Item 202000395 - Interview with Alex Quail 1962

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