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Interview with David Baker – 1967 Standard 8
David came to St David’s in 1956 from the Loretta Convent in Pretoria. His father worked for Greatermans
and was transferred to Johannesburg. David is a Catholic and was one of 5 children.
As a grade 2 pupil the school appeared to David to be very grand, holy and very orderly. Br Anthony took
over as headmaster in 1960.
David’s family lived in Rivonia and his father dropped him off in the morning together with his bicycle which
he rode home in the late afternoon. David was predominantly interested in the sport and couldn’t wait to get
out onto the sports field every day. He enjoyed athletics and rugby most of all and remembers being told of
the assassination of Hendrik Verwoerd during rugby practice. (6 September 1966). David was not
academically the best student.
The sports fields were where the swimming pool and the prep playing fields are now until the farm
Zyferfontein was purchased and new fields were laid out. One of the teachers had a Pekenese dog which
she brought into class where it sat on her lap.
There were no school camps in those days but Champagnat day was celebrated. There was a chapel
upstairs, David was a member of the school choir and on one occasion, together with another boy, had to
sing a solo at the big cathedral in town.
He has memories of the brothers in their cassocks carrying an air of Catholicism and religion with them
outnumbering the teachers and David remembered the soft and serene matron Mrs Buckley-Jones with
affection. David has fond memories of his schooldays at St David’s, was sad to move and regarded his
upbringing at a school of the calibre of St David’s very highly.
After matriculating, David went to Simonstown, joining the navy for a year where he received hi s military
training. He then joined Nestle as a trainee representative and worked his way up the sales ladder, studied
marketing and earned his diploma from the Institute of Marketing Management. He then moved on to the
head office and became product manager for Milo, Nescafe, Hot Chocolate and core brands for Nestle SA
working there for 10 years. In the meantime, his father who was running a printing business, Multiprint
Studio, asked him to join him and, on the third occasion David accepted. Coming from Nestle David had a
superb grounding for starting out on his own but initially disliked his new role in downtown Doornfontein, a
far cry from his plush corporate offices in Randburg.
However, in the past 35 years the company has developed into one of the best printings companies in
South Africa winning 15 Sappi Printer of the Year Awards including the double gold, achievement award
covering the whole of Africa. It has evolved into a wonderful journey culminating in winning the “Oscar”
equivalent award in the printing industry.
David is married with two daughters and 5 grandchildren. He said that one didn’t realise until much later
how much grounding one was given at a wonderful institution like St David’s and he is very grateful for the
time spent at both St David’s and Nestle.
JLE May 2015

Interview with David Phillips – 1960
David lived in Hyde Park and started at St David’s in grade 1 in 1948. Hyde Park was very
agricultural in those days and only underwent development from about 1954. He was a day boy
and used to cycle to school on the dirt roads.
David skipped grade 2 but then failed standard 9. He was absolutely devastated to fail but in
retrospect there was good reason for that as there were family problems at the time which he
could not handle.
He recalls Mrs Kempster in standard 4, she was an institution in herself and one didn’t mess
around with her. From then on school became a bit more serious and he remembers the strap
was used in punishment. The brother he remembers as being his favourite was Br.
Bonaventure. He saw Br Anthony at a function at the school about 30 years after he, David had
left and was so impressed that Br Anthony remembered him by name.
If there was any advantage to being a day boy he recalled that the boarders always seemed to
be hungry and were always around when the sandwiches were taken out. He enjoyed being
able to go and talk to the brothers about anything and everything. Coming from a home with an
older father who was 67 when he was born the age gap came into play and he related more to
the brothers especially with matters such as career guidance.
He hated homework with a passion. There was only one negative experience that he could
recall and that was when he was about 13, 14 drinking from one of the water fountains when a
Bulgarian pupil (Thomas Munnick) pushed his head down and he broke his two front teeth with
which he has had problems to this day.
He was an athlete and very much into running and came second in the mile. He has been a
runner ever since until about 2 years ago when his knees started to give him problems. He also
played rugby for the 3rd XV.
He was very happy at school and only cried on the first and last day. The school was a haven to
him, he had no worries and thought that the brothers were really good guys and that had all
come to an end. He then went to Wits to study a BA but ended up studying for an LLB and
became a lawyer specialising in litigation and property. He began his articles in 1964 and retired
in March 2011. When he has the time his hobbies are fishing and hunting and looks forward to
spending quality time with his grandchildren.
He was involved with a class reunion in October 2009. Harry Rosmarin is the one who keeps
them all in touch. He sees Tony McLaughlin who is sadly not interested in the old boys. He is a
member of MOBS and would be willing to participate in any pledges or donations towards the
publication of the history of St David’s.
JE January 2012

Interview with Dennis Adams – 1959
With a great start to his school career Dennis missed the first day of school in 1948 as his
mother was mixed up about the dates. His father was a KES old boy but as the family lived
down the road from the school it was an obvious choice. Initially he was taken to school but later
rode his bicycle for most of his school life – up what is now Rivonia Road – the school being
7/10 of a mile away! The family had many friends with children at the school and his mother
served on the ladies committee for most of his school life.
The school had expansive grounds, but was running out of space and Dennis remembers that
the big break for the school was acquiring the neighbouring land from the McGill-Love’s on their
deaths. He recalled McGill-Love driving a rather large and expensive black car, an Armstrong
Sidley (he thinks), which impressed him no end.
Dennis enjoyed the junior school and the teachers included Mrs Brophy, Mrs Stirton and Mrs
Batten, none of whom took any nonsense from the boys in their charge. One, they nicknamed
“turtle dove.” In his opinion Mrs Kempster who was his teacher in standard 4, was the best
teacher, very strict with a pen in one hand and a strap in the other. However, she got the best
results and paved the way for high school for Dennis and many of the boys. The brothers took
over from standard 6. He remembers (could he ever forget!) Br Urban, Br Edwin, Br Benedict,
Br Gerald, Br Anthony who taught Maths and Br Bonaventure who was a fun guy who loved
sport. The best was Brother James who had just arrived after teaching for 20 years in China
and, if any lesson became boring, the boys just had to ask a question on China and the time
flew!
Dennis was mostly involved with swimming and life-saving which was introduced in 1958. He
avoided rugby by becoming a linesman. He remembers many trips in Gertie, the school bus,
which accommodated one team at a time - no seat belts in those days!
Dennis recalled the polio epidemic in the early 1950’s. School continued there was at lot of
pressure about all children being inoculated but a number of children including Dennis and his
siblings were not inoculated.
On the cultural front, he was part of the chorus in “HMS Pinafore” and the “Pirates of
Penzance”.In 1953 he was in the choir that went to Selbourne Hall where they were the first
boys’ school to sing the “Hallelujah Chorus” with Mr Drummond-Bell conducting.
Dennis achieved a high academic standard throughout and was first each year until standard 4
when he slipped back a bit. From standard 7 until standard 9, competing with other Marist
schools, he won prizes for Scripture and a few other subjects. In 1958 the matric results had
been very poor, no-one really knew why but it was endemic in many of the private schools.
Because of that, Dennis studied Bookkeeping at home as a 7th subject to clinch the first class
matric which he achieved with a distinction in Maths. The minimum marks required were 1250
for 6 subjects and 1350 for 7. Dennis’s brother and sister didn’t fare too well academically and
were transferred to Damelin to complete their matric.
Dennis became a prefect, captained Osmond and was awarded full colours.
Dennis remembered his matric dance which was held in the boarders’ dining room, the boys
wearing their school blazers and the boys had decorated the room themselves. He had an
arrangement with a girl he swam with and they used to accompany each other to various school
functions. There was a band and punch which he recalls (or probably hoped) was laced. It was
good fun.
Dennis didn’t really expect too much out of school, it was something that one just had to do. The
best thing is that you were all in it together, there were small classes and he was unaware of
any bullying but teasing, yes. The most important thing that he was aware of was that if you
didn’t do it yourself then it didn’t get done. There was no special motivation and one stuck to the
syllabus and text book without any huge incentives, but “we all seemed to do OK in later life”
On leaving St David’s, Dennis went to Rhodes where he studied for a B Com CTA. Afterwards
he completed 9 months in the army and then went on to complete his CA(SA) and was articled
with Whiteley Brothers which is now part of Deloittes. He ended up with Barclays in 1968 then
Nedbank from 1970, initially in their investment bank, Nefic and later in Nedbank Group as chief
accountant and from 1997 he became the financial controller. At retirement he was then
involved with the restructuring of the group’s pension funds and is still a trustee. He, Peter
Loffell and David Hartman (MOBS) all worked for Nedbank and retired on the same day.
Dennis’s grandson is a pupil at Hyde Park High, his granddaughters are at De La Salle and
Parkview Senior. He is in close contact with a number of people he met whilst at Rhodes. He
met his wife, Jenny there. They were in adjacent residences, Botha and Olive Schreiner and his
mother and Jenny’s aunt were good friends. After a six year courtship and 46 years’ of marriage
by 2012.They are still going strong.
Dennis has been actively involved with the Parktown & Westcliff Heritage Trust since 1984. He
gave up History in standard 5 as he found it boring, but eventually woke up to the fact that
having lost 3 parents in 2 years he had missed all the history he could have gleaned from them.
He started joining some tours of the area, which awakened an interest in the history of his part
of Johannesburg. He became a guide and researcher and has published a couple of books on
the subject and is involved with a weekly radio programme, together with Flo Bird on Radio
Today.
JLE 2012

Interview with Derek Mandy – 1963
Derek thought that school was one of the best things that ever happened to him and enjoyed his
time as a boarder at Inanda. His parents lived in Brakpan, hence he was a boarder from
standard 5 but was at CBC Boksburg before. His parents wanted him to participate more at
school. He felt that it was all pro’s regarding boarding – companionship, structured study, food
wasn’t too bad, sport at weekends and he played rugby and was vice- captain first rugby,
hockey, soccer, volleyball, athletics and received the open 880yds trophy. The only con was
the dorms – 40 beds in each. In standard 8 his brother Dudley was prefect of Derek’s dorm. His
main complaint was that there was a total lack of privacy, they were noisy and no radio was
allowed after lights out. The brothers had a room in the corner.
He was reasonably good at sport and was generally in the A team.
Academically he achieved a second class JMB matric, he wasn’t a boff but didn’t struggle, with
the exception of Maths due to the brothers teaching and a university student eventually helped
him with the subject. He received the SA Marist award in 1963 and was head prefect and house
captain for Benedict, vice-captain first rugby, secretary of Sodality and chairman of the MDC.
Derek, as were many of the other boys, was unaware of what was happening in South Africa,
they were apolitical and had no knowledge of apartheid. It had no bearing on their lives. He
does however recall that the government were not too happy to allow new brothers into the
country.
He remembers his first day or two and was initially homesick but soon settled in and it helped
having an older brother there. He remembers Brother Anthony, “Oranges” as being quite a
character.
His older brother Dudley was head boy in 1961 and who is now living in Texas. One day he was
called out of class and in front of the school, with the matrics in a semi-circle, they were told that
his brother was going down to Natal to become a Brother, this was just prior to writing matric.
Having written matric, Dudley gave it all up and reunited with his girlfriend.
His last day was a happy one it was time to move on even though he was unsure whether he
had been accepted at university. He also had originally wanted to become an American field
student but he couldn’t do that and study in the US, he eventually went to UCT to study
psychology but ended up studying law. Derek is the father of two sons who went to Bishops and
a daughter who attended Herschel. Had he been living in Johannesburg he would have sent his
sons to St David’s. He served Bishops Council for 10 years and was chairman of the parents
association during this time. Derek has competed in 27 Cape Argus events and is a keen
mountain biker. He has recently retired and is looking into getting involved in some charity work.
Due to his location, he lost contact with his contemporaries. He did attend two reunions, one
after 25 years with a number of old boys from Johannesburg who had not seen each other since
matric. The next one after 30 years, he was the only old boy not living in Johannesburg who
attended. He felt that perhaps the reunions should be less structured with more time, not like the
dinners of the past. He would be interested in the book and would be prepared to pledge/buy a
copy.
JE October 2011

Interview with Derrick Schoombie – 1967
Derrick came to St David’s in grade 1 as a day boy living just down the road with his family. On his first day
he sat next to Gabriel Simaan and Peter Wright with whom he is still friends. Mrs Brick was their grade 1
teacher. He remembers Br Mario; Br Vincemt; Br Andrew “Drac” – all the boys were scared of him but
loved him and he drove the school bus to all the sporting events; Mrs Knesovitch who had three sons at the
school; Mrs Buckle who taught English and Mrs Hartmann who all the boys were in love with.
St David’s was a small school with about 300 pupils and Derrick knew everyone at the school. Br Anthony
was the headmaster for most of Derrick’s school life who was a strict but lovely man who really changed
the school for the better.
Derrick loved his sport and was an active sportsman playing 1st team rugby and cricket and hockey from
standard 8 and played for the Transvaal B and Sub Union rugby team once he left school. He participated
in three SA Marist school cricket tours and was chosen for the Marist side for two of the three years
attended. He knew Willy Castle who was also a member of the 1st team rugby and in a class below him. In
his final year, Derrick was captain of 1st rugby; vice-captain 1st cricket and vice-captain 1st hockey and a
member of the schools swimming team.
Derrick recalled the school musical “Pirates of Penzance” produced by Mr Drummond-Bell. Derrick
participated although he was not a good singer. He took Val Jackson as his partner to his matric dance.
Derrick was very happy at school, became a prefect with Peter De Kock as head boy in his matric year. He
was vice-captain of Benedict house, was awarded an honours blazer and received scrolls for prefect, rugby
and cricket and was awarded the Victor Ludorum in his final year at the school for study, sport and
leadership.
After achieving a university pass for matric, Derrick spent 9 months in the army and then went on to Wits
University, where he studied for a BComm degree, and thereafter completed his CA and a Diploma in
Taxation. After completing his BComm he was articled to Vaughan, Key and Payne which is now Price
Waterhouse Coopers and after qualifying as a CA, Derrick and his wife travelled around the UK and Europe
in a VW combi for 16 months living on $10 per day. On his return to SA, Derrick and his brother Clive joined
their father in a small auditing practise until 1983 where after he and Gabe Simaan formed a small
pharmaceutical company called Garec (a combination of the names of Gabe and Derrick) which company
was later acquired by SA Druggists and now forms part f the Aspen stable. Derrick now works for Actavis
Inc, part of one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Derrick will retire in July this year.
Derrick is a member of MOBS but has no sons at the school having fathered three daughters (with one of
them now teaching at St David’s; however his two grandsons will become pupils at St David’s. Derrick’s
younger brother Clive matriculated in 1968 and died in 2011 having fathered three sons who all attended St
David’s for their entire school life.
JLE May 2015

Interview with Doug Wickins 1962
Doug started at St David’s in Std 3 in 1955. He originally went to St Peter’s in Merrivale and
moved to Parkhurst where he spent 1 year in Std 2 at the local primary school. His mother was
a devout Catholic with 3 sons, Doug being the eldest. He and Anthony started in 1955 and Barry
a year or two later. Doug was happy at Parkhurst and didn’t want to leave and his introduction to
the school was delayed, as he and his brothers contracted scarlet fever, and were quarantined
for 3 weeks. Br Edmond, the principal introduced him to Alf Smith and Michael Fine (“Savage”)
and took him to Mrs Batten – standard 3. Mrs Batten was a real toughie, told him to sit where
she could see him. She sat on the teaching platform, teachers had a leather strap and he can
remember her whacking all the boys in her class. In spite of this introduction he thoroughly
enjoyed his schooling. At the end of standard 6 his father died, his uncle came to stay in the
house; accommodation was limited so in standard 7 arrangements were made for him to go into
boarding. This he regards as the best thing that ever happened to him. He spent 4 years
boarding and really enjoyed it.
There were 16 brothers then, all quite young, many in their twenties and Br Anthony was about

34. They played sport together. There were 60 pupils in a class but by matric the number had
    reduced to 17 with other pupils either failing or being expelled. One of the problems was that Br
    John was Spanish and Br Charles, French-Canadian and understanding them was rather
    difficult. The language was an issue and there was insufficient opportunity to interface with the
    brothers individually.
    Doug loved boarding and enjoyed school even more because of it and regards the school as his
    Alma Mater rather than university.
    Doug was in a very spirited class with 8 boarders, the remainder being day boys. Among them
    were Darko Vidas, Alex Quail, Alec Smith, John Dayley. Br Edwin (Jack Bones) was principal
    until 1956 and then Br Benedict (The Beak) until 1959 followed by Br Anthony in 1960. He was
    terrified of Br Edwin who was related to the MCGurk family, but revered and respected him, he
    had arthritis but in spite of this he trained boys in rugby. He was eventually promoted to Brother
    Provincial. Br Benedict loved rugby and cricket. Br Anthony was, in his opinion, the best
    principal the school ever had.
    Br Anthony’s nickname was Aungess – Oranges which he could never pronounce properly. His
    favourite sayings were”nothing without work” and “he who plays hard, works hard”. Initially he
    appeared arrogant because of his demeanour but once everyone got to know him, his popularity
    soared. He had a great sense of Christianity hence Slough, and was a teaching principal,
    teaching Science and Maths. There were 450 boys in the school at the time and, although there
    was a bursar, he ran the entire school.
    Mrs Kempster taught under Br Edwin Standard 4, she used the stick and became the first
    headmistress of the junior school succeeded by Mr Manolios, then Mrs Schaafsma. Mrs
    Janusch, a scot married to a Hungarian was an absolute tyrant. He remembers boys such as
    Congo Brian Roberts who came from the Belgian Congo, Doc Livingstone – Rhodesia, Chicken
    Venter, Brian Emerick. The school’s reputation was well established with 180 boarders with 4
    dormitories.
    Doug once lead a boycott of sausages in the dining room, Br Dennis was on duty that particular
    evening and Br Michael wanted to kick him out but Br Anthony saved him. Four boys were
    expelled. Two brothers Peter and Jeremy Forder, Warrington and Hartman decided to run away.
    They got out and went to Sandton, however they were rounded up and expelled.
    A barber used to come to cut the boys hair, The boarders had lunch 12.45 to 1.15, then again
    out of class 2.45 for tea followed by sports practice, shower, study, 6.30 – 7.15 supper, study
    until 8.15 and lights and radios off by 9.15.
    Doug participated in all sport, played cricket but he preferred swimming, played rugby, hockey,
    and athletics and joined in debating. There was tremendous competition between St David’s
    and Observatory. The cinder track, now prep playing fields was regarded as the best in the
    country for the Catholic inter-high athletics. Doug was also made a prefect. Doug recalled an
    incident during an athletics event when Br Charles was measuring the distance that a javelin
    had been thrown when another landed immediately behind him fortunately just missing him.
    People often used to stop at the side of the road to watch the cricket. A sad incident occurred
    when Paul Barrenbrook was killed, in a freak accident whilst he was standing on the bicycle
    wheel of the ice cream cart which was hit by a passing car.
    The school had a good relationship with Parktown Convent rather than Rosebank and often had
    joint functions.
    He helped build a stage and got the wood. The stage was very, very heavy. Technical drawing
    was a subject and because of this they were allowed to use the workroom. There was very
    nearly a nasty accident when Darko got his tie caught up in the planing machine. It took all, his
    strength to keep his head away until someone could switch the machine off.
    Doug recalled President Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962 and listening to
    a radio that Darko had, as they all waited to find out if the world was going to be plunged into
    the first nuclear war.
    He remembers his last day at St David’s, it was in December and there were 4 or 5 boys left
    writing their last matric exam. His 17th birthday was on 29 November and he wrote his first
    matric paper, English 1. He felt that he never left the school and attended many rugby matches,
    swimming galas and athletics meetings. A number of them went to Wits and kept in touch. They
    always had the idea of forming MOBS. Tonetti, Mike von Guilleaume, Steve Muller, Trevor Blow
    (first chairman MOBS, a lawyer).
    He recalls the appointment of Murphy who was welcomed with open arms and was given a lot
    of support by the old boys. That was until he appeared on TV as a wrestler and then it was
    revealed that his credentials were not based on fact as they were presented. Steve Muller, Br
    Jude and Br Timothy originally interviewed him.
    He remembers Darryl Boswell as a good head and Gary Norton as deputy. He was also fond of
    Br Edwin, Quinas and Tometti.
    He studied for a Bachelor of Commerce at Wits and went into marketing and advertising. He
    was interested in investments and on retirement became more involved and now thoroughly
    enjoys it,
    Both Doug’s sons, Gregory and Michael, were pupils at St David’s and in class with Mike von
    Gulleaume’s children. His grandson Thomas Weedon has just joined the school. Greg’s
    youngest son is registered to come here. Vito Rugani founder member of MOBS had three sons
    here.
    Forming MOBS there was tremendous argument between them over what was then known as a
    federation of Marist old boys. St David’s was seen to be better, with young upstarts and elitist.
    Initially they set up the old boys for St David’s only and refused old boys from other
    Johannesburg Marist schools. Now anyone can join if they have been to a Marist school. There
    was a special badge for the federation emanating from St Charles Durban. A group of them
    went down to a number of conferences.
    Doug was chairman of the old boys, chairman of the PTA and vice-chairman of the board of
    governors. Steve Muller was the first chairman of the board of governors and MOBS was
    formed in 1965.He worked together with Kevin Brewer fighting to get subsidies from the
    government. St David’s was the first independent school to admit blacks.
    He remembers Darryl Boswell as a good head and Gary Norton as deputy.
    JE June 2011

Interview with Dr Theo van den Handel - 1982
Theo is one of 4 van den Handel brothers – Alan matriculated as deputy head boy in 1974, Rik
matriculated as head boy in 1976, Theo matriculated as head boy in 1982 and Jan Willem matriculated
as a prefect in 1987.
Theo remembers his early years at St David’s as great years, however, he was just an ordinary boy in the
prep taking part in all the sports but never really shining. But he blossomed in the high school and loved
school and being a member of St David’s.
Theo feels that St David’s has always been a good school because it was smaller in numbers and the
boys were treated as individuals. Sport was a huge factor at school as it served to bind the boys together.
St David’s did well on the sports field despite our small numbers and when we were defeated we knew
how to take the defeat. The boys always bounced back. Theo feels that although the school has grown in
numbers today the same still holds today whereby the boys still love their sport and give it their all.
Theo started at St David’s in 1971 in grade 1 and felt at home as his two older brothers were already at
school there. He remembers teachers like Mrs Hildyard, Ms Joseph, Mrs Knezovich, Mrs Anderson and
Mrs Walsh. In standard 7 he and Jan Willem left St David’s to live in Holland with their Mom. After just a
year there they returned to South Africa and the two youngest boys returned to St David’s.
He entered standard 8 on his return and felt as if he had never been away. He enjoyed his sport
especially athletics, swimming, water polo and rugby. Theo still maintains that sport being compulsory at
St David’s is an excellent idea and does give the school a wonderful spirit. Theo was appointed head boy
in 1982. This was a significant year in the school’s history as it was the first year that the school had a
lay headmaster. Mr G Murphy was the first lay headmaster and Theo remembers him well saying that the
boys liked Mr Murphy mainly because he was very into the sporting side of the school and encouraged
the boys especially in rugby. He says he got on well with Mr Murphy and followed his advice.
Theo enjoyed his years in the high school and felt that with teachers like Mrs Elliott, Mr Colia, Mr
McFadden and Mr Boswell the boys were given a good sound education.
As mentioned Theo is one of 4 boys in the van den Handel family. The eldest is Alan who runs his own
construction business in Plettenburg Bay. He is married and his son Nicholas now works with his dad in
the business. Rik lives in Dallas and is an chemical scientist. He is married and has a son Ryan. The
youngest brother is Jan Willem who is married and in the process of moving back to Johannesburg from
Cape Town for business reasons. He has a little daughter.
Theo is still in touch with Graham Muller who is a GP in the UK.
Theo and his wife Sian have moved to Plettenburg Bay where they have set up a practise together, Sian
as a dermatologist and Theo as a medical practioner. Theo has taken a great interest in HIV and while
living in Johannesburg he worked on a regular basis at Baragwanath Hospital. He is now is provincial
programme manager of the Western Cape branch of Right to Care which specialises in HIV and TB.
Theo has 37 doctors working under him and he himself travels to Beaufort West and the surrounding
area for 2 to 3 days each week running clinics and educating the public and also the people working in
this very important programme.
Mrs van den Handel has moved down to Plettenburg Bay to be near the family and they are now able to
spend quality time with their two sons Rhys and Luc, both of whom were at St David’s while living in
Johannesburg. Since the move both boys are enjoying their new school Oakhill in Knysna, but they still
miss their friends at St David’s
Interview: 13 May 2011

Interview with Duncan Hunter – 2006
Duncan’s first day at St David’s was in grade 4 and he remembers it as being completely different from his
previous school in that there was a feeling that excellence was important along with discipline. He found it
to be a rather overwhelming experience.
The best part of school for Duncan was having his mates with him most of the time, in class, during breaks
and then playing sport in the afternoons together. Duncan is still in contact with them and even now, almost
ten years later they all miss sitting on their specific bench in the quad during breaks. Other aspects he
enjoyed were all the sport on offer and the fact that his whole year was very much planned in advance by
somebody else. There was a lot less to worry about back then!
As with most boys, Duncan did not enjoy the homework and the studying for exams.
An occasion that stands out was the new boys “initiation” and prefects’ test that they did when they arrived
in the high school. Having to remember all the prefects’ names and various other random facts about the
school was, looking back, quite funny. Another weekly event the boys had when they were in matric was
the prefects’ assembly. Duncan can remember some of what was said being hysterical and probably not
repeatable! Another event which stood out was the time the boys travelled down to Durban for the Westville
gala over the Midmar weekend in 2002. They were quite out-classed at the time, but the schools’ swimming
went from strength to strength after they had seen the level they needed to be at to compete across the
country.
One of the funniest things the boys used to do at break at one stage during high school was to play an
interesting variation of soccer. The person who scored used to have to try to run away from everyone as
the aim was to all “pile on” the scorer. It made no sense then and still doesn’t but most of the grade used to
get involved. They also played various other versions of rugby and soccer throughout their time, most of
which were banned very quickly.
There were many teachers over the years that made lasting impressions. That is one of the qualities of the
staff at St David’s; they take a genuine interest in the boys they are teaching. In the prep school, Mrs
Everson made a lasting impression in terms of her guidance and some of the perspectives she shared. In
high school, Mrs Kennedy taught Duncan’s Maths class for three years and he ended up in her matric
class. She got to know the boys over the years and on top of being an excellent teacher she supported
them and gave them guidance when needed. On a personal level, Duncan was involved in tutoring Maths
classes during university which he felt was due to Mrs Kennedy.
Duncan swam and was in the A team swimming throughout prep and high school. He played water polo for
the 2nd team, rugby for the 2nd team and thought that the annual Midmar trip with the swimming team was
always memorable. The Ken Short Shield under 14 water polo tournament played in East London was also
a great trip. On a provincial level, Duncan was selected for the Gauteng lifesaving team.
Duncan was a prefect and deputy head of College house in 2006 and his twin brother was also prefect, so
two out of twelve wasn’t bad going for the Hunter family. Duncan received specific honours for academics
as well as general honours and also won various academic subject prizes over the years, the last being the
Maths prize in matric. He also received team awards for swimming and water polo.
Duncan remembers the last day of school quite clearly. He and the matrics organised a braai in the
morning in the quad to celebrate. One of the guys ended up bringing a whole bunch of chickens with him
that they let run around during the day. This was a great source of entertainment for all the boys. The same
day his twin brother, Malcolm climbed out of the window of Mrs Kennedy’s 2nd storey Maths classroom and
climbed down the side of the building. Mrs Kennedy got quite a surprise when Malcolm came back up and
knocked on the door asking to be let in!
After matriculating, Duncan went on to study Bachelor of Accounting Science at Wits University and then
completed the requirements for CA (SA) in 2013. He is currently a manager at PWC London in the
assurance practice.
Duncan is a member of MOBS and visits the school when he can.
JLE March 2015

Interview with Eric Ambrosioni -1966 & Rohan Erleigh – 1967
Both Eric and Rohan were boarders. Eric’s two half brothers Edward Barale and Italo Barale
also boarded and Rohan had two brothers follow him. They knew each other through the
boarding and played in the same rugby, cricket and athletics teams. Goodenough, a kitchen
hand could outstrip every athlete and broke the school record running barefoot. The highpoint in
cricket was when professional, English cricketers came to the school, Ken Palmer and Peter
Stringer who lived at the school and Donald Wilson who got married here and lived above the
chapel. On Saturdays if any major cricket team was playing, the boys had to dress up in full
uniform and walk to Wanderers wearing straw bashers..
They recalled an American field scholar, Philp Marsden who could throw a tennis ball higher
than the tennis captain could with his racket. Julio Cesneros’s father was the Spanish
ambassador, who assisted in bringing the Spanish football team, Real Madrid to South Africa.
The Springbok, Ray Bischoff swam against the Dutch and broke a South African record. The
cycling team was started with Deon and Brett Sacks and Rohan remembers his bike breaking
down near Gilooley’s Farm. There was also a model airplane club, all the planes took off and
then crashed! A Tiger Moth was donated.
Cadets were also started in their time and Eric was one of the first five cadet student officers.
There was a Southern Transvaal Schools Drummer competition and the school won the bass
and tenor drums section beating 700 other schools – who weren’t there!!!
The drama society was initiated together with Parktown Convent and was oversubscribed!
There was a debating society with Dave Lyons, Pat Noble and Andrew Lindiker and debates
were always held on a Sunday at the convent. There was also a dark room where some of the
boys developed their photos.
Gertie the 3 ton utility truck used to convey pupils to various sports events and was eventually
sold and replaced with a new school bus that was painted blue and was involved in an accident
after the first three weeks, the driver being Zebron.
Mrs Buckley-Jones was the much loved matron who however made them write tests whilst in
the sick bay. Mr Drummon-Bell was the Music teacher who produced the “Pirates of Penzance”.
Eric remembered a teacher called Mrs Cane, at Marist Borthers Koch Street Johannesburg, (the
primary school to both Marist Brothers and Inanda) who used it (the cane) with gay abandon.
The first lay teachers in the high school were Mrs Buchan – English, very English, unattractive
but kind, Mrs Pretorius – Afrikaans, she was good looking but unfriendly, Mr Ward – Maths, Mr
Hewitson – Art. Eric remembered a pupil from Greece who chatted in class and when Mrs
Pretorius asked him what he had said Eric told him to say “Ek is jou lief”!
There was a Science lab but when they left it was replaced by a newer one and Eric’s two
brothers – Orcellis – donated two glass windows.
For two years during the mid 1960’s, the brothers hired a catering manager and his wife, the
Coopers. They had a corgi which started off thin but ended up as a blimp! The boys used to
regularly raid the kitchen. Flat bed trolleys were used to carry food, boxes etc and the boys used
to pile onto them and ride down the inclines resulting in quite a few stitches.
Eric was designated, together with George Da Matta to act as cinematographers for the film
every Saturday night. Someone had to collect the 16mm films and they were given pocket
money to get the bus, however George’s father would fetch them and take them to his café to
gorge on fish and chips etc and then after to collect the films in the centre of Johannesburg.
They then caught the bus back to Dunkeld and had to lug the box of 16mm films to school.
The first Spur restaurant opened in Rosebank and several boys were caught bunking in the
Spur and in Ken Rosewall’s snooker saloon. They recall that disputes were resolved between
the boys behind the games room next to the tennis courts.
To celebrate the 75th anniversary of Champagnat they made the great trek to Cape Town, all
the buses broke down and all the schools ended up at St Joseph’s.
They remember the land bought by the school and the boys of 1966 planted the grass on the
rugby field and cricket pitch.
There was no real communication then, only the telephone and radio. They had vague
memories of the assassination of Kennedy and the attempted and actual assassination of
Verwoed. They had a day off school due to the “Bay of Pigs”. They did remember the stance
taken by the Catholic schools with regard to admitting black children which wasn’t popular with
the government.
Both Eric and Rohan have been back to St David’s for a 40 year reunion and would be
interested in supporting the publication of the book.
Individual memories of Eric Ambrosioni:
Eric’s mother died then his father and in Standard 8 his step brothers came to an arrangement
with the school to enable him to stay there. He had no bad experiences although Brother
Ignatius would lash you for no treason.
Joe Mulaneu lived at the bottom of the bottom field and Eric lived opposite him. He remembers
fooling around with him and hitting him with a metal rod, subsequently their parents banned
them from seeing each other. They later became good buddies and Joe became a
paediatrician.
After the Saturday cinema one night he raided the kitchen, realising a brother was there he tried
to get rid of the evidence and a paw paw rolled down the hall and he was caught by Brother
Liam.
He also remembers going home in the first term and crying about being bullied. His brother
advised him to put a shoe in his pillowcase and wait until the bully fell asleep and then whack
him with it. The bullying stopped after he tried that out.
When he finished school he wanted to go to varsity but, having no family to support him, he
ended up in a bank and was then balloted into the army in which he stayed for three years. He
then went into the oil industry and was seconded to the UK and his company was bought out by
BP. He was repatriated and offered a package in 2004, bought a pasta machine and became a
pasta maker his wife having bought an Italian deli. He made pasta for the deli and sold to other
delis and shops in the Cape Peninsula. He sold the pasta machine at the beginning of the year
to his nephew, another Marist old boy Ted Barale who owns Piccolino in Fourways. He is
married to Louise and is the father to two daughters.
Eric’s brother Italo (1953) married Myrna Morgan whose brothers went to Inanda, Harold and
Ronny who became a Marist Brother.
Individual Memories of Rohan Erleigh:
His parents lost everything they had in business but insisted he went to a private school. They
had an old car, a 1947 Plymouth and he was so embarrassed he told them to meet him outside.
Rohan was an altar boy.
After finishing school Rohan went gold mining outside Sabi, gold was then at $25 per ounce. He
subsequently went into the navy for his national service and made a naval career. He studied
for a BSc at Stellenbosch, rose to the heights of naval captain becoming a military attaché and
retired in 2000 after a final posting as officer commanding the navy’s training base on the west
coast. He spent time on the maritime border during the war in Angola.
He married a Morgan girl and is father to two sons and a daughter. The Morgan boys all went to
St David’s and Ronnie Morgan became a Brother.
Old Boys they are still in contact with:
Jo Stravino, Dereck Schoombie, Peter Moni, Eddie Assad (orthodontist) Peter Struthers
(maxillofacial surgeon) Michael Ford, Clive Bergman (singer), Tony Walker brother of Jeff
Walker (Master of the John Ross), Strati Malamoglou (Dyna Chem), Steve Taylor (sub-ed
Times ltd), Charlie Platt, Patrick Nobe, Brian Jarvis, Kevin Peel, Terry O’Mahoney, Emilio
Iglauer, Anthony Barale (doctor in Canada).
JE October 2011

Interview with Franco Lambiase – 1976
Franco came to St David’s as a day boy in 1970 from Bramley Primary School after his family
had emigrated back to South Africa from 18 months in Italy. Arriving in standard 6 he found St
David’s to be a very strict school with mainly brothers teaching. Having come from a nonconformist
environment Franco found St David’s to be regimental and it was difficult for him to
adapt.
Brother Anthony was the headmaster until 1975 when Brother Timothy took over. The brothers
he remembers include Br Bosco (Mario); Br Bernard; Br Aquinas, Br Timothy, Br Aidan the
bursar; Br Ronald and Br Andrew (Drac). Of the lay teachers he remembered Mr Saunders -
Afrikaans, Mrs Zent the librarian who gave him writing lessons and Heather Joseph was friendly
with William Carew (Bubbles), Trudy Elliott, - English with whom he kept in touch.
Franco wasn’t very sporty but played 3rd team rugby and hated swimming. He was there when
the new Science wing and auditorium were opened in 1972. Franco was quite artistic and was
awarded a trophy for Art and also did the decorations for the matric dance – a medieval theme.
Academically Franco did not excel but managed to pass his matric.
After matriculating, Franco went on to Wits University where he studied Pharmacy. He ran a
pharmacy until 1993 when he finally gave this up to become a confectioner and now runs his
own business making specialty cakes. He makes cakes for magazines, wedding expos and is a
member of the Cake Decorators Guild. He judges for Angela Day the mince pies, hot cross
buns and Christmas cakes.
Franco is not a member of MOBS but participated in last year’s St David’s Christmas market.
JLE February 2013

Interview with Frederick Barnard – 1989
Frederick first came to St David’s in 1985, midway into standard 5 as his mother had moved to
Johannesburg from Cape Town. The religious aspect of a Catholic school was completely new to him
coming from SACHS, a large government school. The classes were much smaller, the boys had to line up
in the prep school quadrangle, it was mid-winter and very cold.
The teachers he recalled were Trudy Elliot, acting head between Boswell and Davies, she was a strong
teacher who Frederick liked and inspired him. She retired at the end of 1988. Also in the high school there
was Brian Webster who taught Science and Biology and who was the water-polo coach; Mr Hall; and
Father Brewer was very influential, everyone appreciated him as a fantastic human being. Frederick came
to his funeral in 1999. A number of the boys’ parents lived and worked on the school premises such as
Father Brewer, Brian Webster, Mr Finlayson, Mr Castle, the headmasters and the estate manager. Having
the teachers around was a good thing.
Another big influence in Frederick’s life was FatherTom Nicolson, based in Cape Town who led him through
his first holy communion, married him and has baptised Frederick’s children.
Frederick found that he thrived in a smaller community together with boys from different backgrounds which
included black children too. It was the first time that Frederick had encountered boys from other
backgrounds and different economic environments such as Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. The country
was not very stable during the late 80’s and some of the boys had problems getting to school and Fredrick
remembered offering Sophiso Ngwenya (the first black head boy) to stay with him. It was a family
community which was strong throughout his childhood years and even later on. It was such an influential
time in a child’s life and left a lasting impression on Frederick when he was trying to figure out who he was
and what he wanted in life. Frederick is still in close contact with many of the friends he made during this
time.
In retrospect, the religious aspect of the school also influenced and affected Frederick in different ways.
Some teachers also had the ability to inspire and motivate him. Frederick’s parents were not very much
involved with the school and some of his teachers became role models, which is very important in a child’s
development.
As the numbers were low, there were only two classes in matric, everyone participated no matter how good
they were. The school was very liberal in its approach and as to what was right and wrong. During the time
of the riots the school took the stance in what was believed to be fair and not along government lines.
In those days the school did retreats and socials at the Rosebank Convent and, whilst Frederick was in
standard 5, prefects’ tea still existed. There was huge respect for the older boys and all the boys underwent
an initiation in standard 6.
There were outreach activities in the prep school, in the high school, Frederick participated in debating, the
Stock Exchange Investment Game, was vice captain of Benedict house with Wayne Muller as captain, was
a member of the 1st team water-polo. He was awarded academic colours and received an Art prize in
standard 8, Heather Joseph was his Art teacher. In standard 9, Frederick remembers that receiving his
honours blazer from Trudy Elliott in assembly was very special and being made a prefect.
Frederick helped prepare for and attended the matric dance in standard 9 and again in his matric year. It
was a highlight and was held in the school hall which was decorated by the standard 9’s.
After matriculating, Frederick went to Wits University to study for a BComm Law and Business Finance. He
was also awarded a CFA – Chartered Financial Analyst (USA) which he did by correspondence. He then
went overseas and did an internship with UBS in Zurich and London. On his return to South Africa he
started to work in finance and now has offices in Switzerland and Johannesburg with his company Avance-
Suisse which was established in 2001.
All in all Frederick felt that the time he spent at St David’s was hugely influential and if he was living here he
would send his son to the school without any hesitation. Frederick instituted the MOBS water-polo team
first playing at the Wanderers and then St David’s.
JLE November 2014

Interview with Gabriel Ally – 2010
Gabriel came to St David’s from Sacred Heart in grade 8. He felt that his years from grade 0
to grade7 at Sacred Heart laid the foundation for his success at St David’s and in general.
The emphasis at Sacred Heart was on the Marist education with brothers still living on the
property at the time. Brother Anthony was his headmaster in grade 1 1968 – 9 and he had
an older brother and sister at the school. The primary school went up to grade 6 with a
middle school approach in grade 7 which prepared him for high school. Tony Williams was at
Sacred Heart during this time, was the prep headmaster and also coached soccer
Gabriel initially looked at St John’s and Michaelhouse but eventually decided that St David’s
was the high school for him after meeting Mr Williams. Initially he was rebellious but went
onto the straight and narrow from grade 10. He remembered John Edward Ferreira asking
him who was going to be head boy, and laughing incredulously when Gabriel replied “Me”.
When he first arrived he came with an open shirt and had to borrow a tie from lost property
as Sacred Heart boys didn’t wear ties in summer. After one week at school all the grade 8’s
went on camp with Mr Busscheau, Mr Dugmore, Mr Smith and Mr Williams.
All the boys lobbied for the prefects to also attend the camp and in matric Gabriel organised
that and the prefects went along, got to know the boys and were therefore better able to
profile them selecting appropriate mentors. This was the big success of his year as head
prefect and improved the mentoring system. In his first year all the naughty boys were given
prefects as their mentors and Gabriel’s mentor was Kunda Nyatsaambo, deputy head
prefect 2006 and head of house, College.
Gabriel played 1st team rugby, cricket, some soccer, participated in athletics and inter-house
swimming. He was also a member of the book quiz team in grade 12. He participated in
SMILE and was involved with some projects facilitated by Mr Martins. He enjoyed interhouse
music but didn’t get involved with drama as he didn’t have the courage. However
once he got to university he developed a passion for drama and was involved in two
university productions.
Teachers who made an impact on him were Mrs Roman, his tutor from grade 8 to matric, Mr
Williams especially in his matric year and his favourite teacher was Mrs Khanyile who taught
Zulu.
Gabriel was mayor of the junior city council from 2009 – 2010, this was then the private
organisation separate from the city council. As Mayor he endeavoured to contribute to
society in the areas of environment and welfare as much as possible and worked with other
NPO’s to achieve that goal. Mrs D Webb was the co-ordinator at St David’s and other boys
that participated before him were Sean Jamieson and Antimo Osato.
As head prefect Gabriel instituted a new punishment for boys who failed the new boys test –
they had to write an essay about why they loved St David’s. The results were interesting with
the feeling of brotherhood, brother’s keeper and involvement which emerged. Gabriel
wanted to instil a sense of tradition, discipline and spirit, setting goals in matric.
Gabriel also spoke at Mr Selima’s farewell where all the support staff were invited, saying a
few words in Zulu. He got chatting to Richard Lubisi and became friendly with him and
stayed in contact whilst he was at UCT. When Gabriel started doing some consultancy work
for his brother and needed to go and visit squatter camps, Richard took him to ivory Park
which is the reason that Gabriel now has the job he has. Richard is also now working for
Gabriel’s brother.
Steve Bailey died during Gabriel’s matric year. His death affected every boy in matric and he
was sorely missed.
Gabriel was awarded full colours for academics, service, leadership and general honours. a
Marcellin Champagnat medal and a special award, the Rotary Club Award for service
beyond self. Gabriel recalls the good feeling when Tyson Sithole was awarded an honours
blazer and how supportive all the other boys were.
The matric dance was very special and he remembers the opening song was “Kiss of a
Rose”. Mrs Greensill taught Gabriel and Chad White, deputy head how to waltz.
On leaving school Gabriel went to UCT to study philosophy and economics on an Allan Gray
Orbis Foundation Scholarship for Entrepreneurship and Leadership. After two years he
decided to take a break from his studies and return to Johannesburg to pursue his goal of
becoming a social entrepreneur. He was an apprentice in a small business and gained
valuable experience and knowledge on how to start and run a business in 2013. This
opportunity gave him the courage to start his own recycling and advertising venture. He is
currently working to support this initiative and plans to launch his own in 2014.
Gabriel is still involved with St David’s and is assisting Mrs Voorendyck in Life Orientation in
term three with the matrics and will be guest speaking at the prize giving in January 2014.
JLE September 2013
The Challenge – Final Address – Gabriel Ally - 2010
Good Evening.
“Gabriel enjoys taking part in group activities, he is popular and a leader amongst his peers.
Occasionally he acts impulsively and upsets someone, but these incidents are few and far
between. It has been a pleasure to teach Gabriel, I wish him luck for grade One and I know
he will enjoy the challenge.” ….In 12 years, not much has changed has it?
I still find myself leading and, on occasion, being impulsive. I sure hope I’m still popular and
a pleasure to teach, and I’m sure there are a few people sitting here tonight whom I have
upset along the way. Of all these words however, the biggest truism lies in the observation
that “he will enjoy the challenge”; a challenge that has been riddled with dreams,
responsibility, tears, elation and honour; a challenge that is still in its infancy and one that will
continue unto death. This challenge is life. A challenge that I have had the esteem of sharing
with a brotherhood, a challenge that has been blessed by the presence of family and one
that has been made easier by its path through St David’s.
A year ago I embarked on a challenge set forth by you; the challenge of following in the
footsteps of St Marchelin Champagnat, Michael Carey, Graeme Gallow, Kylo Molefe and
James Rawson. In doing so, I have been humbled by the opportunity to represent this
amazing band of brothers, this family, this way of life that represents far more than an
education. I stand before you today as a product of St David’s, as a man, as a disciple of an
institution that is far greater than any one individual.
As I look out at the boys sitting before me, I am comforted by the knowledge that what we
have achieved as the matric class of 2010 will be forever ingrained in their character. It is
true that it takes a village to raise a child and a community to spawn a man, and I can say
with confidence that when you leave St David’s you can say, “I have the courage to be that
man.” Until that day however, never shy away from the challenge of Confortare-Esto-Vir.
As some of you may have seen, the Marist flag is flying at half-mast today in remembrance
of Brother Anthony who passed away this week. Brother Anthony bid farewell to St David’s
long before our time here, but his affiliation to the Marist Brotherhood never faltered. This is
true of all Marist boys. This is true of our brother Steve Bailey. Tonight we are graced with
his spirit and I know each one of you sitting here, particularly the matrics, will understand the
severity of my words when I say that: “life is too short, to say life is too short”. I thank Mr and
Mrs Bailey for joining us this evening and for blessing the Marist family with a man whose
impact and maturity extended far beyond his 18 years of life. Steve, we miss you and we
love you.
Every oak tree was once an acorn. Now I’m aware that I am well over 6 feet tall, a massive
acorn, but I still have a lot of growth to do, as do we all. There is a common trend that when
Marist boys find their niche in the world, they tend to tower over forests of men with humility,
simplicity and modesty. When I think of a Marist boy who is defined by these traits, I think of
my brother and companion Chaid White. Chaidy, it has been an honour to have served
alongside you. You were never afraid to step aside when I needed to lead, or to step in when
I needed to follow. That applies to the entire prefect group. To Brad, Matt, Trist and Bazza,
our friendships has been cemented by the trials we have overcome on the sports fields and
in the corridors, thank you.
The best part of being able to stand up here tonight is that I have an opportunity to publicly
express my appreciation to the staff of St David’s. I won’t miss Shakespeare or pythagoras,
but I am certain I will miss our loving and supportive teachers. Not only are we blessed with
an exceptional education, but we are blessed with role models and friends. To Mr Van den
Berg, Mr Williams and Mrs Roman, I thank you for your undying support and guidance
throughout my life at St David’s and I applaud you for the work you do behind the scenes to
ensure that every boy sitting here has an opportunity to flourish.
The motherly urge, alongside hunger and thirst, is known to be one of the strongest natural
urges of human beings. Every son and husband sitting here will know that mom is always
right. We are here tonight not only as products of St David’s, but as products of our parents.
I have been blessed with a father who has never faltered in wanting the absolute best for his
son and a mother who has successfully seen three children through matric. Tonight marks
the end of my mother’s 21 year stint of packing lunches, labelling school books, answering
matron’s phone calls and buying enough raffle tickets for 10 people. Mom and Dad, thank
you for guiding me through this challenge with such love and care. We must all acknowledge
that without the support of our parents and the greater St David’s community, our lives would
not be as blessed as they are.
A young lad was auditioning with his classmates for the annual school play. His mother knew
that he had set his heart on being in the play – just like all the other children hoped to - and
she feared how he would react if he wasn’t chosen. On the day the parts were awarded, the
young lad’s mother went to the school gates to collect her son. He rushed up to her, eyes
gleaming with pride and excitement. “Guess what mum!” he shouted, “I have been chosen to
clap and cheer.”
These words provide a lesson to us all. To my successor and his men, who will take on the
challenge of leading this school: Do not be fooled into thinking that leadership is position?
Each one of you has a role to fulfil, a role that will be defined by your attitude and goals for
St David’s. Being a Marist boy is an honour, but beyond that it is a responsibility. You have a
responsibility to maintain the standard set by the generations of men who hang on these
walls, a responsibility to build on the foundation laid before you and a responsibility to
become a solid platform for the boys who will clap and cheer for you along the way.
It has been an honour and a blessing. I thank you all for this challenge.
Gabriel Ally
Head prefect
2010

Interview with Gabriel Simaan – 1986 (Std 6)
Gaby began his school career at Boskop Primary and came to St David’s in standard 2. His first
teacher was Mrs Hurley. He enjoyed his time at St David’s and has very happy memories of his
time there and friends he made. It was a close family orientated type of school. You were made
to feel you were someone at St David’s and were made to feel part of the school.
Gaby enjoyed the sport and participated in soccer, cricket, tennis, cross country, athletics,
swimming and was in A team rugby in the high school. He was also involved in public speaking
and debating and in the inter-house plays in standard 6. Being a small school everyone got the
opportunity to try everything. The mix was also good with both rich and poor parents sending
their sons there. There was also a lot of involvement with MOBS and the sons of MOBS, an
important status.
One person he will never forget is Willy Castle who made him absolutely love sport.
Willy ran soccer clinics which he enjoyed even though all the boys were so scared of him.
By the time Gaby attended the school there were no longer any brothers teaching. Sadly, as the
school was going through a bad patch with several changes of headmaster, Gaby’s parents
decided to move him to St Stithians for a better infrastructure and academic tuition. Gaby
battled with the change and rebelled which affected both his sport and school work. He didn’t
have a good relationship with most of his teachers. There were 5 or 6 other boys from St
David’s at St Stithians at the time. Gaby only managed to get into the B team rugby and didn’t
participate in many of the things he had done at St David’s. The competition was tough and only
the best were accepted both for sport and public speaking and debating. He always regretted
leaving St David’s and his grandfather, Nassey showed his disappointment with Gaby’s parents
decision by no longer supporting him at any rugby matches. Gaby recalled a match between the
two schools where his father turned up wearing his St David’s honours blazer. St David’s won
the match as a former St David’s boy playing for St Stithians missed a kick by miles. Gaby’s
father ran onto the field and hugged him!
After matriculating, Gaby went to Wits University to study for a BComm and then started off in
the pharmaceutical industry and is now managing director of Trinity Pharmaceuticals. Gaby’s
father is a pharmacist.
Gaby still has close ties with the school and his son is enrolled to start in Gr00 in 2016.
JLE June 2013

Interview with Gabriel Simaan – 1967
Gabriel began his career at St David’s in grade 1, 1956 as a day boy becoming a boarder in

1965. He remembers crying all day and his teacher, Mrs Brick sat him next to Derek
      Schoombie. Gabriel was the first of Nassey Simaan’s sons at the school. He also recalled
      his brother Antoinne killing all the fish in the fish pond. Gabriel took a bus to Corlet Drive
      then walked to school most days and with his brothers delivered milk on the way.
      All the boys were scared of Mrs Kenesovitch. Br Andrew was in charge of sport. When in
      boarding school the boys could work out when Br Andrew was in his room and on one
      accession George Da Matto, David Palmer and Geoff Price went off for a smoke on the
      lower field. Br Andrew got wind of this, put on his habit and went out with his torch and
      caught them. The matric boys sat at the head table in the dining room and Br Andrew walked
      up and down using a chain to hit boys if they misbehaved. Gabriel put books in his pants
      when he was sent to Br Anthony for caning. Other Brothers were Br Vincent and Br Bosco
      (Mario).
      Gabriel enjoyed the sports days and athletics events were very special. Gabriel didn’t play
      soccer but went instead into the U12 rugby team at the age of eleven. The boys were only
      allowed to play rugby once they reached high school. He didn’t play cricket but played tennis
      and participated in athletics. Gabriel was a good rugby player in the high school with Nassey
      being the rugby coach. Gabriel was captain of the U13A but was eventually dropped as
      captain because he was too naughty. His team U13, U14 and U15 won almost all their
      games.
      Although Gabriel loved athletics he always had to compete with Terence Lavery who held
      the world record for U17 sprint. In high school, Lavery had to drop out of rugby and
      concentrate on running and as a consequence their rugby team was no longer so strong and
      began to lose games. The Marist weekend in Cape Town was a phenomenal experience.
      The boys planted the new cricket fields, knocking on doors in the area for donations and
      were very successful. In standard 9 they were sometimes allowed out of school in the
      evenings. One of the boys, George Da Matta’s father owned a fish and chip shop, and he
      lent the boys his truck to transport the grass which they collected from nearby Gabriel’s
      home in Buccleuch and planted up the rugby and cricket fields. Br Anthony was not aware of
      the boys trips to the fish and chip shop in Melville.
      Gabriel made some good friends which included Jo Stravino, Anthony Reswick, Peter De
      Kock, Kevin Hussey, Johnny Williamson and Johnny Miranda.
      Gabriel was appointed prefect in his matric year, was awarded his honours blazer, scrolls for
      merit and rugby and was also captain of the army rugby side, Roodepoort. He was selected
      for the Transvaaal U20 rugby team but injured his hand and stopped playing although his
      father, Nassey maintained it was because he discovered women! Nassey was always
      disappointed that Gabriel didn’t become a provincial Transvaal rugby player.
      On leaving St David’s, Gabriel went into the army followed by 5 years studying pharmacy at
      the Johannesburg Technical College. He then opened his own pharmacy and
      pharmaceutical companies together with his brother Andrew and currently owns Eurolab. He
      was awarded the Healthcare IMS award in 1996.
      Eurolab opened 18 months ago and is currently the second biggest supplier of generic
      oncology drugs only marketing drugs which have been approved by the US Federal Drug
      Agency and the MCC in Europe.
      Gabriel supports a settlement nearby his game lodge establishing a community centre, a
      store to sell goods.
      JLE July 2013

Interview with Gareth Beaver – 1987
Gareth only joined St David’s in 1985 coming from Jeppe Boys where he was a boarder. When
his family moved to Johannesburg they decided that he no longer needed to board and it would
be better for Gareth to attend St David’s. Gareth was a keen cricketer and sportsman and
enjoyed Jeppe where the focus was very much on sporting activities. When he first arrived at St
David’s, Gareth floundered academically as there was a better balance at St David’s between
academics and sport. The classes were smaller with 2 classes of 21 boys compared to 6
classes of 30 boys at Jeppe. However his mother recognised the problem and Gareth had to
endure some extra tuition after school to get him up to par. With hindsight Gareth now realises
that more of his contemporaries at St David’s went to university and now have successful
careers in comparison with his former classmates at Jeppe. St David’s maintained a healthy
balance, it wasn’t top in sport but being such a small school everyone got involved.
At Jeppe, Gareth played rugby and was even a member of the A team but was more involved
with hockey as he found it more skilful. At that time St David’s had no hockey involvement but,
together with Mike McCreedie Gareth initiated hockey at the school. Rugby was compulsory,
however but a senior Geography teacher became involved and they started a hockey team from
all the guys who had “sick notes”, absolving them from rugby. Willy Castle was very supportive
and found them a hockey coach, Craig who was also a member of Hilson Park. Gareth became
team captain and continued after leaving school to coach and started an annual trip to Hilton,
Michaelhouse and took the boys on a few other trips. Gareth was also a very keen golfer
The headmaster of the school at that time was Mr Freilich followed by Mr Boswell and Gareth
remembers that the teachers used to smoke, unheard of today. Mr Macfaden – History used to
smoke Lucky Strike, Mr Moore – Science, smoked John Player Special and smelt terrible. Mrs
Trudie Elliott was also a very heavy smoker. Other teachers he recalled were Cedric Finlayson
who was an ex-Zimbabwean and the Sports master, Mrs De Wet – Afrikaaans and when a new
Geography teacher arrived in 1986 they became an item, Mrs Thomas – Biology who was fresh
from college and the boys used to embarrass her horribly.
Gareth remembers that there were a handful of black children at St David’s but absolutely none
at Jeppe.
One incident that stands out was the “Retreat” for non-catholic boys at Hartbeespoort in 1985
when several boys lost their honours blazers. It was a recipe for disaster with the Doyle brothers
supervising.They had no control and their RE classes used to turn into mayhem. Gareth recalls
that there wasn’t any form of proper control, no programme and the boys were left to just sit
around the camp and pool. One of the senior boys’ parents owned a yacht on the dam and
some of the boys had a driving license and drove their own cars to the venue. Most of the
matrics went and spent the weekend on the boat. When they returned to school Mr Finlayson
and Mr Collier called them to the area where the auditorium now stands and asked the boys to
own up if they drank – most of the boys admitted to this and were caned and subsequently
stripped of their honours and blazers. The feeling was that it hadn’t been well thought through,
was badly organised and the punishment was therefore too severe.
Gareth received a hockey tie in his matric year.
Academically Gareth had to do a big “catch up” arriving in standard 8 and being very much
behind in some of the basics which is why his mother sent him for extra lessons. However he
fared quite well and achieved a university exemption for a JMB matric. He then went on to study
for a BCom at Wits and went on to be a qualified accountant at Ernst and Young as an auditor.
He has been in the insurance industry since 1996 and with Centriq Insurance Holdings for the
past 3 ½ years and is now the CEO.
Gareth avoided doing army service by going to university and then doing his CA and fortunately
for him, compulsory army service ended in 1993 or 4.
Gareth has one son at the school in grade 5 and next year his youngest son will begin in grade
0.
Gareth’s company is involved with Education Africa which contributes towards educating
children at certain designated schools.
Gareth would be very interested in acquiring school yearbooks and would be supportive of an
“Old boys’ home” as there is a definite need for a suitable venue in the Sandton area which
would also accommodate the children. Gareth would also be willing to participate in the matric
rite of passage but would need adequate notice because of his heavy work schedule.
Gareth still sees some of his former classmates on a regular basis – Gavin Muller, Ross Alcock,
Richard Burr, Billy Forsmann and is part of the St David’s network. He feels that as Marist old
boys, there is a common thread of humility or modesty which sets them apart from other
schools.
JE August 2012

Interview: Gareth Shippen (1992 – 1996)
Gareth attended St David’s from grade 8 until matric and says he enjoyed his time at school. He enjoyed sport
and played cricket and hockey where he played for the 1st XI. He enjoyed the tours in sport especially the tour
to Zimbabwe with Mr McMillan and Fr Brewer – a great time was had by all!
Gareth was not the greatest scholar (his own words) but he liked the teachers. He was not good at Maths and
the school suggested that he move down to standard grade but with the help of Mr Nick Davies he managed to
write Maths on the higher grade and get a good result. He enjoyed Richard Girdwood’s English lessons, the
boys used to sidetrack the lesson and most times Mr Girdwood fell for it! He remembers Mr Lambe, Mrs
Marais, Mr Norton and of course Mr McMillan and Fr Brewer fondly as good teachers and mentors.
Sadly Gareth’s Dad passed away on the day he was meant to write his matric Biology paper. Gareth wasn’t
sure what he wanted to do, so his Mom suggested that he try the hotel industry. After attending Wits
Technikon his first posting was to the Protea Hotel Kruger Park where he spent two years before moving to the
Protea Hotel Wilderness.
Gareth now manages The Gannet restaurant in Mossel Bay which is attached to the Protea Hotel. He is
happily married and his wife helps him in the business and he has now started an events business to run in
conjunction with the restaurant. Although the hours are long, Gareth enjoys the creative side of his work and
has lived in Mossel Bay for the past six years.
Gareth has seen Mark Conyers, who manages an upmarket guest house in Knysna recently but otherwise he
reads the old boy’s mail etc to keep up to date with St David’s.
Gareth’s brother Mark, matric 2001, moved to Australia recently and is working in the computer industry.

Interview with Gavin Muller – 1987
Gavin, Billy Forsmann, Jan van den Handel and Jeremy Carr were together in the first grade 0
class. Gavin remembers that on his first day he was very traumatised and cried, wanting to
escape but by the second day he had accepted school as the way it had to be. His classroom
was where the original swimming pool was and where the current after care is now located.
Miss Busschau was his teacher and a relative of his mother who was also a Busschau.
Gavin enjoyed the sport in junior school playing soccer, he was a member of the swimming
team and couldn’t wait to start playing rugby in standard 5.
Academically he was very much middle of the road and the classes were defined by marks but
fortunately for him he made it into the bottom tier of the clever class. He remembered the
pressure and fear every exam time and not wanting to fail and be relegated to the B class. On
the cultural front, Gavin was a member of the cast in the production of Hamlet.
There were only about 300 boys in the school at the time and Mr Manolius was head of the
junior school and Brothers Bernhard and Timothy (who left the brotherhood and married a nun)
were still at the school. A teacher who had a great impact on him was Tim Kotze who taught
English and Afrikaans, he had a particularly high standard with regard to spelling and if you got
less than 15 out of 20 you were caned. Gavin spells well to this day! In standard 6 Mrs
Bulterman was the French teacher, very attractive, quite gorgeous in fact and, before she came
to the school none of the boys chose French. Needless to say that situation changed and whilst
she was there all the boys signed up for French! Cedric Finlayson was a brutal, most violent
man who taught History and Physical Education and was the rugby coach. Gavin was physically
beaten up by him on more than one occasion but he still didn’t mind him that much. Gavin
enjoyed Trudy Elliott, English teacher and recalled that Tom Macfaden taught the wrong History
syllabus in matric and when this was discovered, all the boys had to cram for the last 3 to 4
weeks. There was no control over the teachers, they did what they wanted to and there was no
leadership.
The teaching of Religious Education was split into Catholics and non-Catholics about 50/50.
There was a class every day, mass was held once a week and confessions regularly. The boys
used to make up confessions to check that Father Plestus was still awake. A big scandal at the
time was the non-catholic boys RE retreat to Hartbeespoort was a disaster when the boys
absconded and many were caught with alcohol.
Gavin played 1st team rugby, was captain of the swimming team and played water polo and is
still friends with his team members to this day. The best thing Gavin took from high school was
the camaraderie amongst the boys. They often used to play both A and B team rugby matches
back to back. The bonds were strong between the friends of that era due to the lack of adult
leadership. Gavin became a prefect and Billy Forsmann, head boy.
For the matric dance, which was great fun, the standard 9’s did all the art work and decorations
and were the waiters who used to make money by smuggling alcohol into the venue. On their
last day he recalls that the boys had a big party that night.
It was a disastrous and unstable time for the high school with leadership issues following the
appointment of Mr Murphy as headmaster of the high school followed shortly by Mr Freilick then
Mr Boswell.
Gavin matriculated with a university entrance and studied building science at Wits University.
He then did a post graduate course at the University of Pretoria followed by the UCT Graduate
School of Business but ended up working in the banking environment for 12 years. He then
went into property and has run his own business for the past 3 years.
He is the father of 3 daughters who attended Brescia House.
He hasn’t really kept in touch with the school at all although his father was a member of the
board of governors, and a member of MOBS as were his brothers Brian(80) and Graham (82)
who subsequently emigrated.
Gavin would buy a copy of the book and would be willing to pledge a contribution beforehand.
JLE May 2012

Interview with Gavin Muller – 1987
Gavin, Billy Forsmann, Jan van den Handel and Jeremy Carr were together in the first grade 0
class. Gavin remembers that on his first day he was very traumatised and cried, wanting to
escape but by the second day he had accepted school as the way it had to be. His classroom
was where the original swimming pool was and where the current after care is now located.
Miss Busschau was his teacher and a relative of his mother who was also a Busschau.
Gavin enjoyed the sport in junior school playing soccer, he was a member of the swimming
team and couldn’t wait to start playing rugby in standard 5.
Academically he was very much middle of the road and the classes were defined by marks but
fortunately for him he made it into the bottom tier of the clever class. He remembered the
pressure and fear every exam time and not wanting to fail and be relegated to the B class. On
the cultural front, Gavin was a member of the cast in the production of Hamlet.
There were only about 300 boys in the school at the time and Mr Manolius was head of the
junior school and Brothers Bernhard and Timothy (who left the brotherhood and married a nun)
were still at the school. A teacher who had a great impact on him was Tim Kotze who taught
English and Afrikaans, he had a particularly high standard with regard to spelling and if you got
less than 15 out of 20 you were caned. Gavin spells well to this day! In standard 6 Mrs
Bulterman was the French teacher, very attractive, quite gorgeous in fact and, before she came
to the school none of the boys chose French. Needless to say that situation changed and whilst
she was there all the boys signed up for French! Cedric Finlayson was a brutal, most violent
man who taught History and Physical Education and was the rugby coach. Gavin was physically
beaten up by him on more than one occasion but he still didn’t mind him that much. Gavin
enjoyed Trudy Elliott, English teacher and recalled that Tom Macfaden taught the wrong History
syllabus in matric and when this was discovered, all the boys had to cram for the last 3 to 4
weeks. There was no control over the teachers, they did what they wanted to and there was no
leadership.
The teaching of Religious Education was split into Catholics and non-Catholics about 50/50.
There was a class every day, mass was held once a week and confessions regularly. The boys
used to make up confessions to check that Father Plestus was still awake. A big scandal at the
time was the non-catholic boys RE retreat to Hartbeespoort was a disaster when the boys
absconded and many were caught with alcohol.
Gavin played 1st team rugby, was captain of the swimming team and played water polo and is
still friends with his team members to this day. The best thing Gavin took from high school was
the camaraderie amongst the boys. They often used to play both A and B team rugby matches
back to back. The bonds were strong between the friends of that era due to the lack of adult
leadership. Gavin became a prefect and Billy Forsmann, head boy.
For the matric dance, which was great fun, the standard 9’s did all the art work and decorations
and were the waiters who used to make money by smuggling alcohol into the venue. On their
last day he recalls that the boys had a big party that night.
It was a disastrous and unstable time for the high school with leadership issues following the
appointment of Mr Murphy as headmaster of the high school followed shortly by Mr Freilick then
Mr Boswell.
Gavin matriculated with a university entrance and studied building science at Wits University.
He then did a post graduate course at the University of Pretoria followed by the UCT Graduate
School of Business but ended up working in the banking environment for 12 years. He then
went into property and has run his own business for the past 3 years.
He is the father of 3 daughters who attended Brescia House.
He hasn’t really kept in touch with the school at all although his father was a member of the
board of governors, and a member of MOBS as were his brothers Brian(80) and Graham (82)
who subsequently emigrated.
Gavin would buy a copy of the book and would be willing to pledge a contribution beforehand.
JLE May 2012

Interview with Genny Carvalho – 1991 – 2007
Genny initially worked for Malcolm Smit who was the bursar at that time. Malcolm’s office was
where Rick Wilson’s office is now, Mike Greef’s office was the reception area. The staff working
in the bursar’s office was divorced from the rest of the school dealing only with the accounts.
The staff at the time were Malcolm Smit, Audrey Williams and Genny, they started work at
8.30am and were usually finished by 1.30/2.00pm, as the school was very much smaller then
with fewer accounts.
Genny remembers that, in the early 2000’s the school lost a number of pupils and a teacher to
Crawford College when it opened and also because of the increased traffic on the Nicol
highway.
In those day the school used to take cash payments for fees and the beginning of term was
usually “pay day” and one term an armed robbery took place and R25 000 in cash was taken.
Although no member of staff was badly hurt, they were most definitely shaken.
Once the school started to build up it did so rather quickly especially when Paul Edey was
appointed headmaster in 1995. Paul Edey, together with Kevin Brewer started an extensive
building programme and Paul made the staff feel valued for the first time. Genny also liked Greg
Royce and felt he was an excellent prep school headmaster.
Genny enjoyed working for Malcom Smit, all the books were done in long hand and she used a
manual Underwood typewriter. Malcolm did all the books and wrote out all the cheques for the
staff wages, put them into envelopes and drew a special, appropriate drawing on each one. He
used to draw mushrooms on Genny’s envelope as he said she was completely in the dark about
accounts and what she knew about figures was dangerous. On matron’s envelope he drew a
nurse in uniform.
Willem van der Merwe was very close to Malcolm and viewed him as a father. When Malcolm
wanted tea, in a loud voice he would say “It’s like a desert in here”. He was firm and could be
quite cutting but never rude. Formerly an auditor, he was retired when he came to St David’s.
The offices changed again later when Mike Forder was appointed. Mike’s office was originally
where Dave Smith’s office is now and the main office is where Malcolm Williams now resides
and Genny sat where Pam Groenewald does now. They eventually moved upstairs which was a
much better environment for them all. Di Clark was very kind to Genny and helped her with her
accountancy.
Genny had very little to do with the children and as her job increased in volume, very little to do
with parents unless they had a problem. However she does remember the mother of Steve
Bailey who passed away in his sleep in 2010 and a “Mrs Honeysuckle”, not her real name who
had had three husbands and children from each, her son was the most beautiful boy and she
was quite a stunner too. Her son matriculated in the mid 90’s and she organised a lovely lunch
and mother and son fashion show in what is now the library.
Because of Genny’s involvement with St David’s, her husband Michael got interested in schools
and, together with Mark Henning decided that there was a gap and began publishing
“Independent Education” for the private schools.

Interview with Geoffrey Sater – 1949 23 May 2011
Geoffrey and his wife Sandra are friends of Tony Chappel, former chair of the board of
governors
Geoffrey came to St David’s in 1943 from Saxonwold Primary and went into Std 4. He was a
day boy living near the Zoo opposite the Westwater family. Johnny Westwater was a jockey and
a Catholic and his boys went to St David’s. Geoffrey’s parents decided it would be a good idea
to send their son there too even though they weren’t catholic. They used to catch a bus to
Dunkeld and the school transport (Chevrolet?) picked them up from there. Eventually he used to
cycle via Fricker Road.
Br Urban was the headmaster, Br Celestine taught him Latin and Maths, Br Alban – Afrikaans.
Geoff remembers him getting rather inebriated at the matric dance!
Pupils he remembers:
Malcolm Rowe whose father was principal of the Technical College in Johannesburg., retired to
a farm in Mooi River;Mark Madeyski – reugees from Eastern Europe, his father was a coal
miner and became a mining engineer in SA; Hugh Gearing - his grandfather developed
windmills to draw water. Lived in Northcliff and came to school on a motorbike;
Harry Grisdale – studied medicine and worked at Marianhill Mission station all his life;
Socrates Vartos – Greek whose parents ran a tearoom in Rosebank corner of Tyrwhitt and
Oxford; Terence Smyth (Deceased)– lived in Sunninghill , all fruit farms, they were in contact
with Sally Smyth; Boris Babaya – parents ran a butchery north of Johannesburg station;
Core Seeling – parents had a seedling business. Sandra is in touch with the family.
Stan Barale (Deceased) - was head prefect and rugby captain
The following boys came from Portugese East Africa and used to get the train to Joubert Park
and walk to Koch St. Where they would get transport to the school by Chevrolet. Carlos
Almeida, Louis Da Cruz, Danta de Nobrega
There were some Lebanese boys who were refugees from Lebanon. They didn’t play rugby or
football, were very restrained, had been persecuted. One of them he remembers is Assad.
Parents:
Asher Swede– Bookmaker who donated trophy and equipment
Awards: He was awarded a prefects scroll and was the school Dux.
Sport: He was a in the rugby 1st 1V, swam in swimming galas, played cricket 1st II, although he
didn’t regard himself as being particularly good. The sports fields were being laid out at the time
and boxing with Harry Best as Coach, was popular.
Career:
He studied Mining Geology at Wits where he met his wife. He worked in the then Northern
Rhodesia, where David Livingstone died. He went onto Canada working for the Quebec
Geological Survey having studied French at Wits. Then went onto McGill University where he
did his MSc. Came back to SA and to his future wife and eventually worked for Alcan Aluminium
in Maritzburg. Later he joined the government who sent him to London as the Minerals and
Energy representative for SA. His children, two sons and a daughter spent some time growing
up there and are all now living in the UK
JE May 2011

Interview with George Daras – 1980
George was initially a pupil at Yeoville Boys Primary and came to St David’s in standard 1. His
brother Chris was 4 years ahead of him and a boarder whereas George was a day boarder. At
the time there were a lot of pupils who came from Zaire, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique and from
outlying areas of South Africa and, as a result the school was very strong in sport, sadly when
the boarding closed this was no longer true.
Mrs Watson was his first teacher in the primary school and in the high school he remembers
Mrs Elliott the English teacher who was involved in the running of the school and the matrics. In
standard 6 and 7 he had Mr Maritz who taught History, everyone was terrified of him and didn’t
dare talk in his class. Other teachers were too soft and the boys took advantage were very
naughty and used to chase teachers into a corner with their desks. Mrs Richardson was very
attractive and everyone wanted to be in her class. The teachers were generally very good and
the boys learnt a lot, in fact Damelin poached many of the teachers from St David’s. Damelin
had a good reputation and was renowned for getting good marks. Mr Lipschitz who was a
superb Maths teacher eventually went to Damelin, he was so good that even boys who didn’t
like the subject grew to love it and many ended up as engineers. Mr Lipshitz introduced
basketball to the school as he was a former Springbok. There were few Brothers still at the
school, Br Bernard who was still teaching, Br Aidan the bursar and Br Timothy the headmaster.
George recalls that only one boy at the time wanted to become a Brother.
St David’s was the first school to admit black children in 1975, this was previously unheard of.
George enjoyed sport at the school, it was compulsory in the high school but not so rigorously
enforced in the prep. In the winter the sport was rugby and in the summer athletics, swimming
and cricket, there was no hockey or soccer in those days. Tennis was an additional sport as
was water polo. In standard 4 the boys started to play rugby and played for the U13’s as the C
team which also helped them integrate with the high school boys. The coach, Mr Stringer was
an Englishman and very strict and, in their first game against KES, St David’s beat them 42-0.
They were a very strong team but when they went into high school things changed as they
didn’t have the coaching required although Br Timothy felt that sport was very important and
good for the school’s reputation.
George was captain of the 1st rugby team, also the 2nd team and led the first team ever to go on
tour to Durban to compete against St Henrys’ and St Charles and was awarded an honours
blazer for rugby, merit and study. One of the boy’s fathers worked for BP and organised an
outside rugby coach, a former Springbok and the boys benefitted from the different mind-set. He
led the first team in 6 or 7 years to win more than 4 games in one year. He recalls that the
traditional rivalry with Obs was very strong.
St David’s battled against the bigger schools especially in rugby and George, as head boy in his
matric year took up the matter with Br Timothy when he returned from Australia. The boys felt
demoralised as they were always losing to the bigger schools. Mrs Elliott got involved and
wanted to establish a kind of students representative council to improve communication
between the boys and staff. During the first 6 months of 1980, whilst Br Timothy was away,
George found it difficult to control the matrics as he didn’t have Br Timothy’s back-up. Br
Timothy used to walk around with a cane but allowed the matric boys for the first time to remove
their ties in the summer.
Traditionally, if you were in trouble you were invited to the prefects tea where they would decide
on the appropriate discipline for the crime. When George first arrived at St David’s the younger
boys were terrified of the prefects and punches were dished out freely by them.
George’s matric dance was the first year that the standards 9’s prepared the decorating of the
hall and were invited to attend. The theme was of a gangster/mafia type. Movies were run on a
Friday night to raise funds for the dance and were very popular. Parents came to collect the
boys after the movies and, whilst they were waiting to be collected they were often quite rowdy
and disturbed the Brothers sleep.
Academically George did well and throughout his school career came first or second in his
class.
George achieved the matric results he was aiming for and was admitted to Wits University
where he studied engineering and graduated with a masters degree in industrial engineering.
He enjoyed working with his father making radios and stayed in the same environment and now
owns his own factory undertaking contract work in aircraft design.
George is the father of 3 daughters who are pupils at the Saheti school. He has not attended
any MOBS events but was a member of the audience of the prep school play covering the
history of St David’s in 2011. His brother Chris’s two sons are pupils at St David’s.
Geoorge remembers that there were a number of big families with children at St David’s, the
Lebos, Kourie and Saad families and contemporaries such as Costa Pantelias now living in
Greece, Mark Nicholas, Robert Hartman of Hartman and Keppler; Garth Japhet who went into
medicine and now heads an NGO in Gauteng; Brian Muller a doctor in Jhb; Enrico Maraschin a
gynaecologist at Morningside Clinic; Peter Wharton-Hood, a director of Standard Bank and a
number of other SA companies and Jeffrey Slavin.
George would definitely buy a copy of the book when it is published and would be willing to
make a pledge towards the cost. He also felt it would be fantastic to have the yearbooks
available on the school’s website.

Interview with George Manolios – 1975 – 82 Staff
George Manolios was appointed principal of the St David’s College Junior School in April
1975 after having served as head of department of English at Bryanston High School
It was a huge challenge for him having to deal with primary school boys, his main experience
until then being with only high school boys and girls. The fact that he was a product of
ecclesiastical education himself however did not make the change too difficult.
As with any new member of staff in an established environment, he was regarded with some
scepticism and wary interest, mostly by the teachers.
In his first year at the college and in subsequent years he took the senior boys on History
tours to Natal and showed them places of interest involving the British, the Boers and the
Zulu in conflict with one another. Another highlight was when his under 13 rugby team
played in a curtain raiser for a provincial match involving the Natal provincial rugby team.
Other memories included sleeping under the stars on prefect camps.
The boys themselves, as with pupils in most schools will always be remembered and many
of those featured in the school magazines are today top businessmen, doctors and
physicians. Unfortunately there was also the pupil who featured later, as an adult, in a highly
publicised assault case.
George will always remember teachers and boys who were contemporaries during his years
at the College and he would like to believe that he contributed in some small way to making
St David’s College a college of choice.
JLE July 2013

Interview with Glenda Anderson – Staff – 1974 – 2009
Glenda originally started teaching in Cape Town at Wynberg Boys Junior where she taught Gr 2’s for 6
years. She then met and married Trevor in 1973 and moved to Johannesburg with him. They celebrated
their fortieth wedding anniversary in 2013.
After an interview with Br Anthony, Glenda was appointed to take over from Ann Mc Cann and began
teaching grade 4 in October 1974. There were four terms in those days, Br Anthony went on leave and Br
Mario stood in for him and took Glenda for a walk around the school premises.
Glenda enjoyed St David’s, everyone was very friendly and on her first day the headmistress, Mrs
Kempster told her not to worry about playground duty but Glenda ended up having her duty week at the
end of term. As all the boys were hyped up it proved to be not the most pleasant of duties.
The staffroom was next to Carol Ansell’s old classroom. Mrs Kempster’s office desk was there and a long
table went against the window and everyone had their allocated seat. It was all quite formal. Unfortunately
Glenda was given a middle seat and at her “first break” everyone had to get out so that she could get in.
Needless to say she learnt to be on time in future.
Glenda was qualified to teach up to grade 7 and had also specialised in infant school methods and in 1978
she moved down to grade 3 as junior primary which was her first love.
Glenda produced several prep school plays including Tom Sawyer, Treasure Island and the nativity plays
at the year end. Her husband Trevor wrote the scripts and the plays were performed around the swimming
pool. The stage was the three steps by the baby swimming pool. The angels were comprised of grade 1’s
and 2’s and the main cast grades 6 -7 and the choir with other children.
On the sporting side Glenda was teacher in charge of the prep tennis from 1978 to 1995 and was also a
committee member of the Southern Transvaal Primary Schools Tennis Association.
Champagnat Day was always special and before the construction of the new chapel the whole school went
by bus to Rosebank Church. In the early days there were none of the festivities that currently occur so the
children received a bun and a cool drink with everyone cramming into the hall which is now the high school
library.
In 1995 she assumed the responsibility for training the first holy communion candidates as well as the
junior altar servers and considers this one of the most rewarding tasks undertaken until her retirement.
Together with her close friend Ann Hayward they completed and donated tapestries to the new chapel
which can be seen in the entrance portal.
After Mrs Kempster left Mr Manolios became headmaster but left when Mr Murphy was appointed
headmaster of the high school. Following this there was no headmaster in the prep school for some time
while Br Anthony, followed by Br Timothy, Messers Murphy, Frielick and Boswell and then Mrs Elliott for 9
months was in the position in the high school. There was an uncomfortable imbalance between the prep
and the high school, Br Timothy having previously indicated that the high school teachers were not to
fraternise with those of the prep school. The prep staffs weren’t allowed into the high school staff room
having their own staff room in the grade 4-5 block or art room where the chapel is today.
Things changed when Mr Davies became high school headmaster and Mr Royce prep school headmaster
in 1989. Greg Royce was young, in his mid-thirties, from St Martin’s in the south of Johannesburg. He was
very dynamic with lots of ideas and was up to date with all things international. He introduced Kumon into
the syllabus, the first school to do so in South Africa. David Spence was the prep school deputy
headmaster and put Royce’s good ideas into action. Glenda was placed in charge of Kumon to administer it
and involved the parents without making it too onerous. The children worked with it quite well in the
beginning but it eventually had to be watered down and made more flexible with time. The new leader in
Japan told the SA agent that the children had to achieve the precise times and were only allowed to make
so many mistakes. In the end it didn’t work as SA children were not the same as the Japanese children and
could not be so rigid. Repetition was good but Glenda had to adapt the system to help but didn’t stick to the
time limits as she found that the children became frustrated and disheartened.
In 1995 Paul Edey arrived as the newly appointed high school headmaster and Greg Royce left at the end
of the first term to take up the position of headmaster of St Peter’s Prep. Mrs Schaafsma also left in August
1995 and Rick Wilson was appointed as headmaster of the prep. Glenda was promoted to head of the
junior primary department replacing Mrs Schaafsma, and was then appointed director in 2004. The building
of the grade 0 Block at the paddock commenced and Glenda introduced a bridging class for grades 1-2 and
2-3.The children came out of class for the first two hours of the school day until break. Glenda also started
the grade 00 in 2006 which comprised of only two classes of 18 children because there was also an entry
point in grade 0 for children.
During most of Glenda’s time, the board of governors were rather like a secret society that no-one knew
anything about. Willy Castle was always trying to introduce them to the staff but they weren’t even in the
yearbook and it was only when Paul Edey and Kevin Brewer came that they became more visible.
Glenda has some tremendous memories but was not prepared to single out any particular pupils, because
to her, each pupil was special in his own way. She and Trevor were involved with the 50 year celebrations
and she was chairman of the committee involved organising the events. Glenda and Trevor were on the
PTA committee helping with the fundraising and annual fireworks events from 1990 until she retired in

2009. From the beginning of 2010 Glenda was involved in the research for this book that is to be published
      in 2016 in conjunction with St David’s 75th anniversary; however, she and Trevor retired to Mossel Bay in
      March 2011 and she was no longer able to participate in this project.
      JLE January 2014

Interview with Glynn O’Leary 1969 1960 – 1969 Standard 1 to Matric
Glynn did not enjoy the first few days of each school year as the family always went to the coast
for the long holidays and he hated leaving the sea behind (living in Glencairn now he sees the
sea all the time!)
He was a day boy and clearly remembers Mrs Januscz, Mrs Knezovich and Mrs Kempster. His
parents separated when he was in standard 4 and finally divorced in standard 6. His academics
took a dip as a result. Br Anthony sent for him and asked him if he was happy at St David’s to
which he answered yes. His father had contacted the school to withdraw Glynn from the school
stating that he could not afford to keep him at St David’s due to financial reasons. From that day
on his mother never had to pay school fees and he received all his books and school uniform
from the Brothers.
Glynn played 1st Team cricket and played in the 13th Marist cricket week held at St David’s as
wicket keeper. On the very first day of the competition a ball split his lip open while keeping
wicket which put paid to him playing again in the event. He also played 2nd Team rugby.
Brothers were strict and one evening Br Andrew (Dracula) caught the boys painting the other
boys with black boot polish as part of the initiation of new boys. Errol McCawley was caught and
was told to go back and fetch all the other boys who were involved. Errol did not enjoy this as Br
Andrew gave the boys cuts with a chain.
Glynn’s father never watched him play sport at school and that is why he and his wife Gill have
made sure that they have been there to support their 3 children as far as humanly possible.
The Marist Brothers have always played an important part in his life and he was made an
honorary Marist Brother in 2009 which was a great honour for him.
He has been involved with the Marist Brothers since 1957 and was chairman of the Marist old
boys in 1983 and served on the St David’s board of governors from 1985 to 1986. He has been
a member of the Marist School’s Council since 1997 and is chairman of St Joseph’s Marist
College in Rondebosch at present.
While at school Glynn was friendly with Dave Bergman and his brother Clive (better known as
Clive Bruce).
As regards Br Mario – we need to find out from him what happened when Br went horse
racing!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Interview: 13 October 2010

Interview with Grant Napier – 1960
Grant initially attended Parkview Junior School but was a boarder at St David’s in standard 2
when Brother Edwin was principal in 1952. He came together with his brother who was younger.
He was in the classroom near the chapel. Mrs King was a good teacher and is now friendly with
his son.
Discipline was strict in those days and one was expelled for any misdemeanour. Brother Edwin
did inspections of the boarders, nails, hair, shoes etc and he rewarded some of the boys as an
incentive to be neat and tidy. The boys would get caned on the hand or behind, corporal
punishment was the norm. He recalls that when he was in standard 3, he returned a ball at
tennis practise which hit the coach, Mrs Owen in the eye. He was sent to Brother Edwin and
received two cuts on the behind.
He remembers the big old farm and how everyone thought it would be part of the school one
day. It was often very cold and there was a line of pine trees demarcating the boundary of the
school next to the dormitories, the wind used to whistle through them. There was ice on the
swimming pool one very cold winter.
The food was good and they also had tuck and Mrs Batten, standard 3, used to make the day
boys bring extra sandwiches for the boarders. She lived at Tara. At supper there were 6 boys
around a table and only at night, one square of butter which was divided equally amongst them.
There were movies every Saturday evening in the dining room and in matric in the study hall.
Sometimes the Brothers would let them go to town to the Coliseum where he saw “South
Pacific”. Sunday was special as they used to get cool drinks with lunch and roast chicken was
the order of the day. They used to walk to the old boys club on Louis Botha past the old
Balalaika Hotel. In the field where the tennis courts are now, they used to play soccer and
cricket and, on the embankment all the boys from standard 3 upwards had claims mining for
fool’s gold.
In 1954 he had Mrs Kempster as a teacher and he remembers writing reasonably well and has
styled his writing on that of Mrs Kempster’s. In the second term his family moved to PE and he
went to the junior school in Bird Street and the principal was Brother Anthony. In standard 5 he
went to Marist Brothers Walmer, quite a distance away.
He returned to St David’s in standard 10, 1960 when his family moved back to Johannesburg.
Brother Anthony was then in his first year as principal. He says that they had no TV,
newspapers, or radio in the dorm at night and were completely out of touch with the outside
world and were not aware of Sharpville. However on sundays there were allowed to listen to the
LM hit parade!
There were 28 boys in his matric class and all the teachers were Brothers. There was one class
to each standard. He was made a prefect but only through Brother Anthony.
The top rugby side was Obs and the school was known as Marist Inanda not St David’s. Grant
played 1st team rugby,it was an average team and they never got beaten too badly. Coaching
and training was very different in those days. They went on a rugby tour together with Obs by
train down to St Charles, Natal. They used “Gertie” the old school bus to get to other schools.
He was also in the soccer and tennis teams, participated in athletics, swimming which he did a
lot of. He got his colours whilst in PE but had to give it up as he had bad sinus and was unable
to swim in chlorinated water. However he was able to swim in the sea and became a life saver.
His house was “The Bishops” and he wore a yellow rosette.
Academically he did OK and achieved a second class JMB matric with university entrance. He
wrote 7 subjects including Latin, English, Afrikaans, Physical Science, Maths, History and
Geography. There was no major send off and most of the class just met for an after school
party. There was no matric dance or matric holiday and it was a fairly nonchalant ending.
When Grant left, as he enjoyed Maths and Science, he went to Wits to do civil engineering.
Fortunately he didn’t have to do national service but was quite disappointed as it sounded such
fun. At Wits every couple of weeks, engineers would come in and talk about their job and show
them what they would be doing once qualified. It wasn’t his cup of tea and after one term he
decided to leave and ended up in the insurance industry joining a company for 20 years, 1961
until 1982 – the South British Insurance Company which, in spite of its name was a New
Zealand company. He and another colleague then started an insurance broking business of
which he is still a director.
He has a son and daughter, the son born in 1967. Very few of the matric class kept in touch and
St David’s no longer had a boarding facility when his son started school, so he didn’t come to St
David’s. He also has 4 grandchildren, all boys living in Johannesburg.
He enjoyed his time at St David’s and is still in touch with some of his former classmates, Harry
Rosmarin, Norman Schwab and Michael Lakofsky. They had a get together 2 years ago and 4
years ago Brother Anthony joined them for lunch. He also remembers a black tie dinner in the
Champganat hall about 7 or 8 years ago, there were 10 of them and they noticed that there was
no photo of the 1960 Matric class. He came to Brother Anthony’s funeral. Les Berman who was
in his class became a doctor, went to Canada and sadly committed suicide
****Derek Witte Vermeulen was with Grant and had an older brother, Carl. He would have been
one of the early matriculants and was a partner at Werksmans.
JE October 2011

Interview with Gregory Murphy – 2006
Gregory recalls his first day at St David’s in grade 1,1995 meeting Mr Castle who was a scary
and shouting man. He also remembered Mr Castle screaming “Run fruit salads” during athletics
in the primary school.
Gregory enjoyed his time at St David’s and loved the sports, catholic culture and the high
standard of teaching from the likes of Paul Edey, Stuart Foulds, Julie Roman and Father Brewer
who was an exceptional man. Other teachers who made a lasting impression on him were Mr
Castle, Mrs Ansell, Mr Van den Berg and Mrs Kennedy.
He enjoyed the family aspect of the school and was involved in swimming and was the B team
captain, water polo 2nd team U\14 to |U\16 A’s, he played rugby and was a member of the 2nd
and 3rd teams U\14 – U\16A’s. Sports days were always memorable whether it were an interhouse
or inter-school event. He didn’t enjoy the prevalence of bullying and non-action against
notorious bullies by management and teachers. He also didn’t especially like the heavy parent
presence which he felt influenced the school culture.
He has good memories of the annual fireworks event, receiving his honours blazer in assembly
with Mr Williams and his parents.The final assembly in matric and leading the Kalamazumba
from the front of the hall.
Some unhappy memories were when he got into trouble and had to do detention and losing his
library monitor badge. He was not really a fan of academics although he excelled in spite of the
occasional poor teacher and classes. Despite this, Gregory was awarded an honours blazer for
academics and the Lynn Stuart Memorial Trophy for Academic Achievement and the Gian-
Paolo Pera Accounting Prize..
During the final days of matric he recalled the boys bringing farm animals to roam the squad but
he was very emotional about leaving the school and a large part of his life behind.
After matriculating with distinctions in Maths, Biology, Physical Science, Additional Maths,
Accounting and Advanced Maths, he went on to study at Wits University studying for a Bachelor
of Accounting Science and B Comm. Honours in Finance and went on to complete his
Chartered Accounting qualification. He received entrance into the Golden Key Society at Wits.
He felt that school had prepared him for university with the Additional Maths and Advanced
Maths which really helped with the Maths and Statistics he did in the first year at varsity. The
Accounting he learnt at school also helped him in his first year.
Gregory is currently employed as an accountant at Price Waterhouse Coopers.
He made many friends at St David’s and is in touch with many of them the majority of whom are
members of MOBS.
JLE 2013

Interview with Harry Distin Curtis, Matric 1972 (Last year of Boarders)
Harry was born in 1954 in the town of Ndola in the former British colony of Northern
Rhodesia. Concerned about the quality of education in Zambia his parents sent him in 1967,
grade 7 to St David’s. Having bought uniforms etc he and his father had a brief look at the
school over the weekend. On the sunday afternoon they arrived at the school and met the
headmaster, Brother Anthony after which he went to the dormitory and locker room where he
would spend the next 6 years boarding. This would be his second home and the Marist
Brothers his foster parents, his first evening boarding was 23 January 1967.
Harry did not enjoy boarding from day one but had the comfort of knowing he would be
seeing his father the coming weekend. He was however a keen cricketer and athlete in his
early years and really only started playing rugby from grade 11. In his matric year he played
for the 1st rugby and cricket teams, and shared the athletic Victor Laudorum having excelled
in shot-put, discus and high jump. He was awarded his honours blazer in 1972 on receiving
his prefect, merit and athletic scrolls. Being appointed prefect and then the awarding of an
honours blazer were his most memorable achievements.
He only had grade 11 and 12 in which to learn Afrikaans for matric, he wasn’t required to
have it as a subject before.
Although the camaraderie and friendships that were built as a boarder were valuable, he
would have preferred to have been a day boy in Zambia enjoying life with his parents. He
was only able to be with them for a total of 2 ½ months a year during the mid year and year
end holidays. His father was only able to watch one of the games of sport he played during
his entire 6 years, a cricket match in grade 11. He had very fond memories of his holidays.
Harry felt that boarding school was harsh, not easy to adjust to coming from a loving
environment and experiencing the freedom of farm life. There was no longer any love,
privacy and freedom to dream. Bullying was rife and the Marist Brothers were certainly not
the caring people you would expect of those having received the religious habit.
In the St David’s Review Album, 1967 he found a photograph of the school choir. There he
was, the only picture relating to his past singing ability. The school also had a brass band
that performed at numerous functions. Sadly the choir and band activities came to an end.
As boarders the boys had no cultural activities, sport was the only release for their energy.
Harry felt that his musical talents were repressed at St David’s. The education was good
although, in those days, learning was mainly by rote. 1972 was a bad year academically but
conversely a very good sporting year and many records made then, he believes are still
unbroken.
Some memories:
In standard 5 he had Br. Patrick who was wonderful. Mrs Kempster was a dragon and lethal
with the cane – Kenisovitch.
The boarding was closed in 1972 as the Brothers could not control the boys anymore.
He loved matron Buckley-Jones who was a surrogate mother to him.
Br Michael ran the horse riding.
He remembers the dorm and Brother but not his name but he had a beautiful voice and was
only there for a year (not after 1968).
The last musical event was in 1968.
He had a good relationship with Br Aidan who loved playing table tennis.
Br Timothy he liked, he took them once to a soccer match as a special outing and they
regularly went to Wanderers.
Br Mario (Bosco) was a star, even though he gave him 6 of the best, caning in his last year.
He loathed Br Andrew – Dracula who nearly got him expelled after an incident with Br
Bernard.
Peter Stringer, cricket coach, not very good, rather lazy but a nice guy.
He enjoyed Br Anthony and recalled an incident when a group of boys went to the local
restaurant , Beefeaters now Giovanni’s. One of the boys had two gorgeous sisters
(Madeleine became Wickens) who worked there. They got their beers and burgers and
afterwards started the trek back to school. Jamie Curtis lay in the road trying to hitch a lift
when round the corner comes a white VW Beetle – Br Anthony’s car! Unaware that it was Br
Anthony one of the boys went up to the window, cigarette in hand. Needless to say
cigarettes were extinguished rapidly! Br Anthony got them all in his car, took them back and
all he said was he didn’t mind them having a good time but “Why in St David’s tracksuits?”.
The favourite smoking place was by the scoreboard.He enjoyed the cricket tours especially
to St Stithians and was there when the Oval was opened. He alsoenjoyed the swimming
galas.
Boys he remembers:
John Jacobs, Charles Rolandson, Hugh Flynn – has been in touch with them.
Terence van Heerden (best friend) vice head boy.
Terry Lavery (Springbok) in his first year athletics.
Mc Gregor swimmer also a Springbok.
Head Boy was Alf Ghodes.
Nigel Mayer rewrote matric and organised a couple of ladies for his matric dance which was
held in the dining room.
Iglier, Spalding, Simon and Hamish Gilbert (twins)
Strong in CT – Lavery, Agianos, McGurk, Patrick’s brother is a priest.
JLE October 2010

Interview with Harry Rosmarin – 1960
Harry’s family attended Marist Brothers from 1912 until 1964 when his cousin left, both Harry,
his brother and cousin John were all at Inanda. He remembers Piet the cook who also cooked
for his father at Marist Brothers, Koch Street.
Harry started at St David’s in 1952 as a boarder. There were 44 boys in the dormitories; it was
an open house with absolutely no privacy. There was great discipline and lights were out by
9.00pm each evening. Being a boarder was quite an adventure at times, if you needed to go to
the doctor or dentist or to go into town, you first had to walk to Oxford Road or Corlett Drive and
get a bus to get into town. Transport to sporting events was on the back of the school truck and
all the boys got soaked when it rained.
He enjoyed it, found it to be great fun and is still in contact a number of old boys from that time –
Dave Phillips, Chris Bischoff who now lives in London and is the Ruperts financial advisor, Mike
Lakovsky. All the boys in the matric photo of that year have done well individually.There is no
photo on display in the hall as with all the other matric classes as they didn’t have an official
photo. There were 26 boys in matric and 180 boarders. There were no vacancies and there
were waiting lists for the school, 40% of which were boarders.
In 1957, Harry’s father’s farm in Standerton went downhill and the family had to move to
Johannesburg. Parents didn’t discuss such issues with their children and Harry only found out
when he and his father had an appointment with Br Edwin. Harry was surprised to hear that the
family farm was in liquidation and that his father could no longer afford to keep him at Marist
Brothers. Br Edwin’s response to this was that the farm was Mr Rosmarin’s business but Harry
was his and therefore Harry would continue as a pupil at St David’s.
Harry was involved with sport, played cricket continuing until he was 50. In matric he captained
the cricket team, he also played 1st team tennis, 1st team rugby and started a hockey section.
He used to play tennis on fridays at Ellis Park and a pupil from King David’s asked why they
didn’t play hockey which is how it all started. The Marist Cricket week began whilst he was at
Inanda. He remembers the boarders were often taken out over a weekend, sometimes to
Wanderers to watch rugby and cricket at the old Maristonian Club which was in the Eastgate
area of Wynberg.
Harry did well academically in the high school, was in the debating team, gained top spot in his
matric year and was the dux for 1960 narrowly beating Les Berman. There were seven Jewish
boys in matric that year, the only contenders for head boy being two Jewish boys. Harry was
eventually appointed head boy.
He recalled the matric dance, all the boys were in uniform and it was held in the dining room.
His date was Carol Dakes who’s brother Basil matriculated in 1959. He is still in touch with her
today.
Brother Anthony was a teacher at Inanda in 1958, left for PE and returned as principal in 1960.
He saw him again at the memorial service for Robert Amato.
Br Dennis was the best English and History teacher, he was young and outstanding; Br
Benedict was a disciplinarian; Br Lawrence his standard 6 class teacher and he had a great
respect for Br Edwin.
Robert Bailey matriculated in 1961 and he believes he became a priest.
Harry thought that his school years were the best of his life although he was sometimes a bit
homesick but he was always happy to be back at school and made life-long friends with a group
that gets together regularly. At one of their get-togethers in 1999 he managed to get Br Anthony
to join them, unaware that it was an informal reunion. They lunched at La Rustica and he joked
with Br Anthony saying that he seemed to work in places so dry that the dogs ran after the
trees. Br Anthony was an absolute gentleman with a wicked sense of humour which failed him
sometimes.
Late one morning when everyone was tired and sleepy, Norman Schwab was holding a fire
cracker which accidentally exploded in his hand, entirely an accident, none the less Br Anthony
was furious and from then on Norman became the scapegoat.
On leaving school, the final day being tinged with sadness with a party at David Butler’s home,
he went on to Wits to study accountancy. At university he joined Highlands North Old Boys
playing cricket and hockey as Marist old boys ceased to exist. He is a CA by profession but only
practised for a year after qualifying and then went into the family steel business.
He didn’t send his two sons to St David’s, society was different and they went to Highlands
North. He also has a daughter, a doctor working in London.
Currently semi-retired Harry has a business together with his eldest son selling food hampers,
corporate gifts, and clothing.
JE January 2012

Interview with Ian Rogers 1967 – 73
Ian came from Observatory in standard 6 when his parents moved to Athol. Ian didn’t find it too
difficult to integrate because he enjoyed the sport so much. He remembers there being a lot of
jewish boys in his class.
Ian played a lot of sport including cricket and rugby. He played 1st team rugby until he broke his
shoulder and played 1st team cricket from standard 8.He played in the Wilf Isaac’s elevens
playing against an England team with Pete Stringer, Geoff Boycott who lived on the school
property and coached the boys others included Ashley Harvey Walker and Don Wilson. The
boys played against them at the beginning of the season. Peter Stringer organised the match
with top English players who were in SA playing for different clubs. Ian also played Transvaal
provincial golf and is still a keen golfer.
Ian recalled declining his honours blazer which was only offered to him in the September of his
matric year, however he was awarded a scroll for both golf and cricket.
Brothers he remembers include Brother Anthony, Headmaster, Br Bosco who taught Science,
Br Andrew – Maths, Br Timothy.
The matric dance was held in the school hall which was also the boarders’ dining room and the
boys had to wear their school uniforms.
Ian did well academically and was accepted into Dental School at Wits University.
Ian’s son and daughter both attended St Stithians and the last time he had occasion to visit St
David’s was when his son competed at St David’s about 10 years ago.
Some of his contemporaries he remembered were Vince O’Mahoney, Peter Ruzzini, Mike
MacFarlan, Patrick Quarmby, Desmond Schatz – paediatrician in the US, Costa John – head
boy now living in the US, Mike Saad – deputy head boy and rugby captain a pharmacist,
Marshall Walford – dentist, Les Kourie.
JE September 2012

Interview with Ivor Bailey – 1957
Ivor began his school career at Marist Brothers, Koch Street in 1948 with Br. Aquinias as
principal. His parents were not very well off but his mother was catholic. He then went onto
Observatory but didn’t do very well, and then in standard 8 he was getting straight E’s. The
family came into some money and was sent to Inanda in 1956, as a boarder. Br Edwin (nephew
of Neil McGurk) nicknamed “Jack” was principal and he believes that his entire life was changed
because of him. He was an incredible teacher who suffered from rheumatism but had a very
strong right arm with which he wielded a cane. Discipline was a way of life. Br Edwin taught
Maths and History and was especially good at Maths. Ivor achieved a distinction in Maths after
6 months of his teaching and managed to get a “B” for his matric. Br Edwin made him realise he
could do it and he was then able to go to university to study engineering and truly believes it is
all due to Br Edwin.
Another brother who influenced him was Br Ephraim and was the English teacher. He was a
gentle man, very well read and instilled in him a love for reading and languages.
There were no more than 30 in his matric class. He knew Peter Owen already and shared a
dining table with Peter Johnson and Douglas Karan. He didn’t do too well in sport but played
rugby and was scorer for the cricket team as he was pretty useless otherwise. There were such
a small number of boys at the school so they didn’t do too well in rugby. He remembers that
they were transported to and from games in an open Bedford truck. He remembers that some of
them used to smoke in the back of the truck, although not too many of them smoked.
Edith Owen did a lot for the tennis and was a legend. Her sons Peter and Patrick were good
tennis players.
There were 4 dormitories, he was in A dorm with 44 boys in all and Br Gerard was the boarding
master. The food in the boarding house was quite good and there was a waiter called Charlie
who used to give his table extras. Sunday lunch was chicken and chips followed by ice cream.
The highlight of boarding school was the Sunday walk, especially past Dairy Den, where the
Gautrain station is now. From there they would walk to the Klein Jukskei through what is now
Morningside to have a mud fight in the river. They also walked to the old boy’s club just off Louis
Botha not far from Barlow offices. Grayston Drive was Grayston stables. They were taught
ballroom dancing in the dining room and the boarders had to go to Rosebank Convent,
Immaculate Hall for socials. The nuns wore wimples and big habits and used to keep a beady
eye on them. They had to walk there and back.
He remembers the flu epidemic and how wonderful matron Buckley-Jones was.
When he first arrived at the school he was taken aback by the rigidity and was not used to
conforming to such strict discipline. However, one night he and Johnson broke out of the school,
Br Benedict was principal and Br Anthony was around, they went to a Rosebank hotel, were
collected and taken to Mayfair to a 18th birthday party. They returned in the early hours of the
morning undetected and they didn’t tell anyone until the end of matric.
His son Gordon went to De La Salle due to them living in the area. His son was the last head
boy before the school amalgamated.
He formed more lasting relationships at varsity as he was probably at St David’s for too short a
time. When the school bought the additional land, Ivor surveyed the fields for Br Anthony.
Coming for the interview was the first time he had been back to the school in years; however he
would be interested in the book and a possible commitment to purchase and in the Jubilee
celebrations.
JE July 2011

Interview with James Harrewyn – 1971
Jame’s father came to SA from Antwerp in 1956. He knew a priest here who encouraged
him to come and start a new life here. His sons followed two years later in 1958 aged 5 and
7 and could not speak English, their languages being French and Flemish. James started at
St David’s in grade 1 until matric. He was a boarder from standard 6 for 4 years. He regards
himself as being a naughty boy but never with malicious intent. For his final matric year he
chose to be a day boy. His brother also attended St David’s and died in 2003His friends at
the time were Willy Castle, John Williams, Dimitri Constantinides, Vic Taueber; Kim Small
(rugby player), Alex Chemaly, Rupert Von Johnstone and he is still in contact with Alex
Chemaly, Johnny Stavro and Gavin Jansen. He feels that he can never find or replace the
friends he made whilst at high school.
He remembers his first days as being hard as he was discriminated against because of his
lack of English and was bullied initially, but stood his ground.
His last day – he worked hard for his matric and went to get his results from Br Timothy. He
was older than most of the boys, aged 18 as he stayed back a couple of years. He
remembers Br Timothy saying “You need to look happy!” He received a university pass and
his father took him to the Balalaika to celebrate!
He recalls Mrs Janusch, the Latin teacher, a sweet lady. Her classroom was on the second
floor, and James played a trick on her by climbing out of the window, down the gutter and
returned, knocking on the door. She was thoroughly confused as he did this several times
during a lesson, much to the amusement of the other boys. Brothers Anthony, Andrew
“Drac”, Timothy, Bosco “Boing” were at the school during his time. Many of the Brothers
smoked and when the boys smoked in the playground it was easier not to get caught by
those Brothers that did smoke as the smell was cancelled out. The boys used to raid the
fridge at night because the food was so awful. James also used to bunk out and see
girlfriends together with Gavin Jansen, but never got caught. He played in the marching
band which was sponsored by the Moni family. He was keen on athletics and was very
popular, but another boy always came first until one memorable sports day when James
beat him, coming first in front of all the girls! He also played 1st team rugby for 3 years, was a
member of the swimming team and played hockey. His academics were ok and the school
had a very good infrastructure with academics and sport.
The school was always cold and, in the morning ablutions he and other boys would linger
dangling their hands in the warm water to get warm. The boys were often punished by
having to “stand out” by the showers, bare foot, arms raised and it was very cold. Br Andrew
had a whistle on a chain with which he would hit the boys on the back of their legs. In Willy’s
office there is a cane which used to be used but was withdrawn in favour of the paddle, as it
used to draw blood. James however loved the school and feels that schooling was better
than it is now. His happiest moments were when he and his friends were naughty and didn’t
get caught. He remembers Br Anthony who was well respected by the boys, as he was fair,
and was called “Orange” because of his pronunciation of the word oranges and his red hair.
When he left school he served an apprenticeship with his father at first and then went to
Belgium to a culinary school. He then spent 5 years in Canada in hotels and then came back
to SA to help in the family business in Sandton. Sadly, the business initially did well but
because of sanctions and politics it failed. He then went to Houston, the Four Seasons Hotel
and eventually taught at a cooking school in Vermont and, 15 years ago, opened his own
business and 80 seat Café and Bistro. He and his wife, Pamela supply cakes, pastries,
wedding cakes and cater for private parties. In July 2011 he opened another restaurant and
is grateful to be in the right state where people enjoy the quality service and he is priced right
for the market. Vermont has survived the recession as most people don’t live above their
means but still enjoy their life.
He was back in SA as he was invited to an award dinner by Billy Gallagher. In 1984 and
1988 he was part of the national cooking team which went to Germany for the World
Cooking Olympics. They were very low key and rather under-cover because of apartheid,
however the team did quite well. For the award dinner the original members of the team:
Heinz Brunner, George Germann, Peter Klngman, Ryan MacMann, Martin Maphonga
created menus from the 80’s for 150 people. His sons Brent and Ashton, both
cinematographer majors specializing in film and photo, made a documentary of the occasion
and James received his Springbok blazer.
Jame’s wife’s family live in Cape Town and whilst he was here in January he had a reunion
with 25 boys from his time at St David’s.
JE August 2011

Interview with James Miller – 1955
James Attended Koch Street from 1944 until 1946 and became a boarder at Inanda from 1947.
Brother Urban was the headmaster followed by Brother Edwin – “Jack Bones, The Boss” and
Brother McGurk was a traffic cop. Although he was a non-catholic he made some great
friendships and is still in touch with Derek Stansfield who lives in New Zealand.
He remembers his first day, he was about 8 years old, when he was taken to school by his
mother in a taxi as the school was considered far out in those days. He sat at the gate crying his
heart out. A whistle blew and all the boys queued for their meals outside the dining hall. His two
sisters were in a convent at Boksburg.
He enjoyed being a boarder and went to a Marist school because of Brother Aquinas. The
family were living in Joubert Park, his father was killed during the war and Brother Aquinas was
instrumental into getting him into Koch Street and then Inanda.
He enjoyed sport the most and played U13 soccer, 1st and U14, U15 rugby, from 1954 in
standards 9 and 10 he played 1st team rugby and remembers the great rivalry with Obs –
Observatory. He was in the boxing team in standard 6 (when it was stopped) and in a match
against Observatory, boxed against Alan Zimmerman who was then in standard 9, all the boys
were all soundly beaten. He recalls a yearly athletics tournament against Germiston Boys High
and another school, maybe CBC Boksburg. There were no provincial or national colours for the
boys as all the other schools were Afrikaans we were never selected
He wrote matric but was not great academically. There were 40 in the matric class that year.
He was house captain of College house. Most of the Brothers were good teachers, Brothers
Aquinas, Bartholemew, Ralph (the rugby coach), Ephraim (matric teacher)but there were some
bad moments. Brother Joseph, who was killed in a plane crash, taught Latin and was very
unpleasant and always walked in with a strap and used it at every opportunity. He remembered
Mrs Kempster in standard 4 a very good teacher, then in standard 5 Mr Bishop. The boys used
to ask him questions from the encyclopaedia and he always answered correctly. In standard 6
there was Mr Hoar who was a bit deaf and the boys unkindly mocked him.
Boarding school food was ok but for the weevils in the porridge. New boarders wouldn’t want to
eat it and the other boarders ate it for them until they wised up. He looked forward to Sundays
when they had eggs and bacon. On Sundays they used to walk to St Martins in the Veld. There
were 176 boarders with each dorm having 44 boys in ABCD dorms. The toilets were in the quad
and when the school had a féte, the Brothers used to cover them in sacking and made them into
a temporary ladies cloakroom.
There was an annual dance. The last one they had was at Parktown Convent and, on the way
home, Nicki Tvrdeich asked him if he had a partner for the matric dance and promised to
organise someone for him. On the night of the dance his partner didn’t arrive and he never
forgave Nicki.
**He remembers Robbie Brunton who was head boy in 1955 and also cricket and rugby captain,
Fred Hoppert, Naldo Brocco the father of Renzo, Neville Kirschman and his brother Brian known
as “Kippie”, Dan Robinson now living in Durban North, went to the Northern Rhodesian police
and his father was killed in the war. He later joined the Hong Kong police force for about 20
years. Brian Jeffries living in Uvongo. Vito Rugani – 1954, John Venter 1954, John Livingstone
1954, James Tonetti 1954. Aubrey Chalmers 1955 Graham Talbot 1955 Jack Kamps 1955 Ron
Gbrcic
At the end of his school career he had to spend a couple of days at school writing exams
before they broke up. He remembers all the boys signed a class photo. He can’t remember
where the matric dance was held but Pam Horwitz was his partner, the love of his love at the
time.
After school he did his military service which was compulsory for one year. He then joined the
police force in Zambia (Northern Rhodesian police) then worked on the mines and came back to
South Africa in 1967. He worked in the industrial storage and equipment field for over 30 years.
He met his wife on a blind date when they went to see “The Odd Couple”. He had 3 daughters
and has 5 grandchildren the boys are at Grey College. He spent many years in the Eastern
Cape in E.L. and Port Elizabeth returning to Johannesburg in 1988. He was transferred to Cape
Town in 1997, the company was sold in 1998 and all staff were retrenched. He decided to go it
alone and eventually retired two years ago and now lives in Kommetjie and has a black belt in
Judo. He last visited the school about three years ago and would be interested to stay in touch.
JE October 2011

Interview with James Oberholzer
James came to St David’s in grade O and, with 20 other boys, was a pupil up until he matriculated in 2003.
James remembers all his primary school teachers who made a big impact on his life in particular Mrs
Norton, Mrs Schaafsma, Mrs Ansell and Mrs Kirkenhofer. He recalled being “jacked” by Mr Castle which he
deserved and was almost grateful for. He used to go to after care, was very involved with sports and
academics, was a member of the choir and was awarded a major closed scholarship to the high school.
During his tenure the school went through a huge transformation with the building of high and prep school
pavilions, the swimming pool, tennis courts, Champagne hall, library and the parking lot and the main
entrance. The original entrance was not even tarred initially.
James has good memories of the teachers in high school and the relationship they had with the boys,
specifically Mr Buys, Mr Fry, Mrs Nagy who was his tutor, Mr Gaffney, Br Anthony, Father Brewer and
Reverend Bruce who was a fantastic teacher and really made you think.
James was involved with cricket, soccer, tennis and swimming but was particularly focused on his golf and
from standard 8. He played golf at provincial, level from standard 6 until matric and represented South
Africa at the Junior World Championships in San Diego, USA but was not awarded a Springbok blazer. He
did well academically but only learnt to really work when he went to university. He enjoyed debating but
preferred participating from the floor. He was also a member of high school parliament.
James enjoyed all the tours both sporting and cultural but didn’t go overseas. He misses the sport, the
rivalry and competiveness with other schools. The biggest rivals (on and off the field) were St John’s and St
Stithian’s but, on leaving school the boys became great friends with pupils from those schools.
In standard 9 he did a series of aptitude and career tests which indicated he should excel as a landscape
architect or stockbroker which is what he is now and he loves what he is doing.
James was a prefect and deputy head boy with Gareth Kolkenbeck-Ruh, head boy. He was head of house
Benedict, vice captain hockey and captain of the golf team. He was awarded an honours blazer for golf and
scrolls for academics, leadership and hockey.
James has Italian citizenship and, to avoid the compulsory army service had to show proof of registration at
university.
After matriculating, James went on to UCT to study Business Science but eventually graduated with a
BComm Economics and Finance and graduated with Honours in Economics in 2008. He had a gap year
where he worked as an underwriter in the short term corporate insurance industry before going back to
finish his degree. He learnt that one had to be focused and motivated and was no longer spoon fed as one
was at school.
James is currently employed as a stockbroker, specialising as a research analyst for the mining industry for
Macquarie, a global investment bank headquartered in Sydney, Australia, its strengths being commodities
and infrastructure.
Although James hasn’t maintained contact with many of his contemporaries at St David’s he enjoyed the
reunion in November. Whilst at university, living away from home he established strong friendships with
other students.
If he was blessed with sons James would want to send them to St David’s and is a member of MOBS.
JLE December 2013

Interview with Jason Simaan - 2003
Jason’s father Antoine is also an old boy of St David’s and the son of Nassey Simaan. His father travels a
lot on business especially to the Far East for his company World Agencies which he started in 1983.
Jason came to St David’s in 1990, grade 0 and Mrs Walton was his teacher. He thinks he cried on the way
to school but made his first friend of the same name, Jason Metcalfe.
Jason enjoyed the prep school, was not a great sportsman but played cricket and soccer and participated
in tennis and athletics. He was more of a scholar then and won all the English and Afrikaans declamations
and trophies in standard 5. He was good at and enjoyed public speaking which he owes to the instruction
and guidance of Mrs Sandy who taught English in standard 2, she tutored him well. Jason won public
speaking competitions all the way through to high school. Sadly Mrs Sandy had a stroke and eventually
passed away. Jason was also a member of the mini city council an experience which he enjoyed, helping
people, meeting pupils from other schools and of course the public speaking.
Jason’s cousin, Gareth Simaan matriculated in 1998 and unfortunately Jason was tarred with the same
brush with some teachers such as Mr Andrews who taught Biology. Jason knew nearly all the matrics being
related also to Stephan Contardo, they were terrifying and the discipline was fierce but the boys were
intimidated in a good way. Jason was also good friends with Andrew Castle, Willy Castle’s son. Jason still
calls him “Sir”.
The standard 6 Glenwood camp was tough with all the new guys and seemed a bit like a concentration
camp. However the boys learnt a lot about themselves and the St David’s ethos and pulled together team
building. Rod Smith was always epic on that camp with a great rivalry between the Osmond and Bishops
boys.
There was a complete turnaround in Jason’s life when he reached high school as he concentrated more on
sport and the academics took a back seat. He went from being one of the top 3 to 21st. He was a member
of the 1st team water polo from standard 8, 1st team rugby from standard 9. For him the 1st rugby team was
the ultimate, the black and gold, the prestige and camaraderie. Memories of the prayers before a match
and then walking down to the field, still gives him goose bumps to this day. In 2003 the school had a really
good team beating KES, 16 - 3 for the first time in 52 years, with Neil Le Roux scoring the winning try. On
that particular day, a midweek match, away at KES, all the other St David’s teams, rugby, hockey had been
beaten and then they won. Jason recalled the three best rugby years for St David’s were 1972, 1995 and
2003.
Other noteworthy occasions were winning the Johnny Waite cricket in 2003, the first cricket side to do so.
The cricket team did well that year as did the hockey team and the water polo team was the first to
compete against other schools and Kyle Biller was captain of the swimming team. The matrics liked to
believe that they were the pioneers creating the legacy that Gareth Kolkenbeck-Ruh had talked about.
Jason is still in touch with many of his former schoolmates; friendship was and still is very important to him.
Among them are Rob Smith, Chris Marsay, Sean Schoombie and Danilo Giacovazzi. James Reeves and
Farhaan Williams were always the top academics.
The matric Dance was spectacular with the theme of Mardi Gras. Jason and the pupils always enjoyed the
Guy Fawkes evening at St David’s, believing it to be the best in town and looked forward to that and the
Saturday sporting fixtures. The rugby tour to Argentina that year was a spectacular event with the boys
winning all their games whilst being exposed to a different culture.
The teachers he remembers well are Willy Castle, Rick Wilson, Paul Edey and Julie Roman who was his
favourite and he always went to seek her advice when he had “issues”. Simon Fry was Jason’s History
teacher, house master and U16A rugby coach. Jason always did well in History as Simon made it so
interesting. He recalls that Simon always wrote on the board in capital letters.
Gareth Kolkenbeck-Ruh was the head boy, he was really good and captain of the cricket and soccer teams.
In his first speech as head boy he told the boys that “We are here to create a legacy” and that they certainly
did. Jason was a prefect and deputy head of house,The Bishops. He was awarded an honours blazer, full
colours for water polo, leadership and merit.
On the last day of school, the matrics were ready with their water balloons, but were foiled by Marius Buys,
who realised what they were up to. He confiscated the balloons and then threw them back at them. They
had a farewell breakfast and were full of mixed emotions, signing shirts and wondering what was coming
next. Humility, simplicity and respect were hammered into the boys and they never forget “Comfortare Esto
Vir” “Take Courage and be a Man”.
After matriculating, Jason studied a BComm Marketing at Wits University but dropped out after 8months as
his Maths wasn’t strong and he should rather have studied for a BA Sports Science. He then worked in the
motor spares industry for 1 ½ years but it wasn’t for him and went on to become a sales rep for his uncle
Andy Simaan at RMS. That didn’t work out and for 6months he was basically unemployed until Gareth
Simaan asked him what he was going to do. The following day he left for Mozambique with Gareth at 3am
and spent the next 8 months at Vilanculos learning to run the business, in at the deep end. There was no
internet and it was an entirely different and isolated environment. He then went onto the Ivory Tree a five
star hotel in the Pilansberg as beverage manager, then Shepherds Tree as a general manager. He spent 4
-5 years learning the hospitality industry. Together with his sister Candyce, who runs the financial side of
the business he started Andiccio 24 in 2011 running the operational side of the business.
Jason is a member of MOBS and would definitely send any sons to St David’s.
JLE November 2013