Pieter Daniel Kearney

Pieter was born near Elliot in the Eastern Cape Province in about 1898. His father, William, was born in the Eastern Cape and was the son of an Catholic Irish immigrant, John Charles Kearney. His mother, Margaretha Roux, was from a Protestant Huguenot / Dutch / Afrikaans family whose ancestry traced back to the original European settlers in the Cape Colony. Pieter was one of the older children of William and Margaretha; he had two brothers, William and Richard and sisters named Jacoba (Madge), Mary, Nancy and Joey.

Pieter's father, Michael had children relatively late in life as Pieter was born when his father was about 45 years old. The family settled on a farm named Glen Almond, which is about half way between the towns of Barkly East and Lady Grey. The children received no schooling and had to work on the farm looking after the cattle. When Pieter was about 16 or 17 years old, worked on the railway line that was being constructed past their farm at the time and then joined the 3rd South African Mounted Rifles (S.A.M.R) 16 Jun 1917 and was deployed in German East Africa.

He returned to South Africa for recoupment in 1918 after contracting malaria and, and upon his return, discovered that his father had followed him from the Eastern Cape to Durban and had passed away at ____. In 1919 he was discharged from the army and he joined the South African Police on 1 April 1920, serving in the following locations:

• Pietermaritzburg: From 16 May1917 to June 1917
• Bulwer: From July 1917 to 1919
• Impendhle: August 1917
• Pietermaritzburg: From 1919 to 21 February 1924
• Empangeni: From 22 February 1924 to 31 October 1926

During his period of service in Durban between 1 November 1926 and 1 May 1941, he met Lucretia (Bunny) Smith, an immigrant from Wales and married her on ____ 1947. Lucretia already had a daughter from a previous relationship, Molly (Ena) who was __ years old at the time of their marraige. Pieter and Bunny had a son, Glyn, in 1935; and after the 2nd World War broke out, he was transferred to Port Shepstone 2 May1941, where he remained until 29 September 1945

After returning from Port Shepstone, Pieter was based at Greenwood Park, Durban, where he served as a First Class Detective Sergeant for the remainder of his service. During this time, he investigated 443 reported murders, solved 226, found 37 to be false and, leaving 180 remained unsolved. In addition to the murders he also investigated a wide variety of other crimes including house breaking, rape, fraud and assault to harm. He received commendations from the Commissioner of Police: G.O. 25/1922 and F.O.G 37/1935

One of his last duties as a policeman was to persuade the remaining African inhabitants of Cato Manor to relocate to Kwa Mashu. At the time, the South African government was enforcing its Apartheid policy and Cato Manor was one of the areas in which it had deemed it illegal for African people to live in. Since 1958, it had been forcing residents out by demolishing their shacks and this had led to a great deal of conflict which culminated in nine policemen being brutally murdered. Pieter subsequently met with the leaders of the remaining families and persuaded them to love peacefully.

A number of research works have subsequently speculated about how the residents of Cato Manor changed their attitudes in 1961. DeWet & Fox speculate that there are two possible reasons: They say the official view was that residents were aware that they were leaving crowded, unhealthy slum areas, but say that a more plausible reason was that they realised resettlement was inevitable and that it was in their interest to join the queue for new housing as soon as possible. Irrespective, it is likely that Pieter was instrumental in conveying this understanding to them.

Between 1945 and 1961, when Pieter retired, his son Glyn completed his schooling at Glenwood High School, studied Pharmacy at Natal Technicon and spent a couple if years in London working as a Pharmacist. In 19?? he also bought a piece of land at Shongweni, where he and Glyn .....<need some help>. During His wife, Bunny (Lucretia) did ,....<more help>. Pieter's retirement coincided with Glyn returning Europe, Lucretia passing away from cancer, and Glyn's subsequent marraige to Myrtle Porrill in 1962.

In 196?? Pieter remarried and in 1972, moved to XXX Jan Smuts Avenue, Winston Park in Gillitts to be nearer his son, Glyn and his family who had moved there in 1970. At the time, Glyn and his family lived at 18 Van Riebeeck Road. References

De Wet, C.J, Fox R.C. (2001) Transforming Settlement in South Africa, Edinburgh University Press