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A Trip Down Memory Lane - 2020 Rugby Tour

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000927
  • Item
  • 2020

A trip down memory Lane by: Gus Garcia – Old Boys St David’s
It is 2020 and I’m feeling totally nostalgic to reflect back on my years at St David’s, which ended 31 years ago, but whose memories remain as vivid as though they were only yesterday. Perhaps this is because my son Kiko is in his Matric year and I have been fortunate enough to relive a second school experience through his journey at St David’s. I have been frequently struck by the similarities of the school, then and now, in terms of the fundamental ethos and values, which have not deviated nor been altered in any way. St Davids has steadfastly refused to change its core character in a fast changing environment and results orientated world. The School has suffered and faced many challenges over the years, only to re-emerge stronger, brighter and wiser for having withstood these headwinds.The Marist Brothers ethos of family, community, simplicity, humility and reflection through prayer and mass, are ubiquitous in all aspects of school life. Whilst these values are not always apparent in ones early years, these essential truths reveal themselves as one progresses in age and consciousness. How amazing was it to discover that my son was being taught by 4 teachers who taught me. How satisfying to watch the accepting demeanour of our boys, truly representing our cosmopolitan nation, roaming the school and the playground.Walking the corridors after so many years brought in a rush of memories both good and bad. The laughs, the tears and the shared hopes and fears of my fellow brothers. Some have passed on, others are in far away lands and yet others remain close at hand, but all are remembered and loved. St Davids was never considered a top sporting school and yet every age group punched well above their weight in all categories. In fact being the perennial underdog resulted in a tighter knit group and forged friendships and brotherhoods for life. Representing the St David’s first team for rugby was a cherished moment for me and one I could share joyfully with my son when he was asked to join the touring team in 2020. It has been 18 years of wonder and joy watching you develop into a wonderful young man. I am excited for Kiko and his band of brothers who will embark on a fantastic adventure, irrespective of whether they win, lose or draw, so long as they cherish the endeavour and the journey and most importantly take courage to be men of virtue and value.

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with John Peel 1970

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000820
  • Item
  • 2010

Interview with John Peel – 1970
John joined St David’s in grade 1, 1958 and was a day boy which meant he had more of a
family life and time with his brothers and sisters which he felt was important to him, although, if
he had been a boarder he would have been able to participate in more sport. On his first day he
recalled the smell of lead pencil and erasers shavings and sitting next to his friends Adrienne
Tygh and Antoinne Simaan.
The teachers he remembers are Brothers Anthony (Ounges), Andrew (Drac), Bosco (Boing) and
Br Sean in standard 6. He recalled being caught smoking on rugby tour twice by Drac; being
caught pinching orange juice out of the store room together with Willy Castle; being sent out and
standing in the corridor and hearing the click of “Ounges” fingers and “to my office boy”.
He really enjoyed the sport and was a member of the 1st rugby team, 1st cricket team, tennis
2nds, athletics team, golf and swimming. He entered into every heat to get out of school but
couldn’t swim a stroke. He was selected for the 1971 hockey, SADF; 1990 – 2005 Mpumalanga
Masters Hockey; 1974 Transvaal cricket; 1972 rugby U/20 Transvaal.
The friends he had and with who he is still in contact are Willy Castle, Keith Shaw, Dan Toner,
Phillip Karakashin, Errol Macaulay and Johnny Williams.
He recalls being a prefect and not particularly enjoying catching fellow smokers.
His last day he remembers sitting at the Rosebank Hotel (not in uniform) and having a beer.
On leaving school he went to Wits Technical College and Pretoria Technical College and is
currently employed as an ecologist.
John last visited the school in 2001
2010

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Cecil Thokoane 1985

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000731
  • Item
  • 2012

Interview with Cecil Thokoane – 1985
Cecil came to St David’s in June 1982 at the age of 12 into standard 7 and matriculated in 1985
age 16. Cecil was born in Soweto and went to a government school for his primary schooling. In
standard 3 his teacher thought he was too smart and he was promoted to standard 4. Cecil’s
mother wanted him to go to a Catholic school either Holy Cross or St Matthews, run by the
nuns. In May 1982 Sister Michael gave him a letter in which he was awarded a scholarship by
British Petroleum for tuition at St David’s. Fortunately his school colours were the same and he
got the rest of his school uniform from the swop shop. It was quite an experience, not knowing
who, where or what but he was made to feel welcome and at home. Even so it was quite a
transition and, since his mother had taken him to school by tram which stopped at Dunkeld he
had to find his own way home and got lost walking back. Eventually he used to ride in a Combi
with much younger boys to school but as he had to stay later for sport he had to use public
transport to get home. He used to have to get up at 5.00am and spend an hour travelling to
school and when he had sport it would take him even longer to get home.
He remembers meeting Mr Murphy and being mobbed the first lunch hour and given a crash
course in rugby. He went into Osmond house and when he finally settled in was able to excel
academically. He learnt to play rugby, becoming quite a good player making the A team. He
also performed well at athletics and collected a number of accolades including being awarded
the Sandton Mayorial Trophy two years in a row and breaking the record for the 800m.
Cecil was not a member of the swimming team and tells the story of how he nearly drowned
earning the wrath of Willy Castle. He had been at the school a couple of months, it was the
beginning of the summer/spring season and PT shifted to the swimming pool where the boys
were going to play water-polo. Being just 12 he thought he could just swim and got into the pool
at the deep end and promptly proceeded to sink. Fortunately one of his class mates, Steve the
American, spotted him and rescued him. By lunch time the whole school knew that he had
nearly drowned and he only started taking lessons two years ago in 2009 overcoming his fear.
Cecil enjoyed playing rugby and gradually improved becoming quite a good kicker. His first
rugby game was quite funny as he had literally been given a week’s classroom tutorial about the
game. He went in as a sub and when he first saw this mean faced, spitting, fuming guy from
Parktown Boys barrelling down on him and, even though it was his first game ever, he sensed
that if he were to let him go past he would score and right royally embarrass him. He caught him
with a high tackle, he didn’t score, they were penalised but didn’t lose any points. This was his
debut into 4 years of sweat, pain and fun as well.
He remembered a particular rugby game. It was during an U14 game and St David’s was trailing
9-11. He thought they had lost the game, in front of a full crowd waiting to watch the 1st team
match against Marist Observatory, the match of the season and compulsory. There were literally
a few minutes left to the last whistle and as fullback he was lounging under the poles and then
they were awarded a penalty 10 or so metres into their half. He thought that the front would run
the ball and attempt a try. Next thing he heard his name being called, the team wanted him to
kick for goal and earn 3 points. He told them it was too far and they shouted that he had made
those kind of kicks during practise. So all of a sudden everyone was looking at him, the whole
place was quiet. He went up, made a nice sand mound and started taking his back-step, only
this time he went back at least 20 metres; all the while saying his Hail Marys. He took what felt
like a long slow motion run and kicked that ball with all his might. His kick was dead straight
and, from his vantage point it looked as if the ball had fallen short. Next thing the whole stadium
erupted with jubilation. It took seconds for him to realise that he had scored the penalty from
that distance and had also won the school the game. His moment of glory! The first team went
on to win their match and on monday he had the pleasure of the whole episode being recounted
to the school at assembly.
Another game he remembered was an U14 away game at Parktown Boys, the ref was a 1st year
student from Wits and half the guys were bigger than Cecil. They had been having a bad
season so the game deteriorated pretty quickly and the ref completely lost control with full on
brawls on the field. The game was abandoned and Cecil was in a bit of a fix because he
planned to walk from Parktown Boys into town to catch his bus home. After the fight he was the
only blue and yellow rugby shirt in a sea of black and red. In the spirit of sportsmanship they
chuckled about the fights during the game as he made his way to the gate – the year of living
dangerously.
Most rugby games were a mixture of excitement and fear. There simply weren’t many black
children playing rugby and a lot of times Cecil could see the other team marking him up as he
got off the bus in all cases to try and make his game a misery. However he was lightning fast
and they couldn’t catch him most of the time and his Marist brothers and team mates were
always close by to bring woe unto whoever felt the urge to harm him outside the normal rules of
the game. Unfortunately because the riots were so bad, he stopped playing rugby in Matric and
he didn’t make the 1st team.
The teachers he remembered were Mrs Evans for making him feel welcome when he first
arrived at St David’s. Mrs Evans caused an explosion during a Chemistry class. She was
showing how sodium, he thought, reacted with water. The boys started to urge her to throw in
larger chunks and a large explosion followed which the boys thought was awesome but left Mrs
Evans very red-faced.
Mr Boswell understood where he came from and found a family, the Hoffmeyers for him to stay
with during the Matric exams literally saving his life as the Combi he normally travelled in was
attacked and he would have been targeted. Mr Colia was always cold and hard but made him
want to really prove himself at Maths. Mr Farrel,for enabling him to enjoy History, his only
distinction in Matric and Mrs Elliot for teaching him to love Shakespeare. He shocked her by
getting a first class English pass for Matric, so much so that she wrote him a card expressing
her joy.
Cecil was awarded scrolls for History and Biology. He couldn’t participate in school plays etc
because the travelling was so difficult. He used to get nervous doing orals in front of the class
and remembers talking about his then hobby ballroom dancing which caused some hilarity. On
his last day he wrote Afrikaans and stayed with the Hoffmeyers going home the following
weekend. He was sad to leave St David’s where he had grown up intellectually and as a person.
He had an awesome time and came into an environment where he became good at sport and
was given the opportunity to reach new heights.
After school Cecil went to Wits to study mining engineering which was a disaster as he realised
he was not mechanically inclined. He then went to the University of the Western Cape where he
studied for a BSc majoring in Maths and Physics and his minors were in Computer Science and
Applied Maths with dreams of working as a nuclear physicist. Later he also completed an MBL
through Unisa. Although he was sponsored by BP he was recruited by Engen when his career
in IT began. He also worked for the stock exchange, IBM and a start up company for 3 years
which failed. He then went on to Dimension Data and worked with Jason Goodall, an Old Boy of
the same year, as chief technical officer for Middle and East Africa. Jason is currently the MD of
Dimension Data. Cecil is now running his own company; Galeboe Professional Services which
has grown 300 – 400%.He is a finalist in the Finance Week competition for entrepreneurs.
Cecil is also vice-chairperson of the Unisa Alumni Committee and a non-executive director of
the Unisa School of Business Leadership. He has three daughters Jade 13, Tyler 11 and Eisha
6 all pupils at St Teresa’s where his wife went to school.
He is a member of MOBS and is in touch with a number of old boys such as Jason Goodall,
Branden Aab, Solly Maponya, Walter Cronje, Jeremy Franklin, Eugene Taylor, Paul Johnston
and Rees Carr.
JLE June 2012

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Brian Kirschman 1958

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000719
  • Item
  • 2012

Interview with Brian Kirchmann – 1958
Brian was enrolled as a pupil at St David’s in standard 3 in 1950. Both he and his brother had
attended Craighall Primary and when his brother was due to go into the high school at St
David’s it was decided that Brian should go too. Both of them were day boys and Brian
remembers the quad and playing soccer there at break. He had played rugby at Craighall and
had to learn to play soccer on arrival at St David’s.
He recalls his mother used to pack extra sandwiches or tuck for the boarders.
His best year in primary school was standard 4 with Mrs Kempster, he got straight A’s. She was
very strict but a very good teacher and had good and bad dress days. She was followed by Mr
Bishop who was not as strong and the boys used to take advantage as he was not strict
enough. Brian’s marks went down to B’s from standard 6.
There were never more than 20 – 27 in a class and there was one class per standard. It was
tough playing rugby against bigger schools such as KES. The academic side of school took
second place to sport which Brian loved. He played cricket, rugby and participated in swimming
and athletics but not in tennis.
He enjoyed the brothers, they were committed and open to talk to the boys at any time. In
standard 8 he wanted to convert to Catholicism and then go into the brotherhood. Br Ralph
talked to him and told him to think carefully about this, he said that Catholicism was a hard and
strict discipline and to become a brother meant one had to be married to the brotherhood and to
the Catholic church. Br Ralph could see the kind of person Brian would become and Brian later
realized that Br Ralph was right.
Brian remembered Br Edwin (Jack) walked with a stoop following a back injury after a rugby
accident, other brothers were Br Gerald, Br Bonaventure and Br Anthony. They were good
guys, strict but fair and the younger brothers, who weren’t much older than the boys they taught,
used to coach rugby.
He recalled an incident when Br Edwin had previously warned the boys not to play near the
parked cars, a ball rolled under a car and Brian went to get it out from under it, the next moment
he saw a large pair of black shoes and heard Br Edwin telling him to come to his office. He got
six of the best for that However, he felt that the strictness and discipline was good and feels
sorry that his grandchildren no longer experience that kind of discipline. He feels that children
should be given boundaries.
Another time Br Bonaventure had a Science class and some of the boys had concocted an evil
smelling potion in a phial and had broken it filling the classroom with the disgusting smell. Br
Bonaventure calmly told them to close the windows, gave them work to do and went outside
and watched them suffer. The instigators had to run the gauntlet afterwards during break.
During their matric year Br Edwin insisted that the boys still play rugby and cricket after school.
He felt they should have an hour’s sport and then they could continue working, he made them
make time.
In standard 9 Brian went overseas to a scout jamboree during July, August and September
travelling there and back on the “Sterling Castle”. On his return he just managed to scrape
through the exams and because of this didn’t get a very good matric and he rewrote the
following year at Damelin.
His parents had said they would either pay for the overseas trip or for university so he didn’t go
to varsity but underwent a marketing course at the Institute of Marketing Management. He didn’t
regret the experience he had had touring the UK and France with other like minded boys but,
with hindsight he should have repeated standard 9. Overall he really enjoyed his time at St
David’s but his son wanted to go to St Stithians as he had been at Craighall primary and many
of his pals were going there. St David’s was going through a bad patch at the time which also
influenced the decision.
Work wise he started off with an auctioneering and property company with Richard Currie, he
then went on into the plastics industry becoming sales director for Omega Plastics. He was then
head-hunted by Brian Pffaf, joined Southern Sun and was their national sales manager from
1978-83. All the travelling and time away from home created a strain on his married life so he
left and joined a steel furniture manufacturing company for about 7 years. For the latter part of
his working life he was the CEO for Sapoa (South African Property Owners Association) dealing
with commercial property development for 16 years and retired in 2005. Whilst he was with
Sapoa he was responsible for setting up an education programme for the property industry.
Brian and his wife Gail are committed Christians, members of the Bryanston Methodist Church
and do some marriage counselling.
Other contemporaries: Frank Mills – member Parkview Golf Club; John Rushton living in
Pietermaritzburg.
JLE April 2012

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Geoffrey Sater 1949

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000785
  • Item
  • 2011

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

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Michael Wickins 1994

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000850
  • Item
  • 2010

Interview with Michael Wickins – 1994
Michael began his career at St David’s in grade1, 1983 and recalls how proud he was of his
brown suitcase.
The teachers he remembers are Mr Kotze standard 5, Mrs Marais, Afrikaans, high school and
Mr Girdwood standard 8 -10.
Michael loved the camaraderie, especially on the sports field, the pride in the school and
knowing how fortunate we were to be Marist boys, to be part of that family and culture. One
thing he did not enjoy was being made to swim in his jocks by Mr Castle!
He has good memories and every day was a good laugh at some point but he specifically
remembers the tours and “veld schools” as being particularly amusing. On one particular tour
they were staying at a place called Moholoholo (which due to its appalling conditions they soon
dubbed “Shitoholoholo) which had 5 open air toilets lined up in the bush. One of them had
literally spawned on its own eco-sysytem in the bowl, so one of his classmates lit and threw a
cherry bomb into it. The toilet was blown to smithereens. His abiding memory is of the whole
class lined up to get jacked as a result but it was really worth it!
Michael captained the 2nd XI cricket, with occasional guest appearances in the 1st XI and 1st
team hockey.
Michael remembered the valedictory mass and being made a prefect but probably more than
any other event he remembers his father presenting him with the same honours blazer that he
had worn some thirty years before
On his last day the boys tried, unsuccessfully to throw Mr Girdwood into the pool and he recalls
looking at his classmates and believing beyond any shadow of doubt that they would be friends
forever. He is still in touch with Rakesh Parbhoo and Simon Denny and is a member of MOBS.
After leaving school, Michael gained a BComm and LLB from Wits University and an H.Dip Tax
from RAU.
He is currently principal, investment banking at Nedbank Capital specialising in renewable
energy project finance.
Michael has a stepson Thomas Weeden in grade 5 and his son Luke is enrolled for 2016 and
visits the school on a regular basis.
2010

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Kevin Wallace 1984

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000826
  • Item
  • 2010

Interview with Kevin Wallace - 1984
Kevin was born in the Drakensburg and attended nursery school there. The family moved to
Gauteng in 1975 and he and his brother Gary were enrolled at St David’s and were quickly
absorbed by the heritage of the school and the ethos. Kevin was then in standard 1.
Kevin was a sports fanatic and not really interested in academics. He enjoyed school but thrived
on the sports field. He can remember having great respect for the prefects when he was in the
prep. He also feels that the school produces a good quality human being who will be useful in
society.
As regards staff, Kevin remembers Mr Kotze, Mrs Napier, Ms Joseph and Br Ephrem in the
prep. In the college two teachers he remembers well are Mr Colia and Mrs Elliott. Mr Murphy
he remembers as telling the boys that he was always 100% fair and 200% ruthless! He was the
headmaster who brought back the wearing of the academic gowns. Mr Frielich was not a
dynamic headmaster but Br Anthony was an icon. Other brothers he remembers are Br Bernard
and Br Mario who did an experiment with happy gas after a soccer match which they all
enjoyed.
Nick Prium was head boy in his matric year and he remembers Rhys Carr and Gregory
McLeroth who now owns a restaurant in Johannesburg. Brian Muller and Brett Airey have both
done very well since leaving school. Peter Sapseid is a brilliant teacher in the UK but first taught
in Zimbabwe.
Kevin is married with 2 daughters and lives in Cape Town.
13 October 2010

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Dennis Adams

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000761
  • Item
  • 2012

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

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with George Daras 1980

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000786
  • Item
  • 2012

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

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Gavin Muller 1987

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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

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Greg Boyes-Varley 1973

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Interview with Greg Boyes-Varley 1973
Greg and his two brothers were day boys at St David’s living as they did behind the school in
Second Avenue. The family lived in Cape Town and Zimbabwe until 1966 when Greg joined the
school in march in standard 2. Coming from Zimbabwe Greg didn’t understand Afrikaans and
his teacher, Mrs Michael organised extra lessons for Greg with Mrs.Kenesovitch. Brother
Anthony was head of the high school and other Brothers such as Br Andrew, Br Aidan (bursar),
Br Bosco (Mario), Br Timothy, Br Dennis, Br Ronald and Br Ezekiel were still teaching.Br
Ezekiel was a brilliant Maths teacher and taught extra Maths on a Sunday declaring that that
was more important than going to Mass.
Greg had a tough time at school and was teased, because of a speech impediment and injury to
his face. He was playing on a trampoline when his leg got caught and his face was badly
damaged by a broken coke bottle. Mr Owen-Smith a plastic and maxillo- facial surgeon
operated on Greg and due to this he was determined to become a maxillo-facial surgeon
himself. Greg went to the Wits Speech and Hearing Therapy unit and eventually overcame his
speech impediment and now speaks at conventions and deals with patients confidently.
Greg recalled Nassey Simaan, the popular rugby coach who had no favourites and chose his
teams by selecting the boys he felt had guts. To be selected Greg had to tackle one of the boys
and he chose a big boy from standard 5 who always teased him. He flattened him and when
Nassy asked him to show the other boys how to tackle he selected the same boy again and
annihilated him once more. The boy never teased Greg again after that.
Greg’s father was a very active member of the St David’s community, was on the PTA, was
chairman and helped commission the building of the McGregor oval. He also used to organise
all the fathers and sons cricket matches and arranged for some English cricketers, Don Williams
and Peter Stringer to come and coach cricket at the school.
Greg remembered a day at the end of standard 8 during Nuffield week when he was playing at
leg slip and was hit squarely on the head with the cricket ball. The other boys made him get up
and he carried on taking 8 wickets. Patrick Quarmby was particularly kind and supportive.
The new Science lab has just been built and Greg remembers some experiments which blew
holes in the ceiling.
There was an African compound next to the white house where Mr Scott lived and the boys
used to buys cigarettes from the staff.
Anthony Bartlett (now living in Belgium) was the DJ for all the parties they organised with each
boy taking a turn to have a party on saturday night. Legally the boys couldn’t drink, even when
they went to university as they were all 17.
Academically Greg did well, became a prefect, got his university pass for matric and went on to
study Dentistry at Wits University. It was the last year of the JMB matric.
Greg remembers St David’s as being a great school where he made some good friends and in
his subsequent dealings with boys from local schools he thinks the St David’s boys are the most
humble.
He feels that it was a big mistake to close the boarding and then to replace the JMB matric with
the TED version. That was when a large number of boys left the school and went mainly to St
John’s.
Greg would have liked his son to go to St David’s but the family left to go the UK from 1994 until

  1. When they returned Oliver was in standard 1 and when they applied the then principal of
    the prep Mr Royce’s secretary was extremely rude and said there was no place for him. Oliver
    then went to St John’s and then on to Michaelhouse. Rees Carr’s father Ronnie who was
    coaching cricket intervened but by then it was too late. Greg was very sorry that his son didn’t
    go to St David’s but the experience he and his wife had in the UK was very good and he learnt a
    lot whilst at King’s hospital. Greg now practises at the Morningside Clinic and often lectures
    overseas and has written a number of articles. He is currently mentoring Etienne Raffner (2003)
    a dentist,doing a 5th year.
    Greg has been to two MOB’s dinners pre 1994 and is on the mailing list.
    Greg would like to get involved in an advisory capacity especially with boys who would like to go
    into medicine.
    He is touch with many of his old colleagues and remarked on the fact that St David’s has
    produced many doctors.
    Paul Sutej – Professor of Rheumatology in the US.
    Ian Jones – Dentist
    Bruce Potgieter – son in Matric 2011
    Etienne Raffner -2003 – dentist
    Daniel Shepherd – intern at Bara
    Glen Jones
    Peter Rossini
    Desmond Schatz
    Paul Sutej
    Michael Ross – vet Kyalami
    JE – July 2012

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with David Phillips 1960

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

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Joe Stravino 1967

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Interview with Joe Stravino 1963-67
Joe (Guiseppe) originally came to St David’s from St George’s where he was a boarder in what
was then Rhodesia. When his parents moved to Johannesburg, Joe joined St David’s. He
remembers being very nervous on his first day at the school but always felt comfortable there.
St George’s was a Jesuit College and very strict, St David’s was more relaxed and he made
friends more or less immediately. He did get into trouble sometimes and recalls that his whole
class was once sent to the headmaster’s office, however he felt that the discipline was well
balanced and fair.
Jane Owen was his first teacher who taught a number of subjects and was a good
sportswoman.
Joe was the school cricket captain, played 1st team rugby and was an athlete. He played in the
provincial side - Transvaal Nuffield and was only the second boy from Inanda to do so. He
enjoyed all the sports tours with the school and went on the Marist Cricket Week tours and
rugby tours. He also remembered that he and other pupils planted the cricket pitch under the
supervision of Mrs Simaan.
He remembers Br Bosco, Br Anthony, Br Andrew and the cricket manager and coach Br
Michael.
Sport rather got in the way of academics but Joe managed to be accepted at Wits to study for a
Civil Engineering degree which took him 4 years even though he didn’t get a great matric pass.
Joe is still in the earth moving business, BLC Plant Company specialising in earth moving and
construction equipment which he buys, repairs and sells. He currently has a staff of 300. .He
helped to move the ground for Strevino Park at St David’s and has done some work for the
Alexandra community and the Catholic Lebanese Church free of charge.
Both his two sons came to St David’s during the time of Murphy, Freilick and Davies. The boys
battled and eventually one son went to St John’s and the other to St Andrews. When Paul Edey
was appointed headmaster, things changed and his grandchildren, 3 boys will be attending St
David’s and one Guiseppe, age 6 is currently a pupil.
Joe regularly comes to the school and walks his dogs and has a good feeling coming back. It
was a great thing coming to St David’s and he will treasure this forever.
Some of his contemporaries he remembers are Derek Schombie, Kev Hussey, Len O’Haughey,
Mike Smith. He also remembers Peter Owen – 50’s a Nuffield Cricketer and Luke or Mike
Chandler.
JE September 2012

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Larry Griffiths 1972

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Interview with Larry Griffiths – 1972
Larry joined St David’s when he was 8 years old going into standard 2. His father was
transferred to Johannesburg from Port Elizabeth where he was formerly a pupil at St Patrick’s.
He and his younger brother Michael (1973) were day boys.
Br Anthony was the headmaster and Larry thought he was brilliant. He recalled an amusing
story involving him and Br Bosco (Mario). Br Bosco decided that Br Anthony should regain his
red hair and developed a dye which would work on his grey hair. Unfortunately it worked well,
but rather too well and Br Anthony ended up sporting fire engine red hair! This occurred shortly
before the annual prize giving and the dye didn’t wash out therefore Br Anthony had to take the
podium with his brilliant red hair much to Brother Anthony’s embarrassment and everybody
else’s amusement. In September 1979 Larry visited Br Aquinas, a family friend in the Cape and
went to see Br Anthony somewhere in the Cape Flats.
Larry did not particularly like Br Timothy, ‘Tin Man” but the boys were amused by his habit of
combing his hair over his bald patch and when the wind blew it stood straight up then flopped
onto his opposite shoulder. He enjoyed Br Bosco, he was passionate about his subject,
Science. He recalled Br Andrew giving the ’1972 matrics punishment and detention unless they
could recite the first chapter of Caesar’s Gallic Wars. He was a strong disciplinarian but always
fair. Br Aidan the bursar was popular, he was always in control and treated the boys like adults
and they responded accordingly..Larry felt that, in spite of his other problems, Br Bernard was a
good Latin teacher and managed to bring it alive with stories about its background. Father
Bailey trained him as an altar boy. Bob Blythe the Maths teacher could never get Colin
Rezekswick’s name right and called him Da Silva. Mr Zachkarowicz was fluent in English,
Polish, German, Italian and Greek, he had a rough time in Germany but managed to escape
and ended up in South Africa. He was very anti the South African government as he could see
similarities with what he had experienced in Germany. Larry felt that he was an excellent History
teacher. Mrs Janusz taught Latin, and was formidable, she was a Scot and her husband was
Polish.
Larry did well academically until Thomas Rumpelt and Alfred Ghodes came along at the start of
standard 6.They were both academically very strong and also performed well on the sports field.
However Larrry was still awarded the Costa John Memorial Trophy for coming top of the class in
standard 5. He was the first boy to be acknowledged in this way.
Larry was not a great sportsman but played 4th team rugby and, although tennis was not really
encouraged at St David’s both he and his brother played and the team achieved a place in the
premier schools league. In spite of their endeavours none of the 1972 members of the 1st tennis
team were awarded a scroll which they longed for, it was only in 1973 that tennis was
considered moderately acceptable and the school’s tennis champion, Larry’s younger brother
Michael was awarded a tennis scroll. This caused a bit of a problem in that Michael was not the
tennis captain – Michael had defeated Desmond Schatz, the tennis captain, in the final of the
school championships. The school decided to award Desmond Schatz a tennis scroll as well.
No other members of the first team were awarded scrolls.
In 1964, Larry’s first year at St David’s, it snowed and Paul Steinhardt threw a snowball with a
stone in its middle at someone; it missed and smashed the window of one of the teacher’s cars.
In December of the previous year there had been a huge hail storm which caused a lot of
damage, many windows in the school were broken including some stained glass and it took a
few years for them all to be replaced.
Larry’s first experience of being politically aware occurred in the late 1960’s when Marist old
boys, who were members of the visiting New Zealand All Blacks Rugby team came to address
the school at assembly. He remembers wondering why the Maoris could be included in the New
Zealand team and their society and the blacks in South Africa were not.
Larry remembered the victorious rugby team of ’72 and George Nichas missing a goal against
KES even though he was standing right in front of the posts. It was the only match that St
David’s lost that year.
The matric dance was held in the boarders dining room and the after party was held at Carl Ebs
parent’s home in Illovo. It was all very low key and everyone was well behaved.
Of his peers Larry noted that Terry Van Heerden – deputy head boy; Eric Melman; Steve
Goodeye, and his brother Michael (1973) class – all currently living in Australia. Carl Eb lives in
New Zealand as does David von Elling (1971) class. Patrick Esnouf (1973 class) “Mr Mining” in
South America formerly a director of Anglo and now with the Andean Board living in Chile. Tim
Cockerell’s father was a pilot who died of a heart attack and his mother brought the family to
South Africa from the UK, While having the greatest admiration for Betty Cockerell’s pluck in
moving to South Africa and bringing up three sons, all of whom attended St David’s, Larry
believes that she may have been helped by the brothers to enable her to educate her sons.
When he matriculated, Larry went to Wits University and studied Civil Engineering. Afterwards
he did two years national service becoming an officer in the South African engineering corps,
was seconded to the CSIR where he was involved with mine warfare and bridge demolition. He
was in active contact with the Rhodesian Engineers and the Selous Scouts. He then had to fulfil
conditions of his bursary and worked for Grinaker Construction for two years living in Rhodesia
before it became Zimbabwe, before returning to South Africa. He was having so much fun in
Zimbabwe that he stayed in Africa a lot longer than he had originally intended. Larry finally left
for New Zealand in February1994and was transferred to Australia in early 1995. Initially he
settled in Melbourne before moving to Queensland in early 2006. He currently lives in Brisbane
where he works as a traffic engineer in local government.
Larry thinks it is very sad the way things have evolved in South Africa. He feels very strongly
about affirmative action and its related policies, which he believes have had a very negative
effect on the development of the country and on job creation.
JLE November 2012

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Mike Smith 1966

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Interview with Mike Smith – 1966
Mike was a day boy at St David’s and lived on a flower farm near Alexandra township. He
remembered his first day in grade 1 in the old grades block, Miss Brick was his teacher and she
used to rap the boys knuckles with her ruler. He and his brother Alf used to arrive at the school
early as their father used to drop them off on his way to market. Mike used to go and sit on the
steps and could see the traffic cops who used to come inside the school grounds to do their
speed trapping of cars on Rivonia Rd. He recalls that one morning Br Edwin the then principal
called him and sent him to tell the police that they could get some coffee from the school
kitchen. Mike was terrified of both the principal and the traffic cops so it was quite nerve
wracking for him.
Br Pius who had taught his father at Koch Street was at the school, although no longer teaching,
his passion was the gardens and he used to give the boys sweets from his lucky packet.
He remembered teachers such as Mrs Martin, Mrs Brophy, Mrs Green and Mrs Humphrey in
whose class the last minutes were dedicated to reading time. The boys really enjoyed this and
you could hear a pin drop during this time.
Mike enjoyed playing cricket from the early days when he used to play with his brother.
Throughout his school career there were always excellent cricketing coaches during the
summer months including the likes of Ken Palmer ( played for England); Jack Bannister; Don
Wilson and Poole. Mike had to choose between swimming or cricket and thoroughly enjoyed the
coaching and practise sessions. The coaches added value to their cricketing performances
which was quite good at the time. The cricket nets were next to where the new chapel now
stands.
The highlight of Mike’s school career occurred during the Michaelmass holidays, the school
then had 4 terms, which was the Marist cricket week and all the Marist schools in the country
competed against each other – St Patrick’s –Walmer; St Joseph’s – Cape Town; St Charle’s –
Pietermaritzburg; St Henry’s – Durban and St David’s – Johannesburg. The week was rotated
between the schools and Mike participated in 3 whilst in standard 8, 9 and 10. When the
matches were completed a Marist cricket 11 was selected and all the players were given a
special blazer, this was regarded as being especially prestigious. This team then played the old
boys team. Mike was selected twice for this team and became the captain in his matric year and
still has the badge given to him. During the week the food was good and the players were taken
to see a movie and a social event together with the local convent school was organised. The
Wilf Isaacs visiting cricket team was also a very special occasion and the Nuffield trials week
when St David’s and Observatory had a combined team against the likes of KES and Parktown
which gave the Marist schools a lot of credos. In those days the boys didn’t wear protective
head gear and he recalls an Obs boy, Brian Norberry being hit by a ball between the eyes. He
fortunately recovered from what was a potentially very dangerous injury.
The school’s swimming team at the time was very good and has been ever since. Athletics was
strong and regarded passionately by the boys and included such names as Terence Lavery,
Chris Terreblanche who were very talented athletes. The inter-catholic high he recalls was held
at a stadium. Rugby featured strongly and the tours were very popular. The rivalry between
Observatory and St David’s was strong and became quite hectic at times.
Academically Mike always did well being in the upper quotient of his year. He was amongst the
first boys to be streamed and studied Maths, Physics and Chemistry, Biology, English and
Afrikaans.
The school put on a couple of plays and Mike was involved backstage but did not act.
The brothers were amazing and real characters, Br Edwin, Br Anthony, Br Bosco (Mario) and Br
Andrew who was Spanish. The brothers dining room was out of bounds but, through the
occasional glimpse the boys could see that the food was good and that the brothers ate and
drank well.
Mike was caned on a daily basis, it was like an honour and not regarded as a problem. He
recalls an incident when a rather ripe orange that was thrown and just missed Br Andrew (Drac)
and all the boys were caned.
The matric dance in those days was rather different and the matric boys themselves decorated
the dining room, no huge sum of money was spent on the event and there was no before party.
The boarders were a fantastic bunch and made the school to a large extent, coming from all
over -Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique the Lowveld etc. He still remains in touch with Mike
Beaumont, Bart Dorrestein, Peter Gerrard, Jannie Steyn and Eric Ambrosioni. There were many
polio victims in the school at that time and he remembers Mike Nettman who was unable to play
sport and now lives in New Zealand and was one of the “Four Jacks and a Jill” and has had a
successful career as a musician. Mike organised the 40th reunion which was held at the top of
the Michael Angelo Towers in Bart Dorrestein’s suite “The Cupola” in 2006 and with a braai on
Sunday at St David’s high school paviliion
During his matric year there was much talk about military service and Mike was called up. He
remembers lining up for the medical exam in his school uniform in the drill hall. After completing
his military service Mike went on to Wits University to study engineering and until recently ran
his own construction company. His son Robert (2004) followed in the family tradition and was a
pupil at St David’s and Mike’s father Cyprien, who is now 92 was a pupil at Koch Street and
Observatory.
JE March 2012

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Bobby Forssman 1980

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Interview with Bobby Forssman – 1980
Bobby (Luke Alexander) first came to St David’s in grade 1 in 1969 following in his brother Mark’s footsteps
with Andrew arriving 3 years after Bobby. He remembers his father filming the event and that he, Bobby
who was used to running around barefoot and undisciplined, decided to have a wee in the middle of the
dirty, dusty playground on his first day.
Brother Anthony was headmaster of the high school and Mr Manolios of the junior school. Of the early days
he remembers Mrs Schaafsma who taught him in grade 1 and 2, she was a tyrant and all the boys were
terrified of her. If a boy wasn’t paying attention he had to sit under the piano in her classroom during the
lesson.
In the junior school, Bobby went on tour in standard 5 to Fort Mistake in Kwa-Zulu Natal with Mr Manolios
and Heather Joseph. Heather was a young, newly qualified teacher and all the boys were in love with her.
Heather used to apply a very bright lipstick, kiss all the boys leaving lipstick on their cheeks which they
treasured!
At the entrance to the school where the original gates now hang, an ice cream seller used to park his bike
and sell home-made ice lollies. The boys used to pinch the dry ice and then throw it into the fish pond
nearby. Bobby did this once and panicked when he thought he was going to kill the fish. He jumped in, in
full uniform and proceeded to throw out the ice.
Bobby enjoyed the sport the soccer, cricket, sack and potatoes races in the annual athletics. He also
participated in the horse riding which he didn’t really enjoy and they rode at stables in what is now
Pineslopes. School was generally fun although the boys were scared of the teachers as they were often up
to mischief when they had the opportunity. The boys would hang around the tuck shop and wait until break
was over hoping to get discounted or free food. On Champagnat day they would get donuts and a cool
drink.
Bobby and his family lived out at Kyalami at the Kyalami Ranch Hotel and many of the boys came to watch
the Formula 1 events from the hotel. It was a mission to get to school although there was a school bus,
sometimes his father would fetch them in his beach buggy and if they were staying late their mother would
also come to fetch them.
In the high school Bobby had teachers like Trudy Elliott who was the English teacher. They were supposed
to study the Great Gatsby and Hamlet for 3 years from grade 8 which Mrs Elliott didn’t agree with and
suggested that the boys produce a newspaper as an alternative. Bobby and some other boys started a
newsletter which came out once a month for 10 months. Bobby had to do a lot of typing without a computer
although there was at least a typex band in the typewriter.
Bobby had Mr Tony D’Almeida as his Biology teacher who was well built and used static exercise to train
which all the boys had to try out in class! The school had quite a few exchange students and Bobby had to
chaperone a chap from Brazil in standard 8 whose father was head of Castrol. Bobby was with him when
he met up with Reinhard Hartmann who asked “Hi my China, where are you from”, the reply “Not China,
Brazil” as the poor chap could hardly speak any English.
There was a Mr Valney who taught Geography who became quite friendly with some of the boys and
invited some of them to his flat in Illovo one evening. He believed in self hypnosis and demonstrated by
collapsing on the floor after he told the boys to instruct him to do something. The boys were rather taken
aback and tried a few things including sticking a large pin deeply into his arm and then telling him to wake
up. He came to with no memory of what had happened and no physical signs of any sort. The teachers on
the whole were pleasant and engaging.
Bobby enjoyed motor cross racing from standard 7 through to standard 9 with four other St David’s boys
and competed against other schools. Br Bernard attended one of the events and took some photos for the
school magazine. Unfortunately Br Timothy was not aware of the motor cross racing and wasn’t impressed
and basically banned them from participating anymore or said they must find another school. Bobby then
started playing rugby in standard 9, was captain third XV and was a member of the A water polo and B
swimming teams as a summer sport.
Bobby also enjoyed the debating and public speaking which was fairly low key and great fun.
Bobby did well academically and was usually in the top 5 or 10. He was elected a prefect and awarded an
honours blazer, academic tie and scrolls for merit and studies.
In their final year 6 of the boys decided to take a holiday. The Hartmann’s had a flat in Umhlanga and they
asked Bobby’s father if they could borrow one of the cars to go down. Initially the parents said no, but then
Bobby’s father relented and booked them into alternative accommodation and lent them a bus. With
hindsight it was crazy with unlicensed drivers driving all the way to the coast in a bus, but they survived.
After matriculating, Bobby was awarded a bursary by Eskom and studied engineering at Wits University
then UCT. He then went into the air force for two years completing his military service. Whilst in the air
force he met a chap who was into building development and decided to work for himself and started off in
the Cape in the commercial development of shops and warehouses. He would buy the land, design the
structure then rent it out and sell. He often works together with his older brother Mark who is in building and
construction. He was supposed to work for Eskom after his military training and had to reimburse them the
costs of his university education, fortunately they underestimated the costs and he managed to pay them
back.
Bobby has one son Jason who spent 1 year in grade 1 at St David’s before the family moved to Cape Town
and returned 5 years later. Greg Royce was then head of St Peter’s so he became a pupil there going on to
Hilton for high school. Bobby’s two daughters are at DSG in Grahamstown.
Bobby is still in touch with Mark Hindle through his wife Paula and with Reinhard Hartmann and Sven Arp.
He is a member of MOBs and was last at St David’s for the Nite Fever firework show.
JLE November 2013

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Peter Loffell 1960

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Interview with Peter Loffell (1960)
Peter first attended St David’s in 1948 in grade 1 as a day boy. He was in a section in the junior
school with four classrooms with two grades within one classroom. This was separate from the
main school which had a series of classrooms in a horse shoe shape facing east, with the
dormitories facing north. The infirmary windows overlooked the swimming pool and McGill
Love’s farm. On the western side was the dining room and on the southern side, downstairs
were the headmaster’s office and about 2 classrooms. Standard 4, 5 and 6 were upstairs and
standard 7, 8, 9 and 10 downstairs. At that time the school had 300 pupils.
Peter used to go to the McGill Love’s place of 50 acres with cows etc after school until his father
came to fetch him until he was old enough to ride his bicycle to school. Mr McGill Love was
Peter’s mother’s uncle and founder of Haggy Rand and African Wire Ropes.
He remembers his first day vividly. His teacher was very strict and used the strap liberally and
Peter to this day still does not understand why she took the strap to him. Happily she didn’t stay
very long and Mrs Vincent took her place. In the first year he skipped a class and went up to
grade 2.
Other members of staff he remembers were Mrs Brophy -standard 1, standard 4 -Mrs Kempster,
standard 5 - Mr Bishop and from standard 6 upwards all the teaching was done by the brothers.
The teachers from the grades up to standard 5 had their own classrooms and taught all subjects
but after standard 6 the brothers taught individual subjects. The brothers he remembers are Br
Benedict, Br Bonaventure who was the rugby coach, Br Walker, Br Ephraim and Br Ralph.
Br Edwin was the headmaster followed by Br Benedict until Peter’s last year when Br Anthony
took his place. He recalls Br Edwin had very bad arthritis and had to take cortisone.
Peter enjoyed sport and played soccer in the junior school followed by rugby and cricket 1st and
2nds in the high school. There were A and B sides from U13, U14, U15 and then the 1st and
2nds. There was great rivalry between St David’s and Observatory who had some very good
players. The year in which he wrote matric St David’s rugby team was soundly beaten by
Observatory who had some great players and athletes in their team.
Peter remembered the tours to other Marist schools and went to Cape Town with the cricket
team in 1959 and in 1960 to St Henry’s and St Charles in Natal.
Culturally, Peter used to attend the debates between other schools but was not a member of the
debating society. A concert was held which he doesn’t remember too much about but he was
involved with two operettas, “HMS Pinafore” and “The Pirates of Penzance” directed by the
Music teacher Mr Drummond Bell.
As his first passion was the sport, Peter didn’t do too well academically and didn’t work very
hard, and although there was no sparing of the rod he wasn’t sufficiently motivated to work.
The matric dance was held in the dining room and he recalls it was agonising to find a girl to
take to the dance, he was only 16 at the time. The boys decorated the dining room themselves
and after the dance went home. In 1959 a party was organised for the end of year exams and
Br Benedict warned them that they wouldn’t be allowed to write the exams if he found them to
be involved in preparations for the party.
After he matriculated, Peter went on to Wits University where he studied for a BSc Engineering
but bombed out and then spent a year in the army after which he joined the Netherlands Bank
which became Nedbank until he retired. Paul Middlewick and Gilbert Pooley were also on the
Nedbank staff.
Peter has a son who after returning to Johannesburg from Natal went to Hyde Park High
School.
Peter attended a school reunion after 25 years and saw one of his contemporaries Clive Nobbs
who became head of Rand Mines and the Chamber of Mines.
JE March 2012

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with John Slaven 1979

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Interview with John Slaven – 1979
John came to St David’s in standard 1 and recalled his first day, assembled in the quad
where the chapel now stands, in his new school uniform and Mrs Watson was his teacher.
His classroom was in the current CEO’s house.
John came from Northcliff Primary and had not been taught cursive writing and was only
used to using a pencil, he battled but learnt by watching the other boys. Mrs Watson was a
fierce teacher, there was no nurturing and he was one a very few new boys.
John enjoyed being a day boy and having his own space at home, however his older brother
Andrew would have loved to have been a boarder. He was a great sportsman and would
have benefited from all the training before and after school and at weekends. John initially
took the bus to school but eventually sometimes cycled.
John remembered Br Anthony who maintained a good balance with discipline. Br Timothy
however had a fierce temper and didn’t have the same presence as Br Anthony. John liked
Br Timothy but thought he was very isolated and under pressure from the board of
governors. The board was very distant to the school which John’s father realised when he
joined the board after his sons had left the school.
John played sport all the way through school but was not good enough for the soccer team
in primary school. He played cricket mostly for the 2nd’s which he enjoyed as he had the
chance to participate more, to bat and bowl more often than he did in the 1st team in his
matric year. Although he didn’t think his cricket was that great he was elected captain of the
2nd team cricket. John also played rugby starting in the U12 team which competed against
other schools as the U13C’s and managed to beat everyone. This team remained intact and
continued to win through to the U15’s. It was a special team with Brian Walter, centre, an
American, who was big and fast (he left in 1977), and Mike Peel, scrum half. Rugby was like
a religion in the school and early on Monday mornings Br Timothy would put up an
assessment of the weekend’s games and would give players stars 1 – 5 for their
performance. The whole school could see this and Br Timothy didn’t hold back with his
comments. Andrew Driver was an exchange student from the UK, a good athlete and rugby
player, winger, who stayed with David Kalk. John was best man at David’s wedding and
David’s son is his godson.
From standard 9 to matric, John played 1st team rugby and was made captain and rugby
player of the year. Losing to KES 2nd team in 1978 was a huge blow. Peter Swanson
(Springbok) was their rugby coach for a while and, before a game against Observatory he
brought along his Springbok blazer and motivated the team, he was a great inspiration. John
also played water polo occasionally for the A team, he wasn’t great but enjoyed it.
The annual inter-house gala was a great evening event with the boys shouting their war
cries, with their rosettes and decorations spurring on their respective teams. Cross country
was really more of a road run in those days.
John’s brother Geoff was an equestrian and went with the school team to Heddingly, he was
a top horse rider for a year or two.
John also joined in the cultural aspect of the school and played the role of “Herod” in the
school play “The Business of Good Government”.
The matric dance was always the highlight of the year. The boys were given a week off to
prepare the hall, coping with all the designs and implementation. They organised everything,
the invitations, table decorations, photographers, the theme being “Gangsters”. The boys
worked all day and then went to the Spur for supper and came back to continue. On the
Saturday night there was a band, the girlfriends and the food and drink. It was such a fun
week and only for the matrics and the standard 9, 1st team rugby.
There were some good teachers who really stood out – Mr Lipschitz, Maths who became
more of a friend, almost like a big brother who managed to make his subject interesting. Bill
Carew, standard 7 -8, Science, he was fantastic, able to explain things and had a way that
fascinated the boys. He once took them on a field expedition to the Northern Transvaal. Mrs
Landau taught Biology and although she had a more formal relationship with the boys, she
made this subject interesting and it eventually became John’s best and favourite subject.
Mrs Napier, standard 2 was very strict but also friendly but the boys knew their boundaries.
She once caught John cribbing and gave him a caning with her heavy ruler..
John went on a couple of camps, hiking in the Eastern Transvaal where they stayed in
hostels overnight. Ben Claasens, the Afrikaans teacher had a farm near Krugersdorp with a
dam and horses and he ran a camp for a week for the boys to get an Afrikaans immersion.
There were no outreach programmes in John’s time.
Academically John did well and was first in his class (27 in matric) most of the time and, for
his matric he achieved 5 distinctions. John participated in debating, senior best speakers,
was managing director of the stock exchange game, was in the athletics team. Captain of
Osmond house was elected head prefect and awarded scrolls for merit, studies, debating
and rugby. He was awarded an honours blazer and academic tie, Brother Pius Medals for
Biology and Physical Science and won the Osmond Cup for Leadership.
However, John says he was no angel and often got into trouble and on one occasion in
matric Br Timothy decided he needed to go home for a few days.
On leaving school, John studied Mechanical Engineering at UCT, followed by 2 years
national service in the navy. He became officer in charge of materials with a laboratory in
Simonstown and was the top naval officer candidate. He then went on to work for De Beers,
Industrial Diamond Division for 4 years as they had given him a bursary whilst at UCT. He
then went to the Harvard Business School to do his MBA afterwards joining Boston
Consulting Group for 10 years becoming a partner He then joined Alcoa in New York for 3
years and a year in China, followed by an appointment with BHP Billiton for whom he has
worked in Melbourne, Perth Australia and is currently vice president business development,
minerals exploration based in Singapore and about to move to Perth. John led BHP Billiton
sustainability function with extensive programmes to improve long term sustainability of
aboriginal groups,
John is married with 3 daughters.
John is a member of MOBS and would be more than happy to address an assembly on one
of his business trips to South Africa.
JLE June 2013

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Jason Simaan 2003

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

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Gabriel Simaan 1997

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

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

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Matthew Alford 2003

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  • 2013

Interview with Matthew Alford – 2003
Matthew arrived at St David’s coming from St Peter’s Prep, alone and not knowing anyone. Being very shy,
he found it terrifying, walking into the main quad with his very new school uniform, bags and books. Savo
Ceprnich was the first boy to come and introduce himself, and still remains a close friend of Matthew’s
today. He found the timetable very confusing and after a gruelling Glenmore camp, became a member of
Benedict house.
Matthew liked the teachers and found them easy to get on with. He made some good friends during his
time at the school and enjoyed the culture of St Davids.
Paul Edey was very special and well liked and Matthews’s first encounter with him in class was rather
intimidating, with Paul standing on the elevated teaching platform. When Paul asked him for his name,
Matthew replied with his christian name and Paul barked at him saying “Surname, boy!” All the boys liked
Paul, he was a major influence on them and had a personal relationship with every boy at the school. He
had such charisma none of the boys wanted to get a bad mark from him.
Matthew experienced some interesting moments with Marius Buys who told weird stories and had strange
teaching methods. Mr Andrew was unpredictable and the boys never knew what mood he would be in.
Matthew really liked Mrs Roman and Mrs Marais who had so much patience and love and Mrs Voorendyk
who once kicked out the entire class one by one, for not doing their homework.
Matthew participated in hockey, in winter and swimming during the summer.
Together with Rowan Stafford, Matthew assisted with the school’s weekly newsletter helping Reverend
“Rev” Bruce from grade 9 until matric. The work was quite time consuming with its Thursday deadline and
they handed it over to a new team, before writing their matric exams
After matric, Matthew studied a BComm Accounting at RAU\UJ. He then obtained his BComm Accounting
Honours through UNISA while working at KPMG in 2010. He is currently working as a CA(SA) at ABSA
Capital, is involved with product control and corporate loans.
Based on his experience at St. David’s Marist Inanda, Matthew would definitely consider enrolling any sons
at the school in the future.
JLE December 2013

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Gregory Murphy 2006

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  • 2013

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

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Charles Robinson 1981

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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

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Reinhard Hartmann 1980 and Robert Hartmann 1981

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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

  1. 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

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Mike Peel 1978

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Interview with Mike Peel – 1978
Mike’s father went to Koch Street and Marist Observatory and his uncle was in the first class at
St David’s – Harold Morgan. He has cousins also related to the school, Paul and Anton Barale
and Renzo Brocco.
When Mike was in grade 2, his father was on the parish council at St Charles, Victory Park
when the lemon squeezer was built and set up a challenge match between Inanda and De La
Salle which went 1.0 to St David’s.
Mike began his career at St David’s in 1967, the year after his brother Kevin left and John, also
a pupil was 10 years older. Mike had just turned 5 and was too young to start school so he was
not too happy on his first day. He couldn’t read, write or draw but enjoyed sport.
His first teacher in grade 1 was Mrs Scarfsma. Br Lindsay coached soccer and used to teach us
to think about the game as he really loved it. Mike remembers playing in the quarter finals
against Blairgowrie and the team being knocked out 4-3 after leading 3-1, big disappointment.
Mike played U15 Transvaal cricket with Paul Ralphs. Br Aquinas was the Ist primary cricket
coach.
In standard 5 the boys had to play rugby and Mike was in the U13 C team. Peter Stringer, a
professional cricketer from Yorkshire was the coach for rugby and cricket and Br Bernard also
coached rugby. In standard 6 our U13A team won every game of rugby 20-0 victory against
KES at KES. until CBC Pretoria beat them. In standard 9, he recalls beating St Stithians in the
Johnny Waite Cricket semi-finals. Mike was in the Nuffield B cricket team in 1977with Paul
Ralphs and Peter Marneweck and the Nuffield A in 1978 and was awarded sportsman of the
year.
What was remarkable was that 36 matrics together with the standard 9 class put out 4 teams
and still managed to compete against bigger schools. Everyone had a chance and the team
spirit was strong. One of the highlights was beating St Stithians at rugby in matric. There were
rugby camps to Lydenberg before the rugby season with Br Timothy who bet Mike R5 to swim
across the dam in mid winter and he also dared him to get a crew cut on the last day of term.
Mike still has his rugby jersey and on one occasion at Penryn College where his children
attended school, ended up chatting to the St David’s coaches and presented the jerseys to the
St David’s 1st team. A proud moment for him.
Mike participated in the centenary celebrations at St Joseph’s, Cape Town on and has a copy of
the article in the Southern Cross 19 April 1967. There was a soccer tour to the Free State led by
Br Lindsay where the boys played 3 games in 2 days winning 2 and drawing the last one.
There was an exchange student, Andrew Driver who came from Shoreham Grammar in the UK.
He was a rugby and cricket player, scoring the winning kick against St Stithians. Charles Burn
(my best man and me his) was a great horse rider and our relationship with Shoreham
Grammar meant that our horse riding team competed at the Hickstead horse jumping
championship. Charlie was part of the team that competed at Hickstead winning once and doing
well on all the occasions we participated.
Another occasion he recalled was when he and two other equally naughty boys (no names)
moved the school combi after a tennis match at Risidale Primary. The teachers eventually
appeared from their tea and were shocked to find the combi gone. The boys had just moved it
around the corner and were caned by Mrs Kempster and then again by Br Anthony the next
day. Being caned by Br Anthony was probably the worst moment he had whilst at St David’s.
There were many pranks played including an incident when some of the boys moved a desk to
the edge of the platform in the classroom and when the brother lent against the desk it
collapsed.
Mike recalled teachers such as Mrs Geddes, Frank Maritz, Mrs Blaire, Mr Lipschitz, Mrs Napier
(Std 2) and Harold Gavron who instilled a love of ecology in him. Mrs Elliott was also a
memorable teacher and led the public speaking team although Mike was not really into the arts
his leaning being more on the sporting side.. The boys also raised funds for the blind under the
direction of Br Paul who was himself blind. Mike was photographed by the Southern Cross as
the youngest, smallest boy in the school handing money over to Br Paul.
Fellow pupils he remembers and is still in touch with are Andrew Slaven (Radiologist,New
Zealand), Roy Zent (heads up a kidney lab in the USA) and brothers Clive and Neil – all
overseas but visit Mike when they are in South Africa.
The matric dance was held in the hall which was decorated to look like a French cafe. On their
last day Br Timothy told the boys to take off their blazers before they went to the pub to
celebrate.
Andrew Slaven was head boy and Mike was vice-head boy together with Patrick Riley.
Mike left school at the age of 16 and went to Wits University and then to RAU. He studied for a
BSc Zoology and Botany then did an MSc in Wildlife Management in Pretoria followed by a PHd
at the University of KZN. After varsity he completed two years in the air force as a lieutenant. He
is currently a rangelands ecologist and looks at optimising in African rangelands but with focus
in the eastern lowveld and has run a research programme since 1989 undertaking aerial
surveys over South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique .He supervises a couple of Phd’s and
MSc’s at various universities including the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands,
Cambridge University, Texas A & M University, WITS and Pretoria..
He assists communities when their land is restored to them to develop the land. Mike and his
wife also do marriage preparation for the catholic church in Nelspruit and has been involved with
the St Vincent de Paul Society.
Mike last visited the school at the opening of the new chapel .His son attended Penryn College
but would have been a pupil at St David’s had they lived in Johannesburg. He also has a
daughter, an architect and his son is studying property management at Pretoria University.
JLE May 2013

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Peter de Kock 1967

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Interview with Peter de Kock – 1967
Peter joined St David’s in 1962, standard 6 as a boarder. On his first day he remembered
meeting many other standard 6 boys from outlying areas and Johannesburg. The boys were
all sent to St David’s because there was no English medium available in the Afrikaans high
schools. For most of them it was their first time away from home, so it was quite a challenge
with the brothers taking care of them. In those days they didn’t have cell phones and they
were not allowed to use a telephone, very different from today.
He enjoyed being a boarder as they shared more comrade ship and school spirit, learning to
share and take responsibility for their own actions. There were more sporting activities which
meant more discipline but they had little family life. The day boys however had more of a
family life with their brothers and sisters and a better social life.
Teachers who made a lasting impression on Peter were Br Anthony,(Aunches) the boys
were all scared of him but he ruled the school with an iron fist, which made it a great school.
Peter now believes that Br Anthony could have been the MD of a big international company
and would have been very successful. Others were Br Andrew (Dracula) who was also very
tough but actually fair. Br Bosco and the other brothers left both good and bad impressions.
He remembered an occasion at rugby practise when Br Bosco let the boys tackle him, Peter
did so head first onto his leg and he couldn’t walk for a week. The least noteworthy brother
but a nice guy, in the first year of standard 7 read comic books in class, with the result that
half the class failed that year.
Peter enjoyed the sport playing in most teams but never made any first team. He also
enjoyed school affairs and school activities but unfortunately academics was not one of his
strong points. He was put in charge of the games room in standard 8 and when he became a
monitor in standard 9, the brothers asked him who he recommended to take over his duties,
he recommended Willy Castle!
The great sporting event that stands out in his memory was his first rugby game against
Jeppe, when his team lost 60 something Nil, with most of his group having never played
rugby before. They then, later won games against KES and Parktown which made up for it.
Another event was the 100th anniversary of the Marist Brothers in South Africa.
Things that Peter didn’t enjoy, was the feeling of being “dropped” at boarding school. Being
stuck at school as a boarder, he was an enthusiastic member of the cycling club as they
could get out at times although it became a comfort to get back to school. Uncomfortable
moments were such as the first time he saw a brother pull his cane out of his cassock, like a
sword and then go into chapel.A significant memory was that of being chosen as the first
non-catholic head boy of the school.
Of his last day at St David’s he recalls that they had an “end of matric” party, ending up at
the Balalaika Hotel and being chased away by a Zulu guard with a whip and big earrings.
Then there was a farewell in the courtyard and they all went their separate ways which was
rather sad. Peter had many friends at school but unfortunately his closest friends seemed to
have moved on to other schools and he was a bit of a loner, however he does remember
that most of his classmates had their own characters and they haven’t changed much apart
from the colour or lack of hair. A few of them Peter Moni, Derrick Schoombie, Kevin Hussey
and Rohan Erleigh meet for drinks at Molly Malone’s in Fourways every now and then. He
also meets up with others at the MOBS functions.
On Matriculating, Peter attended Farm technical course, Bloemfontein technical college.
Acquired an Agricultural Diploma from Potchefstroom Agricultural College then participated
in a foreign exchange programme at the University of Minnesota, St Paul USA for 3 years.
He married an American, returned to South Africa for 3 years farming in Heilbron. He then
emigrated to Minnesota and farmed and worked for 7 years in Luverne returning to South
Africa in 1983 where he met and married Suzette, then farmed in Heilbron for 11 years
moving to Fourways in 1994 and since then owns and runs a guesthouse in Glenferness,
“The Rooster’s Nest bed and breakfast”.
Peter has 4 children, a daughter in the USA,with businesses in Minneapolis and West Palm
Beach and a son who is a teacher in Sasolburg with one grandchild, a daughter who is his
PA and a son who is an entrepreneur. Peter’s wife is a teacher at St Peter’s Prep Boys
School.
Peter’s son Johnathan didn’t attend St David’s as, living in Kyalami it wasn’t practical
because of the traffic and he went to St Stithians. Peter last visited St David’s last year and
he usually attends the MOBS AGM and some sporting events when he can.
JLE July 2013

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Michael Richardson 1971

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Interview with Michael Richardson – 1971
Michael came to St David’s as a dayboy living at home. He was lucky that he had such an
active sport life and close group of friends that he stayed at school every day until about 5pm
and often they were at one another’s homes – so in fact he had the best of both worlds, a
dayboy living like a boarder
Memories of first day at St David’s – the teacher Mrs Lego very kind, his school uniform was too
big, he was all enthusiastic to play games with friends
Memories of last day at St David’s – sorrow at leaving such a close group of friends. Leaving a
cocoon of life that embraced all he had done up till then – now it was into the big wide world –
but excited about army service and university.
Teachers who left a lasting impression were Brother Andrew (Dracula - Maths) Mrs Richardson
(English – my Aunt)) Brother Bosco (Science).
Michael was involved in all the sport he could play – cricket, football, swimming, athletics, rugby,
hockey, and tennis. He played 1st XI and XV cricket and rugby and swam for the school in
breaststroke and relay and held records in athletics, javelin, high jump and long jump (for a
while) and introduced the fosbury flop to the school high jump. Michael has great memories of
the cricket tour to the Cape in standard 8 as part of the inter Marist tournament and of winning
the 200 metres and high jump at a few inter-catholic highs athletics events. Michael was also
selected for the Transvaal schools U15 Cricket team.
An event which stands out was his first century, the day he was picked for the 1st XI, opening of
the cricket oval playing a Wilf Isaacs XI with international cricketers in it and opening the
batting!!
One his worst moments at school was getting caught drawing a picture of the teacher in an
uncompromising position and getting a caning in front of the class.
Other amusing memories are of racing for prefects tea to get the avocado sandwiches; getting
his best friend into trouble by giving him the wrong answer when he had been sleeping in class
and was asked to answer; sneaking into class late behind the teacher’s back only to have the
headmaster walk in behind you.
The matric Dance was fabulous, Michael was lucky to have a girl-friend at that stage who was
everything he wanted – beautiful, bright and a dancer! The decorations and the theme were
stunning and the boys were so proud as they thought they had done the best dance ever.
Michael most enjoyed the sport, friendship and some of the teachers: All the sport teachers
Brother Michael, Mr Greenway, Mr Summers and Brother Andrew but he least enjoyed Latin,
end of year exams, and caning.
Michael was a prefect and was awarded honours for athletics, cricket, was Victor Ludorum, and
in the Maths olympiad final round.
After leaving St David’s served time in the army gymnasium and paratroopers; he went on to
study Medicine at Stellenbosch and specialised in Obs Gynae in the UK. He worked in a
practice in UK for a few years then joined the pharmaceutical industry in R&D and is currently
head of drug safety with Bristol-Myers Squibb. Michael also gives research support in cystic
fibrosis charity and drug rehabilitation
Michael did not have any sons at St David’s and last visited the school 5 years ago.
Michael had 2 brothers at St David’s as well. Bryan and John Richardson
(john.richardson@sbcglobal.net)
Bryan Matriculated 1967 John Matriculated 1965.
Some random info: Originally the school grounds only extended as far as the road going down
past the swimming pool, - what is now the main entrance was the rear entrance and was the
boundary fence of the school. The PTA negotiated for about 5 years in the early 1960s to
purchase the house and all the lands which extended the school all the way down around the
bend on Rivonia road. The new cricket oval was created in front of the pavilion which was
inaugurated by Archbishop Boyle in 1970.
Later the school sold off the lower portion for development and housing which has probably
funded the school since then. The grounds were bought for under quarter million rands and God
knows what they have made from that very wise purchase. (Can you imagine how many fund
raisers we had in those days to get the funds).
The original cross country race on sports day used to start from the main gate (original main
gate) and head off towards Sandton (pre Sandton City) all the way down Rivonia Road, along
Katherine Street, Wierda Road (When it was still Wierda Valley and had small holding houses)
up along Pretoria Ave into Forest Road up past what was then the Inanda Polo Club, along Fifth
Avenue then up Boundary Road and into the athletics field through a gate which was then on
Boundary road and finish around the 400 m track to the finishing post. There used to be a full
athletics track around the original cricket oval with stands etc.

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Ryan Skirving 2012

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Interview with Ryan Skirving – 2012
Ryan began his career at St David’s in grade 0 in 2000, he was the first of three brothers to
attend St David’s. He has brother now in grade 11 and another in grade 3.
He started off in Mrs Tyack’s class and also remembers Mrs Milne. He loved the playground
and the tuck shop was really cheap especially on a Wednesday, the boys could buy a hot
dog, a drink and yoghurt for R10.
In the prep school the teachers who made an impression on him were Willy Castle who was
a legend, Mr Sinclair, Mr Thackwell, Mrs McWilliams, Miss Hatfield and Mr McIver. He
enjoyed the sport soccer, swimming, was captain of the swimming team and played
provincial soccer with Willy Castle and 2nd team cricket with Mr Eyels. He also participated in
athletics and recalls that once the prestige gala was cancelled because of bad weather. He
played 1st team hockey in grade 7 and touch rugby in grade 6.He enjoyed the inter-house
galas and won a few trophies. He also enjoyed the camps every year from grade 3 and the
sports tours swimming, soccer and provincial.
He remembers the big hill the boys had to run up at the grade 8 camp and the first group
orientation they did at night he got lost and someone kicked over a bee hive. The grade 9
initiation into the water polo team was great fun with Richard Lance and Greg Steenberg
who were great guys.
Ryan remembers starting high school and had already heard stories of the high school from
older friends like Dempsey Bayley. He was very involved with swimming and water polo but
became very ill after a tournament in grade 8 and was off sport for 9 months. He played
rugby until grade 11 but got concussed too many times and then played hockey in matric. A
fond rugby memory was the victory in grade 9 against St Stithians B team which St David’s
won. That U15 B team was one of St David’s that won that year. He had a swimming
scholarship so continued with swimming and was a member of 1st team water polo from
grade 9 and was awarded provincial colours for water polo in grade 9, 10, and 11 and was
captain of the 1st team in grade 12. He still enjoys water polo at university. He recalled that
there was no sport against Observatory or Marion College as in former times.
Ryan thought that grade 10 was the easiest year with selected subjects, the best sports and
academics. In grade 11 the workload increased and grade 12 was a good year despite the
incident on the bus. He spent quite a bit of time with Mr Williams during that time. He
thoroughly enjoyed the cultural tour to the UK with Mr Bauer, Mr Ireland, Mr Jericevich and
Mr Schneider who gave them quite a bit of freedom.
Academically Ryan did well and was in the top ten from the grades through to matric coming
1st in grade 10, 3rd in grade 11, and 9th 0r 10th in matric. He won trophies for the best water
polo player, promoting the Marist spirit and was awarded a Champagne medal. He was head
boy in 2012 and was a member of “The Bishops” house. He participated in public speaking
in grade 11 and 12 and was in the inter-house play in matric. The matric dance was great
fun held during the winter at the Wanderers, the theme being Titanic.
Ryan is currently studying Business Science (Finance and Accounting) at UCT and will do a
5th year Honours in Accounting. Now at university Ryan realises that St David’s has more of
an emphasis on individual responsibility and attitude around studying which helps
enormously at university.
Ryan is a member of MOBS and will be keeping in touch with the school.
JLE June 2013

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Rakesh Parbhoo 1994

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Interview with Rakesh Parbhoo – 1994
Rakesh first came to St David’s in 1986 in standard 2 and barely remembers his first day but
does remember the third day. He had originally moved up from St Henry’s in Durban to join the
standard 1 class however, on the third day he was asked by the teacher to step out of class and
follow her. Then she and the principal Paul Davies told him that he was going to be moved to
standard 2 and to pack up his belongings. At the time he didn’t realise the impact that this would
have on his life. That same day he met his friend Michael in Mrs Hurley’s standard 2 class when
he asked to borrow a pen. He had only had pencils up until that time as that’s all that was
allowed in standard 1.
He really enjoyed his time at the school especially the friends he had and probably didn’t realise
it at the time but now looks back with fond memories of most of the aspects of school life. The
teachers, houses,sports events, plays etc.
The teachers who he remembers are Willy Castle who he hated in junior school but had
unbelievable admiration for him and much he has done for the school. Something he felt one
only noticed in hindsight was the respect and modelling he instilled in the boys. Mrs Hurley
standard 2, Mr Howard the History teacher who brought out a passion for the subject in Rakesh.
He cannot remember his name but his English teacher was a brilliant man.
The aspects he least enjoyed were the times when he felt he didn’t fit in and wasn’t part of the
”in crowd,. But there was nothing remarkable about that. Rakesh hated cross country and any
form of running although he does it as a hobby today! He recalled knocking himself unconscious
by running into the rugby posts on a training lap, not paying attention. Rakesh was in the 2nd
hockey team but although he played sports he wasn’t the most talented person on a field.
He recalls having a half broken voice and doing a solo in the school play which was one of the
most nerve wracking experiences at the time and yet it probably gave him the confidence he
never had to speak in front of a crowd. There were many aspects of day to day school life,
family events and sports days that all blend into a blurred memory. He mostly tried to stay out of
trouble but remembers the worst moments being hauled in front of a house master or the
headmaster as being things he dreaded.
Friends he made and with whom he is still in touch are Michael Wickins, godfather to his
children and Rakesh to his and best men at each other’s weddings. Simon who joined in
standard 6 is till a good friend.
The last day after the last exam he remembers the boys went ballistic around the school,
causing a bit of havoc and writing messages on friends’ shirts.
After matriculating, Rakesh studied for a BComm. at Wits University majoring in Insurance and
risk management and information systems and is currently working as executive for emerging
markets at Dimension Data and is responsible for Dimension Data’s 16 operations outside
South Africa and the Middle East.
Rakesh last visited the school three or four years ago. He is on the MOBS mailing list. He does
not have sons at St David’s.
JLE June 2013

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Nicholas Robinson 1974

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  • 2013

Interview with Nicholas Robinson – 1974
Nick’s first memories of St David’s were rather daunting. He is English and his family moved from Sri Lanka
where he attended boarding school and was put into a class with boys 2 years older than he was.
Nick loved the sport and theatre but didn’t enjoy the academics and hated the work. He didn’t really get on
with authority. However he liked teachers like Br Aquinas, Br Mario and Mr Zacharawicz was really super.
He played the role of Thomas Cromwell ,the nemesis to Angelo Haggiyannis’s Thomas More in ”A Man for
all Seasons” put on at the Rosebank Convent. He had a wonderful few months rehearsing and presenting
that play, maybe the best time at Marist.
He played rugby and the final two years in the 2ndXV were wonderful fun.
Nick didn’t receive any medals or awards.
Nick attended two matric dances, first in standard 9 as a guest and matric with his girlfriend Claire who he
subsequently married and they are still together 40 years later.
Nick matriculated in 1974 and was in 10A. After school he went to tech for a year which was miserable,
then joined a small trading company in Johannesburg as a sort of “gofer” and spent some years travelling
around the world learning the trade. One thing led to another and he was offered the opportunity to work in
the UK in 1986 and he and his wife decided – why not? They went for 3 years and stayed rather longer. He
is currently a commodity trader. Their two sons were born in SA and the family returns to SA 3 – 4 times a
year including 3 weeks in Plett. The sons visit Cape Town and the bush with friends – Nick’s friends’
children and his children are really good pals spending christmas together.
He saw Angelo on a few occasions and was kept in the picture regarding his illness and subsequent death
in September 2013.
JE October 2013

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Billy Williams 1949 - Standard 7

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  • 2015

Interview with Billy (William) Williams – 1955/ Henry Kool and Fred Hoppert
Billy came to Inanda from Koch Street in 1941 – standard 4, as a boarder, boarding at Koch Street until
1943 when boarding opened at Inanda. The boys were taken to see the school’s building in progress in
1940 and Billy recalls climbing up a gum tree and tying a handkerchief there.
Henry (Hendrik) Kool also came to Inanda in 1941 as a boarder and matriculated as a prefect in 1949.
standard 4 was the highest class at the time and went up each year until the matric class, standard 10, was
reached. He remembered that the sports field was still raw and sloping downwards. This was eventually
bulldozed into two levels.
Fred Hoppert joined Inanda in 1942 as a day boy and left in 1954 having become a boarder in standard 8.
More day boys joined the school from 1942 onwards.
In 1941 Br Thomas, the principal of Koch Street ,went with all the boys to Inanda together with Br Charles
and Br Jordaan. They caught the first bus from Johannesburg Park Station. It was bright yellow and a
single decker with a driver called Scottie who drove them all the way to the school. When the bus
eventually “died” the boys had to catch a trolley bus to Rosebank and then walk from Rosebank to school –
1 ½ miles.
Billy remembers that the classes at Inanda were relatively small in comparison with 21 up to 35 boys in a
class whereas at Koch Street there were 45 at least. There were four houses as now – Osmund, College,
Benedict and The Bishops.
It was during the war years and there was no bread except brown bread, no butter but peanut butter and
apricot jam. There were tables of 6 in the dining hall with 6 small slices of margarine at each table and the
chap at the end of the queue always ended up with the smallest slice or the fraught piece The food was
generally good but cups were difficult to get hold of and beer bottles were cut off, the edges bevelled and
used instead of cups.
The Catholic boys didn’t have as much study time as the non-Catholics as they had to go to mass every
day. When the Catholics had retreat they all joined in as they then didn’t have to go to school. The standard
1 to 5 teachers were lay teachers - standard 1 – Mrs Sturton; 2 – Mrs Brophy; 3 – Mrs Hoare; 4 – Mrs
Kempster who was a tiger; 5 Mr Bishop; 6 Br Benedict; 7 – Br Bartholomew; 8 – Br Aquinas who was
severe; 9 – Br Ephraim; 10 – Br Edwin and Br Pius was the beekeeper and gardener.
The soccer fields were initially just graded and consisted of red sand and small stones. The swimming pool,
25 yards in length was the best in Johannesburg at the time. The first swimming gala and athletics meeting
were held in 1944. Henry remembers swimming the breaststroke and coming dead last.
The school bought a plot below the swimming pool and the house there became the sick bay and living
quarters for the brothers. The boys were “invited” to plant grass on the field there.
Initially there was no rugby as the school didn’t have the grounds and the sport was started in 1947 and
played at the Wanderers. The brothers had to teach the boys how to fall as none of them wanted to! In a
game of rugby against Helpmekaar, Billy remembers Inanda being beaten handsomely and Henry was a
prop.
The boys started playing hockey but smashed half the sticks the first time they played and the remainder
the second time. Needless to say hockey was cancelled.
Billy played cricket against St Henry’s in Durban and the boys in the team were farmed out to families to
stay overnight. Billy recalls being in a photo with a soccer shield – U 13’s team.
On Sunday afternoons the boarders used to go walking for miles through accacia trees and sandy soil
(hence the eventual name of the area as Sandton). Billy ate too much fruit on one of these walks and Henry
piggy backed him home until they were offered a lift.
The three boys, Billy, Henry and Fred were all Anglicans but were never treated any differently to the
Catholic pupils and were never pressured to become Catholic. They used to go to St Martin’s in the Veld
church on Sunday mornings and walked there and back. They walked past many little plots and the boys
used to collect fruit on the way back and then hide it in holes next to the barbed wire fence.
There was a small room underneath a staircase where sporting equipment, soccer balls, dubbin etc were
kept and Billy was in charge, mending the balls and sewing and lacing them up. There was a mark on the
wall, he had to drop the ball and it had to bounce to the second level before it was declared OK. He oiled
cricket bats with linseed oil and replaced the rubber on the handles
Billy recalls bunking out on three occasions climbing down the drainpipes into the swimming pool area and
walking to Rosebank where the boys used to get a trolley bus into town and go to Phillip’s Cafe. For half a
crown they could order a mixed grill and buy a packet of CTC or Flag cigarettes. Afterwards they would
walk all the way back to school. One particular bunch were caught and expelled but eventually allowed
back with a warning.
Billy was unable to complete his matric at Inanda leaving in 1945, standard 7, as his father was ill and he
had to go home to run the family farm. He did however complete his matric by correspondence.
Two of the boys, Felix Sullivan and Stan Silcock became brothers but later withdrew.
On leaving school, Billy ran the family farm and matriculated JCE via correspondence. His father died in
1952 and he continued with the farming, mainly dairy. The farm was located between Grasmere,
Walkerville and De Deur and he ended up being a big supplier to cheese manufacturers. Billy was voted
Farmer’s Weekly, dairy farmer of the year for several years. His farm was the highest milk producer for 3
years with his youngest heifer supplying the highest yield. He ran two other farms as well, one which now is
Orange Farm, he rented it and eventually bought it. Grinaker wanted the farm and bought it from Billy for
R500 000 and Grinaker later sold it to the nationalist government for R7m. The minister of planning at the
time was Fourie.
Henry was awarded scrolls for rugby and merit, gaining his colours and was made a prefect. He went into
banking as he was not called up, starting in Barberton, onto Vereeniging, Graskop, Barberton, Westonaria
and Florida eventually ending up at the head office of Standard Bank in the money market retiring at the
age of 60..
Fred went onto Natal University and studied for BSc Agriculture as he originally wanted to be a vet. He
joined 3M, then Ropes and Mattings (now Nampak) then on to Amalgamated Packaging Industries, then
Allnet, became MD of Olefan Textiles International and finally joined Bidvest where he retired and has
always lived in Johannesburg.
They are all still good friends. Billy’s youngest brother was at Inanda from 1947 and Billy supported him
through school after their father died. Billy fathered 5 children, 3 sons and 2 daughters. The eldest son
attended Settlers and the other two boys went to Potch Boy’s High.
Henry and Fred both fathered 3 daughters each
JLE March 2015.

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Aubrey Chalmers 1955

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  • 2015

Interview with Aubrey Chalmers – 1955
Aubrey’s grandfather attended MBC in Victoria, Australia in the late 1800’s and his father was a pupil at
MBC, Koch Street and his uncle was head boy of Marist Brothers Observatory in 1928.
Aubrey came to St David’s in 1949 in standard 4, his first teacher was Mrs Kempster and the headmaster
was Brother Edwin. Other brothers that he remembers who were at the school at the time were Bothers
Ernest, Benedict, Aquinas (head of Koch Street, “Bulldog”), Alban, Matthew, Pius, Br Gerald and Br Ralph
who taught Afrikaans was a brilliant rugby coach and was nicknamed “BeeGee”. Another brother who
taught Latin and Maths was nicknamed “Caesar”.
Br Edwin was a great disciplinarian but the boys loved and respected him – the atmosphere grew very quiet
when he was around and you could hear a pin drop. Aubrey respected Br Edwin and found him to be
straight forward. Although he was a sick man he had a good sense of humour and kept good control of the
school.
Aubrey remembered when he received six of the best after an incident in the dining room during grace with
the usual competition to gain possession of the milk jug from another boy. Aubrey ended up suddenly
holding the jug as the other boy released his hold and the jug’s contents shot over his shoulder and Br
Benedict ended up totally white.
On his first day the boys were up at 6.00am, shower, breakfast followed by line up and they finished school
work by 2.45pm, had tea went to the dorms and changed into sports gear.
There were 4 dormitories accommodating 44 boys with a brother responsible for each dorm. There were
boys from all over including Mozambique, Zambia, Rhodesia and Angola. On Friday nights matron Mrs
Knight randomly selected boys for a dose of castor oil
Once the boys were playing mini cricket in the dorm with Br Alban using a golf ball which involved breaking
a window and a hapless, rather studious boy who read a lot ended up taking the blame.
Aubrey was a swimmer, age group champion and was a member of Malvern Swimming Club. He swam for
the Transvaal after leaving school. In athletics, Aubrey was mainly a hurdler, represented the school and
was champion until U15. Aubrey also played rugby. As a boarder the boys did everything. Because of the
school’s low numbers the school only had A and B teams. The rugby team played Obs, Jeppe, KES, CBC
Boksburg, Springs and Germiston Boys High, Forest High and Parktown Boys. Obs and Inanda combined
to swim in the high school galas at Ellis park and always came second with KES being the top school.
There were few tours in those days and in 1955 SACS came up from Cape Town with the 1st XV rugby
team with boys from their 6th form – who were already shaving!
Specific events that Aubrey remembers are the day Marcellin Champagnat was beatified, a special
occasion and Aubrey still has the key ring commemorating the day; beating KES at rugby, the annual
triangular with Germiston Boys High, Springs Boys High and Marist Brothers Inanda.
Aubrey was in the school choir and participated in “HMS Pinafore” directed by Mr Drummond-Bell.
Aubrey’s class of 24 was the largest matric class and the school’s total numbers were around 200 boys. In
a “Spotlight on the matrics of ‘55”, Aubrey was elected the Best Storyteller.
Boys at school with him were Graeme Talbot, Errol Goeller, Andrew Oakes, Richard Rowan Irwin (who
gained the highest marks in law that Wits University had ever seen), Robin Manners, Brunton was head
boy and another boy Michael Finger was nicknamed “Tom Thumb”.
Aubrey was never unhappy and enjoyed his schooldays it was a lovely environment to be in with a good
upbringing. Aubrey was upset when Br Urban died and another sad incident was when a young pupil
Barrenbrugg died in a motor accident outside the school.
Aubrey wasn’t awarded colours mainly because of the polio outbreak and sporting events were cancelled.
Ian Kirley who was also awarded the provincial blazer was head boy for two years – in 1952 colours were
taken away and several boys were demoted. Br Edwin appointed Kirley in standard 9, there was a big
shake up in the school.
In his matric year Aubrey had decided to become a brother but during the course of the year he decided
against it and went instead to Wits University and studied for a Higher Diploma in Clinical pathology. He
was initially going to study pharmacy but after a stint working in a pharmacy during the holidays decided
that he would be a glorified shop assistant. He eventually became a clinical pathologist involved with
medical research and was the head technologist at the Blood Transfusion Service from 1963 to 1983
producing albumen. Later he was employed by Millipool, a US company until 2000 and spent 4 months in
Boston. Aubrey has worked in Wadeville for the past 11 years with Clinx Waste Management.
Aubrey’s wife is a nursing sister and they had two sons who were unable to attend St David’s as they lived
in Germiston at the time and there was no longer a boarding facility.
JLE February 2015

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Nicholas Ansell 2003

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  • 2014

Interview with Nicholas Ansell – 2003
Nick spent many years at St David’s from the age of three until he went to a pre-school run by a Mrs
Gibson. Nick’s mother Carol was a teacher at the school and therefore he spent a lot of time there. Robert
Gibson, Andrew Castle and Nick were all born within three months of each other, going to pre-school
together then Limberlost near Dunkeld West. They all started in grade 0 in 1991 and Ryan Norton, Walton
and Kirchhoffer joined them.
Nick and Andrew Castle went all the way through to matric together and became friendly with the sons of
other teachers, Mrs Marais and Mrs Roman. The grade 1 teachers were Rose, Ansell and Steernberg with
Carol Ansell moving up to teach grade 2 in 1993. Carol is currently a specialist teacher at St David’s
assisting the weakest and the strongest pupils in literacy. The office which was Nick’s nursery is now used
by the therapists.
The grade 2 teachers in 1993 were Ansell, Walton, Rose and Schaafsma. In standard 1 Mrs Sherratt was
Nick’s teacher, in standard 2, Mrs Sandy, in standard 3 Mrs Whitfield, in standard 4, Mrs Geldenhuys was
his home room teacher followed by Mr Thackwell in standard 5, Mrs Anderson was the Religious Education
teacher and Mrs Everson the English teacher. Mr Mitchley was the Science and sports master in senior
prep for standards 4 and 5 and interested Nick in the cricket scoring which he continued through high
school. Mrs Clover (Library) taught the boys how to find information and in those days it was using the old
catalogue card system. Mr Sloan the Geography teacher in standard 4 and 5 motivated Nick to enjoy and
understand Geography and a Mr Hayter. Mrs Bowles was strict and instilled discipline, she had a range of
books in her classroom and when one boy ran away he assumed the identity of one of the characters in a
book, that of an aborigine. Mrs Middlewick was the choir mistress and Nick and Andrew played the leading
roles in one of the school productions. Heather Joseph taught Art was like a second mother and was
always great fun.
Willy Castle was like a second father and Nick knew the ground staff well; George the tractor driver, Julius
and Phineas who all knew him from when he was a small boy. All the little boys used to hitch a ride on the
tractor and the school was their second home. Nick also remembers the smell of the stove, which was fired
by coal in the old kitchen. Nick used to sit in the kitchen when he was small and eat with Julius, Enoch and
Mabel.
Of the brothers, Br Anthony used to visit a couple of times a year. Brothers Vincent, Jude, Aidan and Mario
also came to the school regularly. Br Mario in fact employed Nick’s mother Carol. Father Brewer was down
to earth and strict and had a room upstairs near the chapel. He took the boys for holy communion and
coached soccer.
In the high school there was Mr Buys, Mr McMilllan who taught sport and Geography; Mr D Smith,
Geography, Mr and Mrs Andrews; Gary Norton who used to entertain the grade 1’s and 2’s with his snakes.
Paul Edey the headmaster was firm but insightful, teaching History when Nick was in standard 7 and
coached rugby. Nick enjoyed Rod Smith in standard 6 as his English teacher and Mrs Cameron, Mrs
Marais, Mrs Roman, Mrs Shumyn, Mr Burr, Accounting, Mr Craven, Zulu, athletics and rugby. The biggest
influence on Nick was held by the teachers who taught sport in standard 6.
Nick recalled the Glenmore camp in standard 6 and being a good time, rather like the army but great fun.
Gareth Kolkenbeck-Ruh was head boy and it was the first year that St David’s beat KES in rugby for many
years. Nick competed in the inter-high relay and College house still holds the record for the relay. Nick also
was awarded a team award for his cricket scoring and in standard 5 achieved an honours award.
Nick remembers his matric valediction, the grade 0 party coming to big school, first communion, the
Glenmore Camp, the death of James Garden’s brother and being upset when Mr Royce left.
Nick was hugely disappointed when he was not elected a prefect and didn’t achieve 1st Team rugby as he
fractured his spine and took up canoeing. He was however awarded a Champagnat medal. It was his first
lesson in life to learn that things don’t just get handed to you, and he learnt to be humble.
After matriculating, Nick studied at Wits University for a Bsc Physics and Mathematics and then changed to
a BSc Urban Planning in 2005 and graduated in 2008 with honours. During 2009, 2010, 2011 Nick worked
6 month shifts in the USA in state summer camps and eventually was promoted to programme director in
2011 to 2013 (2012 – 2013 full time)but had to return to South Africa when his visa expired.
He is currently working for Raven Town Planners and intends to study further for a masters in
environmental and sustainable cities next year.
JLE November 2014

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Bryce Wray 2005

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  • 2014

Interview with Bryce Wray – 2005
Bryce came to St David’s in grade 8. Bryce was formerly a pupil at King Edwards School being the third
generation of his family who attended KES and the school pavilion is named after Bryce’s uncle. Bryce
elected to attend St David’s for high school as he had already befriended Justin Rodrigues and Sibelo
Sithebe at junior city council. Also Paul Edey was the headmaster who had taught Bryce’s uncle and other
family members at KES and was highly regarded.
On his first day Bryce was fortunate, already knowing many of the St David’s boys from playing primary
school sport and James Morrison also accompanied him from KES. In spite of this Bryce was nervous and
concerned about the change from a government to a private school. His first camp was at Glenmore and he
recalls Mr Rod Smith making the boys stand outside in the rain.
Bryce was a member of The Bishop’s with Simon Fry as his housemaster. Bryce regarded him as a great
housemaster and History teacher who developed his passion for the subject. He recalls that Mrs Van der
Merwe was particularly good as his English teacher in matric and Mrs Kennedy for Maths. He also held
Alex Gitlin in high esteem through his contact with him playing hockey and still keeps in touch with him.
Bryce also coached 1st team hockey after leaving school.
Bryce always wanted to play hockey and initially Mr MacMillan was more pro rugby than hockey but this did
not stop Bryce playing hockey in grade 8 without having to play rugby. Bryce put a lot of time into his
hockey more so than academics. At that time pupils did not need to get such high matric marks to study law
at university although that is no longer the case. He played provincial hockey U18 until 2010 and was in the
Gauteng U21 side from 2006 to 2008 and was in the men’s Gauteng hockey team from 2009 until 2010.
Unfortunately currently pressure of work does not allow him to be as involved.
Bryce was fortunate to go on the hockey tour to Malaysia which was a great experience travelling with other
boys and experiencing a different culture. Bryce still plays hockey for Old Eds in the premier league with
Mark de Jager.
Bryce also participated in the school plays and public speaking and in inter-house debating in grade 8 and
9 and in grade 10 and 11 was involved with the SMILE programme.
Bryce decided from grade 8 that he wanted to become a lawyer. He believed the judiciary to be
independent and wanted to be part of such a legal system which is formulated on Roman Dutch law and
now influenced by the constitution. It intrigued him the fact that law ultimately influences everything.
Bryce received honours for hockey, was vice-captain of 1st team hockey and was a house prefect.
After he matriculated , Bryce attended..................................................University for a degree.
Bryce worked for his articles in 2010 until the end of 2011 with Hogan Lovells and then was retained as an
associate. He resigned in 2012 to pursue an opportunity to work in the commercial field. However he
decided that it wasn’t for him and Hogan Lovells gladly took him back. He now specialises in commercial
litigation for the construction industry and administrative law.
For Bryce the camaraderie with his grade was great and the loyalty they had for each other. He still meets
up with 8 friends from his year once a month and they are all very proud to be St David’s boys.
JLE September 2014

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Temba Bavuma 2007

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  • 2015

Interview with Temba Bavuma – 2007
Temba moved from Cape Town to Johannesburg with his parents in 2003 and first went to Fourways High
School joining St David’s in grade 10 when he was awarded a sports scholarship to play cricket. He was
spotted by Shane Gaffney and Roger Budd at a regional U15 cricket week.
At first he found the school rather intimidating and didn’t know quite what to expect as a co-ed school is run
somewhat differently. He made friends easily especially with his sporting background being involved with
rugby, soccer, cricket and cross-country.
Temba was awarded colours for soccer and cricket but didn’t play in an open year. He played for the A or
1st team in all the sports in which he participated and at one time soccer was his first love before cricket. He
struggled in the first few years but represented Gauteng U19 cricket. Initially he was going to study at UCT
having gained 3 distinctions in matric but he stayed on at St David’s and completed a post-matric year
which qualified him to play for SA Schools. It was a very tough year having to come back to school in
uniform and repeating matric subjects again. However, it did make him mentally stronger as an individual
and from a cricketing point of view.
Temba enjoyed the brotherhood at the school with a tight relationship amongst the guys especially in rugby
and cricket.
Temba did struggle with all the discipline and school regulations and those parameters but, with hindsight
he now appreciates it. He found all the teachers to be different and he could relate to them. Mr Ireland
didn’t show much emotion presenting a tough facade but Temba enjoyed him. Mrs Deetlefs had a vibrant
nature and always engaged with the students and Ms Cambitzis tried to break the student, teacher barrier.
Temba feels he owes a lot to Shane Gaffney who gave him the opportunity to succeed and contributed
greatly to enable Temba to get to where he finds himself now. Shane was very strict but tried to get the
best out of him and the other boys.Temba also had a good relationship with Amarinda Binder who helped
him a lot.
One unfortunate incident which stands took place during his grade 11 year when Sello M........... lost his
soccer boots and assumed that Temba had them. Sello took Temba’s school and cricket bag in revenge
which meant that Temba couldn’t do his homework or attend cricket training. This was a disaster for
Temba.
Temba went on school tours to Maritzburg and was involved in the St Albans tournament for cricket and
with soccer went to Kloof High and Durban, and played rugby in Bloemfontein at Gray’s College and St
Peter’s.Temba remembers that before his matric dance he was playing cricket all day and wondered if he
would ever make it.
The friendships he made at school he will always cherish and he remembers in particular Sabelo Sithebe,
head boy whom everyone respected, he was inspiring.
Temba matriculated in 2007 and 2008 with Accounting, Biology, Zulu, English, Business Economics and
Mathematics. He admits that his focus was not on marks but on cricket and was fortunate to play SA
Schools and for the SA U19 team, memories which he will cherish forever.
Temba appreciated the support he was given by being at St David’s, the way the school was run with its
systems and structure which enabled him to become the person he is today. It shaped him and encouraged
him. The values and principles the school instilled in him whilst he was there. The biggest thing wasn’t
about academics but how to be a man amongst other men. Comfortare Esto Vir: Take courage and be a
man.
In 2009 Temba enrolled at University of Johannesburg to study for BComm Finance. He finished the first
year but dropped out in the second due to his cricket commitments, enrolled at Unisa and finished his
degree in June 2014. He found it difficult to study and play sport. It was hard to find the energy after a
tough days training to apply himself to his studies. At the moment he is focused on his cricketing career and
a coaching facility at St David’s which he hopes will start at the end of March. He will be touring India and
Bangladesh during the winter.
Temba is now receiving information from MOBS and hopes to get more involved in future.
JLE February 2015

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with David Baker 1967

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  • 2015

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

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Mark Middlewick 2004

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  • 2015

Interview with Mark Middlewick – 2004
Mark came to St David’s in grade 0 and his brother to standard 4, in the second term as his mother was
then employed as the Music teacher in the prep school. Matthew remembers being very anxious especially
being a small child. He had amazing teachers Mrs Walton, Mrs Tyack and Mrs Milne.
Willy Castle was a good influence on him. He was a legend, a myth and having a man like him involved is
very important in a boys’ school. Mark enjoyed the prep and the camaraderie in the high school with
everyone looking out for each other. Mark didn’t experience any bullying whilst he was at St David’s. Paul
Edey, Mark’s headmaster in the high school was great and nearly everyone respected him.
Mark enjoyed the sport, soccer, cricket and swimming, although he was pretty average and didn’t have the
physical prowess; he enjoyed the team sports and found them to be fun, very important for a young boy.
Mrs Vroom encouraged Mark to audition for the school play “West Side Story”. He didn’t get a very good
role but participated and then Mrs Vroom suggested that Mark write the house play for Benedict. Mark felt
that he was always a middle of the road guy achieving Honours in the prep and receiving half colours for
culturals in the high school . However, he was always quite popular with a quick wit.
After matriculating, Mark took a gap year and went to the USA to a theatre camp at the age of 18 looking
after children 12 years old, becoming an adult overnight and taking responsibility. On his return he went to
Wits University, specialised in film and graduated with Honours in Dramatic Art. He did some lecturing and
tutoring based on critical thinking at Wits and City Varsity and then went to Los Angeles for a few months
working as a script reader (unpaid) but receiving feed-back.
Mark’s short film “Security” was nominated for the best fhort Film at the SA Film and Television Awards and
was one of the three winners out of 1750 contestants, of the Jameson First Shot Film competition this
year. His script “The Mascot” was chosen by US actor Kevin Spacey and renowned producer Dana
Brunetti’s production company, Trigger Street Productions. Mark filmed “The Mascot” in Los Angeles with
Oscar winning actor Adrien Brody playing the lead role.
Mark believes that Mrs Vroom influenced him in his current career when she challenged him to audition for
the school play and to write the script for the house plays. His parents played a major role in his
development, encouraging him and not basing their opinion purely on his marks but on his effort and
participation. Mark also believes that receiving his education at St David’s was significant and for that he is
very grateful and hopes that he will be able to afford to send any son of his to his old school. Mark and
some of his contemporaries are still in touch and meet on a regular basis.
JLE August 2015

Egenrieder, Julie

2016 75th Jubilee Mass

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  • 2016

Colour photo

St David's Marist Inanda

Interview with Kevin Peel 1966

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  • 2013

Interview with Kevin Peel – 1966
Kevin joined St David’s in 1954 in grade 1 and his first memory is of being in class with the
famous Mrs Brick and others such as Mrs Kempster, Mrs Janusch who was head of the junior
school The teachers that stand out in his mind are Br Anthony, Br Andrew (Drac) and Br Bosco .
He remembers standing at line up with Mike Larkin with whom he went through until matric.
Mike became a Professor and was sadly murdered. Kevin and his two brothers all attended St
David’s, with his parents doing the daily trip from their home in Roosevelt Park for 24 years.
Kevin’s father was also a Marist boy at Koch Street and then Observatory.
He enjoyed the sport wanting to be a part of it all and was in the 1st hockey team, 2nd teams for
rugby and cricket and also participated in athletics and played golf. He remembers Trevor Elliot
who started the school’s first golf club. All the Peel boys played sport everyday and their father,
who worked at Rosebank clinic in the radiology department, fetched them at the end of the day.
Because they spent so much time at school they often used to eat with the boarders. Kevin was
the only Peel not to be awarded provincial colours but went on to play 1st team rugby at Pirates
Rugby Club. He and his brothers were in the Pirates 1st team spanning 13 years and at one
stage 13 out of the 15 U20 team were MOBS.
The Inter- Catholic Schools Athletics Meetings were unbelievable, booking out the Wanderers
stadium and the school had some great athletes such as Terry Lavery, some of whose records
remain unbroken today.
Kevin’s father was the chairman of the old Marist Club and captained their cricket team
He is still in touch with many of his friends from those days namely Eric Ambrosioni, Anthony
Walker and Colin Cockerell. Another old boy, Renzo Brocco is Kevin’s first cousin and they
were also related to the Goosen family. Kevin also meets up with other old boys such as
Schoombie, Stott, Foden at Parkview Golf Club. He recalled the Tomaselli family who lived
below the fields.
An amusing incident that he recalled was when he was sent out of class and looked over the
balcony to see his brother sitting on the wall below him as he had also been sent out. He called
out in a voice imitating Br Anthony “Cooome heeer boy” at which his his boet got such a fright
he fell off the wall.
Discipline was hard and strict but the boys didn’t resent it and never complained Kevin
remembered a time when he was sent out of class and told to fetch the brother’s cane from the
auditorium. He found the cane and then dropped it down between the tiered seats and went
back and said he was sorry but couldn’t find it. He wonders if it is still there to this day.
Another memory was the day it snowed and as the brothers came out of their door to assembly
they were pelted with snow balls. One of the glass door panes was broken much to Br
Anthony’s anger and disgust.
Br Anthony attended the 40th reunion which was organised by Kevin and Trevor Elliot.
Kevin remembers the musical “Pirates of Penzance produced by Mr Drummond Bell which was
enthusiastically supported by all the boys and Kevin remembers that his partner at his matric
dance was Jenny Ireton.
After matriculating, Kevin attended Wits University where he studied for a BSC Quantity
Surveying. He then worked in his uncle, Harry Morgan’s practice for a few years. Harold’s
brother was Brother Ronald who taught at St Davids’ for a few years.. Kevin then started up on
his own in 1980 and has worked for himself ever since and is currently with O’Mahoney, Peel ,
Rowney Quantity Engineers.
Unfortunately Kevin’s son was unable to attend a formal school such as St David’s but is now a
journalist.
Kevin has been a contributor to Boys Town for the past 20 years and also supports a number of
other causes such as the Avril Elizabeth Home and Oliver’s Home. Kevin’s company is often
involved in undertaking gratis work for the church when called upon by John Mills’ 59. Kevin
enjoyed his time at St David’s and is more than happy to get involved.
JLE January 2013

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Brian Austin 1962

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000718
  • Item
  • 2010

Interview with Brian Austin - 1962
St David’s Inanda: some recollections before the Beatles
Brian Austin (1958 – 1962)
In those days it wasn’t called St David’s, though his name was there in the small print.
We all knew it as ‘Inanda’, to distinguish it from ‘Obs’: those other guys who wore the
same funny stripey blazer. But many people around Joburg called both schools ‘Maritz’,
for obviously South African reasons but clearly without much appreciation of who these
Marist Brothers were. And, to distinguish us from them at Obs, ‘Inanda’ was always
regarded as the posh school where you went if you didn’t sound (or want to sound) like
Al Debbo (now there’s a name from the dark ages!).
I went to ‘Inanda’ (I’ll stick with that name) in 1958. My prep school years were spent at
the little Catholic school in Maryvale, St Paul’s Parochial School, that’d been founded by
the remarkable Fr Philip Erasme OMI in 1943. I’d been head boy there but was small fry
when I arrived at Inanda. Most of the guys in standard 6 had been together at the junior
school of Inanda and so they all knew each other and also who was king. New blokes
from other places – and there were a handful of us – had to slot into the established
social order. And Inanda had boarders and the boarders were the really important guys,
not day boys who still lived with their mothers. I was a day boy.
There was only one lay teacher in the whole senior school at that time. He was Mr
Bishop and he taught us English. Mr Bishop stood out for never having a hair out place
and he always wore impeccable suits. He used to read to us occasionally from a book
wrapped in brown paper. It was a war story and some said it was his autobiography,
hence the wrapping. In those days we got ‘lashed’ with the cane for various
misdemeanours usually to do with homework that wasn’t done. Old Bish could lash all
right. So could Br Andrew who was our official class teacher. He was a French Canadian
and always said ‘bon’, when you got something right. He taught us Maths and Latin. And
Br Benedict was the principal (I think that’s what he was called in those days. Later we
had a headmaster, but maybe not). Benedict was tall and gaunt. He was known as Beak
(or maybe Beek) and commanded respect. He could lash too.
The standard 6 classroom was stuck away down below the boarders’ dining room.
Remember that in those days the school didn’t extend north beyond the road that ran
down from the second gate (not the main gate) off Rudd Road. That property northwards
was a farm. And our classroom was alongside that road that ended up in the bicycle
shed. It also went past the swimming bath, which I see is now much bigger (according to
Google Earth) and somewhere else altogether. We had swimming as part of the
morning’s lessons one day a week in the summer, of course. I’d never dived into a pool
before then; I learnt to dive very quickly on the first swimming day. I was also known as
‘milk bottle’ because of my fair skin. Boys’ schools are very gentle and genteel places,
as we all know.
I played cricket because I loved the game. Rugby we all played whether we liked it or
not. In those days the school even had a professional cricket coach (a Mr Bannister)
who came out from England, believe it or not, to coach at various schools around
Joburg. He was a great coach and we didn’t have a bad U13 side as a result. The
captain was Roy Chisholm, a left-hander who bowled good in-swingers. I opened the
batting with Mike Ness who went to England the following year. So did Terry Coughlin,
the wicket-keeper. In those days, apparently, there was much traffic between some
South African ‘Private Schools’ and English ‘Public Schools’, such as Stoneyhurst in
Lancashire run by the Jesuits. In this context private and public meant the same thing
which would confuse anyone today not versed in such details.
2
I remember Chisholm and I once ‘made a stand’ against Athone U13. He got into the
sixties and I made 53, precisely. Br Anthony (much more about him later) was umpiring.
The Athlone captain was a little squat fellow called Sammy. He placed himself at silly
mid-on (it gets technical here), just a few years to my left, and I was facing their offspinner
who bowled a gift of a full toss. I played a mean on-drive in those days and duly
caned the ball. It hit Sammy on the forehead and nearly decapitated him. He certainly
took off backwards and landed on his bum. Br Anthony, standing at the bowler’s wicket,
sauntered up the pitch to see if Sammy was still alive and then said to me: ‘that
should’ve been four”. Exactly what I thought too.
Standard 7 was a tough year. Our class teacher was a very young Irish brother whose
name now escapes me. He clearly felt challenged by pimply-faced, testosterone fuelled
fourteen-year olds with attitude. As a result he didn’t cope well and lashed us often,
clearly his only defence. A fellow called Ralph van Oppen would openly challenge
anyone who so much as dared look at him to a fight – and he always won. He once
organised a strike by terrorising the whole class who, at his say so, didn’t dare return
after lunch break. We just sat on the lawn. Somehow it was resolved (I don’t now
remember how) and we weren’t even lashed but van Oppen disappeared from the
school. A word, no doubt, was dropped into his father’s ear, though if the son was
anything to go by, Van Oppen senior must’ve been quite something. Perhaps he’d got
away before the allies captured Berlin? That was the year we started ‘Science’ as a
subject and I immediately discovered my métier. English too wasn’t far behind.
Standard 8, or ‘J.C.’ (Junior Certificate) in those days, was a nondescript class and an
uninspiring time. It was 1960 and the time of Sharpeville but our pent-up anger
throughout they year had much more to do with yet more testosterone, I’m sure. Girls
now entered our spheres of interest but most seemed totally disdainful of us. Rosebank
Convent provided much that was attractive but it never reciprocated our awkward
posturing. And we produced a lousy rugby team, but smoking on the bottom field
improved markedly as the year went by. Br Walter, our class teacher, seemed older than
Noah by at least a generation. He was the most gentle of men. Seemingly near-blind
behind very thick lenses, and always somewhat befuddled, he taught us Maths and
Christian Doctrine. Sometimes there was so much fervour involved in both that it was
difficult to tell them apart. As a result, if one had any mathematical flair it was likely to be
kindled by Walter and mine certainly was. Others discovered they had ‘vocations’ and
talked of becoming brothers themselves. At the end of the year, having gained a ‘firstclass
J.C.’, I remember writing Br Walter a letter thanking him for making ‘the minutiae of
the subject’ (Maths) so amazingly clear. His flair with figures, equations and abstruse
geometry undoubtedly helped because I’ve used a fair bit of the subject ever since. On
the matter of our execrable rugby performance that year, I remember our being thrashed
by Jeppe 103- nil. How we dared arrive at school the next day remains one of those
mysteries on one’s educational life. The ignominy must’ve been indescribable.
Junior matric followed and another figure - in black (not white then) cassock, white bib,
rope around his waist and swinging crucifix - strode into our lives in very sharp focus.
Brother Anthony was the new principal and his Scots accent became part of our lives.
He was always known as ‘Ornge’ or ‘Ornges’ from the way he said ‘orange’. He also
caused much mirth when he spoke after the annual athletics sports day each
September. After thanking everyone for attending and making the occasion the success
it usually was, he’d then announce, into the microphone, that all were very welcome to
attend the ‘bry flies’ afterwards. Most did, if only to hear Ornge say it again.
Ornge was a phenomenal headmaster. I’d go as far as saying that he really made the
school into what it is now. Every morning at assembly he spoke from the upper balcony,
3
looking down (but only metaphorically) on all of us standing in our rows, per class, in the
‘quad’. The prefects prowled around in between. I still vividly remember hearing one of
them, Martin Funston the nephew of Ken Funston the Springbok cricketer, tell a fellow
who happened to have a shock of red hair, and who was talking, to ‘shut up, copper
knob’. That actually occurred in 1958 but such things happened in 1961 too and just had
to be mentioned because the reaction of all within earshot was excruciatingly funny.
The matric class in ’61 (a year ahead of me) were a brilliant bunch and Ornge was very
proud of them. Dudley Mandy,with much swagger and I suppose what we’d call
charisma these days, was headboy. I think he also subsequently became a brother. The
cleverest bloke was Doug Hawkins, now a professor of Statistics in the states. ‘Dougie’
(but pronounced, as you’d expect, by Ornge as Doogie), was at least 6 foot 3 and gangly
too. Though clearly designed for the second row of the scrum, or at least the line-outs,
he didn’t appear on the rugby field. Having brains helped some escape. He was a
mathematical genius – a fact often mentioned by Ornge – and he also started the
Science club. His plan was that ‘Inanda’ should follow the Americans into the space
race; remember sputnik was launched by the Russians in 1957 and ever since the
Americans had been trying to catch up. Anything we could do to help would no doubt be
appreciated. Doogie wanted to design, build and launch a rocket and Ornge backed him
to the hilt. So, one morning at assembly, after he’d addressed us from the balcony,
Ornge called on Doogie to join him up there and tell us his plans for interplanetary travel
or whatever he had in mind. I was enthralled and when the great man asked for
volunteers to join in I was there.
By then I was rather interested in radio. Not Springbok Radio but making radios and I’d
already made a few. Doogie said we needed radio communications, especially radio
telemetry, on our rocket. It would at least tell us where it was when it came down –
possibly in someone’s swimming pool. We agreed to meet at his house over the
weekend to discuss strategy and try to make a radio small enough to fit inside a (rather
small) tube that would be packed with explosives and after ignition would lift the missile
into space. It sounded fantastic and I was bursting to make my contribution. Doogie and
I, in his father’s garage the following Saturday afternoon, soldered and squashed
electronic bits and pieces together into the tube but never a peep came out of it. His
mother brought us tea and enquired how we were getting on. We said we were at ‘T
minus something and counting’ (that’s what they always said from Cape Canaveral just
before lift-off) but had hit a snag. She said she was sure we’d sort if out and then asked
us to try not to drop solder on the carpet.
I don’t remember the rocket ever being launched. Something about Pretoria and laws
against making missiles, if I remember correctly, but it was great fun and Doogie was
impressively tall. Others in that class who excelled cerebrally were Richard Hartdegan,
later a dermatologist in Joburg, Rodney Leigh (known as ‘Gripper’ for some reason),
another medical doctor, and Steven Fine, a dentist to be. And Emil Iglauer, built like the
proverbial brick toilet, hence he propped the 1st XV scrum with Darko Vidas (in my year),
became an electronics engineer, as I did too a while later.
In 1962 I entered matric. There were only 17 of us in the class and, of course, only one
matric class in those days. Our classroom was right at the end upstairs. Next door were
the junior matrics and next door to them was the Science lab which always stank of H2S,
but then so did some boys even though they never went near the place. I never earned
my colours blazer. You needed three ‘scrolls’ for that and despite being bananas about
cricket I never made enough runs to get that most prized (in my mind) of scrolls. I was a
prefect for which you also needed the ‘merit’ scroll. Presumably it meant what it said but
we didn’t know how they measured that. They just watched us, I suppose. We also
never had a head boy that year. The ‘watchers’ clearly decided that no one really stood
4
out. Roy Chisholm was no longer captain of the 1st cricket XI because Rob Fiore had
arrived from St Henry’s (in Durban) accompanied by accolades about his sporting
prowess. So he captained both the first teams: cricket and rugby. I still opened the
batting and, in fact, had played in the ‘Firsts’ the previous year too.
Before that, in the 2nds, our captain was Bill Oliver (also lavatorially-shaped and so
another ‘Firsts’ prop) opened the bowling. For sheer spirit (if not stunning talent) that
2nds side was fantastic – and Bill was the reason. He was inspirational, not least
because most of the team were in classes below him and were at least 50lbs lighter than
he was. Bill had his own form of ball-tampering long before the term was ever used at
test match level. Before opening the attack with the new ball he would rub part of it
vigorously on the concrete wall alongside the main cricket field – the main rugby field too
– immediately on the right of the driveway into the school from the main gates. This
gouging of the leather near the seam gave Bill the purchase he needed when bowling
his assortment of deliveries, mostly short-pitched that reared up at pace, to all who faced
him from our neighbouring schools. He hated them all – a good sign in a fast bowler –
and he inspired us.
In 1961 I went with the 1st XI to Marist Brothers, Walmer (in P.E.) for the Marist Cricket
Week. Every year each Marist school in the country sent its first team to play against all
the others at one or another school. We didn’t do too well; as you might expect given the
fanfare that surrounded Fiore’s arrival from Durban a while before, St Henry’s walked
over everyone else. But Rob himself was picked to play for ‘S.A. Marists’ – as a bowler.
Until then he’d been a top-order batsman and occasional wicket keeper too. But in P.E.
our captain (Mike McGurk) told him to bowl medium pace, which he did, and he took a
mountain of wickets. Needless to say, this was yet more Fiore sporting magic.
My cricket in matric was obsessional. Alf Smith (who didn’t play at all but was a cricket
nut like me) and I used to ‘talk cricket’ at every break and often in between too. I still
opened the batting, usually with Renzo Brocco of the year below. He was also fullback
for the firsts at rugby (I was fullback for the ‘Thirds’). We had a few decent opening
stands when he scored most of the runs. I was just too dogged and Jackie McGlew-like
in that I stuck out my backside, gripped the bat too low down and lost the on-drive that
had nearly murdered the Athlone boy some years before. In the St David’s Magazine
that year (I think it was, by then, known as St David’s) the matric class had pen pictures
and photos. Alongside were our nicknames and any special idiosyncrasies, foibles etc.
As was seemingly the custom in those days, we were also described by a current pop
tune. Mine was ‘Transistor Sister’ because I was also, by then, a confirmed radio (in the
electronics sense) nut as well. My cricketing prowess was, as I remember it, described in
equally unflattering terms too!
In matric, Br Anthony (‘Ornge’) taught us Maths, and very well too; Br Robert, an
extremely short Australian, taught us Science in a very methodical way, and Br Gerard
taught us English, quite inspirationally. He even made (some of) us appreciate poetry.
Best of all, he spoke impeccable English with much emphasis on correct ‘received’
pronunciation. For example, the list he put on the board included such words as
Wednesdee, ‘vittles’ (food to the rest of us), and ‘contriversey’, with the emphasis on the
first syllable and a delicate ee sounding of the second. And he could lash too, especially
when one hadn’t learnt the complete ‘To be or not to be’ soliloquy from Hamlet, our
setwork of the year. If I remember correctly, Alan’s Paton’s ‘Cry the Beloved Country’
was another, as was Thomas Hardy’s ‘Return of the Native’ which allegedly caused
some consternation within the state censor’s office until it was pointed out that influx
controls were not being breached.
5
Sportswise, the cricket coach of note was little Br Dennis or ‘Tickey’, as we knew him.
He taught Latin and History too. And, on the rugby field there was ‘Bodo’: Brother
Bonaventure, big, dark and almost brooding. He too wielded the cane with precision
while teaching us Afrikaans. Both he and Tickey, evidently, never stayed the course and
left the brotherhood some years later. Now, of course, there are no brothers left and old
Ornge is, so I hear, still doing a fantastic job out in the sticks tending to those whose
needs are far greater than ours, as very privileged white youths, ever were.
I was an active member of the Science club in 1962. I proposed a club project to Ornge,
which he accepted, and the school funded. S.A. Philips, the Dutch electronics company,
had recently published a remarkable book, written by its engineers in Joburg, called
‘Transistors for the Home Constructor’. It contained all sorts of circuits for various
electronic gadgets and I wanted to build the radio transmitter. Ornge forked out the
money and my father bought the bits and pieces. Then, two or three of us, set about
building the transmitter. It took a bit of fiddling but eventually we got it working and we
could walk all around the school grounds transmitting our voices to a good old fashioned
‘wireless’ set up in the science lab. And that was long before cell phones. My mates
thought I’d clearly become what I suppose we’d now call a ‘geek’ or a ‘nerd’. They felt I
needed to spend more time with girls.
I left ‘Inanda’ at the end of 1962 and spent nine months in the army before going to Wits
to do electrical engineering. Graduating, after a few hiccups along the way, with B.Sc
(Eng) degree launched me on a career that became my life, first in Joburg at the
Chamber of Mines Research labs, and then at Wits as an academic in my old
department and for the last twenty years, before I retired five years ago, at the University
of Liverpool. As a side interest, I also wrote the biography of Sir Basil Schonland, a
noted South African scientist who amongst many other things founded the CSIR, was
scientific adviser to Field Marshal Montgomery and ultimately, was director of Harwell,
the atomic energy research establishment in England. It was published in 2001. St
David’s (‘Inanda’) provided me with lots of good guidance, both academic and spiritual,
great company amongst one’s fellow pupils and, especially, a sense of pride in a
wonderful institution that thrived throughout my time there under an inspirational
headmaster always known to us as ‘Ornge’.
B.A. (Brian) Austin
West Kirby
Wirral
UK
(May 2010)

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Darko Vidas 1962

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000750
  • Item
  • 2011

Interview with Darko Vidas 1962
Darko joined St David’s in 1960 after living in Namibia. His mother had died and eventually his
father decided to move to Johannesburg hoping for a better life for his children. Darko was a
boarder and found the first year to be very hard; it was difficult to get acquainted with everyone
and everything, plus the fact that he went overseas for two months to Europe and Croatia to
meet his family there.
Darko was quite a rebellious child and initially found the discipline at St David’s to be a difficult
change from life as he knew it. Brother Anthony had just been appointed headmaster and he
began by reading the boys the riot act as he was determined to change the ethos of the school
and behaviour of the boys. Darko thought he would get thrown out of the school!
His first day was quite horrific. Getting organised, classrooms, teachers and books he needed. It
was a very different environment from Namibia where he went to a much poorer, dual medium –
English and Afrikaans school and discipline was a big issue. His English was never very good
as he had been brought up in his mother tongue of Croatian until he went to school and he
battled with the language.
He now speaks Croatian, English, Afrikaans, German and a little Zulu and firmly believes in
introducing other languages to children as it gives them a greater vista and an advantage.
He also remembers serving at mass in Namibia, if you did this the nuns gave you breakfast
which included delicious rye bread and polony.
He really enjoyed his time at St David’s, making good friends, with whom he really bonded.
They shared everything, which was a great experience; he mixed with boys from different walks
of life – richer and poorer than himself – having compassion for one another. The brothers
showed love and compassion even though they were disciplinarians. As far as he was
concerned there were no cons to boarding school life at St David’s, for him it became his home
and haven as he no longer had a mother at home. He also remembered that the food was very
good.
Some of the Old Boys he is still in touch with and some he remembers:
Alec Quail Steven Muller
Doug Wickins Mike von Guilleaume
John Daly Rugani - deceased
Alf Smith Tonetti - deceased
The last day he can’t remember which exam he wrote. He remembers that he wasn’t happy
about leaving and knew he would always be back. It was the end of an era and he was sad
about it.
The boys were made to play sport and he played 1st team rugby and was vice –captain of 1st
rugby team, although he had never played before. He was also a good athlete. His record with
cricket was rather ignominious as, during net practice he disgraced himself and managed to
injure one of the school’s best batsmen. Needless to say he wasn’t encouraged to continue. He
was nicknamed “Bull”, was rugby prop and was injured in a match against KES. Whilst he was
in hospital, Br Anthony told the boys to go to church and pray for Bulls recovery.
His class was the smallest matric class ever, just 17 of them, but they played against all the top
schools and beat Observatory for the first time in 1961 away (3-0) 1962 at home (6-8).
As teachers, he didn’t think the brothers were particularly good but they were certainly always
encouraging and supportive. The brothers at the time were Br Anthony, Br. Gerard, Br Liam, Br
Dennis who coached rugby and Br Ignatius and there were some lay teachers in the junior
school. Br Gerard was kind, compassionate and a dedicated teacher who helped him a lot with
his English and gave him extra lessons at no charge. He put up a stage production of “Hamlet”.
All the boys had to learn the roles and not only learn the words but understand and interpret the
meaning. He was also the senior master for the boarders and used to feed them extra food in
the form of cakes from the brother’s fridge.
The brothers were a family in themselves and motivated all the pupils and taught them to be
innovative and to think laterally. They taught them to understand what they were trying to do
and not just to learn another formula.
He remembers that he and some of the other boys built a stage for a production of “Swan Lake”.
They took Gertie, the school bus to collect wood from some of the boys. However that didn’t
come to anything and eventually the wood was donated. When it was finished it had to be
transported from the wood workshop to the school hall (now the library) and all the boarders
mucked in and helped.
Alex Quail and Darko shared a big trunk in which they kept their books and punishment for
some of the younger boarders was to carry this trunk from their classroom back to the study.
Once, a couple of boys dropped the trunk, which then went sliding down the stairs nearly wiping
out Brother Anthony. The poor boys even got caned, an additional punishment however Brother
Anthony didn’t cane hard as he really didn’t believe in caning.
Another time the boarders went on strike protesting about the food and one boy even sang a
ditty
“Sausage in the morning, sausage in the evening sausage at super time”. Brother Gerard who
was in charge of the boarders had a soft heart and often used to open the brothers fridge and
hand out some food.
An incident, where he got into trouble after complaining about an English test, led him to be
disciplined by Br Anthony. He was not allowed to wear his honours blazer for 3 months. It was
very hard for him but he learnt the true meaning of the school motto “Comfortare esto vir - Take
courage and be a man”. Br Anthony was the cornerstone of his life, always there to listen and
offer advice and was a guest at Darko’s wedding.
Darko was vice captain of Osmond house and a prefect.
Darko’s first girlfriend, who was with him at his matric dance, much to his horror, became a nun,
however they kept in touch until she died.
When he left school he went into the navy. He volunteered together with Doug Wickins.
Afterwards he started an apprenticeship with Eskom as an electrician but he decided this
wouldn’t get him very far and studied electrical engineering at night at the Wits technikon. When
qualified he joined Siemens where he stayed for 41 years until he retired.
He brought his future wife to St David’s and remembers telling her that any sons of his would be
pupils at the school. He continued to be an active member of the school community and served
several terms on the PTA from and on the board of governors as a well as on the old boys
committee and the old boy’s bursary fund, but hastened to add that many of his compatriots did
likewise. Darko was also good friends with the now infamous headmaster John Murphy. Darko
being a boxer had something in common with him. Darko was at that time chairman of MOBS
and was on the board of governors. He was distressed to here of Murphy’s wrestling exploits
but agreed he had to go when his falsification of qualifications also came to light.
JE May 2011

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Bart Dorrestein 1966

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000708
  • Item
  • 2011

Interview with Bart Dorrestein – 1966
At the very beginning of his school career, Bart remembers going to the school outfitters,
Markhams to get his new blazer; Cuthberts for the shoes and books from Hurleys in town. His
mother would then cover the books in brown paper!
Bart thinks of St David’s as having been a fantastic and incredible school and really enjoyed his
time there. He lived in Hurlingham, there were only about 3 houses then just off the Nicol
Highway. He would get a lift to school with the Vonk family and they would travel via a dirt road
past Tara.
The routine was good and he remembers it was exciting waiting for the report card to arrive,
especially in the lower classes. Checking the notice board to see who had been selected for
various teams.
The headmasters during his time were Br Benedict and Br Anthony. He recalled Mrs Brick his
grade 1 teacher, she wore sandals, had bunions and he was dead scared of her. She had a big
ruler with which she smacked the table. He was a left hander and had difficulty with writing and
found her to be a frightening character. The matron was Mrs Buckley-Jones and her son was
head boy for Bart’s matric year.
Other teachers were Mr Martin, grade 2, Mrs Kempster, standard 1, Mrs Humphries standard 2,
Mrs Janusch standard 3, she was a great teacher who also had a son at the school. There was
an incident with Mrs Humphries when she was mistakenly tackled by the boys. The boys used
to stand by the door and tackle other boys as they came in and one day they mistakenly tackled
Mrs Humphries!
Br Vincent taught standard 5 and was a great teacher, sportsman and coach. Br Declan taught
Latin. Br Andrew “Drac” was Maths teacher and soccer coach, a superb man. Bart was the
captain of the U10 soccer team and (Peter Gerard was the goalie). Br Andrew gave them a
good grounding and discipline in Maths and in the manner in which he taught theorems. He
gave Bart a high level of help and appreciation of Maths. He also moulded the boys into a super
soccer team. He took them to Vereeniging in the school bus “Gertie” for a match in a stadium
which they won. He recalls that they used to drive down Loch Avenue at a rate of knots. Br
Mario was a fantastic Science teacher, nicknamed “Boeing” because of his large ears, he nearly
convinced Bart to become a brother. Br Dennis, who used to insist that the boys kept their
hands above their blankets, and would check the boys during the night, he was a great teacher,
sportsman and coach for standard 5. Br Terence Boyle and Br Sean were given bicycles to
enable them to visit families; they both eventually left the order.
Bart received the academic prize in standard 5 and received a cup. Later, he had a good
Afrikaans teacher, Mrs Elsabe Pretorius and was a member of the debating team together with
Patrick Noble. The English pupils had to speak in Afrikaans and vice versa. Jannie Steyn, a
tennis player and Bart, who had Dutch parents spoke about love and won the competition.
During a woodworking class he and Mike Smith made crucifixes which didn’t quite work until
they swopped pieces and then their crucifixes fitted perfectly.
In Science classes they would, as a dare, fill up water bottles which had a pipe, someone would
distract a Brother and the other would squirt water down the side of the cassock where the cane
was kept.
The boys used to time each other when they went into the confessional. Bart was an altar boy
for two masses and was then thrown out, together with Strauss and De Matthaus as they were
caught laughing during the service. It was infectious one would start and everyone else would
join in involuntarily. Father Peter Haskins came to say mass on the first Friday on the month,
Bart managed to put the cloth in the water and when it came to communion he smacked
everyone on the Adams apple with the plate which didn’t go down too well.
Bart was a swimmer, vice-captain of the swimming team, together with Peter Moni, Mike
Beaumont, Alan Curtin, Peter Gerard (Frances’s brother). Leigh McGregor was a Springbok
swimmer and came from a dynasty of top rowers, his son Hank was a Springbok for rowing and
surf ski. Mrs McGregor was one of the mothers who manned the tea and cake stand after the
galas, together with Mrs Moni both of whom were both considered good looking. Bart took her
daughter to the matric dance.
Bart played 3rd team rugby, and participated in athletics. He was also in the U10 cricket team
together with Mike Smith and Mike Beaumont. He opened the batting and got 75 although the
ball was dropped 11 times! Sadly his coach wasn’t watching at the time.
He remembers entering the U12 race for the 220 yards and being placed in the A race and was
given the first lane. He was in the lead, then fell and collapsed onto the cinder track. He cried as
he had tried so hard and he remembers a guy called Milne who carried him off the track.
Chris Terreblanche (deceased) who matriculated in 1964) held the school 100 yard record and
ran against Paul Nash.
There was a very near tragic incident involving a player in the 1st rugby team, when the tackling
machine collapsed on his head. He had to have brain surgery but recovered and became a
doctor.
There was a big scoreboard on the cricket pitch and during the holidays the boys used to try to
get inside and use it as a club house.
He remembers school colleagues such as Peter Gerard, Olaf Winkler (Omnia Fertilisers),
Frances Gerard, Brian Jarvis, second best friend Derek Schoombie. Boys above him – Rob
Fiore, Ellis, Slabbert, Hartman, Rudell, Nobbs, Ricki Valenti
After leaving school with a first class matric, Bart went to Wits studied for a BSc and went into
business. He is now the chairman of the Legacy Group. His late son also attended St David’s
from grade 1 until standard 5 and, as the school was going through a bad patch went onto St
Johns’ where he became a Junior Springbok water polo player.
Bart says that St David’s was a standard school with no airs and graces and gave the boys a
missionary zeal which is reflected in the boys of that time. It was a school that gave opportunity,
religious education and ethos. He feels that it is this that inspired him and the Legacy Group to
build the “Candle of Hope” which stands outside the Da Vinci hotel and is the beginning of
things to come.
JE November 2011

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Alf Smith 1962

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000396
  • Item
  • 2011

Interview Alf Smith – 1962
082 441 7227 011 782 -7376 (Home) alfredsmith@iafrica.com
Boundary Rd was a dirt road next to the golf course and Sandton consisted of small holdings
with lots of fruit trees. The boundary of the school was the old farm. Br Pius who taught his
father at Koch St, resided in a cottage in the school grounds and maintained the beautiful
gardens where the administration block was built. The prep playing fields consisted of sand
fields, an oval with grass and a cinder track for athletics. There were three fields below the
existing swimming pool which comprised a small soccer pitch and rugby fields. The acquisition
of additional grounds for the school was a big moment.
Alf started in grade 2 in 1952 and lived in the Wynberg/Bramley area. His first day at school was
not an easy one as, in grade 1 he had initially gone to St Paul’s, the school attached to
Maryvale Parish. He was very unhappy at St Paul’s and was taken out after 6 months. He then
had private teaching from one of the sisters from Alexander Convent. His first teacher at St
David’s was Miss Brick, grade 1, who was a very kind person. He was in her class for two
weeks and then Br Anthony advised his parents that he should be moved into grade 2. Miss
Martin was his teacher, a very good teacher.
Alf was a day boy and at the time the ratio of day boys to boarders was about 50/50.Because of
the boarding, boys came from far afield. His recollections were phenomenal in that he received
a good education. His father was a Marist old boy who went to Koch St in the late 1920’s and
then onto Observatory until the beginning of WW2.
He had a strong relationship, bond with the brothers themselves. It was a very religious school
but accommodated non-Catholics, although it was predominantly Catholic. Then brothers were
very dedicated and an enormous emphasis was placed on the Catholic faith. The first period on
Mondays was Catholicism and bible study for the non-Catholics. So the boys got a very solid
foundation in the Catholic faith. Retreats were a serious issue lasting a week and during school
work there were dedicated slots in the furtherance of the Catholic faith and teaching. He
remembered the impact Vatican 2, October 1962 had on the boys and the changes in mass
from Latin to the vernacular which was very significant to the pupils at the time. He wanted his
son Paul (matric 1999) to share the same experience but it wasn’t the same, the school was
battling and no longer had the brothers. However he still had a good education, developed a
love for his father’s school and made good friends. He started in grade O with Mrs Kerschoff
and completed 13 years until his matric in 1999. It was a sacrifice to send ones children to
private schools in the beginning and especially now. Not everyone was affluent, but the brothers
accommodated this and must have helped a lot of families. Alf’s family has always had a strong
bond with the Marist movement.
Alf cannot over emphasize the role the brothers played, there were a few gaps as some of the
brothers weren’t up to standard. There were women teachers in the grades including one of the
best, Mrs Kempster, grade 4, then from std 6 onwards only the brothers taught. The brothers
were teachers but more than that, they gave so much extra. The principals were Br Edwin (a
McGurk), who became Br Provincial, Br Benedict followed by Br Anthony for his last five years,
he thought Br Anthony was a wonderful man.
It was truly one school in those days with only 400 pupils. All white children, as segregation was
a big issue. Observatory had a few Chinese children. The brothers wrestled with these problems
and more is expected of children these days.
There was an influx of boys in standard 6 with plus/minus 60 boys, some left in standardd 7 and
by standard 10, matric there were only 17 boys left.
Alf regarded himself as an average pupil, but said the brothers identified potential in a boy and
encouraged that. He was a quiet, reserved pupil but achieved so much as the brothers gave him
every opportunity to blossom.
Alf played 1st team rugby and was a member of the team that beat Obs 8-6 in 1962. The full
school attended that match at Observatory. There was a lot of emphasis on athletics. There
were four terms, during the first they swam, played cricket, second term they played rugby and
the third term was devoted to athletics and the school competed in a lot of inter-school meets.
Debating also played an important role at the school. This was run by Br Gerard the English
teacher. Alf was persuaded to prepare a speech on the family business and he remembers
Doug Wickins being an excellent speaker. This was an important aspect of extra mural
activities. There was theatre and plays with a period of music once a week with MrDrummond-
Bell. They produced many Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. Darko was a very hands on pupil.
Their social life was more focused on the school, with families and parents being more
spontaneous without any expectations of the brothers. The inter-highs were invariably followed
by braais.
The worst thing a boy could probably do was to get caught trying to smoke a cigarette!
Sadly, Alf together with Alec Quail and Brian Austin didn’t get a 3rd scroll and therefore their
colours blazer in their final year.
His last day was a sad day for him; the last term was a panicked, stressful term. He wrote Italian
as his mother was Italian and had to wait another 10 days after all the others had finished their
matric. He had enjoyed his time and on leaving was sad that his school days had ended.
Incidentally, Willy Castle was age under 10 when Alf matriculated.
He then went to Wits University and studied for a BA Economics. Afterwards he went overseas
to England and the south of France working in floriculture. His family business is marketed
under the name E.C. Smith and is located in Hartebeespoort on the Hennops river. They
propagate cuttings and supply the flower markets. They have also supplied flowers to St David’s
and the Catholic church in Rivonia for many years. Neither his son or daughter got involved in
the business,with his daughter at Citibank and Paul at Investec and another company and is
now involved in a cleaning business with his brother-in-law.
Alf’s parents were on the PTA whilst he and his brother were at St David’s, and his mother was
on the original ladies catering committee.
He felt that Br Timothy struggled to fill the gap after Br Anthony left and felt that Paul Edey was
the first principal, after Br Anthony who brought stability, vision and structure to the school.
He remembers a tragic incident when Paul Barrenbrug, who came from a Dutch family and was
in the same class as Alf, grade 2 1952. The boys always used to wait for parents by the junior
block, by the little wall and the fountain. There was an ice cream seller by the main gate and a
car ploughed into the ice cream bicycle and cart, Paul was thrown into the road and killed
outright. It was an enormous shock to the whole school and especially the boys in his class. It
left a mark on Alf and some of the other boys.
Alf still keeps in touch with Darko, Alex and Doug, but married much later than the others, so his
children didn’t really get to know theirs. He did quite a bit of work for the old boys in the early
years. They were driven by the bond they had for each other and the school.
Alf is very interested in the book and the 75th anniversary and would like to be kept informed. He
doesn’t attend evening events because of his location. He did attend the opening of the new
chapel. His brother pupil Robert Smith, from 1956 – 1966,involved with old boys, also had a
son at St David’s, a good sportsman – cricket and rugby – matriculated in 2005? and became a
civil engineer like his father.
JE July 2011

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Karl Shoemaker 1980

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000824
  • Item
  • 2010

Interview with Karl Schoemaker - 1980
Karl came to St David’s from Hong Kong in 1974, standard 1. On his first day, everything was
new and overwhelming and he recalls that his shoes were very uncomfortable and that when he
saw his art teacher he thinks he may have fallen in love. Funnily enough she eventually married
one of his classmates. On his last day he was just glad to be out of there. The school was not
what it used to be and was overrun by tyrants and bullies. He is so glad to see the school as it is
today, a world class institution of education, with a name he can be proud of.
He enjoyed primary school the most, the teachers were really great (except for Mrs Knesovitch
–shudder and nipple twister Mr Knotze). Mr Habberton made a good impression on him and he
used to visit at his house near the cricket oval for tea, he was cool. He also liked Miss Joseph.
Karl had quite a close relationship with Br Bernard and is most probably a professional
photographer today due to his influence. In hindsight he thought he should have been a bit more
careful when he accepted photo shoots with him. All innocent, but one never knows?
He remembered that when the new pool was built the old pool was drained and the boys used
to sneak in and play in the empty carcass.
He didn’t enjoy high school as much, the staff turnover was high, the teaching staff were riddled
with sadists, and bullies were given the freedom of the school, it was for him a very miserable
time in his life. He recalls Br Timothy shouting “hands” at every boy trying to keep them warm in
their pockets during the icy winters and “Simon” his cane!
He was friends with and is still in contact with Johnathan and Simon Clegg.
On the sporting front, Karl played 3rd team rugby and swam.
On leaving St David’s, Karl went to St John’s as a boarder, then onto Rhodes University where
he competed his honours degree in Fine Arts. He is currently working as a commercial and
industrial photographer.
Karl has not visited the school for a number of years.
2010

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Christopher Emmanuel 1994

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000740
  • Item
  • 2010

Interview with Christopher Emmanuel - 1994
Chris feels that school was the best and worst time of his life. He left St David’s as rather
insecure. The one thing that St David’s did not do is discover his singing talent - he is about to
release his first disc. He feels the brothers did well in introducing children of colour into the
school. He enjoyed having black children in his class from grade 0.
St David’s has helped him to where he is today and he feels that the boys leaving school now
are far more emancipated, more free, than his class was when they left St David’s. He feels that
the reunions are an excellent idea and it is a good way of integrating the older old boys with
those who have just left.
Chris was a prefect and head of The Bishops in Matric. On teachers through the years:
Mr Kotze – very strict and used to use the ruler often.
Mrs Schaafsma – he will never forget her
Ms Henning – she was inspirational and a wonderful person
Mr Rankin – Maths corporal
Mr Girdwood – was a brilliant English teacher
Mr Lambe – The Bishops housemaster
Mrs Marais – a lovely person
Mr Norton – the best teacher he had at school
Interview: 13 October 2010 GA

Egenrieder, Julie

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