The Monkey Who Worked As an ‘Official’ Railway Signalman for 9 Years
By: Shashwath Sriram
Tags: Animals, Disability, Reading, Facts, History

The Monkey Who Worked As an ‘Official’ Railway Signalman for 9 Years

Meet Jack, the Alcoholic Signalman

A picture of Jack handling levers and James monitoring him. Wikimedia

“It is one of the perfect days of the 1880s to go out for shopping” might have been the thought of James Edwin Wide, a railway signalman from South Africa, who had lost both of his legs due to an unfortunate accident.

He was desperately in need of personal assistance and sure, it was one of the best days of his life, as he observed a chacma baboon driving an oxcart around the populated African market. James was so impressed by the baboon’s skills and thought that the little animal could make his life much easier with proper training.

He approached the owner to make a deal. After a tough negotiation, he got the Baboon but there was a catch: The baboon would not obey his master’s orders unless he was bribed with alcohol. Attaboy!

James named the baboon Jack and trained the little primate to help him with the house chores and cleaning. He also trained Jack to push him to and from his work spot using a trolley.

Being a railway signalman, James was in charge of ensuring that the trains traveling on Cape Town and Port Elizabeth Mainline railroad were on schedule and traveled on proper tracks but, James could not perform his duties proficiently due to his disability.

The nature of work for James was as follows: An incoming train would notify the signalman with a particular number of whistles; the signalman should listen to that and change the track by pulling the lever accordingly.

Jack pushing James on a trolley.

Initially, James trained Jack by assigning a number to each of the levers to pull, by showing the number with his fingers. Later, Jack, being the smart baboon he was, started to recognize the pattern associated with the count of whistles tooted from the trains and worked accordingly even without any guidance from James.

Not limited only to operating signals, Jack was also in charge of the coal yards and the station’s garden.

Things didn’t quite go well at one point in time. One fine day, a passenger traveling through that route noticed the signalman was in fact less of a human and more of a baboon. Well, Jack might have forgotten to wear his human skin that day.

He complained about it to the railway officers. The railway officers were aware of the personal assistant that James had but never expected it to be a baboon. Soon, an inquiry was conducted and the higher officials considered to fire James (and effectively Jack) from the job. James pleaded them to test Jack’s abilities and upon witnessing the intelligence of that little primate, the railway officials were astonished and made him an official employee with a daily salary of 20 cents and a half bottle of beer weekly.

Jack continued to work as a railway signalman for 9 years until he died because of Tuberculosis in 1890. It is also fascinating to know that during his entire stint of 9 years, Jack had never committed a single mistake which is a remarkable feat considering that he was always intoxicated with alcohol (and yes, a monkey!).