Interview with Charles Robinson – 1981 Charles first came to St David’s in 1973 as a day boy although he had boarded in the UK at the age of 5 and then again at Michaelhouse. He preferred day school as he spent more time with his family. Charles enjoyed the sport and was captain of the 1st tennis team; captain of 2nd cricket XI; 3rd rugby XV; a member of the athletics and swimming teams and was awarded a scroll for tennis. He recalls winning the inaugural school golf championships at the Wanderers. Charles remembers Trudy Elliott trying so hard. He remembers being initially told that he wouldn’t have to learn Afrikaans as he had arrived from the UK, only to be told in standard 8 that he would need it for matric. Charles hated exams. He enjoyed watching Br Timothy rant and rave. He took a girl called Angela to his matric dance which was a low key event. He recalls being quite excited on his last day at St David’s even though he still had no idea of what he was going to do. On matriculating, Charles was exempt from army service as he was from the UK and studied for a National Diploma in Hotel Management and at the Institute for Financial Studies. Charles is currently self employed as a financial consultant and lives in Natal. He is married with two sons aged 17 and 14. He is involved with church community projects. He last visited St David’s this year for the first time since he left whilst he was in Johannesburg attending a reunion organised by Sven Arp. JLE November 2013
Interview with Reinhard Hartmann – 1980 and Robert Hartmann – 1981 Reinhard came to St David’s in 1968 and specifically remembered the fountain at the entrance to the prep school. He recalled being told by Mrs Kempster, who was quite a tough cookie, to put his cap on, as he hadn’t been to a nursery school he had no experience of a formal environment. There were still boarders at the school when he and his brother Robert initially started. Reinhard remembered the swimming pool, science block and Mr Chipolat the Science teacher. He thoroughly enjoyed standard 9. Br Timothy used to flick his fingers and say “Office! Boy!”. Robert has fond memories of Heather Joseph who taught both himself and his younger brother Roland, Art. Br Bernard was the rugby coach who would get the boys into a huddle saying their “Hail Mary’s” and then tell them to “Go Kill ‘em!”. He was a good sculptor and photographer. They both remembered learning History by rote which made it incredibly boring. Reinhard felt that Trudy Elliot had the biggest influence on his life at St David’s, she was one of those teachers who was interactive. He recalled the Great Gatsby, Macbeth and The Crucible, which he will never forget and recently compared the two Gatsby movies with his family recently. Reinhard is still an avid reader to this day. Robert also saw her many years after he finished school and said that she was well liked by all the boys. Reinhard remembered Penny Richards who taught swimming and who, at the time he thought to be the most beautiful woman in the world! Other teachers were Mr Boswell who was different and calm, teaching Afrikaans and History. Mr McFadden was quite a character and Willy Castle also taught both of them. Br Timothy (Tin Man) ran the school with an iron fist and wasn’t particularly well liked. When he was headmaster he made a speech on the boys’ last day threatening them that they would not matriculate if they threw him into the swimming pool. There were not many brothers still teaching at the school when the Reinhard and Robert came to the end of their school career. The brothers felt that they were never frightened into believing the religious aspect of their education whilst at St David’s whereas at Treverton they were exposed to Sunday movies with non believers burning in hell. At Sat David’s there was religious instruction and a regular mass which was very formal and weekly Confession. Robert remembers being an altar boy for one event. The boys used to strive to be an altar boy but Chaplain Plesters didn’t interact with the boys outside of mass. Reinhard felt that he took away from this a respect for his elders and other people. Education was not his priority and neither he or Robert were great academics and in those days the parents didn’t get involved as they do today. Reinhard remembers writing matric in the dorms. And that the theme of his matric dance was “Star Wars”. Both brothers left St David’s for a short period of time, they had a very autocratic German father who decided that there was too much emphasis on sport and not enough on academics. They both went for one term to Sandown High where they were introduced to girls, Robert in standard 6 and Reinhard in standard
From there they were sent to Treverton, a boarding school in Moii River. Robert came back to St David’s at the beginning of the second term in standard 8 and Reinhard lasted until about three quarters of standard 9. Both of them repeated a year, Robert standard 8 and Reinhard, standard 9. Both brothers remembered being caned but usually for a good reason. Reinhard had a drivers license in matric and drove an old Varient. A few boys Alphonso de Chaud, Enrico Maraschin, Brian Muller and George Daras tutored him and helped him pass matric. Reinhard was awarded scrolls for rugby and swimming and water polo. Reinhard played 1st rugby XV, was captain of the ‘A’ water polo team and captain of Bishops house Robert was vice captain of the ‘A’ swimming team, vice captain of the 2nd rugby XV and captained the Western province team, ‘A Water Polo team, a prefect and was awarded an honours blazer, scrolls for prefect, werit and water polo. After leaving school, Reinhard was accepted at Durban University to study a BComm but didn’t go. A friend of his father offered him a job in the laboratory field, then he followed his father and got involved in design and kitchens. In 1983 he went to Germany for three years to a college specialising in the furniture industry. Afterwards, in 1986 he went on a business trip with his father to the United States arriving just after the space shuttle blew up. Three months later both Reinhard and Robert were in the States, in Atlanta for one and half years until their father returned to South Africa and Reinhard and Robert closed the business. Reinhard rejoined the family business in 1994 and asked Robert to join him when their father retired and the two of them took over the business – Hartmann and Kepler. Keppler was their grandfather’s cousin, a cabinet maker. Robert completed a year at an audit firm as a junior clerk after leaving St David’s and rewrote Maths. He eventually went to work in the family business and did an apprenticeship in cabinet making for four years and went to the US in 1985-6. He then did his national service and joined the audit firm Meyer, Wilson and Marsh completing his articles there and studied for a degree through Unisa. He worked one year for an adult education company before returning to the family business. Reinhard felt that one of the saddest things when he left St David’s was that he didn’t know what the ANC was, although the country was in political turmoil he had been sheltered and was not aware of Mandela until he went to Germany. The brothers’ father, Gunter was an old boy of Koch Street and spent a short time at St David’s Robert has three sons two who currently attend St David’s and Reinhard has two daughters who attended St Mary’s. (Both at Stellenbosch). They have a brother Roland who also attended St David’s and is living in London. JE October 2013
