored the court’s command to restore conjugal rights leaving the Judge no choice but to issue a decree nisi ending the marriage of 25 years standing. An earlier letter, penned in his own handwriting, by Shillito to his estranged wife, dated Johannesburg, Sunday 25 September 1927 shows that Shillito, at least superficially, had made an attempt to pour oil on troubled waters. It read as follows:

“Dear Mabel

Yours of the 18th to hand. I feel quite convinced that there is no real reason why we should be separated. If there were any substantial reasons in the past for us living apart, I feel that this has disappeared – as you know I have repeatedly attempted to bring about a reconciliation between us, both at the time of separation, and subsequent to the signing of the Separation Agreement.

To my great disappointment you, on several occasions, told me that we are better apart. Generally, however, you made no response to my efforts, which was very upsetting to me. As you know I still wish you to come back home, and if you decide to do so I shall do my best to make you happy and comfortable. I am quite prepared to consider any arrangements compatible with my income. The matter now lies in your hands so I hope you will let me hear from you.

Come to 121 Wolmarans Street on Tuesday (27th) between 2.30 and 3 p.m. and lets go into it thoroughly – writing is not very satisfactory. If Tuesday is unsuitable I’ll be in same time on Wednesday. My room is the one on the verandah.

Your affectionate husband

Alfred”

The specifics of what was “behind the scenes” of the action were not made known. Mabel remarried at Johannesburg on 12 April 1930 – to a widower, William Sutherland, a Master Saddler.

Shillito, now officially single, took passage from Durban to Southampton aboard the “Adolf Woermann,” arriving in Southampton on 1 December 1938. His intended destination was Falmouth. According to the 1939 Register he was living at 48 Richmond Wood Road in Bournemouth with his 37 year old Housekeeper, Ida Roberts. He was described as Assistant Superintendent, Union Government Telegraphs, Johannesburg (Retired.)

He died there in April 1940 at the age of 62.

Acknowledgements:

- SA National Archives, Pietermaritzburg Repository
- FMP & Ancestry for census, marriage data and medal roll
- Natal Civil Service List 1907 for details of employment
- 20th Century Impressions of Natal for GPO building photo