Mostrar 238 resultados

Interview with Ted Barale – 1984 (Std 9)
Although Ted eventually matriculated at Damelin College he was a pupil at St David’s from
grade 1 until 1984. Ted’s family lived in Krugersdorp which entailed Ted and his brother
Anthony catching a train at 4.30am from Krugersdorp to Park Street and then taking 2 buses to
get to school, repeating the process on the way home. He was a day boy but had lunch at
school and most Fridays the brothers used to go and have dinner with his parents at their
hotel,the Lewisham Hotel. Ted got a lift there and back with the brothers so he was ready for
rugby on Saturday.
Ted remembers Brother Anthony, and Mr Manolios, Brothers Andrew, Bernard, Aquinias and
Timothy. He remembers that Br Anthony used to allow the boys to choose their cane for
punishment.Br Anthony was popular with the boys and parents. He recalled an occasion when
one of the brothers was writing on the board and one of the boys flicked his fountain pen and
the ink went down the brothers back. The following day he came in facing the class and
eventually the culprit owned up and was sent summarily to Br Anthony’s office
The Herbert Baker house consisted of classrooms and stables were where the present grade 00
block is.
Ted loved the sport, playing hooker in rugby and made the cricket B team but did not do well
academically and battled with English and reading but enjoyed Biology and the Art classes. Ted
hated exams and the English lessons.Ted was the rebel and his brother Anthony, who became
a doctor and is now living in Canada was the clever one. Ted’s father was Italian and his mother
Afrikaans which didn’t help. His mother was chairlady of the ladies committee together with
Moni’s mother.
When Ted left school he went into the family business and has always been in catering and now
runs his own restaurant Picolinos in Fourways.
Ted still sees some of friends from school and some of them visit him at his restaurant. Paul
Moni, Nicholas Erleigh, Kevin Peel, Sean Davidson, Mike Stanley.
JE July 2012

Interview with Paul Gerrard – 1992
Paul remembered his first day as he arrived a bit late two weeks into the first term of grade 1.
He sat next to Jaffrey Tsaksani and Ryan Lamberts, his teacher was Mrs Scaafsma who used
her ruler quite liberally on the boys hands.
As it was compulsory Paul played rugby and cricket and made all the matches unless he was
show jumping which took up a lot of his time. Due to his commitment to horse riding he didn’t
make the 1st teams. He enjoyed the team sports and felt that it really helps in understanding
people and it is good to work together. The camaraderie was great but not all the boys were
accepted and Paul felt that the boys who played hockey rather than rugby missed out. The
camps were amazing and the camaraderie and hierarchy of who sat where on the bus trips.
Paul participated in cross country usually coming 2nd or 3rd but didn’t put in too much effort and
was often caned for missing a run. He was strong in the distance events in athletics, 800m and
the high jump. Through his horse riding Paul became stronger as a person and very fit.
Paul didn’t enjoy being caned but believed that it was necessary. He recalled Mr Girdwood,
English teacher who got very angry about something and smacked him very hard at the back of
his head – at the recent reunion the boys remembered that incident well.
Of his teachers he remembered Lesley Henning an excellent Maths teacher who converted him
from average to being good in the subject. Finlayson was the cricket and rugby coach and Grant
Webster, Biology, had a bat called “Justice” which he wielded once if you admitted not doing
your homework and twice if you lied. There was a small, cheeky, Muslim boy called Mohammed
Ahmed who Webster grabbed by the ankles and held over the railings on the top floor.
He recalled being kicked out of a matric prize giving held at the pool. Together with some other
boys and girls that were around he was messing about creating a noise, a teacher came and
found them and told them to leave.
In the prep most of his best friends were black but in high school groups formed, and the black
pupils usually had their own group. The fact that the school was non-racial changed Paul’s
attitude. His uncle, Francis Gerrard and aunt were activists and in the late 70’s visited Mandela
in prison and Mbeki in exile. Paul’s friends who went to government schools had an entirely
different, prejudiced attitude to blacks. Paul was one of a group of boys who visited Alex
township taking food and clothing collected at St David’s.
Boys he remembers, the naughty crowd, are Garth Ramsay, a cattle farmer in the Midlands who
was a rebel rouser, Bobby French, Andreas Zanella, Jason Harmsen, Justin van Linden, Jason
Hallett’90 and Peter Batisch. From 1993 there were Andrew Harris, Andrew Botha and
Lawrence Azar.
There were initiation rituals where the younger boys had to blow up condoms and other silly
things, nothing too serious but good for one’s development. Paul, together with 3 other boys
opted out of becoming a prefect by walking out of a meeting.
At the recent reunion it was noticeable how many of the “cool guys” attended coming from the
UK and Cape Town but a number currently living in Johannesburg did not make the effort.
After matriculating, Paul studied through Unisa and Midrand Campus for a BComm Honours
which he completed in 5 years. In his final year of honours he was working as a property broker
letting industrial space south of Johannesburg. However interest rates climbed to 20 – 25% and
he lost out on a major deal which prompted his decision to go overseas .He had spent some
time coaching cricket at St David’s and played cricket after leaving school. He spent some time
mainly in the UK, France and the US as a professional ski bum and cricket coach and worked
for a season in the UK as a cricketer .The time away gave him a new perspective on life. He
had many jobs one as a security guard for various shows and events, ending up together with
his wife in the computer industry in the UK. Then in 2003 Flanagan & Gerrard asked him to join
them in South Africa. The company is involved in commercial property development specialising
in shopping centres. They organise christmas carols every year supporting various schools in
Rustenburg, children’s and old age homes.
Paul’s eldest son attends Redhill School as St David’s would not accommodate Adrian in grade
0.
Paul’s father Peter donated a cricket scholarship to the school in 2008.
JLE January 2013

Interview with Dave Clark – 1980
Dave first came to St David’s in 1968 and then left in standard 2 for Montrose and then, aged eleven to go
to Treverton, a boarding school in Natal. He returned to St David’s in 1978 as his parents did not like the
idea of him boarding at what was to become a co-educational school.
He remembers Mrs Schaafsma and her strict discipline and use of a ruler. Otherwise the teachers were all
ok and no-one in particular stands out. He passed his matric but considered himself average academically.
On his return to St David’s, Dave had no problem settling in again and met up with the boys he knew from
grade 1. He used to see them when he came home on holiday so it was pretty easy to integrate again and
he is still friends with them forty years later. Brent Alcock, Grant Catthrall, Michael Nicholas and Wayne
Alcock, Alfonso De Chaud, Deon Joubert who now owns the Mugg and Bean in Durbanville and Fotis
Rionos, now living in Greece. Facebook also helps in keeping the friendships going.
Dave enjoyed school, loved the sport and was a member of 1st team rugby, 1st team cricket in standard 9
and matric.
Dave recalled an occasion when he nearly got expelled when Br Timothy kept him, Brent, Grant and
Michael in after school for not tying their ties correctly. Dave and Brent walked as their choice was to write
out the log book or leave, Brent and Dave chose the latter. Dave and Brent drove across the cricket pitch
on Dave’s motorbike with Br Timothy chasing them. They came back to school the next day and didn’t get
expelled. The four of them still have a very close relationship and are as close as they were in grade 1,
even on a business level supporting each other where they can.
After matriculating, Dave worked for Standard Bank for six months and then completed two years army
service still being paid by the bank. He continued to work for the bank for another two years and then joined
Xerox for two years. Then he and his brother went to London and returned to South Africa in 1981. After
various jobs in the copier industry, he joined Minolta in April 1991. Dave transferred to Cape Town in
August 1994 and returned to Johannesburg in May 2011 to take up the position as MD of Oce Sa, also a
Bidvest company.
On returning to Johannesburg , Dave and family visited St David’s to take up the Guy Fawkes night
together with Mike and Grant. He also came to St David’s for the 2013 old boys reunion weekend to watch
the rugby. Dave also sponsored one of the T20 team last year.
Dave is married with two children, a daughter of fifteen and a son, twelve who attend Maragon private
school in Ruimsig.
Dave’s company together with Konica Minolta is involved in assisting with the Rhino campaign, food
parcels for various charities as well as their copying needs.
JLE November 2013

Interview with Richard Hartdegen – 1961
Richard came to St David’s as a boarder in standard 2 in the July. He had previously attended a
boarding school in Natal, Kings College, Nottingham Road in a group of only 32 children. His
mother had died in the early 50’s and his father worked for the Chamber of Mines in
Johannesburg. His sister visited St David’s coming to mass and met Brother Edwin and after
that it was decided that Richard should be a boarder there..
Of his teachers he remembers Mrs Batten, a tough Afrikaans teacher who took no nonsense
and much to the boys amusement lived on the property at Tara. Mrs Kempster taught him in
standard 4. She was well known for her pupils getting the most prizes each year. From standard
6 the brothers such as Bonaventurte and Timothy taught the boys. One of the brothers was
obsessed with wasting water and used to time the length of time the boys were in the shower.
Richard recalled that absolutely everyone had to play rugby unless they were unfit to play. The
school began to play open rugby with the matrics but couldn’t beat Observatory. In 1958, the
best rugby team of that time nearly beat Jeppe at a home game 9-8 but it was in 1959 that the
St David’s rugby team were the first to beat Observatory at Obs 8-6. In 1960 the team lost again
but redeemed themselves once more in 1961. Darko Vidas “The Bull” was a member of the
rugby team and once on a rainy day during a session of weight lifting in the dining room, strolled
in and coolly lifted some weights with total ease just to show how it should be done.
Richard didn’t play cricket or swim but he did take part in athletics. There were twins, the
McGurks one of whom was a good bowler and the other a good batsman which used to
thoroughly confuse the opposing teams. There was great competition to assist with the cricket
scoring at the Bric scoreboard on the weekends as the boys would then be invited to the lunch
which was always rather good. The food generally wasn’t too bad.
Richard recalled that, in standard 7 or 8 all the boarders crowded into the swimming pool area.
One of the boys upended a load of phosphorous into the pool from the diving board. There was
the most amazing bang and everyone scarpered. On another occasion a few boys were playing
with magnesium in the Science lab, there was a loud bang which was heard by Br Anthony who
was at the pool. He took off in a rush to see if anyone was injured and was not impressed.
Money was disappearing from the tuck shop and the culprit was eventually caught when, during
his return climb over the roof, down a drainpipe and into the tuckshop, he slipped and fell putting
his leg through a glass window.
Every morning all the Catholic boys went to mass and the non-Catholic’s went to study. Priests
came from Rosebank, one of whom was quick with the mass and the other slow which meant
that the boys used to miss out on the morning coffee and rusks.
Richard was head of the debating society. In standard 9 all the Marist schools wrote the same
exams country wide. Richard came 3rd in Maths and 3rd overall. Many of the St David’s boys
received medals and Richard still has his.
Richard thought it was an excellent idea that Brother Anthony took the view that if the boys were
doing well in their matric year they did not have to attend classes in the subjects in which they
excelled but could rather work alone in the study room. They still had to write the weekly and
termly exams and the teachers also had to agree to this. One of these boys, Hawkins was very
good at Maths, became a statistician and eventually was appointed to a professorship in the
US.
Dudley Mandy was the head boy, Emil Iglauer the deputy. In his matric year Dudley announced
that he wanted to become a priest and halfway through the year was sent to Pietermaritzburg,
however after he matriculated he changed his mind and eventually went to work for Gary Player
at his stables.
Richard did well in his matric year was a prefect, was awarded an honours blazer the Brother
Edwin Bursary and achieved 4 distinctions in the JMB Matric..
Richard studied at Wits University and is now a dermatologist and Mohs surgeon specialising in
of the treatment skin cancer. He has two sons who went to Redhill and Bryanston as he and his
wife decided that a co-ed education would be more suitable for their sons as they didn’t have a
daughter.
Richard keeps in touch with Dennis Adams but does not have any contact with any other of his
contemporaries. Richard would be very interested in the 75th anniversary in 2016.
JLE February 2013

Interview with Reg Titcombe – 1954
Reg came to St David’s in 1952 as a boarder. He attended Marist Brothers from grade 1 through to matric.
Firstly to Koch Street for 8 years until standard 6, then Observatory for a year.
He recalls being very impressed with his new school and enjoyed being a boarder as it was safe, he made
a lot of friends in pleasant surroundings with regulated study periods although he did miss home cooking,
the friends he grew up with and the freedom to do as he pleased.
He thought the teachers were great and he made some good friends. All the brothers who taught him were
very good teachers and he remembers them all, just not their names! The names he did recall in no special
order were Vidal, Phillip, Aquinas, Benedict, Ephrem, Bartholomew, Celestine and Edwin. Phillip a New
Zealander was a great influence in his life. He was inspirational teaching him how to organise his notes and
how to study. Celestine taught him Latin, which in turn taught him how to analyze problems. Br Ephrem
taught him Physics and Chemistry with great passion. These were the men who equipped him for the two
career paths he followed in his working years......Chemistry and Business.
About 10 days before the end of his matric year, Reg gave four of his classmates crew cuts for half-acrown
each. He needed the money, and they needed to look good the school dance was just around the
corner. Br Edwin walked into class, took one look at the four standouts, and screamed, “who did this?”. Reg
immediately put up his hand thinking he wanted to compliment him. He didn’t, he grabbed him by the scruff
of his neck, yanked him outside and thrashed him so many times, Reg eventually lost count. He also gated
Reg for the remainder of the school year. The incident was neither funny or amusing at the time, for Reg
anyway, but over the next few days, when everyone in the school was talking about it, he was able to see
the amusing side of the incident and he did not really want to go to the school dance and hockey pick up..
Reag played cricket, rugby, tennis, soccer and hockey. He was not particularly good at rugby or cricket but
did play U15A rugby and 2nd team cricket. He was very good at hockey and played for Natal University, but
hockey in 1954 was not a team sport at St David’s.
The only four boys he has seen since leaving St David’s were Jake de Lancey, David Reeves, Jimmy
Walker and John Livingstone. He has had n news of his other classmates but he did know that Ronnie
Columbic was a mercenary in the Congo, and was killed there in 1955. Jacques Kerwyn de Meeandre
committed suicide in the Belgian Congo in 1955, and he had heard but could not confirm, that Billy Hapker
fell off a tram and was killed in Brussels in 1955. John Livingstone who he saw in 1974 before he departed
for New York passed away a couple of years ago.
Thanks to the dedicated and unselfish brothers he was able to obtain, with ease, a BSc in Chemistry and
Geology and a BSC (Hons) in Chemistry from Natal University in Durban; and, after being transferred from
Cape Town to New York by Caltex in 1974, he went on to obtain an MBA from the University of Connecticut
in Stamford. Reg had an interesting and successful working life, thanks in large measure to the teachings
of three gifted brothers to whom he will always be grateful. He retired in 1999, and spent the last 5 years of
his working career based in Mexico City as vice president of business development, Fina Mexicana, S.A de
C.V. a subsidiary of Dallas, Texas based Petrofina Oil & Chemical Company, now Total Petrochemicals in
Houston, Texas. He and his wife Lynn now live at Lakewood Ranch just east of Sarasota, Florida.
Reg’s eldest son Michael was only 5 years old when he was transferred to New York in 1974 and his
youngest son Matthew was born in Stamford, Connecticut in 1978.
His two sons Michael and Matthew are attorneys in San Diego, California. Michael is a retired Commander
in the US Navy. He did four tours of duty to the Gulf. He and his wife Lisa had a little girl Rachel in 2000.
Mattehw is still a batchelor.
The last time he visited St David’s, was in 1985 or thereabouts, on a business\pleasure trip to South Africa.
He stopped off in Randburg for a dinner meeting with some executives from Sasol. The next day on his
way to the airport and had the cab driver drop him off at St David’s and he visited with Br Ephrem for an
hour or so. He really enjoyed seeing Br Ephrem again and the school looked very much as he had
remembered it.
JE September 2013

Interview with Sven Arp – 1980
Sven joined St David’s in 1978 going into standard 8. As his parents had divorced, Sven left St Albans as a
boarder to spend time with his mother and attend school as a day boy. He found the St David’s to be a
breath of fresh air, less regimented and the environment was more relaxed from a teacher pupil
perspective.
Brother Timothy was the headmaster, he was tough but ok. Headmasters are never popular individuals.
Sven recalls that he did something “silly” and Br Timothy told him to “think about the consequences of what
he did in life” which has somehow stuck with him ever since.
Sven played 1st team rugby, was a B team swimmer with an occasional visit to the A team but he didn’t
ever play cricket. Overall Sven enjoyed his time at St David’s with rugby matches always being auspicious
occasions; the boys were under a lot of pressure especially playing centre. Tackles were not! to be missed.
Sven considered himself a decent sportsman but no superstar.
He recalled having a blind date for the matric dance he attended in standard 9, the night did not go that well
date wise. He is vague on his standard 10 matric dance but did have a regular girlfriend at the time.
Although St David’s was and still is a great school the boys learnt to be humble and not to expect to win all
the time, even today. He feels that intense pressure amongst schools to win (which seems even worse
today) is not entirely healthy.
Of the teachers, he remembers Mrs Natrass who came right at the end, she totally lacked self confidence
but could teach amazingly well. If you took the trouble to do past papers she would get them back to you
the next day, marked with full explanatory comments. Trudie Elliott taught English and was a character in
her own right. Mr Neft, Afrikaans also a character. As a non-Catholic, Sven received separate religious
instruction from the Catholic pupils.
Academically Sven did well and was in the top 5 most of the time. He was awarded an academic tie,
honours blazer, became a prefect and won a trophy for the Maths prize.
His Grade 11 results got him into Onderstepoort, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria
which was fortunate as his appendix burst midway during the matric exams and he had to write supps for 4
subjects. He eventually achieved 2 A’s but would have hoped for more.
After spending 5 half years qualifying at Onderstepoort, Sven went into the army and was based in
Kangwani, Badplaas in the Eastern Transvaal. He married whilst he was in the army and on completing his
army service went into small animal veterinary work and, in 1990 started at Olivedale clinic which now
operates with a compliment of 4 vets.
Sven has two sons Reinhardt who matriculated from St David’s in 2009 and Ronan who is currently in
grade 6 at St David’s. Although it’s quite a trip every day to and from the family home in Olivedale Sven
believes it is worth it for his son to be a St David’s boy and they spend some quality time on the drive to
and from the school.
Sven does a lot of pro bono work with feral cats in the area and for the Animals in Distress organisation.
Vets are also involved in the development of individual community clinics in the Eastern Cape which is
spreading. He has no direct involvement in those but feels they are a great initiative.
Sven hosted a MOBS event at his home earlier this year (2013) The “boys” had all just turned 50 or were
about to do so, nostalgia prevailed. Brian Muller and Trevor Christie-Taylor were visiting from Australia.
Fifteen of them got together with their wives and children including George Daras (head boy) and Alphonso
de Chaud (vice head boy) who together with Gavi McLaughlin made it all the way up from Cape Town. It
was a truly special day to catch up with mates some of whom had not seen each other since the last day of
school. School friendships are of the best.
JLE October 2013

Interview with Peter Gerard – 1966
Peter Gerard joined Marist Inanda in 1955 and his brother Francis in 1952 The school was then
quite small and didn’t have the reputation it has today, with a mixed bag of pupils from all walks
of life.
Peter and his family lived at 58 First Avenue, Inanda on the boundary of the school, Rudd Road
was then a dirt road and was only tarred up to where the Toyota garage now stands in the late
50’s.
Peter was a rebel, a non-conformist and didn’t get along too well with Br Anthony who wanted
all the boys to conform and recalled Peter Tuffen who won a Maths olympiad and was a
favourite of Br Anthony. However Br Andrew tolerated his lack of conformity and also that of
Roger Phillimore and Olof Winkler.
He remembers teachers such as the young Heather Joseph who was a favourite with the boys
with her beehive hairdo. Mrs Brick who taught there in the 40’s and 50’s; Mrs Scaafsma used
her ruler to rap knuckles; Br Andrew used cuts with the cane to discipline the boys, during a
Science lesson something blew up into Br Mario’s face. There was one incident where a brother
was teaching and turned to write on the board and one of the boys threw a dart at his back,
needless to say they were all caned. An older pupil, Roy Hutton was a phenomenal swimmer
but rather conceited and became the target for some of the boys with pellet guns. Once again
they were severely reprimanded. The discipline was hard but the boys coped with it and were
generally outspoken and not intimidated when they did not agree with the brothers.
In matric 20 boys, including Peter were arrested and landed up in jail due to a
misunderstanding. They had been walking from the Kelvin Grove Hotel in Rosebank where a
bust up had occurred. The police thought they had been involved and arrested them.
Fortunately one of the boys Jannie Steyn, spoke Afrikaans and managed to convince the police
that they were innocent.
Peter recalled a controversy over the sale of the land where the Inandas now stand. Initially, the
owner of the farm “Three Trees” didn’t want to sell to Catholics but eventually his widow sold the
land to the school in 1963. In the late 1970’s The brothers apparently missed out on another
possible land purchase as Tony and Peter Wilson owned the land from the bottom playing fields
as far as the Inanda Club and would have been willing to sell it to the school. Possibly the
finances were a bit tight at this time.
Peter and some of the other boys planted all the grass on the fields during Br Anthony’s Maths
lessons.
Peter was expelled during his second last year because of an incident at a 1st team rugby
match. Roland Walker or Br Anthony was exhorting the boys to shout “Come on St David’s” and
Peter shouted “Come on Marist Brothers Inanda” which didn’t go down too well as did his retort
to Roland Walker. In order to be reinstated,he had to apologise to Br Edwin who was the
Brother Provincial residing at Obs, Br Anthony and the head of the PTA, Mr Roland Walker
before he was allowed back at school. Ironically Peter ended up working for him when he was
offered a job by Alastair Barclay and was introduced to a senior partner – Roland Walker! He
recalled that he achieved honours in studies, swimming, athletics and rugby and that Br
Anthony did not particularly enjoy presenting him with his honours blazer.
Peter enjoyed the sport and played 1st team rugby, 2nd team cricket, tennis in the prep together
with Jannie Steyn and Terry Rosenberg. Willy Castle was 2 – 3 years behind him.
Peter thoroughly enjoyed his years at St David’s in spite of his rebelliousness. There were 48
boys in his matric year and between 4 and 500 pupils at the school. In 2006 there was a 40 year
reunion at the Michelangelo and 35 of the old boys got together many travelling from various
countries around the world. He recalled Charlie Platt, who had always been quite large
commenting on the fact that Gilroy who was always rather slim was now rather “fat”!
After matriculating Peter went on to Wits University where he studied for a BComm for four
years and then went into the property business although initially he was hoping for a career in
merchant banking. He is now involved in shopping centre development and investment.
Peter’s son Paul attended St David’s and his wife became very involved running the tuckshop
for 10 years. Peter donated a cricket scholarship to the school in 2008.
JLE January 2013

Interview with Peter Moni – 1967
Peter came to St David’s as a boarder in grade 1 having spent the year before at CBC Kimberly
where he learnt a lot although CBC didn’t have the same facilities as St David’s. Peter thought
that the boarding school structure was good for him. His brothers Adrian ’69, John’ 70 and Paul
’80 were all pupils at St David’s and Peter’s father was also a Marist old boy from Koch Street
and was head boy of Marist Observatory.
Peter remembers teachers such as Mrs Brick, Mrs Green, Mrs Janusch and Mrs Kempster.
Peter enjoyed the prep school coming from a large family and enjoyed playing soccer and swam
but didn’t play cricket. He remembers having supper in the dining room and also playing
volleyball there.
In the high school, Peter participated in athletics, swimming and rugby, playing in 45 1st team
rugby games from standard 8. Peter enjoyed the tours such as the centenary rugby tour to
Cape Town where an open air mass was held at St Joseph’s. The rugby matches against
Observatory were also a phenomenal experience and Peter also ran and swam against Obs
although Inanda was better at cricket and hockey than was Observatory. In those days Jeppe,
Parktown Boys and Observatory were the big rugby schools.
In high school he remembered the Brothers Anthony; Timothy; Andrew (Drac); Liam; Ignatius;
Augustus; Bonaventure; Edmund; Bartholemew; Sean; Vincent; Aidan and McGurk. Br Andrew
was in charge of Peter’s dormitory. Of his classmates, Joe Strevino became a good cricketer,
and he is still in touch with Gabriel Simaan, Terry Lavery, now living in Seattle, Derek
Schoombie and Peter De Kock.
After matric Peter went into the family business, Fatti’s and Moni’s dealing with industrial
relations until it was sold in 1981. He now runs his own tour operations business – Firelight
Tours and often deals with groups of American students from Furman University, South
Carolina who come to South Africa to study aids and the inter-relationships between white and
black people. He enjoys his work and the different aspects of it.
Peter’s son John matriculated from St David’s in 2009 and is currently studying for a BSc Hons
in Finance at UJ. Peter believes that the quality of education at St David’s has improved
enormously over the years.
JLE February 2013

Interview with Craig Sagar – 1973
Craig doesn’t remember his first day at St David’s but enjoyed the sport and the interaction with the
teachers. Teachers who left a lasting impression were Mrs Schaafsma and Br Andrew (Drac) and in
particular his Maths lessons.
He played rugby, cricket and participated in the hurdles event in athletics. He also got a mention for
achieving Springbok Scout level and then the Chief Scout Award.
On leaving school he studied for an degree in agriculture at the University of Pietermaritzburg and then
went on to obtain a CA(SA) and qualified in 1985. He is married with two sons who attended St Charles
College a former Marist school. He is currently a partner with Deloitte & Touche, Audit, KZN living in
Pietermaritzburg.
Craig last visited St David’s in 1975 to play tennis and is in touch with MOBS.
J.E. October 2013

Interview with Jean-Paul Renouprez – 1990
Jean-Paul came to St David’s in 1979 in grade 1 in Mrs Scaafsma’s class. Jean-Paul recalls she was a
combination of a battle axe and enforcer of the law being very strict with a good memory. Jean-Paul’s son
started his career at St David’s in grade 1 in the very same classroom.
As Jean-Paul suffered from bad asthma, he was not that good at sport and it wasn’t a big feature in his life
at that time, He played some soccer, was thrown into the baby pool and learnt to swim. There was he
recalls, a pecking order in the cricket practices which were held where the hockey field is now. He wasn’t
very competitive but remembers participating in the prep standard 5, inter-house general knowledge quiz.
He remembered Willy Castle and playing in an U7 D soccer match under threat. Mr Manolius was the prep
school headmaster, Mr Coetzee his standard 5 teacher who had a big, booming voice, Mrs Hurley taught
Music and organised the nativity plays in which Jean-Paul took part, Heather Joseph taught Art and Mr
Bronkhorst was the sports teacher for the C and D teams who took him under his wing, positioning him as
the goalkeeper.
Jean-Paul has memories of racing down to the tuck shop near the present D & T centre to buy some food
before it sold out.
On entering the high school, Jean-Paul had overcome his problem with asthma and made the 3rd team in
rugby, C and D teams for cricket and was a member of the swimming team.
Mr Olivier was a Maths teacher who made a difference; The Computer Science teacher and class teacher,
Mr Schafer died during his matric year; Mr Webster was the sports master and class master during
standard 6 and 7 and took great delight in holding water-polo practices in the unheated swimming pool
during August. Mr Finlayson was the History teacher and coached 1st team rugby, sport and PE, he was a
former Springbok, Zimbabwean squash player was absolutely feared in the high school and no-one wanted
to be in Benedict house. Jean-Paul enjoyed Religious Instruction which led the Brothers to, at one stage
believe that he may become a Brother. He enjoyed a trip to Slough meeting Br Anthony and used to help
make soup in the kitchen at St David’s .Mr Davies was the headmaster from 1989 until his matric but Mr
Murphy stands out as Jean-Paul was involved in a fund raising drive which entailed licking envelopes and
Mr Murphy told the boys that the resin was made from Camel’s hooves.
Richard Girdwood took over from Trudy Elliot in 1989 and Jean-Paul enjoyed helping with special effects
with various productions such as Hamlet and Julius Caesar and got in a lot of practice setting up lighting
and building sets in the area now occupied by the high school library. He was also involved with some
acting roles and put together a play for Osmond house for the inter-house plays competition. He also took
part in inter-house debating which he enjoyed. Apart from that he really enjoyed the war cries and attending
1st team rugby matches. A memorable and proud moment for Jean-Paul was when his uncle, a former
rugby Springbok and leading businessman, was asked to address the school at the prize giving ceremony.
A month into his matric year, Jean-Paul, together with Denis O’Regan was appointed a prefect and was
awarded a Champagnat Medal at the annual prize giving.
On their last day one of the boys went off in his car and brought back ciders which some of the boys drank
at the back of the pool. Jean-Paul went to the matric dances in standard 11 and in his matric year.
After matriculating Jean-Paul went on to study engineering at Wits University. Working for Altech he made
detonators for the mining industry, was active on the regulatory committee at Wits and in 1999 studied fulltime
for an MBA at UCT. He then spent 4 years with Dimension Data followed by a period in the
pharmaceutical industry and joined South African Breweries in 2007. He has four different roles within
operations and logistics management and is involved with packaging at the Newlands and Rosslyn
Breweries.
Jean-Paul felt that school was a good place, a safe place to be and gave him a special grounding. He
wasn’t particularly good at anything but would repeat his school career again. He is married and has a son
currently in Grade at St David’s, is a member of MOBS and is a member of the MOBS committee.
JLE March 2014

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 Conor MacFadden – 1991
Conor began his career at St David’s in grade 0 in 1979.His first classroom was where the old swimming
pool used to be and Mrs Walton was his teacher. He was also taught by current teachers Willy Castle,
Carol Ansell, Heather Joseph and Belinda Marais.
The clergy still played a major role in the school at the time with Father Plestus being exceptionally kind
and caring. Father Brewer was also very special, a mentor and very close to many of the boys. He stood up
for the boys and operated in his own area within the school which meant he wasn’t always popular with the
teaching staff.
Conor was a member of The Bishops and his housemaster, who taught History was Mr Howarth.
The most significant memory he has is of the soccer tour to Belgium in 1985 with two teams, the U10’s and
U12’s. South Africa, because of apartheid was a pariah country and it was unusual to play any sport with a
foreign country. It was an amazing experience touring Belgium for 2 to 3 weeks and a very significant one
for the boys. Because of the rarity of such tours at the time, the SABC decided to do an insert on one of its
programmes Video 2. Martin Bailey was the host and came on the tour with the boys. Conor has a copy of
the broadcasted footage.
Conor also participated in cricket and rugby as well as soccer. He was the junior school cricket captain and
played rugby in high school. Other pupils such as Ivor Rugani played provincial cricket and Brad Rains
provincial rubgy in 1991. They both have sons at St David’s as does Conor. Conor also played golf at the
Wanderers. There certainly wasn’t the variety of sports that are available to the boys today and everybody
had to participate. Hockey had been introduced but was quite contentious at the time.
Conor remembers being a co-worker and was part of a group who visited Brother Anthony’s mission in
Kuruman.
The boys attended the matric dance from standard 9 and it was held in the school dining room. It was much
lower key than today with the boys decorating the venue themselves.
After matriculating, Conor studied law at Wits University and joined Bell Dewar and Hall which recently
merged with the Canadian firm of Faskin Martineau. Conor, a partner is involved with corporate and tax
law.
Conor has a son Liam at St David’s who is currently in grade 1 and is happy to see the Marist tradition
being carried through to the next generation.
Conor is a trustee of the St David’s Foundation and is a member of MOBS.
JLE September 2014

Interview with Allan Wotherspoon – 1980
Allan came to St David’s in the junior school but then left and went to the UK for 4 years and on his return
went into the high school. In principle he was put into the same class as people he would have been with in
junior school such as George Daras who was his closest friend in junior school, but had a different group of
friends by senior school, so Allan joined a new group of friends at senior school. Three of those five friends
now live close enough in Australia that they keep in touch on a regular basis.
Allan lived close enough to the school to be a day boy and saw his close friends out of school on a regular
basis but still had his parents and sisters around him. As he was one of the youngest in his class he had to
play sport with guys from the year below for many years.
He recalled Mr McFadden as he enjoyed History and remembered his favourite quote of “A for away and O
for Go”.
Allan enjoyed the sport, athletics 100, 200, 400 and 800m, physical education and especially games like
gaining ground, the odd game of cricket when he scored 50 runs or took a hat trick for the 2nd 11 team, or
played a good game of rugby. In athletics one year Allan broke a couple of school records and was victor
ludorum of both track and field, ending up with quite a few trophies and his father was asked to donate one
of them. Allan also ran in inter schools competitions.
He didn’t enjoy Afrikaans as he never had a good grasp of the language and struggled to pass the exams.
He disliked the sadistic canings by the headmaster and brothers and the attempts at bullying himself and
his friends.
Some disappointments included not being able to compete in running for athletics and not getting an
athletics scroll or honours blazer. Allan also had an accident which meant that he had to write his matric
exams with the wrong hand.
In standard 9 the boys decorated the hall and he recalled the difficulty and shyness of getting a date. His
matric dance was a great night out, the hall looked good and it was fun dressing up smartly.
On his last day he recalls all of the boys signing their school shirts, sneaking back in the middle of the night
and putting toilet rolls to stream all over the place.
After matriculating, Allan went on to Wits University to study BSc Commerce and completed many courses
throughout his business career. He is currently employed as an IT manager. Allan is still in touch with Lloyd
Wilkins (who he has known for 33 years), Brian Muller and Geoff Slaven, all living in Australia and literally
bumped into Gavin McLauglin who used to live in the same housing estate as his parents and went running
with him on weekends whilst he was temporarily staying in SA.

Interview with Allan Schwarer – 1941 – 45
Allan and his brother Paul attended Saxonwold Primary until Marist Inanda opened in 1941 and
were pupils at the school until they were relocated to Kimberly.
Allan recalled that Br Urban was the headmaster and a Br Pius was the eldest brother and well
liked by the boys. Br Urban came from Australia and Allan’s father helped him with regard to
local regulations etc regarding building work. As far as he can remember the school started with
standard1.
Allan’s family lived next to the Killarney golf course in West Street and he remembers playing in
a lane than ran alongside their property. To get to school they caught a bus as far as Dunkeld
and from there the school provided a taxi. All the roads to the north were dirt roads and Inanda
was very much in the country.
Other boys that he remembers being in his class were Michael Clarke, Steve Muller and Carl
Vermeulen. They used to play marbles in the quad and cricket although there was no soccer.
The school’s chapel was upstairs,
Allan currently undertakes legal work for the Catholic church.
JE July 2012

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 Rod McLay – 1975
Rod came to St David’s from Marist Brothers in Bird Street, Port Elizabeth in 1966. His mother was a
teacher at the school and his brother Hamish matriculated in 1972. The family was not Catholic and his
father was a Scottish Protestant. Rod appreciates the fact that the religion of catholicism was not pushed
onto the non-Catholics and they didn’t have to attend mass.
He remembers Brothers Mario; Timothy; Andrew (Drac); Michael; Bernard who was a good photographer
but had a mean temper; Aidan, the bursar and Ezekiel who taught Maths. Of the lay teachers he recalled
Mr Lipschitz who taught Maths; Saunders – Afrikaans, Mrs Elliott – English; Mr Maritz and Mrs Kempster.
Rod played 1st team rugby and cricket in the high school and was captain of the athletics team. As far as
academics went he didn’t cover himself in glory and went on after matric to Damelin to repeat Maths and he
enjoyed his time there.
In those days there were only 24 of them in matric including the likes of Grant Ramsey (who was accused
of tax fraud in later years); the Melton twins; Kevin Prudence a biochemist now living in Guernsey; Mark
Meaker; Frank Soul who was a sportsman, placed third in Ironman and became a Springbok cyclist in the
80’s; John Morrison a chemical engineer; Kevin McGurk whose father was big in the printing industry and
head boy was Andre Dugas.
Rod was awarded an honours blazer, scrolls for athletics; rugby; merit became a prefect and was vicecaptain
of Osmond house.
After matriculating, Rod went into the army then to University of the Witwatersrand. He then became a
helicopter pilot in the air force, then the police and now flies for SA Express and is a police reservist.
Rod is married to Janine and has a son Matthew who is currently in grade2.
JLE June 2015

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

Thank you very much to the Chairman of the Old Boy’s Committee – JP, for the warm introduction.
Good Morning Mr Thiel, to all the staff, parents, Old Boy’s and the whole College. It is a tremendous honour to be invited to our annual Old Boy’s Assembly to share a few thoughts and memories of my time here, whilst also sharing with you, what I have been up to ever since.
I arrived at St David’s in 1983. A petrified 5yr old who had no idea of what to expect. I was placed in Ms Walton’s class – the sweetest, caring and most loving grade nought teacher you could ever wish to have.
She completely embodied St Marcellin Champagnat’s belief that: ‘To teach children well, you must first love them, and love them equally.’
BUT, to be PAINFULLY honest, excuse the pun, there were also teachers who embodied the belief that ‘you have to love them equally, as well as BEAT them equally’. There was no discrimination!
The 80’s, like most decades in South Africa’s history and present unfortunately, was a challenging time.
Throughout Jnr school whenever the June 16th commemorations came about all the kids who lived in Soweto had to dress up in civvies to avoid being attacked by rioters for attending what were previously white only schools. There were literally teenagers creating roadblocks to check each car driving to the north if any children in a vehicle were wearing school uniforms.
We have a lot to be grateful for, for how some things have changed.
To avoid such situations I was invited by the Von Guilleaume family to stay over at their house. It was no wonder that Michael Von Guilleaume became the headboy in 1995.
In High School you could say I found my feet.
I was incredibly privileged to be part of an amazing generation of rugby players. From standard 6 to Matric, bar injuries I played with the same bunch of lads. Our first game in 1995 against Bryanston High was on the same day as the Rugby World Cup.
I remember revving ourselves up by saying if we win this game the Springboks will win the World Cup. We won!
We had the perfect rugby team.
Our front row were massive boy’s, our locks were tall and angry, our lossies were quick and athletic. Our backline was made up of a Zulu fly half who loved to run from the dead ball line, a half Greek, half Afrikaans inside centre alongside an Italian Stallion outside center, Simone Gallizio, may his soul rest in peace.
Our no.11, 14 and 15 were black boys who ran like we were being chased by Apartheid cops.
That same year St David’s had its first overseas rugby tour to Australia. The highlight of the tour was like a scene out movie. We were two tries down with a conversion needed to seal a win. In front of a packed stadium, with some of the crowd chanting monkey noises, with a few minutes left, first our fullback Karabo Denalane side step his way to the try line. Then from the kick off, deep in our half, after the full time buzzer had rang, through multiple phases the ball landed in my
hands. Touch down in the right hand corner. Our fly half Sydney Ngwenya slotted the conversion straight through the middle.
Such memories I will never forget.
But what has truly stayed within me, isn’t the rugby victories, in hindsight is our Marist motto.
Confortare Esto Vir, Take courage and be a man.
I'm not trying to be convoluted or overly sentimental but I believe that my school upbringing shaped
the man, human being, South African that I am today. After a stint at Wits then UCT I have ended being a filmmaker by profession.
My first big budget film which, I co-originated and co-produced, was released in 2017, it ended up being South Africa’s nomination for the 2018 best foreign language Oscars film. It came close but no cigar.
The film centred around a closeted gay relationship between two Xhosa men who are caregivers during a Xhosa initiation ceremony. For those who don’t know every year young Xhosa boys from the age of 13 to 18 are sent to an annual rights of passage ritual which is meant to transform boys to men. During the ceremony an outspoken and an openly gay initiate discovers the secret relationship of the closeted caregivers which results in deadly consequences. For me the idea for the film was inspired by Robert Mugabe. In and Around 2010 Robert Mugabe
Was carrying on as usual saying that being Gay is unAfrican that it is a disease exported from Europe. As a gay African, this clearly touched my heart.
Also at the same time across South Africa a phenomenon called corrective rape became popular. Where Lesbian were being raped in the belief that it would cure them of their sexuality.
In this fit anger the director and I came up with the idea for Inxeba. We wanted to show that Gay African men exist in all communities. From Urban to Rural.
Once we made film there was a massive backlash from particularly traditional quarters across the country. Which ended up having the film banned the film and publication board which controls what we see at the cinema.
We took the f.p.b tribunal to court where finally the ruling was overturned.
What I learnt during this experience is that there is a large proportion within our society who do believe in democratic principle of freedom of speech. I as well as the rest of the production team as well as the actors received death threats. I’ve been told never to show my face in the Eastern Cape.
Well as a filmmaker I see this a feather in my cap. A filmmaker worth his or her salt is meant to disturb, upset, inspire, disrupt and question the status quo. The greatest acknowledgement is when I get stopped in the middle of the street by young gay men, who close to tears thanking me for a telling their story. That is far meaningful than any international award.
In closing I want to end off with a Steven Spielberg quote:
‘ A dream is something you never know when it’s going to come into your life. Dreams always come from behind you, not right between your eyes. It sneaks up on you. But when you have a
dream, it doesn't often come at you screaming in your face, "This is who you are, this is what you must be for the rest of your life." Sometimes a dream almost whispers. The hardest thing to listen to is your own instincts, your own human personal intuition— it always whispers; it never shouts. It’s very hard to hear. So every day of your lives you have to be ready to hear what whispers in your ear. And if you can listen to the whisper, and if it tickles your heart, and it's something you think you want to do for the rest of your life, and you listen it. Then and the rest of us will benefit from it.’
I’ve tried to listen to the whisper, to that tickling in my heart, which I believe was by the foundation of being a Marist boy.
I wish the same for all of you. Listen to that whisper, listen to your hearts.
Thank you.

Ryan Roseveare – Marist Old Boys – Speech – 05-06-2015
Thanks for having me here today,
The last speech I gave at this school was a “how to speech” its Title was “How to successfully Bunk school” – it was greeted with mixed reviews.
I will dispense with the normal formalities by greeting everything based of a social hierarchy, because I want to speak to you guys one on one in this massive gathering, so too all of you thanks for having me here today.
Who am I – Ryan Roseveare class of 1990 there were 29 of us - been married for 14 years to Gayle have 3 children Regan, Connor and Emma, no you can’t date any of my daughters.
What have I done, who is this guy!
I am famous for IT nerd but you have NEVER heard of me, work has made me well off but I dress like this, it’s given me choices and made me able to do things in life, but it all started right here !
When I was attending school our English teacher Mr Morgan gave us three pieces of critical advice, he said boys
 Rush – I did not follow that one
 Wife – I did not follow that one
 Speech is like a Cat – Let’s give it a Go!
I pass this advice onto you now, to do with it, what you want – Probably just ignore it
So faithfully following Mr Morgan’s advice - Why am I here? I am here to confess - It was me who threw the phosphorus in the pool ! But it was Gary’s idea and it had to be done !
I matriculated 25 years ago for those who can do basic maths, When I look back it seems far shorter more like 10 years’ time does fly so use your time wisely
I got my old school tie out last night and counted the number of jacks I got “elaborate” from Grade 6 to 12 it was the impressive number of 76 that’s one caning every 9.7657 repeating naturally - school days
So what’s changed? Well there are no more jacks and my record will stand into eternity – But in one word “everything” but actually “nothing”
 Apartheid,
 Tell Wing bus story,
 Internet it connects everyone,
 The power actually never went off,
 Tuck shop was under R 5 for a toasted ham and cheese, coke and packed of chips.
But what has not changed, is something all of us here have in common, we are all have attended this school and you know what - it makes us special !
But a quick story to demonstrate this – as fate would have it I was in a very high level meeting a few weeks back and during a break we got talking as you do about school, life, university and the like.
When one person asked me “Where did you go to school” and said St David’s and they said….
I knew it ! – It made me think…. Erm, why and I have been thinking about it for a while
We are DIFFERENT! – Use It !
You are right now part of a small social group or a community made up from people from different walks of life, in which you may have friends, Fren-A -me’s maybe, “guys you know”,
As the great MC Hammer once said “let’s stop”…. Look to you left… and right…. See these guys!
You will probably know them for the rest of your life, when you are half grey like me these guys around you will be in your life if you want it! How do I know… because that’s my experience!
You are all lucky to be here in this environment, IT makes you special in the race of life, you have a head start use it to make a difference in this world !
QingQile (Wing), Jean Paul (JP), Peter (Landdale), Gary (Gster), Adrian (The Lady), Brendan (OB), Chris (Wart)
I see these guys all the time, we are each other’s children’s god parents, we have walked log roads together, driven Bikes across Africa, walked across Europe, literally climbed mountains, drank too much, Raced fast cars across Europe - in the case of Wing and JP walked the road with serious things like cancer, Gary and Brendan virtually for every Springboks rugby game and many times travelled and watch games live, going to weddings and let’s not forget the bachelors in countries all over the world –
Keep these connections it’s what makes you great!
To get serious for a bit:
Look around at this place we are in… what has been given to you has been given to you for a reason, life if hard right… you will experience some pain and hardships will happen to you.
These things believe it or not happen to everyone, but it’s how you respond that makes you stand out, this school taught me to respond with power, passion, pride and energy!
Pause
Your times short, Matic’s soon you will be “free” some of you will be in university some might be going overseas, gap years, jobs, all of you
These people here right now (Your teachers) who are the people you should leverage from as much as possible.
People will pull down, but it’s in the getting up that you become a success, never giving in always pushing to the end this is something I learnt at this school ! – Writing lines for being a little naughty
All of you don’t forget – the lessons you have and will learn here! They will stand you in good stead and make your shine!
There are two types of people in this world when it comes to attitude and thought process
Now the first set of people – Wait for opportunities to come to them so they can “Quote un Quote” take them and they wait endlessly for some mirage or oasis to magically appear yet it never comes!
And they end up in some job they have no need to be in - doing some tinny task they have no desire doing
All because they were not willing to – Risk It or even Try
And the second set of people, these are the ones who find a way to create opportunities, these are the ones who make their own luck “so to speak”
 Live life on your terms
 Live life as you want to
 Live life as you envision
 Failure is a step forward, not backward
And what I have become to understand is the only difference is fear because those who are not afraid to go after something are the ones who turn out to be successful,
Success in life, school and relationships Whatever ! is often a result of not being afraid to accomplish Anything it’s going to be the guys you would never expect that make the biggest difference!
You are your own driving engine and your own break.
To the matric’s –
PAUSE !
Make a statement to the universe I am capable and powerful, there are gifts you have in your life that only you can tap into - Use them.
Have a irrational, illogical, passion in what you do ! I don’t know what your passion is but believe in it
You have the strength and the passion inside of you NOW to change the world.
Pause
Soon you will be an Old Boy! Remember what you have learnt here apply it keep your connections.
Thank you for your time!
And in conclusion!
Remember! - 76!

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 Darryn Haltman – 2008
Darryn Haltmann came to St David’s in grade 4 and remembers the anxieties and excitement of
walking into the school leaving his mother and meeting his soon to be friends.
The teachers he remembers are Mr Rod Smith, Mrs Glanville, Mr Reichart, Mrs Fleming and
Mrs Marais.
He enjoyed the sport and played 1st team rugby and cricket and was involved with soccer and
athletics.
He was most unhappy when they lost any of their sports fixtures, but thoroughly enjoyed the
rugby tour to New Zealand and Australia.
Darryn participated in the Advanced Maths programme and felt it was especially helpful for both
1st and 2nd year Maths and Stats at university.
He is still in touch with a number of his school friends and they are all members of MOBS.
He is currently studying for a Bachelor of Business Science: finance and accounting at UCT. He
was awarded a faculty scholarship and has appeared on the Dean’s list and received the
Kopano award for academic excellence.
JE May 2013

Undated draft of the Constitution of the St David's Marist Old Boys Association

Interview with Alex Quail 1962
Alex started at St David’s in 1958, came into the high school straight from the bush –
Carltonville. There were no English high schools in the area at the time and Bishop Wheelan
helped him get into St David’s.
Johannesburg ended at the entrance to the school . A Dairy Den was about 1 kilometre down a
dirt road and Sandton City did not exist, the area was just veldt and the occasional farmhouse.
Alex was a boarder and remembers everyone being very competitive in sport and with each
other. There was a boxing ring and the “Beak” Br Benedict would organise the boys to sort out
their grievances in the boxing ring. The school was tough and there were very real fights
between the boys especially the Lebanese and the Jews. There was iron discipline and boys
were caned for any reasonable misdemeanour, however it did them no harm. The discipline was
fair and not vindictive, some old boys found it unfair and were very bitter about it. It was rather
like being in the army and the boarders became a band of brothers and those that saw it
through became very good friends often for the rest of their lives. On one weekend per term, the
parents were allowed to visit their sons on Sunday and they went home during the school
holidays.
The boys were very cruel to Mr Bishop the only lay teacher, who was tormented by the boys.
There were 60 boys in a class which reduced to 17 by Matric. All the brothers taught,one
brother was Spanish, another Afrikaans, quite a good mixture. Brother Bonaventure, “Bonnie”
was a big tough guy who used to sit on his desk and fall asleep. He was very laid back teacher
and Alex can’t remember what he taught. Br Anthony taught Afrikaans and Maths but he was
always so busy so the clever boys in the class ended up teaching them. Br Edwin became too ill
to run the school in 1958 and Br Benedict “Beak” took over followed by Br Anthony.
In 1962 there were 17 matrics in the class and they beat Observatory in rugby. Those were
harsh days without the rules and regulations that protect the players now. There were 200 boys
in the high school competing against other schools with over 1000 pupils for example, KES,
Jeppe, CBC Boksburg, CBC Pretoria. One of the boys Chris Dempster, lost a kidney after he
was badly tackled and the teachers pumped his legs. Darko cracked his skull in one match. Alex
was too small to make the 1st rugby team but played in the 2nd. He played cricket and was
captain of the 1st hockey team. His father was captain of Transvaal in the late 30’s and got
together with the brothers to help develop hockey.
He could not swim but was dragged into the inter-high gala. The school pool is where the prep
playground is now. He was in Benedict house and was a prefect..
The cycling club was good for them and they were able to bring their bikes to school. The golf
club was formed and the first golf tournament held, Alex was involved and his brother Michael
was a good golf player. Unlike today he well remembers walking out to the cricket pitch without
a hat.
Alex feels strongly that the boys who became Springboks should be honoured with a school
honours board. The first Springbok was Ray Bischoff for swimming and Gavin Webster for
hockey. John Daley was a very good tennis player.
As far as academics went, St David’s was a seven subject school with three languages English,
Afrikaans, Latin, Geography, History, Science and Maths. He was an average pupil who wrote
the JMB matric. The clever boys did Add Maths.
There was an incident in the eary 60’s. NASA had just got going and the boys wanted to
develop a solid fuel rocket. Alex had a recipe and they used the Science lab on the second
floor, brewed some stuff up which then exploded! Br Anthony flew up the stairs to see what
damage had been done, but no-one was injured and Br Anthony was relieved. Eventually a
rocket was built by one of the geniuses of the school – Hawkins who is now Professor of
Applied Maths at Wits. Another pupil Bernard Haakman, seemed dopey, but became a vet.
David Sole, went on to study chemical engineering and worked for the government developing
rocket fuels or something similar.
He recalled an incident during study time in the standard 6 classroom that accommodated 60
boys. There was very little swearing in those days and debating was popular as the boys got to
get out of school occasionally. Doug Wickins stood up to make a speech and asked the
question “How can you call George that name, he is a boy”? (cunt). Br Dennis (Tickey) blushed
a deep purple, but Doug continued with his speech which was honest and full of integrity. He got
a round of applause and was not reprimanded by the brothers.
After matric he went to the Pretoria Technikon and did a National Diploma in Civil Engineering,
Land Surveying and remained mainly in Johannesburg.
He has no memories of his first day at the school but would have had to be there a few days
early as a boarder. On his last day he was so pleased to get out into the big wide world and was
very confident. He remembers walking into Barclays Bank, an uncle was a director, and asked
to open an account.
He says the boys were not prepared for the outside world due to the essentially classic
education they had received (No “life skills taught in those days”) but the fact was that they were
able to cope with whatever was thrown at them. Some did very well and most not too badly.
Once a year a Marist recruiter (crow catcher) used to come along and they all avoided him. He
was aware that Michael Heubeck, an American became a brother, he was with them until
standard 9.
Alex’s brother, Michael (deceased) was a really good cricketer and fast bowler. In those days
the cricketers wore boots. Michael played in a final and took 5 wickets against KES. A nonconformist,
he was presented with a cricket ball at assembly whereupon he promptly threw the
ball at Br Anthony. Needless to say, he was expelled but allowed to write his matric. He went on
to become a doctor.
Alex felt that the boarding was where the spirit of the school lay and that the character of the
school changed once the boarding facility was closed.
JE June 2011

Interview with Max Leipold - 1959
Max started as a boarder in Std 2 in 1951. His parents lived in Standerton and in Std 9 they
settled in Illovo and then became a day student. He was very unhappy and missed the
camaraderie of the boarding school so went back as a boarder in matric. Brian Nicol was head
boy and the Joint Matriculation Board exam was written.
Max played 1st team rugby and was in the team which beat Obs for the first time despite Obs
having future Springbok Sid Nomis in their team. A tour had been arranged for Obs to visit Port
Elizabeth and play against Marist Walmer in 1958. Due to the very poor season Obs were
experiencing it was decided that Inanda, who were having a good season, should travel in their
stead. Br Bonaventure and the boys travelled by train. The team lost to Victoria Park and Grey
College but beat Walmer 11-3.
Max enjoyed the boarding system and in those days there were two dorms with 44 beds in
each. Max enjoyed collecting the pictures of girls on the back page of the Sunday Times in
those days and made a scrapbook. On this occasion the boys were all sitting round looking at
the pictures when Br Ephrem came ‘gliding’ by. Not wanting to be caught they threw the book
out of the window but it fell near to Br Bonaventure’s window. His parents were called in to see
Br Benedict, the headmaster to discuss this.
Max was born in 1941 and retired at the age of 53 and moved to the house they had built in
Hermanus. He originally worked for IBM but then moved to Ellerman shipping company where
he was a director. Max’s hobby is photography and he and his wife travel extensively in pursuit
of this hobby.
Interview: 12 October 2010

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 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 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 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 Batana Vundla -1996
Batana was a pupil at St David’s from grade 0 to matric and recalls there being at least 3 or 4
black pupils in his year during that time.
Mrs Walton was his grade 0 teacher and he remembers his first day, crying because his uniform
was uncomfortable but by the end of the day he didn’t want to go home.
Mr Royce had a big impact on him in the prep school, and had a steady hand. In the high school
there was Mr Brownlee,(who he understands helped him become a prefect in matric), Mrs
Marais, Mr Edey who enjoyed teaching and was always fair, inspiring but strong.
He has known Mike von Guilleaume since grade 0 and his was the first white person’s home
that he visited. At the time in the 80’s he somehow thought that white people had green blood.
So you can imagine he was a bit nervous sleeping over at his house. Other boys he remembers
are Murray White, the Chandler, Contardo and Fiaschanaro, families. There was a good school
spirit, Sifiso Ngwenya was St David’s first black head boy, the school was ahead of all the other
private schools in this regard. He was grateful for all the support he received and to get such a
good education at St David’s.
He was fortunate as his parents did well and his mother ran the family business. Although he
sometimes had to travel to school in civies (At the time attending school in white areas was
taboo) he always travelled in a private car which helped in getting around. His mother
developed cancer whilst he was in standard 7 and was ill until he matriculated. It was a very
stressful time for him and he didn’t handle it too well.
On the sporting front he played B team soccer, athletics, and cricket in the prep and then A
team rugby in the high school until matric as a wing. In 1995, year of the World Cup the rugby
side was the best St David’s ever had. Mike von Gulleaume was head boy and Johnathan
Kyriakakis, 1st rugby team captain. It was the year of the first overseas tour in which the team
won all of their games and they used to sing Sho Sholoza coming off the pitch. In the opening
game Batana scorred the winning try. He also remembers the game against Bryanston High,
the same day of the Rugby World Cup final, the stands were full, they played really well and St
David’s won. They felt that the Boks would win because they had. In this year Batana was
chosen for Transvaal U18 development team.
He was involved with plays for College house and had mainly bit parts but no major roles. He
was involved with debating and recalls Mrs Henderson who started a campaign asking for
peace in SA, she also taught Geography.
Batana never achieved academically, he admits to being a lazy student who underperformed.
He was relieved on his last day to be finishing school but was nervous and counting the days to
the results. He looked forward to going into the real world. He passed his matric and went to
Wits then onto UCT where he studied Drama.
Batana is currently a film producer working on a production dealing with the protection of
information and corruption in the ruling party. He is also involved in the film industry assisting
youngsters to get into the industry. He has also been on the MOBS committee for the past two
years and would like to send any sons, which he may father, to St David’s.
JE December 2011

Interview with Ross Alcock – 1986
Ross began his career at St David’s in grade 1 in 1975. He had two older brothers at the school
and remembers being very excited on his first day. He was very familiar with the school as he
had already been there with his brothers on numerous occasions. His first teacher was Miss
Busscheau.
He remembered Father Plesters, the Chaplain who later became Monsignor, Mrs Walton grade
2, Mrs Ansell who was a temporary teacher, Mrs Webb standard 1, Mrs Napier a rather
authoritarian figure, Mrs Joseph, standard 3 and Mrs Anderson. In standard 2 Ross caught a
virus, one boy died and Ross was lucky to come through it, didn’t attend school and was unable
to walk for quite some time. Mrs Napier and Mrs Aubrey helped him with extra work at home.
Ross really enjoyed the sport and recalls sports coach Terry O’Mahoney together with Tim
Coetze standard 5 and Willy Castle standard 4. Willy also coached the grade 1 soccer team.
Br Timothy was the headmaster followed by Mr Murphy who appeared to be very authoritarian
in the beginning until his demise when he was seen by all the boys on TV as a wrestler. Mr
Frielick who was too soft followed and then came Mr Boswell, the Afrikaans teacher who was
influenced by Mrs Elliot, many of the boys thought she really ran the school and that he was
merely a figurehead. There was an incident with the non-catholic retreat in 1985 led by the
Doyle brothers which showed a lack of leadership within the school. Ross felt that the
leadership in the high school was sadly lacking and that the boys needed a strong leader.
Father Brewer was the type of person who should have led the school. He was an incredible
man, unlike a conventional priest. He taught RE but loved sport. An eminently practical and
pragmatic man he could give the boys guidance in life and, even though he was extremely
religious he was neither distant nor removed from reality. He helped Ross with extra Latin
lessons whilst he was at university and had incredible patience. Father Brewer married Ross,
counselling him and his wife beforehand, he also blessed his son but sadly died shortly
afterwards.
In standard 5 a number of boys left to go to St John’s as St David’s was then going through a
bad patch, although it wasn’t a good time for the school, the boys got on well together and there
was great camaraderie through the sport .Some of his pals at the time were Greg Lambe;
Gordon Tonetti and Craig MacKay. He remembers a black pupil joining in grade 2 and that there
were a few black boys at the school including the Shongwe brothers and a number of them went
to their father’s funeral in standard 7 held in Atteridgeville, Soweto.
Ross played rugby in standard 4 and 5 against the high school’s U13C team. As many boys left
at the end of standard 5 it was a great loss to the rugby team. Ross played Transvaal Nuffield
cricket in 1986 and stayed at Hilton College. He was awarded colours for rugby in mtandard 9
and again in his Matric year and won trophies for leadership, cricket, rugby and the Osmond
Cup for sportsman of the year. He was vice head prefect and captained the 1st rugby and cricket
teams.
His favourite year was 1985 playing 1st team rugby and cricket and he went on cricket and rugby
tours to Cape Town. At the Marist schools’ festival they had a very good side and made up the
vast majority of a combined Marist schools team. They stayed in old dormitories at St Joseph’s
and for the cricket tour stayed at the Newlands Sun and being boys managed to get up to some
mischief.
Ross was involved with inter-house plays in the primary school and remembers being in the
team that won the inter-house quiz in standard 5. However he didn’t last long playing one of the
guards in “Hamlet”, Trudie Elliott wasn’t his favourite person.
Ross loved his time at St David’s although he did have some regrets that he hadn’t gone to a
stronger school from sporting and other perspectives. He felt he would have further flourished
but only realised this later. After leaving school he played cricket for Old Eds and for Transvaal
and realised that had he been at another school he would have without doubt played Nuffield A
in 1985 and 6. He actually played for the B side and knew he was better player than many on
the A side. Because of this he didn’t return to St David’s for quite some time. Ross firmly
believes that when sport is poor the perception is that the school is poor. St David’s loses a lot
of focus on sport and does need to be more competitive.
Academically Ross was no star but did well enough to get one distinction in matric and went
into Law studying for a B Proc at Wits University and for his LLB through Unisa whilst doing his
articles. He missed the army by continuing to study and when he finished his LLB he went
overseas for a year, then did his articles at a small firm and joined Edward Nathan Sonnenberg
in 1997 and has been a partner since 2000.
Ross has two sons at St David’s and his eldest son will be going to Hilton for high school as a
boarder.
Ross’ company is the only law firm that has dedicated offices in Alexandra and Mitchel’s Plain
and everyone on the staff has to complete a certain number of hours of pro bono work to
support these offices. They also work together with the Department of Justice and Small Claims
Court in Alex and the managing partners sit on these courts and supply advice.
JLE October 2012

Interview with Martin Lebos – 1978
Martin initially went to St Paul’s but came to St David’s in standard 1 and Mrs Watson was his
teacher. His class was in the house block (where the CEO’s house is now) where standard 1,
1A and 2 and 2A were taught. He remembers that, in the winter, they used to make up a fire in
each classroom. The following year he moved out of house block to a classroom just below the
old chapel and Mrs Napier was his teacher. There were still boarders at the school at that time
and, where the tuck-shop and library is now was the boarder’s dining room. He remembers
other teachers, standard 3, Mrs Geddes, standard 4, Mrs Sacks, standard, 6 Mrs Knesovitch
who was very strict, used the cane but was a very good teacher.
The headmaster was Brother Anthony and the other Brothers were Timothy, Andrew, Mario,
Aquinias who taught Maths in standard 6 and 7, Bernard who taught Latin and Brother Aidan
who was the bursar. He learnt in standard 5 that if he really studied he could do really well and
eventually was awarded Dux of the year. High school teachers were Afrikaans – Mr Klaasen,
English – Penelope ?, Maths – Br. Aquinias, Geography – Mr Maritz, Mrs Sally Saunders taught
Geography at a lower level in the high school – Mr Maritz, Biology and Science - Mr Karoo, they
all taught through to standard 8. Mr Zacharawitch taught History, was of Russian origin and had
been in a concentration camp, he left at the end of standard 9 followed by Mr Manolios and Mr
MacFadyen who was a very good teacher. For the higher standards there was Mrs Elliot for
English, Mr Lipschitz for Maths, Br Timothy who had wonderful hand writing and was brilliant for
Science, Br Bernard for Latin, and Mr Needt for Afrikaans. Mr Lipschitz was ahead of his time, in
matric he took Martin out of his class and made him do past papers in the hour and taught him
Ad Maths with the result that when he went to varsity he was already ahead of everyone in Ad
Maths. Mr Lipschitz also coached rugby, stayed in Fricker Rd and drove a lime green Volksie
Beetle.
The new Science block was opened, a new pool built and boarding came to an end. The library
was run by Mrs Zent was in the old Science room. The land the Inandas are on now was still
part of the school until it was sold off. Families living in Chiselhurston had a gate with access to
the school grounds.
Martin swam, was a member of the water-polo team, played 1st team rugby, participated in
debating and was a member of a good team which that year narrowly lost to St John’s in the
Colby Cup. The final decision was made by a judge with a bias towards St John’s. He also
remembered an inter-catholic schools athletics held at the Wanderers, Willy Castle was in
matric and Nolan Springer was a brilliant sprinter. At that time the prep playing field was the
track.
Nassey Simaan was the rugby coach and in standard 1, his wife Aggie used to cook Martin
lunch. He remembers a rugby match where the school lost to KES by two points. In 1972 the
school had a really great rugby side. Martin’s matric class was small and could just about field a
second rugby team, the closing of the boarding gave the school a huge knock in this regard.
Boxing was withdrawn as a sport when someone got badly injured. The astro turf was where the
practise cricket nets were and the grade 00 block was the paddock.
Assembly was held every morning in the quad where the trees are now for the high school and
the junior school where they still line up now. The high school swimming gala was held in the
evening and the old boys used to come and compete. The boys used to go to the Beefeater
restaurant, where Giovannis is now, and have hamburgers after rugby and play pinball.
Champagnat day was really enjoyable. It started off with all the boys going in buses to mass at
the Catholic church in Keyes Avenue and he remembers the hymns they used to sing.
Boys he remembers are Jeffrey and Jerome Kourie, Patrick Riley, Oliver Setton, Desmond
Morgan, Fulton Allen, a top golfer who used to stay with the Kouries, George Nikas who was a
brilliant hurdler and good rugby player (owner of the ocean Basket) the Saad’s all went to the
school. Forsman, Martin’s sister’s son, Lawrence Kourie was in the same class and now lives in
San Diego. The head boy was Andrew Snyman and the vice head boy, Mike Peel who now lives
in Nelspruit and has done some amazing research into flora and fauna. Roy Zent is a top
nephrologist in the States and his brother is one of the top oncologists in the States. Marcel
John, Jimmy John, Michel, Costa, Raymond.
Martin went to a 30 year reunion but there was only one other old boy from 1978 there.
Martin loved the school and thought it was wonderful, the school was like a family with the
brothers who were an important part of the school. The school took a big knock when the
boarding facility closed down. His son Joseph is presently at St David’s in grade 8.
Martin is not a member of MOBS but is still passionate about his school. He likes the display of
all the matric photos in the Champagnat hall.
Martin is still very passionate about his school and thinks that the moral standard of the school
has never dropped, but feels strongly that no current parent should be on the board. There
should be a book of rules and regulations and the school authorities should be consistent with
upholding the same and not allow some boys to be relieved of punishment. He also believes
that the teaching staff should have more influence regarding the election of prefects, head boy
and the awarding of Champagnat medals.
NB Martin’s brother is married to Heather Joseph’s cousin.
NB No longer has his matric Yearbook
JE January 2012