TOPIC:

Thomas Henry Garry

Clerk, Imperial Military Railway – Anglo Boer War
Senior Audit Inspector, South African Railways & Harbours

- Queens South Africa Medal to MR. T.H. GARRY. IMP: MIL:RLY:



Tom Garry was born in Great Aycliffe, Durham in 1876 the son of Thomas Garry and his wife Margaret Ann born Chapman. He was baptised in the church at Aycliffe on 7 February 1876 with his father’s occupation given as Railway Superintendent. With his father as his role model it came as no surprise that he too would pursue a career in the Railways.



The 1881 England census revealed that the Garry family were living in North Row, Great Aycliffe, Thomas (transcribed as Henry Thomas) was a boy of 5 and surrounded by his many siblings – Ada (13), Georgina (11), Minnie (9), John (7), Walter (2) and Ann, a 1 month old baby.

Ten years on, at the time of the 1891 England census, the family had moved to Oakcliff House in Aycliffe. Mr Garry was now a Railway Goods Agent, having been appointed to that role at Hopetown Station in Darlington in 1885, and young Tom was, at the age of 15, already employed as a Railway Clerk with the North Eastern Railway.

At some point in 1899 he decided to spread his wings and set sail for the Cape Colony where, on arrival in Cape Town, he joined the employ of the then Cape Government Railways. Later that same year, on 11 October 1899, the Anglo Boer War broke out and Garry, like many of his colleagues in the C.G.R. was seconded to the newly created Imperial Military Railway – brought into being after the Transvaal capital of Pretoria had fallen in June 1900 and replacing the Nederlandsch-Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorweg-Maatschappij. According to his obituary in the S.A.R. & H Magazine, he was transferred to Johannesburg in 1902, to the audit staff of the Imperial Railways. As Audit Inspector he served in the Transvaal, Orange Free State, Midlands and Eastern areas of South Africa.

For his services he was awarded the Queens Medal with no clasp.

At some stage, after hostilities had ceased, Garry travelled back to his home town where, in July 1903, he wed Cecilia Cockburn Scott. Returning to South Africa, they settled down to the raising of a family.

Several trips “Home” were made – the first of these being in 1914 when, on 20 April a few months before the outbreak of the Great War, Garry and his wife travelled to Southampton aboard the Garth Castle. He was described as being a 38 year old Clerk.

Eighteen years before his eventual retirement in 1935, Garry was transferred to Cape Town where he set up house naming his residence, appropriately, as “Aycliffe” in Sandown Road in the leafy suburb of Rondebosch. He retired, after 36 years service, in October 1935 and was presented with an electric heater from the Transportation Department and a handsome grandfather clock from the Accounting Department.

Two years later, on 7 June 1937, he and his wife arrived in London, ex the City of Nagpur. Sadly he wasn’t destined to make the trip back to South Africa, passing away at 301 Coniscliffe Road, Darlington from Bronchitis and Chronic Pulmonary Tuberculosis on 19 September 1937, a scant three months after his arrival. He was described as being 61 years old and a Retired Auditor with the South African Railways.

Acknowledgements:

- South African Railways & Harbours Magazine October 1935
- Ancestry & FMP for census data
- Familysearch for Probate details and death certificate