Aubrey's history

The Aubrey Metelerkamp Bridge.

This bridge spans the Umniati River near Que Que, close to the first major power station built in 1936 by the Electricity Supply Commission in Southern Rhodesia, of which Aubrey was the founding Chairman. The bridge was opened in 1958 and named after Aubrey, following pressure from his old friend, Lex de Beer and others in Que Que, that this was a fitting tribute. His wife Marjorie & son David attended the opening ceremony, together with two of his brothers, Ben & Rod who came up by car from South Africa with his niece, Marion, & her husband Colin Payne. Audrey had to stay behind to look after Kenneth and Graham. When the family returned to Salisbury, Audrey was introduced to pukka Metelerkamp family dobbling (card games). This commenced immediately breakfast was cleared away and sometimes continued on to lunchtime! Lex de Beer had also been in the RFC, but ahead of Aubrey, and had flown the early old pusher bombers in the first days of that war, so they had a long association and were always great friends.

Rod was the joker in the pack and ribbed everyone unmercifully. He even told Gardie (his sister –in-law) that if she didn’t stop giving instructions from the back seat, she could get out and walk! She stopped. He had brought his Managing Director’s wife up to Rhodesia in the car with them all. She also had been prone to give instructions from the back seat and in the middle of the Nuanetsi Ranch, which was one of the largest in the world at that time, was also told she could keep quiet or get out and walk!

Colin Payne, Marion’s husband, was rather reserved and a bit quiet. Rod didn’t spare him and referred to him all the time as “my learned Council”. This Colin accepted in good spirit. The conversation was lively and spirited and Audrey thoroughly enjoyed her first introduction to the Metelerkamp family as a group. It was also a reminder to David of the fun and fellowship that he had enjoyed as a boy at the family home at “Dundry” in Fish Hoek when he was at school at Bishops.

Colin and Marion Payne had came from Johannesburg. Rod was based in Vereeniging and Ben was farming at Bandolierkop.

A Detailed History of Aubrey Rawstorne Metelerkamp

Born Kimberly 2nd March 1896.

Died Selukwe 20th October 1938

His father (F.W.) was a part owner, with J.H.Helman, of the Craven Hotel in 1902. After the relief of Kimberly, during the Boer War, the family moved to the Cape and rented a cottage on the rocks near Kalk Bay Harbour. Marion Artz has a painting of this cottage and Audrey Metelerkamp has painted a copy. The cottage was probably the beach house of John X. Merriman, but it was later demolished. (Waves used to come in the front door).

Aubrey, aged 9, was sent to Bishops from 1905 to 1908 at which time, presumably, F.W. moved the family to the Premier Mine (Cullinan). He was sent to Pretoria Boys High for the rest of his school career and started as an apprentice electrician on the Premier Mine in 1912 aged 16.

In 1914, when the rebellion started, he joined van Deventer’s Regiment and spent some six months chasing rebels around the Transvaal. He had to supply his own uniform and rifle, but the horse was supplied. His commanding Officer was Roly Cullinan, who criticised him when he had difficulty mounting his horse. He replied

”come and ride the bloody horse yourself”. I am not sure of this, but seem to remember hearing that Roly did try and was throw off as well, but perhaps this is apocryphal!

He was then sent to chase the rebels in the German West campaign. He returned to the Mine for a short while before re-enlisting for service in German East, which was a very unpleasant exercise. It was here that he saw aeroplanes flying overhead and decided that this was a much better way of fighting a war.

On his return, he was approached by Major Miller, who was keen to recruit men to join the RFC in Egypt who, under Gen. Allenby, were fighting the Turks. He decided however to join the RFC in the UK and borrowed 50 pounds from his father to pay the passage money. He arrived in the UK in about November 1917. There is a post card addressed to him at Shoreham Aerodrome, where he was stationed, and dated 20th March 1918. This states that the writer, Ashley B. Cook helped Aubrey out of his plane when he crash landed a few yards from him on the beach at Worthing near the breakwater.

He trained with a crowd of Americans who had volunteered for service with the RFC, and David has a dairy written by one of these men, who did not survive the war. It was published by a surviving friend and is called “The Diary of an Unknown Aviator”. Aubrey knew all these men intimately and the book gives a good idea of what the training was like—pretty scary stuff!

He had a number of crashes-three in all we think. There are quite a few photos of crashed aeroplanes, but we are not sure which ones he was involved in. There is a post card addressed to him at Shoreham Aerodrome where he was stationed, and dated 20th March 1918. This states that the writer, Ashley B. Cook helped Aubrey out of his plane when he crash landed a few yards from him on the beach at Worthing near the breakwater. There is also one photo of him, in flying kit, standing next to a crashed plane, which we have assumed was his first, but whether he was actually the pilot is not certain. His legs were finally damaged in one crash, so badly that one had to be amputated in the UK and he had the other done on his return to South Africa because it gave him so much trouble.

He returned to the Mine to complete his apprenticeship and obtain his mining certificates. He also commenced working to pass the exams for membership of the Institution of Electrical Engineers in the UK. This was in 1920 and he was eventually accepted as an Associate Member (AMIEE) in 1935.

It was at this time that he met Marjorie Mortimer who was brought to the Mine by his eldest sister, Francis, a great friend of Marjorie’s eldest sister, Murie. This crowd all went to Isipingo together on holiday in 1921 and Aubrey and Marjorie were married on the 12th December 1923. They then lived on the Mine and David was born there on 14th August 1926.

By this time there was doubt about how long the Premier Mine could continue operating and Aubrey managed to get a post as Town Electrical Engineer at Brandfort in 1927. He was fortunate that the Consulting Electrical Engineer to the Mine, Val Davies, was impressed by his ability and his recommendations were largely responsible for Aubrey’s subsequent rapid advancement. After about 22 months in Brandfort he was appointed to Uitenhage in 1929 where he only stayed 8 months before accepting the job in Salisbury in 1930. He stayed 4 years there, during which time the new power station was built and commissioned. Bulawayo was ready to build a new power station as well, and so in 1934 he moved there as Town Electrical Engineer for a further 2 years at a lower salary to gain more experience.

During all the time he was involved in Rhodesia he had always advocated that the Municipalities should supply power outside the town boundaries. In Salisbury one rural line was successfully installed to feed the Mazoe area mines. War was looming on the horizon and the Government was concerned about the ability of the small mine workers to continue mining gold if their fuel supplies were interrupted. The country had plenty of coal and Aubrey was asked to produce a paper on supplying electricity to rural areas. He amplified the work he had already done for the municipalities and wrote the report which was accepted be the Cabinet. He was then asked to form the new Electricity Supply Commission and appointed as the first Chairman. This all happened in 1936 and the ESC was a thriving organization at the time of his death in a plane crash near Selukwe on 20th October 1938. He and his Deputy together with others were flying to Selukwe to inspect a new power station site when the pilot ran into heavy mist. The pilot had, with great skill, managed to put the plane down on an emergency landing strip, but the plane hit a ditch, which had been dug across the strip, and it disintegrated. All on board were killed instantly.

He attracted staff for the ESC from all over South Africa and they were all very enthusiastic about the job they were doing for Rhodesia. These men really appreciated “Mr Met”, as he was known and worked wonders in a short while to get the ESC up and running. Not many of them stayed with the ESC for very long after his death as the new administration wanted university trained employees and most of these men had trained on the job like Aubrey. However a few did stay on and when Kenneth was given a bursary by the ESC, many years later, he was welcomed very kindly!

There are many anecdotes about his life. People seldom realized, until they were told, that he had two artificial legs. He refused to have his Insurance Policies show that he had disabilities. He had been a keen shot and continued to take part in Bisley Shoots whenever he could. He played bowls, golf and cricket, where he kept wicket and used a runner when batting. On one occasion, at an OD/OA cricket match in Salisbury, he amused the crowd by parking his car at square leg.

The ESC offices were, at first, on the second floor of a building with no lift, but he managed the stairs without complaint. However, an artisan, who was working on the stairs and who purposely tried to trip him up, found himself hanging over the stairwell with the warning “Try that again and I’ll drop you next time.” So he had not lost any of his strength over the years and he could also, obviously, act very definitely and decisively when it was necessary.

Although he was only 12 at the time of his father’s death, David remembers him as very tolerant, even-tempered and full of fun. Rod, his youngest brother, however always claimed that Aubrey ruled the roost, not only with his own family but even with the whole extended family.

David remembers going to inspect the site for the new power station at the Umniati River. They had to park some distance from the railway bridge, walk to the bridge and then cross it. This involved walking on the sleepers which was difficult, as there was no walkway. It was still quite far to get to the works site above the riverbank beyond. He didn’t seem to think anything of it and was surprised that David, aged 10, was tired.

He was always keen to get out in the country and didn’t mind sleeping rough if they were camping. He attended a number of shooting trips in the low veld, organized by Val Davies and was an accomplished shot. On one occasion, when impala were jumping over the road in front of the car he asked David for the single shot .22 Remington to be passed to him. He fired from the car at one buck high in the air as it passed over. David was then told to go and fetch it beyond the bush and to his astonishment (and some distress) found the dead animal shot through the shoulder.

He took Marjorie to dances in a party and enjoyed having people around him. He had a great sense of humour and many a story was told about him after his death—some of them quite ribald! He was certainly not forgotten by anyone that had ever known him as David found out when he returned to Rhodesia after the war (1950).

Prepared by his son David Metelerkamp from various sources-9th February 2009