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Article by Ross Dix-Peek

Two of South Africa’s Illustrious Sons:Major – General Sir Christopher Teesdale, V.C., and James Henry Greathead

By Ross Dix-Peek

Grahamstown, South Africa, is universally acclaimed as the “City of Saints” (due to its forty-odd churches), and renowned as a seat of learning, home to Rhodes University; St. Andrew’s College; Kingswood College and Graeme College. However, Unbeknown to most, it is also the birthplace of two of South Africa’s forgotten sons; one the first South African-born recipient of the Victoria Cross, the other a gifted engineer and one of the progenitor’s of the today’s famous London underground railway system. Major-General Sir Christopher Teesdale, British Army, was awarded the coveted Victoria Cross for his heroic endeavours at the siege of Kars, during the Crimean war, while James Henry Greathead, was one of Britain’s foremost tunneling experts and the inventor of the “Greathead Shield”.

Major-General Sir Christopher Teesdale: The First South African-born Recipient of the Victoria Cross

Ironically, Grahamstown, which began its life as a military outpost, was destined to be the birthplace of the first South African-born soldier to be awarded the Victoria Cross. Christopher Charles Teesdale was born at Grahamstown, on the 1 June 1833, the son of Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Teesdale, Royal Artillery, who was stationed in South Africa at the time, and a member of an old and illustrious military family. He and his family departed the cape when Christopher was but two-years-of-age. Teesdale was appointed a Gentleman-Cadet in the Royal Artillery, on the 29 May 1848. He was subsequently stationed on the island of Corfu, being promoted a Lieutenant in April 1853. He then served in the Crimean war (1854-1855), and it was at Kars, in Armenia, on the 29 September 1855, that Teesdale performed the deed that was ultimately to win the 22-year-old the Victoria Cross.

In 1855, Kars was defended by General William Fenwick Williams (“Williams Pasha”), with Teesdale serving as Aide-de-Camp to General Williams (1854-1856). The garrison comprised “15,000 men, and with three months’ provisions and three days’ ammunition, against the Russian general Mouravieff, with an army of 40, 000 infantry and 10, 000 cavalry.” The siege of Kars lasted from 18 June to 25 November, 1855. The garrison suffered immensely due to cholera and the lack of food.

On the 29 September 1855, the Russians made a “grand assault’ but were repulsed with the loss of approximately 6000 men. Teesdale volunteered to take command of the force engaged in the most advanced parts of the defences. He threw himself into the midst of the enemy and encouraged the garrison to implement an attack so vigorous that the Russians were driven out. Teesdale induced the Turkish artilleryman to return to their post, and after the final victorious charge, he was also instrumental in saving the lives of a considerable number of the Russian wounded. However, the British and Turkish garrison succumbed, surrendering to General Mouravieff on the 25 November 1855, being “overcome by famine alone.” Teesdale was taken prisoner by the Russians, and was incarcerated until 1856. This redoubtable South African-born soldier also received the personal thanks of General Mouravieff for preventing the Turks from butchering wounded Russian soldiers.

On accepting General W.F. Williams’ proposal for surrender, General Mouravieff, the Russian commander, said, “General Williams, you have made yourself a name in history; and posterity will stand amazed at the endurance, the courage, and the discipline which this siege has called forth in the remains of an army. Let us arrange a capitulation that will satisfy the demands of war, without disgracing humanity.”

Teesdale, at the age of twenty-three, was awarded the Legion d’ honeur and created an honorary C.B., in 1856. Lieutenant Teesdale was personally decorated with the Victoria Cross by Queen Victoria herself, in the quadrangle of Windsor, on the 21 November 1857. Thus it was that this youthful South African-born soldier became the first of his countrymen to receive the Victoria Cross, and not as is erroneously believed, Lieutenant (later Lieutenant-Colonel) J.P.H. Crowe (who was awarded the Victoria Cross in 1858, for his endeavours at Boursekee Chowkee, during the Indian Mutiny (1857-1858), while serving with the 75th Highland Regiment, the Ross Shire Buffs, the famous Seaforth Highlanders). Teesdale was also awarded the Turkish Medal for the Defence of Kars, in silver.

Teesdale was later appointed Extra Equerry to the Prince of Wales, in 1858, and aide-de-camp to H.M. the Queen in 1877, positions he held until his death. Promoted Colonel in October 1882, and Major-General in 1887, Teesdale was created a Knight Commander of St Michael and St George (K.C.M.G.) that same year. Teesdale retired on the 22 April 1892, and died on the 1 November 1893. Major-General Sir Christopher Teesdale, who lies buried in South Bersted, Sussex, was the first South African-born recipient of the Victoria Cross, and one of eight South African-born soldiers to be awarded the V.C. while members of the British Army.

James Henry Greathead: Progenitor of the London Underground Railway

James Henry Greathead was born at Grahamstown on the 6 August 1844. He was the son of the Hon. James Henry Greathead, M.L.C., an 1820 settler (although only one month old at the time, and himself the son of James Greathead, a surveyor by profession, and in charge of a party of settlers brought out on the Kennersley Castle ), who was a resident of Grahamstown. He attended St. Andrew’s College, in Grahamstown from 1855-1856, whereupon he proceeded to the Diocesan College (“Bishop’s”), Newlands, Cape Town and Westbourne College School in London. Greathead was then apprenticed as an engineering pupil to the famous British Engineer, Peter Barlow. Greathead served on the Midland railway, whereupon he then served as an assistant engineer on the Hammersmith Extension, and Resident Engineer at the Tower Subway, Thames (1868). This remarkable Grahamstown-man, and South African, invented the Greathead Shield for Underground Tunneling, and also pioneered the use of compressed air, as well as the Injector Hydrant for the extinguishing of fires (1878), and was the first to substitute cast-iron plates for mason work.

Greathead was also engaged on the Richmond Extension of the District Railway, and designed and carried out, as Engineer-in-Chief, the construction of the City and South London Electric Railway, utilizing his “Shield” and “Grouting Machine” (1891), as well as constructing the Overhead Electric Railway at the Liverpool Docks (1894). Greathead also initiated the following underground electric railways: Central London; Baker Street and Waterloo; Great Northern and City; Hampstead; St. Pancras and Charing Cross, and Waterloo and City. This gifted man also served as consulting engineer for the Metropolitan Outer Circle Line and Blackwall Tunnel, and was a member of the Council of the Institute of Civil Engineers, and also contributed various papers to Engineering, Iron and other periodicals.

The “Greathead Shield” was an adaptation of a tunneling shield invented by the legendary French-born British Engineer, Marc Brunel, used in the construction of the Rotherhithe Tunnel under the Thames River, which was rather large and unwieldy. Greathead’s shield was designed by James Greathead in 1869 and was used in the completion of the Tower Subway which ran under the Thames River, in propinquity to the Tower of London. The shield was circular in design and was advanced by screw jacks, the tunnel subsequently lined with cast-iron rings for support. Greathead’ s inventions, namely the “Greathead Shield”, the utilization of compressed air, and the cast-iron rings used to line the tunnels, were subsequently incorporated in tunnel construction, and are still a feature of engineering to this day.

Greathead died in London on the 21 October 1896. The London Illustrated, 7 November 1896, says of Greathead:” Hamlet thought that a man must build churches if he would have his memory outlive his lifetime, but Mr. James Henry Greathead, the well-known engineer, who died on Oct. 21, has left a name which seems likely to survive him fro some time by the less picturesque work of making subterranean tunnels.”

It goes on to say, “He developed to its highest pitch the system of tunneling which had been introduced by Brunel, who constructed the tunnel under the Thames at Wapping by means of a shield. Mr Greathead improved this shield and drove it forward by hydraulic rams, while he made such subaqueous work easier by the use of compressed air.The greatest feat in subaqueous boring that has ever been undertaken is the new tunnel under the Thames at Blackwell. It is a curious fact that the great engineer just lived to see the Blackwell tunnel brought to a successful completion and then died.One of his best known projects was the City and South London Railway, which has been successfully at work for five years; and the new Central London Railway and the similar enterprise on the Surrey side now in progress owe much to the ingenuity of his innovations.”

A statue was erected in Greathead’s honour, in London, in 1994, and stands next to the Royal Exchange. Although Greathead’s inventions and methods are still in use to this day, very few South Africans and southern Africans, are aware of his contribution to the railway infrastructure of the London Metropolitan area, and that their experience of the “London Underground” can in part be attributed to a fellow countryman! So when you next visit Grahamstown, the “City of Saints”, remember that this famous city, once a struggling frontier town, is also the birthplace of two illustrious South Africans’, who, although forgotten, were to emblazon their birthplace, and their land of birth, across the pages of British military and engineering History!

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