A5 original black and white photo assumed to be of Prefects and Monitors - no names given. Please see in Jubilee Book "A Courageous Journey" on cover

Interview with Andrew Kirkland – 2005
Andrew came to St David’s from Bryandale Primary in 2000, he was accompanied by three other boys
including Sean Howell; Curtis Montgomery. He had to jockey for position amongst the majority of boys who
had graduated from the prep school and who already knew each other, however he made friends quite
quickly.
The Glenmore camp was a big introduction for him, helping him to settle down into the school and Osmond
house.
He found it to be very different from a co-ed school, with a lot more direction and team building and with
hindsight the camp was pretty good.
The main reason he wanted to attend St David’s was because of the sport and his keen interest in cricket,
having played provincial cricket at primary school level. St David’s had a more personal side to its sporting
activities. Andrew played A team cricket all the way through high school. He was always the smallest boy in
the team and at the age of 15 and 16 he struggled. In another school Andrew believes he wouldn’t have
had the same opportunities. After grade 9, Andrew went through a slump in his cricket then picked up again
and did well. He was the top run scorer in the 2004 Beckwith week and subsequently got selected for the
U17A Gauteng team. He followed that up with the second leading run scorer in the 2-05 Beckwith week
and selected for the Gauteng U19B.
Highlights were the Australian Tour in 2003, when he was in grade 10 playing in the Marist Schools festival
in Bunbury in Perth, winning every game and beating St Josephs, the top Marist cricket school in Australia.
In the final game they played against St Gregory’s and lost by 1 run. The boys on the tour became very
close and still keep in touch. The highlight was winning the Beckwith week as leading run scorer and
achieving his specific honours for cricket in grade 11.
Andrew played B team rugby in grade 8, but it wasn’t the sport for him and in grade 9 he made the change
to hockey and played 1st team from grade 10. Through hockey he became friends with Kelsey Stewart and
Bryce Wray and attended provincial training camps in 2004. Alex Gitlin was very involved with the hockey
and was a good but very tough coach culminating in a successful Malaysian hockey tour and peaking at the
independent schools tournament at St Andrews in Grahamstown for their centenary anniversary where St
David’s won all their games. Andrew remains friends with Alex today.
Andrew was awarded an honours blazer, full colours for cricket and hockey, winning cricketer of the year in
2004 and 2005 and was sportsman of the year in 2005.
Andrew recalls his matric dance as being a bit of a disaster, he didn’t get the date he wanted and he was in
charge of the limo’s for the evening. They got there alright but the limo didn’t come to fetch them until the
early hours of the morning so they missed the after party.
Academically Andrew did alright but sport took first place and only when he reached varsity did he realise
what studying was all about.
The teachers he remembers most are Mr R Smith, housemaster and English –also taught the boys life
lessons; Mrs D. King another excellent English teacher; Mr D. Smith – Geography; Simon Holderness -
Maths, he organised the Malaysian hockey tour in 2004 and Mr Gitlin – hockey. Paul Edey was the most
well respected headmaster and an incredible guy, when he spoke the boys listened.
After matriculating, Andrew acquired enough points to be accepted to study for a BSc Construction and
BSc Hons at Wits University. Andrew also played cricket at Wits and originally wanted to play cricket for
Hampshire, England but there were many delays and he ended up studying at Wits for 5 years which
turned out to be better for him in the long run. During his first year there he felt he had a definite advantage
coming from St David’s as much of the work in the first year was covered, especially Maths that he had
done before. He did well in his thesis coming first. It was the first academic prize he had ever won and his
father teased him about it. It was quite hard going through university as he was also working for his father.
Andrew was involved with the organisation of old boys versus Ist team cricket eleven in August this year
with the old boys the victors. He also participated in the One Touch soccer events for the past two years.
Andrew currently works in the family business Spiral Engineering, specialising in structural steel
architectural steel and spiral staircases, winning the steel award for the Malapa Beetle Project in the Cradle
of Humankind in 2014 in conjunction with Wits University. Andrew is project manager having graduated
from small accounts to larger ones. He was involved with numerous steel projects such as Soccer City,
Wits building rejuvenation, Standard Bank, Rosebank but unfortunately, with the labour problems
experienced of late the company has been forced to limit their projects. The company is involved with
community projects such as the Cosmo City Creche, the Malapa Beetle Project in the Cradle of
Humankind.
Andrew is a Member of MOBS and any son of his would definitely come to St David’s.
JE October 2014

Interview with Anthony Reilly – board of governors 1997 – 2003
Terence Wilkinson the then chairman of the board of governors brought Tony onto the board in 1997. Tony
is Catholic, was educated at CBC, Kimberly and his son was a pupil in the prep school at the time. Terence
was also instrumental in finding Paul Edey for the position of Head master.
At the time the development plan was underway which involved the building of the Champagnat hall and
library with Kevin Brewer being the genius behind that project. They were completed on time and within
budget.
Tony was reluctantly appointed chairman of the board in 2001, Tony had just been promoted at Lonmin to
the position of director of corporate affairs which took up a lot of his time and he couldn’t get so involved
with St David’s. However he attended all the meetings and did what was required of him but Paul Edey and
his team were left very much to get on with it. The meetings of the board were often concerned with
financial issues, bad debtors, the building of the hall, high school pavilion; extensions to the prep school
and the prep and high school libraries, the latter however were fortunately funded by an anonymous donor.
During his tenure, Tony recalled the renewal of the lease of the land the school is on, when the rental had
been increased substantially by Rome. The Marist ethos has always had an emphasis on the poor and
needy communities and St David’s had unfortunately morphed into an exclusive enclave and now there is
an ongoing major issue of balance.
Tony asked Robin Smith to join the board in 2001 to be involved with fundraising and he is still active but
now with the Foundation. During Tony’s term on the board, the educational trust was formed which was the
basis of the current Foundation. In the early days the bursary boys were either indigent, good scholars or
good sportsmen and unfortunately there was a great deal of resentment that their school fees were
subsidised by a portion of the whole school fees. Many parents struggled financially to keep their boys at St
David’s and questioned why part of the school fees was used in this way. It became a major issue but now
it is no longer the case with the Foundation and Marist old boys paying the fees for the bursary boys. The
Foundation has made this more professional.
JLE March 2015

Interview with Aubrey Chalmers – 1955
Aubrey’s grandfather attended MBC in Victoria, Australia in the late 1800’s and his father was a pupil at
MBC, Koch Street and his uncle was head boy of Marist Brothers Observatory in 1928.
Aubrey came to St David’s in 1949 in standard 4, his first teacher was Mrs Kempster and the headmaster
was Brother Edwin. Other brothers that he remembers who were at the school at the time were Bothers
Ernest, Benedict, Aquinas (head of Koch Street, “Bulldog”), Alban, Matthew, Pius, Br Gerald and Br Ralph
who taught Afrikaans was a brilliant rugby coach and was nicknamed “BeeGee”. Another brother who
taught Latin and Maths was nicknamed “Caesar”.
Br Edwin was a great disciplinarian but the boys loved and respected him – the atmosphere grew very quiet
when he was around and you could hear a pin drop. Aubrey respected Br Edwin and found him to be
straight forward. Although he was a sick man he had a good sense of humour and kept good control of the
school.
Aubrey remembered when he received six of the best after an incident in the dining room during grace with
the usual competition to gain possession of the milk jug from another boy. Aubrey ended up suddenly
holding the jug as the other boy released his hold and the jug’s contents shot over his shoulder and Br
Benedict ended up totally white.
On his first day the boys were up at 6.00am, shower, breakfast followed by line up and they finished school
work by 2.45pm, had tea went to the dorms and changed into sports gear.
There were 4 dormitories accommodating 44 boys with a brother responsible for each dorm. There were
boys from all over including Mozambique, Zambia, Rhodesia and Angola. On Friday nights matron Mrs
Knight randomly selected boys for a dose of castor oil
Once the boys were playing mini cricket in the dorm with Br Alban using a golf ball which involved breaking
a window and a hapless, rather studious boy who read a lot ended up taking the blame.
Aubrey was a swimmer, age group champion and was a member of Malvern Swimming Club. He swam for
the Transvaal after leaving school. In athletics, Aubrey was mainly a hurdler, represented the school and
was champion until U15. Aubrey also played rugby. As a boarder the boys did everything. Because of the
school’s low numbers the school only had A and B teams. The rugby team played Obs, Jeppe, KES, CBC
Boksburg, Springs and Germiston Boys High, Forest High and Parktown Boys. Obs and Inanda combined
to swim in the high school galas at Ellis park and always came second with KES being the top school.
There were few tours in those days and in 1955 SACS came up from Cape Town with the 1st XV rugby
team with boys from their 6th form – who were already shaving!
Specific events that Aubrey remembers are the day Marcellin Champagnat was beatified, a special
occasion and Aubrey still has the key ring commemorating the day; beating KES at rugby, the annual
triangular with Germiston Boys High, Springs Boys High and Marist Brothers Inanda.
Aubrey was in the school choir and participated in “HMS Pinafore” directed by Mr Drummond-Bell.
Aubrey’s class of 24 was the largest matric class and the school’s total numbers were around 200 boys. In
a “Spotlight on the matrics of ‘55”, Aubrey was elected the Best Storyteller.
Boys at school with him were Graeme Talbot, Errol Goeller, Andrew Oakes, Richard Rowan Irwin (who
gained the highest marks in law that Wits University had ever seen), Robin Manners, Brunton was head
boy and another boy Michael Finger was nicknamed “Tom Thumb”.
Aubrey was never unhappy and enjoyed his schooldays it was a lovely environment to be in with a good
upbringing. Aubrey was upset when Br Urban died and another sad incident was when a young pupil
Barrenbrugg died in a motor accident outside the school.
Aubrey wasn’t awarded colours mainly because of the polio outbreak and sporting events were cancelled.
Ian Kirley who was also awarded the provincial blazer was head boy for two years – in 1952 colours were
taken away and several boys were demoted. Br Edwin appointed Kirley in standard 9, there was a big
shake up in the school.
In his matric year Aubrey had decided to become a brother but during the course of the year he decided
against it and went instead to Wits University and studied for a Higher Diploma in Clinical pathology. He
was initially going to study pharmacy but after a stint working in a pharmacy during the holidays decided
that he would be a glorified shop assistant. He eventually became a clinical pathologist involved with
medical research and was the head technologist at the Blood Transfusion Service from 1963 to 1983
producing albumen. Later he was employed by Millipool, a US company until 2000 and spent 4 months in
Boston. Aubrey has worked in Wadeville for the past 11 years with Clinx Waste Management.
Aubrey’s wife is a nursing sister and they had two sons who were unable to attend St David’s as they lived
in Germiston at the time and there was no longer a boarding facility.
JLE February 2015

Interview with Boris Babaya – 1950
This is actually a transcript compiled by Boris himself which makes for interesting reading
Early years at Marist Brothers Inanda
As the new preparatory school opened in 1941, world war 11 was raging all over Europe. The
German nazi army directed by Adolf Hitler had occupied and annexed Austria, invaded
Czechoslovakia, Poland, France, Holland, Norway, Denmark, Yugoslavia, Albania, Greece then
Hitler attacked Russia and times were desperate for the Allies.
The British resistance suffered numerous setbacks in the Atlantic as German u-boats pounded
their supply convoys relentlessly. The Luftwaffe was bombing Britain and the Royal Air Force
was desperately fighting “The Battle of Britain”.
In North Africa, the British and Commonwealth armies were fighting the Afrika Corps under the
superb General Irwin Rommel.
Times were tough in South Africa. There were shortages of everything due to the prioritising of
so many basics for the Allied troops up North. News from the Red Cross was invariably
obituaries of family casualties in the war.
Japan had attacked the American fleet in Pearl Harbour and the Pacific war was ignited.
The only way one was able to follow events were the crackling short-wave radio, the press and
rare personal mail. There were very few cars, severely restricted by petrol rationing. There was
no white bread, very little meat or poultry, soap, tea, coffee and just about everything the
modern generation finds stacked up on supermarket shelves, was in very short supply.
Against this background Boris came from Braamfontein Convent to enter St. Davids in 1944 to
join std. 1V.
Inanda was on the periphery of Johannesburg. Most of the boys were boarders. They came
from all over the country and there were well represented contingents from Portuguese East
Africa (Mocambique), Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), Angola, Nyasaland (Malawi), Rhodesia
(Zimbabwe) and other arenas.
We were “Day Dogs”. I lived in Parktown on the Killarney border, just behind Parktown Convent.
The main arterial road to Inanda was Oxford Road. The Dunkeld Bus got you to the terminus
just before Corlett Drive. Its’ scheduled times were hourly at peak times. It was precisely one
long mile’s walk from St Davids. If you missed it, you got the bus that turned off at Soggot’s
Corner in Rosebank. That made a very poor start to the day.
The Wanderers Club was right in the middle of Johannesburg adjoining Park Station. There was
one heck of a hullabaloo when the minister of transport Mr Sturrock expropriated their grounds
for a functional Johannesburg station.
There were huge public marches in protest. A rally led by ‘Sailor Malan’, a highly decorated
South African ex RAF fighter pilot Ace, and the slogans on the banners: “Save the Wanderers
for the People”.
I recall my father persuading the Wanderers grounds man, Harry Eden to speak to executive
committee chair, Mr Houliston and tell them that they couldn’t stop progress and that he would
show them where the Wanderers could be relocated. He took them to Kent Park, and showed
them the farm that is the site of the Wanderers Club today.
He predicted that private cars would become far more prolific and that they could get a couple of
buses to ferry long-standing members that just couldn’t commute any other way. The rest is
history.
Standard four was a revelation. The principal was Brother Urban. The class teacher was Mrs du
Plessis. After her first lecture I knew she was an excellent tutor. She was clear, logical and
strict. She knew her syllabus inside-out, she put it over so well one felt like a genius. She
marked one’s homework meticulously. There were no bic pens so one scratched around with
stephens ink and pens with nibs. When one’s mind was in full flow and you were scribbling the
answers speedily, the nib would hit a speed-bump in the paper and droplets of ink would be
sprayed over the page. Miss would painstakingly encircle every single blot with ‘laager’ of red
ink. You knew instinctively that this lady wasn’t going to take any prisoners.
Under her expert guidance History, Geography, English or Arithmetic was just ‘a stroll in the
park’. While watching some hopeful candidates on BBC’s “Who wants to be a Millionaire” one
becomes acutely aware that they never had her as teacher. I recall one Geography test where
just the outline of the world’s land and sea masses were drawn. One had to fill in all the major
mountains, rivers, seas, lakes, countries, oceans and continents. I’m grateful that we were
taught by her.
The other standard 1V class was taught by Mrs Kempster whose class considered her as
another ace teacher.
Sports were highlights. soccer, cricket, athletics and swimming were the sports we all enjoyed.
Like schoolboys universally, our heroes were the more senior guys in standard five and six.
Somehow one seemed not to be particularly aware of one’s juniors.
From the following year, the school would start to become a senior college with an additional
higher class each year thereafter.
There are memories of health scourges. The pasteurisation of milk was not yet an industry norm
and TB or tuberculosis was a dreadful disease. It was an era before antibiotics were available,
so milk was always boiled. Fruit juices were only homemade. The other frightening disease was
polio or infantile paralysis. The papers were full of news about this dreaded disease. Victims
were put in huge contraptions called “Iron Lungs” and it was a terrifying prospect. One of the
popular lads, from Northern Rhodesia was afflicted and we all feared for his fate. Miraculously
he came out of it without any paralysis whatsoever and there was enormous relief. This was
many years before the “Salk Vacine” was developed by an American doctor which effectively
halted the pandemic.
Firm friendships were made, some of which lasted a lifetime. I befriended Michael Rogers who
went on to become a world class cardiac surgeon. He studied with the best pioneering surgeons
in England and America with the likes of Michael DeBakey, Denton Cooley and a couple of
others whose names elude my dysfunctional memory.
Romeo Buffa a classmate was an outstanding sportsman. He was the greatest schoolboy
sportsman we were privileged to see. It did not matter what the sport was. Whether it was
soccer or rugby he was the star player. In athletics or swimming, Romeo broke all the records.
He was a naturally gifted sportsman. Had he pursued any sporting discipline seriously, we were
all certain he should have made the olympic team.
I recall some of seniors of those days, Stan Barale, Frank McGrath, Keith Kennaugh, Errol
Hulse, Hugh Gearing, Ashley Kallos, Phillips, see the complete list at end.
Classmates were A. Lees, B. McGrath, D. Potter, R. Perino, G. Bordani, P. Vieyra, M. Rogers,
C. Leon, P. Cazolet, R. Kippers, G. Pacheo, G. Rethman.
Mr Bishop was the standard V master. He was a strict disciplinarian of Swedish origin and a
good teacher. Mr Hoare took standard V1. He was elderly, preached on many moral issues and
used to take the musical class. Mrs Basson would play the piano and he would conduct the
singing. Half the class was utterly tone deaf and he would weed them out. He explained the
tonic-Sol-fa: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, te, do. Every song practice Mrs Basson would play four notes
and the class would be asked to call the notes played. Well, you can imagine the answers that
came from the tone deaf. We had one little chap Francois May who was unerringly correct
whenever he was called upon to answer. Some others of the class got it right or partly right
sometimes, but some never ever got a single note correct. Mr Hoare’s patented reaction was,
“Feeble minds”. He administered punishment with a short leather strap, never a cane. His
command was,”Ankles!” then he would dance three steps towards the offender for each stroke
or slap of the strap. It was never painful.
Brother Thomas was the first brother we had as a teacher. He was Irish, had come from Marist
Brothers Koch Street and as usual our spy network had alerted us that he had a short temper. If
you provoked his ire through stupidity you would get a slap. He taught us Geometry and the first
theorem was painstakingly explained with blackboard diagrams.
I can well recall his exposition:
“When one straight line meets another straight line, the two adjacent angles so formed, together
equal two right angles.”
It wasn’t rocket science, but when individuals were called up to the blackboard platform to
explain the proof the atmosphere got very heated. The selected classmate would have a go at
the explanation, messing up the whole logic of the proof. Br Thomas went red faced, wringing
his hands at his sides in an effort to control his temper, his voice rising until one of his arms
struck out like a black mamba, giving the unfortunate, aspiring geometrician a resounding slap
on the head.
He would repeat the whole proof while the class focussed on the elements of the logic,
determined not to be caught out if called up to the blackboard. Over the next few sessions most
of the class were able to master the first theorem but a few would get caught out some time
later. A wary atmosphere prevailed in his class as one didn’t want to provoke ‘n snotklap.
Br Alban prevailed over std. eight. He had played rugby for Western Province prior to becoming
a brother. He coached the first team and was quite an awesome character. He would castigate
miscreants in a derisive tone with words found in no dictionary. He had a seemingly endless
vocabulary of appellations. “You rumagultion!” and “kookiekommer” comes to mind. He was a
heavy smoker of Springbok plain cigarettes, with the ball of his thumb and the two cigarette
holding fingers burnt to a very deep brown, which one never sees these days.
If you were the unfortunate to get the dreaded invitation to come to his rooms, you knew that
you would depart with painful red stripes on your backside. It was a tortuous ritual. If you were a
smoker, he would offer you a Springbok from his pack of fifty. If you demurred, you would get an
extra couple of strokes for being a hypocrite. Of course you had heard this from the lads, but
you were never sure whether they were spreading a false rumour or a real fact. He would
engage you in friendly conversation about all kinds of interesting subjects. This would proceed
amicably until you were convinced he had forgotten about the reason for the invite as the next
class period was only minutes away from the bell. Just as you reached for the door handle to
exit, he would casually ask why he had invited you to call on him. With accelerating stress and
anxiety you would stutter and splutter some meaningless supposition. The inevitable caning was
administered while you frantically hoped it was four and not the fearsome six.
English speakers had a rather pathetic grasp of Afrikaans. He would produce current Afrikaans
newspapers or periodicals and make a student read an article and then render an English
translation. We were terrible. He got us to say the “Our Father” and “Hail Mary” in Afrikaans. I
think I can still do it sixty six years later.
I managed to develop an “opstel” aid. I memorised a few paragraphs of an introduction that I
hoped would indicate some knowledge of Afrikaans. Whatever choice I made from the offerings,
it was my opening shot.
“Dit was a heerlike warm somer’s dag en toe het my vriend Piet en ek besluit om te gaan
visvang.
He took us a couple of years later on a rugby tour to Natal by train to play our brother schools,
the formidable St. Charles Pietermaritzburg and St. Henry’s Durban.
On the train the cigarettes were offered and known smokers dared not be guilty of being
hypocrites. We narrowly beat St. Charles captained by Peter Fricker, if memory serves, yours
truly elated at scoring the winning try. The team thrashed St. Henry’s so the return home was
triumphant. No misdemeanour in transit escaped his purview. Indiscretions of any kind were
dealt with later, sometimes to one’s utter consternation, much later. He had a sixth sense to
detect any transgression.
Br Edwin, later to become principal, took us for History. He was an inspiring teacher. His first
lecture was preceded by his enquiry from the class as to what precisely was History all about.
The class individuals came up with all kinds of inane answers. His brief definition was, “History
is the story of the living past.”
He went on to explain that virtually everything we are, do, think, feel or believe is the effect in
some way or another, the result of what has been done or has happened in the past. We cannot
escape the history of mankind and our planet. It determines virtually every facet of our
civilization, way of life, social interactions and codes of behaviour. It was stirring stuff. One
realised that if one was unaware of one’s history, one couldn’t understand much of what life was
all about.
I was personally fascinated and very proud to win the Marist Provincial Prize in History. (1947)
Due to life threatening illnesses, my memories are like the “Curate’s Egg”.
There are so many memories buried under the mists of times long past.
One Brother made an indelible impression on all his classes. He was an Australian and took us
for Latin. Brother Celestine was an extraordinary personality and an unforgettable character. His
first words to the class were, “Caesar est.” He asked the class to translate. There were no
volunteers. He translated, “I am Caesar.” That became his nickname, Caesar.
He then asked the class to raise their hands if anyone didn’t think they would pass Latin at the
end of the year. Slowly one hand was raised, and then another and then a flurry of several more
hands were raised. Caesar asked them all to stand up. He riveted his challenging stare at each
one turn and said the following.“No one fails any subject that I teach! You will all pass Latin. Do
you understand that?”Each sentence was delivered like a pistol shot, clearly demanding an
affirmative response. Each of the hapless guys had to clearly state that they would pass Latin.
That was our introduction to Caesar.
He appointed a dog walloper. His duty was to order a class member to clear the blackboard
whenever necessary. If the dw wasn’t alert enough to anticipate the function timeously, he had
to do it himself with Caesar’s derisive comments ringing in his ears.
Sooner or later everyone was bestowed with nickname by Caesar. This ‘christening’ was always
a ritual. A very popular boarder was a regular prolific smoker. Smokers resorted to all sorts of
subterfuge to camouflage their indulgence. A popular habit was to stroll to the young trees
bordering the Fricker Road perimeter, using the meagre foliage to screen their actions. Light up
there, ambling along carefully exhaling the thinnest possible stream of smoke to as to be almost
imperceptible from even a few metres away. One day Caesar related the story at length of how
St. Francis would speak to the birds in the trees. The punch-line was that we had a modern day
St. Francis in our midst. He then asked the guy, “When you go to sneak a smoke in the trees
what do you converse with the birds?” After embarrassed shuffling and stuttering, the fellow was
thereafter always called ‘St. Francis’ by Caesar.
Caesar could start a lesson with a joke. This could carry on for almost the entire period, with
much top of the desk banging by the class when the punch line was delivered. At a minute hand
signal from Caesar the applause would abruptly stop. In the remaining time Caesar would get
through the lesson, set the homework and woe betide anyone that didn’t master the assignment
by the next lesson.
I recall a joke that lasted a good thirty minutes. Two musician pals would go for drinks after their
performance. When they would overdo it, they had to give their respective wives an explanation
for coming home at such a late hour. As the explanations were often not convincing, they
decided to invent a good story while sober that would ensure peace and quiet when
overindulgent and very late. They came up with the alibi of having to practise “Syncopation”.
They swore it was the truth and the wives believed them. This worked for a while until the two
wives got together and eventually they discussed the alibi story. Since both were curious they
mooted several musical probabilities and eventually decided to look it up in the dictionary. What
they found there illuminated the scenario. syncopation: An erratic wandering from bar to bar.
One guy that regularly bunked school and was a hopeless mess, was kicked out of Caesar’s
class permanently. The rest of the class passed Latin. Caesar played an excellent game of
tennis. Years later we discovered that he was an excellent rugby player.
Ellis Park was the venue for both provincial and international rugby and cricket. In 1947 we had
the thrill of viewing the first post war visiting All Blacks. Captained by Fred Allen they had been
preceded by reports of being a powerful team. We had no idea how well the Springboks would
fare. I recall the All Blacks winning their scrum and the ball was passed to the centres. Then
there was a huge collision. The Springbok centre ‘Tjol’ Lategan tackled the Kiwi centre with
such bone crunching force that he was dazed when he staggered to his feet. The crowd went
wild and we knew the ‘Boks would give a good account of themselves. They did. Sitting on the
grass embankment at Ellis Park, eating naartjies was such great fun.
The great Australian cricket team also treated us to the thrilling sight of the two fastest bowlers
in the world, Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller. What a pair to face. Ray was arguably the greatest
fast bowler ever in Test Cricket.
Notable scandal making for yards of headlines was the death of a young lady, ‘Bubbles’
Schroeder. She had been to a party and there had been intimacy with certain well known
society lads. Her dumped body was discovered in the bushes of a dense forest of trees in Kent
Park very near the Dunkeld bus terminus. The post mortem had shown that she had choked on
sperm. Col. Ulf Boberg was the chief investigating officer and the proceedings of the
subsequent trial made sensational, lurid details daily in all the local press. All schoolboys were
intensely interested in the drama, avidly following the court evidence daily. Dictionaries were in
prolific use.
On Thursdays the overseas mail was regularly due at the CNA in Rosebank. The two most
sought after publications were “The Champion” and “The Triumph”. My favourite character was
Rockfist Rogan the RAF fighter pilot Ace and heavyweight boxing champion of the RAF. His
daredevil exploits in the air and taming of bullies was a great source of weekly, thrilling reading
matter.
I was of pure Croatian descent from the Dalmatian province born in Johannesburg. Virtually all
local Dalmatians made their own wine. They never reported it for formal, official assize. My
father used to purchase the whole day’s consignment of wine grapes on the old Newtown
market auction, if he considered them up to his high, quality standards. It would number many
hundreds of two-handled wicker bushel baskets.
As a kid I would be left to guard them while he went to phone the Dalmatians alerting them that
the wine grapes were there and they should come to collect them post haste.
The grapes would be ‘pressed’ through a wooden, roller mangle and fermented in oak barrels.
In due course the wine would mature and then carefully taste tested. If the old man felt the wine
was below par, it was relegated to be distilled as brandy (Rakija). This was very bad news for
me as I would thereafter have to spend many hours in the cold basement minding the still. The
heat applied to the still had to be just right. This was evidenced by the rate at which the brandy
dripped from the still. The correct flow was tortuously slow, about one drop every three or four
seconds. Any flow faster and the still would “burn”. If this happened, the still would be
irrevocably ruined, thereafter imparting a burnt flavour to the liquor distilled in it.
Many years later on visits to Eastern Transvaal distilling farms, I never once found a distillate
such as mampoer or any other that didn’t have a distinctly burnt flavour.
It is a Croatian custom to drink wine with every meal. The young drink it as “Bevanda”, that is,
very diluted with water. My father’s “Konoba” or sunken basement under our home always had
many dozen bottles of home-made wine.
The Portuguese boarders at St. David’s were brought up in similar fashion so they were keen to
get some wine to enliven up their smuggled snacks. I understood their sentiments and would
occasionally get a couple of bottles of wine from my dad’s “Bootleg Stock” for their special
celebrations.
One fateful Saturday when we were due to play rugby against the very tough Krugersdorp,
Monument High School, I arrived at St David’s with my kit and a couple of bootleg wine bottles
enclosed in rugby socks in the tog-bag. Brother Bartholomew stopped me from boarding the bus
and ordered me to report to Brother Edwin in the principal’s office with my kit-bag.
I knew there was serious trouble brewing. The wine was discovered, I was told there was no
rugby for me and a plethora of opprobrium was heaped upon me. My father and Brother Edwin
had a meeting on Monday and peace was restored.
Dad strongly asserted that “English Culture” was not yet appreciative of some of the finer habits
in life like good wine with good meals.
The matric dance was a highlight of the final year. In those days there were very few guys that
had girlfriends. Boy/girl relationships were fantasies. A guy would write a poem and secretly
admire a young lady from a distance. A distinctly victorian ambience prevailed, so the main
hurdle was getting a partner for the dance. If one had some tenuous connection with a source of
girls, like one’s sisters or cousins friends, one was expected to negotiate a partner for pals for
the occasion. Having a Parktown Convent connection I did my duty wherever I was able to do
so. One lass I contrived to persuade to come as a partner for one of the most popular guys
became a rag queen at Wits. My partner was a stunning beauty, the sister of a friend from
Marist Observatory. He and I still meet twice weekly.
Although I had colours for four different sports viz. rugby, athletics, boxing and tennis and was
top of the academic class for many of the years, I was never awarded the merit scroll so never
qualified for the colours blazer, neither was I made a prefect.
On the last day of school, I auctioned all my numerous sports scrolls and pinned my de-scrolled
blazer to the matric blackboard. This gesture attracted further opprobrium from the principal.
After being invited to play in the traditional old boys rugby game the following year, Stan Barale
the captain had to phone me to tell me that I was barred from playing and not welcome to attend
as spectator.
After leaving St David’s, Boris graduated with a BComm (Economics and Business Finance)
after a jaunt in mining on the copper belt of Northern Rhodesia.
Needless to say, he did not send his two sons to St. David’s. He sent them to Michaelhouse.
His daughter sent his grandson Matthew Maguire to St. David’s whence he matriculated
JLE April 2013
Classmates continued – Romeo Buffa, Gorgon Rethman, Brain Magrath, Michael and Gerald
Rogers, Errol Hulse, Achilles (Ashly) Kallos, Tommy Williams, Pat Spencer, Phillipe and Jacque
du Buisson, Setty Risi, Louis da Cruz, Jorge Pacheo, Dion Herbet, Bobby Perino, Jackie Att,
Brian Kennedy, Forrester, Patrick Sater, Owen Simms, Fettis, Hugh Gearing , Bruce
Eshner,(Gymnast), Theo SYtsema, Clive Seff, Guido and Sandro Boroni, Socrates Vartsos,
Francois May. Clive Leon, 2 Kippen cousins, Howard Neyans (yank), Muller brothers, Mark
Madeyski, Paul Vieara, Peter Cazalet, Wilson.
Comment [BB1]: Addition of the
“bootlegging episode

Brother Aidan 1963- 1984
Br Aidan attended St Aidan’s School where he matriculated in 1953 and then attended Wits University in 1954.
As Br Aidan’s main ambition was to teach he joined the Marist Brothers in Pietermaritzburg. He then went to
Australia to complete his novitiate and eventually returned to Port Elizabeth’s Walmer School to teachAt the
end of 1962 he received a letter from the Bishop in Johannesburg to take up the post as bursar at Observatory.
Br Michael, the incumbent bursar at St David’s, met Br Aidan at the train station and, when they arrived at St
David’s Br Michael informed him that the position had changed from Observatory to St David’s as he, Br
Michael, had been appointed Provincial and therefore had to vacate the position. The job had included looking
after the boaders and their food etc. Br Michael had looked after the tuckshop, worked only for the boarders
and had to supervise that every afternoon and evening. The job also covered the ground staff. With Piet the
cook for the boarders, the catering turned out to be quite easy, Charles was the brothers cook and second IC
in the kitchen. Apart from being ther bursar, Br Aidan had 4 periods of teaching Monday to Thursday after
break and on a Friday afternoon he had to do the shopping which was a heavy load.Br Aidan was very
reluctant re taking this position as he really wanted to teach. Before the Bishop sent the letter to Br Aidan the
Marist Brothers had spoken to Br Aidan’s father who was a bank manager and asked if he thought his son
would be able to cope with the job. All his father stated was that he was not in favour of his son joining the
bank!
The brothers at this stage moved into the admin block from the house near the swimming pool but the
configuration of the new ‘house’ was not really suitable as offices and living areas. Br Aidan had installed a
safe in the office but there were only two burglaries in all the years he was bursar and each time nothing of
value was taken. Br Anthony had a secretary, the first ever – Mrs Macfarlane? Br Aidan remembered Phineas
Selima who worked with him.
The first year was tough but the second year was even worse. The accounting system that was used came from
France as they had to report to the Mother House each year. In 1965 the Provincial moved him to Pietermaritzburg
and then on to Walmer, PE from 1966 to 1967 where he taught and looked after the boarders.
Br Ephrem, the new Provincial, recalled Br Aidan to pick up the pieces and he stayed at St David’s from 1968 to 1984.
Piet was the first cook in the kitchen,then the school had a series of cooks including a Scottish couple with the wife in
the kitchen and the husband as groundsman. This didn’t last long and they were followed by Mr and Mrs Erdis. Once
they left there was a gap of many years before Willem van der Merwe was appointed. To begin with there was conflict
between the work force and Willem. The ground staff were really left to their own devices because Brother was far too
busy with other matters. The problem was solved and they have become a cohesive unit now.
Br Anthony appointed some parents to form an advisory committee (first mentioned in 1968), they were the
forerunners to the board of governors. Messers N Herber, P Paizes and T Marneweck were the first parents selected.
The Marist Provincial Council took the decision that each school should be governed by an appointed board
comprising people of varying expertise due to the declining numbers of Brothers. The old boys, especially Alf Smit
were very involved and wanted St David’s to continue.
As time went on Br Aidan found that it was increasingly difficult to keep the books. He was not proficient in double
entry bookkeeping and therefore suggested that the books should be outsourced. This was done and Mr Viera came
in once a week but this process was too slow so his services were terminated. Towards the end of the 1970’s Mrs
Audrey Williams, a school secretary, was employed as a bookkeeper.
In the early 1980’s the Marist Provincial Council felt that employing a brother to be act as a bursar was counterproductive.
Mrs Anne Evans, the bookkeeping teacher, took over as bursar in 1984 with Br Aidan taking the year to
hand over the reins.
The financial position was not good as the fees were not very high. The Science lab had been built as well as the new
swimming pool. The board were not happy with the way in which the brothers allowed some children to attend the
school without paying. The brothers didn’t give cash bursaries only book entries.
A huge financial boost to the school finances was the expropriation of the land adjoining Rivonia Road. The money
from this should have gone to the Marist Brothers as they owned the land but instead Br Anthony used the money to
pay for the building of the Science lab (Opened in 1972 together with the Br Urban auditorium).
Br Ephrem moved into Maryknoll once Mrs McGill Love went to a retirement home.(The property was purchased in
1963) The McGill family were hoping that the will could be revoked and that they would get the land back. This of
course did not happen and the superiors put pressure on the school to sell some of the land as they felt the school
would have no need for it.
An embarrassing moment was when the school started accepting black children. Br Aidan was so used to seeing
people waiting in the passage applying for work so this one day he greeted this gentleman and asked him what job he
was being interviewed for only to be told that he was there to enroll his son in the school!
On another occasion Heather Joseph and Carol Ansell were talking outside Br Aidan’s office window not thinking that
their conversation could be overheard. It was just after the holidays and Heather was bringing Carol up to date with
the holiday. Heather had been to Port Alfred and said the surf was great but on one occasion she had lost her bikini
top in the surf and had to run back to the beach. Br Aidan decided to use this episode and told Heather that a lady had
arrived at school with a green bikini top which she felt belonged to someone on the staff. Of course this wasn’t true but
caused Heather much embarrassment.
After Br Aidan left St David’s he was sent to Holy Cross in Soweto run by the Holy Cross Sisters in 1986. Here he
taught which he thoroughly enjoyed, however the year was very disruptive due to the 10th anniversary of the Soweto
riots. The sisters felt that their work was not being done and they decided to close the school and the Bishop decided
that the diocese would take over the school. The opening in 1987 was slightly delayed but the school finally opened
with over 700 pupils and very few suitably trained teachers. Br Aidan wasis still at Holy Cross at the time of this
conversation and was slowly handing over to lay staff but unfortunately once they are suitably trained they leave for
greener pastures.
In conclusion Br Aidan felt that all the effort that was put into the school in the 60’s and 70’s has been worthwhile. The
area around the school and the catchment area changed dramatically but he felt very proud when he returned to the
school.
November 2010

Brother Jude
Br Jude started teaching at Marist Observatory in 1963 and subsequently from 1965 until 1974, he was
stationed at Walmer, Port Elizabeth. He was appointed Brother Provincial at the end of 1974, at a time
in when the brothers were grappling with a number of issues. Among others, there had been a drop in
the number of pupils attending the schools, a declining number of brothers and discussion about the
possible consolidation of some schools. Already in the second half of the sixties, to assist with the
running of the schools, advisory committees were introduced. These were followed in due course by
administrative boards and finally the board of governors
In the early 1970’s there was discussion among the congregations of sisters and brothers running the
Catholic schools in South Africa about the desegregation of “white” Catholic schools .While already in
1957 the Catholic Bishops Conference had declared that “Apartheid was intrinsically evil”, other than
attendance at Church services and gatherings, Catholic institutions had, by and large, remained racially
separate.
While a few schools had already admitted black children at the start of the 1975 academic year, ironically
it was the South African government itself which provided a catalyst. In the early 1970’s,the government
was desperately trying to establish diplomatic relations with other African countries and eventually
managed to do so with Malawi. This however presented a problem for the government when it came to
considering where the children of diplomatic staff were going to go to school. They could not be enrolled
at a “black state school” because of the dire standard of schooling in these schools nor at a “white state
school”, something which would have been completely contrary to state policy. The result was that the
government gave “permission” for the children to be enrolled at “white “Catholic schools. As a
consequence St David’s and St Theresa’s Convent School, Rosebank, were among those who admitted
the children of Malawian diplomatic officials in March 1975.
See article “Focus on the black child in search of education” by Linda Vergnani -Sunday Tribune, 16
March 1975.
Attempts to meet with the administrator of the Transvaal, Mr Sybrand van Niekerk, to discuss the
admission of local black pupils to “white” Catholic schools proved futile. This resulted in Catholic schools
in the Cape and the Transvaal quietly admitting black pupils.
Early in 1977 the media broke the story about the number of black children that were being educated in
“”white” Catholic schools in the country. This resulted in the administrators of the Transvaal and Cape
Provinces both issuing statements that all children admitted illegally should be removed immediately and
the schools would face deregistration. The then minister of national education, Piet Koornhof, intervened
and a series of meetings followed. These finally resulted in a cabinet decision in December 1977 that
while the government could not condone what Catholic schools had done, the children who had been
admitted illegally could remain in the schools but there would be no more admissions without the
express permission of the provinces. Application with full motivation had to be made for each and every
pupil. The Catholic schools were informed of the cabinet decision and were encouraged to submit their
applications before the beginning of the new academic year in January 1978. In the Cape all but one
application, due to reasons of age, were accepted. In Natal there were not many applications but all
submitted were accepted. In the Transvaal, by the day before schools were due to reopen, no response
had been received from the provincial authorities. At a hastily convened meeting of the provincials and
principals concerned a decision was taken to go ahead with the admission of all pupils whose names
had been submitted. On the day that schools reopened, school inspectors descended on the school to
check on admissions.
This resulted in further meetings with both the administrator and the minister with the Catholic schools
standing firm on their admission of children regardless of racial classification. These meetings continued
over the next few years with the Catholic schools continuing to admit pupils with ongoing opposition from
the Transvaal authorities. Finally, towards the end of 1982 legislation was passed which allowed the
admission of black pupils to schools registered with the provincial education departments.
For years the private schools in South Africa registered with the provincial education departments had
struggled with the government for school subsidies, these were finally granted in the early 1980’s. Not
long thereafter the government attempted unsuccessfully to use the subsidies to enforce a quota system
on the admission of black children.
From mid-1980 opposition to apartheid and its structures increased significantly resulting in the
declaration of two states of emergency. In an attempt to crush opposition the state security forces
targeted the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the South African Council of Churches and the
Catholic Bishops Conference. Within a space of months COSATU House, Khotso House, the
headquarters of the South African Council of Churches and Khanya House, the headquarters of the
Catholic Bishops Conference were destroyed.
The 70’ were tough times for the brothers and the Marist schools in South Africa, times requiring much
consultation and discernment. The brothers looked at their number and ages (at the end of 1974 there
were 68 Brothers in SA) and realised that the majority were likely to lose, through death, the majority of
the brothers in the province at the time within the twenty years or so. The situation was aggravated by
the small number of local vocations and the fact that there were no longer brothers coming to South
Africa from Europe. They were also faced with the fact that there were fewer brothers available to take
on positions of responsibility. Also of concern were the very significant discrepancies in facilities between
black and white Catholic schools. They were also conscious of the call of Vatican 2 for lay people to be
given their rightful place within the church and church structures and felt the need to honour it and allow
lay people to take on positions of authority within their schools. This eventually resulted in the first lay
headmaster being appointed to a Marist school in South Africa, Linmeyer in 1977. This proved to be very
controversial and took some years before the appointment of lay people to senior promotional posts was
accepted. Another move was that of withdrawing brothers from senior Marist school positions and
making them available to work within black Catholic schools where there a significantly greater need.
Thus Br Anthony left St David’s and together with Br Christopher, went to set up a mission in Slough, a
resettlement area on the edge of the Kalahari. Some people incorrectly interpreted these initiatives as
signs that the brothers were abandoning the “white” community.
The brothers also had to face two other significant challenges besides the matter of opening all
promotional posts to lay people and the withdrawal of brothers from the other schools to make brothers
available in areas of greater need, namely the issue of co-education and the desegregation of the
schools already referred to earlier. With the pending closure of several convent schools in the 1980’s
because of the declining numbers of religious sisters, the question arose whether the brothers would be
prepared to admit girls to what were at the time their “boys” only schools. The brothers were open to the
schools becoming co-educational institutions, a position not shared by all the members of the Marist
family. The first of the Marist schools in South Africa to become co-educational was Sacred Heart
College, Observatory. This followed decisions taken by the Ursuline Sisters and Holy Family Sisters to
close their schools and link up with what was at the time Marist Observatory. When the La Rochelle
Convent school was due to close there was some initial opposition from the board at Linmeyer but this
gave way and Marian College, Linmeyer, became co-ed as well. In the 1970’s and 80’s pupil numbers
dropped at both St David’s and Rosebank Convent and the respective school authorities looked into
integrating the two schools. For a variety of reasons this was not pursued.
Brother Jude was Brother Provincial from 1974 until 1983. In 1985 he was asked by the Catholic Bishops
Conference to set up the Catholic Institute of Education which thirty years on, continues to provide a
great service to the Catholic schools in the country. At the time he was a member of the St David’s
community. In 1988 he was asked to take over as Secretary General of the Bishop’s Conference of
Southern Africa, a position he held until 1995 when he was again appointed as Provincial of South
Africa. In 1998 a series of consultations took place within the Southern African region to form a single
Marist Province in Southern Africa. In April 1999 these resulted in the formation of the new Province of
Zambia and Zimbabwe. A year later Angola became the sixth country to be a member of the Province.
Br Jude served as Provincial of the new province from 1999 until 2004.
The issue of the sale of land where the “Inandas” now stand was in reality necessary as the brothers and
schools were experiencing a very tough financial situation at the time. The school was only using a
portion of the land available to it and the question was whether the school would actually need the corner
section in the future. The property was in fact zoned as agricultural at the time with its corresponding
property evaluation. The brothers looked at various ways of handling the sale. What was finally entered
into was an agreement with a developer which allowed for the brothers to benefit from the progressive
development of the property. In terms of the partnership arrangement that was entered into, the brothers
gained not just from the initial sale of the property as agricultural land but from each successive stage of
the whole development process as the land was rezoned and the units were finally sold.
July 2015

Conversation with Br Mario at St Henry’s 2010
Br Bosco changed to Br Mario July 1973.
His 1st year at Inanda was in 1963. His qualifications were a BSc in Maths and Physics,
however he taught Latin in his first year at St David’s. He taught Latin in Matric and Maths in
1963 then later Science to standards 8 to 10, with Physics and Chemistry as separate subjects.
Latin was phased out in 1977.
Br Anthony finished his BA degree while headmaster. He was schooled in Ireland and he had to
get SA matric – Mario helped him with the Maths. He wrote his exam at Hibberdene and Mario
covered his Maths book in brown paper so no one could see the title of the book.
Br Mario remembers Br Michael Bailey, then the Provincial Bursar, throwing a miraculous medal
over the fence onto the land which they wanted so badly. Br Ephrem , Br Provincial at the time
only wanted to buy piece of land but the parents said that they should buy the whole piece @
R152 000,00. The M1 and the Brixton Tower were built at this time.
Incidentally there is a mistake in the Afrikaans foundation plaque.
Mrs Kempster was originally employed as a temporary teacher in 1943 for 6 months.
At the opening of McGregor Oval in 1970, the board wanted the Bishop to open the oval. Bishop
Boyle was not formally invited as no one took ownership of this item! The day dawned cloudy
with drizzle. When the Bishop finally arrived he read the blessing from a book which had
nothing to do with opening a cricket oval but once the blessing had taken place the rain stopped
and play could begin! Paul Edey found the plaque of the opening at his home Maryknoll.
Br Patrick Carrey was very into charity work and organized a big walk which was sponsored on
29/7/69 over a 20 mile course. The then mayor of Sandton started it and R7000 plus, minus was
raised. Three charities benefitted, one being Br Paul who was blind. The press was invited to
the presentation of money and arrived at school to find Paddy O’Byrne handing out notices to
the parents to object to the increase in school fees. A meeting was subsequently held in the
Sandown hall.
Political refugees hid at both St David’s and Sacred Heart during apartheid years. (Br Neil
McGurk knows more)
1966 when the silver jubilee was celebrated the crest was found to say 1940 so this had to be
changed to 1941.
Leo Theron made the stained glass windows in the auditorium. Original cost R150 per window
then increased to R250.
Conversation with Br Mario at School on Friday 14 May 2010
Terry O’Mahony playing cricket vs St Stithians, Wed pm 8 Mar 196. The Saints headmaster
arrived at St David’s at 14:45 to find St D’s batting with the score 10 runs for 0 wickets. The
head sat next to Br Anthony and remarked that St D’s were batting very slowly only to be told
that St Stithians were all out for 17 runs – Terry O’Mahony had taken 4 wickets off 4 successive
balls! Br Anthony announced the following day that the ball would be mounted and presented to
Terry later. At the end of 1974 when Br Anthony was packing up to leave, a ball was found in a
drawer, he realized that ball had never been mounted. The ball was duly mounted and given to
Mrs O’Mahony to give to Terry.
In late June 1964, there was a very heavy snowfall. Dracula (Br Andrew) and Br Mario went to
the top balcony for assembly and the boys started hurling snowballs at the two. Br Anthony told
the boys not to throw snowballs at brothers unless the brothers had started first!
Br Anthony did not like paperwork but preferred to walk around the school looking to see what
the boys were doing.
In 1962 young Irish Br Ignatius did not see eye to eye with one of the boys in standard 7.
Rumor was that the boy in question had a gun and one of the boys told Br Anthony. Br Anthony
went to the classroom walked around, put his hands into the boy’s jacket and found the gun,
then quietly took the boy out of the classroom and disarmed him.
There were 44 beds in each dorm and 4 dorms. The brothers then lived in Willem’s house.
A priest came every day to say mass for the brothers in the old chapel and once a week for
senior boarders at 6:30. School started at 8:30.The mass for silver jubilee was held outside on 6
June but it was unfortunately not a nice day.
Vatican 11 realised that the world had changed – up to then there was still a feudal culture in
the church. The church now began thinking of it as being a community..
Br Aidan was in charge of the junior boarders and taught Latin in standard 9. He then became
the bursar. Br Timothy taught Biology and RE from 1967. The first secretary to the headmaster
was appointed in 1963. There were no staff meetings Br Anthony told brothers at breakfast
what was due to happen that day. The timetable was the same every day in high school.
In the late 1960’s Beyers Naude was invited to give a lecture during a period of Lenten lectures
or talks for the boys and staff in the chapel. Beyers Naude, a member of the Broederbond made
a deep impression on Br Mario. The lectures were organized by Br Patrick Kearney who was
once detained and became a director of Koinonia.
In 1970 the 1st rugby team beat Obs and planning started for the Science wing with a R30 000,
00 grant from Anglo but the building eventually cost R188 000. Prof Fassler was the architect
and Joe Stravino was awarded the building contract with a R50 per day penalty clause and it
took much longer. In 1971 building started in 1st week of January and Br Mario planted trees in
the quad. The Science wing was opened in Aug 1972 with a Science expo. Br Anthony was very
good at delegating tasks and never wrote anything down, made appointments verbally and then
forgot about them. The auditorium was handed over before the rest of the building.
In April 1971, Br Anthony gave permission for a mixed cricket match to be played on the rugby
field at St David’s. There followed a controversy which raged on for a week with articles
appearing in many of the newspapers including Die Vaderland and issues were raised by a
white activist Kane-Berman. An article appeared in the Rand Daily Mail, the newspaper which
railed against apartheid questioning why sport could be played in the Homelands but not a
mixed team.
The boarding house closed in 1972 after a decision was taken at a brothers chapter meeting. It
was becoming too taxing to look after the boys. The brothers decided that one boarding house
should close in Johannesburg and Br Neil stated that Johannesburg did not need a boarding
school.
Br Anthony went on leave in 1974 leaving two acting heads, Br Timothy in charge of boys and
Br Mario in charge of admin. Br Mario played a trick on Br Timothy when some parents applied
to have their child admitted to the school which had no discrimination; unfortunately the child
was a girl!
1972 was the 1st year that Champagnat mass was held at Rosebank Catholic Church initiated
by Br Mario who also instituted the collection for the poor and the Champagnat mass is still
going today.
The Rand Daily Mail had a competition to raise money for bursaries for children in Soweto at
R30 per child. Br Mario set this as project for Lent and the grade that brought in most money
would visit Soweto. The matrics brought in the most money and visited the Morris Issacson High
School in Soweto. Very cleverly the boys were paired off in 2’s and 3’s to walk around and in
this way the boys could get to know each other.
Br Mario spent 2 months at Berkley University in the USA on a Science teacher’s course which
cost 10 dollars per day because he was a brother and couldn’t afford the fees.
Br Ephrem, the Brother Provincial, gave the house the name of Maryknoll and used the house
as his office. The farm was originally called Zyferfontein.
The school was known as Marist Brothers Inanda but the PTA wanted to emphasize St David’s.
Br Anthony used the words St David’s Marist College at a swimming gala in 1963. The school
magazine was the Inanda Review until 1959, then became St David’s College Inanda 1960, St
David’s Marist College Review in 1989 and the school, was renamed St David’s Marist Inanda
in 2001.
Br Mario is currently acting as a personal secretary for Br Jo and is based at Sacred Heart in
Observatory.
JLE 2010 and November 2014

Interview: Timothy McCrindle (Br Timothy) 1967-1981
Br Timothy taught at St David’s for 6 months in 1963 and returned again in 1967. Initially he was junior
housemaster and in 1972 assistant senior housemaster when the boarding closed down because of the lack of
brothers to supervise.
Br Timothy taught Biology to std 8-10 and RE to std 8-10 and also taught Maths and Science. For extra-murals
he coached swimming and worked with Lee McGregor the Springbok swimmer; he was also the athletics
coach and Inanda won the Inter Catholic athletics for 6 years running. In addition he was the rugby coach for
the younger boys.
Br Timothy took over in 1975 from Br Anthony as headmaster. He maintains he was never an innovator but
highlights during his term of office were the building of the swimming pool, tennis courts and the development
of the sports fields. He also focused on academics and in 1981 Michael Urban was the first boy to achieve a
full house of distinctions in matric.
The one aspect of extra murals which he did not enjoy was cadets. He attended a cadet officer’s camp and in
the end Br Anthony asked him to take the cadets over. Mrs Moni was very pro-active and helped a great deal
as her sons were very prominent cadets. When he took over as head, Br Timothy decided to stop cadets at St
David’s.
Some of the staff he fondly remembers are Trudy Elliott, a wonderful English teacher who had an excellent
way of teaching boys. Gavin Nefdt, Tom McFadden, Ken Lipshitz, Bill Carew, Wendy Schaafsma, Father
Plesters and George Manolios was the prep headmaster.
Reflecting on Br Anthony, Br Timothy felt that Br Anthony had a wonderful gift of inspiring confidence in young
people and was very good at handling difficult situations and parents. He had a wonderful way with people and
was the person who built St David’s up. Br Anthony was never overbearing and worked very well with young
brothers guiding them and giving them responsibilities. He always checked up to see how they were
progressing. Br Anthony was not a very orderly person but here Br Andrew, deputy headmaster, helped him.
During his time, Br Anthony introduced the advisory council which later became the board of governors
St David’s first headmaster was Br Urban, followed by Br Edwin, Br Benedict, Br Anthony and finally Br
Timothy. Br Andrew and Br Bosco (Mario) were prominent brothers.
Notable parents who went the extra mile were: Mrs Moni, the Kourie family, Nassie Simaan, Steve Muller, Vito
Rugani, Darko Vidas, the Allem family, the Reeves family, Slavens, v d Handel, Paizes, Marlowe and Marsay.
The sale of the Inanda’s land:
Br Michael was Br Superior at the time and was very friendly with the McGill Love’s who owned the land next
to the school. There was a fire which the boarders helped to put out and following that, the McGill Love’s had
an agreement with the brothers that they would have first option on the property when they decided to sell their
home. When the sale went through there was an agreement that should Mr McGill Love die first his wife could
continue to live in Maryknoll until her death. Mr McGill Love died first and his wife stayed on in the house but
eventually the brothers offered to pay for her to move into a retirement home and the property reverted to the
brothers. For the acquisition of the property an amount of R150 000 was required. The parents decided, under
the PTA Chairmanship of Mr Walker that they would pay the extra R150 000 needed in the form of a levy
however, in 1971, the Sandton council needed to widen Rivonia Road and the school was reimbursed (R50
000) for the land that was required which covered the shortfall on the land.
The brothers later decided to sell off a piece of ground because they felt that the school would not ever need
the land and they were in a tough situation financially. The land belonged to the brothers not the school. Mr
Tim Marneweck, a parent, who was involved in property helped with the sale of the land. Sadly the parents
and old boys were angry because they felt that the money should have come to the school.
(See Br Jude’s Interview and Finance Weeks articles – October 14-20, 1982 p.100; 30 October 30, 1982 p.4
and August 22 – 28, 1985 p.509)
The school reputedly had two ghosts. Peter Stringer, the cricket coach was given accommodation upstairs at
Maryknoll once Mrs McGill Love had left. He maintains that he saw the ghost of Mrs McGill Love at the foot of
the staircase. The second ghost was that of Br Pius who is said to have wandered around the house where
the sickbay was situated. The brothers used to live in this house but once the administration block was built
the brothers moved in there. If there were any boarders who had to stay overnight in the sickbay then one of
the brothers would have to go down and stay in the house. One of the brothers was in the house one night and
heard a strange noise and went from room to room looking to find the source of the noise. He eventually found
a coat hanger moving in a cupboard! But the brothers always maintained that it was Br Pius walking around.
Br Timothy felt that Br Andrew was a very strict disciplinarian and an excellent Maths teacher who got on well
with Willy Castle. Willy came back to complete his matric and fitted in very well with his new class while most
other boys didn’t mix with the class below them. Br Pius was an excellent gardener and because of him the
gardens at school were well laid out. Br Aquinas enjoyed his whiskey and every Sunday evening the brothers
used to get together and would have a drink. Br Aquinas always had a whiskey and one evening he was called
away and left his drink. The other brothers replaced his drink with diluted Coca Cola while hiding the whiskey
behind the chair. They watched as Br Aquinas returned and continued to drink the diluted Coca Cola without
noticing the change. The brothers were too ashamed to say anything and never told Br Aquinas about the
incident.
Br Timothy left St David’s at the end of 1981 after many happy years at the school. He was appointed
headmaster at St Owens on the Cape Flats. This school was a far cry from St David’s and he taught std 8 –
10’s.
He later went on to help Br Anthony at Slough for a while, becoming Brother Provincial in 1989 until December

1995. He was then sent to the United States on a course and it was here that he met his future wife. After
      much soul searching he decided to leave the Marist Brothers and his future wife left her order as well. Timothy
      now works for the Catholic Schools Office who look after the affairs of the 10 schools run by the diocese in
      Gauteng.
      November 2010

Interview with Brother Vincent – 1969 and 1987-90
Brother Vincent joined the brotherhood in 1965 at the age of 18, based at Hibberdene together with Br
Joseph who is now Brother Provincial.
His Postulancy and Novitiate years were spent close to Stellenbosch in 1967 and 1968 respectively. These
two years are set aside for his receiving the Habit and making First Vows.
In 1969 he came to St David’s and stayed there whilst undergoing a spirituality course called “Fons Vitae”
at the Good Shepherd Centre in Oaklands together with other brothers and nuns. He and Br Joseph went
daily from St David’s. At that stage Br Anthony was headmaster of the high school, V Kempster principal of
the junior school, and Willy Castle was in matric. Willy’s mother Dorothy taught Br Vincent piano. Br Vincent
taught the junior catechism to a standard 4 class. During the holidays he spent a lot of time planting grass
on the field and was involved with a lot of physical work at the school, cutting trees and grass, working
together with Aggie Simaan. He remembers the many regular teas, biscuits and chats with Aggie Simaan in
her little office near the cricket oval at the time when he helped in great measure planting the grass on the
newly-levelled oval and fields. He regularly cut the fields with the old red tractor, which is now in the preschool
playground!
His bedroom in the brothers’ House was upstairs and faced the inner quad above the then bursar’s office.
One of his duties was to ring the bell at 5am every morning to wake the brothers.
Again, whilst he was studying full-time at JCE from 1987 to 1990, he stayed at St David’s and became the
community superior. During this time became very friendly with Willem, the estate manager, whom he
frequently assisted during his holiday breaks. In his third year helped out by teaching Technical Drawing to
two grade 7 classes.
In 1991 he was the asked by the brothers to work in their mission outreach programme, and he went to
Slough in the Kalahari Desert. The St David’s Marist co-workers, run by Tom Oliver, used to come out once
a year bringing mostly clothing and blankets.
Br Vincent enjoyed his time at St David’s and still keeps in touch with many of the current and former staff
members. Past pupils and parents taught by Br Vincent in the other Marist schools and who are currently
associated with St Davids are Bruce Eyles, Franco Guiliardi, Dr Roger Gibson, Chris Elfick, Allan Young
and Marius Khoury.
Brother Vincent has been at Sacred Heart since 2007 and is currently the estates manager.
JE September 2013

Interview with Carol Ansell – Staff – 1975 - 2016
Carol was interviewed by Brother Mario at the end of 1974 as there was a new grade 0 position
available and Brother Anthony (who was headmaster at the time), was on leave. In fact Br
Anthony had gone to see the Brother Provincial as he wanted to work in a less privileged
environment. Carol was John Jamieson’s sister, John had matriculated from St David’s, and she
was immediately appointed and told to start the following year – 1975 with no indication of
where she would be located. Carol recalls that she asked if she could see her classroom and if
she could please have a key. Carol and her family lived in the same road in Parkwood as Mrs
Kempster who had alerted her to the fact that this new position was available. Carol had initially
wanted to teach at Keps, which was her father’s old school and she was offered a job there but
decided to go to St David’s.
Mr Manolios was head of the prep school and Br Timothy was appointed head of the high
school in 1975.Carol’s classroom was next to the old swimming pool which had been filled in to
make a playground for the new grade 0 class. She was given free reign with the grade 0 class
with Br Timothy visiting her on a couple of occasions. Some of the boys were intrigued with him
and one asked him why he was so hairy and another, whether he was a boy or a girl as he was
perceived to be wearing a dress!
There was a large sandpit in the playground, which Carol used for some of her outside
activities. Sadly it had to be covered up as some cats began to use it as a cat box! She recalls
that the school, was very contained and she likens it to a village which has now grown into a
city. Carol had no supervision at all, everything was based on trust. She was only twenty years
old and in charge of 25 young boys. Carol visited other nursery schools and spoke to the
teachers to gain a further understanding of 4/5 year olds; she was also greatly assisted by Jack
Friedman of “Play and Schoolroom” who helped her a lot. It was quite lonely but the parents
were fantastic and supportive. There were two cousins in the class Brian De Decker and
Michael Luyckx whose parents took her under their wing and helped her. Michael Luyckx now
lives in Australia and Carol is still friendly with the mothers. Parents in those days didn’t
challenge teachers at all and tended to have a huge respect for them.
At the end of 1975, the grade 0 class was declared a tremendous success and the school
decided to open another class. Mrs Carolyn Hughes joined her and became the other grade 0
teacher. They had a good relationship with each other and could feed off each other’s ideas and
support.
One of the parents pointed out to Carol that one of her pupils (eye) was larger than the other
and suggested she have it checked. It was discovered that she had a tumour on the pituitary
gland, which was operated on and she subsequently had to have three months leave. A feisty
boy, Fabio Morettino had told his mother that Carol had died; so on Carol’s return the poor
mother saw Carol and thought she was seeing a ghost. Marilyn Middlewick decided that she
would like to swop from grade 1 and Mr Manolious was fully in agreement so Carol moved from
grade 0 to grade1.
Carol, had a good relationship with Darryl Boswell, Heather Joseph, Trudy Elliot, Prue Johnson
and many others. Another headmaster she worked with, Mr Freilich was a good man. As for Mr
Murphy, Carol didn’t get off to a good start with him as, at his welcoming cocktail party, Carol
was laughing together with some colleagues and for some reason Mr Murphy thought they were
laughing at him. The next day she was called into his office where he reprimanded her. Murphy
was eventually found out to be a professional wrestler and vacated his position as headmaster
of the College.
Carol was married to John Ansell in her fourth year at the school. Some years later she was
sadly diagnosed with a second tumour and left as a full time teacher, although she stood in for
teachers on long leave etc, filling in for Sue Harwood, the remedial teacher, in 1985. When Sue
returned from leave she resigned and being concerned about having 3 different teachers in a
remedial class Carol was asked to return. Carol was pregnant with her son Nick and returned
when Nick was 6 weeks old. Andrew Castle was born in the April and Nick in the June and the
two maids looking after the boys would get together and have fun with the boys. The boys were
often seen in the back of Julius’ trailer behind the tractor. A space was made in a corner of an
office for Nick whilst Carol was busy and Nick grew up at St David’s going on to a play school
for two years then to Limber Lost in Rosebank.
Carol eventually came back full-time although she had in the meantime franchised the
“Bookworm Bookshop” in 1985 when Nick was born. She recalls Cynthia Hildyard advising her
to move her classroom to the warmer one where she remains now.
Carol remembers brothers such as Br Bernard who was very artistic, a photographer and
woodcarver and together with Carol and Heather Joseph had pottery classes with one of the
mothers, Mrs Heather MacLeroth every Friday afternoon. By the end of the class it was late
and Carol and Heather were very hungry. Br Aidan was in charge of the stores and had a
wonderful, dry sense of humour and would tempt Carol and Heather with a packet of marie
biscuits, trying to satisfy their hunger, giving them one biscuit at a time. Carol remembers Br
Aidan embarrassing Heather with the story that he was present at Port Alfred beach when
Heather lost her green crocheted bikini top at Kelly’s beach. Carol and John had been invited
there and Heather was also holidaying there at the same time. Br Aidan had in fact overheard
Heather recounting the story to Carol whilst they were in earshot of his office. Br Aidan also
nicknamed Heather “Queen of the Visigoths”.
There were good memories of Jackson the cook who cooked for the brother’s community. One
day a divine smell was circulating around the brothers kitchen and Carol asked what he was
cooking and managed to get Jackson to write his recipe for ox-tail stew out for her. Carol
forwarded this recipe many years later to Br Aidan. She still has the recipe today. The
groundsman Barney Erdis had a wife who used to cook/bake a variety of muffins or scones with
cream and jam at first break and then make mock crayfish and avocado or pumpkin fitters or
fish and chips for the staff to enjoy at second break.
JLE May 2013

Interview with Cecil Thokoane – 1985
Cecil came to St David’s in June 1982 at the age of 12 into standard 7 and matriculated in 1985
age 16. Cecil was born in Soweto and went to a government school for his primary schooling. In
standard 3 his teacher thought he was too smart and he was promoted to standard 4. Cecil’s
mother wanted him to go to a Catholic school either Holy Cross or St Matthews, run by the
nuns. In May 1982 Sister Michael gave him a letter in which he was awarded a scholarship by
British Petroleum for tuition at St David’s. Fortunately his school colours were the same and he
got the rest of his school uniform from the swop shop. It was quite an experience, not knowing
who, where or what but he was made to feel welcome and at home. Even so it was quite a
transition and, since his mother had taken him to school by tram which stopped at Dunkeld he
had to find his own way home and got lost walking back. Eventually he used to ride in a Combi
with much younger boys to school but as he had to stay later for sport he had to use public
transport to get home. He used to have to get up at 5.00am and spend an hour travelling to
school and when he had sport it would take him even longer to get home.
He remembers meeting Mr Murphy and being mobbed the first lunch hour and given a crash
course in rugby. He went into Osmond house and when he finally settled in was able to excel
academically. He learnt to play rugby, becoming quite a good player making the A team. He
also performed well at athletics and collected a number of accolades including being awarded
the Sandton Mayorial Trophy two years in a row and breaking the record for the 800m.
Cecil was not a member of the swimming team and tells the story of how he nearly drowned
earning the wrath of Willy Castle. He had been at the school a couple of months, it was the
beginning of the summer/spring season and PT shifted to the swimming pool where the boys
were going to play water-polo. Being just 12 he thought he could just swim and got into the pool
at the deep end and promptly proceeded to sink. Fortunately one of his class mates, Steve the
American, spotted him and rescued him. By lunch time the whole school knew that he had
nearly drowned and he only started taking lessons two years ago in 2009 overcoming his fear.
Cecil enjoyed playing rugby and gradually improved becoming quite a good kicker. His first
rugby game was quite funny as he had literally been given a week’s classroom tutorial about the
game. He went in as a sub and when he first saw this mean faced, spitting, fuming guy from
Parktown Boys barrelling down on him and, even though it was his first game ever, he sensed
that if he were to let him go past he would score and right royally embarrass him. He caught him
with a high tackle, he didn’t score, they were penalised but didn’t lose any points. This was his
debut into 4 years of sweat, pain and fun as well.
He remembered a particular rugby game. It was during an U14 game and St David’s was trailing
9-11. He thought they had lost the game, in front of a full crowd waiting to watch the 1st team
match against Marist Observatory, the match of the season and compulsory. There were literally
a few minutes left to the last whistle and as fullback he was lounging under the poles and then
they were awarded a penalty 10 or so metres into their half. He thought that the front would run
the ball and attempt a try. Next thing he heard his name being called, the team wanted him to
kick for goal and earn 3 points. He told them it was too far and they shouted that he had made
those kind of kicks during practise. So all of a sudden everyone was looking at him, the whole
place was quiet. He went up, made a nice sand mound and started taking his back-step, only
this time he went back at least 20 metres; all the while saying his Hail Marys. He took what felt
like a long slow motion run and kicked that ball with all his might. His kick was dead straight
and, from his vantage point it looked as if the ball had fallen short. Next thing the whole stadium
erupted with jubilation. It took seconds for him to realise that he had scored the penalty from
that distance and had also won the school the game. His moment of glory! The first team went
on to win their match and on monday he had the pleasure of the whole episode being recounted
to the school at assembly.
Another game he remembered was an U14 away game at Parktown Boys, the ref was a 1st year
student from Wits and half the guys were bigger than Cecil. They had been having a bad
season so the game deteriorated pretty quickly and the ref completely lost control with full on
brawls on the field. The game was abandoned and Cecil was in a bit of a fix because he
planned to walk from Parktown Boys into town to catch his bus home. After the fight he was the
only blue and yellow rugby shirt in a sea of black and red. In the spirit of sportsmanship they
chuckled about the fights during the game as he made his way to the gate – the year of living
dangerously.
Most rugby games were a mixture of excitement and fear. There simply weren’t many black
children playing rugby and a lot of times Cecil could see the other team marking him up as he
got off the bus in all cases to try and make his game a misery. However he was lightning fast
and they couldn’t catch him most of the time and his Marist brothers and team mates were
always close by to bring woe unto whoever felt the urge to harm him outside the normal rules of
the game. Unfortunately because the riots were so bad, he stopped playing rugby in Matric and
he didn’t make the 1st team.
The teachers he remembered were Mrs Evans for making him feel welcome when he first
arrived at St David’s. Mrs Evans caused an explosion during a Chemistry class. She was
showing how sodium, he thought, reacted with water. The boys started to urge her to throw in
larger chunks and a large explosion followed which the boys thought was awesome but left Mrs
Evans very red-faced.
Mr Boswell understood where he came from and found a family, the Hoffmeyers for him to stay
with during the Matric exams literally saving his life as the Combi he normally travelled in was
attacked and he would have been targeted. Mr Colia was always cold and hard but made him
want to really prove himself at Maths. Mr Farrel,for enabling him to enjoy History, his only
distinction in Matric and Mrs Elliot for teaching him to love Shakespeare. He shocked her by
getting a first class English pass for Matric, so much so that she wrote him a card expressing
her joy.
Cecil was awarded scrolls for History and Biology. He couldn’t participate in school plays etc
because the travelling was so difficult. He used to get nervous doing orals in front of the class
and remembers talking about his then hobby ballroom dancing which caused some hilarity. On
his last day he wrote Afrikaans and stayed with the Hoffmeyers going home the following
weekend. He was sad to leave St David’s where he had grown up intellectually and as a person.
He had an awesome time and came into an environment where he became good at sport and
was given the opportunity to reach new heights.
After school Cecil went to Wits to study mining engineering which was a disaster as he realised
he was not mechanically inclined. He then went to the University of the Western Cape where he
studied for a BSc majoring in Maths and Physics and his minors were in Computer Science and
Applied Maths with dreams of working as a nuclear physicist. Later he also completed an MBL
through Unisa. Although he was sponsored by BP he was recruited by Engen when his career
in IT began. He also worked for the stock exchange, IBM and a start up company for 3 years
which failed. He then went on to Dimension Data and worked with Jason Goodall, an Old Boy of
the same year, as chief technical officer for Middle and East Africa. Jason is currently the MD of
Dimension Data. Cecil is now running his own company; Galeboe Professional Services which
has grown 300 – 400%.He is a finalist in the Finance Week competition for entrepreneurs.
Cecil is also vice-chairperson of the Unisa Alumni Committee and a non-executive director of
the Unisa School of Business Leadership. He has three daughters Jade 13, Tyler 11 and Eisha
6 all pupils at St Teresa’s where his wife went to school.
He is a member of MOBS and is in touch with a number of old boys such as Jason Goodall,
Branden Aab, Solly Maponya, Walter Cronje, Jeremy Franklin, Eugene Taylor, Paul Johnston
and Rees Carr.
JLE June 2012

Interview with Chris Busschau – 1965
The Busschau family association with St David’s and the Marist schools began in 1889 when
Peter Busschau was the first boy to arrive at the Marist School at Koch Street, Johannesburg. In
those days Johannesburg was a mining town and Peter Busschau lived, like most of the
inhabitants, in a tent. Peter was the third of three sons and the older boys went to CBC in
Kimberly whilst the family was living there. When his father was transferred back to
Johannesburg, Peter went first to the End Street Convent until Koch Street was opened.
Later Observatory, now Sacred Heart was opened as an off-site campus and his father went
there as did Peter’s four sons. St David’s initially was not a separate school but rather an
extension of Observatory and Koch Street which closed in 1964.
Chris only attended St David’s for two years as his father was based in Port Elizabeth and he
went to the Marist school in PE. When father was transferred to Johannesburg and Chris came
to St David’s he was at the outset very intimidated coming from St Patrick’s, a poor relation to St
David’s. St David’s was regarded as a vastly superior and wealthy school, with a very high
standard both academically and on the sports field. At that time all the Marist boys in standard 6
wrote the Marist school exams and St David’s always had a disproportionately high number of
boys who achieved high marks.
On Chris’s first day, aged 16, his parents dropped him off at the main gate. He made his way
into the school and ended up next to the auditorium and was asked by Terry Ray if he was a
new boy and chatted to him about the class he was going to. This was quite a coincidence as
Brother Vincent had previously suggested that he meet up with him and a number of other boys
including Terry Rosenberg, Drummond Robinson and Tony Wickens. Chris’s fears were
immediately dissipated and he settled in very quickly. Now years later he is still in touch with
Terry Ray, now living in Toronto and Terry Rosenberg living in Durban, and he regularly sees
Tony and Drummond.
The head of the school was Brother Anthony who was very much the king during that era. Br
Anthony had formerly been the head of the prep school in PE and was a strong leader, very
astute and had the skill of being able to harness both educational and administrative skills. He
had the firm commitment from the parent body and others outside of the school and of course
the boys too. His nickname was “Aunges” because of his Scottish pronunciation of oranges.
Chris a day boy, played cricket, was very keen, a member of the first team. He went on to play
serious cricket when he left school. Due to a knee injury he did not participate in rugby but
played hockey and tennis, ran the mile and represented the school in cross-country but was not
a good swimmer. He recalled a chap in his class Roy Hutton who gained Springbok colours for
swimming. Chris was steady academically and achieved a first class matric, B level.
The main events that stand out, were the mass on the closing of Koch Street and the launch of
Marion College. Several thousand pupils wearing the Marist uniforms and what seemed like
hundreds of brothers were around, and photos of the event were carried in the local press. The
Mass was held in the Catholic Cathedral near to Koch Street.
In 1964 he recalls the first St David’s Old Boy to be ordained as a priest – Michael Linden who
celebrated his first mass in the old chapel.
Chris Terreblanche was the head boy in 1964, he became a doctor and died tragically on a run
5 years ago (2006). He was an extraordinary boy and man, handsome, charismatic,
intellectually gifted and a great athlete, sprinter. He recalled him beating against all odds, Paul
Nash, the glamour sprinter from Michaelhouse, at nationals.
In standard 9 he remembers a guest speaker at prize giving, Prof Bozzolli who was then the
vice-chancellor of Wits University. He made a powerful speech in which he said that the word
school is a collective noun as a school is made up of pupils, teachers, ground staff etc. This
speech probably coloured Chris’s attitude and loyalty to St David’s.
On leaving St David’s he went into the army, completed his army service and went on to study
economics at Wits University. His first job was with Anglo American as a junior economist. At
that time he was involved in politics, Zac De Beer being his boss, who later became a member
of parliament for the Progressive party. Chris stood as a candidate and experienced problems
with the security police spending a night in police custody. Much to his relief he was released
the following morning, unlike many other hapless individuals who were held for much longer
periods. Later he worked as a financial journalist and met his wife Pam who was a ballet dancer
with Pact, as was his sister Ann. He had 3 sons and 2 daughters. He ended up in the financial
world with the Standard Bank Group for many years and now does consultancy work for the
financial services board. All his 3 sons taught at St David’s at some stage in their careers and
currently Ian is still teaching here. His grandchild, Owen is registered to start in grade 00 and
will carry on the Busschau tradition now 5th generation.
Chris has continued to be involved with the school and was a member of the old boys on
leaving. There was a monthly pub night at the old Balalaika Hotel, stag dinners, dinner dances
and he watched the rugby matches and attended some of the athletic meetings. He became
more involved when Patrick started at the school. The infamous John Murphy was head when
he started in the prep school. Chris eventually was invited onto various committees and was
involved with fund raising activities and the Busschau family traditionally ran the hamburger
stand. He was eventually elected onto the PTA in 1989 until 1999. He was
vice-chairman for 5 -6 years and then became chairman from 1995 to 1999 and, as result also
served on the board of governors. He has been a member of the old boys committee for the
past 10 years.
Chris is also a member of the Liturgical Executive of the SA Catholic Bishops Conference, and a
member of the finance committee that handles justice and peace programmes. He is also
chairman of the board of Radio Veritas.
Other items of interest:
Br Edwin, head from 1950 until 1957, had family connections with Neil McGurk, who is now
living in Durban. Neil was extremely talented, an SA schools cricketer who became a brother.
He has doctorate in nuclear physics and used to fly to Harvard every year and oversee a final
programme for the students there.
In the old boy’s Magazine, about 3-4 years ago is an article about the legendary matrics who
stole exam papers.
Darryl Boswell had a nervous breakdown and couldn’t cope and hence Trudy Elliot was
appointed Acting Head for the final term in 1988
JE August 2011

Interview with Craig Wallington – 2007
Craig began his career at St David’s in 1995 at the age of 6 in grade 0. In his matric year, he
recalled that there were more boys than in previous years who had completed 13 years at
the school.
Craig’s first teacher was Mrs Sternberg and she left at the end of his year as did his teachers
for grade1, 2 and 3 but he felt redeemed when Mrs Jones in grade 4 stayed on! He has fond
memories of his grade 0 class with prayers before lunch. One of the boys accused another
of having his eyes open during prayers to which Mrs Sternberg replied “How do you know”?
Craig particularly enjoyed grade 4 with Heather Joseph as his Art teacher. He enjoyed the
sport and was the vice captain of cricket in grade 5 and swimming in grade 7. He played
tennis and hockey. At St David’s you got to do everything and, although not a phenomenal
sports person, he played sport every term.
Craig was a member of “The Bishops” from grade 0 to grade 9 but when he chose to study
Zulu instead of Afrikaans he had to move to “Osmond”. Zulu was very new to St David’s with
Mrs Ntombeni the teacher. Eventually Craig decided to go back to Afrikaans at the beginning
of the third term in grade 10. He set his mind to mastering the subject and was awarded the
subject prize in matric.
Teachers who made an impression on him were Mr McIver in grade 5 and 6, Mr Midgley
who taught Maths in grade 7 and Mrs Everson, English. In the high school all the teachers
were really good and Craig couldn’t really point out anyone in particular but Ms D King was
very helpful, also Simon Holderness who taught Maths and was his tutor. Mrs Nagy was
brilliant and Craig believed that her class dynamics were really good. The standard was high
and Craig started study groups with the grade 8’s in the library for the final exams. Craig
achieved academically throughout his time at St David’s.
Craig was involved with public speaking, debating, chess- captain, junior city council where
he met his current girlfriend, annual book quizzes and study groups. Anything you wanted to
achieve was possible and even more so now with Music and Art. He was involved with the
SMILE programme which he found to be an amazing experience. Craig enjoyed St David’s
as there were so many different ways in which one could excel. He was recognised for his
achievements in an environment where academics are recognised and sport did not override
that.
As for the school camps the only one he really enjoyed was the grade 4 Bush Pigs camp.
The grade 9 camp was also super with good leadership experience and a great spirit of
adventure. Craig learnt a lot about himself, although it was a terrifying experience most of
the time. In grade 10 they went hiking in the Drakensberg which he felt was madness and
ended up often hiking alone. The grade 11 camp he recalls was wet and very muddy, it
poured with rain the whole time. They had to cross a bridge to get into the camp and their
shoes were absolutely caked with mud.
Although most of his experiences at St David’s were generally good he does remember that
in grade 9, all the boys were punished when only a few didn’t attend the inter house Music
competition. The matric group that year wasn’t great.
His closest friends were also with him from grade 0, Gianluca Sacco, Connor Williams,
Duncan Otridge and Daniel Chappel, they are now even better friends than they were at
school. He also remembers Benjamin Ndimurukundu in grade 11 with whom he played
doubles, tennis and working together with Tyson Sithole,
Craig felt that St David’s fosters a learning attitude with the influences the teachers had, they
were so accommodating especial when Craig decided to take Accounts as an extra subject.
However a school cannot prepare you for everything and at university one had more
responsibility for one’s self.
Craig became a prefect was awarded honours for academics and (general academics,
cultural and leadership).
On a personal level Craig remembers bumping into Paul Edey when he was in grade 6, Paul
saying “I hear you are the next Daniel Wright”. Craig always studied since grade 8 and
always worked on something beyond his immediate objective and received continuous
positive reinforcement. His goal in matric was to come first in Afrikaans which he achieved,
winning the Buckley-Jones trophy for Afrikaans. Craig was always winning prizes throughout
his school career and in grade 12 was awarded the BR Hunt Trophy for Dux of the school
and the following trophies:
Walter Cronje Trophy for Additional Mathematics; the Phillimore Trophy for English; the
Matric 1991 Trophy for Biology; Thomas McFadden Trophy for History; Mayat Trophy for
Computer Studies; Ryder Bowl for Academic Achievement and the Gian-Paolo Pera
Accounting Prize.
The matric Dance was very special with the grade 11’s organising an amazing event “Cirque
De Soleil”. Marc Neto was head of the MDC and Graham Gallow gave his speech
acknowledging the fact that everyone was there and being a very close knit group.
On leaving St David’s Craig studied for a B Acc Science and was in the top twenty on four
occasions. He completed his honours and in his 2nd year Account articles but is in his first
year at PWC.
Craig is a member of MOBs and would definitely send any sons to St David’s.
JLE June 2013

Historical collection

Interview with Dave Smith – Staff – 1997 to date
Dave came to St David’s from Bryanston High School in 1997 as head of the Geography department. His
first impression of the school was that it was very small having come from a big co-ed high school with
1300 pupils to teach two matric classes with 5 pupils in one and 12 in the other whereas Bryanston had
three classes with 30 pupils in each. Currently 60 to 70 pupils take Geography as a matric subject which
shows the growth in the number of pupils attending the school.
Paul Edey was the headmaster and together with Kevin Brewer, chairman of the board, motivated the
development plan for the school. At the time the quad housed an ablution block and the pavilion was a
Zozo hut! The school wasn’t very competitive apart from cricket but is now very competitive and is in the
top echelon of the pantheon of boys’ schools.
The leadership programme has grown enormously. In 1997 Dave took all the matrics to a camp in the
Magaliesburg and now there are camps for every grade. The camp, specifically for the prefects with the
main focus on leadership has also grown and now any matric can get a leadership scroll other than
prefects. Thirty two matrics in 2012 received leadership scrolls.
Dave was appointed housemaster of College house in 2000 and senior deputy headmaster in 2003
overseeing student affairs and school administration. He is also editor of the school magazine and sees not
just the physical changes in the school but in the number of pupils and the range of activities on offer. St
David’s has become one of the top boys’ schools worldwide with the vision that was created by Paul Edey
and continued by Malcolm Williams. However the school does have an achilles heel, rugby.
Dave believes St David’s to be an incredibly happy school with the boys having their own identity. There is
a sense of tradition and what makes a good tradition. One regret Dave has is that he gave up mentoring
the matrics when he became deputy headmaster.
On the staff, the characters he has encountered include the likes of Rod Smith, Belinda Marais and Annika
Carter to name but a few. Malcolm William’s concept of “Presence” has been unbelievable and the energy
he put into everything he did.
JLE December 2013

Interview with Emma Sithole – Staff – 1982 to date
At the age of 28, Emma joined the support staff of St David’s as Head Cleaner. She was interviewed by
Willem Van Der Merwe and reported to him. She also used to cook for the brothers when Richard or
Mjomle were away.
In those days the committee room was the brothers dining room and the staff workroom was the kitchen
and pantry. The original walk in fridge is still in existence in the tuck shop kitchen. The tuck shop was the
mothers’ kitchen and catering equipment was stored there. The current administration offices were
originally the brothers’ chapel, kitchen and dining room.
The brothers’ lunch usually consisted of soup followed by fruit. Later when Julius was away Emma would
prepare sandwiches for the brothers and staff.
Emma didn’t live on the school premises as she had six children to care for and lived in Alexandra
Township. Life was not easy for her bringing up her children during difficult and different times.
In 1991 Emma took over from Julius, cleaning the tuck shop, helping the mothers and working together with
Enoch Mhlongo. Mrs Van Guilleaume ran the tuck shop and the ladies entertainment committee with Victor
Shibambu joining the staff later.
Over the years Emma saw a lot of changes with Shelly Watson coming in then Jon Jon Dry. The tuck shop
now not only caters for the staff everyday and for individual functions but also provides meals on a daily
basis for some of the boys. Emma still makes the sandwiches and some salads for the staff. She misses
Shelly who retired last year and regarded her as a friend and mentor who took care of her.
When Emma retires she would very much like to help and do the cooking for an orphanage near her home
looking after the children with no parents and some that have aids.
Emma retired in 2015
JLE 2014

Interview with Eric Annegaarn – board Member 1998 – 2004
Eric, whose son Bjorn was a pupil at St David’s and matriculated in 2002, was a member of the board of
governors from 1998 and was elected chairman for 2003 and 2004, taking over from Tony Reilly.
Eric used to question “Why do so many non-Catholic parents wish to enrol their sons at St David’s, a
Catholic school?” which gained a lot of momentum with the “Beyond Our Gates” project and motivated Rick
Wilson to encourage Eric to join the board. When Eric resigned from the board, Tony Chappell took over
the reins.
Eric’s priority was to speed up the process and to get rid of some of the formalities. He aimed to revitalise
the board which he felt had become moribund. The board got tied up with all sorts of issues including ethics
and overseas tours. Eric set up committees to which much of this work was delegated and the board could
then make decisions without long discussions and debate late into the night. Janet Seeland and Father
Michael were members of the committee debating the issue of school tours, the cost to the individual,
fundraising activities, levies on school fees etc.
Projects such as the astro turf and the chapel took ages. Issues such as to whether the school was
regarded as a charitable institution and, in that case were donations tax free? The board also had to report
to the IEB, the government’s Department of Education and to Rome and now to the Marist Schools Council.
The board had to continue a relationship with the Marist Brothers in Rome and various important issues
came up such as who owned the school property and where were the Title Deeds?
Eric had a good relationship with Paul Edey who was not an administrator. When Paul was made executive
headmaster Malcolm Williams was appointed Headmaster.
Eric worked at the school with Paul Edey four days a week from 4.00 until 8.00pm with Rob Smith heading
the development committee.
The planning for the Foundation which took an enormous amount of time was during Eric’s tenure as
chairman of the board and the re-naming of the school which also involved a lot of time and debate.
JLE March 2015

Interview with Father Michael 1999 – 2007
At the end of 1998 Father Brewer had retired because of advancing lung cancer. Father Michael
had left Rivonia having completed a 10 year contract 1988 – 98 and was in London on long
leave in May 1998 staying at the Jesuit church, Farm Street when he was told that Father
Brewer had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. There were boys at St David’s whose families
were parishioners and he was sometimes invited to functions at the school. As he had always
liked the school, he offered his services and was accepted as chaplain.
He had taught in three Jesuit schools when younger and he prided himself that he never had to
use corporal punishment on the boys and always managed to subdue them with a look or a
tongue lashing. At St David’s he joined the RE department and taught RE to the matrics and
then to grade 8. It is difficult teaching a subject that is not counted for marks so this provided the
opportunity for some boys to misbehave. Also this teaching caused him to be regarded as a
teacher and member of staff rather than as chaplain and priest.
Father Michael considered that extra-curricular activities were important occasions to interact
with and get to know the boys, so he was involved with debating, public speaking and was time
keeper at the swimming galas and judged inter-house plays together with Julie Egenrieder. He
had a good relationship with Paul Edey.
After he had a knee replacement, he became rather unstable having no sideways movement
and boys like Greg Hammond would see him coming and clear a path for him. They were
spontaneous and protected him. He had a good relationship with a number of boys.
high school mass was held on Thursdays, before the chapel was built was celebrated in the
Champagnat hall on a table on the stage. There were volunteer teams to transfer the
requirements for mass to the hall and to return them to the sacristy afterwards. They were
faithful and utterly reliable.
He remembered Stuart Fould’s production of “Guards, Guards” by Terry Pratchett and felt
strongly that there really wasn’t any acting just a lot of shouting. Gareth Dry’s gift to the school
was instituting musicals of such a professional standard which revived interest and brought new
energy into the school. It was Paul Edey’s idea to get a musical component into the school and
the musical for 2006 was “West Side Story” with David Schneider taking the male lead role and
managing the aria when Maria is dying. It’s a very difficult aria and without, any musical
background, David pulled it off. Father Michael found it very emotional and was very involved.
In 2007, Gareth Dry approached him with the request to put on a musical “Jesus Christ
Superstar” and asked him if he would have any objection to such a controversial musical. Father
Michael said he would use the occasion to catechise on the gospel events to instruct the boys.
He and Gareth were on the same wavelength and at no stage did he have to say this is
inappropriate. However a former pupil, Deneys Williamson living in the States sent an email
complaining about the musical. Father Michael decided to ignore it and the irony was that his
younger brother Alex Williamson played one of the high priests in the show. Kylo Molefe played
Jesus Christ and found the part to be very emotional for him and for the cast. It was also difficult
for a boy like Kylo to be head boy but he had the support and the ability to handle it.
Father Michael is rather proud of the organ that was donated to the school for use in the new
Chapel of Mary. It is apparently one of the best organs in any school in Johannesburg if not in
the country. He thought it would be appropriate for it to be used for recitals and mentioned
Cameron Upchurch (St John’s) who is teaching a number of boys to play and also plays the
organ at the university church on a Sunday.
JE August 2011

Interview with Gareth Kolkenbeck-Ruh – 2003
Gareth came to St David’s in 1999 from Rembrandt Park Primary School. Gareth’s father was a devout
catholic and Gareth had had experience of the school when it hosted various primary school sporting
events, and he liked what he saw.
He remembers that on his first day he was collected from the “Thatch” by prefects and taken to the
amphitheatre, he was overwhelmed by both the size of the prefects and that of the school. As he was the
only pupil coming from Rembrandt Park he didn’t know anyone but by the end of the day he began to fit it.
The grade 8 camp was a great ice breaker and initiative where he got to know everyone. After three days
the grade 8 boys went off to camp during their second week at St David’s. Belonging to a specific house
gave you an immediate identity and Gareth was selected for Osmond.
Initially the jump in academics was quite a shock but the teachers helped to make it manageable. It was at
first strange coming from a co-ed environment into a monastic one but by the end of the first term Gareth
was enjoying the change. He now firmly believes it to be a good thing to be in an all boys environment
during high school. He grew not only academically but learnt how to be a man in today’s society which he
appreciated enormously.
The teachers he remembers in particular are Shane Gaffney, Graeme McMillan who was at times quite
scary, Rod Smith, Colleen Kennedy and Paul Edey. They were good role models and one of the reasons
why Gareth has chosen teaching as his profession.
His last year as head boy was an unbelievable year as far as the sport was concerned. St David’s won the
Johnny Waite Cricket, had an unbeaten soccer side, and the rugby team beat KES and Jeppe on their
home territories for the first time. Gareth believes that, especially in a boys school, if the sport is going well
then the general school vibe reflects that and is good and positive.
Gareth had heard that the position of head boy was a lonely one, however he had massive support from his
peer group and, so far it was the most enjoyable year of his life. He had a good relationship with Paul Edey
and Malcolm Williams who took over the headship in 2003.
Gareth was captain of soccer and cricket teams and was awarded honours for soccer, cricket and general
honours.
He played provincial cricket U17 and U19 and had a professional contract with Wits University for one year
in 2003.
Academically, Gareth did very well and earned 3 A’s and 3 B’s in his matric. Dave Smith helped him to
catch up on the Geography syllabus in the matric year as Gareth needed the subject to enable him entry to
the USA. The teaching staff was always willing to go the extra mile for the boys. Gareth was awarded a
Champagnat Medal and won the Brother Edwin Award for Cricketer of the Year; the St David’s Marist old
Boys Soccer Trophy; the Desmond Schatz Trophy for Sportsman of the Year; the Old Boys Trophy for
Leadership and Promotion of the Marist Spirit and the Osmond Cup for study, sport and leadership.
After matriculating, Gareth went on a soccer scholarship to the US to Gannon University in Pennsylvania
for three and half years. He studied for a BA English and PGCE or Postgraduate Certificate in Education,
graduating Suma Cum Laude.. He was tempted to stay in the US but his family was still here in South
Africa and in the US the educational system is different and teachers don’t coach sport. He returned to
South Africa and taught English in the high school from 2008 -9 and went on to KES in 2010 and became
head of English there in 2012. He was appointed deputy head of the primary school at St David’s in 2014,
is learning a lot from Willy Castle with good systems in place.
Gareth was also instrumental in getting soccer up and running in the high school together with Shane
Gaffney in 2002 into 2003.
Gareth is an active member of MOBS .
JLE March 2014

Interview – Gary Norton – Staff
Gary was a member of staff at St David’s from 1989 until 1996 when he was acting headmaster.
He then went to Oakhill in Knysna before returning to take up his current post as headmaster of
Marion College.
He recalls that his sons Ryan and Shaun, together with the Edey boys started cleaning up the
reservoir adding fish and feeding the ducks.
In 1994/5 there was a combined Biology/Geography trip for the grade 9’s (then standard 7) that
he made together with Father Brewer to Groot Marico. They used a farm as their base, it was
very wild and the boys had to make their own toilets and wash their utensils properly. Gary told
the boys that they had to have a knife and to make sure that they didn’t get hurt as there were
no facilities or anaesthetic if needed. On the Saturday, early evening he and Father Brewer
were relaxing when Gareth Simaan, Robbie Tait and Murray White came to them. Gareth said
Murray had cut his hand. Thinking that the boys were conning them, it didn’t look real, they told
them to go away. However, when they had a good look at the hand they saw how serious it
was. They bandaged him up as best they could, got on the bus and, with Father Brewer got to
Ventersdorp where they got directions to a doctor. They had to open a gate and two large
alsatians came running toward them, they managed to get past them and find the doctor who
wasn’t impressed saying “You guys from town don’t know anything”. So the hand was stitched
up without anaesthetic just as Gary had warned the boys!
There was another memorable trip to Hoedspruit, Blydepoort, also a Biology/Geography camp.
On the Sunday the boys were playing touch rugby by the pool and Bradley Geldenhuys
managed to break his foot. During this camp an impala was shot and the boys had to cut it up,
bleed it and make a potjie. They also went hunting as a part of a culling exercise. One of the
boys was stung by a scorpion, very venomous with urotoxic venom; fortunately they managed to
treat it. Bradley Geldenhuys then disappeared, at 3am, he saw a zebra and went to pat it and it
promptly kicked Bradley on the head. On leaving they had a chicken parade, checking no
rubbish was left behind when Bradley called out that he had seen something in the grass – Gary
promptly told them all to get on the bus!
On another occasion, one of the teachers, Robin Henderson took the grade 8 boys to the
weather station; he came back in tears as they had been so badly behaved. Gary summoned all
the boys and asked them to write down who was really naughty. He then dismissed the boys but
told them that if they had been naughty they should come to his classroom. Out of 75 boys, 72
went to his classroom and when he asked one of the smaller boys why he was there to get a
hiding, he replied that he thought he had better come just in case his name was on the list.
Another pupil, Kieran Rowan was diagnosed with leukaemia and Gary remembers telling him to
think that, like Pacman, his cells were gobbling up the cancer – he survived and is still alive.
On a Friday afternoons Gary would take some of the boys fishing and many of the naughty boys
would come along. Gary recalls asking one boy why his father never came and fished with him,
he replied that his father did spend one afternoon with him but told him he had given up
R15 000 he would have earned had he been working instead. Needless to say the boy didn’t
ask his father again.
Gary’s wife Alison is a prep school teacher at St David’s
JE August 2011