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Interview with John Daly – 1962
John , having been previously expelled from Dunkeld College, came to St David’s at the age of 5 on the
recommendation of a friend of his father, Eddie Rohan Irwin whose son Richard was a pupil there as he felt
the disciplined environment might help.
In those days Johannesburg ended at Bompass Road with the number 2 bus terminus. There were only a
few houses north of Bompass including the Rondavel’s tea garden, Sandown Farm, now Sandton City,
which belonged to the Edmonds family and Guy Edmond was chairman of Standard Bank. John
remembers playing tennis there in the veld.
Hyde Park was a swamp and the boys used to play cowboys and indians there. Hyde Gate was vacant
land and was used by all the ox wagons as a turning point when delivering their loads of fruit and
vegetables. John’s mother used to go there to buy the family supplies from Moonsammy, the vegetable
man. Manie Fryer eventually bought the land and drained it.
The soccer fields at the school were initially gravel, then came the concrete, tennis courts and the bicycle
shed which was enormous, accommodating the boys’ bicycles as there was no transport. There was
however, a municipal bus which ran once a day with Ben the driver who was a huge man with a handlebar
moustache. The pupils were dropped off at their homes. A swimming pool was built and there were 4
classrooms for the grades, 10 classrooms in all but no chapel. On occasion one of the boys would ring the
school bell as a prank signifying the end of the day and all the boys would knock off early.
John’s gardener used to take him to school on the carrier on his bicycle until one day John took it upon
himself to take the gardener’s bike leaving him behind. His father then bought him his own bicycle and at
the tender age of 5, John rode to school alone. The journey used to take him through the grounds of some
private homes on the way.
John recalls that in the prep school they had lay teachers until standard 5 with Mrs Brick teaching the
grades, Mrs Brophy – standard 1, Mrs King – standard 2, Mrs Batten – standard 3, Miss Brophy – standard
4 and Mrs Kempster, who was an institution, teaching standard 5. John’s cousin, Mrs Schaafsma also
taught at the school.
The Brothers taught in the high school and, although John and many other boys were not Catholic and
included Jews, and Chinese, they were accepted as it was, at that time, the only boys school in the area
with St Stithian’s opening much later in 1951. It was a full day, every day with academics followed by sport,
the boys were never on the streets with all after school activities being compulsory with the Brothers
participating.
John experienced three headmasters whilst at St David’s, initially Br Edwin who was appointed Brother
Provincial and was followed by Br Benedict and then Br Anthony in 1960.
Manners were exceptionally important and the boys were brought up in an environment which
encompassed religion, sport and studying with the non-catholics having Scripture lessons. There were
many non-catholics in John’s class.
Mr Drummond- Bell led the school choir and produced the annual musical which was usually “HMS
Pinafore”. Singing lessons were included in the curriculum.
The Moni’s were the most prominent family in the school at the time and pupils such as Terry Rosenberg,
Richard Hartdegen and many other boys who did very well in their chosen careers. There was a pride in
the school held by the day boys and boarders alike. It was all very primitive and there was a bursary fund to
assist those families in need. School fees were reduced by the number of boys in a family.
John played provincial tennis and was also involved with debating but didn’t play a team sport. He and
Terry Rosenberg played 1st team doubles at the Wanderers. In his last year, the school won the tennis
league and knockout and Ray Bischoff became a Springbok for swimming, the first Springbok for the
school. The school role stood at 600.
A very sad event was when Paul Barrenbrug was killed near the school entrance. His brother subsequently
became a Marist Brother.
John remembers that Mr McGill-Love, who owned the farm next door, didn’t have any children and used to
come to the school in the afternoons to watch the children play sport and in particular cricket. He left the
property to the College when he died and part of the land, now the “Inandas”, was sold in 1980 which
became quite a controversial issue.
John didn’t go into a restaurant until he was 15, in the 60’s and then went to one in the Carlton Centre and
then at the age of 17 to the Golden Spur Steak House which had opened in Rosebank. Hamburgers were 2
shillings and 6 pence. Blairgowrie, Bordeaux and Hurlingham were farmland. John remembers certain
things at the time, like his father flying in a Junker, a trunk call to Durban was a big thing. His grandfather
built the first house in Illovo in 1896 and had the only phone. Cars were all black, Thrupps was the major
shopping centre, Anstey’s was a fashionable place to have tea and Doctors visited you at home. It was too
dangerous to go into town at night as there were highwaymen in Saxonwold!
Life revolved around balance and the Marist Brothers were very involved in the family’s lives.
After he matriculated, John didn’t go to university but worked and studied, eventually becoming an
evaluator and appraiser and recently passed yet another exam. He has always been self employed and
initially worked with his father, originally in property development. He is the father to 3 daughters and has 6
grandchildren with the boys living in Cape Town so none have been pupils of St David’s.
JLE March 2015