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Interview with Dave Lyons 1965

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000756
  • Item
  • 2011

Interview with Dave Lyons – 1965
Dave was a boarder and his headmaster was Brother Anthony. Brother Aidan, the only South
African brother was the bursar and 50% of the teachers were lay teachers. Dave came from a
farming community in White River with Middleburg High being the only high school in the area.
He initially went to a primary school in White River and then came to Marist Inanda. His father
had been a pupil at Observatory and his grandfather, Koch Street.
There was only one other local boy, John Davis and he was aged 12 when he became a
boarder. He arrived not quite knowing what to expect of boarding school, he was confronted by
city boys who were street-wise and the discipline was quite extraordinary and extreme. In his
first year, Std 6, Brother Conrad was a very good teacher and empathic man but most of the
other brothers were quite hard and mean. He had Brother Vincent the following year,he recalls
Brother Liam and Brother Andrew was his boarding housemaster and Geography teacher. All
the brothers carried canes, some were quite vindictive and could victimise a pupil, and
remembers being caned in his pyjamas holding onto some taps. The biggest thing you could get
caught for was smoking a texan by the change rooms, aids, drugs were not around. There was
alcohol but none of them were really interested, the boarders made their own entertainment and
fun.
The study routine was very heavy and the programme was as follows: up at 6.00am; study 6.30
– 8.00; breakfast 8.00 – 8.30 followed by school and sport and then more study.
All the boarders used to latch onto day boys for sandwiches at break time and Peter Foden had
particularly nice sandwiches! Boarding school food was the norm and it was great to go home
for some good home cooking. There were 80 – 90 senior boarders and some juniors. They used
to sit 6 - 8 per table for army style food. A big thing was the pat of fresh butter in the mornings
and each boy took it in turn to cut it into equal amounts. The one who cut the butter was last in
line so he didn’t cheat. There was rice pudding and bread and butter pudding and on special
occasions (sports day, rugby match) they had a “beano” with roast beef, roast spuds and cool
drinks.
He participated in rugby but due to chronic back problems he had to stop and then played
cricket, hockey and squash. He joined the debating society which he eventually headed up.
Naturally they chose only to debate against girl’s schools such as St Mary’s and Rosebank
Convent.
A highlight in Std 8 was M’Frau Pretorius who was very well endowed and, needless to say he
loved Afrikaans and a glimpse of a genuine female figure. They had lay teachers for most
subjects but the boarding masters were all brothers, 13 – 14 of them and they all lived on site.
He recalls that the school had taken ownership of the property next door the year he left and
Dennis Tomacelli, head boy lived in a house with a swimming pool on the school boundary.
Dave failed matric but passed Latin, Geography and English, he was not an academic. He has
an indifferent memory of Brother Anthony although he thought he managed the school with a
vision.
He has no fond memories of the school and regards those years as an episode in his life which
he got through quite well. It was a type of schooling he didn’t respond well to, it was too
disciplined and regimental and the only real benefit was being taught to be self-disciplined.
Being at boarding school, meant that you grew away from home and were forced to become
independent. He finished his matric and moved on and is not involved with the school at all. He
was a small chap when he left but grew after leaving school.
Dave didn’t qualify for university and there were no jobs in White River or on the farm. He did
military training after school in 1966 and was a member of the Citizen Force until 1976, serving
in Angola where he became an officer and eventually finished in 1980 as a major. A
contemporary of his from St David’s,Fred Klippen servbd in the same regiment. They used to do
3 months camps and 3 months development training and he only started to become aware of
politics after P.W. Botha once came and addressed the troops and was unaware of apartheid
until in business in the 80’s.
He sold Callguard Security 10 years ago and is now known as Group 4. In the final years Rand
Merchant Bank had 20% stake in the company and only two people had degrees in the entire
company, being the financial director and the HR director. He employed 6000 staff and all his
managers and directors benefited from the sale of the company. He is now involved with Lupo
Bakery providing specialist bread to companies such as Mugg & Bean, Spur, Spar and Burger
King. He found in the mid 2000’s that he had a very quick and easy adaption to business, and
still enjoys sharing and mentoring staff believing that you should empower people on every
level. Recognition,respect and reward being his motto. Although Dave and his wife Janet are
not involved in any charity they do actively support a number of child orientated charities such
as the St Joseph’s Home and SOS Village. He and his wife travel extensively and his most
recent trip was motoring through Europe with his E-type Jaguar. His passion is motor sport and
he probably has one of the biggest specialist car collections in the world.
JLE October 2011

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Chris Busschau 1965

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000737
  • Item
  • 2011

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

Egenrieder, Julie