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John McNaughton Cape Town Volunteer Rifles later Duke of Edinburgh’s Own Cape Town Volunteer Rifles

Single – Silver Regimental shooting medal for the Cape Town Volunteer Rifle Corps unofficially fitted with suspender and rim engraved: (won by Sergt. J. McNaughton, 1870-71”) Diameter 38,2 mm. That is 2,0 mm larger than a standard medal.

Struck by the London medallist William Joseph Taylor. It is well known that he acquired many of the original dies from the Soho mint in 1848 and one would guess that the obverse die of this medal quite possibly evolved from one of those dies.

John McNaughton was promoted Lieutenant in 1872 and this medal presumably awarded to him as a shooting medal or as the most deserving Sergeant for the period 1870-1871.

Colonel Graham Botha in a manuscript compiled shortly before WWI and subsequently published by the Castle Military Museum in 2001 quotes the following extract from the 1868 annual report of the Committee of the Cape Rifle Association for the year 1868: “… and to the liberal donation by Messrs Rennie and H.G. Glynn, of two silver medals to be competed for monthly by all effective members of the Corps.” (I guess that this is an example of one of these medals).

Captain Rennie served as Adjutant and Sergeant H. Glynn was the leading shootist in the Corps having joined the Volunteers in the 1850s. He won a silver medal at the very first shooting medal at Green Point and subsequently “put it up” as the prize for at least two further shoots but was again the winner. In 1862 he won The Challenge Cup at the first Rifle Meeting held in the Colony. In 1863 he once again won the Government Cup which was described as “the great event .... open to all effective volunteers throughout the Colony.” At the second meeting of the Cape Rifle Association held on the Claremont Flats he won the first three events for which the prizes were “Turner Rifles” however under the Association rules a competitor could only take one prize and understandably he elected to keep the most valuable at 30 guineas himself.

John McNaughton was born in Cape Town on 20 March 1844. He was the second son of John McNaughton and Grace Lindsay who came out to the Cape Colony to take up the position of new teacher and the first Headmaster of the so-called “the Established School at Wynberg” in a single room in Glebe Cottage on 1st July 1841. The names of the other siblings who were presumably all born in Cape Town were Grace Lindsay, Hugh Hamilton, Thomas Chalmers, Sarah Harvett and Catherine. His father was born in 1809 and was the son of Duncan McNaughton and Ann Gourley while his mother was born in 1806 and was the daughter of Colin and Margaret Lindsay. His father retired in 1863 and returned to England where he died in 1869. His mother died in 1883. It would seem that John McNaughton (junior) reitred early due to ill health in 1882 at the age of just 38 years and that he died on 19 May 1889 and was buried in Wynberg Cemetery.

John McNaughton was one of the early Volunteers in Cape Town. He joined the Cape Royal Rifles before 1870 and was elected Sergeant.

Originally formed in 1855 the Cape Rifle Corps was renamed the Cape Royal Rifles in 1856. The term Cape Town Volunteer Rifles was also used intermittently. In August 1867, H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh who had previously visited the Cape in 1860 as Prince Alfred, arrived at Simon’s Bay. On his departure from Government House a few weeks later the Cape Royal Rifles and the Cape Volunteer Artillery formed the guard of honour. The Duke, on reaching the Corps lines and after they presented Arms, addressed Captain Jones and expressed the wish that the Corps should be called The Duke of Edinburgh’s Own and in Government Notice No 312 of 30 September 1867 the Cape Town Volunteer Rifles where formally designated as the Duke of Edinburgh’s Own Cape Town Volunteer Rifles. In 1869 the Corps was still, at times describes as Cape Royal Rifles (Duke of Edinburgh’s Own).

On 9 September 1873 Mr John McNaughton and Messrs John Steytler and Gavin were nominated as Lieutenants of No 2 Company in the place of Lieutenant Keal who, in being promoted to Company Captain, had vacated his position of 1st Lieutenant of No 2 Company. Two subsequent meetings were held and on 30 September and John McNaughton was elected as Lieutenant of No 2 Company by a majority of one over Mr Steytler. (Captain Keal had originally served as a Sergeant as far back as 1864. His first election to commissioned rank took place on 1 July 1872, this being the same day that Herbert George Daniell was also commissioned).

In March 1878 the Cape Government made an appeal for more Volunteers and in consequence of this a meeting of civil servants of the Colonial Government was convened under the Chairmanship of H.M.H. Orpen on 28 March 1878. A provisional committee, which included Messrs H.M.H. Orpen and John Steytler, was elected. Prospective members were asked to put their names forward. John McNaughton was employed in the Railway Engineer’s Department at that time and he accordingly put forward his name however it was decided that no existing nor previously elected Officers (presumably of any colonial unit), either effective or honorary would be considered as Officers for the new Civil Service Volunteer Company. Soon thereafter Mr James Fforde of the Public Works Department was appointed Captain of the new company with Mr E.S. D’Arcy and John Frederick Davis as 1st and 2nd Lieutenants respectively. Notable names amongst those who expressed an interest in this new volunteer company were at that time were William Valency Simkins then of the Railway Department and Henry Frederick Greetham. It is evident that Lieutenant John McNaughton resigned from Cape Colonial service shortly before 19 August 1878 being granted a pension of £157-10-00 per annum. It appears that he died sometime later in Cape Town and is buried at the Dutch Reformed Church in Wynberg.

Besides his famous schoolmaster father Lieutenant John McNaughton’s claim to fame may rest with his civilian employment and the leadership he no doubt gave in encouraging other railway employees to take an interest in Volunteering. It may be mentioned that Mr John Steytler who vied with him for the position of Lieutenant in 1873, later joined the Railways Department in 1877, eventually attaining the position of Chief Accountant of Railways while John Frederick Davis, who was appointed as 2nd Lieutenant in the new Civil Service Company in April 1878, had joined the Railway Department in 1874 and was appointed to his own position of Chief Clerk in the Railway Engineer’s Department when he retired in 1882! Other notable senior Dukes officers from the Railway Department include Captain John Archibald Williams, VD and Captain Edward James Whindus who commanded the Dukes detachment in Basutoland.

John McNaughton served under the well-known Railway Engineer William George Brounger and would have played an important role through his position of Chief Clerk and Accountant in the Department of the Railway Engineer for the Cape Colony during the early days of the development of the Cape Railway system. William Brounger was born in Hackney, London in 1820. He studied at Totteridge and London University and was a pupil of the celebrated Victorian Engineer Sir Charles Fox and assisted him during the design of the great Exhibition Hall known as Crystal Palace in London. He then undertook important railway construction work in Denmark and when Sir Charles who was acting in the capacity of Consulting Engineer to the Cape Colonial Government was asked to recommend a competent engineer for the construction of a proposed Cape Town to Wellington railway line, he recommended his old pupil. Brounger came out to the Cape Colony and surveyed the proposed route in 1857 and 1858 and returned to the Cape as Resident Engineer during construction a few years later. He then returned to England for a few years but later settled in the Cape in 1870, joining the Colonial Government service as railway engineer. On 2 August 1873 WG Brounger was appointed to the highest engineering position on the Cape Railways guiding the execution of an extensive construction programme. For many years the important junction at De Aar was known as Brounger Junction. He retired in 1883 and returned to Britain.