Interview with William Forsmann – 1987 ‘Billy’ remembered his first day at St David’s in 1975 in the first grade O class, his teacher was Miss Jamieson (now Mrs Carol Ansell) and his son who is now in grade 2 is in the same classroom. Billy was not particularly worried about being at the school as he had a lot of uncles who were already pupils there. There were about 20 to 25 boys in a class and there was only one grade O class at the time. Billy is still, after all these years, in contact with some of his grade 0 classmates. Billy attended St David’s from grade O until standard 10 when he matriculated. Members of the Forssman family have been pupils at St David’s without interruption since 1968. During his time at St David’s, Billy participated in a number of sporting activities, horse riding, swimming, water polo, soccer and later rugby from standard 4. The horses were initially stabled in Sandown and then later in Carlswald and the boys used to travel with the school bus for their riding sessions. Billy’s strongest sport was swimming and water polo and was captain at some stage. He also played 1st team rugby. He remembers Mrs Anderson who was his standard 1 teacher but he didn’t ever have a brother as a class teacher although Br Timothy was headmaster of the high school until 1980 followed by Mr Murphy, Br Anthony, Mr Frielick and Mr Darryl Boswell. Mrs Trudy Elliott was his English teacher and he remembers that she produced plays such as “Hamlet” and ran the debating society, Billy was involved with both. He was also chairman of the matric dance committee in his standard 9 year. Other teachers he recalls are Mr Moore (Science) and of course Willy Castle, Mr Macfaden, Miss Glyn Thomas, Ms Joseph, Mr Finlayson, Mr Webster, Mrs de Wet Father Brewer (College chaplin) is also fondly remembered – as he played a huge role in the formative years of many St David’s pupils. Academically Billy did well and achieved a university exemption for matric and went onto study at the University of Stellenbosch where he was awarded a BCom LLB. On leaving school he was involved in the family property business before joining RMB Properties, which later became the Eris Property Group. Billy was also head boy in his standard 5 and matric years. Former pupils: Tim Forssman’s father Mark 083 600 0721 Jordan Forssman now living in Taiwan +1 408 431 5600 jordanforssman@gmail.com Gavin Muller whose brother Graham was vice-head boy 082 498 8480 Jan van den Handel JLE April 2012
Interview with Gavin Muller – 1987 Gavin, Billy Forsmann, Jan van den Handel and Jeremy Carr were together in the first grade 0 class. Gavin remembers that on his first day he was very traumatised and cried, wanting to escape but by the second day he had accepted school as the way it had to be. His classroom was where the original swimming pool was and where the current after care is now located. Miss Busschau was his teacher and a relative of his mother who was also a Busschau. Gavin enjoyed the sport in junior school playing soccer, he was a member of the swimming team and couldn’t wait to start playing rugby in standard 5. Academically he was very much middle of the road and the classes were defined by marks but fortunately for him he made it into the bottom tier of the clever class. He remembered the pressure and fear every exam time and not wanting to fail and be relegated to the B class. On the cultural front, Gavin was a member of the cast in the production of Hamlet. There were only about 300 boys in the school at the time and Mr Manolius was head of the junior school and Brothers Bernhard and Timothy (who left the brotherhood and married a nun) were still at the school. A teacher who had a great impact on him was Tim Kotze who taught English and Afrikaans, he had a particularly high standard with regard to spelling and if you got less than 15 out of 20 you were caned. Gavin spells well to this day! In standard 6 Mrs Bulterman was the French teacher, very attractive, quite gorgeous in fact and, before she came to the school none of the boys chose French. Needless to say that situation changed and whilst she was there all the boys signed up for French! Cedric Finlayson was a brutal, most violent man who taught History and Physical Education and was the rugby coach. Gavin was physically beaten up by him on more than one occasion but he still didn’t mind him that much. Gavin enjoyed Trudy Elliott, English teacher and recalled that Tom Macfaden taught the wrong History syllabus in matric and when this was discovered, all the boys had to cram for the last 3 to 4 weeks. There was no control over the teachers, they did what they wanted to and there was no leadership. The teaching of Religious Education was split into Catholics and non-Catholics about 50/50. There was a class every day, mass was held once a week and confessions regularly. The boys used to make up confessions to check that Father Plestus was still awake. A big scandal at the time was the non-catholic boys RE retreat to Hartbeespoort was a disaster when the boys absconded and many were caught with alcohol. Gavin played 1st team rugby, was captain of the swimming team and played water polo and is still friends with his team members to this day. The best thing Gavin took from high school was the camaraderie amongst the boys. They often used to play both A and B team rugby matches back to back. The bonds were strong between the friends of that era due to the lack of adult leadership. Gavin became a prefect and Billy Forsmann, head boy. For the matric dance, which was great fun, the standard 9’s did all the art work and decorations and were the waiters who used to make money by smuggling alcohol into the venue. On their last day he recalls that the boys had a big party that night. It was a disastrous and unstable time for the high school with leadership issues following the appointment of Mr Murphy as headmaster of the high school followed shortly by Mr Freilick then Mr Boswell. Gavin matriculated with a university entrance and studied building science at Wits University. He then did a post graduate course at the University of Pretoria followed by the UCT Graduate School of Business but ended up working in the banking environment for 12 years. He then went into property and has run his own business for the past 3 years. He is the father of 3 daughters who attended Brescia House. He hasn’t really kept in touch with the school at all although his father was a member of the board of governors, and a member of MOBS as were his brothers Brian(80) and Graham (82) who subsequently emigrated. Gavin would buy a copy of the book and would be willing to pledge a contribution beforehand. JLE May 2012
Interview with Gavin Muller – 1987 Gavin, Billy Forsmann, Jan van den Handel and Jeremy Carr were together in the first grade 0 class. Gavin remembers that on his first day he was very traumatised and cried, wanting to escape but by the second day he had accepted school as the way it had to be. His classroom was where the original swimming pool was and where the current after care is now located. Miss Busschau was his teacher and a relative of his mother who was also a Busschau. Gavin enjoyed the sport in junior school playing soccer, he was a member of the swimming team and couldn’t wait to start playing rugby in standard 5. Academically he was very much middle of the road and the classes were defined by marks but fortunately for him he made it into the bottom tier of the clever class. He remembered the pressure and fear every exam time and not wanting to fail and be relegated to the B class. On the cultural front, Gavin was a member of the cast in the production of Hamlet. There were only about 300 boys in the school at the time and Mr Manolius was head of the junior school and Brothers Bernhard and Timothy (who left the brotherhood and married a nun) were still at the school. A teacher who had a great impact on him was Tim Kotze who taught English and Afrikaans, he had a particularly high standard with regard to spelling and if you got less than 15 out of 20 you were caned. Gavin spells well to this day! In standard 6 Mrs Bulterman was the French teacher, very attractive, quite gorgeous in fact and, before she came to the school none of the boys chose French. Needless to say that situation changed and whilst she was there all the boys signed up for French! Cedric Finlayson was a brutal, most violent man who taught History and Physical Education and was the rugby coach. Gavin was physically beaten up by him on more than one occasion but he still didn’t mind him that much. Gavin enjoyed Trudy Elliott, English teacher and recalled that Tom Macfaden taught the wrong History syllabus in matric and when this was discovered, all the boys had to cram for the last 3 to 4 weeks. There was no control over the teachers, they did what they wanted to and there was no leadership. The teaching of Religious Education was split into Catholics and non-Catholics about 50/50. There was a class every day, mass was held once a week and confessions regularly. The boys used to make up confessions to check that Father Plestus was still awake. A big scandal at the time was the non-catholic boys RE retreat to Hartbeespoort was a disaster when the boys absconded and many were caught with alcohol. Gavin played 1st team rugby, was captain of the swimming team and played water polo and is still friends with his team members to this day. The best thing Gavin took from high school was the camaraderie amongst the boys. They often used to play both A and B team rugby matches back to back. The bonds were strong between the friends of that era due to the lack of adult leadership. Gavin became a prefect and Billy Forsmann, head boy. For the matric dance, which was great fun, the standard 9’s did all the art work and decorations and were the waiters who used to make money by smuggling alcohol into the venue. On their last day he recalls that the boys had a big party that night. It was a disastrous and unstable time for the high school with leadership issues following the appointment of Mr Murphy as headmaster of the high school followed shortly by Mr Freilick then Mr Boswell. Gavin matriculated with a university entrance and studied building science at Wits University. He then did a post graduate course at the University of Pretoria followed by the UCT Graduate School of Business but ended up working in the banking environment for 12 years. He then went into property and has run his own business for the past 3 years. He is the father of 3 daughters who attended Brescia House. He hasn’t really kept in touch with the school at all although his father was a member of the board of governors, and a member of MOBS as were his brothers Brian(80) and Graham (82) who subsequently emigrated. Gavin would buy a copy of the book and would be willing to pledge a contribution beforehand. JLE May 2012
Interview with Gareth Beaver – 1987 Gareth only joined St David’s in 1985 coming from Jeppe Boys where he was a boarder. When his family moved to Johannesburg they decided that he no longer needed to board and it would be better for Gareth to attend St David’s. Gareth was a keen cricketer and sportsman and enjoyed Jeppe where the focus was very much on sporting activities. When he first arrived at St David’s, Gareth floundered academically as there was a better balance at St David’s between academics and sport. The classes were smaller with 2 classes of 21 boys compared to 6 classes of 30 boys at Jeppe. However his mother recognised the problem and Gareth had to endure some extra tuition after school to get him up to par. With hindsight Gareth now realises that more of his contemporaries at St David’s went to university and now have successful careers in comparison with his former classmates at Jeppe. St David’s maintained a healthy balance, it wasn’t top in sport but being such a small school everyone got involved. At Jeppe, Gareth played rugby and was even a member of the A team but was more involved with hockey as he found it more skilful. At that time St David’s had no hockey involvement but, together with Mike McCreedie Gareth initiated hockey at the school. Rugby was compulsory, however but a senior Geography teacher became involved and they started a hockey team from all the guys who had “sick notes”, absolving them from rugby. Willy Castle was very supportive and found them a hockey coach, Craig who was also a member of Hilson Park. Gareth became team captain and continued after leaving school to coach and started an annual trip to Hilton, Michaelhouse and took the boys on a few other trips. Gareth was also a very keen golfer The headmaster of the school at that time was Mr Freilich followed by Mr Boswell and Gareth remembers that the teachers used to smoke, unheard of today. Mr Macfaden – History used to smoke Lucky Strike, Mr Moore – Science, smoked John Player Special and smelt terrible. Mrs Trudie Elliott was also a very heavy smoker. Other teachers he recalled were Cedric Finlayson who was an ex-Zimbabwean and the Sports master, Mrs De Wet – Afrikaaans and when a new Geography teacher arrived in 1986 they became an item, Mrs Thomas – Biology who was fresh from college and the boys used to embarrass her horribly. Gareth remembers that there were a handful of black children at St David’s but absolutely none at Jeppe. One incident that stands out was the “Retreat” for non-catholic boys at Hartbeespoort in 1985 when several boys lost their honours blazers. It was a recipe for disaster with the Doyle brothers supervising.They had no control and their RE classes used to turn into mayhem. Gareth recalls that there wasn’t any form of proper control, no programme and the boys were left to just sit around the camp and pool. One of the senior boys’ parents owned a yacht on the dam and some of the boys had a driving license and drove their own cars to the venue. Most of the matrics went and spent the weekend on the boat. When they returned to school Mr Finlayson and Mr Collier called them to the area where the auditorium now stands and asked the boys to own up if they drank – most of the boys admitted to this and were caned and subsequently stripped of their honours and blazers. The feeling was that it hadn’t been well thought through, was badly organised and the punishment was therefore too severe. Gareth received a hockey tie in his matric year. Academically Gareth had to do a big “catch up” arriving in standard 8 and being very much behind in some of the basics which is why his mother sent him for extra lessons. However he fared quite well and achieved a university exemption for a JMB matric. He then went on to study for a BCom at Wits and went on to be a qualified accountant at Ernst and Young as an auditor. He has been in the insurance industry since 1996 and with Centriq Insurance Holdings for the past 3 ½ years and is now the CEO. Gareth avoided doing army service by going to university and then doing his CA and fortunately for him, compulsory army service ended in 1993 or 4. Gareth has one son at the school in grade 5 and next year his youngest son will begin in grade 0. Gareth’s company is involved with Education Africa which contributes towards educating children at certain designated schools. Gareth would be very interested in acquiring school yearbooks and would be supportive of an “Old boys’ home” as there is a definite need for a suitable venue in the Sandton area which would also accommodate the children. Gareth would also be willing to participate in the matric rite of passage but would need adequate notice because of his heavy work schedule. Gareth still sees some of his former classmates on a regular basis – Gavin Muller, Ross Alcock, Richard Burr, Billy Forsmann and is part of the St David’s network. He feels that as Marist old boys, there is a common thread of humility or modesty which sets them apart from other schools. JE August 2012
