Alistair Duncan "Mac" Beggs
Royal Navy HMS Cornwall
from:Beggs Road, Pinetown, Natal, South Africa
Alistair Beggs was one of six brothers from Pinetown, Natal, South Africa who fought in WW II. Four brothers were in the Natal Mounted Rifles which became the 1st South African Infantry Division and later the 6th South African Armoured Division, Alistair Duncan Beggs and his brother Louis Raymond Beggs served in the Royal Navy. The six brothers were featured in a local paper, ironically on the very day one year before the tragic attack on HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire.
Alistair served on HMS Cornwall and, although badly burned on his back by burning oil whilst in the sea, survived the attack by the Japanese on 5th of April 1942. He was born in Pinetown, South Africa on 19th of January 1918 and died in Pinetown in 1987. He was a popular, charismatic man. Sadly, his two children, Gladstone and Iona, were severely disabled but he was loved by the next generation who knew him as Uncle Mackie, and Tarzan. Uncle Mackie was to suffer again later in life when he was attacked on his farm and badly beaten, but again he survived.
