David Thomas William Cawood ³

  General Notes:

City Veterans - Career of a Postmaster. ---------------------------------------- Mr David Thomas William Cawood - Special to the Mail. -------------------------------------------------------- The fact that former business activities in Grahamstown disappeared with the coming of the branch line of the railway is recalled by Mr David Thomas William Cawood, another of the city veterans. Born on January 18, 1843, at Somerset East, he has for many years known Grahamstown, and his family were much interested in its welfare.

At the age of 7 he was brought hither, his father joining the firm of Cawood Bros., general dealers and contractors. They entered into contracts with the military for the supply of foodstuffs and owned three ships, so that their business was extensive. When he was 9, his parents went to England, and he was sent to an aunt at Bathurst and afterwards came to school in Grahamstown in Huntley Street, under the care of the Rev Mr Banks. He lived in High Street with his eldest sister, who had married a Mr James Fordred, a draper, carrying on business on the site now occupied by the Salvation Army Citadel.

Some years later his parents sent for him and he went to England in the last of the firm's ships, "The Skimmer of the Seas", and it was lucky for him that the captain had his wife on board, for she made thing comfortable, and explained what England was like, and in other ways relieved the tedium of a voyage of 65 days. He landed at Tilbury and then had his first ride in a railway train, which sped at a mile a minute. His father lived at Stamford Hill and he was put into a boarding school at Denmark Hill.
He remembers vividly the famous Spurgeon s Tabernacle, which he frequently saw.

Wool Trade. ----------- At the age of 21, Mr Cawood returned to South Africa by steamer, landing at Port Elizabeth, and came to Grahamstown where he lived with his Uncle Samuel, a member of the Cape Legislative Council, and one of the firm. Messrs Cawood Bros. purchased wool at Cradock, pressed and rebaled it and shipped it to England. An Uncle did the buying in Cradock and his father was to dispose of the wool to England.

Young Cawood went to Fort Beaufort to open up trade with the military stationed there, but he found the work too difficult for him, seeing he had had no experience in that direction, and after another spell in Grahamstown he proceeded to Cradock, where he settled down for a while and married. He took his wife to England and upon their return hither went during the rush to the Diamond Fields by ox-wagon. "We found just enought diamonds to keep us alive", he said in an interview, "and in the first ten days got about 30 to 40 Pounds worth, one weighin over fifty carats, for which I received 150 Pounds. I helped work my cousin's claim on half shares."

Having lost his wife at Cradock, Mr Cawood returned to Grahamstown and went on to Southwell, where his eldest brother was ostrich farming. It was there Mr Cawood spent most of his life after his former wanderings, and he took over the Postal agency work at a starting salary of 4 Pounds a month doing the local Government work besides and was a field-cornet. He was scab inspector, registrar of births and deaths and pound master. Year in and year out, he carried on for 15 years and saw the decline in the former industries, owing to a variety of circumstances.

A False Step. ------------- After these 15 years as Postmaster of Southwell, Mr Cawood thought he was improving his position by taking up work on the railway, but this proved a false step and though he came back to work another 14 years as Postmaster of Southwell, he found that the broken service denied him a Government pension. His by no means munificent salary was increased to 7 Pounds a month and a telephone was added to his multifarious duties.

The building measured the by no means spacious size of 20 feet by 12. He remembers one severe thunderstorm when he sat in that little iron hut expecting it to be carried away every minute. Another of his varied experiences was acting as Polling Officer through a Parliamentary election. A candidate was almost ruined through a voting dispute in which 2 Hottentots figured, the lawsuit, heard in Grahamstown, lasting 8 days. It was alleged that Mr Cawood entered illegal votes, but he was honourably acquitted. On another occasion he says there was great excitement in Albany district when Henry Hartley, his uncle, then a famous elephant hunter, brought 4 wagons from Magaliesberg.

Mr Cawood's father was a great supporter of the Commemoration Church. At Cawood's Post his Uncle Samuel used to send by ships to Mauritius foodstuffs for provisioning India men. The big iron, used in those days for rendering down fat, is still to be seen, a relic of past enterprise by the firm.

Breach of Service. ------------------ Mr Cawood's breach of service was after 15 years work, when he gave up his position and went to Natal to visit his son there. There he took up the post of storekeeper on the railways at Highlands. His cousin, who had carried on the Postmastership, then wanted a change and Mr Cawood resumed the arduous duties, serving at Southwell another 14 years. He returned in 1909 and from 1910 found it necessary to have a conveyance to and from the Post Office. One morning he was on his way to work when the horse made off with the front of the phaeton he was riding in, which broke away, and the back part of the vehicle dropped abruptly to the ground, throwing him out on his side. Luckily he did not fall on his head and it was a narrow escape. An onlooker helped him up and took him to the Post Office, and thence home. he was so badly shaken and injured by his brace buckel on which he fell that he was away from work on sick leave for a month.

"I've got the flu" ------------------ A year or two afterwards he was in the Post Office when he suddenly became queer, feeling that the top of his head was being lifted off. He went to the telephone, rang up the Kowie Office and said, "I've got the flu and am returning home." The Postmaster at the other end curiously enough replied, "So have I too," and they each went off sick. He was away two weeks in bed, ill with influenza. The celergyman at Southwell took charge of the Post Office in the interim.

Another incident related by Mr Cawood is as follows, "I went to the phone one day to ring up the late Reg Stirk and all of a sudden I found I could not utter a word." "What's the matter," said Stirk, and I could not answer. Dr Robertson shortly afterwards came in and he asked Mr Keeton his brother-in-law to take me home, which was done and he (the doctor) fed me on milk for a fortnight. Since then I have been unable to play the piano and for 14 months I did not even regain my voice to the full. Mr Cawood was formerly a good pianist and singer. ³

David married Mary Betty Cawood, daughter of William Cawood and Sarah Hulley, on 05 Jul 1867.³ (Mary Betty Cawood was born on 12 Jul 1845,³ died in 1876 ³ and was buried on 31 Jan 1876 in Cradock ³.)