Rev. Samuel McCafferty BA. BD. 1932-1975
Compiled by Adam McCafferty © 2003

Sam was brought up in Torbush Square in Morningside, it was made up of four single story rows of coal miners houses, with about 8 houses in each row. These four rows forming a square. In the middle of the square was a structure with a slate roof, under which was enclosed by low square brick wall.

This structure was used as a midden, perhaps up until the late 1940's , and this was where the residents of Torbush Square would dump their household rubbish and ash from the coal fire place. I don't remember the midden having an access door, but I believe one of the local men had the job of emptying it on a regular bases, as they did with the cesspool, or septic tank. The square was still on a septic system of sewage disposal when demolished in the late 1950's . 

Rev. Samuel McCafferty BA. BD. 1932-1975

I don't remember the midden having an access door, but I believe one of the local men had the job of emptying it on a regular bases, as they did with the cesspool, or septic tank. The square was still on a septic system of sewage disposal when demolished in the late 1950's .

As you walked up Morningside Road from Newmains, over the bridge above the old railway line that ran from behind the Coltness Iron Works though to Cleland, when you crossed the bridge, you were met by a smell of gas from the gas works on the right, just before the Auchter Burn.

Morningside Road was lit by gas lights, as were many streets in Newmains till around 1949-50.

Many of the men from Morningside were coal miners, employed in local mines such as Kingshill 1 at Allanton, where Bill McCafferty was employed.

Bill and Nan McCafferty rented the bedroom in one of the miners houses on the top row of Torbush Square, where the first five of their children were born. In 1932, Samuel, or Samrny as he was known, the second of the five McCafferty children was born there.

A young Samuel McCafferty

As the family outgrew the Morningside accommodation, Bill and Nan McCafferty had to move into a house In order to give them more spacious surroundings which was at 29 AHanbank Street, in Alianton. It was from here that all the McCafferty children, (with the addition of two more boys born at Allanton), eventually became pupils of Allanton Primary School.

In 1939 world war 2 began, and it was soon after this, that Bill McCafferty left his Job in Kingshill coal mine and went off to be a soldier,

Sammy McCafferty soon settled into the school routine and became as Miss Gardener, (one of the teachers at AHanton Primary School) was later to describes him, "A bright, quiet, intelligent boy who took over the father roll, and worked for the local baker, delivering bread rolls around the village of Allanton before heading off to school".

At the age of twelve, Sammy left the Allanton Primary School and went on to Wishaw High School, where at the age of fourteen, he, against his parents wishes, left school to work in the grocery section of Dykehead and Shotts Co-operative.

Staff from the Stane Branch of the Dykehead and Shotts Co-op around 1946-7 Sammy McCafferty Is In top tight hand picture with girl, and centre front left below.

The stone wall In background, as backdrop, may have been behind the Stane branch Shop

With a family of four boys and three girls the house at Allanbank Street in Allanton soon became too small for the growing family, so in 1947 the McCafferty family moved to a three bedroom house in Eastwood Drive (the steel houses) down Westwood Road Newmains.

It was from this house that Sammy McCafferty spent his teenage years having joined the Coltness Iron works band, meeting with some friends at the Newmains Co-op youth club and dances in the Shotts welfare Hall.

At a dance in the Shotts Welfare Hall 1949

However his work, and Church interest, were still in Shotts and Allanton where he kept a strong connection with the Allanton Boys Brigade.

Officers and boys of the IstAHanton Company of the Boys Brigade with Jim Brownlee as Captain

Xl/7/7 Street Presbyterian Church complex during the construction of Brisbane's King George Square, in front of the Brisbane City Hall, photo from the City Hall Clock tower In the Iate1960's.

The McCafferty family returned to Scotland in July 1954 leaving Sammy behind, and soon after this he began his studies at the Presbyterian Churches Emanus! Collage, and later as a student atth© Queensland University in Brisbane to become a minister in the Presbyterian Church.

Sammy McCafferty on the steps leading to the Queensland University 1960's

Sam McCafferty as he was known to his Australian friends, spent the next ten years studying, and working as a student minister within the Presbyterian Church throughout the State of Queensland, and was ordained as a minister in the Redcliffe Peninsular suburban Church of Woody Point, just north of Brisbane in 1963.

Note.      There Is some thought that there could be a connection between WOODY POINT at Bonkle near Newmains, and WOODY POINT at Redcliffe in Queensland.

In 1960 Sam returned home to Scotland for a period where he worked as a teacher at Wishaw Academy, and attended Bonkle Church, whilst living in the family home at Auchter Avenue Newmains, before returning to complete his studies in Australia in 1961.

January 1964 Sam married a Brisbane girl Gwen, and in 1965 took up the position as minister in the far North Western Queensland copper mining town of Mt. Isa.   Again a mining town.

This appointment could not have come at a worse time as the town was in the midst of an unresolved miners strike.

Sarn was later to relate on a radio interview with Christian Radio throughout Australia his recollection of the situation at the time:-"We arrived in Mt. Isa to find the town in a state of industrial unrest. The unions, mining company, and arbitration court were locked in dispute". Sam McCafferty discussed the situation with the other ministers in the town "We were in a peculiar position" He said, "where we could not take sides in the dispute, and could only step in as arbitrators, but through the power of prayer and consultation, were instrumental in bringing the parties together and achieving an amiable conclusion to the strike".

The town ofMt Isa, was not only known for the copper mine but for it's isolation, out among the Spinifex grass, just under 1,000 Kilometres inland from Townsviile on the east coast.

?;.:'in mmm g.iflBaoapg1.-.:»., Cloncurry township with clumps of Splnlfexgrass In foreground showing the dry arid isolation of outback Australia

The Mt Isa parish area was large, stretching south to the old township of Cloncurry from which John Flynn conceived his dream of the mantle of safety with the flying doctor service for the people of the Australian outback, and a base for the Presbyterian's, "Australian inland Mission".

Sam McCafferty loved his work as a minister, and the people he associated with loved him for his outgoingness and community involvement wherever he went.

This could not be better shown by the audience he gathered, who would tune into the Scottish half hour program he compared each week from the local Mt. Isa radio station. This program was broadcast over a wide area to the north and central west of outback Queensland. Many of the requests he received actually came from the aborigine people on the outback sheep and cattle stations who would tune in.

1967 Sam flew down from Mt Isa to attend the Presbytery meetings of the church at Brisbane. Due to having to attend a late meeting whilst down at Presbytery he missed his flight back to Mt. Isa.

Not being one to waste time, he called into the health department Clinic to have a chest x-ray in Brisbane whilst he was waiting for the next plane home, which showed (unbeknown to him) he had an enlarged heart that required an urgent surgical operation.

Sam McCafferty went back to Mt, Isa, on the understanding he would return to Brisbane and have open heart surgery to replace a valve and artery within his heart. Open heart surgery at that time was not a common medical procedure, with the recovery rate much slower than that seen for the same procedure today.

God, as it would seem, moves in strange ways.

The Doctors at prince Charles hospital in Brisbane, decided that it would be in Sam's best interest to remain in Brisbane for an extended recovery period, and, as if by coincidence the historical Central City, Ann Street Presbyterian Church had been without full time a minister for quite some time.

Sam McCafferty was asked to fill this charge, and accepted the position which was (like his move to Mt. Isa) to prove a challenge in his ability as a minister and church leader, as there was a move a foot to unite the Presbyterian, Congregational, and Methodist churches into one church, which would be known as the "Uniting Church of Australia".

As true to the Scottish Kirk, and temperament,  there were many Presbyterians who did not want a bar of this uniting, and wanted to remain as Presbyterians.

They sought for a leader, and found it, among others, in Sam McCafferty.

Sam took up the challenge, with a Scottish will, that God's name should be honoured in the church, as did the covenanters before him, led the fight for the survival of the Presbyterian church as we know it today.

As a Rotarian, Sam McCafferty was an active member in the Brisbane Central City Rotary Club, and had a strong interest in his local community.

Soon after the 1974 flood that inundated Brisbane and the south east of Queensland, Sam McCafferty had planned to visit Wishaw in Scotland, on an exchange of pulpit between himself and a local minister, but this was not to be.

A short time after witnessing the final settlement of Church Unity, we find Sam McCafferty among a group of Presbyterians, who were to be known as, "The Continuing Presbyterian Church", worshiping as a separate identity to those of their group who had chosen to unite.

Sam McCafferty's work as a Minister of the Gospel and Church leader was brought to a sudden end when at the age of forty two on February 1975, Sam had a sudden heart attack and passed away.

On the 1 pm. Australian National News Broadcast, they announced , "The Reverent Samuel McCafferty Minister of Brisbane's Historical Ann Street Presbyterian Church has died, leaving a wife and four children".

To everything and every person there is a place, and a time, that God has planned for each one of us. Just after 12 noon on that February afternoon God chose to close the chapter on the life off Samuel McGafferty BA. BD.

Sam McCafferty's popularity both in church and community life, had been such, that at his funeral in the Ann Street church, there were so many people, that it was filled to overflowing, and was shown on the 6pm. TV news of the day.

Compiled by Adam McCafferty © 2003

Dykehead &Shotts Co-op   Stane Branch Staff 1940's Sam McCafferty F/L Denny McCue in there to

Dykehead & Shotts Co-op Van and customers. Boy in both pictures somewhere in Shotts

Co-op van again same boy,   Sam McCafferty and other staff member (Who) somewhere in Shotts Sam McCafferty later became Rev. Sam McCafferty of the Ann Street Presbyterian Church in Brisbane 1969 till his death in 1974

Denny McCue, from Allanton was brother to Bill McCue the Scottish Singer, Denny and Sam Worked Together at the Co-op Stane branch in the 1940's

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