TOPIC:

Harry Cawley Swindells

Private, Imperial Light Infantry
Private, 4th Battalion, Railway Pioneer Regiment – Anglo Boer War

- Queens South Africa Medal (Natal, Transvaal, South Africa 1901) to 2351 PTE. H. SWINDELLS. RLY: PNR: REGT

Harry Swindells was much more than just a name impressed on the rim of a medal. Born in Marple, Cheshire on 11 April 1877 (he was baptised on 12 May of that year in All Saint’s Church, Marple), he was the son of George Cawley Swindells, a Cotton Spinner and his wife Eleanor Maud Hillier. George and Maudie, as she was known, both converted to Catholicism which caused a considerable rift in the family which on Maud’s father, Charles,’ side was strong Anglican and on her mother Eliza’s side, evangelical, dissenting.



According to the 1881 England census, George Swindells was a very well-to-do man. He was a Master Cotton Spinner employing 371 hands – we know him to have been the owner of the Adelphi Cotton Mill in Bollington. Living at Clough Bank in Bollington, he was with his wife and sons, Geoffrey Hillier (8) and Harry (3). To help around the house was 16 year old Martha Shaw, a servant girl.


Clough Bank House where he lived from infancy.

Harry received his general education at Stoneyhurst College, a famous Roman Catholic institution of higher learning and one where his younger brother, Bernard Guy Swindells was to be a Priest in later years. Harry was at Stoneyhurst from 1887 until 1893. He began a four years' apprenticeship in 1895 at the works of Galloway’s Ltd. During this latter period he attended evening classes at the Manchester Technical School, and later at Owens College.

Whilst at Galloway’s he completed his training through every department and was deemed to be a qualified Engineer by the time he had finished in 1899. As he walked out of their doors he would have been aware of the fact that war had been waging in far-away South Africa between the two Boer Republics of the Orange Free State and Transvaal and Great Britain. The war, known as the Anglo Boer War, had commenced on 11 October 1899 and the Imperial forces had found it heavy going.

Swindells set sail for South Africa and, on arrival, lost no time in volunteering for one of the locally-raised Natal regiments – the Imperial Light Infantry. The ILI had seen serious action and suffered a number of casualties at Spioenkop in late January 1900 but, by the time Swindells joined them (with no. 1096) on 30 May 1900, Ladysmith had been relieved and the ILI, from June to October were doing garrison duty about Newcastle and Volksrust, the Boers having been driven from Natal by this time.

Swindells must have found this work monotonous and frustrating and his stay with the ILI came to an end on 31 October 1900 when he took his discharge, Medically Unfit, from the regiment.

After a hiatus of several months he completed the attestation forms for service with “B” Company of the 4th Battalion, Railway Pioneer Regiment on 17 January 1901. Confirming that he had 5 months prior service with the Imperial Light Infantry, he was 23 years old, an Engineer by profession and a Roman Catholic by way of religious persuasion. As next of kin he provided his father, Mr G.C. Swindells of Monks Horton Park, Hythe, Kent.

Swindells was to spend eighty days with the RPR before being discharged on the grounds of ill-health at Cape Town on 3 May 1901 at which point he was given a Character rating of Good. A Medical History of an Invalid report completed in his respect on 4 April 1901 provided more insight into his condition.

The Doctors’ reported that, “Patient states that he had previously served in the Imperial Light Infantry from end of April 1900 till end of November 1900.” He was diagnosed with Debility – following renal colic (pain that occurs when a stone blocks your urinary tract). “Patient states that his first attack of renal colic took place when on duty at Elandsfontein on February 15th 1901. He was admitted to the General Hospital Elandsfontein (No 16) and remained there for six weeks. He had several attacks of renal colic: severe: necessitating the use of morphia: accompanied by haematuria and followed by the passage per urithram of substance like grey sand. Dr Stuart who attended him stated that he believed him to have renal calculus (kidney stones.) He still has pain in the back while walking and occasional smoky urine. He was debilitated by previous attack of Dysentery. His disability cannot be said to be the result of climate or service.”

The Doctor went on to say, “It is probable that the actual attack of renal colic was brought on by the exertion of fatigue work but the latter was not exceptional or such as to cause disability in a healthy person.”

The upshot of all of this was that Swindells “be recommended for discharge on account of permanent unfitness.” The Board that sat concurred with these findings.

His soldiering days over, Swindells elected to remain in South Africa finding employment as the Engineer in charge of the Brickworks Company at Pinetown Bridge in Natal in 1903. But this was the precursor to the main event – his employment by the Natal Government Railways – an organisation with whom he could give full reign to his talents.

He entered the NGR’s employ as an assistant to the Signal Engineer, a role he filled until 1905 when Signalling was stopped as a result of the financial depression prevalent in the Colony. This also led to staff retrenchments and Swindells, himself a casualty of the aforementioned found employment contracting for repairs to equipment on the many Sugar Estates that abounded on the coast of Natal. It was also at this time that he was connected with a commercial firm - Jacklin, Jenkinson & Co., Manufacturers and Agents of West Street, Durban - dealing in machinery and engineering supplies. He became a partner in this firm after twelve months.

In 1908 Swindells returned to England on holiday for nine months. He used this time to further his studies in the field of motor car engineering and obtained, by examination, the “Special” – the highest certificate for Mechanical Proficiency given by the Royal Auto Club (R.A.C.) He returned to South Africa once more in 1909 and, at the request of the Natal Government Railways, rejoined their employ in the same position as before, although the designation altered after the four separate colonies combined into the Union of South Africa in 1910, and he was now Assistant in the Office of the Superintendent Signals, South African Railways based at the Head Office in Johannesburg. He was, importantly, responsible for the design of all the mechanical standards connected with signalling in South Africa.

The move to the Transvaal was confirmed in the South African Railways & Harbours Magazine of July 1911 under “Staff Movements” where it was stated that “H.C. Swindells, Draughtsman, Maritzburg, to Johannesburg.” Swindells’ career continued to blossom but the same aforementioned publication, in their December 1913 edition, carried the ominous news that he had been granted an extended leave of absence.

With the dawn of May 1914 the staff magazine carried the glad tidings that,

“Readers will be pleased to learn that Mr H.C. Swindells, draughtsman in the Signal Department, has been elected an Associate Member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers. Mr Swindells was one of the old N.G.R. servants, and was transferred to Johannesburg at the time of the Union.”

As the years went by Swindells’ health, at the best of times indifferent, seemed to deteriorate and he went “home” for recuperation, returning to duty, in May 1920, after extended leave to Europe. This, sadly, was the forerunner to what happened next. The February 1921 edition of the Staff Magazine carried an obituary which read in full,

“After a long period of ill-health, Mr H.C. Swindells, Draughtsman, Engineering Department, died in Johannesburg in the early hours of New Year’s Day, at the age of 43. Mr Swindells was a native of Bollington, Cheshire, and came to South Africa some 20 years ago, settling in Durban.

During the Boer War he served with the I.L.H. (sic),when he was wounded at Pieters Hill, and, although he offered his services during the Great War, he failed to pass the medical examination. Mr Swindells secured a position as draughtsman in the Signals Drawing Office, Engineer-in-Chief’s Department, Natal, at the end of 1909, and at the time of the Union was transferred to Johannesburg.

The deceased met with an accident in the winter of 1919, as a result of which his arm and shoulder bones were shattered, and, although he subsequently visited his native land on long leave in the hope that his health would thereby be improved, his expectations were not fulfilled, as, on his return to the Rand his condition became steadily worse, added to which his eyesight also commenced to fail. As a result it was decided to retire him on pension, which decision was given effect to as from the 1st December last, exactly a month before his untimely death.

Mr Swindells, who was educated at the famous Roman Catholic seat of learning, Stoneyhurst College, was very popular in Johannesburg, not alone amongst his office colleagues, but also with those outside the Service, and he was a prominent member of the Union Club, to which institution some little time ago he presented a collection of valuable engravings. The funeral took place on Monday afternoon, 3rd January, the large number of mourners testifying to the esteem in which the deceased was held.”


The staff of the Signals Department in an October 1920 photograph - Swindells was most likely in the photo

We will leave it to an article which appeared in the Macclesfield Times of 28 January 1921 for the last word: -

“The Late Mr H.C. Swindells – Sudden Death at Johannesburg

Bollington residents will regret to learn that Mr Harry Cawley Swindells, a well known and respected citizen of Johannesburg, died there on the last day in the Old Year with tragic suddenness. The deceased gentleman was born at Bollington, Cheshire, in 1872 (sic), and twenty years ago went out to Natal and established a successful business at Durban.

Accepting an important appointment under the South African Railways at Pietermaritzburg, he was transferred in 1908 to Johannesburg. There he became very popular, and was a prominent member of the Union Club. To his intimate friends he was known as “ The Freak,” curiously enough a sobriquet invented by himself.

Mr Swindells visited Cheshire in 1919, after which his health broke down seriously. He was under almost continuous medical treatment. A week previous to his death he was discharged from a Nursing Home. A brother, Brigadier General Swindells, was killed in the late war.” (The brother referred to was Geoffrey Hillier Swindells.)

Acknowledgements:
- Natal Who’s Who 1906
- South African Railways & Harbour Magazine – various
- Macclesfield Times 28 January 1921
- Institution of Mechanical Engineers – membership application records

Thank you Rory on the research and
a really detailed account of his life

One particular detail interested me in connection with my grandfathers time in Natal - the 1905 financial depression.
Prior to his service in the 1906 Natal Rebellion as Trooper RM Stone
he worked for the Public Works Department alongside Edward Stead (both of whom returned to Somerset and Devon and both became County Surveyors in each of the two counties)

I have often wondered why my grandfather left the PWD to enlist as a Natal Carbineer
Was there a reduction in the PWD workforce ? or was it because of the offer of farmland to people who served in the Natal Rebellion ? something my father had mentioned, as he did spend sometime farming before he finally left Natal for goods couple of years later.
I don’t know how much detail would be available but
I would very much appreciate being able to research the relevant records.
Thanks in anticipation
Clive