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Interview with Peter Wharton-Hood 1983

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  • 2014

Peter Wharton-Hood – 1983
In 1977 Peter came from Clifton Preparatory, Durban to St David’s into standard 4 as Peter’s father had
been transferred by Liberty Life to Johannesburg. Peter would never forget his first day being interviewed
by George Manolios and his impression of the school was of a pristine, big and beautiful place.
His first teachers included Mrs Kenesovitch; Heather Joseph who all the boys were in love with and of
course Willy Castle. Peter did well academically winning many subject prizes in the prep.
Other pupils he was friendly with at the time were Andrew Forsmann; Mark Forsmann; Mark Attieh; Garth
Ritchie; Duncan Senior and teachers in the high school were Mr Walsh who taught Maths; Tom
MacFadden a brilliant History teacher, there were 12 in his class and 10 got A’s in matric; Mr P Colia –
Maths; Mr Boswell – Afrikaans; Gavin Neft the Afrikaans teacher who had a great swing when hitting the
boys and Sven Retslaf.
Brother Anthony was around for a while in 1982 and Br Timothy (Tin Man) was headmaster until 1981.The
changes in the leadership of the school from 1982 with first Mr Murphy, then Mr Freilick as headmaster
created chaos in the school with Peter’s class became fragmented being in the epicentre.
The sport was brilliant and Peter was fortunate to play in the Transvaal schools cricket side and was
captain of the 1st XI in 1983. Peter also played 1st team rugby in 1982 and 1983 and was a member of the
Debating team in 1983, led by Mrs Trudie Elliot. Peter also went with a group of boys to assist at the
squatter camp in Slough, Kuruman which was run by Br Anthony.
Peter recalls many memorable school tours, among them the junior school cricket tour to the Eastern Cape
and the rugby tour to St Charles, Durban. He was a member of the provincial cricket team in the prep,
played in the Coca Cola week and Beckwith week with the U15’s but missed Nuffield.
Peter was awarded colours for cricket and rugby and received 6 A’s with distinction in matric. He was also
elected deputy head boy. Peter believes that he owes a huge debt to St David’s and couldn’t have had a
better start in life, it’s what shaped him as a person giving him a balanced , religious upbringing with a
strong academic base accompanied by the discipline to play sport as well. The school was ideally suited
to Peter and the times that the country was going through. Peter feels strongly that he was blessed to have
had the chance to attend such a school. St David’s also enabled him to discern the right choice of career
having undergone an aptitude test in standard 9, he was initially thinking of becoming a doctor or an
actuary but the test came out strongly in favour of accountancy.
It was a tough school to grow up in and getting caned was part of the deal. Some of the boys used to put
notches in their ties every time they were caned, a bit of a status symbol. There were many funny moments
but Peter won’t mention them in order to protect the guilty parties!
Peter believes that he was assisted through scholarships in some shape or form whilst he was at St David’s
and feels he repaid his debt by lecturing at Wits on a part-time basis from 1989 until 1999 and is currently a
trustee on the Chartered Accountants’ Eden Trust.
After matriculating, Peter went to Wits University to write a BComm then Hons, followed by a CTA and CA
(SA). He completed his articles with Price Waterhouse then, in 1987 he went to Harvard as part of the
advanced management programme. He then became the Edcon group financial executor and in 1997
moved on to Standard Bank as financial director of the Standard Corporate and Merchant Banking division
of Standard Bank and ended up as the group deputy chief executive and chief operating officer of the
Standard Bank Group and a member of the board of directors of Liberty Life and the Standard Bank Group.
In 2013 he was appointed chief executive of Deutsche Bank SA.
Peter was involved with corporate outreach activities through Standard Bank which was the biggest single
contributor to a broad based BBE company Tutuwa and Deutsche Bank is involved with the SA Foundation.
Peter is a member of MOBS, last visited the school in 2003 for the fireworks, is married to Sarah and has
two daughters, Emily born 1999 and Beatrice 2003. Had he had sons they would most certainly have
attended St David’s.
Peter is keen to become more involved with the school, business commitments allowing.
JE October 2014

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Peter Stringer 1966 - 1974 Staff

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  • 2013

Interview with Peter Stringer – 1966 – 74 - staff cricket coach
Peter played professional cricket for Yorkshire and was brought out to South Africa by the Wanderer’s club
who paid for his airfare and he had free accommodation at St David’s. He travelled here by sea on the
Union Castle line. The first stop was Southampton to Las Palmas and Cape Town, then with the “Blue
Train” to Johannesburg. The return fare was R480 then when the Rand was two to one Pound. He coached
from September until the end of March each year until he moved to SA permanently in 1971.
Br Anthony was the headmaster and Br Andrew, who was Spanish, was in charge of the grounds and had
never even seen cricket played until he came to South Africa. Br Timothy was on the staff and Br Bosco.
Willy Castle was a pupil at the time. When Peter first arrived at the school, the dining room was full of about
16 brothers but by the time he left there were only about 4. A young brother came out and had never seen
cricket played before. After watching a practice one day he asked that the stumps be left and grabbed a
ball, kept on trying to bowl and then run after the ball. After about 10 minutes of this activity he brought the
stumps back declaring that this was a tough game!
Willem Van der Merwe was working at the school then and Peter remembers him seeing some renovations
of Rosebank where paving was being ripped up and replaced. He enquired where it was going and how
much they were paying for dumping it and arranged for it to be “dumped” at St David’s where he used
them. Willem also converted the dormitories into classrooms after the boarding closed and saved the
school a significant amount of money when he built the swimming pool stands.
Peter recalled a cocktail party at the school to welcome the new headmaster, Mr Murphy who claimed to
have played rugby for Lancashire. Peter used a facility next to the Lancashire rugby grounds and knew
many of the players and found it interesting that when Murphy heard this he quickly moved away and didn’t
wish to chat to him any further.
The initial fields were where the prep school playing fields are now. Lee McGregor who became a
Springbok swimmer was a pupil at the school. His father owned an earthmoving equipment company and
when the school purchased the Love farm, he purchased two old bulldozers which he serviced and, under
his supervision, were used to create the cricket oval. Peter recalled that Br Anthony asked how big the
Wanderer’s cricket oval was and made sure that St David’s was bigger. Wanderers enjoyed playing on the
St David’s oval.
At the opening of the oval in 1970 a professional cricket team was put together and played against the
school team. As it was so dry and Br Anthony being a perfectionist, he organised that the pitch was painted
green for the opening. The day was overcast and rain threatened but after the Bishop blessed the oval, the
sun came out and a wonderful day was had by all. Dicken Bird, the famous umpire was a member of the
professional team.
Peter saw the ghost rumoured to haunt the Love farmhouse. Peter was sleeping in the house before
leaving early for the Kruger Park with Don Wilson and Barry Leadbeater. He woke up sensing someone
was in the room, sat up and saw an old lady who just faded away. Chris Clifford who coached cricket and
taught Maths slept in the same room with his wife one night and she woke up screaming claiming someone
was in the room but she didn’t see the ghost.
Peter was Wanderers cricket coach for 42 years. He was also the convener for SA universities cricket and
coached the likes of Hansie Cronje, Jonty Rhodes and Andrew Hudson. At Wanderers he also coached
Brian Macmillan, who went on to play for South Africa. On another occasion he was asked by the MD of
Whitbread if he would coach the Wits university team 2 days a week in exchange for a few free beers.
Peter remembers a large beer truck drawing up at the school with 30 dozen beers. Needless to say a
certain amount of partying was done and Br Anthony and Br Andrew also joined in.
The cricket at St David’s was good in Peter’s day and he remembers bowling St Stithians out for 17.
Harry Curtis was the fast bowler but had to play in tackies as he couldn’t get cricket shoes to fit him, size

  1. Peter had some shoes made for him in Northampton, England and remembers paying R7 for them.
    John Peel, Terry Lavery, Chris Stanle, Glyn O’Leary, Peter Moni, Patrick Quarmby Frank Cattich, Greg
    Boys Varley, Mike Stanley and Alan Reeves were some of the school’s cricketers. Peter coached Alan’s
    son.
    Peter remembered the Marist cricket week. Joe Stravino was selected for Transvaal, became captain and
    was vice captain for the A side Nuffield cricket. Mike Smith who came from an Italian family was also a
    keen cricketer.
    Peter started the rugby in the primary school and coached the Peel brothers for 3 years. The team played
    U13, U14 and U15’s and they didn’t lose a game until grade 6.
    Peter often looked after the boarders and played indoor soccer with them in the old tuckshop.
    When Peter first came to St David’s, it was considered really far out, there was no Sandton and Rivonia
    was a village. The chapel was upstairs and the swimming pool was where the after care is now. Piet the
    school cook was the “Boss” who ran the school kitchen. He used to take the pumpkin and butternuts seeds
    and send them down to his family in Natal. He was a big man and if he lost his temper all the staff scattered
    and ran out of the kitchen.
    Peter finally left St David’s because he clashed with Br Timothy the then headmaster, swimming and rugby
    were his sports. Peter went on to King David’s, Victory Park for 20 years and has been coach at Trinity
    College for the past 12 years. He left SA in 1980 after his mother died and opened up a butcher’s shop with
    his brother which is where he met his wife Maureen and they married in 1985.
    Ronnie Carr was also a cricket coach at St David’s for a number of years. He owned a butcher’s shop in
    Darrenwood but got tired of it and asked Peter to help him become a coach.
    JLE October 2013

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Peter Scott 1970

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  • 2013

Interview with Peter Scott- 1970
Peter came to St David’s in 1969 as a day boy having moved up from Durban where he had
attended Northlands Boys’ High and had been streamed to study Maths.
Peter had an interview with Br Anthony who made a place for him. Peter’s father was employed
by Barclays Bank as was Angus Band’s father and Peter spent a week’s holiday with Angus
before starting at Marist Inanda. It was quite a change coming from a government school into a
private one, he was no longer just a number, everyone knew you and Peter enjoyed the
friendship and the smaller classes; for Biology there only 8 of them in a class.
Peter recalled that Br Anthony was a wonderful man whom he respected, he was strict but fair.
He had a saying that all roads lead to Damelin and as a form of discipline every time a boy
committed a misdemeanour he would first add their name to a transfer card. Next would come
the address and so on until the card was complete and the boy was then out of St David’s.
Br Timothy taught Biology in a didactic manner; Br Bosco (Mario) Science, he was a great
teacher who gave classes after school for the more advanced pupils. Br Patrick – English; Br
Andrew (Drac) who was very strict; Br Michael – Maths and Mr Kalifi, an electrical engineer
turned teacher who taught Maths and Applied Maths. Lex Fernhead was the Biology teacher in
standard 9 and taught the boys as if they were at university level. He gained a Phd, ran the
Durban aquarium and then started the Two Oceans in Cape Town.
Fellow pupils were Kevin McPherson who became an architect, was very good at drawing
caricatures and drew one of Br Mario on the blackboard. Peter Elliot, Alec Chemaly (both
cyclists); Keith Shaw who was head boy, now living in Cape Town and involved in tv work
having done an excellent series for the BBC on Mandela. Kim Small, a good ruby player is now
farming in KwaZulu Natal. Peter often works together with another MOB, Greg Boyes-Varley
and Francis Gibbons and he were best man at each other’s wedding and still keep in touch
today.
Peter wore his hair as long as he could, the maximum allowed, which led Br Anthony to
comment at a prize giving – “grow it, you might lose it one day!” In those days the prize giving
was held under the trees on the south side of the school.
Socially the boys would meet up with the girls from Rosebank Convent and Parktown Convent
with the girls coming to the rugby matches. There was also a coffee club on Friday nights at the
Rosebank Catholic church for teenagers aged 14 to 16 with dancing and socialising but no
alcohol. Peter got quite involved with this and used to organise the music until he was in his
second year at university.
On the sporting front Peter was a runner together with John Williams, his best being the 400m,
however Willy Castle was a better runner. He was a member of the 5th team rugby in standard 9
and in the 3rd team in matric. There was a good spirit and Peter enjoyed the rugby, playing
against CBC Boksburg and CBC Springs which was quite a journey taking two or more hours in
the school buses. Peter remembered a controversial match against St John’s, where everyone
believed that the referee was biased and the Marist boys chased the St John’s team up to the
bell tower. St David’s didn’t play against St John’s for a number of years after that incident.
Peter was also a student officer in the cadets. The drill team came second in the
championships. Mrs Moni organised all the uniforms and the boys had to travel standing up so
as not to crease them before the competition.
Peter recalled a weekend in Henley on Klip for school leavers prior to their matric study week.
They were allowed to drink beer and John Moni was rather bleary eyed on the bus trip home.
There was a three week marine biology trip to Chidenguele, Mozambique where the boys had
an amazing time.
Peter participated in the “Business Game” with his team doing well coming second that year
when Michaelhouse won. Other members of the team Kevin Ryan and Richard Collier went to
do well in business.
The matric dance had the theme of Venice and was catered by Fattis and Monis with the after
party held at John Moni’s home.
Academically, Peter did well and achieved 3 distinctions for his JMB matric. He walked away
with all the prizes with the exception of Afrikaans.
After matriculating Peter went to Wits university to study Medicine, delaying his stint in the army
when he did his two years military service as a doctor on the Angolan border and in mission
hospitals in Natal. He studied Medicine and a BSc Hons in Bio Chemistry simultaneously,
graduating in 1978 doing his housemanship at the Johannesburg hospital. He lectured in
Anatomy for a year with Philip Tobias then started his career and did 6 months as a senior
house officer in plastic surgery and then specialised in general surgery and plastic surgery up
until 1986 when he graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh. He then
underwent 2 years as a consultant at the Johannesburg hospital and began his own private
practice in 1988. He is still heavily involved with teaching and is on the executive committee of
the Association of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons of South Africa and is a member of the
world body of plastic surgeons which involves a lot of travelling and teaching.
On a personal level he is interested in archaeology as a result of his friendship with Philip
Tobias and is a keen cyclist. Peter is married with three children, two daughters and a son who
went to St John’s – his wife, who is a teacher chose the schools and Peter selected the doctors!
One of his daughters is likely to follow him into the field of Medicine.
JLE April 2013

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Peter Moni 1967

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  • 2013

Interview with Peter Moni – 1967
Peter came to St David’s as a boarder in grade 1 having spent the year before at CBC Kimberly
where he learnt a lot although CBC didn’t have the same facilities as St David’s. Peter thought
that the boarding school structure was good for him. His brothers Adrian ’69, John’ 70 and Paul
’80 were all pupils at St David’s and Peter’s father was also a Marist old boy from Koch Street
and was head boy of Marist Observatory.
Peter remembers teachers such as Mrs Brick, Mrs Green, Mrs Janusch and Mrs Kempster.
Peter enjoyed the prep school coming from a large family and enjoyed playing soccer and swam
but didn’t play cricket. He remembers having supper in the dining room and also playing
volleyball there.
In the high school, Peter participated in athletics, swimming and rugby, playing in 45 1st team
rugby games from standard 8. Peter enjoyed the tours such as the centenary rugby tour to
Cape Town where an open air mass was held at St Joseph’s. The rugby matches against
Observatory were also a phenomenal experience and Peter also ran and swam against Obs
although Inanda was better at cricket and hockey than was Observatory. In those days Jeppe,
Parktown Boys and Observatory were the big rugby schools.
In high school he remembered the Brothers Anthony; Timothy; Andrew (Drac); Liam; Ignatius;
Augustus; Bonaventure; Edmund; Bartholemew; Sean; Vincent; Aidan and McGurk. Br Andrew
was in charge of Peter’s dormitory. Of his classmates, Joe Strevino became a good cricketer,
and he is still in touch with Gabriel Simaan, Terry Lavery, now living in Seattle, Derek
Schoombie and Peter De Kock.
After matric Peter went into the family business, Fatti’s and Moni’s dealing with industrial
relations until it was sold in 1981. He now runs his own tour operations business – Firelight
Tours and often deals with groups of American students from Furman University, South
Carolina who come to South Africa to study aids and the inter-relationships between white and
black people. He enjoys his work and the different aspects of it.
Peter’s son John matriculated from St David’s in 2009 and is currently studying for a BSc Hons
in Finance at UJ. Peter believes that the quality of education at St David’s has improved
enormously over the years.
JLE February 2013

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Peter Loffell 1960

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  • 2012

Interview with Peter Loffell (1960)
Peter first attended St David’s in 1948 in grade 1 as a day boy. He was in a section in the junior
school with four classrooms with two grades within one classroom. This was separate from the
main school which had a series of classrooms in a horse shoe shape facing east, with the
dormitories facing north. The infirmary windows overlooked the swimming pool and McGill
Love’s farm. On the western side was the dining room and on the southern side, downstairs
were the headmaster’s office and about 2 classrooms. Standard 4, 5 and 6 were upstairs and
standard 7, 8, 9 and 10 downstairs. At that time the school had 300 pupils.
Peter used to go to the McGill Love’s place of 50 acres with cows etc after school until his father
came to fetch him until he was old enough to ride his bicycle to school. Mr McGill Love was
Peter’s mother’s uncle and founder of Haggy Rand and African Wire Ropes.
He remembers his first day vividly. His teacher was very strict and used the strap liberally and
Peter to this day still does not understand why she took the strap to him. Happily she didn’t stay
very long and Mrs Vincent took her place. In the first year he skipped a class and went up to
grade 2.
Other members of staff he remembers were Mrs Brophy -standard 1, standard 4 -Mrs Kempster,
standard 5 - Mr Bishop and from standard 6 upwards all the teaching was done by the brothers.
The teachers from the grades up to standard 5 had their own classrooms and taught all subjects
but after standard 6 the brothers taught individual subjects. The brothers he remembers are Br
Benedict, Br Bonaventure who was the rugby coach, Br Walker, Br Ephraim and Br Ralph.
Br Edwin was the headmaster followed by Br Benedict until Peter’s last year when Br Anthony
took his place. He recalls Br Edwin had very bad arthritis and had to take cortisone.
Peter enjoyed sport and played soccer in the junior school followed by rugby and cricket 1st and
2nds in the high school. There were A and B sides from U13, U14, U15 and then the 1st and
2nds. There was great rivalry between St David’s and Observatory who had some very good
players. The year in which he wrote matric St David’s rugby team was soundly beaten by
Observatory who had some great players and athletes in their team.
Peter remembered the tours to other Marist schools and went to Cape Town with the cricket
team in 1959 and in 1960 to St Henry’s and St Charles in Natal.
Culturally, Peter used to attend the debates between other schools but was not a member of the
debating society. A concert was held which he doesn’t remember too much about but he was
involved with two operettas, “HMS Pinafore” and “The Pirates of Penzance” directed by the
Music teacher Mr Drummond Bell.
As his first passion was the sport, Peter didn’t do too well academically and didn’t work very
hard, and although there was no sparing of the rod he wasn’t sufficiently motivated to work.
The matric dance was held in the dining room and he recalls it was agonising to find a girl to
take to the dance, he was only 16 at the time. The boys decorated the dining room themselves
and after the dance went home. In 1959 a party was organised for the end of year exams and
Br Benedict warned them that they wouldn’t be allowed to write the exams if he found them to
be involved in preparations for the party.
After he matriculated, Peter went on to Wits University where he studied for a BSc Engineering
but bombed out and then spent a year in the army after which he joined the Netherlands Bank
which became Nedbank until he retired. Paul Middlewick and Gilbert Pooley were also on the
Nedbank staff.
Peter has a son who after returning to Johannesburg from Natal went to Hyde Park High
School.
Peter attended a school reunion after 25 years and saw one of his contemporaries Clive Nobbs
who became head of Rand Mines and the Chamber of Mines.
JE March 2012

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Peter Habberton 1975 - 1980 Staff

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  • 2012

Interview – Peter Habberton – Staff 1975 - 80
Peter grew up in Benoni, son of an Anglican minister who was forced to leave South Africa in

  1. As a consequence, Peter finished his schooling and university education in England
    returning to South Africa in 1974. As a member of the Wanderers cricket club at the time he
    learnt that Peter Stringer the current St David’s cricket coach was leaving. He went to see
    Brother Timothy and was subsequently employed as cricket coach and P.E. teacher in
    October 1975.
    Br Timothy gave Peter and his new wife Jackie 3 rooms upstairs overlooking the cricket fields
    in what is now the CEO’s house. Their daughter was born there in 1978. Peter had a dog
    called Shane who went with him everywhere and tracked down his son, aged 2 when he once
    went missing walking out through the school grounds to a nearby shopping centre.
    Peter taught Physical Education from the prep through to the high school having a PE degree
    from the UK. He then started to teach English and became part of the school’s management
    team together with Trudy Elliott, the then head of English. Peter coached the 1st team cricket
    and 1st team rugby and was in charge of athletics. Later on Peter started the Art department
    also painting the scenery and sets for the annual matric dance.
    There were still many brothers teaching including Br Timothy, Br Mario, Br Bernard, a keen
    photographer and artist, Br Aidan the bursar. Br Jude was the Brother Provincial. Br Anthony
    was no longer around but popped in occasionally. Other teachers were Ken Lipschitz, Maths;
    Tom Macfadden, History; John Vahey, Geography ; Heather Joseph taught in the prep school
    together with Willy Castle and Terry O’Mahoney both of whom joined as students whilst
    studying at JCE. Willy eventually took over the prep soccer. Terrry O’Mahoney, coming from a
    strong Marist family was a fellow student who went on to St John’s. In 1980 Peter Swanson
    was the assistant coach for rugby. Mrs Gilroy, Br Timothy’s secretary, ruled the roost in the
    admin block.
    In those days the school had fewer pupils and not many resources but managed to climb up to
    the A league and become competitive especially in the Catholic schools league. Peter
    remembered an occasion when Walter Cronje was victim of a dirty player on the Observatory
    side. The player had been sent off, was allowed to return to the field again and immediately
    homed in on Walter tackling him and rupturing his spleen in the process.
    The land was sold off where the Inandas now stand but it was believed that the money was
    used not only for St David’s but other Marist schools. However, there was a good spirit in the
    school with a very supportive parent community. There were on average 27 boys in a class
    and Br Timothy was a firm but understanding headmaster.
    Some of the boys he remembers are Mike Peel, a brilliant cricketer now living in the Nelspruit
    area who is now an environmental scientist. He was the first of Peter’s charges to get into the
    Transvaal Nuffield cricket team. Sasha Martinengo who now presents motor racing on Super
    Sport was in the prep school in those days
    JE October 2012

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Peter Gerard 1966

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  • 2013

Interview with Peter Gerard – 1966
Peter Gerard joined Marist Inanda in 1955 and his brother Francis in 1952 The school was then
quite small and didn’t have the reputation it has today, with a mixed bag of pupils from all walks
of life.
Peter and his family lived at 58 First Avenue, Inanda on the boundary of the school, Rudd Road
was then a dirt road and was only tarred up to where the Toyota garage now stands in the late
50’s.
Peter was a rebel, a non-conformist and didn’t get along too well with Br Anthony who wanted
all the boys to conform and recalled Peter Tuffen who won a Maths olympiad and was a
favourite of Br Anthony. However Br Andrew tolerated his lack of conformity and also that of
Roger Phillimore and Olof Winkler.
He remembers teachers such as the young Heather Joseph who was a favourite with the boys
with her beehive hairdo. Mrs Brick who taught there in the 40’s and 50’s; Mrs Scaafsma used
her ruler to rap knuckles; Br Andrew used cuts with the cane to discipline the boys, during a
Science lesson something blew up into Br Mario’s face. There was one incident where a brother
was teaching and turned to write on the board and one of the boys threw a dart at his back,
needless to say they were all caned. An older pupil, Roy Hutton was a phenomenal swimmer
but rather conceited and became the target for some of the boys with pellet guns. Once again
they were severely reprimanded. The discipline was hard but the boys coped with it and were
generally outspoken and not intimidated when they did not agree with the brothers.
In matric 20 boys, including Peter were arrested and landed up in jail due to a
misunderstanding. They had been walking from the Kelvin Grove Hotel in Rosebank where a
bust up had occurred. The police thought they had been involved and arrested them.
Fortunately one of the boys Jannie Steyn, spoke Afrikaans and managed to convince the police
that they were innocent.
Peter recalled a controversy over the sale of the land where the Inandas now stand. Initially, the
owner of the farm “Three Trees” didn’t want to sell to Catholics but eventually his widow sold the
land to the school in 1963. In the late 1970’s The brothers apparently missed out on another
possible land purchase as Tony and Peter Wilson owned the land from the bottom playing fields
as far as the Inanda Club and would have been willing to sell it to the school. Possibly the
finances were a bit tight at this time.
Peter and some of the other boys planted all the grass on the fields during Br Anthony’s Maths
lessons.
Peter was expelled during his second last year because of an incident at a 1st team rugby
match. Roland Walker or Br Anthony was exhorting the boys to shout “Come on St David’s” and
Peter shouted “Come on Marist Brothers Inanda” which didn’t go down too well as did his retort
to Roland Walker. In order to be reinstated,he had to apologise to Br Edwin who was the
Brother Provincial residing at Obs, Br Anthony and the head of the PTA, Mr Roland Walker
before he was allowed back at school. Ironically Peter ended up working for him when he was
offered a job by Alastair Barclay and was introduced to a senior partner – Roland Walker! He
recalled that he achieved honours in studies, swimming, athletics and rugby and that Br
Anthony did not particularly enjoy presenting him with his honours blazer.
Peter enjoyed the sport and played 1st team rugby, 2nd team cricket, tennis in the prep together
with Jannie Steyn and Terry Rosenberg. Willy Castle was 2 – 3 years behind him.
Peter thoroughly enjoyed his years at St David’s in spite of his rebelliousness. There were 48
boys in his matric year and between 4 and 500 pupils at the school. In 2006 there was a 40 year
reunion at the Michelangelo and 35 of the old boys got together many travelling from various
countries around the world. He recalled Charlie Platt, who had always been quite large
commenting on the fact that Gilroy who was always rather slim was now rather “fat”!
After matriculating Peter went on to Wits University where he studied for a BComm for four
years and then went into the property business although initially he was hoping for a career in
merchant banking. He is now involved in shopping centre development and investment.
Peter’s son Paul attended St David’s and his wife became very involved running the tuckshop
for 10 years. Peter donated a cricket scholarship to the school in 2008.
JLE January 2013

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Peter de Kock 1967

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  • 2013

Interview with Peter de Kock – 1967
Peter joined St David’s in 1962, standard 6 as a boarder. On his first day he remembered
meeting many other standard 6 boys from outlying areas and Johannesburg. The boys were
all sent to St David’s because there was no English medium available in the Afrikaans high
schools. For most of them it was their first time away from home, so it was quite a challenge
with the brothers taking care of them. In those days they didn’t have cell phones and they
were not allowed to use a telephone, very different from today.
He enjoyed being a boarder as they shared more comrade ship and school spirit, learning to
share and take responsibility for their own actions. There were more sporting activities which
meant more discipline but they had little family life. The day boys however had more of a
family life with their brothers and sisters and a better social life.
Teachers who made a lasting impression on Peter were Br Anthony,(Aunches) the boys
were all scared of him but he ruled the school with an iron fist, which made it a great school.
Peter now believes that Br Anthony could have been the MD of a big international company
and would have been very successful. Others were Br Andrew (Dracula) who was also very
tough but actually fair. Br Bosco and the other brothers left both good and bad impressions.
He remembered an occasion at rugby practise when Br Bosco let the boys tackle him, Peter
did so head first onto his leg and he couldn’t walk for a week. The least noteworthy brother
but a nice guy, in the first year of standard 7 read comic books in class, with the result that
half the class failed that year.
Peter enjoyed the sport playing in most teams but never made any first team. He also
enjoyed school affairs and school activities but unfortunately academics was not one of his
strong points. He was put in charge of the games room in standard 8 and when he became a
monitor in standard 9, the brothers asked him who he recommended to take over his duties,
he recommended Willy Castle!
The great sporting event that stands out in his memory was his first rugby game against
Jeppe, when his team lost 60 something Nil, with most of his group having never played
rugby before. They then, later won games against KES and Parktown which made up for it.
Another event was the 100th anniversary of the Marist Brothers in South Africa.
Things that Peter didn’t enjoy, was the feeling of being “dropped” at boarding school. Being
stuck at school as a boarder, he was an enthusiastic member of the cycling club as they
could get out at times although it became a comfort to get back to school. Uncomfortable
moments were such as the first time he saw a brother pull his cane out of his cassock, like a
sword and then go into chapel.A significant memory was that of being chosen as the first
non-catholic head boy of the school.
Of his last day at St David’s he recalls that they had an “end of matric” party, ending up at
the Balalaika Hotel and being chased away by a Zulu guard with a whip and big earrings.
Then there was a farewell in the courtyard and they all went their separate ways which was
rather sad. Peter had many friends at school but unfortunately his closest friends seemed to
have moved on to other schools and he was a bit of a loner, however he does remember
that most of his classmates had their own characters and they haven’t changed much apart
from the colour or lack of hair. A few of them Peter Moni, Derrick Schoombie, Kevin Hussey
and Rohan Erleigh meet for drinks at Molly Malone’s in Fourways every now and then. He
also meets up with others at the MOBS functions.
On Matriculating, Peter attended Farm technical course, Bloemfontein technical college.
Acquired an Agricultural Diploma from Potchefstroom Agricultural College then participated
in a foreign exchange programme at the University of Minnesota, St Paul USA for 3 years.
He married an American, returned to South Africa for 3 years farming in Heilbron. He then
emigrated to Minnesota and farmed and worked for 7 years in Luverne returning to South
Africa in 1983 where he met and married Suzette, then farmed in Heilbron for 11 years
moving to Fourways in 1994 and since then owns and runs a guesthouse in Glenferness,
“The Rooster’s Nest bed and breakfast”.
Peter has 4 children, a daughter in the USA,with businesses in Minneapolis and West Palm
Beach and a son who is a teacher in Sasolburg with one grandchild, a daughter who is his
PA and a son who is an entrepreneur. Peter’s wife is a teacher at St Peter’s Prep Boys
School.
Peter’s son Johnathan didn’t attend St David’s as, living in Kyalami it wasn’t practical
because of the traffic and he went to St Stithians. Peter last visited St David’s last year and
he usually attends the MOBS AGM and some sporting events when he can.
JLE July 2013

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Paul Saunders 1973 -1975 Staff

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  • 2013

Interview with Paul Saunders -Staff 1973-75
When Paul began teaching at St David’s, Br Anthony was the Headmaster but left in 1974 to go
to Slough and Br Timothy took over in 1975. The school was much smaller with about 200 boys
in the high school with mainly brothers teaching in addition to 6 to 7 lay teachers. Paul and his
wife Hester had just married and moved into Lowndes Gate close to the school and later moved
to Woodmead Manor, Rivonia. Paul taught Afrikaans and coached U13 cricket and the 5th rugby
team.
Some lay teachers he remembers were Billy Karoo now in the USA, Mrs Elliott and Ron Hughes
who both taught English, and Mrs Wheelan. They were a small group and bonded well. The
teaching periods were much longer but very well run and hands on. The boys were scared of
the brothers but Paul found them easy to work with. Br Anthony had an irritating habit of walking
up and down the corridors. He could not be seen through the windows which hung at 22
degrees and would stand out of sight and listen to the teachers, checking up on them.
In his first year the lay teachers originally had their lunch together with the brothers in the dining
room but then moved into what is now the copying room and the lunches became a little more
frugal, sandwiches and soup which didn’t please many of the staff. The chapel was upstairs and
used by the brothers. The tuck shop was where the Music centre is now and was run by the
parents.
Some of the brothers he recalls were Br Bosco, Br Bernard, Br Andrew (Drac) who taught
Maths, Br Aidan, the bursar and Br Anthony. Br Anthony had a couple of canes in his office but
punishment was only given in class, corporal punishment was the norm.
The matric dance was held in the boarder’s dining room with a pirate theme. The club house is
now the home of the CEO, the oval is in the same location and Pete Stringer, the cricket coach
used to rule the roost there. The prep playing field was the cricket pitch for all teams other than
the 1st team
Whilst Paul was recently substituting at the school he was using the same classroom he had
when he was full time at the school. He recalled that he had a very old wooden chair which one
day eventually collapsed in front of the whole class with him in it. The boys were so well
behaved they didn’t laugh until he told them they could.
There was a big ceremony when the auditorium was inaugurated. Most functions were held in
what is now the CEO’s home. There were many well known families with children at the school
– Lebos, Kourie, Daras, Zent, Allem, Marnewick, Walfords, Peel, Brian Macmillan was in the
cricket team and in those days the boys played Nuffield cricket. Paul remembered Mr Manolios,
the prep headmaster although he didn’t deal with him directly.
Paul eventually left to teach at Damelin and later taught Science and Biology to matric. Damelin
was eventually taken over by Educor.
Paul said that Marist Brothers brings back a great nostalgia, it was a special place. Paul enjoyed
his time at St David’s and found the boys to be extremely well behaved both in and out of the
classroom.
Photos that could be included – standard 9 and one with Br Bosco (Mario) and the honours
boys and U13 cricket team.
JLE February 2013

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Paul Gerard 1992

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  • 2013

Interview with Paul Gerrard – 1992
Paul remembered his first day as he arrived a bit late two weeks into the first term of grade 1.
He sat next to Jaffrey Tsaksani and Ryan Lamberts, his teacher was Mrs Scaafsma who used
her ruler quite liberally on the boys hands.
As it was compulsory Paul played rugby and cricket and made all the matches unless he was
show jumping which took up a lot of his time. Due to his commitment to horse riding he didn’t
make the 1st teams. He enjoyed the team sports and felt that it really helps in understanding
people and it is good to work together. The camaraderie was great but not all the boys were
accepted and Paul felt that the boys who played hockey rather than rugby missed out. The
camps were amazing and the camaraderie and hierarchy of who sat where on the bus trips.
Paul participated in cross country usually coming 2nd or 3rd but didn’t put in too much effort and
was often caned for missing a run. He was strong in the distance events in athletics, 800m and
the high jump. Through his horse riding Paul became stronger as a person and very fit.
Paul didn’t enjoy being caned but believed that it was necessary. He recalled Mr Girdwood,
English teacher who got very angry about something and smacked him very hard at the back of
his head – at the recent reunion the boys remembered that incident well.
Of his teachers he remembered Lesley Henning an excellent Maths teacher who converted him
from average to being good in the subject. Finlayson was the cricket and rugby coach and Grant
Webster, Biology, had a bat called “Justice” which he wielded once if you admitted not doing
your homework and twice if you lied. There was a small, cheeky, Muslim boy called Mohammed
Ahmed who Webster grabbed by the ankles and held over the railings on the top floor.
He recalled being kicked out of a matric prize giving held at the pool. Together with some other
boys and girls that were around he was messing about creating a noise, a teacher came and
found them and told them to leave.
In the prep most of his best friends were black but in high school groups formed, and the black
pupils usually had their own group. The fact that the school was non-racial changed Paul’s
attitude. His uncle, Francis Gerrard and aunt were activists and in the late 70’s visited Mandela
in prison and Mbeki in exile. Paul’s friends who went to government schools had an entirely
different, prejudiced attitude to blacks. Paul was one of a group of boys who visited Alex
township taking food and clothing collected at St David’s.
Boys he remembers, the naughty crowd, are Garth Ramsay, a cattle farmer in the Midlands who
was a rebel rouser, Bobby French, Andreas Zanella, Jason Harmsen, Justin van Linden, Jason
Hallett’90 and Peter Batisch. From 1993 there were Andrew Harris, Andrew Botha and
Lawrence Azar.
There were initiation rituals where the younger boys had to blow up condoms and other silly
things, nothing too serious but good for one’s development. Paul, together with 3 other boys
opted out of becoming a prefect by walking out of a meeting.
At the recent reunion it was noticeable how many of the “cool guys” attended coming from the
UK and Cape Town but a number currently living in Johannesburg did not make the effort.
After matriculating, Paul studied through Unisa and Midrand Campus for a BComm Honours
which he completed in 5 years. In his final year of honours he was working as a property broker
letting industrial space south of Johannesburg. However interest rates climbed to 20 – 25% and
he lost out on a major deal which prompted his decision to go overseas .He had spent some
time coaching cricket at St David’s and played cricket after leaving school. He spent some time
mainly in the UK, France and the US as a professional ski bum and cricket coach and worked
for a season in the UK as a cricketer .The time away gave him a new perspective on life. He
had many jobs one as a security guard for various shows and events, ending up together with
his wife in the computer industry in the UK. Then in 2003 Flanagan & Gerrard asked him to join
them in South Africa. The company is involved in commercial property development specialising
in shopping centres. They organise christmas carols every year supporting various schools in
Rustenburg, children’s and old age homes.
Paul’s eldest son attends Redhill School as St David’s would not accommodate Adrian in grade
0.
Paul’s father Peter donated a cricket scholarship to the school in 2008.
JLE January 2013

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Paul Edey 1995 - 2006 Staff

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  • 2016

Interview with Paul Edey 1995 – 2006
Paul Edey was appointed as college headmaster during 1994 to start in January 1995. He had
previously taught at St John’s College and King Edward VII School, where he was a viceprincipal.
The search for a new head to take over from P Davies was led by Tony Frost, head of
human resources at Lonhro,and a colleague of the chairman of the board,Terence Wilkinson.
1994 had been a difficult year for the school with the board conducting a survey which had
resulted in the headmaster, Paul Davies, stepping down. The deputy head, Gary Norton, acted
as head for eight months with Paul Davies continuing to live at Mary Knoll for 7 months and only
moving out in the December of 1994. The school was battling financially and had endured a
succession of lay headmasters in the college following the last Marist Brother, Brother Timothy
Mc Krindle ( (1967-81) South Africa was in a state of flux with the first free and democratic
elections resulting in Nelson Mandela coming to power in April 1994. The relationship between
the prep school , which was thriving and successful and the college which was battling for
numbers was poor
Paul’s biggest challenges were to win the confidence of the prep school and the parents to
encourage them to send their sons to the high school rather than local rivals St Stithians and St
John’s College. In 1995 sixty four boys were admitted into grade 8 and split into three classes.
Some of the top prep boys had been awarded scholarships to rival senior schools, but for the
first time in many years the numbers were up in the college. The school wrote the Transvaal
education department matriculation examination (TED) and the results were generally
undistinguished. There were 267 boys in the High School in 1995 with Michael von
Guilleaume,head boy and Jeremy Wickens, deputy, leading a small but very talented matric
group.
Although Anglican, Paul made doubly sure that the Catholic ethos remained and strengthened.
The numbers picked up from 1996 with a small but stable staff of 18 with some very strong
teachers such as Lesley Henning (HOD Maths), Belinda Marais (HOD Afrikaans), Richard
Girdwood (English and senior housemaster) and Rod Smith, former headmaster of Sandown
High School. We were very fortunate to have a very successful rugby team in 1995 with the side
winning 18 out of 19 matches and going on a very rewarding tour of Australia to round off the
season. Of interest was the fact that the touring squad had 5 boys in it from Jabulani Technical
High School in Soweto whose tour was paid for through the fundraising efforts of the St David’s
community. 1996 was a very weak year academically but the numbers were increasing and
things were looking up.
Rick Wilson was appointed head of the prep at the beginning of 1996. He took over from the
very successful and charismatic Greg Royce, who had left in the middle of 1995 to become
headmaster of St Peter’s Preparatory. The senior school suffered a blow at the end of 1996
when the loyal and hardworking deputy headmaster Gary Norton left to take up the headship of
Oakhill School in Knysna. Pete Geldenhuys, Andrew Brownlee, Greg Lamb and Richard
Girdwood, all four housemasters left during the course of 1996. In one year the entire college
management team apart from the head and bursar had left. Malcolm Williams, an old friend and
colleague of Paul’s from Wits and King Edward’s, was appointed as the deputy head during

  1. A number of other colleagues from the King Edward’s days joined the staff with Simon Fry
    and Stuart Foulds coming in as the heads of department of History and English respectively.
    Teresa Vroom became the librarian.
    Critically, at this time Kevin Brewer became chairman of the board and together with the school
    management team and the support of the Marist Brothers an exciting development plan was put
    together for the school. Under the leadership of Bill Carter and Gerrit Wessels of the
    architectural firm Taljaard Carter, this was to result in the complete redevelopment of the school
    over the next decade. The development plan covered a 10 year period. In 1997 the grade O
    block was built and the high school pavilion replaced the long serving zozo hut from which tea at
    sports fixtures had been served. For years the long suffering mother’s committee, under the
    extremely capable leadership of Mary von Guilleaume, had complained how the cream scones
    and cakes had gone sour in the heat of the summer. These developments were followed by 6
    new classrooms, the redevelopment of the quadrangle, the amphitheatre and the Champagnat
    hall. Two new libraries, a music school and a design and technology centre were to follow in
    quick succession when the astroturf and the new car park were developed the school was
    almost unrecognisable from its rustic appearance of the mid 1990’s. The school borrowed R12m
    with an unsecured loan from Standard Bank after Br Jude and Kevin Brewer went to see Myles
    Ruck. It has to be noted that there was some uncertainty over tenure as the land and buildings
    belonged to the Marist Brothers and all major capital projects over R500 000 had to be
    approved by Rome.
    Over the next seven years the numbers in the senior school increased to 500 and there were
    now more applicants than places. Scholarships were offered to top children which culminated in
    2001 when Garth Horsten, Kyle Wales, Jean Paulo Peirera were in the top 50 IEB matrics for
    that year. The sport showed steady improvement under the leadership of Graeme McMillan with
    cricket in particular able to compete against the top state and independent schools. Hockey was
    driven by Malcolm Williams and the school had reasonably good rugby sides. The prep was
    also very strong in athletics, soccer and swimming., this began to have important spin –offs for
    the college.
    Father Brewer died in 1999, the boys adored him, he was always on the sports field or
    backstage providing support to the boys, but he hated authority and didn’t like headmasters!
    The school was now being headed up by non-Catholics and there was a lot of talk about ethos.
    The brothers started the pilgrimage to France and Rome in order to give lay school
    administrators and teachers a feel for, and understanding, of the Marist ethos and charism.
    It was comforting to have brothers at the school as a buffer against the board which became
    increasingly secular. The school was now being run in a far more business-like manner, but it
    was essential that the Marist ethos be maintained, something which was quite difficult given its
    location in the richest business centre on the african continent.
    Kevin Brewer had had the time and energy to really set the school development plan on its way
    and at the same time to keep a close eye on the finances. He was followed as chairman by
    Tony Reilly, Eric Annegarn, and Tony Chappel. Certainly the board and PTA had some very
    strong people like the Brocco’s, Emmanuels, O’Shea, Busschau, Van Linden families and
    Trevor and Glenda Anderson played a major role. The characters on the staff were Anderson,
    Ansell, Joseph, Castle and Marais.
    Paul was made executive head (CEO) in 2002 which was motivated by Kevin Brewer. Paul had
    been head for 7 years and had started looking around elsewhere to further his career. With
    numbers around 1,100 the school had to think about where it was going next with the building
    having largely been completed. Hence the idea of a super head to deal with the CIE, brothers,
    and JOCASCO and to build up the Foundation office. In the first year of the new headship there
    was no deputy, or clarity on Paul’s role. It was a difficult period for Paul and his great friend
    Malcolm Williams, who was appointed as head of the high school as the new roles were
    established. Malcolm was studying for his Master’s in Education and initially had no deputy until
    the appointment of David Smith to the role.
    Paul seldom interfered with the prep school and only when there was flack did he get involved.
    The prep probably got limited value from the new structure. The philosophy behind the
    appointment of a non teacher in the CEO role was that Mike Greeff brought experience of
    strategic planning, HR, and financial skills with him. He was adept at handling the non- teaching
    aspects of school administration.
    The admin staff Paul recalled were the bursar Malcom Smit, the charming and efficient pair of
    June Anderson (college secretary) and Lindsay Van Heerden, head’s secretary, Genny
    Carvalho, Audrey Williams, Mary von Guilleaume, Sister Mary Ryan and Willem van der Merwe
    and his great team on the grounds George Ndlovu, Big Julius Shivambu, Thomas Ramutsindela
    and of course the long serving Phineas Selima and Julius Shibambu (Zimbabwean) who had
    worked in the brothers dining room for years, deceased who worked for the school for 45 years.
    Paul mentioned that the book written by Margeurite Poland “The Boy in You” about the history
    of St Andrew’s College sold for R450 per copy when it was published in 2008 and a limited
    edition of 100 leather bound copies sold for R5000.
    Paul is currently headmaster of St John’s College.
    JE 2016

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Patrick Quarmby 1971

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  • 2013

Interview with Patrick Quarmby – 1971
Patrick joined St David’s in 1961, standard 2 and rode to school every day from Craighall Park . His first
teacher was Mrs Michael who was a lovely person and was especially kind to the new boys. Mrs Scaafsma
was also teaching at the time. There was the notorious trio of Mrs Janusch, Kempster and Kenesovitch. If
you survived them you could survive anything, they were good teachers but fierce. Patrick recalled that Mrs
Janusch had a pekinese dog as a pet and the boys had to take it for walks and on one occasion, when it
was attacked by another dog, its eyes literally popped out. Mrs Janusch used a strap to reprimand the boys
and they were terrified of her.
The brothers had a significant influence on the boys. Brother Anthony was headmaster and Br Andrew
(Drac) was a great character and passionate about sport, Br Bosco (Mario), Br Aidan – the bursar, Br
Michael, Br Sean and Br Bernard who took all the rugby photos, were on the staff. The boys used to swoon
over Mrs Heyns /Rudiger and Miss Hartmann. Other lay teachers he remembers are Mrs Pruiss, Peter
Greenaway – Maths, was a good friend to the boys, Mr Kalifi – Add Maths, Mrs Richardson and Mr Done –
Latin. Some of the teachers were not world class but Br Bosco was a very good Science teacher.
The boys used to like playing tricks on Mr Done, who was a good teacher, and would move his desk to the
edge of the teacher’s platform. When he sat down, the desk naturally fell forward. Patrick remembered an
incident when he and Mark Agar, expecting Peter Greenaway, held the classroom door closed to prevent
him coming in. Eventually they let go and to their horror, in walked “Drac” who threatened to cane the whole
class unless the offenders owned up which of course they did and suffered a severe caning.
During the period Patrick was at the school, when there were still boarders in 1970 to 1972, the sport was
very strong especially in his age group. Patrick personally played 1st team cricket for three years from the
end of standard 7 and 1st team rugby for two years.
Patrick swam in the primary and high school and, whilst he was in the primary school, the swimming team
beat KES, perhaps the team was so good as the training was tough, starting at 7am with Br Andrew
keeping the boys attention with a chain on their wet skin if they didn’t perform. Patrick also swam Transvaal
schools U14, together with Geoff Harrison and Keith Shaw.
Nassey Simaan coached rugby and encouraged the standard 5 boys to start playing before they went into
high school. They were a strong team with members such as Mark Agar, George Nichas, Ivan Bensimon,
Michael Richardson, Ross Hunter, Spiro Trupos and Ken Fraser, an American who had never played rugby
in his life but proved to be a great prop together with Kim Small. It was the best era for St David’s sport with
the rugby team only losing two games beating Jeppe and Parktown and in 1972 they lost one game against
KES. Observatory also had a very strong team in 1970 and 71 but we managed to beat them both years.
He remembered that during one match James Harrywyn gave one of the players of the opposing team a
karate chop and the boy’s mother ran onto the field and hit him with an umbrella.
During this time the school employed professional cricketers as coaches including Ken Palmer, Don Wilson
and Peter Stringer and cricket really blossomed. Patrick played U15 Nuffeld cricket, and together with Ivan
Bensimon made Transvaal schools cricket team in 1970. Johnny Williamson also made the Transvaal
schools cricket team in 1970. He recalled the Marist cricket week in standard 8 where he was selected for
SA Marist which was the last time it was held. Patrick also attended the opening of the cricket oval in 1970
and still has the programme.
Sadly Patrick only went on three sports tours whilst he was at St David’s and MOBS didn’t exist. The boys
at St David’s didn’t believe in themselves, they were very good sportsmen with a lot of talent but they never
reached the heights they should have. They only played against local competition and were rather insular.
St David’s was a small school but with the opening of the oval they were the school to beat – KES being
the biggest rival. One tour Patrick went on was to St Joseph’s, Cape Town by bus to celebrate the Marist
Brother’s Centenary.
A’s for academics were a distinctly scarce commodity unlike today, however many of the boys earned 1st
class passes for matric, 9 distinctions for the whole class and Patrick was always in the top 5.
Patrick was vice head boy and was awarded the provincial blazer in his final year and scrolls for prefect,
merit, cricket, rugby and studies.
Patrick firmly believes that a strong old boys makes a school. He is still in touch with Ivan Bensimon who
lives in Sydney and Mike Richardson living in London.
After leaving St David’s, Patrick went into the army and then onto Stellenbosch University where he studied
for a BComm. He then studied for a post graduate qualification through Unisa and Wits University. Patrick
wrote the board exams and was placed first in the exams in South Africa becoming a CA in 1979. He then
did a post graduate course at UCT and lectured there whilst doing an honours in taxation.
Patrick joined Ernst and Young and became a partner at 28 and in 1987 went overseas working for
Schroder’s Merchant Bank in London, in 1989 he started up Standard Bank in London and then Standard
Bank in Hong Kong in 1992. In 1996 he came back to South Africa and joined Dimension Data.
Patrick met his wife in Hong Kong and is the father of triplets, two boys and a girl who attended St Peter’s
and are currently at St Andrew’s and DSG in Grahamstown.
Patrick believes it would be a good idea to target a year, trace former pupils and contact them. 2016 would
be the 45th anniversary for his year. He would like to get involved but because of pressures of work could
only do so towards the end of 2014.
JE October 2013

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Pam Groenewald 1998 to date(2023) Staff

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  • 2003

Interview with Pam Groenewald – Staff 1998
Pam came to St David’s in 1998 to work as the prep school headmaster, Rick Wilson’s PA. She found Rick
to be an unbelievably, kind and well organised boss and really enjoyed working for him. He was incredibly
supportive and was amazing when Pam went through her battle with cancer five months after joining the
staff.
Pam is a very focused, well organised individual who believes in doing everything correctly and has been
involved with schools for some time. Her parents were part of the struggle, a strong Methodist family and
they often had black ministers and ANC members stay with them which has given her a great insight and
empathy with people. This is essential as part of Pam’s job has always been to calm parents down when
necessary.
She remembers her first day very well and couldn’t believe her office, which was originally the brothers’
toilet and wondered if she would cope. To gain access she had to walk through Rick’s office and on one
occasion when he had a number of visitors and she urgently needed to get out of her office, Cheryl helped
her squeeze though a tiny window in order not to disturb Rick. Pam got on very well with Rick, Cheryl King
and Robbie Orr, they all had a good sense of humour and to this day Rick will still mischievously hide the
mouse to Pam’s PC.
Pam did all the admissions to the prep school which was a heavy load but she coped. Unfortunately Pam
needed to earn more money and left after 5 years only to return again after 3 months in 2003 to work as PA
for Malcolm Williams, the headmaster of the high school. Pam coped well with Malcolm and his flamboyant
style of leadership and found him to be a very private person. She found him to be highly intelligent with a
very good brain and good heart and has a lot of respect for him.
Pam’s children have also been associated with St David’s, Craig has been involved as swimming coach for
the past 15 years and Cathy worked in the pre-primary for 10 years until last year.
JE September 2003

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Norman Lazarus 1952

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  • 2010

Interview with Norman Lazarus 1944 - 1952
Norman’s parents lived in the Free State so he was sent as a boarder to St David’s in 1944 in
grade 2. Mrs Litson was his first teacher.The boarders had very little to do with the day scholars
except when they were given sandwiches which supplemented the boarding school food. When
Norman started at St David’s the war was still on and he can remember listening to the
announcement of the death of general Pienaar on the wireless with his family.
When he arrived at the school in 1944, the school was still in its infancy. The bus ran as far as
Rosebank and the school was in the ‘country’ surrounded by small holdings. The Polliack Estate
was situated to the West. South of the school the field was in two tiers and at the Northern
boundary was a farm and the rumor went around the that the lady who owned the farm would
bequeath it to the school (this was partly true as the school bought the farm at a good price in
the 1960’s).
Norman did not enjoy his school days as he likened the school to an aloe – the nearer you got
the more you were pricked. The school was run by brothers – that word usually means loving
and within a family- the brothers showed no love for the boys and were punitive in the
punishment. There were 4 dormitories- A to D. There were very strict rules – talking after lights
out and untidy lockers- were very serious offences. Prefects were in charge and they were very
cruel. They had to write home every Sunday and were allowed to listen to LM radio, to the hit
parade – he can remember Frankie Laine being at the top of the charts.
The boarders showered in the evening.There were only 2 baths.They were woken at 6am and
the Catholics went to mass. While he was at St David’s there were mostly Catholics with 2 or 3
Jewish children of which he was one. While the Catholics went to mass the non Catholics had
study period. Breakfast after mass was in the present college library where they sat at round
tables of 6. There was no shortage of food but the helpings were small and the meals were
rotated so you knew what you were having each week. Sago pudding was often served.
There were 2 breaks in the school day where they played hopscotch, marbles and bok-bok.
There was an infirmary and he enjoyed his time there when he had chicken pox as it was a very
caring place. Sport was compulsory and he played hockey, soccer, cricket and rugby – at this
stage there were no tennis courts. He played for the 1st fifteen in rugby and the team travelled
down to Durban by train to play against St Henry’s. The train journey was eventful and the boys
suffered defeat the next day after a sleepless night!
Punishment was metered out before dinner in front of the whole school. You had the whole day
to think about the impending punishment and the caning took place in front of everyone.
Norman’s experience was that the longer one was at school the less you were punished
because you became more adept. Boys were expelled for talking to girls over the fence and for
stealing fruit from the nearby orchards.
The brothers decided that the boys should learn how to dance and a dancing instructor from
Arthur Murray Studios came to school. They were taught without partners so, when in the end
girls from Parktown Convent (accompanied by the nuns) were selected to be their partners it
proved to be very unsuccessful as the boys just weren’t used to the girls and they didn’t know
what to say to each other!
The brothers took the boys to the nearest cinema on the corner of Tyrwhitt Ave and Jan Smuts.
The boys walked in a crocodile.This, however, did not last long as shopkeepers, who had fruit
displayed on the pavements, complained that there was no fruit left once the boys had walked
past!
Norman was a day scholar in his matric year (1952). He got into trouble because the bus route
ended in Dunkeld and he and another boy accepted a lift from a motorist. The brothers got to
hear of this and it was said that they had brought the school into disrepute for ‘hitch hiking’. His
merit badge was taken away but this was reinstated after the brothers asked his fellow pupils to
vote on whether his badge should be handed back to him.
Norman did not find the teachers to be caring but in some cases quite eccentric. Mr Hoare
taught the non Catholics Scripture and he was always teaching them about George Elliott. He
also made them learn the psalms off by heart. The cleverest boys were always made to sit in
the front and the less bright ones at the back.
On obtaining a first class matric, Norman studied medicine at the University of the
Witwatersrand where he joined up with his school friend Peter Leigh, son of the school doctor.
Norman left South Africa for America after Sharpville and Peter emigrated to Australia.
Interview: Monday 1 February 2010

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Nigel Sloane 1980

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Nigel Sloane Gr 1 1969 to matric 1980
Nigel began his school career in 1969 at St David’s in Mrs Schaafsma’s grade 1 class of 36 boys. He admits
that he was petrified of his teacher as well as the headmistress, Mrs Kempster. Other teachers who Nigel
remembers are Mrs Hildyard in standard 1, Mrs Napier in standard 2, Mrs Geddes in standard 3, Mrs
Barenbrug in standard 4 and finally Mrs Knezovich in standard 5 to complete his prep school teachers.
Nigel enjoyed his prep school years mainly because of the sport which he loved. When he was in grade 2 he
was selected to play for the U/10 cricket team. This was unheard of, a 7/8 year old playing with boys turning
10! One aspect which he did not like was when incense was used as this made him faint. He fondly
remembers Matron Buckley-Jones looking after him when he was not feeling well.
Nigel continued to enjoy his sport in the high school and in matric he was appointed captain of the 1st cricket
team. Here Nigel clashed with Br Timothy, the headmaster, as he asked if the 1st cricket team’s gear could be
blessed as was done for the 1st rugby team. Br Timothy refused. Just before the matric exams Br Timothy
would not allow Nigel to captain or play in the cricket team stating that he should be at home studying for the
exams. Br Timothy finally relented as Mrs Sloane intimated that there might be no tea provided for the match!!
Mrs Sloane as the captain’s mother was in charge of the teas.
Nigel did not enjoy high school as he was continually compared to his older brother, Christopher, who was
academically minded and achieved excellent results. Most of the staff thought that Nigel should follow in his
brother’s footsteps. This has left a lasting impression on Nigel and he is always very conscious of not
comparing the siblings he teaches.
While Mrs Sloane was very active with the catering committee, Mr Sloane sat on the PTA for a number of
years and was very involved in the design and building of the swimming pool as he was an engineer. Nigel
remembers Brs Anthony and Aquinas coming to the house for dinner.
Nigel wrote matric in 1980 and went off to the army. He returned for the prize giving in March 1981 to receive
the cricketer of the year award. Once the army was behind him he went to Rhodes where he achieved a BA
honours and teaching diploma. His first teaching post was at Redhill for one term before leaving for England
where he was head of sport at Downs School near Bristol. On his return to South Africa he decided to try the
corporate world. He worked for Woolworths for a short period but loathed the corporate life and decided to
return to teaching, his first love.
He taught at St David’s from 1994 to 1997. Here he taught Zulu, of which he knew very little, amongst a
variety of subjects. He was promoted to head of department senior primary by Mr Spence in 1996. Nigel was
introduced to his future wife Monica by Pat Milne who also taught at St David’s. Nigel and Monica left for
Uplands Prep where Nigel was deputy head for 7 years from 1998 to 2004.
Nigel then moved to Thomas More College as headmaster of the prep school from 2005 to 2008. In 2009
Nigel took up the post as prep headmaster of St Peter’s Prep with Greg Royce as the rector.
Nigel is still in contact with Brian Muller who lives in Australia and he, Monica and the children are happy living
at Pecanwood primary where Nigel is the current headmaster.
January 2011

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Nicolas Harding 2003

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  • 2014

Interview with Nicolas Harding – 2003
Nicolas came to St David’s in standard 6 – grade 8 . He and his brother had attended Rosebank Primary
School, originally coming from Belgium. Nicolas’s mother is French and met her Welsh husband in
Belgium. Nicolas recalls being quite apprehensive on his first day with the transition from a small coeducational
environment to a large monastic one. It was a big eye opener and a huge step up for him.
At the grade 8 camp he got to know some of the other boys including Gianluca Tucci, Danilo Giacovazzi,
Ciro De Siena, Anthony Koury, Kyle Biller and Chris Marsay. Nicolas wasn’t particularly good at sport but
enjoyed cricket and still plays at Zoo Lake in 8 a side T20, LMS cricket together with Carl Van Zyl. He
wasn’t in the 1st cricket team, didn’t enjoy rugby and played hockey instead.
Academically Nicolas did well being listed in the top ten a couple of times, was awarded academic ties and
a prize for Business Economics. He participated in the Smile programme but wasn’t involved with any
cultural extra murals.
The teachers he remembers are Mrs Nagy, Miss Nolan, Mrs Shumyn, Mr Buys, Mr Fry, Mr Smith and Mrs
Marais who helped him with Afrikaans which he found very difficult only encountering the language on his
arrival in South Africa.
Of his matric dance he has memories mainly of the after party. On his last day he remembers feeling rather
sad that he wouldn’t be seeing some of the guys again but also happy to be embarking on the next stage of
his life. He joined some of the other boys for a drink at a local pub.
After matriculating with distinction in French (his mother taught both himself and his brother) Nicolas went
on to study for a degree in Mathematics and Finance at Wits University. Six months after graduating he
was employed by Standard Bank to work on the “Calypso System”. From that he gained a good knowledge
of business and is now working on market risk mainly in Africa and has visited Swaziland, Lesotho,
Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia, the DRC, Uganda, Ghana and Mauritius. He enjoys his job, the
economic rationale and involvement with other african countries.
Nicolas loves Africa and the bush visiting the Kruger Park at least once a year. He joined in the 2003
reunion weekend last year and enjoyed meeting up with some of his contemporaries but isn’t really in close
contact with anyone from his year. He is a member of MOBS and is looking forward to a tour of the school
when he returns from an overseas holiday in May.
JLE April 2014

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Nick Pruim 1984

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Interview with Nick Pruim – 1984
Nick attended St David’s from grade 1 to matric and absolutely loved the school. He was a day
boy as there were no longer any boarding facilities. In 1982, the headmaster was the infamous
Mr Murphy who was a part-time wrestler. He was watching a TV programme called “Nite Owls”
about what people in SA do at night. Mr Murphy was televised walking into the ring masked and
wielding a hammer. He called an assembly the next day to explain himself and said he would no
longer compete as a wrestler. Apparently Mr Colia and some other masters checked up on him
and found out that he continued to wrestle. Mr Murphy also supposedly played rugby for Ireland.
He was replaced in the third term by Brother Anthony a previous headmaster who, together with
Brother Timothy was a strong headmaster. Mr Freilich then took over in 1983.
One of Nick’s sons goes to SACS and they saw Willy Castle at the water polo there. He
remembers Heather Joseph, Trudie Elliott, Glenda Anderson, Darryl Boswell, Colia, Ross
Howard, an Australian and Finlayson who recently taught his son at SACS. He still sees Adrian
Franklin who was vice-head boy, Reece Carr, Jason Goodall, Garcia (85), Peter Wharton-Hood,
and Craig Brewer.
He remembers one of the first black pupils at the school, Solly Mapanya whose father was a
well known businessman. The boys all gathered around him on the soccer field, now the astro
turf, in amazement. He is godfather to one of Nick’s daughters.
He remembered Gary Beuthin, 3 years above him who was expelled but allowed back by
Murphy and was expelled again a couple of months later. He was bright, sporty but a
psychopath.
Nick played 1st team rugby in standard 9 and part of matric and then dropped to the 2nd team
which he really enjoyed. He also participated in A team swimming, water-polo and tennis.
Academically he achieved a reasonable matric with university entrance. He was head boy for
his year with Adrian Franklin and Greg McLeroth as deputy head boys.
He recalled his last day as having mixed feelings. He learnt to tease and be teased there was a
certain feeling between Marist boys. Being a small school they had to work hard to do well in
sport, pull together. There were then only 280 boys in the senior school. Discipline was at times
harsh with corporal punishment but also respect. He never forgot getting 6 of the best from Mr
Murphy for mimicking a teacher in class.
After leaving school, he lasted 1 year at varsity, worked at the stock exchange for eight years as
a trader then travelled for a year. On his return he opened PD’s in Illovo and turned it into
Stabella in the Thrupp’s Centre. In 1994 he went to Cape Town and opened a place in
Greenmarket Square, Peitit Pains which was a great success, ran it for 13 years and sold it in

  1. He also got involved in the cleaning business and had a contract to clean Cape Town for
    8 years and in that time Cape Town won the cleanest city award. He realised that he had got
    involved in too many things, fishing being one of them. He then sold the shop, got out of the
    cleaning business and concentrated on the fishing industry with which the family has been
    involved with for generations. They have their own boats and buy in lobster to export to Japan
    and China. He also has an interest in renewable energy which is a long-term project and is busy
    with a wind farm.
    Following on from working with communities at school, he buys fish from local communities and
    assists with advice regarding equipment etc. The company also assists the subsistent fisherman
    with paperwork and not charging registration fees for forming co-ops. Better equipment helps
    them get up to a certain level and the company, Calandria, in turn gets a better quality product.
    For the small quota holders, they no longer give one lump sum but pay monthly in advance so
    that they can plan their lives better bringing financial stability. The company also pays the
    salary for one school teacher at Paternoster and usually gets involved in all the small towns they
    deal with and try to employ people in most of these towns in their operation.
    Nick has 5 children, 3 girls and 2 boys.
    There was a reunion 5 years ago with a dinner at the school and he would definitely attend
    more reunions.
    JE October 2011

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Nick Mavrodaris 1970

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  • 2013

Interview with Nick Mavrodaris – 1970
Nick was born in Springs and was enrolled as a pupil at St David’s, as a boarder in 1965.
Springs High School was in decline; also Nick’s father had brought 35 children to South
Africa from Greece and wanted a better education for his son.
He remembers his first day arriving and his parents helping him unpack. The pranks the
other boys played on their first day telling the new boys to go to one of the brothers and ask
where the crows were – unbeknown to them the brothers were nicknamed the “Crows”.
Nick was a boarder and loved it; he enjoyed the sport and joined in all the school activities.
The discipline was good and it was only years afterwards he appreciated that aspect of
school life and the influence it had on him. The discipline involved getting up early to study,
then school work, then sport and homework periods at the end of the day. Nick did however
regret missing out on family life especially as his father died when Nick was only 3 years into
adulthood.
He was a member of the U13, U14,U15 A and B rugby teams, in standard 9 was a member
of the 3rd team and in matric the 1st team until he injured his knee and required surgery. He
participated in cricket, tennis although he wasn’t that good, volleyball and diving. He also
went to Cape Town to St Joseph’s to celebrate the Marist’s 100 year anniversary.
The brothers he remembers are Br Anthony, Br Andrew “Drac”, whom he visited when he
went to Barcelona for the soccer world cup in 1982. Br Andrew taught Geography and at his
first lesson he told the boys to study the map of the Transvaal. The next day he brought a
very large map into the classroom and asked the boys the location of various towns etc
which of course they hadn’t learnt. In standard 9 he had a Jewish Maths teacher and James
Harrywyn took advantage of the fact that he didn’t understand what was to happen when the
Angelus bell rang and carried on praying and saying Hail Mary’s for 15 minutes until Br
Anthony walked past the classroom and saw everyone laughing. There was Br Patrick, an
Irishman who said “what do you expect from a pig but a grunt”, he taught English and Nick
remembers the opening lines of “The Tale of Two Cities” “it was the best of times and the
worst of times”. Br Aidan the bursar, Br Bosco “Boeing” who taught matric Science and
finished the syllabus by April. There was another brother from Mexico who didn’t understand
English. The boys nicknamed him “Gringo” and took advantage of him during study periods.
He remembers pupils such as Jonny Stavros, a Greek from Zambia, John Williamson, Alec
Chemaly, Patrick Quarmby, Lee McGregor, a Springbok swimmer and Keith Shaw, head
boy.
The boys were always playing jokes on one another and Nick remembered an occasion
when the priest didn’t turn up for confession and James Harrywyn took it upon himself to
stand in for him. He listened to all the confessions and sent the boys to the chapel to pray for
their sins – all evening!
Mickey Joseph was a walking pantry and carried all sorts of sauces in his blazers’ inside
pockets. The food was monotonous and Nick recalls one evening when the boys were
served spinach. Nick got hold of some olive oil and lemon juice and soon everyone was
tucking in.
The boys were not allowed to have radios at school but, in 1966 Nick acquired a mini radio
which he hid in his blazer and ran the wires for the earphones up his sleeve so that he could
listen to the soccer world cup scores.
Nick also remembers planting grass for the school rugby and cricket fields.
Nick’s father had a grocery store and worked long hours. When Nick went home for the
holidays he had to help as a packer which he hated at the time. His father trained them so
well that he went away on holiday and left his sons to run the business.
Nick recalled that for his matric dance he took a Greek girl from Germiston as his partner as
he really didn’t know many girls at that time.
When Nick left St David’s he joined the commandoes which entailed basic training in the
January and July 1971 and being called up to camps for 3 weeks over 16 years. Nick did 3
months border duty but didn’t see any action. He studied law at Wits University but realised
after 3 ½ years he wasn’t going anywhere. He had been regularly helping out at the grocery
store then got a job with the nearby Elegance Jewellers working every Saturday and during
varsity holidays for R2.50 per day. He had to travel by train to Johannesburg leaving home
at 6.10am to catch the 6.20 train arriving in Johannesburg at 7.30am. In all that time he only
missed 3 lectures. In 1974 he joined Elegance full time and eventually bought a half share
then the full, shares in the business. He had one shop in Springs then expanded further.
This year Nick consolidated the business from 5 stores to 2 and now enjoys some more
quality time with his family.
Nick’s sons didn’t attend St David’s as it was too far to travel from Benoni which has an
excellent high school. Also if they had become boarders they would have missed out on
family life which is very important.
JLE August 2013

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Nicholas Robinson 1974

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  • 2013

Interview with Nicholas Robinson – 1974
Nick’s first memories of St David’s were rather daunting. He is English and his family moved from Sri Lanka
where he attended boarding school and was put into a class with boys 2 years older than he was.
Nick loved the sport and theatre but didn’t enjoy the academics and hated the work. He didn’t really get on
with authority. However he liked teachers like Br Aquinas, Br Mario and Mr Zacharawicz was really super.
He played the role of Thomas Cromwell ,the nemesis to Angelo Haggiyannis’s Thomas More in ”A Man for
all Seasons” put on at the Rosebank Convent. He had a wonderful few months rehearsing and presenting
that play, maybe the best time at Marist.
He played rugby and the final two years in the 2ndXV were wonderful fun.
Nick didn’t receive any medals or awards.
Nick attended two matric dances, first in standard 9 as a guest and matric with his girlfriend Claire who he
subsequently married and they are still together 40 years later.
Nick matriculated in 1974 and was in 10A. After school he went to tech for a year which was miserable,
then joined a small trading company in Johannesburg as a sort of “gofer” and spent some years travelling
around the world learning the trade. One thing led to another and he was offered the opportunity to work in
the UK in 1986 and he and his wife decided – why not? They went for 3 years and stayed rather longer. He
is currently a commodity trader. Their two sons were born in SA and the family returns to SA 3 – 4 times a
year including 3 weeks in Plett. The sons visit Cape Town and the bush with friends – Nick’s friends’
children and his children are really good pals spending christmas together.
He saw Angelo on a few occasions and was kept in the picture regarding his illness and subsequent death
in September 2013.
JE October 2013

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Nicholas Haralambous 2002

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  • 2014

Interview with Nicholas Haralambous – 2002
Nicholas’s first memory of St David’s was the entrance exam which was held in what was a small theatre
by one of the science labs. He was 13 in grade 7 and had come from Crawford Prep where anything goes.
He had long hair, was shaving and wore civvies. All the other boys taking the exam were straight shooters.
School uniforms all done up and they knew each other. He was the only person from his school applying so
he kept himself to himself, wrote the exam, finished early and left.
When Nick was at S David’s there was no option but, given the choice he would have liked to board and
thought it would have been great. He spent so much time at school that maybe a bed was placed in one of
the classrooms. In any event he also remembered wanting to spend as much of his time messing around at
school as was possible.
Nick enjoyed the people most whilst he was at St David’s. At the time they were the best guys he could
have wanted to know and he enjoyed the well rounded nature of the school.
On the down side, Nick was always looking for more from St David’s in the way of choice – languages, arts,
drama and better coaching. There was always a bit more that could have been done. However it is good to
know that these things have been mostly addressed and that the school now offers a vast amount of
choice.
Nick will never forget the grade 8 camp at Glenmore, that year prefects attended a portion of the camp.
Nick played 1st team rugby in grade 11 and 12.
An occasion which stands out was when Nelson Mandela visited the school in Nick’s matric year. It meant
that he, as head boy had to give a speech to the school, guests and attendees. It was a daunting task at
the age of 18 to have to stand up and introduce an icon like Madiba. It was without doubt the most
memorable day that Nick had at St David’s.
Nick also had the pleasure of sitting close to Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State while he gave a
speech in the school’s amphitheatre and Bobby Skinstad was the guest speaker at the annual ruby dinner.
Nick couldn’t remember any “worst moments” but thought that it’s always rough dealing with school politics
and the most difficult period for him was grade 11 when prefects are announced. There was a lot of
pressure to be someone that you weren’t. Everyone has heard the PFP (pushing for prefect) taunts and for
whatever reason Nick felt a lot of stick for that in his year.
Mr Edey was without doubt the most memorable teaching figure Nick had ever encountered. He really
understood the school, its ethos and all the boys individually. He had it. Nick will never forget his booming
voice in the History classes and the empathetic assembly speeches. The most memorable speech he
recalled Mr Edey giving was in 2000 after a particularly bad week where St David’s boys were singled out
for something stupid. Mr Edey stood in front of the school and reminded the boys , as only he could, that it’s
the 5% of boys that let the other 95% down and they shouldn’t let them define who they were.
The matric dance was an interesting one. The dance Nick’s year threw in grade 11 was epic and was
hosted at the Sandton Sun Towers in Sandton City. They had an amazing Venetian theme and kitted
everything out in incredible style and they expected the same for their matric year but didn’t get it. Nick is
not sure whether the grade 11’s in 2002 were pranking them but the dance was hosted at the Wanderers
Club and the theme was “Aliens”. Nick felt it was cringe- worthy but in the end entirely memorable because
of how bad it was.
On his last day Nick remember being quite relieved to have made it through matric. It was difficult to
imagine a world without the other 90 or so guys in his class. They did what every matric does, the hazing
on their way out, the pranks and the traditional breakfast in the pavilion. Then it was over, just like that.
Nick was a prefect and head boy and was awarded a general honours blazer, the Old Boys Trophy for
Leadership and Promotion of the Marist Spirit and a Champagnat medal.
In Nick’s speech at the annual prize giving he said “Tradition has and will always have a place in our
school”. The single most moving experience of my life was walking down the 1st XV rugby steps in my
tracksuit with 400 boys sitting in front of me and cheering the first team on”.
After matriculating, Nick attended Rhodes University and received an undergraduate degree in journalism
and politics. Nick is currently a consultant and the owner of the men’s fashion brand Nic Harry.
Nick is a member of MOBS and last visited St David’s in 2012.
JE 2014

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Nicholas Ansell 2003

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  • 2014

Interview with Nicholas Ansell – 2003
Nick spent many years at St David’s from the age of three until he went to a pre-school run by a Mrs
Gibson. Nick’s mother Carol was a teacher at the school and therefore he spent a lot of time there. Robert
Gibson, Andrew Castle and Nick were all born within three months of each other, going to pre-school
together then Limberlost near Dunkeld West. They all started in grade 0 in 1991 and Ryan Norton, Walton
and Kirchhoffer joined them.
Nick and Andrew Castle went all the way through to matric together and became friendly with the sons of
other teachers, Mrs Marais and Mrs Roman. The grade 1 teachers were Rose, Ansell and Steernberg with
Carol Ansell moving up to teach grade 2 in 1993. Carol is currently a specialist teacher at St David’s
assisting the weakest and the strongest pupils in literacy. The office which was Nick’s nursery is now used
by the therapists.
The grade 2 teachers in 1993 were Ansell, Walton, Rose and Schaafsma. In standard 1 Mrs Sherratt was
Nick’s teacher, in standard 2, Mrs Sandy, in standard 3 Mrs Whitfield, in standard 4, Mrs Geldenhuys was
his home room teacher followed by Mr Thackwell in standard 5, Mrs Anderson was the Religious Education
teacher and Mrs Everson the English teacher. Mr Mitchley was the Science and sports master in senior
prep for standards 4 and 5 and interested Nick in the cricket scoring which he continued through high
school. Mrs Clover (Library) taught the boys how to find information and in those days it was using the old
catalogue card system. Mr Sloan the Geography teacher in standard 4 and 5 motivated Nick to enjoy and
understand Geography and a Mr Hayter. Mrs Bowles was strict and instilled discipline, she had a range of
books in her classroom and when one boy ran away he assumed the identity of one of the characters in a
book, that of an aborigine. Mrs Middlewick was the choir mistress and Nick and Andrew played the leading
roles in one of the school productions. Heather Joseph taught Art was like a second mother and was
always great fun.
Willy Castle was like a second father and Nick knew the ground staff well; George the tractor driver, Julius
and Phineas who all knew him from when he was a small boy. All the little boys used to hitch a ride on the
tractor and the school was their second home. Nick also remembers the smell of the stove, which was fired
by coal in the old kitchen. Nick used to sit in the kitchen when he was small and eat with Julius, Enoch and
Mabel.
Of the brothers, Br Anthony used to visit a couple of times a year. Brothers Vincent, Jude, Aidan and Mario
also came to the school regularly. Br Mario in fact employed Nick’s mother Carol. Father Brewer was down
to earth and strict and had a room upstairs near the chapel. He took the boys for holy communion and
coached soccer.
In the high school there was Mr Buys, Mr McMilllan who taught sport and Geography; Mr D Smith,
Geography, Mr and Mrs Andrews; Gary Norton who used to entertain the grade 1’s and 2’s with his snakes.
Paul Edey the headmaster was firm but insightful, teaching History when Nick was in standard 7 and
coached rugby. Nick enjoyed Rod Smith in standard 6 as his English teacher and Mrs Cameron, Mrs
Marais, Mrs Roman, Mrs Shumyn, Mr Burr, Accounting, Mr Craven, Zulu, athletics and rugby. The biggest
influence on Nick was held by the teachers who taught sport in standard 6.
Nick recalled the Glenmore camp in standard 6 and being a good time, rather like the army but great fun.
Gareth Kolkenbeck-Ruh was head boy and it was the first year that St David’s beat KES in rugby for many
years. Nick competed in the inter-high relay and College house still holds the record for the relay. Nick also
was awarded a team award for his cricket scoring and in standard 5 achieved an honours award.
Nick remembers his matric valediction, the grade 0 party coming to big school, first communion, the
Glenmore Camp, the death of James Garden’s brother and being upset when Mr Royce left.
Nick was hugely disappointed when he was not elected a prefect and didn’t achieve 1st Team rugby as he
fractured his spine and took up canoeing. He was however awarded a Champagnat medal. It was his first
lesson in life to learn that things don’t just get handed to you, and he learnt to be humble.
After matriculating, Nick studied at Wits University for a Bsc Physics and Mathematics and then changed to
a BSc Urban Planning in 2005 and graduated in 2008 with honours. During 2009, 2010, 2011 Nick worked
6 month shifts in the USA in state summer camps and eventually was promoted to programme director in
2011 to 2013 (2012 – 2013 full time)but had to return to South Africa when his visa expired.
He is currently working for Raven Town Planners and intends to study further for a masters in
environmental and sustainable cities next year.
JLE November 2014

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Neville Dent 1961

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  • 2014

Interview with Neville Dent – 1961
Memories of Boarding School, 1952 to 1961 by Neville (Tommy) Dent
Pupils travelled from far and wide to board and attend school at St Davids. Some of my best pals came
from the copper mines in Northern Rhodesia and the Congo. Most of us came from middle class families
and although most of the boys were Catholics a fair number were Protestants and Jews. I recall that
travelling home by train for Brian (Congo) Roberts took up to a week. He went “on hols” only once a year in
July. The rest of the time he was obliged to stay at school.
Initiation into the school was tough: “We use the cane here and if need be your boy will get a caning”.
Some tough words spoken by Brother Edwin to my father. In the 10 years I was at St Davids I never recall
him using the cane. However I did get canings from my teachers for a variety of reasons. In those days it
was fashionable. As a protestant in a catholic school I had special privileges like going to “St Martin’s in the
Veld” anglican church on Sunday mornings when the other lads were at mass. An added incentive to go to
church was the freshly baked sausage rolls we got after the service and helped fortify us for the 1 1/2 mile
walk back to the school for breakfast. With the blessing of the brothers I was confirmed by the Bishop of
Johannesburg on November 7, 1956.
Routine as a boarder meant getting up at 6.00 o’clock followed by prep while the catholics went to mass.
Breakfast was at 8.00. After school it was playing sport followed by prep, dinner, more prep and then in
bed by 9.00pm. Sometimes we got to listen to the radio in bed until 9.30pm. Sunday nights were special
because we were allowed to listen to the “LM Hit Parades” presented by David Davies being broadcast
from Mozambique.
My first memory of the class room was of Mrs Batten our Std 3 teacher and her dreaded cabbage juice
which was administered as punishment. I hated the cabbage juice but failure to drink it meant a visit to the
principal’s office which was worse. Std 5 had many happy memories foremost of which was our
introduction to literature by Mr Bishop. In his distinct clear voice he read to us from “Chaka Zulu” for half an
hour every day. During the reading there wasn’t a murmur in the class as we all sat spell bound and I
became determined to read more books. Mr Bishop was forced to re-read the book twice. He also took
charge of the scripture reading class for the Protestants and Jews who were barred from attending
catechism. It was endless reading the bible from cover-to-cover for 10 years and to this day I’m unsure it
strengthened my christian faith. Arguably the best teacher in the school was Brother Lewis who in our junior
cert year moulded us into a sharp academic unit. His methods might have been harsh but we all
appreciated him when we ended up with the most distinctions and 1st class passes in the Joint Matriculation
exam in South Africa.
In the late 50’s the school played host to homeless refugee children from Hungary and I remember them as
being talented acrobats and musicians. The school was thoroughly entertained by these strange people
who couldn’t speak English. One 12 year old lad could play Liszt on the piano like a concert pianist and I
was able to get my first delightful taste of the piano.
My most embarrassing moment at school was in my junior cert year when at assembly one day Br.
Anthony, who was then principal, told me to report to his office for a caning because of a misdemeanour
and then changed his mind and still at assembly in front of my mates told me not to bother as I looked
scared. This was the one and only time I ever craved for a caning.
My happiest memories were Saturday mornings when it would be up early and down to the tennis courts for
a game before breakfast. After breakfast it would be cricket or rugby followed by lunch and then the
freedom to go to the Wanderers Club to watch sport. I have many fond memories of watching great players
like Peter May, Dennis Compton, Neil Adcock, Don Bradman and our own Graham Pollack and Hugh
Tayfield play cricket. Occasionally we were also allowed to go to Ellis Park and I recall attending the test
between the Springboks and the All Blacks in the late 50’s with my school pal and 110 000 other rugby fans
which I think was a record attendance. We were ecstatic to see Hennie van Zyl (handsome Hennie as he
was known) score South Africa’s one and only try.
2
Saturday evenings would be movie time and Brother Dennis would set up the 16mm projector in the dining
hall. One of the boarders father was a big shot in African Consolidated Theatres and he made sure we got
nothing but the best movies to watch. The boarder mentioned was John Stodel a Jewish student also in my
class.
Talking of Ellis Park it would be amiss not to tell how my name was changed from Neville to Tommy. Going
to the grounds meant catching a double-decker bus outside the school into the centre of Johannesburg and
then walking to the stadium. On this particular Saturday afternoon a pal and I were walking back from a
game towards the bus terminal off Commissioner street when we walked past a man waving at an empty
bus shouting:”Hello Tommy, Hello Tommy” over and over again. We could see he wasn’t too steady on his
feet and mimicking him back at school became the joke of the year. Whenever we greeted each other it
became “Hello Tommy”. It was this that the led to the name catching on.
Sundays were different from Saturdays. After church and breakfast we would go to prep at 11.00 am to
carry out parental letter writing until lunch time. As we filed out we had to hand our letters in for posting.
Many parents found excuses not to reply to letters and for many of us letter writing became distasteful.
Many afternoons were devoted to walks, the old Maristonian club being the favourite. It meant crossing the
Klein Jukskei bridge and walking up the steep hill to the Pretoria road by which time we were famished. I
remember the meat pies being amongst the most delicious I had ever tasted.
The Sunday night meal would be cold meats and salads as most of the kitchen staff were off.
I didn’t shape too well in sport but managed the 1st hockey team in my senior year. In the inter-schools
league we would come midway in the rankings. Likewise with rugby and cricket, St Stithians and
Observatory were considered Derby marches and were must-wins. Here again it was 50/50. Home games
for the 1st XV rugby team were big occasions and would draw large crowds. Not to be outdone I became
school cheer-leader in my senior year and donned my top hat and tails. We had a good repertoire of songs
to sing and being a small school got time off during classes to practice. I had many happy memories
cheering not only the rugby team but the athletic teams as well. Observatory matches were a little different
in that they would try to “borrow” my top hat and therefore a couple of the bigger lads would stay close by
to scare off the would- be culprits.
Brother Dennis was one of our sports masters and he would think nothing of tucking the hem of his cassock
into his belt and playing rugby with us. He loved playing in the back line as a centre and we loved tackling
him as hard as we could but he was always very gentle. It was great fun and we loved playing with him. He
must have been a good hurler when he was young and after much deliberation agreed to show the hockey
lads how to play hurling. The uninhibited rules of hurling were refreshing after hockey but my participation
ended prematurely when I got a crack above the eye with a hockey stick. The school matron and doctor
were summoned and I had to have stitches.
Like the brothers many boarders considered the school to be their home. For some of us it was home to
home so it was natural that we looked to the brothers as family figures. The head-masters throughout my
schooling took the job seriously and ensured we weren’t bullied. We were also taught social decorum. One
Sunday night I recall Brother Edwin laying a table place in the prep room and showing us how to eat as
gentlemen and the difference between spooning soup and desserts. On another occasion he ordered an
older student to give me his tuck box full of sweets and chocolates as punishment for bullying me. I also
remember the night when we refused to eat the cabbage because of worms. Brother Edwin promptly had a
place set in the dining room and proceeded to eat a full plate of cabbage and then standing up said: “If I
can eat it so can you” and walked out.
My saddest day at school was the day of the Sharpeville massacre on March 21, 1960. I was in Std 9 and
was troubled for many months by the events of that day.
Final year was full of surprises. We spent a lot of time doing past papers as preparation for the JMB exams
and were left pretty well alone. Then came the matric Farewell. To prepare us for this Parktown Convent
girls were invited over for combined dancing lessons. This was my first experience of dancing. My poor
partner must have been put off dancing for life. This was followed by a “Beano”, a traditional end of year
feast for boarders in the dining hall.
3
The last day of school was full of mixed emotions. I was saying goodbye to my beloved family probably for
the last time and I was also starting a new journey. My schooling had been an ideal preparation for me. I
had become resourceful, academically qualified and had learnt the art of getting on with people. On the
other hand I had lived for10 years in an environment where I was denied the right to make my own
decisions. This posed a new challenge for me and one which I knew I was going to enjoy.
In 1995, 34 years later, we had a class re-union at the Balalaika hotel with our wives and partners and it
was amazing to see old faces and hear how my old friends had progressed in life. My class had done very
well and amongst us were medical doctors and specialists, business owners, academics, engineers and
directors of companies. I became sure then that my parents had sent me to the right school.
After leaving St David’s, Neville earned a B.SC (Hons) degree at Rhodes University. For a short time
afterwards he worked at the CSIR as a scientist until leaving for a more challenging position in industry. In
1986 he graduated with an MBA from Wits Business School. In 1990 after spending 21 years mostly in
senior managerial positions with Boart International, an AMIC subsidiary, he moved into small business
becoming a director of companies. In 2000 Neville moved to Ireland with his wife and youngest daughter
working as a business mentor.
He finally retired in February 2013. He also has daughters in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Dubai and
one grandson.
JLE January 2014

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Nassey Simaan

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  • 2012

Interview with Nassey Simaan 1960’s
Nassey was the parent of Gabriel Simaan who matriculated in 1968. He and his wife, Agnes
were heavily involved with the school from 1956 until their son Gabriel matriculated. They were
not officially employed by the school but helped in a voluntary capacity.
His wife was instrumental in the grassing of the rugby fields and later the cricket pitch. Agnes
got some people organised and kikuyu grass was collected from the river in Buccleuch, she also
organised the grassing of the cricket oval. The Wanderers Cricket Club wanted to use the oval
for some important fixtures as theirs was underwater and they regarded St David’s pitch to be
superior, however the brothers would not allow this.
When Nassey coached the rugby team they won all their matches bar one. Sadly he had a
dispute with Brother Anthony when one of the boys was not awarded his colours. He liked Br
Anthony but didn’t always get on with him which resulted in him moving his other son, Andrew to
Observatory.
Shortly before he died Br Anthony asked to see them. They visited him in hospital, he was
happy to see them and apologised to Nassey and died not long afterwards.
Nassey will be 90 on 5 April 2012-01-23
JE January

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Mike von Guilleaume 1995

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  • 2012

Interview with Mike von Guilleaume – 1995
Mike followed in his father’s footsteps beginning his career at St David’s in grade 0 and his
brother Terence was also a pupil finishing in 1990. Mike’s father matriculated in 1954. Mike’s
father’s parents moved to South Africa from Germany and his father matriculated in 1954. As
his mother was a staunch catholic Mike was enrolled as a pupil at St David’s, however when he
reached high school his father took him to Hilton as he wanted to anglicise him. On the second
day he ran away spending two nights in the forest and eventually phoned his parents and
refused to divulge his whereabouts until they promised him he could go back to St David’s.
Mike’s mother was in charge of the catering at the school until 2001. Mike’s father was heavily
involved with MOBS which meant that Mike spent a great deal of time at St David’s socialising
with Marist boys such as Doug Wickins, Alec Quail, Darko Vidas and Vito Rugani.
Mike first teacher was Mrs Kerstofen and his class is where the after care is now. Mike recalls
that the soccer clinics in the primary school were legendary with Willy Castle in charge showing
an 8mm movie at the end of the festivals. Mike remembered playing soccer in Germiston, where
the boys lost badly as they were all too busy watching the planes flying overhead. Willy
organised a soccer tour for the standard 5’s travelling to Belgium and Mike’s brother was lucky
enough to be part of the team.
George the tractor driver used to give the boys lifts and Mr Freilich gave them super C’s when
they went to his office. The boys all watched Mrs Carlisle, their grade 1 teacher on TV when she
crossed the finishing line completing the Comrades marathon. In grade 2 Mrs Schaafsma had
a punishment mat and administered hidings with her wooden ruler. Mike also remembered
teachers such as Glenda Anderson; Debby Hurley; Mrs Orford who gave recorder lessons, Bev
Geldenhuys and Mrs Morkel, standard 5.
Mike’s first holy communion was held in the old hall followed by a meal. He remembers going to
the Bunny Park, to the Good Shepherd camp at Hartbeespoort. There were Malawian twins who
attended the school Lester and Bester, sadly their mother died after stepping on a garden rake
and the wound became septic.
In standard 7 Mike together with Michael Ward and Richard Pin went on a cricket tour to
Zimbabwe organised by Father Brewer and Cedric Finlayson. They played against Plumtree,
Falcon House, and CBC Bulawayo drawing 4 of the matches which were played against teams
consisting of some members of the Zimbabwe rugby team. The boys took cricket gear with them
for the boys there and some of the boys suffered from food poisoning after eating the dormitory
food.
In high school, one of the boys, David Salmon put his scissors in a plug socket in the science
lab and caused a mighty bang but fortunately didn’t kill himself.
At the beginning of standard 9, in abstentia, Mike was voted in as chairman of the MDC - matric
dance committee. Mike played in various age group teams and was at one time captain of the
rugby and cricket teams.
Mike was involved in a number of high school pranks and from standard 8, whilst his mother ran
the tuck shop, Mike managed to sell beers from her catering stock. Mike participated in the
rugby tour to Australia in 1995 and as head boy was part of the disciplinary committee together
with the tour captain and staff. Mike and the tour captain were caught breaking curfew and were
hauled in front of the disciplinary committee and then told to design their own punishment. They
decided not to have any more social rights for the remainder of the tour and offered to sign in
the other boys relieving Graeme McMillan, Greg Lambe and Andrew Brownlee the coaching
staff. Their proposal was accepted and Father Brewer checked up on them for the first two
nights but over the remaining 14 nights they went out after curfew without getting caught. He
remembers how naive they were walking into gay bars and strip clubs. The black guys got most
of the attention from the girls being so rare. One of the boys, Merryman was particularly naughty
and nearly missed the flight back home.
Matric was challenging as Mike was in a position of authority but he was fortunate in having
Paul Edey as headmaster, He was a great leader, not at all autocratic and worked together with
the boys. There were 44 boys in the matric class that year. The school had a strong rugby team
losing one game out of 26 so it was easy to generate a good spirit amongst the boys and it
wasn’t difficult to get the school to get things done. Mike had a good relationship with the
teachers, helping with sports practices thereby taking some pressure off the teaching staff.
The staff Mike remembers are Richard Girdwood who taught matric English but never once
spoke about the set work as the boys were very adept at encouraging him to stray off the
subject. He taught them about life and used a sawn off hockey stick “Jemma” to discipline them.
Gary Norton used to make the boys do push ups. Cedric Finlayson was the sports coach with a
temper. There were the ground staffs at the time Julius, Enoch and Victor. Mike Midgley swotted
him with a cricket bat for being cheeky.
Mike enjoyed school, had fun and got involved with school plays doing the sets. He and Jeremy
Wickens had been together since grade 1 and he remembered that Jeremy was awarded a
Marist provincial blazer. Anthony Bayne came to St David’s from Jan Cilliers and found it to be
quite a culture shock. It must also have been quite an adjustment for Sidney Ngwenya who was
the Lubner’s maid’s son. Together with the co-workers Mike went on a trip to Slough and was
also involve with the SMILE programme.
Mike achieved a very average matric as his focus was on getting the most out of life but he
enjoyed History with Simon Fry. After leaving St David’s, Mike went to Pamona College in
Claremont, California. Pamona was a liberal arts college built on the Oxford/Cambridge model,
it was small and very academic. He studied PPE - politics, philosophy and economics majoring
in economics and lived in the States for 4 years. He then worked in management consulting and
is now in the media industry working for Random House/Struik.
Mike joined MOBS in 2004 and is always grateful that he received an old boy’s bursary in 1978.
Mike is still in touch with many of his class mates even though many of them no longer live in
South Africa.
Warren Mandy – warren.mandey@bytes.co.uk
Anthony Bayne – Anthony_bayne@ml.com
John Tilley – jonjontilley@yahoo.com
Korabo Denalane – 084 777 5122
Brad Latilla Campbell is Mike’s nephew, his sister Celeste’s son. Callum Latilla-Campbell is now
at St Albans. Jack Latilla-Campbell, is in Gr 0
Warren Yoko is also a nephew
Greg Lambe taught at St David’s
Antoinette Lambe, Mike’s sister also taught at St David’s and sons Tristan is in Gr 00 and
Keegan now in Gr 3
Mike’s brother Terence is living in the States with 2 sons and also has another sister living there
with 2 daughters and 1 son.
JLE May 2012

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Mike Stanley 1974

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  • 2012

Interview with Mike Stanley – 1974
Mike is the youngest of a family of five boys and when he joined St David’s in standard 6, two of
his older brothers were already there and all of them were boarders. He was called “Baby
Stanley or Little Stan” and he remembers his brother carrying his belongings to the dormitory
and his mother made his bed. Because he was the fifth child at the school his parents did not
have to pay fees for him.
Brother Anthony was still there and Mike thought he was a wonderful man, Br Aidan, an
amazing man was the bursar, Br Bosco, Br Timonthy “Tin Man” taught Science, Br Andrew
“Drac” was Spanish and drew blood when he caned the boys., Br Aquinas was an elderly
bulldog of a man who taught English and History. Br Bernard taught Latin and a younger brother
who was an unpleasant and vindictive man taught Art and was in charge of the junior boarding
house. Mr Zacharias – Mr Zac was a wonderful History teacher who had escaped from
Germany hiding underneath a train. There were some pretty female teachers Mavis Hartman,
English, Beverly Ballard (Tremeer) Science and her husband taught at KES’ Mrs Janusch
taught Latin, Mrs Culligan was from an Irish family and had a son Barry at the school. Mrs
Kempster was head of the prep school and Mrs Buckley-Jones the matron, Mrs Buchan taught
History and had a son at the school, Mrs Rudiker a Biology teacher who was very attractive and
wore miniskirts. There was an Afrikaans teacher “Bubo” who battled as there was zero interest
in the subject.
Mike remembers the boarders having to move the stands for sporting events. The boys were
allowed to spend one weekend per term with their families and there were some Sundays when
they were allowed to visit their sons. At weekends the boys were allowed to watch the cricket at
Wanderers. His brothers watched the match in 1967 when South Africa beat Australia in a test
series. It was compulsory for the boarders to support the 1st team in rugby. They watched reel to
reel movies on Saturday nights. At the end of each term the boys had “Beano” which was the
only time that they ate roast chicken and had a pudding the night before they went home.
During term time the boarders often used to break into the kitchen and raid the fridge. Piet was
the school cook. The sister school was Rosebank Convent.
Mike was a member of Benedict house, played cricket and was captain of the 2nd team, played
3 and 4th team rugby and was in the boarders hockey league. In 1972 they had the strongest,
unbeaten rugby team but in a heart breaking match they lost to KES. The captain was Terry van
Heerden from Zambia, other team members were Harry Curtis, Carl Eb, James Cronin - centre
was the only player to be sent off in a match against St John’s for straight arm tackling. Mike
recalls Br Andrew “Drac” telling Cronin “you’ve got to take out that Williams boy”. He recalled
rugby tours to Bloemfontein and other SA cities but never to exotic places like Australia.
Academically, Mike did reasonably well achieving a first class matric and went on to Wits
University to study a BSc as he wanted to go into medicine. Unfortunately he didn’t do too well
in his first year and went into the army for 2 years service and signed on for an extra year. In
1979 he finished his army service and signed up to do his articles with price Waterhouse
Cooper where there were a number of ex St David’s boys He is now involved with the concrete
flooring industry. Mike’s son didn’t attend St David’s as the family lived in Cape Town for a
number of years and when they came back to Johannesburg Mike and his wife divorced and
needed their son to attend a boarding school.
Mike thinks that the years he spent at St David’s was a beautiful time especially in the high
school. He still has many friends from those days and he and Michael Macfarlane have been
friends for 48 years.
Families he remembers having a number of boys at St David’s were Kourie’s, Saad’s, Deeb,
Sopas (Elias, Michael and Basil), Resek, Moni, Marsay, Macfarlane Other old boys such as
Fulton Allem, Lindsay Ralphs now at Bidvest whose nickname was “Pooch”, George Nichas,
Terence Lavery (1968) who unofficially equalled Paul Nash’s time for the 100m, Richard Stavro
Captain 1st Team rugby, Alan van den Handel, Kevin Peel, Rob Adair, Billy Colton, Angelo
Haggiyanis. There were a few ambassadors sons at the school such as the Greek Ambassador
to the Congo.
JE August 2012

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Mike Smith 1966

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  • 2012

Interview with Mike Smith – 1966
Mike was a day boy at St David’s and lived on a flower farm near Alexandra township. He
remembered his first day in grade 1 in the old grades block, Miss Brick was his teacher and she
used to rap the boys knuckles with her ruler. He and his brother Alf used to arrive at the school
early as their father used to drop them off on his way to market. Mike used to go and sit on the
steps and could see the traffic cops who used to come inside the school grounds to do their
speed trapping of cars on Rivonia Rd. He recalls that one morning Br Edwin the then principal
called him and sent him to tell the police that they could get some coffee from the school
kitchen. Mike was terrified of both the principal and the traffic cops so it was quite nerve
wracking for him.
Br Pius who had taught his father at Koch Street was at the school, although no longer teaching,
his passion was the gardens and he used to give the boys sweets from his lucky packet.
He remembered teachers such as Mrs Martin, Mrs Brophy, Mrs Green and Mrs Humphrey in
whose class the last minutes were dedicated to reading time. The boys really enjoyed this and
you could hear a pin drop during this time.
Mike enjoyed playing cricket from the early days when he used to play with his brother.
Throughout his school career there were always excellent cricketing coaches during the
summer months including the likes of Ken Palmer ( played for England); Jack Bannister; Don
Wilson and Poole. Mike had to choose between swimming or cricket and thoroughly enjoyed the
coaching and practise sessions. The coaches added value to their cricketing performances
which was quite good at the time. The cricket nets were next to where the new chapel now
stands.
The highlight of Mike’s school career occurred during the Michaelmass holidays, the school
then had 4 terms, which was the Marist cricket week and all the Marist schools in the country
competed against each other – St Patrick’s –Walmer; St Joseph’s – Cape Town; St Charle’s –
Pietermaritzburg; St Henry’s – Durban and St David’s – Johannesburg. The week was rotated
between the schools and Mike participated in 3 whilst in standard 8, 9 and 10. When the
matches were completed a Marist cricket 11 was selected and all the players were given a
special blazer, this was regarded as being especially prestigious. This team then played the old
boys team. Mike was selected twice for this team and became the captain in his matric year and
still has the badge given to him. During the week the food was good and the players were taken
to see a movie and a social event together with the local convent school was organised. The
Wilf Isaacs visiting cricket team was also a very special occasion and the Nuffield trials week
when St David’s and Observatory had a combined team against the likes of KES and Parktown
which gave the Marist schools a lot of credos. In those days the boys didn’t wear protective
head gear and he recalls an Obs boy, Brian Norberry being hit by a ball between the eyes. He
fortunately recovered from what was a potentially very dangerous injury.
The school’s swimming team at the time was very good and has been ever since. Athletics was
strong and regarded passionately by the boys and included such names as Terence Lavery,
Chris Terreblanche who were very talented athletes. The inter-catholic high he recalls was held
at a stadium. Rugby featured strongly and the tours were very popular. The rivalry between
Observatory and St David’s was strong and became quite hectic at times.
Academically Mike always did well being in the upper quotient of his year. He was amongst the
first boys to be streamed and studied Maths, Physics and Chemistry, Biology, English and
Afrikaans.
The school put on a couple of plays and Mike was involved backstage but did not act.
The brothers were amazing and real characters, Br Edwin, Br Anthony, Br Bosco (Mario) and Br
Andrew who was Spanish. The brothers dining room was out of bounds but, through the
occasional glimpse the boys could see that the food was good and that the brothers ate and
drank well.
Mike was caned on a daily basis, it was like an honour and not regarded as a problem. He
recalls an incident when a rather ripe orange that was thrown and just missed Br Andrew (Drac)
and all the boys were caned.
The matric dance in those days was rather different and the matric boys themselves decorated
the dining room, no huge sum of money was spent on the event and there was no before party.
The boarders were a fantastic bunch and made the school to a large extent, coming from all
over -Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique the Lowveld etc. He still remains in touch with Mike
Beaumont, Bart Dorrestein, Peter Gerrard, Jannie Steyn and Eric Ambrosioni. There were many
polio victims in the school at that time and he remembers Mike Nettman who was unable to play
sport and now lives in New Zealand and was one of the “Four Jacks and a Jill” and has had a
successful career as a musician. Mike organised the 40th reunion which was held at the top of
the Michael Angelo Towers in Bart Dorrestein’s suite “The Cupola” in 2006 and with a braai on
Sunday at St David’s high school paviliion
During his matric year there was much talk about military service and Mike was called up. He
remembers lining up for the medical exam in his school uniform in the drill hall. After completing
his military service Mike went on to Wits University to study engineering and until recently ran
his own construction company. His son Robert (2004) followed in the family tradition and was a
pupil at St David’s and Mike’s father Cyprien, who is now 92 was a pupil at Koch Street and
Observatory.
JE March 2012

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Mike Peel 1978

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  • 2013

Interview with Mike Peel – 1978
Mike’s father went to Koch Street and Marist Observatory and his uncle was in the first class at
St David’s – Harold Morgan. He has cousins also related to the school, Paul and Anton Barale
and Renzo Brocco.
When Mike was in grade 2, his father was on the parish council at St Charles, Victory Park
when the lemon squeezer was built and set up a challenge match between Inanda and De La
Salle which went 1.0 to St David’s.
Mike began his career at St David’s in 1967, the year after his brother Kevin left and John, also
a pupil was 10 years older. Mike had just turned 5 and was too young to start school so he was
not too happy on his first day. He couldn’t read, write or draw but enjoyed sport.
His first teacher in grade 1 was Mrs Scarfsma. Br Lindsay coached soccer and used to teach us
to think about the game as he really loved it. Mike remembers playing in the quarter finals
against Blairgowrie and the team being knocked out 4-3 after leading 3-1, big disappointment.
Mike played U15 Transvaal cricket with Paul Ralphs. Br Aquinas was the Ist primary cricket
coach.
In standard 5 the boys had to play rugby and Mike was in the U13 C team. Peter Stringer, a
professional cricketer from Yorkshire was the coach for rugby and cricket and Br Bernard also
coached rugby. In standard 6 our U13A team won every game of rugby 20-0 victory against
KES at KES. until CBC Pretoria beat them. In standard 9, he recalls beating St Stithians in the
Johnny Waite Cricket semi-finals. Mike was in the Nuffield B cricket team in 1977with Paul
Ralphs and Peter Marneweck and the Nuffield A in 1978 and was awarded sportsman of the
year.
What was remarkable was that 36 matrics together with the standard 9 class put out 4 teams
and still managed to compete against bigger schools. Everyone had a chance and the team
spirit was strong. One of the highlights was beating St Stithians at rugby in matric. There were
rugby camps to Lydenberg before the rugby season with Br Timothy who bet Mike R5 to swim
across the dam in mid winter and he also dared him to get a crew cut on the last day of term.
Mike still has his rugby jersey and on one occasion at Penryn College where his children
attended school, ended up chatting to the St David’s coaches and presented the jerseys to the
St David’s 1st team. A proud moment for him.
Mike participated in the centenary celebrations at St Joseph’s, Cape Town on and has a copy of
the article in the Southern Cross 19 April 1967. There was a soccer tour to the Free State led by
Br Lindsay where the boys played 3 games in 2 days winning 2 and drawing the last one.
There was an exchange student, Andrew Driver who came from Shoreham Grammar in the UK.
He was a rugby and cricket player, scoring the winning kick against St Stithians. Charles Burn
(my best man and me his) was a great horse rider and our relationship with Shoreham
Grammar meant that our horse riding team competed at the Hickstead horse jumping
championship. Charlie was part of the team that competed at Hickstead winning once and doing
well on all the occasions we participated.
Another occasion he recalled was when he and two other equally naughty boys (no names)
moved the school combi after a tennis match at Risidale Primary. The teachers eventually
appeared from their tea and were shocked to find the combi gone. The boys had just moved it
around the corner and were caned by Mrs Kempster and then again by Br Anthony the next
day. Being caned by Br Anthony was probably the worst moment he had whilst at St David’s.
There were many pranks played including an incident when some of the boys moved a desk to
the edge of the platform in the classroom and when the brother lent against the desk it
collapsed.
Mike recalled teachers such as Mrs Geddes, Frank Maritz, Mrs Blaire, Mr Lipschitz, Mrs Napier
(Std 2) and Harold Gavron who instilled a love of ecology in him. Mrs Elliott was also a
memorable teacher and led the public speaking team although Mike was not really into the arts
his leaning being more on the sporting side.. The boys also raised funds for the blind under the
direction of Br Paul who was himself blind. Mike was photographed by the Southern Cross as
the youngest, smallest boy in the school handing money over to Br Paul.
Fellow pupils he remembers and is still in touch with are Andrew Slaven (Radiologist,New
Zealand), Roy Zent (heads up a kidney lab in the USA) and brothers Clive and Neil – all
overseas but visit Mike when they are in South Africa.
The matric dance was held in the hall which was decorated to look like a French cafe. On their
last day Br Timothy told the boys to take off their blazers before they went to the pub to
celebrate.
Andrew Slaven was head boy and Mike was vice-head boy together with Patrick Riley.
Mike left school at the age of 16 and went to Wits University and then to RAU. He studied for a
BSc Zoology and Botany then did an MSc in Wildlife Management in Pretoria followed by a PHd
at the University of KZN. After varsity he completed two years in the air force as a lieutenant. He
is currently a rangelands ecologist and looks at optimising in African rangelands but with focus
in the eastern lowveld and has run a research programme since 1989 undertaking aerial
surveys over South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique .He supervises a couple of Phd’s and
MSc’s at various universities including the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands,
Cambridge University, Texas A & M University, WITS and Pretoria..
He assists communities when their land is restored to them to develop the land. Mike and his
wife also do marriage preparation for the catholic church in Nelspruit and has been involved with
the St Vincent de Paul Society.
Mike last visited the school at the opening of the new chapel .His son attended Penryn College
but would have been a pupil at St David’s had they lived in Johannesburg. He also has a
daughter, an architect and his son is studying property management at Pretoria University.
JLE May 2013

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Mike Greeff Staff 2006 - 2015

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  • 2015

Interview with Mike Greeff – Staff - 2006 to 2015
Before joining St David’s in 2006 as chief executive officer, Mike worked in the banking sector for 20 years
before running his own consulting company specialising in development finance mainly in South Africa,
Eastern Europe and Africa. Mike enjoyed his business which was very successful and identified NGO’s or
groupings that banks would not consider and, under the auspices of Shore Bank, (Chicago) would
guarantee loans with the backing of the US government.
Whilst in the banking sector, Mike ran leadership camps for grade 11 to matric boys through the auspices
of Rotary. As a matriculant and head prefect at Parktown Boys, Mike had attended one of these camps
himself and eventually his boss at the time asked him if he would get involved. Mike also saw this as a
form of outreach through his own company and also his old school. Some of the youngsters who attended
the camps asked him to come and speak at pupil development workshops such as the one he was involved
with at St David’s. Whilst running his own company he continued with this as a form of personal corporate
outreach. This extended to working with staff at schools and several strategic planning workshops.
In early 2000 Paul Edey and Kevin Brewer asked Mike if he would facilitate a staff planning session at St
David’s and look at a restructuring programme for the school management. In 2005 Paul Edey called him
again and asked him if he would do an intervention to assess the success of the restructuring programme
and at the same time told him he was resigning and suggested that perhaps Mike should consider applying
for the position of chief executive officer.
Mike then recused himself from the intervention process and recalls meeting with Tony Chappel, the then
chairman of the board on a Saturday in May 2006.
Mike was not a Marist pupil himself but was a practicing catholic and his grandparents had been managers
of the Maristonian club at Woodmead. Mike’s mother was brought up there and loved everything Marist.
Unfortunately Mike’s parents were not in a position to be able to send him to St David’s and he went the
public school route but always had a very strong association with the Marists. Hs mother sadly passed
away the day before Mike met with Tony Chappel and he regrets not being able to tell her about the
planned meeting. Mike then went through a set of interviews with Br Jude, Mrs Sealand and others and
eventually began his career at St David’s in September 2006 and has never regretted it.
Mike’s involvement with the Marist Brothers was key to his move into education and he qualified as a
teacher shortly after coming to St David’s; all his prior qualifications being commercial degrees. There were
many different issues he was tasked to deal with and, apart from the absolute strengthening of the Marist
link with the brothers and the rest of the Marist world; these included risk and governance; strategy and
ethos. St David’s was and still is a Marist catholic independent school. Mike’s dream is that boys currently
at the school will still have, in twenty years time a Marist school which is relevant to the times to which they
can send their children.
Shortly before he died Br Anthony expressed the opinion that St David’s was more Marist then than when
the brothers were running the school purely because the lay Marists running the schools are so acutely
aware of their responsibilities inherited from legions of Marist brothers who laid the foundations.
St David’s performance is being acknowledged in education and catholic education circles with many
members of staff being leaders in the educational environment having positions within the IEB, ISASA, the
Catholic Schools Office etc . Br Jude was instrumental and brave in his support and encouragement of lay
teachers and staff.
Mike is very proud of how vibrant MOBS has become with a combination of both younger and older MOBS
working together with Willy Castle in the chair.
The Foundation has grown with Chantal Ratcliffe being the right person at the right time followed now by
Lara Klement with whom the development has continued and flourished with a Marist perspective. Mike is
intimately involved with the running of the Foundation which is now far beyond where it started and has
moved to a different level of maturity. Lara has done an incredible job supported by Thierry Dalais, Rob
Smith, Tony Chappell, Gianni Mariano and with Br Jude at the very heart of it.
Mike is currently chairman of the African Law and Brothers Commission which covers the entire African
continent and he reports to Br Javier who in turn runs the secretariat of the laity in Rome. Br Joe originally
asked Mike to represent Southern Africa at the first meeting of this body.
Mike has set in place a good financial management structure with the school being run along business lines
but not as a business, with both schools being directed by the two headmasters and their staff. The school
is currently in a good place and Mike feels that Rod Smith summed it up well in his retirement speech when
he said, “On our day we will beat anyone but we are too small to be arrogant”. The school is in a healthy
space but that can change overnight, it has to be maintained and sustained. Its strength lies in the numbers
with people doing what they are good at, who are passionate about what they do and educating within the
Marist ethos.
Mike currently enjoys a little bit of teaching in guest slots with the grade 8’s through to matric, and is also
involved with staff development assisting with the induction of new staff and is fully involved on a pastoral
level with both headmasters.
2016, Willy Castle will be playing an active role and Mike is confident that what we celebrate in 2016 will be
celebrated in the same vein in another 25 years time with a golden thread running through it.
Mike feels that it has been a privilege for him to live at Maryknoll and to be part of the school for the past 10
years.
Mike has, as from 1 March 2015 been appointed director of the Marist Schools Council.
JLE January 2015

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Mike Eilertsen 2000

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  • 2012

Interview with Mike Eilertsen – 2000
Coming from Rosebank Primary, Mike joined St David’s in 1996 when Paul Edey was
headmaster. He recalled that on the first day standard 6 underwent an induction on the
basketball courts and bullying was the big topic for the day and great emphasis was placed on
the boys being part of the Marist family. Rod Smith had been the victim of bullying in his youth
and was therefore strongly against it.
The teachers he remembers in particular are Mrs Snyman, Mr Fry, Mr McMillan, Mrs Cameron,
Paul Edey and Rod Smith. Debbie Cameron was impressive and once flicked and caught her
high heeled shoe before throwing it across the class when the boys were being particularly
unruly. Mr Cameron had an elastic ball which grew and grew as he confiscated rubber bands
from the boys. Mr McMillan used to squash paper and throw it at the boys, on one occasion
Mike caught it and threw it straight back. “Mac” used to hit the boys with his hand with what was
called a “Pucker”, he wasn’t vicious but made his point and often used to make the class stay in
after school. He had a little Scottie dog which followed him everywhere. Mrs Schumayn the
Afrikaans teacher would get so harassed by the boys that she would order the whole class out
of the classroom. Of course the boys took advantage of this until one day Mr Edey came by and
asked why all the boys were in the quad. There was a Mrs Leenstra who taught Maths and with
whom every boy fell in love. She was a warm person and beautiful on the inside as well as
being very attractive.
Mike was a very good sportsman excelling in athletics, was a good sprinter and received the
Victor Ludorum in 1999 and 2000. He was awarded an honours Blazer for general honours and
specific honours, sport, culturals, merit and leadership. Mike also got involved with school and
house plays, and public speaking which helped in his business career and is key with his
presentations. Academically Mike was in the top class but regarded himself a “B” student.
Mike went on to study a BComm Entrepreneurship at RAU but was unhappy with the content
and programme. He decided to open a business – “Breakfast Boys”, he initiated this and sold
breakfast packs at the corner of Jan Smuts and Conrad Drive for R10. He included pamphlets
about himself and what he was doing and business issues he was experiencing. The business
did well and he had a number of students who did the same thing at various key intersections
with him providing the packs. Someone then asked for coffee with the breakfast pack which led
to Mike buying some backpacks from Nestle and then flying to the US to acquire the rights for
the specialised backpacks. Two months later he took over the below line marketing for Nestle
and SAB and covered all the cricket matches and outdoor events including the World Cup. It
wasn’t long before Nestle and SAB bought him out. Together with Bruce Smith he got involved
with other ventures and now runs an events company, publishing and travel companies under
the umbrella “LiveOutLoud”. The hard cover magazine he publishes is available only to
exceptional people or SA business leaders.
Mike’s company is a finalist in the Sanlam Entrepreneurial Award 2012, the youngest company
to be nominated and in the top 20. The company was placed in the annual Africa SMME Awards
where the best businesses in Africa and the most innovative were identified. Mike’s company
was placed second in the “Most Innovative Category”.
Mike believes that experience is as vital as qualifications and that the courage to go out and get
involved in something makes you stand out.
Mike would be interested in offering internships to boys in grade 10 and up and would be
interested to be involved with the matric rite of passage. He would be interested in the book and
getting involved in 2016 celebrations and MOBS.
JE September 2012

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Mike Clarke 1951

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  • 2012

Interview with Mike Clarke – 1951
Mike attended St David’s from 1941 when it first opened and became a boarder in standard 7
when his mother decided that, as he was the youngest at home he should become a boarder.
His elder brother Christopher was sent to CBC, Kimberly he hated it and ran away and joined St
David’s in standard 9. Mike remembers the Dunkeld bus and the walk to St David’s from the
terminus.
He remembers Br Pius well who taught him in standard 3 and because of him he still has
beautiful handwriting. Mrs Lindsten and Mrs Stirton taught the grades, the former owning a
Hudson Terraplane a large car which she drove to and from Marist from Troyville and collected
some boys on the way. Mrs Brophy taught standard 1 and Harry Best the PE teacher a boxer,
started boxing as a sport and brought a well known boxer, Alf Ramsay to the school. Carl
Vermeulen decided to become a boxer and won a bout at Observatory and then gave it up.
Br Osmond was the first headmaster followed by Br Edwin who was a marvellous teacher
whose subject was History and whom the boys called “Bones” as he had arthritis. Br Edwin told
Mike that he wouldn’t do very well, however Mike ended up with B’s in his matric and proved
him wrong. Br Urban was marvellous, Br Benedict was the cricket coach, Br Celestine an
Australian was wonderful and a real academic and taught Latin, Br Alban taught English, Br
Bartholemew didn’t have much of a chin and Mr Bishop was lay teacher.
The school at that time consisted only of the grades block and playground which ended by the
line of pine trees and road where the after care centre is now. There was a house at the bottom
of the road where the brothers lived.
Mike enjoyed his time at St David’s in spite of the tough discipline, he was a prefect together
with Carl Vermeulen, Ian Kerley and Alyson Zylstra enjoying the sport and the atmosphere of
the school. Some of the boys discovered where the communion wine was kept in the chapel
and helped themselves to some of it until Father Kunz noticed the level going down rapidly.
After matriculating, Mike first went to Wits University to study architecture but decided that was
not for him and looked at a career in accounting but then went to Natal University where he
studied English and History, decided he enjoyed the academic life and became a teacher. Mike
went to Zimbabwe after Sharpeville in 1960 and met his wife there. After 14years he returned to
South Africa with his family of 2 young children. He contacted Mark Henning and joined the staff
at St Stithians and taught Latin and English there for 23 years. He then retired and became
head of Bishop Bavin’s Prep and afterwards taught at St Peter’s part-time and in 2004 finally
retired for good and relocated to Knysna.
Mike has lost contact will all his colleagues but is still in touch with Carl Vermeulen and Alan
Schwarer.
Mike’s three children, two boys and a girl did not go to St David’s but to St Stithian’s with him
being a teacher there and his eldest son Rick now teaches English and is a housemaster at
Wellington College in England.
Carl Vermeulen was a lawyer with Werkman’s.
JLE October 2012

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Mike Beaumont 1966

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  • 2011

Interview with Mike Beaumont – 1966
Mike was a day boy from grade 0 to matric. His class had a large proportion of boys who went
right through and are still friendly to this day. The bulk of the boys in 1966, including the head
prefect were day boys. Mike walked to school and absolutely loved it including times spent there
during the holidays.
He remembers his first day at school and being introduced to Mike Smith who had an older
brother. His teacher was Mrs Brick who looked ancient but who was a kind and nurturing figure.
There are not many old boys of his era who sent their sons to St David’s. Brother Benedict who
took over from Brother Edwin, was eventually fired and Brother Anthony became headmaster.
He was a good head but there was an academic blight during Brother Benedict’s time and in
1958 three quarters of the matric group failed. St David’s has improved enormously and with
hindsight he perhaps should have sent his son to St David’s and not to St Stithians in the mid
90’s .
Mike was swimming captain, was selected for Transvall schools swimming and played most
sport. He was disappointed as he played 1st team rugby until standard 9 when he was replaced
by a bigger boy and was relegated to the 2nd team. In 1966 the school became a swimming
force behind KES beating Parktown and Jeppe. They actually beat KES in 1965 as their team
was weakened as the main swimmers went instead to see “My Fair Lady”. Leigh McGregor was
a strong swimmer and became a triple Springbok.
Mike and Eric Ambrosioni started the cadets and were first officers. He was a soldality
committee member together with Mike Smith. Their applications were initially turned down and
they were told to improve their act!
Academically the boys were taught using fear tactics and were streamed into clever and dumb
classes. Mike was in the clever class for Maths, Add Maths, Chemistry and Physics however he
is much more of a people person and History and Geography would have been better subject
choices for him. In his year all of them passed with university entrance passes but his matric
results were dreadful. The best teacher was Brother Vincent, his class teacher in standard 5, a
lovely guy who eventually left the Brotherhood. Mike Dunleavy who now lives in Durban was
well liked by all the boys. Inspectors used to some from time to time and sit in on lessons. On
one such occasion, in a Chemistry lesson with Brother Bosco (now Mario) Mike had to conduct
an experiment, pouring some liquid into a receptacle, he was so nervous his hands shook.
He organised a matric dance which was spectacular with an underwater-neptune theme. The
band “Staccatos” were the main band in Johannesburg at the time.
In 1966 the head prefect was John Buckley-Jones who was awarded his provincial blazer, he is
now living in Zimbali. Johan Steyn had seven scrolls.
Theatre productions were unsophisticated and in about standard 4 Mike participated in a play
with three witches. He was a witch but he main witch was Chris Parker, nicknamed miniature.
The props were only available on the first night, one prop being a throne for the main witch. The
throne was too high and Chris had to jump and try to sit on it. There were talent contests and
Clive Bergman had a great band. Mike played guitar and sang a duet with Mike Ford and during
their performance the mikes kept going on and off.
School was his life and living next door he spent most of his holidays playing bicycle polo on the
fields. He enjoyed it and the friends he made. They had their fair share of peculiar brothers and
one at least who was sadistic, some were borderline abusive but the boys dealt with that and he
was very involved with the school as were his parents.
The boys generally had a developed sense of social conscience and were conservative rather
than liberal in their thinking. They were unaware of what was happening politically and of
apartheid. Even the brothers weren’t aware until the mid 60’s when anti SA sentiment became
more prevalent. Mike was called up into the army after leaving school and eventually became
an officer, they were very much fed the belief in the communist onslaught. He remembers Patric
Noble questioning the status quo,he is now living in the USA. Robert Amato (MOB) Rhodes
scholar came and talked to the boys about the situation in the country. Mike’s father used to get
translations of the Afrikaans press reports and said that most of what they were saying was
untrue.
Mike’s parents served on the PTA.
His last day he recalls as being rather an anticlimax, they had a matric picnic at Little Falls, John
Mulaneu from Gaborones took photos and made a super 8 film of the event. After school he
went into the army, then onto university and studied for a BA Psychology at UCT, he then went
to PE and joined Ford Motor Company, then SAB, Sperry Univac, was a director of an IT
company and has been consulting in the HR field for the last 20 years.
He would be interested in supporting the publication of the book and in fact he and Kevin Peel
have been considering for sometime the possibility of getting old boys from their year to set up a
bursary.
The last time Mike was at St David’s was in 2006 for the 40th anniversary but when in
Johannesburg on business often drives past.
JE October 2011

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Michael Wickins 1994

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  • 2010

Interview with Michael Wickins – 1994
Michael began his career at St David’s in grade1, 1983 and recalls how proud he was of his
brown suitcase.
The teachers he remembers are Mr Kotze standard 5, Mrs Marais, Afrikaans, high school and
Mr Girdwood standard 8 -10.
Michael loved the camaraderie, especially on the sports field, the pride in the school and
knowing how fortunate we were to be Marist boys, to be part of that family and culture. One
thing he did not enjoy was being made to swim in his jocks by Mr Castle!
He has good memories and every day was a good laugh at some point but he specifically
remembers the tours and “veld schools” as being particularly amusing. On one particular tour
they were staying at a place called Moholoholo (which due to its appalling conditions they soon
dubbed “Shitoholoholo) which had 5 open air toilets lined up in the bush. One of them had
literally spawned on its own eco-sysytem in the bowl, so one of his classmates lit and threw a
cherry bomb into it. The toilet was blown to smithereens. His abiding memory is of the whole
class lined up to get jacked as a result but it was really worth it!
Michael captained the 2nd XI cricket, with occasional guest appearances in the 1st XI and 1st
team hockey.
Michael remembered the valedictory mass and being made a prefect but probably more than
any other event he remembers his father presenting him with the same honours blazer that he
had worn some thirty years before
On his last day the boys tried, unsuccessfully to throw Mr Girdwood into the pool and he recalls
looking at his classmates and believing beyond any shadow of doubt that they would be friends
forever. He is still in touch with Rakesh Parbhoo and Simon Denny and is a member of MOBS.
After leaving school, Michael gained a BComm and LLB from Wits University and an H.Dip Tax
from RAU.
He is currently principal, investment banking at Nedbank Capital specialising in renewable
energy project finance.
Michael has a stepson Thomas Weeden in grade 5 and his son Luke is enrolled for 2016 and
visits the school on a regular basis.
2010

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Michael Richardson 1971

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  • 2013

Interview with Michael Richardson – 1971
Michael came to St David’s as a dayboy living at home. He was lucky that he had such an
active sport life and close group of friends that he stayed at school every day until about 5pm
and often they were at one another’s homes – so in fact he had the best of both worlds, a
dayboy living like a boarder
Memories of first day at St David’s – the teacher Mrs Lego very kind, his school uniform was too
big, he was all enthusiastic to play games with friends
Memories of last day at St David’s – sorrow at leaving such a close group of friends. Leaving a
cocoon of life that embraced all he had done up till then – now it was into the big wide world –
but excited about army service and university.
Teachers who left a lasting impression were Brother Andrew (Dracula - Maths) Mrs Richardson
(English – my Aunt)) Brother Bosco (Science).
Michael was involved in all the sport he could play – cricket, football, swimming, athletics, rugby,
hockey, and tennis. He played 1st XI and XV cricket and rugby and swam for the school in
breaststroke and relay and held records in athletics, javelin, high jump and long jump (for a
while) and introduced the fosbury flop to the school high jump. Michael has great memories of
the cricket tour to the Cape in standard 8 as part of the inter Marist tournament and of winning
the 200 metres and high jump at a few inter-catholic highs athletics events. Michael was also
selected for the Transvaal schools U15 Cricket team.
An event which stands out was his first century, the day he was picked for the 1st XI, opening of
the cricket oval playing a Wilf Isaacs XI with international cricketers in it and opening the
batting!!
One his worst moments at school was getting caught drawing a picture of the teacher in an
uncompromising position and getting a caning in front of the class.
Other amusing memories are of racing for prefects tea to get the avocado sandwiches; getting
his best friend into trouble by giving him the wrong answer when he had been sleeping in class
and was asked to answer; sneaking into class late behind the teacher’s back only to have the
headmaster walk in behind you.
The matric Dance was fabulous, Michael was lucky to have a girl-friend at that stage who was
everything he wanted – beautiful, bright and a dancer! The decorations and the theme were
stunning and the boys were so proud as they thought they had done the best dance ever.
Michael most enjoyed the sport, friendship and some of the teachers: All the sport teachers
Brother Michael, Mr Greenway, Mr Summers and Brother Andrew but he least enjoyed Latin,
end of year exams, and caning.
Michael was a prefect and was awarded honours for athletics, cricket, was Victor Ludorum, and
in the Maths olympiad final round.
After leaving St David’s served time in the army gymnasium and paratroopers; he went on to
study Medicine at Stellenbosch and specialised in Obs Gynae in the UK. He worked in a
practice in UK for a few years then joined the pharmaceutical industry in R&D and is currently
head of drug safety with Bristol-Myers Squibb. Michael also gives research support in cystic
fibrosis charity and drug rehabilitation
Michael did not have any sons at St David’s and last visited the school 5 years ago.
Michael had 2 brothers at St David’s as well. Bryan and John Richardson
(john.richardson@sbcglobal.net)
Bryan Matriculated 1967 John Matriculated 1965.
Some random info: Originally the school grounds only extended as far as the road going down
past the swimming pool, - what is now the main entrance was the rear entrance and was the
boundary fence of the school. The PTA negotiated for about 5 years in the early 1960s to
purchase the house and all the lands which extended the school all the way down around the
bend on Rivonia road. The new cricket oval was created in front of the pavilion which was
inaugurated by Archbishop Boyle in 1970.
Later the school sold off the lower portion for development and housing which has probably
funded the school since then. The grounds were bought for under quarter million rands and God
knows what they have made from that very wise purchase. (Can you imagine how many fund
raisers we had in those days to get the funds).
The original cross country race on sports day used to start from the main gate (original main
gate) and head off towards Sandton (pre Sandton City) all the way down Rivonia Road, along
Katherine Street, Wierda Road (When it was still Wierda Valley and had small holding houses)
up along Pretoria Ave into Forest Road up past what was then the Inanda Polo Club, along Fifth
Avenue then up Boundary Road and into the athletics field through a gate which was then on
Boundary road and finish around the 400 m track to the finishing post. There used to be a full
athletics track around the original cricket oval with stands etc.

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Michael Marsay 1999

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  • 2014

Interview with Michael Marsay – 1999
Michael came to St David’s in 1987, grade 0. Mrs Walton was his first teacher and the classroom was
opposite the stairs to the school chapel. Mrs Scaafsma, a dragon taught him in grade 2; Mr Spence in
standard 1; Mrs Hurley in standard 2; Mrs Bowles in standard 3 and Greg Royce was the headmaster of
the prep school.
Michael enjoyed the “Bush Pig Buddies Camp” in grade 2 and found it quite exciting. He loved the sport,
was in the swimming team, and played 1st team cricket for one season and soccer. He eventually found
swimming to be more of an attraction. Michael enjoyed the soccer clinics which Willy Castle organised
during the school holidays to give the boys something to do.
Father Brewer was a good influence whilst Michael was in the prep school, and guided him through to his
first communion. He always backed the boys and sadly died in 1999.
Going into the high school with Paul Edey as the headmaster, a dynamic leader he was a breath of fresh
air. Paul instilled a sense of pride back into the school.
Sport continued to play a big role in Michael’s life and he was 1st team hockey captain and 1st team athletics
captain. Malcolm Williams joined the staff as deputy head in 1997 and turned hockey around. It became a
sport which you had an option to take and by Michael’s matric year, hockey was doing better than rugby.
He felt t was good to be part of something growing like that. Initially there were only two teams but by the
time Michael matriculated all age groups were involved. According to his brother Chris (2003), Michael and
Grant Brennan made hockey cool, it lost its stigma, the culture changed and hockey became more
acceptable as a sport. There weren’t many camps but Michael travelled to Margate in Natal for an athletics
camp which was organised by Mr Burr in the school holidays.
Michael was selected for the U18 Gauteng hockey, was appointed a prefect and house captain of The
Bishops in his matric year and was awarded a trophy as hockey player of the year.
Michael was not an academic and didn’t have the study culture but matriculated with 4 C’s and 2 D’s and
went on to study for a BComm Accounts at RAU University. He then worked for TFMC as a clerk in the
plant hire division and worked his way up to the position of general manager. He then took a sabbatical of 6
months before joining his father in his business, Marsay Equipment in 2006.
Michael is a member of MOBS, is married to Alexandra (nee Spooner) and has a daughter who plans to
attend De La Salle College.
JLE March 2014

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Matthew Schneider 2002

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  • 2014

Interview with Mathew Schneider – 2002
Matthew came to St David’s from Grayston Preparatory in 2002 into grade 8. He was the first generation of
the Schneider family at St David’s.
He remembers lining up in the quad next to the smelly ablution block, the matrics seemed huge and he
knew only two other boys from Grayston. He knew no one in his class and his introduction to a boy’s school
was a fight which broke out between two boys during an English lesson.
Matthew went to the Grade 8 camp to Babanangu. It was an overnight trip with the boys sleeping on the
bus, some in the luggage racks and some on the floor.
Matthew enjoyed the sport immensely and was a member of College house with Yvette Snyman as
housemaster. In grade 8 and 9 he played cricket, rugby and athletics. At the end of grade 9 he moved from
cricket to water polo and was a member of the team up until matric. He was a member of 1st team rugby, A
team athletics, A team swimming and 1st team water polo. The U15 rugby team did really well and Matthew
recalled the first year that St David’s was invited to participate in the 10 Schools Gala which was held at
Wits University. He remembers the early morning training the friendship and camaraderie.
Academically Matthew was average as he was too busy on the sports field and didn’t enjoy studying. He
was awarded an honours blazer for leadership, sport and merit and was selected to be a prefect.
The teachers who really stood out were Phil Andrew, Yvette Snyman, Dianne Webb, Teresa Voorendyk,
Brad Ireland and Marius Buys.
Of all the camps that Matthew participated in the grade 11 camp at the “Spirit of Adventure Camp” in the
Magaliesburg was the most memorable. They were the first St David’s boys to go there and it has become
a regular camp ever since.
Matthew made some really good friends who he still sees on a regular basis, they are really deep seated
friendships.
Matthew is passionate about St David’s and loves coaching. He enjoyed his high school career and thought
that Paul Edey was a great headmaster.
After matriculating, Matthew went to UJ and studied for a BComm Sports Management. He continued to
play rugby for Pirates for another 5 -6 years which he thoroughly enjoyed.
After graduating he went into sales for 2-3 years which he didn’t enjoy. He contacted Shane Gaffney and
started his internship at St David’s in 2010 studying for 2 years through Unisa for his post graduate
certificate in Education. He loves teaching and is happy at St David’s. He currently teaches Accountancy to
grades 8 and 9 and Business Studies to Grades 10 – 12. His mentors were Shane Gaffney, Alan Redfern
and Alex Gitlin all who have moved on to become deputy headmasters elsewhere.
Matthew is a member of MOBS and plays in their water polo team.
JLE February 2014

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Matthew Alford 2003

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  • 2013

Interview with Matthew Alford – 2003
Matthew arrived at St David’s coming from St Peter’s Prep, alone and not knowing anyone. Being very shy,
he found it terrifying, walking into the main quad with his very new school uniform, bags and books. Savo
Ceprnich was the first boy to come and introduce himself, and still remains a close friend of Matthew’s
today. He found the timetable very confusing and after a gruelling Glenmore camp, became a member of
Benedict house.
Matthew liked the teachers and found them easy to get on with. He made some good friends during his
time at the school and enjoyed the culture of St Davids.
Paul Edey was very special and well liked and Matthews’s first encounter with him in class was rather
intimidating, with Paul standing on the elevated teaching platform. When Paul asked him for his name,
Matthew replied with his christian name and Paul barked at him saying “Surname, boy!” All the boys liked
Paul, he was a major influence on them and had a personal relationship with every boy at the school. He
had such charisma none of the boys wanted to get a bad mark from him.
Matthew experienced some interesting moments with Marius Buys who told weird stories and had strange
teaching methods. Mr Andrew was unpredictable and the boys never knew what mood he would be in.
Matthew really liked Mrs Roman and Mrs Marais who had so much patience and love and Mrs Voorendyk
who once kicked out the entire class one by one, for not doing their homework.
Matthew participated in hockey, in winter and swimming during the summer.
Together with Rowan Stafford, Matthew assisted with the school’s weekly newsletter helping Reverend
“Rev” Bruce from grade 9 until matric. The work was quite time consuming with its Thursday deadline and
they handed it over to a new team, before writing their matric exams
After matric, Matthew studied a BComm Accounting at RAU\UJ. He then obtained his BComm Accounting
Honours through UNISA while working at KPMG in 2010. He is currently working as a CA(SA) at ABSA
Capital, is involved with product control and corporate loans.
Based on his experience at St. David’s Marist Inanda, Matthew would definitely consider enrolling any sons
at the school in the future.
JLE December 2013

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Martin Rumpelt 1973

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  • 2013

Interview with Martin Rumpelt – 1973
Martin came to St David’s from the German School Johannesburg in standard 6. His parents were not too
happy with the lack of discipline at the German School and the fact that matric would have to be written in
English when all the teaching was given through the medium of German. Father Paulsen was a family friend
and he recommended St David’s as an alternative. Martin had an older brother Thomas who also attended St
David’s matriculating in 1972, he currently lives in Germany.
Martin had been given a tour of the school the year before he arrived and had met the brothers but was, none
the less nervous on his first day. He knew a couple of boys from Cubs and Scouts one of whom was Vincent
O’Mahoney which made life a little easier. Br Anthony was headmaster at the time and he remembered some
of the other Brothers – Br Andrew (Drac) so called because he drew blood when he caned the boys. He was
Spanish and regarded all the boys as spoilt brats and that he was the equaliser; Br Bernard- very artistic and
had a darkroom downstairs below the Science block; Br Mario who still visits Martin’s mother; Br Timothy (Tin
Man) who was the rugby coach for all the 1st teams and a super guy; Br Anthony – (Oaunges); Br Michael; Br
Aidan the bursar who impressed the boys no end with his visitors who came on motor bikes in leather gear; Br
Vincent; Br Paul who was blind; Br Aquinas and Br Patrick. He recalled Mrs Janusch who taught Latin and who
had long conversations with the brothers in Latin.
Martin really enjoyed the sport especially coming from a school where the main sports were swimming and
tennis and some soccer. He loved the swimming, water polo, tennis and rugby. He had never played rugby
before and, with the classes being so small everyone had to participate in either an A or B team. Nassey
Simaan was the rugby coach and he remembers his first rugby match when Mike Griffiths kicked the ball which
bounced off the bars straight into Martin’s hands, He didn’t know what to do and didn’t know the rules but
Nassey screamed at him to score a try –so he managed to score in his first game. He had a “deja vous”
moment recently when his son was playing rugby on the same field in exactly the same conditions – a
flashback to a moment in time. Martin was also a member of the Transvaal karate team which was an extramural
activity.
Discipline was good and all the boys accepted the caning when they had done wrong. Once Br Andrew caned
the whole school, there was a visiting team and someone had written derogatory graffiti on the walls in the
quad, when no-one owned up to this, he caned every boy.
Academically Martin was given every opportunity to do well but didn’t apply himself whereas his older brother
was always top of the class together with Alfred Ghodes. However he passed his matric and then went into he
army for two years in the 11th commando, Kimberly and did border duty for 17 months. After his final exams it
was a bit of an anti-climax and he then went on holiday with his family but with the call up papers for the army.
He was the only boy from St David’s going but fortunately he met up with someone on the train. On discharge
from the army he went on to study for a BSc Building at Wits University. He is involved in construction work,
building and civil engineering and the company he is with Aveng-Grinaker-LTA, built the first Soccer City and
the new Soccer City for the World Cup. Currently the company is looking more to Africa, Zambia, Namibia,
Botswana and Mozambique whereas South Africa and Zimbabwe are quiet in comparison. The newly elected
President of Zambia has stamped out corruption and a lot of development is taking place.
Martin’s two sons both attended St David’s,Nicholas having matriculated and Phillip is currently in grade 11.
His daughter Megan is a pupil at St Mary’s Waverly.
Martin is a member of MOBS

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Martin Lebos 1978

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  • 2012

Interview with Martin Lebos – 1978
Martin initially went to St Paul’s but came to St David’s in standard 1 and Mrs Watson was his
teacher. His class was in the house block (where the CEO’s house is now) where standard 1,
1A and 2 and 2A were taught. He remembers that, in the winter, they used to make up a fire in
each classroom. The following year he moved out of house block to a classroom just below the
old chapel and Mrs Napier was his teacher. There were still boarders at the school at that time
and, where the tuck-shop and library is now was the boarder’s dining room. He remembers
other teachers, standard 3, Mrs Geddes, standard 4, Mrs Sacks, standard, 6 Mrs Knesovitch
who was very strict, used the cane but was a very good teacher.
The headmaster was Brother Anthony and the other Brothers were Timothy, Andrew, Mario,
Aquinias who taught Maths in standard 6 and 7, Bernard who taught Latin and Brother Aidan
who was the bursar. He learnt in standard 5 that if he really studied he could do really well and
eventually was awarded Dux of the year. High school teachers were Afrikaans – Mr Klaasen,
English – Penelope ?, Maths – Br. Aquinias, Geography – Mr Maritz, Mrs Sally Saunders taught
Geography at a lower level in the high school – Mr Maritz, Biology and Science - Mr Karoo, they
all taught through to standard 8. Mr Zacharawitch taught History, was of Russian origin and had
been in a concentration camp, he left at the end of standard 9 followed by Mr Manolios and Mr
MacFadyen who was a very good teacher. For the higher standards there was Mrs Elliot for
English, Mr Lipschitz for Maths, Br Timothy who had wonderful hand writing and was brilliant for
Science, Br Bernard for Latin, and Mr Needt for Afrikaans. Mr Lipschitz was ahead of his time, in
matric he took Martin out of his class and made him do past papers in the hour and taught him
Ad Maths with the result that when he went to varsity he was already ahead of everyone in Ad
Maths. Mr Lipschitz also coached rugby, stayed in Fricker Rd and drove a lime green Volksie
Beetle.
The new Science block was opened, a new pool built and boarding came to an end. The library
was run by Mrs Zent was in the old Science room. The land the Inandas are on now was still
part of the school until it was sold off. Families living in Chiselhurston had a gate with access to
the school grounds.
Martin swam, was a member of the water-polo team, played 1st team rugby, participated in
debating and was a member of a good team which that year narrowly lost to St John’s in the
Colby Cup. The final decision was made by a judge with a bias towards St John’s. He also
remembered an inter-catholic schools athletics held at the Wanderers, Willy Castle was in
matric and Nolan Springer was a brilliant sprinter. At that time the prep playing field was the
track.
Nassey Simaan was the rugby coach and in standard 1, his wife Aggie used to cook Martin
lunch. He remembers a rugby match where the school lost to KES by two points. In 1972 the
school had a really great rugby side. Martin’s matric class was small and could just about field a
second rugby team, the closing of the boarding gave the school a huge knock in this regard.
Boxing was withdrawn as a sport when someone got badly injured. The astro turf was where the
practise cricket nets were and the grade 00 block was the paddock.
Assembly was held every morning in the quad where the trees are now for the high school and
the junior school where they still line up now. The high school swimming gala was held in the
evening and the old boys used to come and compete. The boys used to go to the Beefeater
restaurant, where Giovannis is now, and have hamburgers after rugby and play pinball.
Champagnat day was really enjoyable. It started off with all the boys going in buses to mass at
the Catholic church in Keyes Avenue and he remembers the hymns they used to sing.
Boys he remembers are Jeffrey and Jerome Kourie, Patrick Riley, Oliver Setton, Desmond
Morgan, Fulton Allen, a top golfer who used to stay with the Kouries, George Nikas who was a
brilliant hurdler and good rugby player (owner of the ocean Basket) the Saad’s all went to the
school. Forsman, Martin’s sister’s son, Lawrence Kourie was in the same class and now lives in
San Diego. The head boy was Andrew Snyman and the vice head boy, Mike Peel who now lives
in Nelspruit and has done some amazing research into flora and fauna. Roy Zent is a top
nephrologist in the States and his brother is one of the top oncologists in the States. Marcel
John, Jimmy John, Michel, Costa, Raymond.
Martin went to a 30 year reunion but there was only one other old boy from 1978 there.
Martin loved the school and thought it was wonderful, the school was like a family with the
brothers who were an important part of the school. The school took a big knock when the
boarding facility closed down. His son Joseph is presently at St David’s in grade 8.
Martin is not a member of MOBS but is still passionate about his school. He likes the display of
all the matric photos in the Champagnat hall.
Martin is still very passionate about his school and thinks that the moral standard of the school
has never dropped, but feels strongly that no current parent should be on the board. There
should be a book of rules and regulations and the school authorities should be consistent with
upholding the same and not allow some boys to be relieved of punishment. He also believes
that the teaching staff should have more influence regarding the election of prefects, head boy
and the awarding of Champagnat medals.
NB Martin’s brother is married to Heather Joseph’s cousin.
NB No longer has his matric Yearbook
JE January 2012

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Mark Reeves 1983

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  • 2016

Interview with Mark Reeves – 1983
Mark began his school career at St David’s in 1973, starting in standard 1, after moving from
Sandown Primary which was located where Sandton City now stands. At the age of 5, he
remembers being the swimming team mascot for College house at the inter-house gala,
dressed as a sword bearing sheik. The aftercare is now situated where this swimming pool once
was located.
He has fond memories of Miss Joseph, Miss Jamieson (Ansell), Mrs Anderson, Mrs Scaafsma
and Mrs Napier, all of whom taught him in junior school. Mrs Kempster was headmistress and
had a crooked index finger, causing confusion as to who she was actually pointing at, while you
were being scolded.
The brothers were still very active in teaching and coaching sport at this time. Mark remembers
being taught at some stage of his senior years by Brother’s Timothy, Bernard, Richard,
Christopher and Anthony. Senior school was where you gained your foundation and became
part of the Marist family.
Memorable advice came from Br Anthony when he said “Do not feel guilty for your privileged
lives, because if it wasn’t for compassionate and generous privileged people the poor would
have nothing”.
Strong teachers like Brother Anthony, Mr Collier, Mr Boswell, Mrs Elliot and Mr McFadden,
made a huge impact on those senior school years. Mark remembers Mr Collier, a remarkable
teacher and coach, who was very religious and well respected by all the boys, especially for his
caring attitude to all. He took them on retreat to Kuruman where Br Anthony and Br Christopher
hosted the boys during school holidays.
During the last two years of Mark’s schooling career at St David’s he had 3 Headmasters, Mr
Murphy, Br Anthony and Mr Frielick. Mr Murphy was a tower of a man and his wrestling career
was the best kept secret amongst the boys. Mark recalls lifting Mr Murphy above his head at
rugby trials in standard 9 and was rewarded with a place in the 1st rugby team for his effort. Tim
Marnewick was chairman of the school board of governors and a strong supporter of the Marist
community.
Classmates who he remembers well are Peter Wharton-Hood, an intellectual genius, who often
assisted the teachers after proving them wrong and who also was a talented sportsman.
Duncan Senior, who mirrored these attributes. Andrew Forsmann, a great all rounder, and the
long line of Forsmann’s who attended St David’s and who owned Kyalami Ranch, a memorable
recreational facility for them all.
He remembers Karl Ortel, who during his matric year at St. David’s fought 20 fights in 21 days
to win the Golden Gloves World Boxing Tournament. Corado Annicello who achieved Springbok
colours in judo. Kamsisi Nyirenda, the Malawian ambassador’s son, who in the black & white
class photo, due to his dark complexion, blended into the background with only his white teeth,
the white of his eye’s and collar visible. Solly Maponya,who had a BMW in standard 6 and who
was a great driver, especially to parties. Other good friends who are now very successful
businessmen include Sven Retzlaff and Roy Perlman, property developers, Mark Atier a cellular
industry entrepreneur, Mark Rosewitz a top legal adviser and Jason Askew, who has become a
famous Anglo-Boer war artist. “There are so many success stories of individual classmates from
his year and he is very proud to have been associated with them all”..
Mark was honoured to have been elected as head prefect in 1983. He was captain of the school
swimming and water polo teams, and was captain of College House. He was awarded colours
for rugby, swimming and water polo, and received a merit scroll for leadership. He played 1st
team rugby and was a member of the athletics team, for field events, but banned from hurdles
for breaking multiple crossbars! He also received an academic scroll and a distinction for History
in matric
After leaving St David’s Mark studied a BA in Education and together with his brother, Alan, also
head prefect of St. David’s in 1977, started a well known photographic business. They have had
the good fortune of working together for over 33 years and are now involved in multiple building
hardware and paint retail outlets.
Mark served St. David’s on the board of governors, was chairman of the development
committee and an active member of the PTA. He still serves as a member of the old boys
committee. Mark is married to Carol-Anne and has a son Stephen and daughter Kirsty.
JLE May 2016

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Mark Middlewick 2004

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  • 2015

Interview with Mark Middlewick – 2004
Mark came to St David’s in grade 0 and his brother to standard 4, in the second term as his mother was
then employed as the Music teacher in the prep school. Matthew remembers being very anxious especially
being a small child. He had amazing teachers Mrs Walton, Mrs Tyack and Mrs Milne.
Willy Castle was a good influence on him. He was a legend, a myth and having a man like him involved is
very important in a boys’ school. Mark enjoyed the prep and the camaraderie in the high school with
everyone looking out for each other. Mark didn’t experience any bullying whilst he was at St David’s. Paul
Edey, Mark’s headmaster in the high school was great and nearly everyone respected him.
Mark enjoyed the sport, soccer, cricket and swimming, although he was pretty average and didn’t have the
physical prowess; he enjoyed the team sports and found them to be fun, very important for a young boy.
Mrs Vroom encouraged Mark to audition for the school play “West Side Story”. He didn’t get a very good
role but participated and then Mrs Vroom suggested that Mark write the house play for Benedict. Mark felt
that he was always a middle of the road guy achieving Honours in the prep and receiving half colours for
culturals in the high school . However, he was always quite popular with a quick wit.
After matriculating, Mark took a gap year and went to the USA to a theatre camp at the age of 18 looking
after children 12 years old, becoming an adult overnight and taking responsibility. On his return he went to
Wits University, specialised in film and graduated with Honours in Dramatic Art. He did some lecturing and
tutoring based on critical thinking at Wits and City Varsity and then went to Los Angeles for a few months
working as a script reader (unpaid) but receiving feed-back.
Mark’s short film “Security” was nominated for the best fhort Film at the SA Film and Television Awards and
was one of the three winners out of 1750 contestants, of the Jameson First Shot Film competition this
year. His script “The Mascot” was chosen by US actor Kevin Spacey and renowned producer Dana
Brunetti’s production company, Trigger Street Productions. Mark filmed “The Mascot” in Los Angeles with
Oscar winning actor Adrien Brody playing the lead role.
Mark believes that Mrs Vroom influenced him in his current career when she challenged him to audition for
the school play and to write the script for the house plays. His parents played a major role in his
development, encouraging him and not basing their opinion purely on his marks but on his effort and
participation. Mark also believes that receiving his education at St David’s was significant and for that he is
very grateful and hopes that he will be able to afford to send any son of his to his old school. Mark and
some of his contemporaries are still in touch and meet on a regular basis.
JLE August 2015

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Mark Forssman 1979

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  • 2012

Interview with Mark Forssman – 1979
Mark was the first of the Forssman family to attend St David’s followed by his brother Bobby –
1980; Andrew – 1983 and cousins Billy -1987 (head boy); Jason – 1989 (deputy head boy);
Dale - (deputy head boy); Jordan -1996 – (head boy); Mark’s sons Tim – 2004 and Chris –

  1. Currently pupils at the school are Adrian, Andrew’s son; Blake cousin’s son; Aidan, Billy’s
    son and then Jason’s son.
    Mark started in grade 1 in 1968, although he doesn’t remember his first day he certainly
    remembers his brother’s as he relieved himself during line up! Mark said they had been brought
    up running free, no shoes and playing on the family plot and he does recall that wearing shoes
    was a bit of a problem to begin with.
    Mark remembers teachers, such as Mrs Napier; standard 2, Mrs Schaafsma; Mrs Kempster and
    Mrs Kenezovitch who played the organ at his wedding. During his time there were still brothers
    at the school, Br Anthony, Br Timothy, Br Bosco (Mario), Br Bernard, Br Aidan, Br Plesters who
    was involved with the gardens. Trudy Elliott was a fantastic teacher and quite a character; Mrs
    Klaasens – Afrikaans; Mr Neft; Mrs Lipschitz – Maths and water polo coach now living in
    Australia; Sally Saunderson; William Smith – Science; Mr Vahey- Geography and Mr Lobo who
    was Spanish. Mark recalled Peter Springer, Peter Habertson, a sports teacher who for some
    reason disliked Mark, made life difficult for him and ensured that he wasn’t included in the 1st
    team rugby photo even though he had played for the team on 5 occasions and Peter Swanson
    who was an international Irish rugby player and the rugby coach.
    Mark remembers when he was in junior school that he and some friends were tormenting a boy
    near the road that ran between the junior and high schools. Br Anthony spotted them and called
    them into his office. They shuffled in and Br Anthony, looking enormous stood there with his big
    cane which he flexed against a chair giving them stern looks, they were terrified but he
    eventually told them to get out and never to tease any other boys again.
    In the junior school Mark was involved with swimming, athletics, soccer and tennis and standard
    5, U13 rugby. He won the junior school tennis championships but never played again after that.
    The boys were more or less forced to participate in cross country and they used to try all sorts
    to get out of it! In the high school he played rugby, water polo, swam and was the B team
    swimming captain and captain of the 2nd rugby team. He was awarded a scroll for water polo,
    studies, merit and became a prefect. With 3 scrolls one was awarded an honours blazer of
    which he was very proud.
    Mark recalls boys hiding in the auditorium under the chairs and that going to sport events in the
    old school bus was great fun. Disco’s were held in the basement room next to the tuck shop to
    raise funds for the matric dance. These often ended up in chaos. Mark was a bit of a renegade
    as his father used to organise a bus for him and his friends, Mark would set up a shebeen and
    bought the booze from the compound.
    Culturally there wasn’t much happening, no camps or anything special like that at the time.
    The matric dance was held in the dining room with an Al Capone, gangster theme. The standard
    8’s were the waiters. The standard 9’s decorated the room and were allowed to join in. Mark
    remembers that the after party was held at Deon De Gouveia’s house which was across the
    road from the school.
    Academically Mark was average but a consistent student and achieved 6 C’s for matric. After
    leaving St David’s he studied at Wits University but had a bad motorcycle accident on the first
    day, missed three months and subsequently pulled out after the second three months. He
    continued the second year but again pulled out, went into the army and eventually signed up on
    the permanent force and became an air traffic controller from 1982 – 1987. Through various
    circumstances he became involved in building and construction and now has his own company.
    Many boys in Mark’s time left the country and others including a good friend who died fighting
    on the border. It was a strange time which affected everybody. Things started to come right in
    the mid- 80’s and Tim was born in 1986.
    Mark organised an Argus ride in memory of Justin Bessler – the JB Express consisting of 120
    cyclists raised R265 000 for CHOC. It was Justin’s dream to beat cancer and to ride the Argus
    and raise funds for CHOC.
    JLE April 2012

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Mark Di Pasquale 2002

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  • 2013

Interview with Mark Di Pasquale –2002
Mark came to St David’s in 1998 and being a new kid on the block knew no one which he found
uncomfortable especially with so many of the boys coming up from the prep school. However he
ended up being friends with the prep boys as opposed to those who came from other feeder
schools. Living just down the road meant he could walk to school which was a big plus and he
could attend other extra mural activities outside of school.
Mark enjoyed the sports and all the facilities, was in the 1st team for hockey and A team
swimming and was captain of the swimming and hockey teams. He was selected for the
Gauteng provincial team for swimming and hockey.. He also enjoyed athletics and water polo.
He enjoyed his time at St David’s but didn’t feel it really prepared him for life as a resident at
university with no formal homework sessions that boarders have which mirror tuts at university.
Although programmes in Maths were available he did not take them although he now realises
that this would have been helpful. He felt there wasn’t as much camaraderie as there would
have been at a boarding school.
Mark was a prefect and was awarded specific honours for modern biathlon. His memory of his
last day at St David’s was being excited as the school had provided him with the confidence to
go out and contribute to society and to be recognised as an adult.
After matriculating with a distinction in Accounting,, Mark went on to study at the University of
Johannesburg, B Comm (Hons) Accounting, he then qualified as a CA (Sa) and is a CFA
(Chartered Financial Analyst). He is currently working as the chief financial officer for a listed
property fund.
He is still friends with Steven Cory and is a member of MOBS.
JLE May 2013

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Malcolm Williams 1997 - 2013 Staff

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  • 2013

Interview with Malcolm Williams – Staff 1997 – 2013
Malcolm joined the staff of St David’s as deputy headmaster in July 1997 whilst Paul Edey, the headmaster
was on a pilgrimage. Malcolm came from Sandown High School where he was deputy headmaster having
also taught at King Edward VII High School for a number of years. Malcolm was St David’s 12th
headmaster and the second longest serving head after Br Anthony.
When Malcolm arrived, the sense of family and positive rapport between pupils and staff was very evident.
There was a strong focus on ethos and values which permeated the school. However the school had none
of the buildings it enjoys today. There was no hall, no pavilion, no media Centre, no astro and no Br
Anthony wing. The construction of the hall and 6 classrooms began in 1998. In 1997 there were 350 pupils
enrolled in the high school and in 2103, 563. The past four years has seen increased enrolment every year
averaging 28 pupils per class. St David’s has become the school of choice in Johannesburg with 90% of
the pupils coming through from the prep school. The school is also known as one of the top academic
schools in the country and has been acknowledged as one of the main feeder schools to Wits University by
vice chancellor, Adam Habib.
In 2002 Malcolm was appointed headmaster and was determined to change the profile of the school with
pupil leadership, celebrating individual talents, creating strength in academics, sport and cultural activities.
He did this moving the school forward in all areas with the firm resolve to achieve excellence without
compromising the core values and Marist ethos of the school.
Both Paul Edey, in his new role of executive head and Malcolm were involved with professional bodies
serving in various roles on ISASA , SAHISA and CASPAat provincial and national levels . Mike Greeff
continues the school’s involvement in Catholic schools’ organisations, MSC etc.
Malcolm is a keen sportsman and hockey player and did much to encourage development of the sport at St
David’s serving as coach and convener and member of the Executive of USSASA boy’s hockey. In fact, in
2001 St David’s hockey moved into section A of Aitken Trophy with the school now one of the strongest
nationally in this area. In 2003 St David’s rugby team beat KES and 1st cricket won the Johnny Waite
Knockout.
There has been tremendous growth in Music and Drama from almost nothing to the vibrant parts of the
school they now are, as well as being academic subjects, to add to the successes in debating and public
speaking. Academic records and excellence were sustained having pupils in the top 50 candidates for
matric since being incorporated into the IEB.
Key aspects Malcolm enjoyed seeing become part of the school include: the Marist principle of ‘Presence’,
with boys and staff supported in all areas of school life; Academic excellence, which has been sustained
over time and is measured by a range of outside benchmarks including the IEB examinations; the range of
academic enrichment initiatives being undertaken, including participation in IEB pilot projects; the growth
and development of a professional staff of high quality; a sports programme which enables the school and
the boys to achieve success at provincial and national level, and also provides opportunities for all; a highperforming,
broad-based, dynamic, and diverse cultural programme; increased pupil leadership
opportunities and mechanisms for recognition, particularly in the matric leadership group; structures
established to increase the level of involvement in outreach and partnership activities; the continued
strength of the Staff Sponsorship Fund; the expansion of the school’s pastoral care structures and the
house system; the excellent facilities, the most recent and visible of these being the Brother Anthony Wing;
the ‘Whole School Day’ programme; the effective partnerships with a number of non-government
organisations and the St David’s Foundation.
Malcolm thoroughly enjoyed his years at St David’s Marist Inanda but it was not a simple matter to leave
such a fine school,with its special Marist ethos. He was enriched by working with a talented, loyal and
energised staff who give everything for the benefit of the boys in their care, for each other, and for the
school. Many of them are good friends as well as colleagues. Malcolm enjoyed developing a strong rapport
with parents over the years, who so often go the extra mile for the school. The boys themselves always
inspired him with their huge commitment, their passion for their school and their tremendous sense of
camaraderie, which is something special.
Malcolm said it had been a privilege to be part of the growth of the high school, and the many innovations
which have been evident in this growth. St David’s truly offers a holistic education where every boy is able
to develop his talents. The school now has a strong national footprint across all areas of school life and the
boys and staffs are achieving much success.
Malcolm also believed that a measure of a school is how its pupils progress once they leave school. A most
pleasing aspect being the continued success of St David’s old boys at tertiary level and beyond. They have
excelled, and the old boys are clearly able to hold their own in their chosen spheres of life. Malcolm also
found it most gratifying in recent years to see the growth and energy present in the old boys’ association,
as well as the number of old boys who have joined the teaching profession over the past thirteen years.
Malcom firmly believed that the infrastructure at St David’s is well established and has an extremely
strong, professional and committed academic, administrative and support staff which he enjoyed being part
of and had no doubt that the school would continue to go from strength to strength in the years ahead.
JLE December 2013

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Louis Cabri 1951

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  • 2013

Interview with Louis Cabri – 1951
Louis came to St David’s in 1950 a few months after having emigrated from the USA. The principal was Br
Edwin and the class master was Br Werner who also taught tennis. Because he had studied a different
school curriculum he was absolved from taking Afrikaans and Latin and took Biology via correspondence
through Unisa instead and French with private lessons.
He remembers being told by one of the brothers that he wouldn’t pass but that only spurred him on to
succeed. He found the hardest class to adapt to was History as he had first attended a British preparatory
school, as it happens the same as Andrew Freyman, then 3 years high school in New York. This was not
only because completely different aspects of History were taught eg. early British History under the
Romans followed by the US explorers of the west and the American Revolution to the Kaffir wars, but
because of the different cultural contexts, as for example he had never heard before of the Kaffir wars or of
the Boers.
Louis went onto Wits University taking a BSc in Geology and Chemistry in 1954 and then a first class
Honours in Geology in 1955. After geological field work in several Africa countries he began his graduate
studies at McGill University (Montreal) in 1959 where he received several scholarships. He also received
some professional awards and is working for himself as a consulting mineralogist at Cabri Consulting, in
Ottawa Canada.
Louis remembers some of his classmates – Peter Kaye who took accounting, Peter Rosmarin took a
BCom, Al Zylstra did engineering – civil?, Mike Clarke, BA and became a school teacher in Natal, Carl
Vermeulen became a lawyer, Roland Berger took engineering – mechanical?, Andrew Freymnan took
mining and engineering, eventually getting an MSC at McGill and a PHD is now living in Toronto, Angelo
Lasich took Medicine, Cedric Evans a BA eventually went to graduate school and ended up teaching
college or university in USA, Denis Richardson too accounting.
In the photo of his graduating Matric class Peter Rosmarin is erroneously listed as being in the back row
and Louis as being in the front row making matters worse Louis’s initial is given as A not L and P. Berger
should be R Berger.
JLE May 2013
Louis J. Cabri class of 1951
Louis arrived at St. David’s as a day student for the 1951 Matric year, after spending a couple
months in 1950 at Marist Brothers (Observatory), while the family lived in the Rosebank Hotel.
They had immigrated from the USA, arriving by ship in Cape Town in August 1950, and prior to
buying a house on West Street, Sandown, then a dirt road leading to some fields and a local
butcher. The Balalaika was near the intersection of West Street and Rivonia Road.
This was Louis’ third school in three countries with very different pedagogies and cultural
backgrounds. He began school at the Gezira Preparatory School in Zamalek (Cairo), a nondenominational
private school for boys and girls run by an English couple using a British
curriculum. He remembers the war years when there were exciting (to him) air raids with
everyone filing down the stairs to a basement shelter and then exploring outside for shrapnel in
the early morning. Also meeting many Commonwealth officers (many from SA) that his parents
entertained or in the park who would give souvenir badges and so on. Things were very tense
until the British beat back Rommel’s army at El Alamein (Oct-Nov 1942). He was a sickly child
(asthma) and often missed school so did not excel at sports (soccer and cricket) but he did box
and won the school’s boxing trophy in 1946 as a featherweight.
The family left Egypt in July 1946 as the political instability made things unpredictable, first
going to Rio de Janeiro and then at the end of December 1946 arriving by air in New York.
Since it was mid-year for school Louis briefly attended the last grade before high school at a
catholic school in Brooklyn run by brothers. He then started high school in September 1947
(Scarsdale), a non-denomination co-ed public school. The curriculum was also very different to
the British system, notably American history and culture, and the sports were different
(basketball, American football, and baseball); only sport he could play was softball, an easier
form of baseball. Thus after completing three years of high school the family left again, this time
for South Africa.
Louis began the 1951 school year at St. David’s, which was such a contrast to the co-ed
American high school in many ways. First, because he was going to be there only a year he
was allowed to take French instead of Afrikaans and Biology instead of Latin. Though they
spoke French at home, Louis needed to take weekly private French lessons downtown (Mme.
Mingeau) and biology via a correspondence course from the University of South Africa. The
only teaching brothers Louis recalls were the principal (Brother Edwin) who had a stiff neck or
something that made him hold his head at a bit of an angle and Brother Werner. He does not
recall being caned, probably because being a day student he did not have the same
opportunities to be naughty. One of the brothers (maybe brother Edwin) told Louis sometime
during that year that he would fail the matric, which is maybe why he ended up with a first class
(four A’s and 3 B’s). Louis remembers that the matric exams were held in a “temporary” long
(and hot) wooden hut, probably dating from the war, where the boys sat in long rows separated
by girls from other schools so that they could not be seated next to school friends. The most
memorable exam was the one when the girl in front of Louis (from Red Hill) fainted and was
taken away – we thought because she did not want to take the exam. Louis’ most difficult
subject was history because he had never even heard of South Africa, and of course made
2
more difficult as he did not have the cultural background to help understand and recall names
and events.
Swimming, rugby, athletics, and cricket were important sports at the school but Louis was not
good at any of these. Brother Werner taught tennis after school, which was new to Louis, but
which he enjoyed playing for many decades (with squash) until his knee gave out in his late 60s.
However, there was also boxing, and Louis’ ego was so large that he thought he could take on
anyone. One Saturday, with no preparation or training, he went into the ring against a younger
but well-built strong boy, who gave him a thrashing and nearly knocked him out. The walk back
home was slow and painful with ringing ears, and that was end of boxing! Louis made many
friends there in that short period and append the class photograph from the Maristonian, but
with the legend corrected as there were numerous errors. Prefects were Peter Kaye, Peter
Rosmarin, Alf Zylstra, Mike Clarke, and Carl Vermuelen, all of which became school and
university friends and invited to our house. Louis also had as friends Denis Richardson, Andrew
Freyman, Cedric Evans, and Roland Berger, but he remembers the others. As Louis recalls,
Carl and Mike were champion swimmers and Peter Rosmarin and Alf were outstanding
cricketers; Alf, also having a very low golf handicap.
After St. David’s Louis went to Wits where he took a B.Sc. (geology & chemistry) followed by a
B.Sc. Hons (geology). Following Wits Louis worked as an exploration geologist is the Gold
Coast (Ghana), Sierra Leone, and the north-west Cape, before getting married to Mimi De
Meillon in 1959 and leaving for graduate school at McGill University in Montreal. After studying
for M.Sc. (Appld) and Ph.D. degrees, while working summers as a geologist in northern Ontario
and Quebec, Louis took a research position in 1964 with the federal government in Ottawa,
retiring in 1999 as principal scientist. Louis and Mimi raised three children in Ottawa: one a
university professor, one a ballet dancer and choreographer and one an artist who now has a
little restaurant in Paris (France). They have two grandchildren. Upon retirement, Louis
immediately opened a consulting business, specializing in precious and base metal mineralogy
and metallurgy, with clients world-wide. His incorporated business is still active, but he
considers himself semi-retired and hopes to hear from his former St. David’s school chums.
Ottawa,
2017-12-06

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Lloyd Wilkins 1980

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  • 2013

Interview with Lloyd Wilkins – 1980
Lloyd joined St David’s in January 1979, having just arrived in South Africa from Rhodesia, as it was then.
He had been a pupil at St George’s in Salisbury and arrived knowing nobody at the school. However the
boys were very welcoming and it didn’t take long before he felt at home.
Lloyd remembers with clarity that in his first few days at the school, he lost R100 which he had been given
by his parents to buy books. He was quite panicked as it was a lot of money, especially in the context of
having just emigrated. He made it known that he had lost the money and within a short time it was handed
to him, much to his relief. The temptation to keep the money must have been high but the integrity of his
peers was evident.
Lloyd really enjoyed the camaraderie and made lifelong friends, most of whom he is still in touch with on a
regular basis. A group of them in Australia meet at least once a quarter to spend a long weekend together
with their wives. One aspect of St David’s he didn’t enjoy was the caning.
In matric a group of the boys had found a small piece of wood which had broken off a desk lid and, during
lunch break, they were playing soccer with it in the corridor outside the first floor classrooms. Their ”ball”
was kicked down the stairs and Lloyd chase after it only to collide near the bottom of the stairs with their
headmaster Br Timothy who was coming up the stairs to investigate the noise. Lloyd’s momentum was
such that he bowled him over and landed on top of him at the bottom of the stairs. Fortunately the only
injury was to his pride and Lloyd was ordered to his office to receive a caning. He thinks he was the only
matric boy to be caned that year.
A teacher he remembers was Mr McFadden who ensured that all his pupils developed a love of history and
obtained good marks in matric, in part by teaching the boys under a tree on the side of the rugby field.
Lloyd played 3rd rugby XV, 2nd cricket XI, was in the athletics team and captain of the riding club,
participated in senior best speakers competition, was marketing director of the business game. Lloyd
played 2nd team rugby in standard 9 but broke his leg playing St John’s and broke it again at the start of
matric so he missed most of the season once again.
In 1979 Lloyd captained the St David’s riding team and with his younger brother Graham and Simon Bird,
went to England to compete in the All England Schools Show jumping competition at Hickstead. On
borrowed horses they competed against the best English schools and came third!
Lloyd was awarded a scroll for studies.
The matric dance had the theme space and they had as much fun decorating the hall with pictures of
spacecraft as they had at the actual event.
On their last day a large group of boys returned to the school after midnight, dressed in black and pushing
their cars so as not to raise the alarm. They proceeded to decorate the trees in the quad with large
amounts of toilet paper. They became more enthusiastic as they progressed and their stealth was soon
replaced by increasing hilarity, culminating in an epic water fight involving two groups of them, each
manning a fire hose in the corridors outside the first floor classrooms. As lights went on in the brothers’
sleeping quarters they made a hasty retreat.
He went on to study a BA(Law) at Wits University and is now chief operating officer of Barclays Bank in
Australia. He is also chairman of Street Work a charity that helps homeless youths in Sydney. Lloyd is
married and has two daughters studying at a university in Sydney.
Lloyd last visited St David’s in 2006 but attended an informal reunion organised by Sven Arp in August
2013.
JLE November 2013

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Leonard O'Haughey 1967

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  • Item
  • 2015

Interview with Leonard O’Haughey – 1967
Len came from the Rosebank Convent, which he attended for grades 1 and 2, to St David’s in 1958 going
into standard 1. He, very soon after his arrival, earned the nickname “Chick” as within a couple of weeks
he came down with mumps but the boys thought he had chickenpox – hence the origins of his nickname
which has stayed with him ever since. Len was a day boy and cycled to and from school.
Of the teachers he remembers Mrs Kempster as being a battleaxe and the boys were terrified of her; Br
Andrew (Drac) who coached cricket and loved you if you played the game; Mrs Buchan who taught History
in matric; Br Andrew the acting headmaster whilst Br Anthony was away. The boys gave Mrs Buchan a
terrible time and one day she walked out of her class, Br Andrew then took over and made all the boys line
up with Rohan Erleigh being first in line to receive 4 whacks of the cane! There was Mrs Janusch; Mrs
Knesovitch who he didn’t get on with, Miss Owen who was young, blonde and beautiful then from standard
7 onwards there were a variety of teachers including Br Liam; Br Bosco (now Mario); Mrs Buckle; Mr
Pretorius; Br Andrew. Mr Drummond-Bell who used to constantly tell the boys to “Stand together boys” and
as a result Len and Derrick Schoombie are called the “Marist Boys” when playing golf together.
Len felt that the school was good for him. His parents had very little money and the brothers let his mother
pay whatever she could afford at the time. It was never an issue for him whilst he was at the school. The
families of his pals Derrick Schoombie and Anthony Rezek were also very good to him and he remains
friends with both of them to this day.
Len remembers spending a holiday helping with planting up the fields when the property next door was
acquired..
Len played a lot of sport and never really worked at the academics but had a lot of fun. He was an altar boy
and commented that he never experienced anything untoward with any of the brothers in all the time he
was at the school. Len played one game of 1st team rugby but played mainly for the 2nd team; played
cricket from standard 8 to 10 and became involved with athletics as a runner. He was secretary of senior
soldality and a senior officer in the cadets, was made a prefect and was awarded scrolls for athletics and
cricket. He recalls partnering Ronnie Van t’Hof in the school’s tennis doubles championship against Colin
Dowdeswell and Mike Raymond who were very good tennis players. All Len could do was serve and leave
the rest to Ronnie. It was one of his greatest triumphs.
Len was always vying against authority and his son James followed in his footsteps. Both his sons James
(1996) and Deane (1998) came to St David’s from grade 0 until matric. Len won the cross country event in
1967 and his son won in 1995 but didn’t compete in matric and so didn’t carry on the family tradition. Whilst
Paul Edey was headmaster, James was captain 1st team rugby and always in trouble, a rebel and Len first
met Paul when he was about to expel his son.
Len took the girl who eventually married Mike Smith to the matric dance wearing white socks! He received
his prefects scroll that evening.
Len believes that St David’s was good to him coming as he did from a disjointed family and other families in
the St David’s community were very kind to him. He recalls that the high school went into a bit of a decline
and, when Paul Edey took over as headmaster in 1995 it started to turn around.
After matriculating, Len having come from an Irish Catholic family decided to become a priest and studied
for 6 months until he became churched out. He then studied to become a chartered accountant with
Deloittes and ended up living in Baltimore with his wife for 18 months where James was born. On his return
to South Africa, Len got involved with forestry from 1981 until 1994 with Hunt, Leuchars and Hepburn. He
became managing director of the timber facility and, when he was retrenched, he started up in opposition to
them in a mining support business called Trimrite. He built a chipping plant which is the first process in
making paper and developed export markets including the US and Japan. On his visits to Japan he often
met up with Marstao Ushimbubo a former St David’s pupil.
JLE June 2015

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Larry Griffiths 1972

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  • 2012

Interview with Larry Griffiths – 1972
Larry joined St David’s when he was 8 years old going into standard 2. His father was
transferred to Johannesburg from Port Elizabeth where he was formerly a pupil at St Patrick’s.
He and his younger brother Michael (1973) were day boys.
Br Anthony was the headmaster and Larry thought he was brilliant. He recalled an amusing
story involving him and Br Bosco (Mario). Br Bosco decided that Br Anthony should regain his
red hair and developed a dye which would work on his grey hair. Unfortunately it worked well,
but rather too well and Br Anthony ended up sporting fire engine red hair! This occurred shortly
before the annual prize giving and the dye didn’t wash out therefore Br Anthony had to take the
podium with his brilliant red hair much to Brother Anthony’s embarrassment and everybody
else’s amusement. In September 1979 Larry visited Br Aquinas, a family friend in the Cape and
went to see Br Anthony somewhere in the Cape Flats.
Larry did not particularly like Br Timothy, ‘Tin Man” but the boys were amused by his habit of
combing his hair over his bald patch and when the wind blew it stood straight up then flopped
onto his opposite shoulder. He enjoyed Br Bosco, he was passionate about his subject,
Science. He recalled Br Andrew giving the ’1972 matrics punishment and detention unless they
could recite the first chapter of Caesar’s Gallic Wars. He was a strong disciplinarian but always
fair. Br Aidan the bursar was popular, he was always in control and treated the boys like adults
and they responded accordingly..Larry felt that, in spite of his other problems, Br Bernard was a
good Latin teacher and managed to bring it alive with stories about its background. Father
Bailey trained him as an altar boy. Bob Blythe the Maths teacher could never get Colin
Rezekswick’s name right and called him Da Silva. Mr Zachkarowicz was fluent in English,
Polish, German, Italian and Greek, he had a rough time in Germany but managed to escape
and ended up in South Africa. He was very anti the South African government as he could see
similarities with what he had experienced in Germany. Larry felt that he was an excellent History
teacher. Mrs Janusz taught Latin, and was formidable, she was a Scot and her husband was
Polish.
Larry did well academically until Thomas Rumpelt and Alfred Ghodes came along at the start of
standard 6.They were both academically very strong and also performed well on the sports field.
However Larrry was still awarded the Costa John Memorial Trophy for coming top of the class in
standard 5. He was the first boy to be acknowledged in this way.
Larry was not a great sportsman but played 4th team rugby and, although tennis was not really
encouraged at St David’s both he and his brother played and the team achieved a place in the
premier schools league. In spite of their endeavours none of the 1972 members of the 1st tennis
team were awarded a scroll which they longed for, it was only in 1973 that tennis was
considered moderately acceptable and the school’s tennis champion, Larry’s younger brother
Michael was awarded a tennis scroll. This caused a bit of a problem in that Michael was not the
tennis captain – Michael had defeated Desmond Schatz, the tennis captain, in the final of the
school championships. The school decided to award Desmond Schatz a tennis scroll as well.
No other members of the first team were awarded scrolls.
In 1964, Larry’s first year at St David’s, it snowed and Paul Steinhardt threw a snowball with a
stone in its middle at someone; it missed and smashed the window of one of the teacher’s cars.
In December of the previous year there had been a huge hail storm which caused a lot of
damage, many windows in the school were broken including some stained glass and it took a
few years for them all to be replaced.
Larry’s first experience of being politically aware occurred in the late 1960’s when Marist old
boys, who were members of the visiting New Zealand All Blacks Rugby team came to address
the school at assembly. He remembers wondering why the Maoris could be included in the New
Zealand team and their society and the blacks in South Africa were not.
Larry remembered the victorious rugby team of ’72 and George Nichas missing a goal against
KES even though he was standing right in front of the posts. It was the only match that St
David’s lost that year.
The matric dance was held in the boarders dining room and the after party was held at Carl Ebs
parent’s home in Illovo. It was all very low key and everyone was well behaved.
Of his peers Larry noted that Terry Van Heerden – deputy head boy; Eric Melman; Steve
Goodeye, and his brother Michael (1973) class – all currently living in Australia. Carl Eb lives in
New Zealand as does David von Elling (1971) class. Patrick Esnouf (1973 class) “Mr Mining” in
South America formerly a director of Anglo and now with the Andean Board living in Chile. Tim
Cockerell’s father was a pilot who died of a heart attack and his mother brought the family to
South Africa from the UK, While having the greatest admiration for Betty Cockerell’s pluck in
moving to South Africa and bringing up three sons, all of whom attended St David’s, Larry
believes that she may have been helped by the brothers to enable her to educate her sons.
When he matriculated, Larry went to Wits University and studied Civil Engineering. Afterwards
he did two years national service becoming an officer in the South African engineering corps,
was seconded to the CSIR where he was involved with mine warfare and bridge demolition. He
was in active contact with the Rhodesian Engineers and the Selous Scouts. He then had to fulfil
conditions of his bursary and worked for Grinaker Construction for two years living in Rhodesia
before it became Zimbabwe, before returning to South Africa. He was having so much fun in
Zimbabwe that he stayed in Africa a lot longer than he had originally intended. Larry finally left
for New Zealand in February1994and was transferred to Australia in early 1995. Initially he
settled in Melbourne before moving to Queensland in early 2006. He currently lives in Brisbane
where he works as a traffic engineer in local government.
Larry thinks it is very sad the way things have evolved in South Africa. He feels very strongly
about affirmative action and its related policies, which he believes have had a very negative
effect on the development of the country and on job creation.
JLE November 2012

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Kurt Morais 1993

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  • 2015

Interview with Kurt Morais – 1993
Kurt remembers being interviewed by Brother Jude in 1980. He was kind and warm and asked Kurt what
he would do at school and Kurt responded by saying that he would play and learn. Initially Kurt found
everything very intimidating. Mr Davies was headmaster of the school at the time.
Whilst at St David’s both Kurt and his brother Earl (1989) grew up in two distinctly different environments.
During the day, at a predominantly white school and then returning home into a township environment. Kurt
was sensitive to race issues but was never made to feel any different by his teachers and other pupils, with
the exception of Mr Davies. In grade 2 a fellow pupil, Michael Fuchs went with him into the township. Kurt’s
father ran a shebeen in which both he and Earl worked from time to time whilst their mother was a bank
clerk and eventually became a bank manager.
In the prep school he remembers teachers such as Mrs Walton, Mrs Hildyard and Mrs Geldenhuys.
Another boy Zam Nkosi was with Kurt from grade 0 up until matric. Other teachers he remembers well were
Mrs Hurley, Mr Finlayson, Mr Kotze in standard 5 and he recalled that if a pupil got less than 15 he would
be caned for every mark lost. Mr Eagen was an English teacher with a lisp and boys being boys, mocked
him. Mr Girdwood was a good English teacher and most sought after. He captivated the boys’ imagination
with his stories and Kurt likened him to Robin Williams in “Dead Poets Society”. Other teachers of note
were Miss Von Guilleaume who taught Zulu and Mr Lambe, Religious Instruction and Science.
Kurt said that he grew up with interesting characters, some highly educated and some with prison
backgrounds. Willy Castle taught him how to swim. He participated in soccer, rugby, swimming, basketball,
athletics and cricket but didn’t play tennis. However after a number of injuries his parents decided that he
should no longer play rugby.
He went with the athletics team to Potch University for training and found it to be an excellent way of
bonding with the team members. Kurt was also basketball captain in his matric year and excelled in
athletics.
Kurt was a member of the school choir and participated in all the school plays.
Kurt was appointed a prefect but had to give it up due to an incident on the school bus returning from an
athletics event. Both Kurt and another coloured boy, Bushan Ravjee were unaware of the incident but were
in any event defrocked. Gary Norton spoke out against this decision.
Kurt admits to messing around a lot in class and was kicked out on numerous occasions but he excelled
after leaving school.
After matriculating, Kurt was awarded a Konrad Adenauer bursary. The Geldenhuys family assisted with
this and he initially studied for a degree in engineering at Wits but after 2 ½ years realised it wasn’t right for
him and went on to study politics and economics at RAU.
Kurt is marrie, has 3 sons and a baby daughter Milea. His eldest, a stepson aged 17 is currently studying
at the British International College and has Spanish as his second language, the other sons Alexander, 6 is
in grade1 at St David’s and Adam, 2 1/2 will probably start in grade 0.
Kurt spent 4 years in Washington working at the World Bank but returned to South Africa in 2015. Belinda
Marais visited him when she was attending a conference in Washington.
JLE December 2015

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Kevin Wallace 1984

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  • 2010

Interview with Kevin Wallace - 1984
Kevin was born in the Drakensburg and attended nursery school there. The family moved to
Gauteng in 1975 and he and his brother Gary were enrolled at St David’s and were quickly
absorbed by the heritage of the school and the ethos. Kevin was then in standard 1.
Kevin was a sports fanatic and not really interested in academics. He enjoyed school but thrived
on the sports field. He can remember having great respect for the prefects when he was in the
prep. He also feels that the school produces a good quality human being who will be useful in
society.
As regards staff, Kevin remembers Mr Kotze, Mrs Napier, Ms Joseph and Br Ephrem in the
prep. In the college two teachers he remembers well are Mr Colia and Mrs Elliott. Mr Murphy
he remembers as telling the boys that he was always 100% fair and 200% ruthless! He was the
headmaster who brought back the wearing of the academic gowns. Mr Frielich was not a
dynamic headmaster but Br Anthony was an icon. Other brothers he remembers are Br Bernard
and Br Mario who did an experiment with happy gas after a soccer match which they all
enjoyed.
Nick Prium was head boy in his matric year and he remembers Rhys Carr and Gregory
McLeroth who now owns a restaurant in Johannesburg. Brian Muller and Brett Airey have both
done very well since leaving school. Peter Sapseid is a brilliant teacher in the UK but first taught
in Zimbabwe.
Kevin is married with 2 daughters and lives in Cape Town.
13 October 2010

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Kevin Ryan 1970

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  • Item
  • 2010

Interview with Kevin Ryan – 1970
Kevin joined St David’s in 1961 and was a boarder. He enjoyed the boarding as there was good
camaraderie amongst the boarders and less time was spent travelling however the downside
was not spending as much time with family.
The teachers who made a lasting impression were Mrs Kemspter, Mr Summers and Br Bosco,
He also enjoyed photography with Br Bernard.
He enjoyed the sport and participated in swimming, water polo and 3rd team rugby.
His friends were Peter Daniels, Ken Sprenger, Peter Scott and Peter Elliott who he occasionally
sees and Peter Daniels is overseas.
The worst moments at school were when someone didn’t own up and he didn’t enjoy cadets.
He enjoyed the matric dance and remembers the boys skipping with their ties in the road in front
of the office on their last day.
On leaving St David’s he studied BSc Eng (Elec) and MSc Eng (Elec) at Wits University and an
MBL at Unisa.
His son William was also a pupil at St David’s and Kevin has visited the school for the fireworks
display and also played water polo at the school 2010

Egenrieder, Julie

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