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Interview with Braydon Aab – 1985
Braydon joined St David’s in 1981, standard 6 when the family moved from Germiston. Initially
he found the transition difficult but through sport he soon became integrated.
He really enjoyed his time at the school and felt it was the best time of his life.
Braydon felt that the education he received was ordinary and influenced greatly by the transition
the school was going through with the brothers leaving and the subsequent turnover in
headmasters at the time. Br Timothy was his first headmaster followed by Mr Murphy who was a
complete disciplinarian and ruled by fear. After his demise, Br Anthony returned for a short
period followed by Mr Freilick, then Mr Boswell who was an Afrikaans teacher. Braydon felt that
Mr Freilick was the best of the bunch.
Of the teachers, Braydon remembered Mrs Elliott, an unbelievable character who taught
English, and was passionate about everything that she did. Tom Macfaden, who taught History
was a character of note who knew his subject well. St David’s was a much wealthier school than
Observatory although the teachers were poorly paid and the general feeling was that St David’s
subsidised Obs.
Braydon enjoyed the sport and focused on partying and on getting into varsity. Sport was really
important to most of the boys and St David’s, although a very small school compared with the
likes of St Stithians and didn’t have the numbers, there were only 60 boys in matric, they still
managed to beat St John’s and a couple of the boys were selected to play in provincial cricket
teams.
Braydon played 1st team tennis in standard 6, 1st team cricket in standard 10, was captain of the
U14 rugby team and played 1st team rugby in standard 9 and 10 and never missed a game.
Braydon recalled the tours which the parents funded; the best was the U14A rugby tour with
their last game playing at Hilton. In standard 9 he went to Europe, saw the passion play at
Oberammergau and he remembered that the group was welcomed by one of the cardinals at
the Vatican. The tour was a tremendous experience and made a big impact on Braydon.
An aspect of school discipline at the time was the institution of the prefects tea. If you had done
anything wrong you were told to go to the prefect’s tea which was held in the old hall during
break. The punishments meted out were nothing too serious or harsh other than perhaps
pushing a biscuit along the floor with your nose, however the discipline was effective.
He recalled one of his worst moments during his time at St David’s. To get an honours blazer
you needed three scrolls and Braydon had a scroll for merit, being a prefect and was waiting for
his rugby scroll. A retreat was organised, supervised by two of the teachers. Braydon and some
other boys went on to a friend’s yacht and had a couple of beers. The teachers noticed that
some of the boys had had alcohol and back at school Mr Boswell asked those boys to come
forward and apologise. All of them that were prefects lost their badges and Braydon was among
the boys whose honours blazers were withdrawn.
Academically Braydon did well enough to get a university pass for matric and went on to study a
BSc in Building Science Faculty at Wits University. Whilst at university he started a construction
company and has been in the construction and commercial property business ever since. He is
currently employed by Broll in the industrial division.
Braydon is married with two daughters and a younger son who attend St Stithians. Although he
doesn’t have any current connection with St David’s he would be interested in participating in
the 2016 celebrations and would purchase a copy of the book when published.
Braydon is still in touch with many of his contemporaries such as Jason Goodall who was
deputy head boy, Nicholas Pruim, Adrian and Jeremy Franklin, Mark and George Wurr. George
lives in Jhb. He remembered the Hartman brothers Roland, Ronald and Reinhart (Hartman &
Keppler).
JLE July 2012