Full name: John Winchester Anderson

Born: Cape Town, 31 December 1881

Deceased: Kalk Bay, Cape Town, 2 November 1953

Clubs: Hamiltons, Pirates

Province: Western Province, Transvaal

International career: 1903: 1 test

Captain James Anderson was a seafaring man, whose ships ran to the Far East to bring tea and rice to the Cape. One of them, Africa Star, was wrecked off Cape Point. A friend of his was James Murison, Donald Currie’s agent in the Cape for the Castle Line. Murison was a man of great stature at the Cape, a member of the Legislative Assembly, whose house in the Gardens is now the Helmsley Hotel. Like many of the shipping people at the Cape, James Anderson was a Scot. He owned an estate, Alexander Place, near where Mouille Point Lighthouse now stands. The following inscription appeared on his tombstone: The storms of life are over and he is anchored on the eternal shore.

Jock Anderson was a mine-owner (Pilgrims Rest and Sabie), hotel owner (Winchester Mansions -which is named after him – on the beachfront in Sea Point), owner of a liquor business, and a hotel proprietor (Standard Hotel, Cape Town). He joined Hamiltons in 1901 and left in 1906 for the Transvaal. He joined Hamiltons again in 1913 when he returned to Cape Town. According to his grandson, Jock Sparks, he was asked to go on the 1906 tour, but his wife would not let him go. His wife’s family were gunsmiths. His daughter Edythe was the first lady member of the Pirates RFC in Johannesburg.