A man who is helping the development of the new South Africa has discovered he is treading in the footsteps of his grandfather.

Brian McAndrew, 60, a former deputy chief executive of Bradford Council, who runs his own business development company from Skipton, was in Mafeking this year helping the South African General Election.

A century before, his grandfather Andrew Byrne was a 21-year-old soldier in the British army at the famous Relief of Mafeking during the Boer War.

Mr Byrne, who later fought in the First World War and was a police sergeant in Ilkley, Otley and Queensbury, had also served in other actions - in the Orange Free state and in Transvaal.

In 1994, Mr McAndrew, of Park Wood Close, Skipton, worked in the Orange Free State in the first free elections and was invited back in 1996 to help with the local government elections in the Transvaal.

"I only realised my grandfather had also been in the Orange Free State and in Transki when I was later shown the bars to his South African medal by my cousin.

"It was a strange coincidence - rather amazing - that I had been treading in his footsteps," said Mr McAndrew, a former pupil of St Bedes Grammar School in Heaton, who will travel back to South Africa in January.

His role will be to help the authorities in Eastern Cape, Northern Province and Kwa-Zulu Natal develop public services and fight poverty, a job which is expected to take two years to complete.

But he will be home every three months to see his wife Kathleen, six children and ten grandchildren.

Mr McAndrew joined Bradford Council in 1974 and became deputy chief executive in 1985. He left two years later to become chief executive in Enfield, London, before setting up his own consultancy business in 1992.

He has also worked in Pakistan, Estonia and Ukraine, where he helped the government develop licensing and regulating authorities for areas like nuclear power and food hygiene.

l The relief of Mafeking took place in May 1900 during the war between the British and the Boers in South Africa. The town was saved after a 217-day siege by the Boers, who at one time had 10,000 men surrounding it.

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