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