After surviving World War II and even making it out alive when the HMS Ark Royal sank to the bottom of the ocean in 1941, James Pledger, a well-known maker and repairer of violins in Nelson Mandela Bay, turns 100 years old on April 15.
Jim, as he is more commonly known, was born in a little village called Barkway, in rural Hertfordshire, England, on April 15, 1921.
After the war ended and he was sent to a military hospital in South Africa for treatment of a misdiagnosis of TB, he met and fell in love with a nurse at the hospital, Marie Jeppe.
Jim stayed in South Africa to marry Jeppe in early 1949 and together, they established the Pledger family in South Africa by having three sons: David (71) and Julian (68) who still reside in Nelson Mandela Bay and 66-year-old John, who lives in the UK. He is now also the proud patriarch of eight grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
His wife passed away from cancer at the age of 64.
When he was 16 years old, Jim and his brother, Alec, who was a year older, started an apprenticeship at Halton RAF station as aircraft mechanics, after working as gardeners at a local estate.
According to his eldest son, David, his dad and uncle were only two years into their three-year apprenticeship when World War II broke out.
“They survived a few German bombing raids on the station and completed their apprenticeship, after which Jim was posted to 13th maintenance unit near Bedford where they worked frantically to restore battle-damaged aircraft,” David explained.
He mentioned that, in early October 1941, Jim was posted to Abbotsinch (now Glasgow airport) to dismantle 37 Hawker Hurricanes that had been flown to Scotland to ultimately be used for the defence of the island of Malta.
“At this stage, Jim and his team had become known as Hurricane airframe specialists and worked almost exclusively on this aircraft type. Once the aircraft were dismantled and boxed, they were loaded onto a ship for transport to Gibraltar.
Upon returning to Gibraltar on the HMS Ark Royal, after sailing close to Malta to allow the reassembled Hurricanes to fly from the carrier to Malta air base, the HMS Ark Royal was struck amidships by a torpedo, killing one seaman.
“Jim said that the whole ship shook violently and started to list on the starboard side immediately.
“All ship communications were also cut off, but they were shortly ordered to start throwing any wood or material that would float, overboard to be used as flotation in the case of crew ending up in the sea.”
After Jim and the crew made it out safely and the ship eventually sank, he was given seven days’ compassionate leave and went back to his family in England. By the end of the seven days’ leave, he was posted to RAF Mauripur airbase, just outside Karachi, where he worked until a routine X-ray resulted in a misdiagnosis of TB, leading him to meeting his future wife and establishing a family in South Africa.
Jim also started a hobby that turned into a great post-retirement occupation. In his mid-50s, having played the violin as an instrument, he decided to try his hand at making one of these instruments himself.
“By the time he had retired at the age of 66, he had made a few violins and was well known to the musical fraternity of Nelson Mandela Bay and Grahamstown (Makhanda) as a restorer of violins, cellos and the occasional double base.
“He continued making violins, including bows and all the individual parts for many years. He completed his last job of restoring a cello at the age of 96 after which he donated all his self-made tools to a workshop that operates under the auspices of the Eastern Cape Philharmonic Orchestra in Bird Street,” David said.
He explained that despite having hip problems, making walking difficult, his dad is a very happy person. “In the past 10 years he had a few mini-strokes.
“This did not affect his long term health, but it meant that he needed high care, so he moved to Meerzicht, a high care centre affiliated to the Lake Farm Centre, fortunately, about 300m from where he lived with us on our small holding in Kragga Kamma.
“Other than that, he is in excellent health,” David said.
When asked what the secret is to a long life, Jim answered: “Exercising as much as possible, having strong spiritual beliefs, active interests and reading a lot.”
