TOPIC:

Civilians weren't eligible for military awards such as the DCM. Brave men like Daw had to settle for presentation silver watches from their employees - here is George Daw's story:

George Henry Daw

Recipient of Silver Watch for Bravery

Station Foreman, Cape Government Railways – Anglo Boer War

- Queens South Africa Medal to G.H.DAW, C.G.R.

George Daw was born in Sandford, Devon in 1878 the son of John Henry Daw, a prosperous farmer, and his wife Mary. According to the 1881 England census, the farm at North Creedy was a busy place with Mr Daw farming 128 acres of land and employing 1 man and 2 boys to assist him. Aside from his wife and himself the house was occupied by daughters Mary Elizabeth (7) and Bessie Eleanor (1), whilst George Henry (3) – the subject of this work – was joined by older brother Charles James (5).


The Daw farmhouse at North Creedy

To help around the house were servants Thurza Ford (16) and, to prove that child labour was still a relative scourge in Victorian times, little Charlotte Ellen Discombe who was only 12. The farm servants living on the property were John Bere (18) and James Drew (15) – altogether quite a number of mouths to feed.

Ten years later, at the time of the 1891 England census, the family had grown incrementally with a number of arrivals since the last census – these were Margaret (9), Wilfred (4) and Frances (2). George was now 13 years old and a school pupil, along with brother Charles James (15) and Bessie (11). Mary Mortimer (15) was the young servant girl catering to their needs.


Daw as he appeared in the newspaper article in 1936

In 1897, at the age of 19 George Daw decided that a life in rural Devon was no longer for him. Having heard that a school friend of his from Weston-Super-Mare was about to go out to South Africa to work in a bank, he decided that it was time for him to bid farewell to family and friends and make the trip as well. They both set sail for South Africa aboard the Grantully Castle docking in Cape Town where, shortly after his arrival, Daw was, for a brief spell, a barman in an hotel near Cape Town. Not caring much for the job, he worked for a few days as a tin smithy, he having picked up the trade as a boy.

He then joined the employ of the Cape Government Railways. Great strides had been made in forging a path inland from Cape Town and other major Cape Colony towns since the creation of the C.G.R. in the mid 1870’s; the ultimate destination being the growing diamond mining metropolis of Kimberley, and then on to Bechuanaland and Rhodesia, on the one hand and, on the other the route from the Cape to the Goldfields of the Witwatersrand – the beginnings of Rhodes’ dream of a Cape to Cairo empire expansion.

Small railways sidings and stations were planned and built along these major routes through the Karoo. All had to be staffed by Station Masters, living in their isolated cottages close to the tracks, along with other C.G.R. staff, everyone from Platelayers, Gangers, Drivers et al. Some living locally to these stations whilst others were centred in the major towns and deployed to work on or repair stretches of track as it snaked its way into the very heart of the country – away from the sea and into the barren and arid reaches of the platteland.

Later in 1897 Daw was sent from Mafeking to Kimberley to start at another office and while he was waiting for the principal to come in the postman arrived with the letters. “I saw there were two for me” he said, “one from my mother and the other from the lady who became my wife. They bore the Crediton postmark. I told the young man in the office they were mine and he exclaimed ‘So you come from Kirton, eh?’ Nobody but a Devon man would know how to say that properly. “Are you W.H.’s son, or J.H.’s son? He asked me. “J.H.’s, I said. ‘I know you then,’ he said. And it turned out he had worked in the Devon and Cornwall Bank at Crediton.

Unbeknown to Daw, he had joined an institution which, in a matter of not very many years, was to be placed front and centre of the fighting that was to come. Here I refer to the Anglo Boer War which erupted on the world stage on 11 October 1899. This war between the two Boer Republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State on one hand and the might of the British Empire on the other was primarily because of the expansionist policy the likes of Milner and Rhodes had embarked on, a policy which was to discombobulate the eccentric and ageing President of the Transvaal Republic and lead to a war which had far-reaching consequences for all those involved.


A 1903 map showing the stretch of line where Daw was stationed and where he earned his watch

In an exhaustive interview with Daw, published in the Western Times on Friday, 26 May 1936, on the occasion of his visiting family and friends in Devon, he went into some detail about his life and experiences in South Africa. The part he played in the aforementioned Boer War is of especial interest:

‘Pressed to relate some of his experiences, Mr Daw mentioned that he had just taken into Messrs. Samuels for repair a silver watch, which was presented to him by the Cape Colonial Government for his conduct on a certain occasion during the Boer War. The Boers, he explained, had captured a goods train south of the station, and set it alight. He saw the smoke and, guessing what had happened, telephoned north for the armoured train, which was a long distance away.’

Mr Daw proceeded: “It was night-time. I thought the driver must have managed to escape with the engine, and I took my lamp and went to meet the engine to warn the driver that there were Boers North of me also. No notice was taken of my signals, and that made me suspicious.
“As the engine came alongside at about seven miles an hour I saw there was nobody on board. I made a run for it and jumped on. There were bullet marks on the sides. The bar grate was down. I did my best to get up steam, but it was too big a job.”

“Then I saw the armoured train coming from the other direction. I stopped the engine just outside the station and it was pulled in by the armoured train. The Boers had captured the driver, but he had been one too many for them. Unknown to them he had dropped the grate, used as much steam as he could, and had let water into the boiler. They started the engine at full speed, hoping it would crash into and wreck the armoured train. The guard and the driver and myself were awarded silver watches.”

The incident referred to in some detail above occurred on 1 February 1902 near Baroda in the heart of the Karoo. Daw was the Station Foreman at nearby Conway at the time. The incident was reported in the newspapers under the headline, “Supply Train Burned in Cape Colony” and read thus:

“British Advance In The West – The War Office today issued the following from Lord Kitchener: -

Pretoria, Feb. 3rd, noon.

In Cape Colony one small commando is in Bamboesberg, and another under Louis Wessels has been active in Cradock district, where a supply train was held up and partly burnt on February 1st.”

Hardly a by-line in the press of the day but, according to a newspaper correspondent in the Edinburgh Evening News of 5 February 1902, “Lord Kitchener’s Weekly Report issued yesterday, was the smallest report for months. No excuse is offered on this occasion, such as rain…”

Wessels, in the same newspaper, was reported as having “in the heart of Cape Colony, captured a supply train on the carefully guarded railway. No account is given of the nature of the supplies, whether food or ammunition; but the effect will be bad and Wessels will be troublesome for some time.” This was, undoubtedly the train Daw was involved with.

The medal roll from which Daw’s Queens Medal was issued informs us that he was “Awarded silver watch for courageous conduct in connection with burning of train by Boers near Baroda on 1/2/02.”


Remarks on the medal roll

The others involved in the incident who were awarded silver watches by the Cape Administration were:

- Engine Driver R. Hampton and Fireman J. Leith - "Working train fired on, captured, and burnt by Boers at 188 1/2 miles, 1.2.02 and received recognition from Government for coolness and courage shewn on that occasion".

- Guard R. Lee - "Awarded silver watch for courageous conduct in connection with burning of train by Boers near Marlow on 1/2/02".

Prior to this incident, Daw had tied the marital knot at St. Paul’s Church in Cape Town on 4 April 1901. His bride was none other than Caroline Manning, whose address was given as “Cape Town, late of Newton Abbott, Devonshire.” He was recorded as being a Railway Employee resident at Middelburg in the Cape Colony.

Daw continued on in the service of the C.G.R. after the conclusion of hostilities on 31 May 1902. Now able to settle down to normal life, he and his wife set about the making of a family with Dorothy Francis Daw (born 18 July 1902); George Bragg Daw (born 2 February 1904); Walter Charles Daw (born in Brandfort, Orange Free State on 8 March 1906); Robert Henry Daw (born in Bloemfontein on 1 May 1908); Leslie James Daw (born in Bloemfontein on 13 July 1910) and Caroline Winifred Daw (born 16 May 1912) - being born to the couple.

George Daw retired from his beloved South African Railways on 1 November 1935 after nearly 39 years service, in the course of which he held the position of Station Master at more stations than he cared to remember. He started at Karee in the Orange Free State and ended at Patentie (just outside Humansdorp near to Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape.) “They were all healthy places,” he declared “and the chief troubles were washaways due to tropical storms and traffic hold-ups by locusts.” “Greasy things locusts,” he said. “They stop the trains. Everything possible is being done to exterminate them, but in this the authorities are up against a tough job.”

“I have never worked on the suburban lines, but only at main line country stations where the railways are playthings as compared with the lines here (Devon). Very rarely and only on special occasions, we got as many as twenty trains a day. Sometimes there were only two or three.”

On the current state of the nation he said, “South Africa does not offer scope for farmer immigrants today, unless they are prepared to undergo at least three years training at one of the recognised farms and will learn Afrikaans. As to the relations between the English and the Dutch in South Africa, he says there are hot-heads on both sides, but he has many treasured friendships with the Dutch element, and considers that it is all a matter of reasonableness and a willingness to be friends, and to try to understand them.”

He would have been qualified to speak on the subject as he had turned his hand, successfully, to large scale farming after his retirement.
George Henry Daw passed away at the Provincial Hospital in Port Elizabeth on 1 August 1952 at thee age of 75. He was a resident of Devonia Farm, Thornhill in the district of Port Elizabeth at the time of his death which was “accidental due to acute lobar pneumonia following fracture of right femur caused by a fall.”

According to a letter in Daw’s estate file, dated 6 June 1960, the remaining members of the Daw family emigrated to Devon, England after the sale of the farm Devonia.

Thanks for yet another interesting story, Rory. PM sent.

Rory, thank you for another well researched and insightful article. Amazing the information that can be found and the stories behind a medal...

Another great piece of research Rory..... Thank You.......

Mike

P.S. Was going to come to UK for OMRS Convention but due to hail damage have to miss this year.......