Alfred Louis Raison, mechanical engineer, was the son of
Pierre Raison and his wife Louise. He came to South Africa to fight in the
Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) on the Boer side, and remained in this country for
the rest of his life. After the war he owned a bicycle repair business in
Zeerust. There, in 1910, he skillfully repaired the Ford automobile belonging to
Mr Cecil J.V. Bredell, a prominent timber merchant of Johannesburg, which had
broken down in the town. At this time he was a qualified mechanical engineer.
That same year he moved to Johannesburg to work as foreman at R. and T.
Burgess, Motor Engineers. Soon thereafter Bredell commissioned him to build an
aeroplane that would be powered by a British JAP V aeroplane engine that
Bredell had already obtained. Raison was guided in this enterprise by
instructions received from his brother, who worked as a designer at the Louis
Bleriot aircraft factory in France. He designed and manufactured all the
necessary parts and made a propeller of walnut, and within three months produced
a Bleriot type single-decker aeroplane, based on the design that Bleriot used
to fly across the English Channel, but that was substantially lighter than the
original, with a wingspan of nine metres. Bredell undertook the first
successful flight in this plane at Highlands North, Johannesburg, on 30 April
1911, though he was in the air for a distance of only some 40 metres at a time.
The plane was later flown by M.L. Webster, but it is not known what became of
it. Raison is recognised as the first person to build a successful local powered
aeroplane, but made no further contributions to aeronautical engineering.
Raison and a friend later established an engineering firm,
Raison and Massi, at Booysens, Johannesburg. After his retirement he settled on
the farm Buffelskloof in the Naboomspruit (now Mookgophong) district in
Limpopo. He was married to Beatrice Isabel, born Hargreaves Smith, with whom he
had two sons.
