The Marist Times. Marist Old Boys Association
- ZA ZAR STDS 202000673
- Pièce
- 2014
1A6 16 page colour booklet
St David's Marist Inanda
The Marist Times. Marist Old Boys Association
1A6 16 page colour booklet
St David's Marist Inanda
Interview with Carol Ansell 1975 - 2016 Staff
Interview with Carol Ansell – Staff – 1975 - 2016
Carol was interviewed by Brother Mario at the end of 1974 as there was a new grade 0 position
available and Brother Anthony (who was headmaster at the time), was on leave. In fact Br
Anthony had gone to see the Brother Provincial as he wanted to work in a less privileged
environment. Carol was John Jamieson’s sister, John had matriculated from St David’s, and she
was immediately appointed and told to start the following year – 1975 with no indication of
where she would be located. Carol recalls that she asked if she could see her classroom and if
she could please have a key. Carol and her family lived in the same road in Parkwood as Mrs
Kempster who had alerted her to the fact that this new position was available. Carol had initially
wanted to teach at Keps, which was her father’s old school and she was offered a job there but
decided to go to St David’s.
Mr Manolios was head of the prep school and Br Timothy was appointed head of the high
school in 1975.Carol’s classroom was next to the old swimming pool which had been filled in to
make a playground for the new grade 0 class. She was given free reign with the grade 0 class
with Br Timothy visiting her on a couple of occasions. Some of the boys were intrigued with him
and one asked him why he was so hairy and another, whether he was a boy or a girl as he was
perceived to be wearing a dress!
There was a large sandpit in the playground, which Carol used for some of her outside
activities. Sadly it had to be covered up as some cats began to use it as a cat box! She recalls
that the school, was very contained and she likens it to a village which has now grown into a
city. Carol had no supervision at all, everything was based on trust. She was only twenty years
old and in charge of 25 young boys. Carol visited other nursery schools and spoke to the
teachers to gain a further understanding of 4/5 year olds; she was also greatly assisted by Jack
Friedman of “Play and Schoolroom” who helped her a lot. It was quite lonely but the parents
were fantastic and supportive. There were two cousins in the class Brian De Decker and
Michael Luyckx whose parents took her under their wing and helped her. Michael Luyckx now
lives in Australia and Carol is still friendly with the mothers. Parents in those days didn’t
challenge teachers at all and tended to have a huge respect for them.
At the end of 1975, the grade 0 class was declared a tremendous success and the school
decided to open another class. Mrs Carolyn Hughes joined her and became the other grade 0
teacher. They had a good relationship with each other and could feed off each other’s ideas and
support.
One of the parents pointed out to Carol that one of her pupils (eye) was larger than the other
and suggested she have it checked. It was discovered that she had a tumour on the pituitary
gland, which was operated on and she subsequently had to have three months leave. A feisty
boy, Fabio Morettino had told his mother that Carol had died; so on Carol’s return the poor
mother saw Carol and thought she was seeing a ghost. Marilyn Middlewick decided that she
would like to swop from grade 1 and Mr Manolious was fully in agreement so Carol moved from
grade 0 to grade1.
Carol, had a good relationship with Darryl Boswell, Heather Joseph, Trudy Elliot, Prue Johnson
and many others. Another headmaster she worked with, Mr Freilich was a good man. As for Mr
Murphy, Carol didn’t get off to a good start with him as, at his welcoming cocktail party, Carol
was laughing together with some colleagues and for some reason Mr Murphy thought they were
laughing at him. The next day she was called into his office where he reprimanded her. Murphy
was eventually found out to be a professional wrestler and vacated his position as headmaster
of the College.
Carol was married to John Ansell in her fourth year at the school. Some years later she was
sadly diagnosed with a second tumour and left as a full time teacher, although she stood in for
teachers on long leave etc, filling in for Sue Harwood, the remedial teacher, in 1985. When Sue
returned from leave she resigned and being concerned about having 3 different teachers in a
remedial class Carol was asked to return. Carol was pregnant with her son Nick and returned
when Nick was 6 weeks old. Andrew Castle was born in the April and Nick in the June and the
two maids looking after the boys would get together and have fun with the boys. The boys were
often seen in the back of Julius’ trailer behind the tractor. A space was made in a corner of an
office for Nick whilst Carol was busy and Nick grew up at St David’s going on to a play school
for two years then to Limber Lost in Rosebank.
Carol eventually came back full-time although she had in the meantime franchised the
“Bookworm Bookshop” in 1985 when Nick was born. She recalls Cynthia Hildyard advising her
to move her classroom to the warmer one where she remains now.
Carol remembers brothers such as Br Bernard who was very artistic, a photographer and
woodcarver and together with Carol and Heather Joseph had pottery classes with one of the
mothers, Mrs Heather MacLeroth every Friday afternoon. By the end of the class it was late
and Carol and Heather were very hungry. Br Aidan was in charge of the stores and had a
wonderful, dry sense of humour and would tempt Carol and Heather with a packet of marie
biscuits, trying to satisfy their hunger, giving them one biscuit at a time. Carol remembers Br
Aidan embarrassing Heather with the story that he was present at Port Alfred beach when
Heather lost her green crocheted bikini top at Kelly’s beach. Carol and John had been invited
there and Heather was also holidaying there at the same time. Br Aidan had in fact overheard
Heather recounting the story to Carol whilst they were in earshot of his office. Br Aidan also
nicknamed Heather “Queen of the Visigoths”.
There were good memories of Jackson the cook who cooked for the brother’s community. One
day a divine smell was circulating around the brothers kitchen and Carol asked what he was
cooking and managed to get Jackson to write his recipe for ox-tail stew out for her. Carol
forwarded this recipe many years later to Br Aidan. She still has the recipe today. The
groundsman Barney Erdis had a wife who used to cook/bake a variety of muffins or scones with
cream and jam at first break and then make mock crayfish and avocado or pumpkin fitters or
fish and chips for the staff to enjoy at second break.
JLE May 2013
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Pam Groenewald 1998 to date(2023) Staff
Interview with Pam Groenewald – Staff 1998
Pam came to St David’s in 1998 to work as the prep school headmaster, Rick Wilson’s PA. She found Rick
to be an unbelievably, kind and well organised boss and really enjoyed working for him. He was incredibly
supportive and was amazing when Pam went through her battle with cancer five months after joining the
staff.
Pam is a very focused, well organised individual who believes in doing everything correctly and has been
involved with schools for some time. Her parents were part of the struggle, a strong Methodist family and
they often had black ministers and ANC members stay with them which has given her a great insight and
empathy with people. This is essential as part of Pam’s job has always been to calm parents down when
necessary.
She remembers her first day very well and couldn’t believe her office, which was originally the brothers’
toilet and wondered if she would cope. To gain access she had to walk through Rick’s office and on one
occasion when he had a number of visitors and she urgently needed to get out of her office, Cheryl helped
her squeeze though a tiny window in order not to disturb Rick. Pam got on very well with Rick, Cheryl King
and Robbie Orr, they all had a good sense of humour and to this day Rick will still mischievously hide the
mouse to Pam’s PC.
Pam did all the admissions to the prep school which was a heavy load but she coped. Unfortunately Pam
needed to earn more money and left after 5 years only to return again after 3 months in 2003 to work as PA
for Malcolm Williams, the headmaster of the high school. Pam coped well with Malcolm and his flamboyant
style of leadership and found him to be a very private person. She found him to be highly intelligent with a
very good brain and good heart and has a lot of respect for him.
Pam’s children have also been associated with St David’s, Craig has been involved as swimming coach for
the past 15 years and Cathy worked in the pre-primary for 10 years until last year.
JE September 2003
Egenrieder, Julie
Fait partie de St David's Photograph Collection
A5 original black and white photo assumed to be of Prefects and Monitors - no names given. Please see in Jubilee Book "A Courageous Journey" on cover
St David's College Inanda
Fait partie de St David's Photograph Collection
Pdf file
St David's Marist Inanda
Interview with Jock Loseby 1951
Interview with Jock Loseby 1951
MEMORIES : ST.DAVID’S MARIST , INANDA : 1946 TO 1951
On a mild August day in 1946 I came to St. David’s (SD) for the first time. Not only
was I to attend school there – I was also to be a boarder as where we stayed, on a
timber farm near Sabie, was about 6 hours drive away.
Attending school was quite a pleasure. I moved into Mrs Stirton’s grade 2 class
immediately. The rage of the day there was the percussion band with triangles, bells,
drums, clappers and goodness knows what. We even attended an Eistetford at the
city hall and were highly commended. My part was, with others, to ring our bells at
the right time.
Mrs Brophy, in standard 1, almost immediately passed me on to Mrs Walsh in
standard 2. I felt most comfortable with Mrs Walsh and prospered under her watchful
eye. She was also my teacher in standard 3 where I managed 100% at year end for
Arithmetic – the best in all the South African Marists. I got a similar prize, in standard
4, for Afrikaans under Mrs Kempster – a very disciplined and kind person .
Mr Bishop, my standard 5 teacher, was the hero of many – he managed the under 11
and under 12 soccer sides!
Mr Hoare, in standard 6, was a perfect gentleman.When we did something silly, he
would press his index finger on our temples, saying “dear me boy”. For more serious
offences, we got strapped on our behinds, in private, in the classroom, during the
lunch break. When we thanked him for the strapping, he seemed confused.
In standard 6 Brother Joseph was our Latin teacher. It was rumoured that he used to
be a Spanish wrestler – so we generally learnt our Latin grammar!
Boarding was of course, something new. I was immediately allocated to the most
junior dormitory. Brother Michael was the dormitory master.
He used to read to us each night, in the dormitory, before bed. We listened to the
Hardy Boys and Biggles et al and even got a sweet each half way through the
session.
I was the 2nd smallest in the dormitory, (and probably in the school) the smallest boy
slept next to me and sometime later he became my brother – in – law.
We had to keep our clothes lockers neat. After locker inspection, we received one
strap (cut) for each untidy item of clothing. We also had to send our dirty clothes to
the laundry. When my mother heard that I had been criticised for sending too many
clothes to the laundry, I was told to tell the brother – in – charge that “cleanliness is
next to godliness” I did not obey this instruction!
We also had to polish our shoes every evening – monitors inspected our efforts.
Sport played a big part in our lives – even at primary school.Cricket and soccer were
the main sports with swimming not far behind.
We had PT during class hours – probably up to standard 1 or 2.We sometimes had
boxing during PT and at other times there were adhoc tournaments. I hated boxing
especially being hit on the head and even more so if it was the smallest boy in the
school doing the hitting (my now brother – in – law). Harry Best was our PT
supervisor and he was also Johnny Arthur’s boxing trainer. JA was the South African
heavyweight boxing champion.
When I arrived at SD there were sand fields on the right of the entrance gate (as you
entered). On these both juniors and seniors played cricket (on matting wickets) and
soccer. In ca 1947, a grass rugby cum cricket field was built below the tennis courts
and in 1949, the old cricket/soccer fields were replaced by 2 grass rugby fields with a
turf wicket – between them I think. There were still some sand fields for cricket and
soccer on a piece of land that may have been acquired (or was it just left over)while
the grass fields were being constructed – these fields bordered the grass fields but
were further away from the school complex.
2
So with the grass fields rugby began in earnest. In 1950 or 1951 I played rugby at
scrumhalf for the lowest team in the school – under 13B. In our first game we lost to
KES 15-0.
The turf wicket was also a great improvement. I watched a senior school practice
where Brother Benedict hit many straight sixes.
I was lucky enough to captain the U13 cricket team.
At this stage Brother Urban had been replaced by Brother Edwin as principal.
During the school féte held at about this time Vickie Toweel defeated Manuel Ortiz to
become Bantamweight champion of the world and also
Leon Norgarb and Eric Sturgess played an exhibition tennis match (Mrs
Strauss, our coach, often told us how she had played tennis with these
gentlemen)
Sid Brews hit some towering drives on the upper grass fields and also
amused us with some trick shots and
We could win money by scoring goals past Phil Snoynan, the SA goalkeeper
And now something about the food.
There was no white bread in the first year or two I was at St David’s and sometimes
for tea we were given thick brown bread sandwiches with peanut butter in them.
Many times the day boys gave us some of their lunch. Enrico Giglioli, the Italian
ambassador’s son, was particularly generous to me in this regard.
Some interesting parts of our menu were
Frogs eggs – particularly sticky sago pudding
Army biscuits with weevils in them and
Lumpy porridge.
But before our longer holidays we had beanos – lovely food, ice cream cool drinks
and sweets.
Of course, I did have some heroes:
Brother Urban, a charismatic, dynamic person.
Brother Edwin, a deep person
Brother Benedict, a man’s man
Michael Clarke, a friend of Cor? Vermeulen, played first team cricket, got 6B’s in
matric, became a schoolteacher on leaving school.
Ian Irvine and Grisdale, prominent athletes
Roy Gibson, good boxer, flyhalf for first rugby team
Setti? Risi, scrumhalf for first rugby team
Johnny Westwater, very dynamic, eventually became a champion jockey
Bobby Perinho, hit 5 fours in one over
Rosmarin made a century for the first team
Buffa, a good high jumper and
Asher Swede, a generous patron of the school.
Our religious upbringing was taken very seriously.
Catholics had Mass about 3 times per week including Sunday, Confessions were on
Thursdays, there were daily? RD lessons and we were prepared for 1st communion
and confirmation – I was confirmed by Bishop Whelan at the Rosebank Parish in
1951.
My non catholic friends were encouraged to be committed in their specific faiths.
What an unforgettable and happy experience I had at St David’s!
Jock Loseby
28 April 2007
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Glynn O'Leary 1969
Interview with Glynn O’Leary 1969 1960 – 1969 Standard 1 to Matric
Glynn did not enjoy the first few days of each school year as the family always went to the coast
for the long holidays and he hated leaving the sea behind (living in Glencairn now he sees the
sea all the time!)
He was a day boy and clearly remembers Mrs Januscz, Mrs Knezovich and Mrs Kempster. His
parents separated when he was in standard 4 and finally divorced in standard 6. His academics
took a dip as a result. Br Anthony sent for him and asked him if he was happy at St David’s to
which he answered yes. His father had contacted the school to withdraw Glynn from the school
stating that he could not afford to keep him at St David’s due to financial reasons. From that day
on his mother never had to pay school fees and he received all his books and school uniform
from the Brothers.
Glynn played 1st Team cricket and played in the 13th Marist cricket week held at St David’s as
wicket keeper. On the very first day of the competition a ball split his lip open while keeping
wicket which put paid to him playing again in the event. He also played 2nd Team rugby.
Brothers were strict and one evening Br Andrew (Dracula) caught the boys painting the other
boys with black boot polish as part of the initiation of new boys. Errol McCawley was caught and
was told to go back and fetch all the other boys who were involved. Errol did not enjoy this as Br
Andrew gave the boys cuts with a chain.
Glynn’s father never watched him play sport at school and that is why he and his wife Gill have
made sure that they have been there to support their 3 children as far as humanly possible.
The Marist Brothers have always played an important part in his life and he was made an
honorary Marist Brother in 2009 which was a great honour for him.
He has been involved with the Marist Brothers since 1957 and was chairman of the Marist old
boys in 1983 and served on the St David’s board of governors from 1985 to 1986. He has been
a member of the Marist School’s Council since 1997 and is chairman of St Joseph’s Marist
College in Rondebosch at present.
While at school Glynn was friendly with Dave Bergman and his brother Clive (better known as
Clive Bruce).
As regards Br Mario – we need to find out from him what happened when Br went horse
racing!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Interview: 13 October 2010
Anderson, Glenda
Interview with Chris Busschau 1965
Interview with Chris Busschau – 1965
The Busschau family association with St David’s and the Marist schools began in 1889 when
Peter Busschau was the first boy to arrive at the Marist School at Koch Street, Johannesburg. In
those days Johannesburg was a mining town and Peter Busschau lived, like most of the
inhabitants, in a tent. Peter was the third of three sons and the older boys went to CBC in
Kimberly whilst the family was living there. When his father was transferred back to
Johannesburg, Peter went first to the End Street Convent until Koch Street was opened.
Later Observatory, now Sacred Heart was opened as an off-site campus and his father went
there as did Peter’s four sons. St David’s initially was not a separate school but rather an
extension of Observatory and Koch Street which closed in 1964.
Chris only attended St David’s for two years as his father was based in Port Elizabeth and he
went to the Marist school in PE. When father was transferred to Johannesburg and Chris came
to St David’s he was at the outset very intimidated coming from St Patrick’s, a poor relation to St
David’s. St David’s was regarded as a vastly superior and wealthy school, with a very high
standard both academically and on the sports field. At that time all the Marist boys in standard 6
wrote the Marist school exams and St David’s always had a disproportionately high number of
boys who achieved high marks.
On Chris’s first day, aged 16, his parents dropped him off at the main gate. He made his way
into the school and ended up next to the auditorium and was asked by Terry Ray if he was a
new boy and chatted to him about the class he was going to. This was quite a coincidence as
Brother Vincent had previously suggested that he meet up with him and a number of other boys
including Terry Rosenberg, Drummond Robinson and Tony Wickens. Chris’s fears were
immediately dissipated and he settled in very quickly. Now years later he is still in touch with
Terry Ray, now living in Toronto and Terry Rosenberg living in Durban, and he regularly sees
Tony and Drummond.
The head of the school was Brother Anthony who was very much the king during that era. Br
Anthony had formerly been the head of the prep school in PE and was a strong leader, very
astute and had the skill of being able to harness both educational and administrative skills. He
had the firm commitment from the parent body and others outside of the school and of course
the boys too. His nickname was “Aunges” because of his Scottish pronunciation of oranges.
Chris a day boy, played cricket, was very keen, a member of the first team. He went on to play
serious cricket when he left school. Due to a knee injury he did not participate in rugby but
played hockey and tennis, ran the mile and represented the school in cross-country but was not
a good swimmer. He recalled a chap in his class Roy Hutton who gained Springbok colours for
swimming. Chris was steady academically and achieved a first class matric, B level.
The main events that stand out, were the mass on the closing of Koch Street and the launch of
Marion College. Several thousand pupils wearing the Marist uniforms and what seemed like
hundreds of brothers were around, and photos of the event were carried in the local press. The
Mass was held in the Catholic Cathedral near to Koch Street.
In 1964 he recalls the first St David’s Old Boy to be ordained as a priest – Michael Linden who
celebrated his first mass in the old chapel.
Chris Terreblanche was the head boy in 1964, he became a doctor and died tragically on a run
5 years ago (2006). He was an extraordinary boy and man, handsome, charismatic,
intellectually gifted and a great athlete, sprinter. He recalled him beating against all odds, Paul
Nash, the glamour sprinter from Michaelhouse, at nationals.
In standard 9 he remembers a guest speaker at prize giving, Prof Bozzolli who was then the
vice-chancellor of Wits University. He made a powerful speech in which he said that the word
school is a collective noun as a school is made up of pupils, teachers, ground staff etc. This
speech probably coloured Chris’s attitude and loyalty to St David’s.
On leaving St David’s he went into the army, completed his army service and went on to study
economics at Wits University. His first job was with Anglo American as a junior economist. At
that time he was involved in politics, Zac De Beer being his boss, who later became a member
of parliament for the Progressive party. Chris stood as a candidate and experienced problems
with the security police spending a night in police custody. Much to his relief he was released
the following morning, unlike many other hapless individuals who were held for much longer
periods. Later he worked as a financial journalist and met his wife Pam who was a ballet dancer
with Pact, as was his sister Ann. He had 3 sons and 2 daughters. He ended up in the financial
world with the Standard Bank Group for many years and now does consultancy work for the
financial services board. All his 3 sons taught at St David’s at some stage in their careers and
currently Ian is still teaching here. His grandchild, Owen is registered to start in grade 00 and
will carry on the Busschau tradition now 5th generation.
Chris has continued to be involved with the school and was a member of the old boys on
leaving. There was a monthly pub night at the old Balalaika Hotel, stag dinners, dinner dances
and he watched the rugby matches and attended some of the athletic meetings. He became
more involved when Patrick started at the school. The infamous John Murphy was head when
he started in the prep school. Chris eventually was invited onto various committees and was
involved with fund raising activities and the Busschau family traditionally ran the hamburger
stand. He was eventually elected onto the PTA in 1989 until 1999. He was
vice-chairman for 5 -6 years and then became chairman from 1995 to 1999 and, as result also
served on the board of governors. He has been a member of the old boys committee for the
past 10 years.
Chris is also a member of the Liturgical Executive of the SA Catholic Bishops Conference, and a
member of the finance committee that handles justice and peace programmes. He is also
chairman of the board of Radio Veritas.
Other items of interest:
Br Edwin, head from 1950 until 1957, had family connections with Neil McGurk, who is now
living in Durban. Neil was extremely talented, an SA schools cricketer who became a brother.
He has doctorate in nuclear physics and used to fly to Harvard every year and oversee a final
programme for the students there.
In the old boy’s Magazine, about 3-4 years ago is an article about the legendary matrics who
stole exam papers.
Darryl Boswell had a nervous breakdown and couldn’t cope and hence Trudy Elliot was
appointed Acting Head for the final term in 1988
JE August 2011
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Rowan Erleigh 1967
Interview with Eric Ambrosioni -1966 & Rohan Erleigh – 1967
Both Eric and Rohan were boarders. Eric’s two half brothers Edward Barale and Italo Barale
also boarded and Rohan had two brothers follow him. They knew each other through the
boarding and played in the same rugby, cricket and athletics teams. Goodenough, a kitchen
hand could outstrip every athlete and broke the school record running barefoot. The highpoint in
cricket was when professional, English cricketers came to the school, Ken Palmer and Peter
Stringer who lived at the school and Donald Wilson who got married here and lived above the
chapel. On Saturdays if any major cricket team was playing, the boys had to dress up in full
uniform and walk to Wanderers wearing straw bashers..
They recalled an American field scholar, Philp Marsden who could throw a tennis ball higher
than the tennis captain could with his racket. Julio Cesneros’s father was the Spanish
ambassador, who assisted in bringing the Spanish football team, Real Madrid to South Africa.
The Springbok, Ray Bischoff swam against the Dutch and broke a South African record. The
cycling team was started with Deon and Brett Sacks and Rohan remembers his bike breaking
down near Gilooley’s Farm. There was also a model airplane club, all the planes took off and
then crashed! A Tiger Moth was donated.
Cadets were also started in their time and Eric was one of the first five cadet student officers.
There was a Southern Transvaal Schools Drummer competition and the school won the bass
and tenor drums section beating 700 other schools – who weren’t there!!!
The drama society was initiated together with Parktown Convent and was oversubscribed!
There was a debating society with Dave Lyons, Pat Noble and Andrew Lindiker and debates
were always held on a Sunday at the convent. There was also a dark room where some of the
boys developed their photos.
Gertie the 3 ton utility truck used to convey pupils to various sports events and was eventually
sold and replaced with a new school bus that was painted blue and was involved in an accident
after the first three weeks, the driver being Zebron.
Mrs Buckley-Jones was the much loved matron who however made them write tests whilst in
the sick bay. Mr Drummon-Bell was the Music teacher who produced the “Pirates of Penzance”.
Eric remembered a teacher called Mrs Cane, at Marist Borthers Koch Street Johannesburg, (the
primary school to both Marist Brothers and Inanda) who used it (the cane) with gay abandon.
The first lay teachers in the high school were Mrs Buchan – English, very English, unattractive
but kind, Mrs Pretorius – Afrikaans, she was good looking but unfriendly, Mr Ward – Maths, Mr
Hewitson – Art. Eric remembered a pupil from Greece who chatted in class and when Mrs
Pretorius asked him what he had said Eric told him to say “Ek is jou lief”!
There was a Science lab but when they left it was replaced by a newer one and Eric’s two
brothers – Orcellis – donated two glass windows.
For two years during the mid 1960’s, the brothers hired a catering manager and his wife, the
Coopers. They had a corgi which started off thin but ended up as a blimp! The boys used to
regularly raid the kitchen. Flat bed trolleys were used to carry food, boxes etc and the boys used
to pile onto them and ride down the inclines resulting in quite a few stitches.
Eric was designated, together with George Da Matta to act as cinematographers for the film
every Saturday night. Someone had to collect the 16mm films and they were given pocket
money to get the bus, however George’s father would fetch them and take them to his café to
gorge on fish and chips etc and then after to collect the films in the centre of Johannesburg.
They then caught the bus back to Dunkeld and had to lug the box of 16mm films to school.
The first Spur restaurant opened in Rosebank and several boys were caught bunking in the
Spur and in Ken Rosewall’s snooker saloon. They recall that disputes were resolved between
the boys behind the games room next to the tennis courts.
To celebrate the 75th anniversary of Champagnat they made the great trek to Cape Town, all
the buses broke down and all the schools ended up at St Joseph’s.
They remember the land bought by the school and the boys of 1966 planted the grass on the
rugby field and cricket pitch.
There was no real communication then, only the telephone and radio. They had vague
memories of the assassination of Kennedy and the attempted and actual assassination of
Verwoed. They had a day off school due to the “Bay of Pigs”. They did remember the stance
taken by the Catholic schools with regard to admitting black children which wasn’t popular with
the government.
Both Eric and Rohan have been back to St David’s for a 40 year reunion and would be
interested in supporting the publication of the book.
Individual memories of Eric Ambrosioni:
Eric’s mother died then his father and in Standard 8 his step brothers came to an arrangement
with the school to enable him to stay there. He had no bad experiences although Brother
Ignatius would lash you for no treason.
Joe Mulaneu lived at the bottom of the bottom field and Eric lived opposite him. He remembers
fooling around with him and hitting him with a metal rod, subsequently their parents banned
them from seeing each other. They later became good buddies and Joe became a
paediatrician.
After the Saturday cinema one night he raided the kitchen, realising a brother was there he tried
to get rid of the evidence and a paw paw rolled down the hall and he was caught by Brother
Liam.
He also remembers going home in the first term and crying about being bullied. His brother
advised him to put a shoe in his pillowcase and wait until the bully fell asleep and then whack
him with it. The bullying stopped after he tried that out.
When he finished school he wanted to go to varsity but, having no family to support him, he
ended up in a bank and was then balloted into the army in which he stayed for three years. He
then went into the oil industry and was seconded to the UK and his company was bought out by
BP. He was repatriated and offered a package in 2004, bought a pasta machine and became a
pasta maker his wife having bought an Italian deli. He made pasta for the deli and sold to other
delis and shops in the Cape Peninsula. He sold the pasta machine at the beginning of the year
to his nephew, another Marist old boy Ted Barale who owns Piccolino in Fourways. He is
married to Louise and is the father to two daughters.
Eric’s brother Italo (1953) married Myrna Morgan whose brothers went to Inanda, Harold and
Ronny who became a Marist Brother.
Individual Memories of Rohan Erleigh:
His parents lost everything they had in business but insisted he went to a private school. They
had an old car, a 1947 Plymouth and he was so embarrassed he told them to meet him outside.
Rohan was an altar boy.
After finishing school Rohan went gold mining outside Sabi, gold was then at $25 per ounce. He
subsequently went into the navy for his national service and made a naval career. He studied
for a BSc at Stellenbosch, rose to the heights of naval captain becoming a military attaché and
retired in 2000 after a final posting as officer commanding the navy’s training base on the west
coast. He spent time on the maritime border during the war in Angola.
He married a Morgan girl and is father to two sons and a daughter. The Morgan boys all went to
St David’s and Ronnie Morgan became a Brother.
Old Boys they are still in contact with:
Jo Stravino, Dereck Schoombie, Peter Moni, Eddie Assad (orthodontist) Peter Struthers
(maxillofacial surgeon) Michael Ford, Clive Bergman (singer), Tony Walker brother of Jeff
Walker (Master of the John Ross), Strati Malamoglou (Dyna Chem), Steve Taylor (sub-ed
Times ltd), Charlie Platt, Patrick Nobe, Brian Jarvis, Kevin Peel, Terry O’Mahoney, Emilio
Iglauer, Anthony Barale (doctor in Canada).
JE October 2011
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Dave Lyons 1965
Interview with Dave Lyons – 1965
Dave was a boarder and his headmaster was Brother Anthony. Brother Aidan, the only South
African brother was the bursar and 50% of the teachers were lay teachers. Dave came from a
farming community in White River with Middleburg High being the only high school in the area.
He initially went to a primary school in White River and then came to Marist Inanda. His father
had been a pupil at Observatory and his grandfather, Koch Street.
There was only one other local boy, John Davis and he was aged 12 when he became a
boarder. He arrived not quite knowing what to expect of boarding school, he was confronted by
city boys who were street-wise and the discipline was quite extraordinary and extreme. In his
first year, Std 6, Brother Conrad was a very good teacher and empathic man but most of the
other brothers were quite hard and mean. He had Brother Vincent the following year,he recalls
Brother Liam and Brother Andrew was his boarding housemaster and Geography teacher. All
the brothers carried canes, some were quite vindictive and could victimise a pupil, and
remembers being caned in his pyjamas holding onto some taps. The biggest thing you could get
caught for was smoking a texan by the change rooms, aids, drugs were not around. There was
alcohol but none of them were really interested, the boarders made their own entertainment and
fun.
The study routine was very heavy and the programme was as follows: up at 6.00am; study 6.30
– 8.00; breakfast 8.00 – 8.30 followed by school and sport and then more study.
All the boarders used to latch onto day boys for sandwiches at break time and Peter Foden had
particularly nice sandwiches! Boarding school food was the norm and it was great to go home
for some good home cooking. There were 80 – 90 senior boarders and some juniors. They used
to sit 6 - 8 per table for army style food. A big thing was the pat of fresh butter in the mornings
and each boy took it in turn to cut it into equal amounts. The one who cut the butter was last in
line so he didn’t cheat. There was rice pudding and bread and butter pudding and on special
occasions (sports day, rugby match) they had a “beano” with roast beef, roast spuds and cool
drinks.
He participated in rugby but due to chronic back problems he had to stop and then played
cricket, hockey and squash. He joined the debating society which he eventually headed up.
Naturally they chose only to debate against girl’s schools such as St Mary’s and Rosebank
Convent.
A highlight in Std 8 was M’Frau Pretorius who was very well endowed and, needless to say he
loved Afrikaans and a glimpse of a genuine female figure. They had lay teachers for most
subjects but the boarding masters were all brothers, 13 – 14 of them and they all lived on site.
He recalls that the school had taken ownership of the property next door the year he left and
Dennis Tomacelli, head boy lived in a house with a swimming pool on the school boundary.
Dave failed matric but passed Latin, Geography and English, he was not an academic. He has
an indifferent memory of Brother Anthony although he thought he managed the school with a
vision.
He has no fond memories of the school and regards those years as an episode in his life which
he got through quite well. It was a type of schooling he didn’t respond well to, it was too
disciplined and regimental and the only real benefit was being taught to be self-disciplined.
Being at boarding school, meant that you grew away from home and were forced to become
independent. He finished his matric and moved on and is not involved with the school at all. He
was a small chap when he left but grew after leaving school.
Dave didn’t qualify for university and there were no jobs in White River or on the farm. He did
military training after school in 1966 and was a member of the Citizen Force until 1976, serving
in Angola where he became an officer and eventually finished in 1980 as a major. A
contemporary of his from St David’s,Fred Klippen servbd in the same regiment. They used to do
3 months camps and 3 months development training and he only started to become aware of
politics after P.W. Botha once came and addressed the troops and was unaware of apartheid
until in business in the 80’s.
He sold Callguard Security 10 years ago and is now known as Group 4. In the final years Rand
Merchant Bank had 20% stake in the company and only two people had degrees in the entire
company, being the financial director and the HR director. He employed 6000 staff and all his
managers and directors benefited from the sale of the company. He is now involved with Lupo
Bakery providing specialist bread to companies such as Mugg & Bean, Spur, Spar and Burger
King. He found in the mid 2000’s that he had a very quick and easy adaption to business, and
still enjoys sharing and mentoring staff believing that you should empower people on every
level. Recognition,respect and reward being his motto. Although Dave and his wife Janet are
not involved in any charity they do actively support a number of child orientated charities such
as the St Joseph’s Home and SOS Village. He and his wife travel extensively and his most
recent trip was motoring through Europe with his E-type Jaguar. His passion is motor sport and
he probably has one of the biggest specialist car collections in the world.
JLE October 2011
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Norman Lazarus 1952
Interview with Norman Lazarus 1944 - 1952
Norman’s parents lived in the Free State so he was sent as a boarder to St David’s in 1944 in
grade 2. Mrs Litson was his first teacher.The boarders had very little to do with the day scholars
except when they were given sandwiches which supplemented the boarding school food. When
Norman started at St David’s the war was still on and he can remember listening to the
announcement of the death of general Pienaar on the wireless with his family.
When he arrived at the school in 1944, the school was still in its infancy. The bus ran as far as
Rosebank and the school was in the ‘country’ surrounded by small holdings. The Polliack Estate
was situated to the West. South of the school the field was in two tiers and at the Northern
boundary was a farm and the rumor went around the that the lady who owned the farm would
bequeath it to the school (this was partly true as the school bought the farm at a good price in
the 1960’s).
Norman did not enjoy his school days as he likened the school to an aloe – the nearer you got
the more you were pricked. The school was run by brothers – that word usually means loving
and within a family- the brothers showed no love for the boys and were punitive in the
punishment. There were 4 dormitories- A to D. There were very strict rules – talking after lights
out and untidy lockers- were very serious offences. Prefects were in charge and they were very
cruel. They had to write home every Sunday and were allowed to listen to LM radio, to the hit
parade – he can remember Frankie Laine being at the top of the charts.
The boarders showered in the evening.There were only 2 baths.They were woken at 6am and
the Catholics went to mass. While he was at St David’s there were mostly Catholics with 2 or 3
Jewish children of which he was one. While the Catholics went to mass the non Catholics had
study period. Breakfast after mass was in the present college library where they sat at round
tables of 6. There was no shortage of food but the helpings were small and the meals were
rotated so you knew what you were having each week. Sago pudding was often served.
There were 2 breaks in the school day where they played hopscotch, marbles and bok-bok.
There was an infirmary and he enjoyed his time there when he had chicken pox as it was a very
caring place. Sport was compulsory and he played hockey, soccer, cricket and rugby – at this
stage there were no tennis courts. He played for the 1st fifteen in rugby and the team travelled
down to Durban by train to play against St Henry’s. The train journey was eventful and the boys
suffered defeat the next day after a sleepless night!
Punishment was metered out before dinner in front of the whole school. You had the whole day
to think about the impending punishment and the caning took place in front of everyone.
Norman’s experience was that the longer one was at school the less you were punished
because you became more adept. Boys were expelled for talking to girls over the fence and for
stealing fruit from the nearby orchards.
The brothers decided that the boys should learn how to dance and a dancing instructor from
Arthur Murray Studios came to school. They were taught without partners so, when in the end
girls from Parktown Convent (accompanied by the nuns) were selected to be their partners it
proved to be very unsuccessful as the boys just weren’t used to the girls and they didn’t know
what to say to each other!
The brothers took the boys to the nearest cinema on the corner of Tyrwhitt Ave and Jan Smuts.
The boys walked in a crocodile.This, however, did not last long as shopkeepers, who had fruit
displayed on the pavements, complained that there was no fruit left once the boys had walked
past!
Norman was a day scholar in his matric year (1952). He got into trouble because the bus route
ended in Dunkeld and he and another boy accepted a lift from a motorist. The brothers got to
hear of this and it was said that they had brought the school into disrepute for ‘hitch hiking’. His
merit badge was taken away but this was reinstated after the brothers asked his fellow pupils to
vote on whether his badge should be handed back to him.
Norman did not find the teachers to be caring but in some cases quite eccentric. Mr Hoare
taught the non Catholics Scripture and he was always teaching them about George Elliott. He
also made them learn the psalms off by heart. The cleverest boys were always made to sit in
the front and the less bright ones at the back.
On obtaining a first class matric, Norman studied medicine at the University of the
Witwatersrand where he joined up with his school friend Peter Leigh, son of the school doctor.
Norman left South Africa for America after Sharpville and Peter emigrated to Australia.
Interview: Monday 1 February 2010
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Dr Theo van den Handel 1982
Interview with Dr Theo van den Handel - 1982
Theo is one of 4 van den Handel brothers – Alan matriculated as deputy head boy in 1974, Rik
matriculated as head boy in 1976, Theo matriculated as head boy in 1982 and Jan Willem matriculated
as a prefect in 1987.
Theo remembers his early years at St David’s as great years, however, he was just an ordinary boy in the
prep taking part in all the sports but never really shining. But he blossomed in the high school and loved
school and being a member of St David’s.
Theo feels that St David’s has always been a good school because it was smaller in numbers and the
boys were treated as individuals. Sport was a huge factor at school as it served to bind the boys together.
St David’s did well on the sports field despite our small numbers and when we were defeated we knew
how to take the defeat. The boys always bounced back. Theo feels that although the school has grown in
numbers today the same still holds today whereby the boys still love their sport and give it their all.
Theo started at St David’s in 1971 in grade 1 and felt at home as his two older brothers were already at
school there. He remembers teachers like Mrs Hildyard, Ms Joseph, Mrs Knezovich, Mrs Anderson and
Mrs Walsh. In standard 7 he and Jan Willem left St David’s to live in Holland with their Mom. After just a
year there they returned to South Africa and the two youngest boys returned to St David’s.
He entered standard 8 on his return and felt as if he had never been away. He enjoyed his sport
especially athletics, swimming, water polo and rugby. Theo still maintains that sport being compulsory at
St David’s is an excellent idea and does give the school a wonderful spirit. Theo was appointed head boy
in 1982. This was a significant year in the school’s history as it was the first year that the school had a
lay headmaster. Mr G Murphy was the first lay headmaster and Theo remembers him well saying that the
boys liked Mr Murphy mainly because he was very into the sporting side of the school and encouraged
the boys especially in rugby. He says he got on well with Mr Murphy and followed his advice.
Theo enjoyed his years in the high school and felt that with teachers like Mrs Elliott, Mr Colia, Mr
McFadden and Mr Boswell the boys were given a good sound education.
As mentioned Theo is one of 4 boys in the van den Handel family. The eldest is Alan who runs his own
construction business in Plettenburg Bay. He is married and his son Nicholas now works with his dad in
the business. Rik lives in Dallas and is an chemical scientist. He is married and has a son Ryan. The
youngest brother is Jan Willem who is married and in the process of moving back to Johannesburg from
Cape Town for business reasons. He has a little daughter.
Theo is still in touch with Graham Muller who is a GP in the UK.
Theo and his wife Sian have moved to Plettenburg Bay where they have set up a practise together, Sian
as a dermatologist and Theo as a medical practioner. Theo has taken a great interest in HIV and while
living in Johannesburg he worked on a regular basis at Baragwanath Hospital. He is now is provincial
programme manager of the Western Cape branch of Right to Care which specialises in HIV and TB.
Theo has 37 doctors working under him and he himself travels to Beaufort West and the surrounding
area for 2 to 3 days each week running clinics and educating the public and also the people working in
this very important programme.
Mrs van den Handel has moved down to Plettenburg Bay to be near the family and they are now able to
spend quality time with their two sons Rhys and Luc, both of whom were at St David’s while living in
Johannesburg. Since the move both boys are enjoying their new school Oakhill in Knysna, but they still
miss their friends at St David’s
Interview: 13 May 2011
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Angelo Haggiyannes 1974
Interview with Angelo Haggiyannes – 1974
Angelo was day boy, with a brother Paul who matriculated in 1970. Angelo acknowledged that
the boarding facility had held the school together with its team spirit and sport especially
suffered when the boarding closed, the numbers declined and the spirit wasn’t there. In 1974
there were 263 pupils in the high school and then 1 boy was expelled.
He recalled his first day in standard 4 in 1968, Mrs Kempster was the headmistress and he met
his first friend playing marbles in the area next to what is now the Chapel of Mary. He was
originally at H A Jack and then his father decided to send him and his brother to St David’s. His
brother went into standard 6.
He was captain of the B swimming team, captain of the athletics team and played rugby until
standard 7 when he was badly injured, his left arm still shows the results of that injury. He was
awarded an honours blazer which he still has. He wasn’t a great academic, but had an ability
with the written word and did take part in the debating society and drama. He played the lead
role of Thomas More in the play ”Man for All Seasons”. It was during rehearsals at Rosebank
Convent that he saw Rosemary, his wife for the first time and said to his friend “that’s the girl I
am going to marry”. Four of the boys in his year married girls from Rosebank Convent.
He was the second non-Catholic pupil to become head boy, the first was Buckley-Jones. He
was elated when made head boy, the competition was strong, but it was the first year that the
boys voted which was probably the reason he was elected. Alan Van Den Handel was vice
head boy and his brothers Rick Standard 8 and Theo followed.
During his time at St David’s there were no black pupils but in 1973 an exchange student came
from the USA, he was black, it caused quite a stir and the school came in for a lot of flak over
this.
He knew Br Anthony and Br Timothy well. Other brothers were Br Mario (Boing) Br Andrew
(Drac) who was mean and drew blood; Br Bernard (he left the brotherhood); Br Aidan who was
involved with the boarders and controlled their purse strings; Father Plestus; Mrs Kempster.
He recalled the stables where the grade 00 block is now and “The Inandas” weren’t there.
Most of the boys in his time did well and went into the corporate environment; some such as
Thierry Dalais became brave and opened their own private financial institutions. Greg Boyes-
Varley, another old boy and Angelo’s surgeon, epitomises what the school stands for “Take
Courage and Be a Man”. Boyes-Varley had a cleft palate and a stutter for which he was
mocked, a humble man who became one of the country’s best maxilla facial surgeons.
His last day was rather a letdown and he remembers some of the boys went to his home for a
few beers. He was a people’s person and knew every boys name in the school. This principle
he took into the business world.
On leaving school he went to Wits and studied for a BA Law, went into the army for two years,
came back and did an LLB and was admitted as an attorney in 1986. He practised for five years
and then went into insurance.
MOBS put some money towards the bar in the College Pavillion including Mark Waner, Willy
Benson (DBN), Greg Hut (NZ), Alan Van Den Handel, John Koel (Dbn) became an actuary with
Liberty Life, Colin Richardson – senior partner, Mercedes Benz, Rivonia Rd.
JLE November 2011
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Kevin Ryan 1970
Interview with Kevin Ryan – 1970
Kevin joined St David’s in 1961 and was a boarder. He enjoyed the boarding as there was good
camaraderie amongst the boarders and less time was spent travelling however the downside
was not spending as much time with family.
The teachers who made a lasting impression were Mrs Kemspter, Mr Summers and Br Bosco,
He also enjoyed photography with Br Bernard.
He enjoyed the sport and participated in swimming, water polo and 3rd team rugby.
His friends were Peter Daniels, Ken Sprenger, Peter Scott and Peter Elliott who he occasionally
sees and Peter Daniels is overseas.
The worst moments at school were when someone didn’t own up and he didn’t enjoy cadets.
He enjoyed the matric dance and remembers the boys skipping with their ties in the road in front
of the office on their last day.
On leaving St David’s he studied BSc Eng (Elec) and MSc Eng (Elec) at Wits University and an
MBL at Unisa.
His son William was also a pupil at St David’s and Kevin has visited the school for the fireworks
display and also played water polo at the school 2010
Egenrieder, Julie
Transcripts of interviews from 2010 to 2017
A4 pages of original handwritten transcripts of interviews conducted by Julie Egenrieder during research for the Jubilee Book Project. In no particular order. 3 bundles kept together by file clips.
St David's Marist College
Interview with Thabo Harmanus 1992
Interview with Thabo Hermanus – 1992
When Thabo matriculated from St David’s, Paul Davies was headmaster, he had come from St
Albans. He remembers that he didn’t resonate with him and his parents only picked this up after
a while. People were pulling out of the school and a lot of black pupils left during Thabo’s high
school years. From standard 7 until his final year he was the only black boy in his class with
another joining in his matric year. One could see the degradation in the high school’s reputation
and what an impact a head has on a school and its teaching staff.
Thabo started school in Alexandra, passed top of the class in each year. When he completed
standard 2 at M.C. Weiller, instead of going to standard 3 remaining in Alexandra, he started at
St David’s going backwards to standard 1 and did marginally well. While at the time this was
difficult for him as he thought he would get left behind by his peers from Alexandra, over time
and, looking back he realised that most of the boys he was at school with in Alex didn’t even
make it to matric. It was a real sacrifice for his parents but it was so far sighted of them. His
mother was a teacher in Alex and his brothers also started at St David’s, although they
completed their matric at Wendywood High. His mother had said to him that if he failed one year
he would be out of St David’s. He worked hard and came third in standard 1 during his first year.
He felt being older helped with his confidence considering the jump in the standard of education
he had to contend with and he mentioned Gladwell’s: The Outliers in this context.. After a year
he had got used to the school and it exposed him to a whole new world. He wasn’t envious or
jealous of the lifestyle he saw that the white children had but it created ambition in terms of
defining what success was, the picture was bigger now and it was no longer necessarily out of
reach.
On his first day he was very nervous, he remembers his cap and thinking that all the boys
looked the same. Miss Keating was his teacher.
There were the odd incidents of naive questions and observations. His father drove an old
beetle and he recalls visiting Mark Pardini’s home and Mark’s little brother asking him why his
father drove a beetle. It was not malicious, just a boy who could not have been older than seven
years old being curious and noticing differences in material wealth. Bullying was normal and
part of the package. On one occasion he went to the tuck shop and bought a toasted sandwich,
another boy told him to give him a bite; he was a large boy, rugby type. Thabo broke a piece off,
gave him the smaller piece. The boy insisted on having the bigger piece and instinctively Thabo
stuffed the bigger piece into his own mouth. The boy punched Thabo for the “offence” which
Thabo could do nothing about given the David and Goliath scenario. He remembers thinking,
“Wait until I get to be your size”.
Even canings hurt but was what they all knew, so it was acceptable. Words can scar a lot more
as far as Thabo is concerned. The worst caning that Thabo remembers was with Mr Webster
and he knew rather to stand at the front of the queue and get it over and done with.
One of the most memorable classroom incidents he remembers involved seeing current in
action. There was a funny incident in the Science lab. Stuart Dickey had a pen set and he stuck
a pen in one plug and then the pencil, mistakenly creating a current, there was a loud bang,
Stuart got the fright of his life and his pen and pencil were welded together. Thabo chirped that
the bang made him feel at home coming from Alex and everyone packed up laughing which
calmed the air a bit from the shock.
He played rugby, basketball and was in the athletics squad in the high school while in the prep
he played soccer. He gained half colours for rugby and basketball.
He is still in touch with Justin van Linden, Yoav van der Heyden, Jeetesh Kathawaroo, Rowan
Brewer to name a few from his year and has contact with pupils from below and above and
recently got in touch with Mike von Guillaeume (2 -3 years behind him).
The teachers he remembers are Willy Castle – “Mr Fruitcake”. In the last soccer season in
standard 5, in a good team playing against a school who went on to win the championship that
year, they lost 1.0 by a silly mistake by Jeffrey Tsatsane. They played defence together and he
can still remember Willy Castle mumbling his disapproval calling out “Tsatsane”. In the high
school he recalled Mr Girdwood – an awesome English teacher, Mr Howarth – History, Mr
Finlayson – Sport and house master and Miss Von Guillaeume whom he is still in touch with
today. There wasn’t a teacher he disliked and he was taught how to think and not just
regurgitate answers, especially by Mr Howarth who spoke to them about the other side of the
story, not written in the matric History books.
He recalled a significant teacher in the prep, Mrs Hurley and a high impact moment whilst in her
class when she had a “throwing her toys” moment with him. He had got 60% for a spot History
test but she still kept him behind after school with boys who had failed. He was supposed to
have read something the day before but hadn’t and it showed. She reprimanded him in front of
his father, saying that his parents were spending all this money on him and he wasn’t working.
He never messed around after that, it was a turning point for him.
Academically he did well, receiving prizes in the prep school. It was a bit different in the high
school. In standard 5 Mr Kotze was the disciplinarian. In standard 6 he messed around a bit and
then in standard 7 he started working hard again.
He feels that a sense of worth helps but most of this comes from the home and parents should
not abdicate responsibility. He believes that boys coming from St David’s are more grounded,
humble.
His last day at school he remembers as being crazy, with everyone signing shirts and letting off
water balloons.
He struggled to get a bursary as he wanted to go to university away from Johannesburg. Justin
van Linden’s father was MD of Customs Plastics, a division of Nampak, had kept an eye on him
through the years unbeknown to him and offered him a bursary. He then went on to UCT, did a
BCom majoring in Accountancy and Economics. He planned to be a CA but hated auditing,
however he went to Nampak where he was a Management Accountant, helped his brothers
through school and university in terms of paying tuition. They are now both CA’s. He left
Nampak and went to Experiaen SA, primarily know as a credit bureau but he wanted to get into
the services industry. In 2008 he was co-founder of Nimble Collection Services and after setting
up the company they sold it. He has been in Cape Town for 4 years now and subsequent to
Nimble, together with his partner Suzanne Capper set up Find Inspired Talent (F.I.T.
Recruitment). Thabo is good with numbers but that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what he
enjoys doing the most. People development and leadership are his strengths.
He is the father of two daughters aged 10 and 7, who attend the Waldorf School in Constantia,
he is on the school board and is also involved in setting up a trust to enable young black girls to
attend varsity (funding young girls from previously disadvantaged backgrounds).
He would like to keep in touch and would pledge or make a donation to the book. He would love
to participate in any celebration for the 75th. He owes a lot to his experience at the school.
JE October 2011
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Doug Wickins 1962
Interview with Doug Wickins 1962
Doug started at St David’s in Std 3 in 1955. He originally went to St Peter’s in Merrivale and
moved to Parkhurst where he spent 1 year in Std 2 at the local primary school. His mother was
a devout Catholic with 3 sons, Doug being the eldest. He and Anthony started in 1955 and Barry
a year or two later. Doug was happy at Parkhurst and didn’t want to leave and his introduction to
the school was delayed, as he and his brothers contracted scarlet fever, and were quarantined
for 3 weeks. Br Edmond, the principal introduced him to Alf Smith and Michael Fine (“Savage”)
and took him to Mrs Batten – standard 3. Mrs Batten was a real toughie, told him to sit where
she could see him. She sat on the teaching platform, teachers had a leather strap and he can
remember her whacking all the boys in her class. In spite of this introduction he thoroughly
enjoyed his schooling. At the end of standard 6 his father died, his uncle came to stay in the
house; accommodation was limited so in standard 7 arrangements were made for him to go into
boarding. This he regards as the best thing that ever happened to him. He spent 4 years
boarding and really enjoyed it.
There were 16 brothers then, all quite young, many in their twenties and Br Anthony was about
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Grant Napier 1960
Interview with Grant Napier – 1960
Grant initially attended Parkview Junior School but was a boarder at St David’s in standard 2
when Brother Edwin was principal in 1952. He came together with his brother who was younger.
He was in the classroom near the chapel. Mrs King was a good teacher and is now friendly with
his son.
Discipline was strict in those days and one was expelled for any misdemeanour. Brother Edwin
did inspections of the boarders, nails, hair, shoes etc and he rewarded some of the boys as an
incentive to be neat and tidy. The boys would get caned on the hand or behind, corporal
punishment was the norm. He recalls that when he was in standard 3, he returned a ball at
tennis practise which hit the coach, Mrs Owen in the eye. He was sent to Brother Edwin and
received two cuts on the behind.
He remembers the big old farm and how everyone thought it would be part of the school one
day. It was often very cold and there was a line of pine trees demarcating the boundary of the
school next to the dormitories, the wind used to whistle through them. There was ice on the
swimming pool one very cold winter.
The food was good and they also had tuck and Mrs Batten, standard 3, used to make the day
boys bring extra sandwiches for the boarders. She lived at Tara. At supper there were 6 boys
around a table and only at night, one square of butter which was divided equally amongst them.
There were movies every Saturday evening in the dining room and in matric in the study hall.
Sometimes the Brothers would let them go to town to the Coliseum where he saw “South
Pacific”. Sunday was special as they used to get cool drinks with lunch and roast chicken was
the order of the day. They used to walk to the old boys club on Louis Botha past the old
Balalaika Hotel. In the field where the tennis courts are now, they used to play soccer and
cricket and, on the embankment all the boys from standard 3 upwards had claims mining for
fool’s gold.
In 1954 he had Mrs Kempster as a teacher and he remembers writing reasonably well and has
styled his writing on that of Mrs Kempster’s. In the second term his family moved to PE and he
went to the junior school in Bird Street and the principal was Brother Anthony. In standard 5 he
went to Marist Brothers Walmer, quite a distance away.
He returned to St David’s in standard 10, 1960 when his family moved back to Johannesburg.
Brother Anthony was then in his first year as principal. He says that they had no TV,
newspapers, or radio in the dorm at night and were completely out of touch with the outside
world and were not aware of Sharpville. However on sundays there were allowed to listen to the
LM hit parade!
There were 28 boys in his matric class and all the teachers were Brothers. There was one class
to each standard. He was made a prefect but only through Brother Anthony.
The top rugby side was Obs and the school was known as Marist Inanda not St David’s. Grant
played 1st team rugby,it was an average team and they never got beaten too badly. Coaching
and training was very different in those days. They went on a rugby tour together with Obs by
train down to St Charles, Natal. They used “Gertie” the old school bus to get to other schools.
He was also in the soccer and tennis teams, participated in athletics, swimming which he did a
lot of. He got his colours whilst in PE but had to give it up as he had bad sinus and was unable
to swim in chlorinated water. However he was able to swim in the sea and became a life saver.
His house was “The Bishops” and he wore a yellow rosette.
Academically he did OK and achieved a second class JMB matric with university entrance. He
wrote 7 subjects including Latin, English, Afrikaans, Physical Science, Maths, History and
Geography. There was no major send off and most of the class just met for an after school
party. There was no matric dance or matric holiday and it was a fairly nonchalant ending.
When Grant left, as he enjoyed Maths and Science, he went to Wits to do civil engineering.
Fortunately he didn’t have to do national service but was quite disappointed as it sounded such
fun. At Wits every couple of weeks, engineers would come in and talk about their job and show
them what they would be doing once qualified. It wasn’t his cup of tea and after one term he
decided to leave and ended up in the insurance industry joining a company for 20 years, 1961
until 1982 – the South British Insurance Company which, in spite of its name was a New
Zealand company. He and another colleague then started an insurance broking business of
which he is still a director.
He has a son and daughter, the son born in 1967. Very few of the matric class kept in touch and
St David’s no longer had a boarding facility when his son started school, so he didn’t come to St
David’s. He also has 4 grandchildren, all boys living in Johannesburg.
He enjoyed his time at St David’s and is still in touch with some of his former classmates, Harry
Rosmarin, Norman Schwab and Michael Lakofsky. They had a get together 2 years ago and 4
years ago Brother Anthony joined them for lunch. He also remembers a black tie dinner in the
Champganat hall about 7 or 8 years ago, there were 10 of them and they noticed that there was
no photo of the 1960 Matric class. He came to Brother Anthony’s funeral. Les Berman who was
in his class became a doctor, went to Canada and sadly committed suicide
****Derek Witte Vermeulen was with Grant and had an older brother, Carl. He would have been
one of the early matriculants and was a partner at Werksmans.
JE October 2011
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Gary Norton 1986 - 1996 Staff
Interview – Gary Norton – Staff
Gary was a member of staff at St David’s from 1989 until 1996 when he was acting headmaster.
He then went to Oakhill in Knysna before returning to take up his current post as headmaster of
Marion College.
He recalls that his sons Ryan and Shaun, together with the Edey boys started cleaning up the
reservoir adding fish and feeding the ducks.
In 1994/5 there was a combined Biology/Geography trip for the grade 9’s (then standard 7) that
he made together with Father Brewer to Groot Marico. They used a farm as their base, it was
very wild and the boys had to make their own toilets and wash their utensils properly. Gary told
the boys that they had to have a knife and to make sure that they didn’t get hurt as there were
no facilities or anaesthetic if needed. On the Saturday, early evening he and Father Brewer
were relaxing when Gareth Simaan, Robbie Tait and Murray White came to them. Gareth said
Murray had cut his hand. Thinking that the boys were conning them, it didn’t look real, they told
them to go away. However, when they had a good look at the hand they saw how serious it
was. They bandaged him up as best they could, got on the bus and, with Father Brewer got to
Ventersdorp where they got directions to a doctor. They had to open a gate and two large
alsatians came running toward them, they managed to get past them and find the doctor who
wasn’t impressed saying “You guys from town don’t know anything”. So the hand was stitched
up without anaesthetic just as Gary had warned the boys!
There was another memorable trip to Hoedspruit, Blydepoort, also a Biology/Geography camp.
On the Sunday the boys were playing touch rugby by the pool and Bradley Geldenhuys
managed to break his foot. During this camp an impala was shot and the boys had to cut it up,
bleed it and make a potjie. They also went hunting as a part of a culling exercise. One of the
boys was stung by a scorpion, very venomous with urotoxic venom; fortunately they managed to
treat it. Bradley Geldenhuys then disappeared, at 3am, he saw a zebra and went to pat it and it
promptly kicked Bradley on the head. On leaving they had a chicken parade, checking no
rubbish was left behind when Bradley called out that he had seen something in the grass – Gary
promptly told them all to get on the bus!
On another occasion, one of the teachers, Robin Henderson took the grade 8 boys to the
weather station; he came back in tears as they had been so badly behaved. Gary summoned all
the boys and asked them to write down who was really naughty. He then dismissed the boys but
told them that if they had been naughty they should come to his classroom. Out of 75 boys, 72
went to his classroom and when he asked one of the smaller boys why he was there to get a
hiding, he replied that he thought he had better come just in case his name was on the list.
Another pupil, Kieran Rowan was diagnosed with leukaemia and Gary remembers telling him to
think that, like Pacman, his cells were gobbling up the cancer – he survived and is still alive.
On a Friday afternoons Gary would take some of the boys fishing and many of the naughty boys
would come along. Gary recalls asking one boy why his father never came and fished with him,
he replied that his father did spend one afternoon with him but told him he had given up
R15 000 he would have earned had he been working instead. Needless to say the boy didn’t
ask his father again.
Gary’s wife Alison is a prep school teacher at St David’s
JE August 2011
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Darrell Caister 1986
Interview with Darrell Caister – 1986
Darrell remembers his first day at St David’s . He came from the Waldorf school and was placed
In grade 4 although unbeknown to his teacher, he couldn’t read or write, and didn’t know the
alphabet. He spent a week in his class before being caught out, he watched the other boys and
turned the correct pages etc but one day he was asked to read out loud by his History teacher,
Mrs Napier. He refused and was caned. He was then sent back to grade 1, the second term
grade 2 and eventually managed to get back into grade 4. Because of this he was bullied and
picked on, however in standard 3 he was awarded the highest marks for Maths. He will never
forget that History book or Mrs Napier who was eccentric and used to allow a group of 3 or 4
boys to jump on the bonnet of her car when she arrived in the morning. She would then scream
around the U turn (next to Mike Greeff’s house), then brake hard by the fence next to Rivonia
Road and all the boys would fall off. This was of course great fun.
Mr Manolios was loved by everyone. Mr Cotze the standard 5 teacher was feared by the boys
but he was always fair. Mr Findlayson taught History and during an incident in class he threw
the blackboard duster at one of the boys, missed and it hit another boy and cut his head. The
boy in question was enraged and big; he picked up Mr Findlayson and threw him out of the
classroom. Br Ephraim taught JP Maths, Br Timothy had just left – he used to click his fingers
loudly and pointed. When he jacked a boy he would put their head under his desk and when he
used the cane the boy would automatically bring his head up and thereby receive a double
whammy. Willy Castle was his class teacher in standard 4 and Darrell used to get caned for
being naughty.
Mr Murphy was one of the headmasters during his time and he was well liked and admired by
the boys. He built up camaraderie between the matrics and the sports teams; he was a strong
man and a leader.
There was a high turnover of teachers in the high school apart from Trudy Elliott and Mrs Collier
both head of department. The appointment of Darryl Boswell as headmaster was very
contentious as there was a lot of support for Trudy Elliott especially from the boys. The boys
nicknamed Mr Boswell “little Darryl” and during a photo shoot, Darrell was standing behind him
and nudged him causing his toupé to move! In spite of this he still became head boy. Despite of
the turnaround in the number of headmasters, there was a good spirit and, many of the boys he
was at school with then get together every Thursday.
Darrell was involved with water-polo, swimming, athletics, and rugby until standard 9 when he
was badly concussed. He was also a member of the junior town council. Darrell never needed
an alarm clock as he lived across the road from the school and every morning awoke to the
rugby team running past with Willy Castle singing war cries.
He remembers first becoming aware of apartheid and its implications when he and a group of
boys including Vusi Shongwe (whose boys are at St David’s now) went to the movies. Vusi was
refused admission because he was black and all the boys refused to go in. No government
school was multi-racial in those days and he thinks that one of the reasons he became a
conscientious objector and didn’t serve in the army was because he attended a multi-racial
school.
His class in matric was small with about 40 boys as many boys had left. He recalled that that
was the year that hockey was first introduced as a sport. His last day was particularly sad as he
was suffering from meningitis and spent the day in Father Brewer’s bed trying to write an exam.
He was accepted by Natal University and studied law, then started his own business becoming
an entrepreneur. He ran 5 companies, sold them and went into something different again. When
he first moved back to Johannesburg he tried to get his son Dominic into St David’s but was told
he had applied too late. However Father Brewer, who was a delightful, compassionate man,
intervened and insisted that he be admitted. That was the catalyst for Darrell getting involved
with MOBS. He was chairman of MOBS for 4 years and remembers the building of the pub in
the pavilion when the PTA eventually had to bail MOBS out. His other son Grant is currently a
pupil at St David’s and he has a daughter, Bernice.
Darrell has a farm in Mpumalanga, near Pilgrims Rest which houses a school originally built by
German missionaries. He has helped to rebuild the school and supports it on an annual basis. It
is in an informal settlement and whereas before they had to rely on volunteer teachers they now
have 2 permanent teachers supplied by the government.
Darrell has in his possession a rugby jersey blessed by the Pope.
JE February 2012
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Richard Kelly 2004
Interview with Richard Kelly – 2004
Richard has good memories of his time at St David’s and the ethics and good manners taught.
There was a huge bond between the boys in their matric year. He wasn’t an academic, an
average student and was quite lazy. He played rugby until the opens, B team soccer and would
have preferred to play soccer, and backed out when he was not allowed to play unless he
attended rugby practise, as rugby was compulsory. He remembers Graeme McMillan hauling
him off the field for Gauteng trials, as he hadn’t attended rugby training. He was a member of
the choir in primary school but dropped out in the high school as it was rather frowned upon in
those days and virtually non-existent.
He remembers the East London soccer tour when he was in the prep school. They went by train
and stayed a week with Willy Castle. Mr Spencer punished the boys by making them eat a raw
onion.
He went from the prep to the high school with a break of one year in standard 6 when he left
and went to Sandown High but returned to St David’s in standard 7. On his first day in high
school he met new boys with whom he is still in contact – Nick Rasenti (Espresso), Chris
Phillips now in the US, Scot Grant, Matt Rose, David Schneider, Ricky Forleo whose father
owns a restaurant in Parkview. Jean Mark Du Casse is operations manager for Primi Piatti in
Cape Town, Johnathan Meyer and Chris Smith (who is now in London) went to the International
Hotel School. Craig Roman – head prefect runs an environmentally friendly company called
“Bugs Away”.
Richard coached soccer at St David’s working together with Willy Castle.
The last day at school was the best day of his life and it seems like a lifetime ago running into
different classes. Paul Edey became the executive head. He received the Eiletsen Trophy for
Computer Science which was a joke as there were only two boys doing the subject. He loved
Champagnat day with the soccer, inter-house athletics and thought the Guy Fawkes functions
were great. He participated in the first Shavathon at Nedcor and the first one held at St David’s.
He was involved with SMILE and really enjoyed that. He used to help out at the SPCA when he
was in the prep school. The prefects used to rule the high school but that hierarchy all fell away
by the time he got to matric
He remembers the Formula 1 event held in Sandton City, when he and some other boys ducked
and went in Richard’s car, with Malcolm Williams in hot pursuit.
Many of the teachers were fantastic – Julie Roman, Belinda Marais, Janet Skeen, Coleen
Kennedy, Sylvia Crichton, and of course Willy Castle. Father Brewer was amazing, kind hearted
and helpful.
Greg Royce, was a very good head of the prep school, always approachable and helpful.
His worst memories were any form of public speaking with Teresa Voorendyck, he hated cross
country.
When he left school he took a gap year and did some waitering, he then went on to study at the
Hotel School and graduated from there. He did his prac.at Full Stop Café and from junior
manager was promoted to senior manager. He is in the process of buying the restaurant and
paying it off. He is absolutely passionate about the job.
Richard enquired whether there was any preferential treatment for sons of old boys regarding
their admittance to the school.
JE September 2011
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Daniel Shepherd 2005
Interview with Daniel Shepherd – 2005
Daniel came to St David’s from Craighall primary and admits to finding it quite scary at first,
seeing all the new faces and finding himself in a much larger better equipped school
environment. He came together with Kelsey Stewart and Ryan King so wasn’t entirely alone. He
really enjoyed the Glenmore orientation camp in grade 8 led by Rod Smith and made new
friends.
Daniel recalled that his class of 22 pupils was quite extraordinary and they gained 88 out of 112
distinctions in their matric year.
He enjoyed sport and played hockey for which he received half colours, played tennis and did
some recreational swimming. Daniel believes that his life was much richer for the experience of
meeting different people, through the sport which was compulsory he was forced to mix with
people he otherwise would never have known giving him a different perspective of life.
Daniel enjoyed assisting with the Science programme tutoring pupils from Alex high school and
also participated in the Smile programme.
He just missed being awarded an honours blazer for academics but was awarded half colours
for hockey and service.
The teachers he remembers are Reyno Reichert who really motivated all the boys to do well in
Maths and in fact many of them eventually took 3 Maths subjects. Deanne King also helped him
to do well in matric.
He achieved 5 distinctions in matric, writing 8 subjects and then went on to Wits Medical School.
He is currently doing a two year internship at Baragwanath Hospital. It’s hard work and very
long hours but he is gaining experience in many disciplines which is invaluable. There are other
St David’s boys with him such as Jonty Kourie, Matthew Barendse and Warren Meir. Kelsey
Stewart (deputy head boy for 2005) is doing his internship in Pietermaritzburg.
Daniel’s brother Michael is currently in grade 10 at St David’s. Daniel believes that if he has a
son he would send him to St David’s or another Marist school.
JE August 2012
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Gareth Shippen 1996
Interview: Gareth Shippen (1992 – 1996)
Gareth attended St David’s from grade 8 until matric and says he enjoyed his time at school. He enjoyed sport
and played cricket and hockey where he played for the 1st XI. He enjoyed the tours in sport especially the tour
to Zimbabwe with Mr McMillan and Fr Brewer – a great time was had by all!
Gareth was not the greatest scholar (his own words) but he liked the teachers. He was not good at Maths and
the school suggested that he move down to standard grade but with the help of Mr Nick Davies he managed to
write Maths on the higher grade and get a good result. He enjoyed Richard Girdwood’s English lessons, the
boys used to sidetrack the lesson and most times Mr Girdwood fell for it! He remembers Mr Lambe, Mrs
Marais, Mr Norton and of course Mr McMillan and Fr Brewer fondly as good teachers and mentors.
Sadly Gareth’s Dad passed away on the day he was meant to write his matric Biology paper. Gareth wasn’t
sure what he wanted to do, so his Mom suggested that he try the hotel industry. After attending Wits
Technikon his first posting was to the Protea Hotel Kruger Park where he spent two years before moving to the
Protea Hotel Wilderness.
Gareth now manages The Gannet restaurant in Mossel Bay which is attached to the Protea Hotel. He is
happily married and his wife helps him in the business and he has now started an events business to run in
conjunction with the restaurant. Although the hours are long, Gareth enjoys the creative side of his work and
has lived in Mossel Bay for the past six years.
Gareth has seen Mark Conyers, who manages an upmarket guest house in Knysna recently but otherwise he
reads the old boy’s mail etc to keep up to date with St David’s.
Gareth’s brother Mark, matric 2001, moved to Australia recently and is working in the computer industry.
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Boris Babaya 1950
Interview with Boris Babaya – 1950
This is actually a transcript compiled by Boris himself which makes for interesting reading
Early years at Marist Brothers Inanda
As the new preparatory school opened in 1941, world war 11 was raging all over Europe. The
German nazi army directed by Adolf Hitler had occupied and annexed Austria, invaded
Czechoslovakia, Poland, France, Holland, Norway, Denmark, Yugoslavia, Albania, Greece then
Hitler attacked Russia and times were desperate for the Allies.
The British resistance suffered numerous setbacks in the Atlantic as German u-boats pounded
their supply convoys relentlessly. The Luftwaffe was bombing Britain and the Royal Air Force
was desperately fighting “The Battle of Britain”.
In North Africa, the British and Commonwealth armies were fighting the Afrika Corps under the
superb General Irwin Rommel.
Times were tough in South Africa. There were shortages of everything due to the prioritising of
so many basics for the Allied troops up North. News from the Red Cross was invariably
obituaries of family casualties in the war.
Japan had attacked the American fleet in Pearl Harbour and the Pacific war was ignited.
The only way one was able to follow events were the crackling short-wave radio, the press and
rare personal mail. There were very few cars, severely restricted by petrol rationing. There was
no white bread, very little meat or poultry, soap, tea, coffee and just about everything the
modern generation finds stacked up on supermarket shelves, was in very short supply.
Against this background Boris came from Braamfontein Convent to enter St. Davids in 1944 to
join std. 1V.
Inanda was on the periphery of Johannesburg. Most of the boys were boarders. They came
from all over the country and there were well represented contingents from Portuguese East
Africa (Mocambique), Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), Angola, Nyasaland (Malawi), Rhodesia
(Zimbabwe) and other arenas.
We were “Day Dogs”. I lived in Parktown on the Killarney border, just behind Parktown Convent.
The main arterial road to Inanda was Oxford Road. The Dunkeld Bus got you to the terminus
just before Corlett Drive. Its’ scheduled times were hourly at peak times. It was precisely one
long mile’s walk from St Davids. If you missed it, you got the bus that turned off at Soggot’s
Corner in Rosebank. That made a very poor start to the day.
The Wanderers Club was right in the middle of Johannesburg adjoining Park Station. There was
one heck of a hullabaloo when the minister of transport Mr Sturrock expropriated their grounds
for a functional Johannesburg station.
There were huge public marches in protest. A rally led by ‘Sailor Malan’, a highly decorated
South African ex RAF fighter pilot Ace, and the slogans on the banners: “Save the Wanderers
for the People”.
I recall my father persuading the Wanderers grounds man, Harry Eden to speak to executive
committee chair, Mr Houliston and tell them that they couldn’t stop progress and that he would
show them where the Wanderers could be relocated. He took them to Kent Park, and showed
them the farm that is the site of the Wanderers Club today.
He predicted that private cars would become far more prolific and that they could get a couple of
buses to ferry long-standing members that just couldn’t commute any other way. The rest is
history.
Standard four was a revelation. The principal was Brother Urban. The class teacher was Mrs du
Plessis. After her first lecture I knew she was an excellent tutor. She was clear, logical and
strict. She knew her syllabus inside-out, she put it over so well one felt like a genius. She
marked one’s homework meticulously. There were no bic pens so one scratched around with
stephens ink and pens with nibs. When one’s mind was in full flow and you were scribbling the
answers speedily, the nib would hit a speed-bump in the paper and droplets of ink would be
sprayed over the page. Miss would painstakingly encircle every single blot with ‘laager’ of red
ink. You knew instinctively that this lady wasn’t going to take any prisoners.
Under her expert guidance History, Geography, English or Arithmetic was just ‘a stroll in the
park’. While watching some hopeful candidates on BBC’s “Who wants to be a Millionaire” one
becomes acutely aware that they never had her as teacher. I recall one Geography test where
just the outline of the world’s land and sea masses were drawn. One had to fill in all the major
mountains, rivers, seas, lakes, countries, oceans and continents. I’m grateful that we were
taught by her.
The other standard 1V class was taught by Mrs Kempster whose class considered her as
another ace teacher.
Sports were highlights. soccer, cricket, athletics and swimming were the sports we all enjoyed.
Like schoolboys universally, our heroes were the more senior guys in standard five and six.
Somehow one seemed not to be particularly aware of one’s juniors.
From the following year, the school would start to become a senior college with an additional
higher class each year thereafter.
There are memories of health scourges. The pasteurisation of milk was not yet an industry norm
and TB or tuberculosis was a dreadful disease. It was an era before antibiotics were available,
so milk was always boiled. Fruit juices were only homemade. The other frightening disease was
polio or infantile paralysis. The papers were full of news about this dreaded disease. Victims
were put in huge contraptions called “Iron Lungs” and it was a terrifying prospect. One of the
popular lads, from Northern Rhodesia was afflicted and we all feared for his fate. Miraculously
he came out of it without any paralysis whatsoever and there was enormous relief. This was
many years before the “Salk Vacine” was developed by an American doctor which effectively
halted the pandemic.
Firm friendships were made, some of which lasted a lifetime. I befriended Michael Rogers who
went on to become a world class cardiac surgeon. He studied with the best pioneering surgeons
in England and America with the likes of Michael DeBakey, Denton Cooley and a couple of
others whose names elude my dysfunctional memory.
Romeo Buffa a classmate was an outstanding sportsman. He was the greatest schoolboy
sportsman we were privileged to see. It did not matter what the sport was. Whether it was
soccer or rugby he was the star player. In athletics or swimming, Romeo broke all the records.
He was a naturally gifted sportsman. Had he pursued any sporting discipline seriously, we were
all certain he should have made the olympic team.
I recall some of seniors of those days, Stan Barale, Frank McGrath, Keith Kennaugh, Errol
Hulse, Hugh Gearing, Ashley Kallos, Phillips, see the complete list at end.
Classmates were A. Lees, B. McGrath, D. Potter, R. Perino, G. Bordani, P. Vieyra, M. Rogers,
C. Leon, P. Cazolet, R. Kippers, G. Pacheo, G. Rethman.
Mr Bishop was the standard V master. He was a strict disciplinarian of Swedish origin and a
good teacher. Mr Hoare took standard V1. He was elderly, preached on many moral issues and
used to take the musical class. Mrs Basson would play the piano and he would conduct the
singing. Half the class was utterly tone deaf and he would weed them out. He explained the
tonic-Sol-fa: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, te, do. Every song practice Mrs Basson would play four notes
and the class would be asked to call the notes played. Well, you can imagine the answers that
came from the tone deaf. We had one little chap Francois May who was unerringly correct
whenever he was called upon to answer. Some others of the class got it right or partly right
sometimes, but some never ever got a single note correct. Mr Hoare’s patented reaction was,
“Feeble minds”. He administered punishment with a short leather strap, never a cane. His
command was,”Ankles!” then he would dance three steps towards the offender for each stroke
or slap of the strap. It was never painful.
Brother Thomas was the first brother we had as a teacher. He was Irish, had come from Marist
Brothers Koch Street and as usual our spy network had alerted us that he had a short temper. If
you provoked his ire through stupidity you would get a slap. He taught us Geometry and the first
theorem was painstakingly explained with blackboard diagrams.
I can well recall his exposition:
“When one straight line meets another straight line, the two adjacent angles so formed, together
equal two right angles.”
It wasn’t rocket science, but when individuals were called up to the blackboard platform to
explain the proof the atmosphere got very heated. The selected classmate would have a go at
the explanation, messing up the whole logic of the proof. Br Thomas went red faced, wringing
his hands at his sides in an effort to control his temper, his voice rising until one of his arms
struck out like a black mamba, giving the unfortunate, aspiring geometrician a resounding slap
on the head.
He would repeat the whole proof while the class focussed on the elements of the logic,
determined not to be caught out if called up to the blackboard. Over the next few sessions most
of the class were able to master the first theorem but a few would get caught out some time
later. A wary atmosphere prevailed in his class as one didn’t want to provoke ‘n snotklap.
Br Alban prevailed over std. eight. He had played rugby for Western Province prior to becoming
a brother. He coached the first team and was quite an awesome character. He would castigate
miscreants in a derisive tone with words found in no dictionary. He had a seemingly endless
vocabulary of appellations. “You rumagultion!” and “kookiekommer” comes to mind. He was a
heavy smoker of Springbok plain cigarettes, with the ball of his thumb and the two cigarette
holding fingers burnt to a very deep brown, which one never sees these days.
If you were the unfortunate to get the dreaded invitation to come to his rooms, you knew that
you would depart with painful red stripes on your backside. It was a tortuous ritual. If you were a
smoker, he would offer you a Springbok from his pack of fifty. If you demurred, you would get an
extra couple of strokes for being a hypocrite. Of course you had heard this from the lads, but
you were never sure whether they were spreading a false rumour or a real fact. He would
engage you in friendly conversation about all kinds of interesting subjects. This would proceed
amicably until you were convinced he had forgotten about the reason for the invite as the next
class period was only minutes away from the bell. Just as you reached for the door handle to
exit, he would casually ask why he had invited you to call on him. With accelerating stress and
anxiety you would stutter and splutter some meaningless supposition. The inevitable caning was
administered while you frantically hoped it was four and not the fearsome six.
English speakers had a rather pathetic grasp of Afrikaans. He would produce current Afrikaans
newspapers or periodicals and make a student read an article and then render an English
translation. We were terrible. He got us to say the “Our Father” and “Hail Mary” in Afrikaans. I
think I can still do it sixty six years later.
I managed to develop an “opstel” aid. I memorised a few paragraphs of an introduction that I
hoped would indicate some knowledge of Afrikaans. Whatever choice I made from the offerings,
it was my opening shot.
“Dit was a heerlike warm somer’s dag en toe het my vriend Piet en ek besluit om te gaan
visvang.
He took us a couple of years later on a rugby tour to Natal by train to play our brother schools,
the formidable St. Charles Pietermaritzburg and St. Henry’s Durban.
On the train the cigarettes were offered and known smokers dared not be guilty of being
hypocrites. We narrowly beat St. Charles captained by Peter Fricker, if memory serves, yours
truly elated at scoring the winning try. The team thrashed St. Henry’s so the return home was
triumphant. No misdemeanour in transit escaped his purview. Indiscretions of any kind were
dealt with later, sometimes to one’s utter consternation, much later. He had a sixth sense to
detect any transgression.
Br Edwin, later to become principal, took us for History. He was an inspiring teacher. His first
lecture was preceded by his enquiry from the class as to what precisely was History all about.
The class individuals came up with all kinds of inane answers. His brief definition was, “History
is the story of the living past.”
He went on to explain that virtually everything we are, do, think, feel or believe is the effect in
some way or another, the result of what has been done or has happened in the past. We cannot
escape the history of mankind and our planet. It determines virtually every facet of our
civilization, way of life, social interactions and codes of behaviour. It was stirring stuff. One
realised that if one was unaware of one’s history, one couldn’t understand much of what life was
all about.
I was personally fascinated and very proud to win the Marist Provincial Prize in History. (1947)
Due to life threatening illnesses, my memories are like the “Curate’s Egg”.
There are so many memories buried under the mists of times long past.
One Brother made an indelible impression on all his classes. He was an Australian and took us
for Latin. Brother Celestine was an extraordinary personality and an unforgettable character. His
first words to the class were, “Caesar est.” He asked the class to translate. There were no
volunteers. He translated, “I am Caesar.” That became his nickname, Caesar.
He then asked the class to raise their hands if anyone didn’t think they would pass Latin at the
end of the year. Slowly one hand was raised, and then another and then a flurry of several more
hands were raised. Caesar asked them all to stand up. He riveted his challenging stare at each
one turn and said the following.“No one fails any subject that I teach! You will all pass Latin. Do
you understand that?”Each sentence was delivered like a pistol shot, clearly demanding an
affirmative response. Each of the hapless guys had to clearly state that they would pass Latin.
That was our introduction to Caesar.
He appointed a dog walloper. His duty was to order a class member to clear the blackboard
whenever necessary. If the dw wasn’t alert enough to anticipate the function timeously, he had
to do it himself with Caesar’s derisive comments ringing in his ears.
Sooner or later everyone was bestowed with nickname by Caesar. This ‘christening’ was always
a ritual. A very popular boarder was a regular prolific smoker. Smokers resorted to all sorts of
subterfuge to camouflage their indulgence. A popular habit was to stroll to the young trees
bordering the Fricker Road perimeter, using the meagre foliage to screen their actions. Light up
there, ambling along carefully exhaling the thinnest possible stream of smoke to as to be almost
imperceptible from even a few metres away. One day Caesar related the story at length of how
St. Francis would speak to the birds in the trees. The punch-line was that we had a modern day
St. Francis in our midst. He then asked the guy, “When you go to sneak a smoke in the trees
what do you converse with the birds?” After embarrassed shuffling and stuttering, the fellow was
thereafter always called ‘St. Francis’ by Caesar.
Caesar could start a lesson with a joke. This could carry on for almost the entire period, with
much top of the desk banging by the class when the punch line was delivered. At a minute hand
signal from Caesar the applause would abruptly stop. In the remaining time Caesar would get
through the lesson, set the homework and woe betide anyone that didn’t master the assignment
by the next lesson.
I recall a joke that lasted a good thirty minutes. Two musician pals would go for drinks after their
performance. When they would overdo it, they had to give their respective wives an explanation
for coming home at such a late hour. As the explanations were often not convincing, they
decided to invent a good story while sober that would ensure peace and quiet when
overindulgent and very late. They came up with the alibi of having to practise “Syncopation”.
They swore it was the truth and the wives believed them. This worked for a while until the two
wives got together and eventually they discussed the alibi story. Since both were curious they
mooted several musical probabilities and eventually decided to look it up in the dictionary. What
they found there illuminated the scenario. syncopation: An erratic wandering from bar to bar.
One guy that regularly bunked school and was a hopeless mess, was kicked out of Caesar’s
class permanently. The rest of the class passed Latin. Caesar played an excellent game of
tennis. Years later we discovered that he was an excellent rugby player.
Ellis Park was the venue for both provincial and international rugby and cricket. In 1947 we had
the thrill of viewing the first post war visiting All Blacks. Captained by Fred Allen they had been
preceded by reports of being a powerful team. We had no idea how well the Springboks would
fare. I recall the All Blacks winning their scrum and the ball was passed to the centres. Then
there was a huge collision. The Springbok centre ‘Tjol’ Lategan tackled the Kiwi centre with
such bone crunching force that he was dazed when he staggered to his feet. The crowd went
wild and we knew the ‘Boks would give a good account of themselves. They did. Sitting on the
grass embankment at Ellis Park, eating naartjies was such great fun.
The great Australian cricket team also treated us to the thrilling sight of the two fastest bowlers
in the world, Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller. What a pair to face. Ray was arguably the greatest
fast bowler ever in Test Cricket.
Notable scandal making for yards of headlines was the death of a young lady, ‘Bubbles’
Schroeder. She had been to a party and there had been intimacy with certain well known
society lads. Her dumped body was discovered in the bushes of a dense forest of trees in Kent
Park very near the Dunkeld bus terminus. The post mortem had shown that she had choked on
sperm. Col. Ulf Boberg was the chief investigating officer and the proceedings of the
subsequent trial made sensational, lurid details daily in all the local press. All schoolboys were
intensely interested in the drama, avidly following the court evidence daily. Dictionaries were in
prolific use.
On Thursdays the overseas mail was regularly due at the CNA in Rosebank. The two most
sought after publications were “The Champion” and “The Triumph”. My favourite character was
Rockfist Rogan the RAF fighter pilot Ace and heavyweight boxing champion of the RAF. His
daredevil exploits in the air and taming of bullies was a great source of weekly, thrilling reading
matter.
I was of pure Croatian descent from the Dalmatian province born in Johannesburg. Virtually all
local Dalmatians made their own wine. They never reported it for formal, official assize. My
father used to purchase the whole day’s consignment of wine grapes on the old Newtown
market auction, if he considered them up to his high, quality standards. It would number many
hundreds of two-handled wicker bushel baskets.
As a kid I would be left to guard them while he went to phone the Dalmatians alerting them that
the wine grapes were there and they should come to collect them post haste.
The grapes would be ‘pressed’ through a wooden, roller mangle and fermented in oak barrels.
In due course the wine would mature and then carefully taste tested. If the old man felt the wine
was below par, it was relegated to be distilled as brandy (Rakija). This was very bad news for
me as I would thereafter have to spend many hours in the cold basement minding the still. The
heat applied to the still had to be just right. This was evidenced by the rate at which the brandy
dripped from the still. The correct flow was tortuously slow, about one drop every three or four
seconds. Any flow faster and the still would “burn”. If this happened, the still would be
irrevocably ruined, thereafter imparting a burnt flavour to the liquor distilled in it.
Many years later on visits to Eastern Transvaal distilling farms, I never once found a distillate
such as mampoer or any other that didn’t have a distinctly burnt flavour.
It is a Croatian custom to drink wine with every meal. The young drink it as “Bevanda”, that is,
very diluted with water. My father’s “Konoba” or sunken basement under our home always had
many dozen bottles of home-made wine.
The Portuguese boarders at St. David’s were brought up in similar fashion so they were keen to
get some wine to enliven up their smuggled snacks. I understood their sentiments and would
occasionally get a couple of bottles of wine from my dad’s “Bootleg Stock” for their special
celebrations.
One fateful Saturday when we were due to play rugby against the very tough Krugersdorp,
Monument High School, I arrived at St David’s with my kit and a couple of bootleg wine bottles
enclosed in rugby socks in the tog-bag. Brother Bartholomew stopped me from boarding the bus
and ordered me to report to Brother Edwin in the principal’s office with my kit-bag.
I knew there was serious trouble brewing. The wine was discovered, I was told there was no
rugby for me and a plethora of opprobrium was heaped upon me. My father and Brother Edwin
had a meeting on Monday and peace was restored.
Dad strongly asserted that “English Culture” was not yet appreciative of some of the finer habits
in life like good wine with good meals.
The matric dance was a highlight of the final year. In those days there were very few guys that
had girlfriends. Boy/girl relationships were fantasies. A guy would write a poem and secretly
admire a young lady from a distance. A distinctly victorian ambience prevailed, so the main
hurdle was getting a partner for the dance. If one had some tenuous connection with a source of
girls, like one’s sisters or cousins friends, one was expected to negotiate a partner for pals for
the occasion. Having a Parktown Convent connection I did my duty wherever I was able to do
so. One lass I contrived to persuade to come as a partner for one of the most popular guys
became a rag queen at Wits. My partner was a stunning beauty, the sister of a friend from
Marist Observatory. He and I still meet twice weekly.
Although I had colours for four different sports viz. rugby, athletics, boxing and tennis and was
top of the academic class for many of the years, I was never awarded the merit scroll so never
qualified for the colours blazer, neither was I made a prefect.
On the last day of school, I auctioned all my numerous sports scrolls and pinned my de-scrolled
blazer to the matric blackboard. This gesture attracted further opprobrium from the principal.
After being invited to play in the traditional old boys rugby game the following year, Stan Barale
the captain had to phone me to tell me that I was barred from playing and not welcome to attend
as spectator.
After leaving St David’s, Boris graduated with a BComm (Economics and Business Finance)
after a jaunt in mining on the copper belt of Northern Rhodesia.
Needless to say, he did not send his two sons to St. David’s. He sent them to Michaelhouse.
His daughter sent his grandson Matthew Maguire to St. David’s whence he matriculated
JLE April 2013
Classmates continued – Romeo Buffa, Gorgon Rethman, Brain Magrath, Michael and Gerald
Rogers, Errol Hulse, Achilles (Ashly) Kallos, Tommy Williams, Pat Spencer, Phillipe and Jacque
du Buisson, Setty Risi, Louis da Cruz, Jorge Pacheo, Dion Herbet, Bobby Perino, Jackie Att,
Brian Kennedy, Forrester, Patrick Sater, Owen Simms, Fettis, Hugh Gearing , Bruce
Eshner,(Gymnast), Theo SYtsema, Clive Seff, Guido and Sandro Boroni, Socrates Vartsos,
Francois May. Clive Leon, 2 Kippen cousins, Howard Neyans (yank), Muller brothers, Mark
Madeyski, Paul Vieara, Peter Cazalet, Wilson.
Comment [BB1]: Addition of the
“bootlegging episode
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Mike von Guilleaume 1995
Interview with Mike von Guilleaume – 1995
Mike followed in his father’s footsteps beginning his career at St David’s in grade 0 and his
brother Terence was also a pupil finishing in 1990. Mike’s father matriculated in 1954. Mike’s
father’s parents moved to South Africa from Germany and his father matriculated in 1954. As
his mother was a staunch catholic Mike was enrolled as a pupil at St David’s, however when he
reached high school his father took him to Hilton as he wanted to anglicise him. On the second
day he ran away spending two nights in the forest and eventually phoned his parents and
refused to divulge his whereabouts until they promised him he could go back to St David’s.
Mike’s mother was in charge of the catering at the school until 2001. Mike’s father was heavily
involved with MOBS which meant that Mike spent a great deal of time at St David’s socialising
with Marist boys such as Doug Wickins, Alec Quail, Darko Vidas and Vito Rugani.
Mike first teacher was Mrs Kerstofen and his class is where the after care is now. Mike recalls
that the soccer clinics in the primary school were legendary with Willy Castle in charge showing
an 8mm movie at the end of the festivals. Mike remembered playing soccer in Germiston, where
the boys lost badly as they were all too busy watching the planes flying overhead. Willy
organised a soccer tour for the standard 5’s travelling to Belgium and Mike’s brother was lucky
enough to be part of the team.
George the tractor driver used to give the boys lifts and Mr Freilich gave them super C’s when
they went to his office. The boys all watched Mrs Carlisle, their grade 1 teacher on TV when she
crossed the finishing line completing the Comrades marathon. In grade 2 Mrs Schaafsma had
a punishment mat and administered hidings with her wooden ruler. Mike also remembered
teachers such as Glenda Anderson; Debby Hurley; Mrs Orford who gave recorder lessons, Bev
Geldenhuys and Mrs Morkel, standard 5.
Mike’s first holy communion was held in the old hall followed by a meal. He remembers going to
the Bunny Park, to the Good Shepherd camp at Hartbeespoort. There were Malawian twins who
attended the school Lester and Bester, sadly their mother died after stepping on a garden rake
and the wound became septic.
In standard 7 Mike together with Michael Ward and Richard Pin went on a cricket tour to
Zimbabwe organised by Father Brewer and Cedric Finlayson. They played against Plumtree,
Falcon House, and CBC Bulawayo drawing 4 of the matches which were played against teams
consisting of some members of the Zimbabwe rugby team. The boys took cricket gear with them
for the boys there and some of the boys suffered from food poisoning after eating the dormitory
food.
In high school, one of the boys, David Salmon put his scissors in a plug socket in the science
lab and caused a mighty bang but fortunately didn’t kill himself.
At the beginning of standard 9, in abstentia, Mike was voted in as chairman of the MDC - matric
dance committee. Mike played in various age group teams and was at one time captain of the
rugby and cricket teams.
Mike was involved in a number of high school pranks and from standard 8, whilst his mother ran
the tuck shop, Mike managed to sell beers from her catering stock. Mike participated in the
rugby tour to Australia in 1995 and as head boy was part of the disciplinary committee together
with the tour captain and staff. Mike and the tour captain were caught breaking curfew and were
hauled in front of the disciplinary committee and then told to design their own punishment. They
decided not to have any more social rights for the remainder of the tour and offered to sign in
the other boys relieving Graeme McMillan, Greg Lambe and Andrew Brownlee the coaching
staff. Their proposal was accepted and Father Brewer checked up on them for the first two
nights but over the remaining 14 nights they went out after curfew without getting caught. He
remembers how naive they were walking into gay bars and strip clubs. The black guys got most
of the attention from the girls being so rare. One of the boys, Merryman was particularly naughty
and nearly missed the flight back home.
Matric was challenging as Mike was in a position of authority but he was fortunate in having
Paul Edey as headmaster, He was a great leader, not at all autocratic and worked together with
the boys. There were 44 boys in the matric class that year. The school had a strong rugby team
losing one game out of 26 so it was easy to generate a good spirit amongst the boys and it
wasn’t difficult to get the school to get things done. Mike had a good relationship with the
teachers, helping with sports practices thereby taking some pressure off the teaching staff.
The staff Mike remembers are Richard Girdwood who taught matric English but never once
spoke about the set work as the boys were very adept at encouraging him to stray off the
subject. He taught them about life and used a sawn off hockey stick “Jemma” to discipline them.
Gary Norton used to make the boys do push ups. Cedric Finlayson was the sports coach with a
temper. There were the ground staffs at the time Julius, Enoch and Victor. Mike Midgley swotted
him with a cricket bat for being cheeky.
Mike enjoyed school, had fun and got involved with school plays doing the sets. He and Jeremy
Wickens had been together since grade 1 and he remembered that Jeremy was awarded a
Marist provincial blazer. Anthony Bayne came to St David’s from Jan Cilliers and found it to be
quite a culture shock. It must also have been quite an adjustment for Sidney Ngwenya who was
the Lubner’s maid’s son. Together with the co-workers Mike went on a trip to Slough and was
also involve with the SMILE programme.
Mike achieved a very average matric as his focus was on getting the most out of life but he
enjoyed History with Simon Fry. After leaving St David’s, Mike went to Pamona College in
Claremont, California. Pamona was a liberal arts college built on the Oxford/Cambridge model,
it was small and very academic. He studied PPE - politics, philosophy and economics majoring
in economics and lived in the States for 4 years. He then worked in management consulting and
is now in the media industry working for Random House/Struik.
Mike joined MOBS in 2004 and is always grateful that he received an old boy’s bursary in 1978.
Mike is still in touch with many of his class mates even though many of them no longer live in
South Africa.
Warren Mandy – warren.mandey@bytes.co.uk
Anthony Bayne – Anthony_bayne@ml.com
John Tilley – jonjontilley@yahoo.com
Korabo Denalane – 084 777 5122
Brad Latilla Campbell is Mike’s nephew, his sister Celeste’s son. Callum Latilla-Campbell is now
at St Albans. Jack Latilla-Campbell, is in Gr 0
Warren Yoko is also a nephew
Greg Lambe taught at St David’s
Antoinette Lambe, Mike’s sister also taught at St David’s and sons Tristan is in Gr 00 and
Keegan now in Gr 3
Mike’s brother Terence is living in the States with 2 sons and also has another sister living there
with 2 daughters and 1 son.
JLE May 2012
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Jerome Kourie 1977
Interview with Jerome Kourie – 1977
Jerome attended St David’s at the time it was going through a bad patch. Br Anthony was the
headmaster until 1975 when Br Timothy took over. The boarding which was the backbone of the
school was closed at the end of 1972 which had a great impact on the ethos, camaraderie and
not least the sport. After Br Timothy left in 1981 there followed a series of headmasters until
Paul Edey took up the post in 1995.
Jerome began his school career in grade 2, having moved from St Paul’s, Maryvale. He was
part of the new intake of the first grade 1’s and 2’s. Prior to this the school had started with
standard 1. The head of the primary school was Mrs Kempster, and Mrs Marsay taught grade 1.
He remembers Mrs Kenezovitch- standard 5 who was legendary and a great teacher.
At the time the bottom field was basic veldt and Aggie Simaan did all the landscaping of the
school including the new rugby fields and cricket pitch. The main oval was opened in 1970.He
lived in Chislehurston, a small suburb adjoining the north east border of the school and used to
walk across those fields and see her driving the blue tractor down to where the Inandas are
now. There were no fences around the school and everything was completely open. He recalls
that he and a group of boys who lived nearby used to play on the fields after school and made a
clubhouse in a cave in the ground where it had eroded. Some of the boys were Nigel Harding,
James Duthey, Colin Tomaselli – Chislehurston was originally a farm owned by the Tomaselli
family and was eventually sub-divided around 1973.
Standard 2 and 3 were taught in the “House Block” which was the magnificent old Herbert Baker
building overlooking the main cricket oval. The classrooms were huge with wonderful pressed
ceilings, wooden floors and fireplaces which were lit in winter. Across from the house block
where the current grades block is situated were the stables with Br Ronald in charge of horse
riding at the school.
On his first day at school he remembers his good friend Raymond John as their fathers were
good friends. Many of the parents were running around with 8mm cameras recording the big
day, a major event with the opening of the new grades. Where the fountain still stands is where
the grades block was originally located.
In standard 5, 1972, the Science block was built and many parents had raised funds for the
stained glass windows. The Science labs were the best in the country and were the pride and
joy of Br Bosco (Mario). Br Bosco was an absolute genius and had a strong but healthy rivalry
with the Science teacher at Observatory who also had a new laboratory.
Champagne Day was a big event in the school diary and all the boys went in buses to the
Cathedral, he remembers the hymn “Great Man of God” and all the school singing with zeal and
fervour. During the late seventies the school celebrated Champagne Day at the Rosebank
Catholic Church and the boys were given donuts and a cool drink.
The first SA school to allow black pupils was Rosebank Convent followed by St David’s a year
or two later.
The Christian life group (CLG) was formed by Br Mario who organised trips for the boys
involved. They went into Soweto in 1972/3 to a school which was quite an eye-opener and
which was quite daunting for young children who had been brainwashed into believing that
Soweto was a hostile environment. They raised funds for the school and later in 1975 or 76, Br
Mario said he would get a guest speaker for the boys. A black minister came to the school and
addressed them, he spoke about the plight of blacks and talked about things that the boys were
quite unaware of and what was actually going on in the townships. He remembers vividly him
saying that South Africans were living in a pressure cooker and when the lid burst there would
be mayhem, tragedy and bloodshed in SA. He pleaded and prayed with the boys to help change
the course of history. Many parents were very unhappy about this and felt it scared their sons.
The black minister was Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Any sporting event against Observatory was a derby day and taken quite seriously. The rugby
team in 1972 was the best the school ever had, coached by Nassey Simaan. George Nichas
who was a brilliant player unfortunately missed an easy penalty in the dying minutes of the
game that year and the school lost to KES by 2 points but won every other game. Nassey
started coaching abd moved up with the same group of players until they were in matric (1972).
Nassey was an unbelievable asset to the school’s rugby programme and brought in Cas De
Bruin who was an international referee teaching at Fakkelle Hoerskool. The opening practise
game for every rugby season for many years was the one against Fakkelle Hoerskool. Nassey
was absolutely passionate about the rugby and ran along the touch line during team matches
often running faster than the wings in spite of being a heavy smoker. He instituted a star grading
system after each match and then put the grading up on the school notice board every Monday
rating each player with stars and comments.
There was fierce rivalry between Marist Inanda and Observatory and often there would be
between 2 and 4 000 people watching the 1st team rugby game between the two schools. At
one match Inanda ran onto the field in their black and gold colours and Obs in red, a hearse
was driven onto the pitch and the back door opened to reveal a coffin in which was a dummy
dressed in the Inanda colours. On another occasion at a swimming gala Obs again had a
dummy dressed in an Inanda swimming costume hanging by a noose around its neck from the
diving board. In spite of this it was a healthy rivalry and many of the boys were friends outside of
school. There was also rivalry between the Marist Brothers of both schools.
Jerome played 1st team rugby in standard 9 and 10, was the tennis captain and played 1st team
tennis from standard 6 until matric. In athletics he threw the discus and shot put. He was a
member of 1st cricket team, became a prefect and awarded his honours blazer.
Photograph not transfered.
The photograph above shows all the Kourie brothers wearing their honours blazers on the day
that their youngest brother (Dr Jeffrey Kourie) was awarded his honours blazer. L – R
Lawrence, Joel, Jerome, Jeffrey, Leslie Kourie
There were a lot of big families present at the school – Marsay, Kenezsovitch, Deeb,
Schoombie, Saad, Simaan - a percentage of the fees was reduced with every child and the 5th
brother paid no fees. There were many Italian, Greek, Lebanese and Portuguese boys at the
school mainly because of the boarding facility.
When Jerome’s son Daniel went to grade 00 there were 3 or 4 boys in the class whose fathers
had been pupils in the same class nearly 20 years earlier at St David’s at the
same time Anthony Rowlingson, Sabatino Mienucchi and Jerome Kourie -
Both Jerome’s sons studied at St David’s until matric attaining their honours blazers and 7
distinctions each in matric. Jonathan graduated from Wits as a Medical Doctor in 2011 and
Daniel is in his 3rd year Accounting Science.
Jerome doesn’t remember much about his last day other than it was a bit of an anticlimax. His
class got up to some mischief, some boys got fire hoses and flooded some classrooms and
some even painted statues which didn’t go down too well at all.
Academically Jerome was awarded his studies scroll and on leaving school studied 1 year of
dentistry, changed to finance and studied towards a BCom at Wits University. This was followed
by 2 years military service leaving as a captain and then he went into Acacia Finance where he
has been employed for 30 years.
Jerome still feels very passionate about the school. He has a good relationship with St David’s
sister school St Teresa’s and has been on the board since it’s inception. He is a trustee of
Catholic Education Trust. He isn’t currently a member of MOBS but receives the newsletter. He
regularly visits the school to watch the 1st rugby team matches. He receives the school
magazine and always reads through it keeping in touch with the community.
JE February 2012
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Mark Forssman 1979
Interview with Mark Forssman – 1979
Mark was the first of the Forssman family to attend St David’s followed by his brother Bobby –
1980; Andrew – 1983 and cousins Billy -1987 (head boy); Jason – 1989 (deputy head boy);
Dale - (deputy head boy); Jordan -1996 – (head boy); Mark’s sons Tim – 2004 and Chris –
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Jason Goodall 1985
Jason began his career at St David’s in grade 1, 1974; he had spent grade 0 at St Teresa’s as
there was then no grade 0 at St David’s. There was a break when in standard 6 his family went
to the UK for 9 months but he returned to St David’s until he matriculated in 1985.
Jason remembered his grade 1 teacher Mrs Busschau, being very proud of his uniform and
standing in front of the fountain where his parents took photos. The first boy he met was Gary
De Necker who followed him in. He recalls Mr Castle who was a hard task master and ensured
the boys got very involved in sport.
Jason wasn’t very competitive but was in the U11 cricket team which got to the final of some
tournament playing against schools such as Pridwin and KES. In standard 5 he was in the
Commonwealth team which beat St Stithians where Jason took a memorable 8 wickets. Some
boys were also selected for the area cricket team.
Jason was also involved in swimming, tennis, athletics and soccer. His tennis doubles partner
was a boy named Lipschitz who ranked in the top 4 in the country, needless to say they did well
together. The school was small and the boys were encouraged to take part in all sports. Jason
recalled going on a number of tours and one in standard 5 was very exciting in that that they
flew to Durban when they played against St Henry’s. In high school in standard 8 he was
selected to play for Transvaal and has a photo in the school yearbook. Sport was a big thing
and the camaraderie that was born of it. In standard 9 he was selected to play for the 1st team
rugby but sadly only played 2 – 3 games as he was concussed and out of the game for the next
4 – 5 weeks.
The teachers that stand out in the prep school were Mrs Kempster, Schaafsma, Anderson,
Kenesovitch and Mrs Napier who had a heart attack at the school. In the high school there was
Trudy Elliott, the English teacher who produced the school play – “Julius Caesar”; Tom
Macfaden who taught History, was a fantastic man and typical school master.
Jason was involved with the school plays and the Marist co-workers and was instrumental in its
early formation being the first chairman. The boys went out to poorer schools and communities
and took blankets, clothing and food that they had collected. Jason was also on the junior city
council in 1984.
Boy’s schools were mainly judged by their performance on the rugby field but St David’s had a
good balance between rugby and cultural activities, everyone did everything because it was
such a small school.
He recalled some usual boys’ nonsense when someone climbed into the roof above the ceiling
of the biology laboratory during a lesson and played God, Brother Plesters was teaching at the
time.
Academically Jason did well and was always in the top 3 throughout prep and high school and
was awarded academic colours with an 80% average. He received a tie and scroll, was
awarded full colours for cricket, rugby and merit and elected vice head boy.
On his last day, he remembers everyone signing each other’s shirts, water and a pool being
involved and an end of school party. He wasn’t sad because he knew he would see his school
mates again.
After matriculating, Jason was fortunate enough to get a bursary from Barlow Rand and went to
Wits University where he studied for a BCom and BCom Accounting, eventually becoming a CA
doing his articles with Deloitte and Touche. On qualifying he was then employed by the Barlow
Rand Group at IBM, becoming the youngest manager and then moved on to Dimension Data in
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Heather Joseph 1975 - 2019
Interview with Heather Joseph – Staff - 1975 to 2019
Heather began her teaching career at St David’s in 1975 at the tender age of 19. Brother
Timothy who took over from Br Anthony as headmaster was a close family friend and offered
her a teaching post.
One of Heather’s fondest early memories is that of the staff celebrating her 21st with champagne
during break in the staff room and she remembers going back to the classroom to teach slightly
tipsy!
When she joined St David’s, the school was very small, the boarding had closed, the junior
school had its own staffroom and they were provided with a lunch in what is now the committee
room, formerly the Brothers dining room. There was unity between the junior and high schools
and Heather taught in both, through the grades up until standard 8. At one time she taught the
Art class from the junior school through to matric in the high school with talented pupils such as
Christian Zimelke and Gregor Schafer.
Heather remembers George Manolios fondly. He was junior school headmaster having taken
over when Mrs Kempster retired in 1974. He was a wonderful head, very kind, supportive, who
encouraged his staff and was well liked. Mr Murphy took over the headmastership of both
schools in 1982 and, once he was exposed as a wrestler was replaced by Mr Frielich, then
Darryl Boswell and in 1989 Paul Davies was appointed headmaster of the high school and Greg
Royce headmaster of the prep school.
In 1989 Heather moved to Durban and upon her return in 1993 she rejoined the staff and is still
teaching Art in the prep school. In the interim Annika Carter had been appointed as the Art
teacher in the high school and Heather carried on class teaching and with great determination
and motivation built up the Art programme in the prep school. She organises an annual art
exhibition for the prep school boys and produces some amazing work. Without her artistic skills
some of the sets for the prep school plays and musical events would not be so inspired.
Heather has always been actively involved in the school and was a class teacher for grades 3,
4, 5 and 6 and for standards 8 and 9 and Art for standard 10. At times she was very involved
with soccer and did a course in the game and in refereeing. She scored for cricket, ran the
school swimming galas and did the announcing, she also organised the compilation and
publication of the school magazine for ten years and organised the matric dances. She went on
several soccer tours and remembers the tour to Durban staying at the Maharani with Willy
Castle, Carol Ansell and Terry O’Mahony. Then another tour to East London travelling by train
and she recalled that Glenda Anderson always went along too.
Some sad occasions were when Father Plestus, Monsignor and chaplain died and when
George Manolius left.
Staff she remembers are Br Aidan the bursar who was very kind, Ann Carpenter, Audrey
Williams the secretary, Nancy Buckley-Jones the matron who had a doberman called Lola, Mary
Ryan the matron who followed her, Pru Johnson a secretary whose son Simon became head
boy and Gail McEwan.
When the Brothers ran the school it was unbelievable, the ethos of humility and simplicity was
strong, the staff very supportive and they respected one another. Heather also liked Paul Edey
and felt that he brought a new dynamic to the school.
Heather has taught so many boys and remembers many but some standout such as the
Dedecker boys, Lucykx boys, Stephan Andradie, Siphiso Ngwenya – the first black Head Boy,
Greg and Jason Zenopolis and Christian Zimelka.
Outside of school and her outreach activities there, Heather is involved with animal welfare, the
SPCA and the Irwin Dog Rescue Centre.
JE 2012
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Brother Sean Quinn 1963 -1968
Interview with Br Sean Quinn – 1963 – 1968
Br Sean first came to St David’s in 1963 and initially taught a primary school class. He thinks that Patrick
Quarmby was in that class, also Ivan Bensimon and Ian Skinner who is now married to Patrick’s sister.
Other names were R Adair, Clive Schoombie, N Jarvis, T Tribe.
Through his involvement with sport coaching many other names came to mind: Terry Rosenberg; Terry
Lavery; Errol MaCauley; Lee McGregor; G. Simaan. The latter’s father Mr Nassey Simaan helped with
coaching rugby and Sean learnt a lot from him and became a fanatic of rugby. He also said that Br Jude
taught him a lot in Maritzburg too. It was a game Sean never played in Ireland where G
gaelic football and hurling were the sports. He took cricket teams and umpired, and took students out on
Saturdays and Sundays with the “Cycling Club”. He never managed to lose anybody, thank God, but when
he thinks of it now, it frightens him. They used to go a long way sometimes and once through the city to the
southern suburbs and beyond, unknown territory.
Sean thought that we would know that some of the names mentioned went on to play at a high level ; Terry
Lavery represented the Springboks and Sean met him briefly at White City athletics stadium in London. Lee
McGregor was a Springbok swimmer whose parents were good people who helped Sean in his transition to
“civvy life’.
Remembering the brothers was easier for Sean in many ways – Br Anthony, Br Aidan, Br Lewis, Br Neil, Br
Andrew.
Br Neil was the nephew of the Br Provincial, family name McGurk. He and Sean once cycled to Pretoria
and back, very tired and thirsty at the end as one could imagine.
Br Ignatius, Br Aidan Burns and Br Sean once walked to Post Shepstone from Hibberdene along the
railway line. They got a few rand from the bursar to buy some food and drinks which they lost on their way
to Port Shepstone. They went back down to the beach and retraced their steps to the shop and eventually
found the money on the ground next to the door. Lucky! They then hitched a lift back to Hibberdene and
two men in the car took them right up to the door. Lucky again!
Br Sean liked distance running, having run up World’ s View in Maritzburg many times but Br Ignatius (aka
Paddy Collins) took it to another level later running the Comrades many times and he is still running full
and half marathons in Ireland now about 74 – 75 years old!
Br Sean stopped playing rugby at 40 and took up running – he completed 2 marathons and numerous half
marathons, but not in the same league as Br Iggy! It might say something about their lives with the Marist
brothers, but what it says, he is not exactly sure.
Another person that Sean remembers with great affection was a Zulu man. Piet, a big man who was in
charge of the kitchen, he was always cheerful and tried to teach Sean a little of the Zulu language and
talked proudly of Dingaan, Cetswayo and Shaka. Sean looked him up many years later on Google. When
Sean went to the kitchen for coffee, Piet would always address him as nKhosaan and Sean regrets not
talking to him more.
One funny incident Sean recalled was when they tried to hear a world title fight from America on the radio.
They tried to get it by rigging up the aerial on the tennis court net at some ridiculous hour in the morning
and by the time they got the broadcast the fight was finished. He couldn’t quite remember who was fighting,
maybe Joe Louis or Floyd Patterson. There were, of course no replays in those days!
On a more personal level, Sean taught Geography in the secondary school from 1964. He can remember
threatening his students that he would cane them if they failed. He now thinks that was a stupid thing to do
but he had seen this in Ireland as par for the course. He had to cane about 4 or 5 students and was sick of
himself by the time he had done two. One student, Gabriel Simaan cried and was still crying when they
went to Ellis Park for an inter-school tennis match. Sean thought that Gabriel liked him as a teacher and
was friendly with Gabriel’s family and was disgusted with himself and his stupidity. He never used the cane
again in all his teaching life of over 30 years. They were a very good family and Sean still has regrets.
Sean finished his degree whilst working on a mine in Rhodesia and later did his HED again at UNISA. He
went down to Johannesburg to do some teaching practice for exam purposes and did it at St David’s in
familiar surroundings and all that went with it.
Sean has some fond memories and some questions he would like answers too, but the past is the past and
he thinks it is not good to dwell on it too much.
After Sean’s wife died in 1996, he was at a loss and very disorientated. He quit his teaching job in a Jesuit
school in the north of England where he had taught English and Geography to “A” level for 10 years. He
went to Southern Ethiopia with the VSO for 2 years to work as a teacher trainer. He then had work at the
University in Newcastle upon Tyne after which he took off with a backpack to SE Asia, Australia and New
Zealand - a bit old for it at 60 but he didn’t care. Sean loved Thailand, the people, the weather and food so
went back and stayed. Sean had a TESOL diploma and an MA in Linguistics from Leeds, studying whilst
working. He developed an interest in the English language but all he did was work doing seminars for
teachers helping them with their methodology and English.
Sean’s son (who was born in Rhodesia) and 3 grandchildren live in Melbourne, Australia and Sean visits
them fairly regularly.
Sean currently lives in Thailand and has done so for the past 11 years, about 350kms NE of Bangkok in a
very rural area with a good wife who looks after him very well. He did some voluntary work teaching for 3
years but then had enough and now reads, works on his wife’s small farm, cycles a bit and relaxes.
I gave Sean Gabriel Simaan’s email address and he got in touch with him. Gabriel had no recollection of
the incident and said he was caned on several occasions but it certainly didn’t do him any harm. (JLE)
JLE November 2013
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Byron King 2007
Interview with Byron King – 2007
Byron came to St David’s mid-year 1998, grade 3. Byron’s family had relocated from Cape
Town, where he had attended a small government school, to Johannesburg. Debbi Zambon
was his teacher and he recalls that it quite an intense and overwhelming experience for him.
The sport was much more competitive, the buildings formidable and it was very cold.
Johannesburg was very different and he didn’t have as much freedom as he had in the
Cape. His mother Cheryl started working at the school and therefore, Byron spent most of
his time at the school.
Willy Castle ruled the prep with an iron fist, but Byron used to see him at school and
afterwards in a social capacity together with his parents. Byron’s passion was his guitar and
was encouraged and influenced greatly by Rick Wilson the prep school headmaster. He
participated in sport with swimming, soccer, and athletics but he never featured in any top
teams.
Byron though that Ron Thackwell, Mandy Everson and Craig Sinclair were excellent
teachers with Craig having an incredible general knowledge which he imparted to the boys.
Roger McIver was his grade 7 English teacher and although he loved English, he fought him
all the time but now they are the best of friends and Roger is one of his mentors. The prep
boys love to hear the story of how Mr King and Mr McIver didn’t get on. Byron remembers
well the grade 7 lunches with food from Steers when Rick Wilson made a speech and
mentioned every boy in grade 7.
Byron felt more integrated in the high school but wasn’t a member of the main groups. He
became friendly with Dino Zuccolo who was very driven, worked extremely hard and in spite
of that always came second. Boys grew up quickly in high school. In grade 7 you tend to
think you are invincible until the grade 8 camp with guys you had never seen or met before
and of course new teachers. The older boys seemed enormous and the entire grade 8’s
were scared of them. Initiation was fierce and the matrics were vicious with the grade 8’s in
Byron’s year, but the boys respected them. They had a great 1st team rugby and when they
mentored the boys one on one gave them guidance..
By grade 9 the boys became a bit cockier with hormones, girls, cell phones and the
accompaniments of the teenage youth. His class was a close knit group and became more
so after the death from cancer of Justin Bessler which brought them together again after
leaving school.
Byron took sport more seriously in high school and did well in swimming, water polo, and A
and B team rugby. He lived for sport and no longer played his guitar until he reached first
year at varsity. Byron was captain of the B swimming team and captain for one or two rugby
games.
Special events, Byron recalled the New Zealand and Australian rugby tour in his matric year.
The team consisted of 25 boys including 5 from grade 11. Boys on tour generally become
very close and this tour was no exception. His fondest memory is of the 1st team rugby
beating St Stithians at home in 2007. The stands were packed Byron was on the bench the
atmosphere was electric. From a social point of view there was quite a bit of tension as
many of the St David’s boys were friendly with St Stithian’s girls. He also recalled the time in
grade 8 and 9 when St David’s beat KES.
Byron was line-up monitor, but didn’t receive a leadership scroll. Rod Smith told him it was
his sloppy dress and behavioural issues that let him down. Mr Smith was his favourite
teacher teaching English but also covered Life Skills. He always came late by 10 or 15
minutes to start a lesson, although he was very strict on discipline. He was housemaster of
Osmond house which always did well, the theory being that he selected the boys for his
house whilst they were at the grade 8 camp.
Byron also studied Art and found Anneke Carter to be a great teacher and made the subject
so interesting. Once, the boys went with her to the Carlton Centre to draw the Johannesburg
skyline. She allowed the boys some freedom for 40 minutes and many of them wandered off
with the result that they arrived back at school late and missed several other lessons. In his
matric Byron achieved a distinction in Art with several other boys, he didn’t struggle with the
history of Art and spent many Saturday afternoons doing pracs in the Art room.
Walter Thompson was the boys’ rugby coach from grade 8 to grade 10 and taught Maths.
The boys really enjoyed him, he treated them well but they understood the line they
shouldn’t cross. He treated the boys like adults on the rugby tour and they rewarded him with
the U16 rugby team winning all their matches. Then for some reason things changed and the
boys became demotivated and lost the drive to win.
Marius Buys was an interesting teacher coaching rugby and teaching Afrikaans and
Geography.
Byron was awarded scrolls for U16A rugby, U14A rugby. He did help out with the SMILE
programme once but unfortunately didn’t have time to participate more than that. He
performed in house plays in grade 11, auditioned for the school play but wasn’t selected.
Byron respected the ethos of St David’s and realised it was a privilege to have received a
Marist education with its focus on modesty, humility and simplicity.
After Matric, Byron took a gap year and together with Cameron McLullich went to St
Augustine’s a Marist school in Cairns, Australia near the Great Barrier Reef. The school
uniform was different but the ethos was very similar. A top boy’s school it was run by Marist
brothers in their 40’s upwards, living on the premises. The head brother Michael was aged
about 55 and Byron enjoyed the Brothers innovative and modern approach to Marist
education, It influenced his eventual decision to become a teacher. He visited 3 Marist
schools whilst in Australia – St Josephine’s in Sydney, Marist Ashgrove in Brisbane. All, the
schools offered boarding and were absolutely phenomenal. Two Australian Brothers are
starting a Marist organisation and members will be recognised as an official Marist educator.
On his return to South Africa, Byron went to Stellenbosch to study for a BComm but
absolutely hated it and decided to return to Johannesburg and study to become a teacher.
He started working and studying through Unisa simultaneously and regards himself as
extremely fortunate to have Rick Wilson as his guide and mentor. Teaching is very different
now with the use of Ipads, laptops and smart boards etc.
Byron is currently an intern at St David’s and believes he is fortunate to have guidance from
Rick Wilson and other prep school teachers.
JLE August 2013
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Paul Gerard 1992
Interview with Paul Gerrard – 1992
Paul remembered his first day as he arrived a bit late two weeks into the first term of grade 1.
He sat next to Jaffrey Tsaksani and Ryan Lamberts, his teacher was Mrs Scaafsma who used
her ruler quite liberally on the boys hands.
As it was compulsory Paul played rugby and cricket and made all the matches unless he was
show jumping which took up a lot of his time. Due to his commitment to horse riding he didn’t
make the 1st teams. He enjoyed the team sports and felt that it really helps in understanding
people and it is good to work together. The camaraderie was great but not all the boys were
accepted and Paul felt that the boys who played hockey rather than rugby missed out. The
camps were amazing and the camaraderie and hierarchy of who sat where on the bus trips.
Paul participated in cross country usually coming 2nd or 3rd but didn’t put in too much effort and
was often caned for missing a run. He was strong in the distance events in athletics, 800m and
the high jump. Through his horse riding Paul became stronger as a person and very fit.
Paul didn’t enjoy being caned but believed that it was necessary. He recalled Mr Girdwood,
English teacher who got very angry about something and smacked him very hard at the back of
his head – at the recent reunion the boys remembered that incident well.
Of his teachers he remembered Lesley Henning an excellent Maths teacher who converted him
from average to being good in the subject. Finlayson was the cricket and rugby coach and Grant
Webster, Biology, had a bat called “Justice” which he wielded once if you admitted not doing
your homework and twice if you lied. There was a small, cheeky, Muslim boy called Mohammed
Ahmed who Webster grabbed by the ankles and held over the railings on the top floor.
He recalled being kicked out of a matric prize giving held at the pool. Together with some other
boys and girls that were around he was messing about creating a noise, a teacher came and
found them and told them to leave.
In the prep most of his best friends were black but in high school groups formed, and the black
pupils usually had their own group. The fact that the school was non-racial changed Paul’s
attitude. His uncle, Francis Gerrard and aunt were activists and in the late 70’s visited Mandela
in prison and Mbeki in exile. Paul’s friends who went to government schools had an entirely
different, prejudiced attitude to blacks. Paul was one of a group of boys who visited Alex
township taking food and clothing collected at St David’s.
Boys he remembers, the naughty crowd, are Garth Ramsay, a cattle farmer in the Midlands who
was a rebel rouser, Bobby French, Andreas Zanella, Jason Harmsen, Justin van Linden, Jason
Hallett’90 and Peter Batisch. From 1993 there were Andrew Harris, Andrew Botha and
Lawrence Azar.
There were initiation rituals where the younger boys had to blow up condoms and other silly
things, nothing too serious but good for one’s development. Paul, together with 3 other boys
opted out of becoming a prefect by walking out of a meeting.
At the recent reunion it was noticeable how many of the “cool guys” attended coming from the
UK and Cape Town but a number currently living in Johannesburg did not make the effort.
After matriculating, Paul studied through Unisa and Midrand Campus for a BComm Honours
which he completed in 5 years. In his final year of honours he was working as a property broker
letting industrial space south of Johannesburg. However interest rates climbed to 20 – 25% and
he lost out on a major deal which prompted his decision to go overseas .He had spent some
time coaching cricket at St David’s and played cricket after leaving school. He spent some time
mainly in the UK, France and the US as a professional ski bum and cricket coach and worked
for a season in the UK as a cricketer .The time away gave him a new perspective on life. He
had many jobs one as a security guard for various shows and events, ending up together with
his wife in the computer industry in the UK. Then in 2003 Flanagan & Gerrard asked him to join
them in South Africa. The company is involved in commercial property development specialising
in shopping centres. They organise christmas carols every year supporting various schools in
Rustenburg, children’s and old age homes.
Paul’s eldest son attends Redhill School as St David’s would not accommodate Adrian in grade
0.
Paul’s father Peter donated a cricket scholarship to the school in 2008.
JLE January 2013
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Jeetesh Kathawaroo 1992
Interview with Jeetesh Kathawaroo – 1992
Jeetesh first came to St David’s in standard 1, 1983. He and his sister were pupils at Parktown
Convent, Jeetesh being in grade 1 and 2 before writing an entrance exam and being accepted
at St David’s. The family were living in Lenasia and had to get up early at 5.30am and travel to
their schools via Fordsburg where their parents ran a restaurant. Jeetesh was aware that his
parents sacrificed a lot for him and his sister to receive a private school education.
Mrs Orford was his first teacher and he made friends with Rowan Brewer and Mark Egan who
was originally from the UK and whose father was a teacher at the school
Jeetesh really enjoyed his time at St David’s meeting different kinds of people from all levels of
society, both black and white. He was also exposed to many things such as leadership and
development programmes, youth groups, other schools and was on the Sandton junior council
which he wouldn’t have experienced elsewhere. There were also the extra murals and more
opportunities in sport and academics and the teaching was better. However one rather took it
for granted whilst one was involved in it.
During his time in the high school there were a number of headmasters, Brother Anthony for a
short while then, Mr Freilich, Boswell and Paul Davies. Other teachers were a Brother who
taught Technical Drawing and who wore a white cassock with a western province T shirt
underneath. Br Julian who would, unsolicited, interrupt a class and talk about random things,
much to the annoyance of the other teachers. Mr Oliver, Maths was a great teacher if you were
good at the subject, Mrs Hughes, English, Mr Girdwood, English whom he enjoyed and who
helped him with his public speaking. He also remembers Mrs Marais with fondness. Mrs
Madison the librarian, he spent a lot of time in the library as he often had to stay late waiting to
be collected. He remembers her always saying put the books “on the table not the trolley”.
Jeetesh was not very good at sport and was a reluctant participant. He played hockey, cricket
and took part in athletics where he was reasonably good. He hated swimming and still does to
this day.
Academically he did well receiving various awards, an honours blazer, academic and oratory
scrolls. He enjoyed public speaking and was involved in national competitions and today speaks
professionally at conventions and conferences. He remembers making speeches for Mrs
Bowles and Mrs Anderson, he was good at it and enjoyed it. In standard 2 he had to make a
speech about his favourite TV programme and talked about Spider Man. He learnt that it was
better to speak about things you knew and were comfortable with. Jeetesh also was in a
number of school plays and Benedict house plays.
There were 37 pupils in his matric year and 250 in the high school.
After matriculating, Jeetesh went to Wits University and studied for a BComm Hons and is
currently doing his masters. He was first employed by Absolute Consulting Group, a small
company and is now working on his own as an independent management consultant. Having
worked for large organizations he prefers working on his own.
The first reunion held in November 2012 was great and he met up with Andrew Rose (UK) and
Kieran Roane (UK) who together with Mark Egan he often meets up with in the UK when he is
there. He is still in touch with Thabo Hermanus who he sees when he is in Cape Town. Jeetesh
is in contact with a number of boys through MOBS.
As to any sons he may have, Jeetesh would like them to have a private school education but
preferably at a school which didn’t have a strong religious influence. Being a Hindu he
sometimes was forced to participate whilst at St David’s which depended very much on who
was teaching Religious Education at the time.
Jeetesh chooses a different charity each year and either donates or contributes in some way
and does this in his private capacity.
Jeetesh would be very interested in participating in the 2016 celebrations.
JLE February 2013
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Gianni Mariano 2006 - 2020 Parent and Member of Board of Foundation
Interview with Gianni Mariano – Parent - Foundation 2006 to date
Although Gianni was not a pupil at St David’s, he is a Marist old boy having attended Marist Brothers
Observatory Prep School before going on to Highlands North Boys High School. He loved the Marist
school but due to a question of economics and his parents’ wishes he joined Highlands North where after a
successful and rewarding school career, he matriculated in 1978.
Gianni has two sons who are St David’s pupils; Gianpaolo who matriculated in 2009 was house captain of
The Bishops, prefect and recipient of the Osmond trophy for academics, leadership and sport. His younger
son Francesco has just been elected head boy for 2014. His daughter attended St Theresa’s where she
was head girl, and is currently doing her internship at the Johannesburg General Hospital.
Gianni’s connections with the Marist education and ethos are very strong and he yearned for a Marist
education for his sons.
Gianni has been a member of the board of the St David’s Foundation’s since its inception in 2006, was
chairman of the development fund then the board of St Theresa’s for about 10 years. He also lectures at
Vega and is a trustee of the Mercy Sisters of South Africa.
Gianni acknowledged the changes St David’s has undergone over the years, in its physical structure and
various other aspects but believes the core essence of the school has remained and become possibly even
stronger. The Marceliin ethos is still relevant, real, and effective and of great value to many people even
though the school is no longer managed by the Brothers. His children have learnt about life in a very
relevant way and he feels that it has been a privilege for both himself and his children.
Gianni has found his involvement and the work he has done for the Foundation to be very rewarding and
fulfilling.
After his son matriculates in 2014, Gianni intends to continue with his involvement in the School’s activities.
Gianni started his successful business – Mastrantonio, the restaurant and franchise business in 1966.
JLE December 2013
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Dave Clark 1980
Interview with Dave Clark – 1980
Dave first came to St David’s in 1968 and then left in standard 2 for Montrose and then, aged eleven to go
to Treverton, a boarding school in Natal. He returned to St David’s in 1978 as his parents did not like the
idea of him boarding at what was to become a co-educational school.
He remembers Mrs Schaafsma and her strict discipline and use of a ruler. Otherwise the teachers were all
ok and no-one in particular stands out. He passed his matric but considered himself average academically.
On his return to St David’s, Dave had no problem settling in again and met up with the boys he knew from
grade 1. He used to see them when he came home on holiday so it was pretty easy to integrate again and
he is still friends with them forty years later. Brent Alcock, Grant Catthrall, Michael Nicholas and Wayne
Alcock, Alfonso De Chaud, Deon Joubert who now owns the Mugg and Bean in Durbanville and Fotis
Rionos, now living in Greece. Facebook also helps in keeping the friendships going.
Dave enjoyed school, loved the sport and was a member of 1st team rugby, 1st team cricket in standard 9
and matric.
Dave recalled an occasion when he nearly got expelled when Br Timothy kept him, Brent, Grant and
Michael in after school for not tying their ties correctly. Dave and Brent walked as their choice was to write
out the log book or leave, Brent and Dave chose the latter. Dave and Brent drove across the cricket pitch
on Dave’s motorbike with Br Timothy chasing them. They came back to school the next day and didn’t get
expelled. The four of them still have a very close relationship and are as close as they were in grade 1,
even on a business level supporting each other where they can.
After matriculating, Dave worked for Standard Bank for six months and then completed two years army
service still being paid by the bank. He continued to work for the bank for another two years and then joined
Xerox for two years. Then he and his brother went to London and returned to South Africa in 1981. After
various jobs in the copier industry, he joined Minolta in April 1991. Dave transferred to Cape Town in
August 1994 and returned to Johannesburg in May 2011 to take up the position as MD of Oce Sa, also a
Bidvest company.
On returning to Johannesburg , Dave and family visited St David’s to take up the Guy Fawkes night
together with Mike and Grant. He also came to St David’s for the 2013 old boys reunion weekend to watch
the rugby. Dave also sponsored one of the T20 team last year.
Dave is married with two children, a daughter of fifteen and a son, twelve who attend Maragon private
school in Ruimsig.
Dave’s company together with Konica Minolta is involved in assisting with the Rhino campaign, food
parcels for various charities as well as their copying needs.
JLE November 2013
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Darryl Boswell 1980 - 1988 Staff
Historical collection
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Tim Johnson 2003
Interview with Tim Johnson – 2003
Tim first came to St David’s from Buccleuch primary in grade 3. His sister was going to high school and the
timing was right for him to change. Tim thinks that St David’s was the only school that he and his parents
looked at. It was difficult at first as all the boys were a tightly knit group and had all started together
however he got to know Michael Thomas and he is currently still his closest friend and they have tendered
for the MOBS home together.
Tim was not really into sports but enjoyed the extra-curricular sport which helped him break the ice with the
other boys. He eventually dropped cricket and concentrated on swimming and played some soccer in the
winter. From grade 5 his swimming became full-time and he got to know Willy Castle well. The prep
swimming team was very successful and unbeaten in grades 5, 6,and 7. In grade7, Tim together with Kyle
Biller went to Germany with the Wanderers swimming club and swam in an international gala. It was a
great experience and they joined in some serious training sessions.
In the high school Tim also played rugby and thoroughly enjoyed it being a member of both A and B teams.
His main sport was still swimming which he took very seriously training both at school and after school and
made both Provincial and Senior National teams. He also was a member of the water polo team, qualified
for the Provincial team and was captain of the 1st team in matric. Sadly he missed out on the rugby tour to
Argentina having given up rugby for swimming.
Tim continued his water polo at Wits University and went to Australia representing Wits University at the
university games. He plays for MOBS and participated in the fund raiser in memory of Justin Bessler.
Of the teachers In the prep Willy Castle was an iconic figure and Tim believed that he helped push him
beyond his boundaries in terms of sport. Tim has remained close to Rick Wilson and found him to be a
genuine, sincere person. Mandy Everson was a particularly good teacher. In the high school, Rod Smith
was a real character; Debbi Cameron cared so much about the boys; Lizanne Nagy held her ground even
though the boys gave her such a hard time and Dave Smith was also a character with a good persona.
Father Brewer held Mass in the old chapel and Tim remembers kneeling on the hard wooden benches and
also that Father Brewer had a scottish terrier and Mr Van Der Merwe a border collie. Paul Edey stands out
as headmaster and as a very good History teacher. Tim thought it was his most interesting subject because
of Paul’s energy and enthusiasm. Tim left St David’s in grade 10 as he wanted to be independent; he went
to Kingswood in Grahamstown but didn’t last long. There were problems at the school but Paul accepted
him back unconditionally. After that experience Tim thought he was number one as headmaster and he
also had great respect for Malcolm Williams.
Academically Tim felt that he could have applied himself a bit more but his real passion and time was
dedicated to sport. However he was in the top class most of the time in high school with Art becoming his
favourite subject and loved the practical aspect of the subject. He was interested in and enjoyed Maths,
Annabel Cotton made Physics exciting and Dave Smith was always entertaining in Geography.
Tim became a prefect and was awarded an honours blazer, specific honours swimming and water polo and
general honours for sport, leadership and merit. He also received many awards for sport and at the annual
prize giving in 2003 was awarded the Reeves Trophy for senior swimmer of the year and the Clark Atwell
Trophy for water polo player of the year.
Special events that Tim remembers are when Marcellin Champagnat was canonised in 1999 and a huge
joint mass was held with all the other schools. His matric dance wasn’t that memorable but the fireworks
evening was, from the beginning on the most favourite evenings when the school took on a different
persona. Champagnat day was always good fun and he remembers the “tug of war” in the prep. Ash
Wednesday was also memorable and although Tim wasn’t Catholic he was exposed to religion and the
Catholic ways and tradition and found it interesting although it was never imposed upon him. Reverend
Bruce was also significant and Tim always enjoyed his lessons which always had a story or strong
message.
The mixed swimming and inter-house night galas were always great fun especially with the girls around.
Tim enjoyed the inter-house plays and always played a minor role. Inter- house events were always fun.
After matriculating, Tim went to Wits University to study BA Architecture and won the People’s Award in his
2nd year for design of a Transvaal home using steel. At the end of the third year they had to do a Gap year
and Tim spent the 1st year in Johannesburg and then went onto London for a further year. He then studied
further for another 2 years doing his BA Hons and then Masters - MArch.Prof. and his thesis focused on
Joubert Park and the Johannesburg Art Gallery.
Tim’s current employer taught him at Wits and offered him a job at her practice, Sarah Calburn Architects.
He deals in mainly residential tailor made houses for specific clients. He has also started his own company
Greenspace Studio and his aim is to be involved in medium scale social and commercial buildings.
Tim is a member of MOBS and has participated in the matric rite of passage.
JLE December 2013
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Richard Hartdegen 1961
Interview with Richard Hartdegen – 1961
Richard came to St David’s as a boarder in standard 2 in the July. He had previously attended a
boarding school in Natal, Kings College, Nottingham Road in a group of only 32 children. His
mother had died in the early 50’s and his father worked for the Chamber of Mines in
Johannesburg. His sister visited St David’s coming to mass and met Brother Edwin and after
that it was decided that Richard should be a boarder there..
Of his teachers he remembers Mrs Batten, a tough Afrikaans teacher who took no nonsense
and much to the boys amusement lived on the property at Tara. Mrs Kempster taught him in
standard 4. She was well known for her pupils getting the most prizes each year. From standard
6 the brothers such as Bonaventurte and Timothy taught the boys. One of the brothers was
obsessed with wasting water and used to time the length of time the boys were in the shower.
Richard recalled that absolutely everyone had to play rugby unless they were unfit to play. The
school began to play open rugby with the matrics but couldn’t beat Observatory. In 1958, the
best rugby team of that time nearly beat Jeppe at a home game 9-8 but it was in 1959 that the
St David’s rugby team were the first to beat Observatory at Obs 8-6. In 1960 the team lost again
but redeemed themselves once more in 1961. Darko Vidas “The Bull” was a member of the
rugby team and once on a rainy day during a session of weight lifting in the dining room, strolled
in and coolly lifted some weights with total ease just to show how it should be done.
Richard didn’t play cricket or swim but he did take part in athletics. There were twins, the
McGurks one of whom was a good bowler and the other a good batsman which used to
thoroughly confuse the opposing teams. There was great competition to assist with the cricket
scoring at the Bric scoreboard on the weekends as the boys would then be invited to the lunch
which was always rather good. The food generally wasn’t too bad.
Richard recalled that, in standard 7 or 8 all the boarders crowded into the swimming pool area.
One of the boys upended a load of phosphorous into the pool from the diving board. There was
the most amazing bang and everyone scarpered. On another occasion a few boys were playing
with magnesium in the Science lab, there was a loud bang which was heard by Br Anthony who
was at the pool. He took off in a rush to see if anyone was injured and was not impressed.
Money was disappearing from the tuck shop and the culprit was eventually caught when, during
his return climb over the roof, down a drainpipe and into the tuckshop, he slipped and fell putting
his leg through a glass window.
Every morning all the Catholic boys went to mass and the non-Catholic’s went to study. Priests
came from Rosebank, one of whom was quick with the mass and the other slow which meant
that the boys used to miss out on the morning coffee and rusks.
Richard was head of the debating society. In standard 9 all the Marist schools wrote the same
exams country wide. Richard came 3rd in Maths and 3rd overall. Many of the St David’s boys
received medals and Richard still has his.
Richard thought it was an excellent idea that Brother Anthony took the view that if the boys were
doing well in their matric year they did not have to attend classes in the subjects in which they
excelled but could rather work alone in the study room. They still had to write the weekly and
termly exams and the teachers also had to agree to this. One of these boys, Hawkins was very
good at Maths, became a statistician and eventually was appointed to a professorship in the
US.
Dudley Mandy was the head boy, Emil Iglauer the deputy. In his matric year Dudley announced
that he wanted to become a priest and halfway through the year was sent to Pietermaritzburg,
however after he matriculated he changed his mind and eventually went to work for Gary Player
at his stables.
Richard did well in his matric year was a prefect, was awarded an honours blazer the Brother
Edwin Bursary and achieved 4 distinctions in the JMB Matric..
Richard studied at Wits University and is now a dermatologist and Mohs surgeon specialising in
of the treatment skin cancer. He has two sons who went to Redhill and Bryanston as he and his
wife decided that a co-ed education would be more suitable for their sons as they didn’t have a
daughter.
Richard keeps in touch with Dennis Adams but does not have any contact with any other of his
contemporaries. Richard would be very interested in the 75th anniversary in 2016.
JLE February 2013
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Reg Titcombe 1954
Interview with Reg Titcombe – 1954
Reg came to St David’s in 1952 as a boarder. He attended Marist Brothers from grade 1 through to matric.
Firstly to Koch Street for 8 years until standard 6, then Observatory for a year.
He recalls being very impressed with his new school and enjoyed being a boarder as it was safe, he made
a lot of friends in pleasant surroundings with regulated study periods although he did miss home cooking,
the friends he grew up with and the freedom to do as he pleased.
He thought the teachers were great and he made some good friends. All the brothers who taught him were
very good teachers and he remembers them all, just not their names! The names he did recall in no special
order were Vidal, Phillip, Aquinas, Benedict, Ephrem, Bartholomew, Celestine and Edwin. Phillip a New
Zealander was a great influence in his life. He was inspirational teaching him how to organise his notes and
how to study. Celestine taught him Latin, which in turn taught him how to analyze problems. Br Ephrem
taught him Physics and Chemistry with great passion. These were the men who equipped him for the two
career paths he followed in his working years......Chemistry and Business.
About 10 days before the end of his matric year, Reg gave four of his classmates crew cuts for half-acrown
each. He needed the money, and they needed to look good the school dance was just around the
corner. Br Edwin walked into class, took one look at the four standouts, and screamed, “who did this?”. Reg
immediately put up his hand thinking he wanted to compliment him. He didn’t, he grabbed him by the scruff
of his neck, yanked him outside and thrashed him so many times, Reg eventually lost count. He also gated
Reg for the remainder of the school year. The incident was neither funny or amusing at the time, for Reg
anyway, but over the next few days, when everyone in the school was talking about it, he was able to see
the amusing side of the incident and he did not really want to go to the school dance and hockey pick up..
Reag played cricket, rugby, tennis, soccer and hockey. He was not particularly good at rugby or cricket but
did play U15A rugby and 2nd team cricket. He was very good at hockey and played for Natal University, but
hockey in 1954 was not a team sport at St David’s.
The only four boys he has seen since leaving St David’s were Jake de Lancey, David Reeves, Jimmy
Walker and John Livingstone. He has had n news of his other classmates but he did know that Ronnie
Columbic was a mercenary in the Congo, and was killed there in 1955. Jacques Kerwyn de Meeandre
committed suicide in the Belgian Congo in 1955, and he had heard but could not confirm, that Billy Hapker
fell off a tram and was killed in Brussels in 1955. John Livingstone who he saw in 1974 before he departed
for New York passed away a couple of years ago.
Thanks to the dedicated and unselfish brothers he was able to obtain, with ease, a BSc in Chemistry and
Geology and a BSC (Hons) in Chemistry from Natal University in Durban; and, after being transferred from
Cape Town to New York by Caltex in 1974, he went on to obtain an MBA from the University of Connecticut
in Stamford. Reg had an interesting and successful working life, thanks in large measure to the teachings
of three gifted brothers to whom he will always be grateful. He retired in 1999, and spent the last 5 years of
his working career based in Mexico City as vice president of business development, Fina Mexicana, S.A de
C.V. a subsidiary of Dallas, Texas based Petrofina Oil & Chemical Company, now Total Petrochemicals in
Houston, Texas. He and his wife Lynn now live at Lakewood Ranch just east of Sarasota, Florida.
Reg’s eldest son Michael was only 5 years old when he was transferred to New York in 1974 and his
youngest son Matthew was born in Stamford, Connecticut in 1978.
His two sons Michael and Matthew are attorneys in San Diego, California. Michael is a retired Commander
in the US Navy. He did four tours of duty to the Gulf. He and his wife Lisa had a little girl Rachel in 2000.
Mattehw is still a batchelor.
The last time he visited St David’s, was in 1985 or thereabouts, on a business\pleasure trip to South Africa.
He stopped off in Randburg for a dinner meeting with some executives from Sasol. The next day on his
way to the airport and had the cab driver drop him off at St David’s and he visited with Br Ephrem for an
hour or so. He really enjoyed seeing Br Ephrem again and the school looked very much as he had
remembered it.
JE September 2013
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Peter Gerard 1966
Interview with Peter Gerard – 1966
Peter Gerard joined Marist Inanda in 1955 and his brother Francis in 1952 The school was then
quite small and didn’t have the reputation it has today, with a mixed bag of pupils from all walks
of life.
Peter and his family lived at 58 First Avenue, Inanda on the boundary of the school, Rudd Road
was then a dirt road and was only tarred up to where the Toyota garage now stands in the late
50’s.
Peter was a rebel, a non-conformist and didn’t get along too well with Br Anthony who wanted
all the boys to conform and recalled Peter Tuffen who won a Maths olympiad and was a
favourite of Br Anthony. However Br Andrew tolerated his lack of conformity and also that of
Roger Phillimore and Olof Winkler.
He remembers teachers such as the young Heather Joseph who was a favourite with the boys
with her beehive hairdo. Mrs Brick who taught there in the 40’s and 50’s; Mrs Scaafsma used
her ruler to rap knuckles; Br Andrew used cuts with the cane to discipline the boys, during a
Science lesson something blew up into Br Mario’s face. There was one incident where a brother
was teaching and turned to write on the board and one of the boys threw a dart at his back,
needless to say they were all caned. An older pupil, Roy Hutton was a phenomenal swimmer
but rather conceited and became the target for some of the boys with pellet guns. Once again
they were severely reprimanded. The discipline was hard but the boys coped with it and were
generally outspoken and not intimidated when they did not agree with the brothers.
In matric 20 boys, including Peter were arrested and landed up in jail due to a
misunderstanding. They had been walking from the Kelvin Grove Hotel in Rosebank where a
bust up had occurred. The police thought they had been involved and arrested them.
Fortunately one of the boys Jannie Steyn, spoke Afrikaans and managed to convince the police
that they were innocent.
Peter recalled a controversy over the sale of the land where the Inandas now stand. Initially, the
owner of the farm “Three Trees” didn’t want to sell to Catholics but eventually his widow sold the
land to the school in 1963. In the late 1970’s The brothers apparently missed out on another
possible land purchase as Tony and Peter Wilson owned the land from the bottom playing fields
as far as the Inanda Club and would have been willing to sell it to the school. Possibly the
finances were a bit tight at this time.
Peter and some of the other boys planted all the grass on the fields during Br Anthony’s Maths
lessons.
Peter was expelled during his second last year because of an incident at a 1st team rugby
match. Roland Walker or Br Anthony was exhorting the boys to shout “Come on St David’s” and
Peter shouted “Come on Marist Brothers Inanda” which didn’t go down too well as did his retort
to Roland Walker. In order to be reinstated,he had to apologise to Br Edwin who was the
Brother Provincial residing at Obs, Br Anthony and the head of the PTA, Mr Roland Walker
before he was allowed back at school. Ironically Peter ended up working for him when he was
offered a job by Alastair Barclay and was introduced to a senior partner – Roland Walker! He
recalled that he achieved honours in studies, swimming, athletics and rugby and that Br
Anthony did not particularly enjoy presenting him with his honours blazer.
Peter enjoyed the sport and played 1st team rugby, 2nd team cricket, tennis in the prep together
with Jannie Steyn and Terry Rosenberg. Willy Castle was 2 – 3 years behind him.
Peter thoroughly enjoyed his years at St David’s in spite of his rebelliousness. There were 48
boys in his matric year and between 4 and 500 pupils at the school. In 2006 there was a 40 year
reunion at the Michelangelo and 35 of the old boys got together many travelling from various
countries around the world. He recalled Charlie Platt, who had always been quite large
commenting on the fact that Gilroy who was always rather slim was now rather “fat”!
After matriculating Peter went on to Wits University where he studied for a BComm for four
years and then went into the property business although initially he was hoping for a career in
merchant banking. He is now involved in shopping centre development and investment.
Peter’s son Paul attended St David’s and his wife became very involved running the tuckshop
for 10 years. Peter donated a cricket scholarship to the school in 2008.
JLE January 2013
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Peter Moni 1967
Interview with Peter Moni – 1967
Peter came to St David’s as a boarder in grade 1 having spent the year before at CBC Kimberly
where he learnt a lot although CBC didn’t have the same facilities as St David’s. Peter thought
that the boarding school structure was good for him. His brothers Adrian ’69, John’ 70 and Paul
’80 were all pupils at St David’s and Peter’s father was also a Marist old boy from Koch Street
and was head boy of Marist Observatory.
Peter remembers teachers such as Mrs Brick, Mrs Green, Mrs Janusch and Mrs Kempster.
Peter enjoyed the prep school coming from a large family and enjoyed playing soccer and swam
but didn’t play cricket. He remembers having supper in the dining room and also playing
volleyball there.
In the high school, Peter participated in athletics, swimming and rugby, playing in 45 1st team
rugby games from standard 8. Peter enjoyed the tours such as the centenary rugby tour to
Cape Town where an open air mass was held at St Joseph’s. The rugby matches against
Observatory were also a phenomenal experience and Peter also ran and swam against Obs
although Inanda was better at cricket and hockey than was Observatory. In those days Jeppe,
Parktown Boys and Observatory were the big rugby schools.
In high school he remembered the Brothers Anthony; Timothy; Andrew (Drac); Liam; Ignatius;
Augustus; Bonaventure; Edmund; Bartholemew; Sean; Vincent; Aidan and McGurk. Br Andrew
was in charge of Peter’s dormitory. Of his classmates, Joe Strevino became a good cricketer,
and he is still in touch with Gabriel Simaan, Terry Lavery, now living in Seattle, Derek
Schoombie and Peter De Kock.
After matric Peter went into the family business, Fatti’s and Moni’s dealing with industrial
relations until it was sold in 1981. He now runs his own tour operations business – Firelight
Tours and often deals with groups of American students from Furman University, South
Carolina who come to South Africa to study aids and the inter-relationships between white and
black people. He enjoys his work and the different aspects of it.
Peter’s son John matriculated from St David’s in 2009 and is currently studying for a BSc Hons
in Finance at UJ. Peter believes that the quality of education at St David’s has improved
enormously over the years.
JLE February 2013
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Craig Sagar 1973
Interview with Craig Sagar – 1973
Craig doesn’t remember his first day at St David’s but enjoyed the sport and the interaction with the
teachers. Teachers who left a lasting impression were Mrs Schaafsma and Br Andrew (Drac) and in
particular his Maths lessons.
He played rugby, cricket and participated in the hurdles event in athletics. He also got a mention for
achieving Springbok Scout level and then the Chief Scout Award.
On leaving school he studied for an degree in agriculture at the University of Pietermaritzburg and then
went on to obtain a CA(SA) and qualified in 1985. He is married with two sons who attended St Charles
College a former Marist school. He is currently a partner with Deloitte & Touche, Audit, KZN living in
Pietermaritzburg.
Craig last visited St David’s in 1975 to play tennis and is in touch with MOBS.
J.E. October 2013
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Brother Mario 1963 - 1976
Conversation with Br Mario at St Henry’s 2010
Br Bosco changed to Br Mario July 1973.
His 1st year at Inanda was in 1963. His qualifications were a BSc in Maths and Physics,
however he taught Latin in his first year at St David’s. He taught Latin in Matric and Maths in
1963 then later Science to standards 8 to 10, with Physics and Chemistry as separate subjects.
Latin was phased out in 1977.
Br Anthony finished his BA degree while headmaster. He was schooled in Ireland and he had to
get SA matric – Mario helped him with the Maths. He wrote his exam at Hibberdene and Mario
covered his Maths book in brown paper so no one could see the title of the book.
Br Mario remembers Br Michael Bailey, then the Provincial Bursar, throwing a miraculous medal
over the fence onto the land which they wanted so badly. Br Ephrem , Br Provincial at the time
only wanted to buy piece of land but the parents said that they should buy the whole piece @
R152 000,00. The M1 and the Brixton Tower were built at this time.
Incidentally there is a mistake in the Afrikaans foundation plaque.
Mrs Kempster was originally employed as a temporary teacher in 1943 for 6 months.
At the opening of McGregor Oval in 1970, the board wanted the Bishop to open the oval. Bishop
Boyle was not formally invited as no one took ownership of this item! The day dawned cloudy
with drizzle. When the Bishop finally arrived he read the blessing from a book which had
nothing to do with opening a cricket oval but once the blessing had taken place the rain stopped
and play could begin! Paul Edey found the plaque of the opening at his home Maryknoll.
Br Patrick Carrey was very into charity work and organized a big walk which was sponsored on
29/7/69 over a 20 mile course. The then mayor of Sandton started it and R7000 plus, minus was
raised. Three charities benefitted, one being Br Paul who was blind. The press was invited to
the presentation of money and arrived at school to find Paddy O’Byrne handing out notices to
the parents to object to the increase in school fees. A meeting was subsequently held in the
Sandown hall.
Political refugees hid at both St David’s and Sacred Heart during apartheid years. (Br Neil
McGurk knows more)
1966 when the silver jubilee was celebrated the crest was found to say 1940 so this had to be
changed to 1941.
Leo Theron made the stained glass windows in the auditorium. Original cost R150 per window
then increased to R250.
Conversation with Br Mario at School on Friday 14 May 2010
Terry O’Mahony playing cricket vs St Stithians, Wed pm 8 Mar 196. The Saints headmaster
arrived at St David’s at 14:45 to find St D’s batting with the score 10 runs for 0 wickets. The
head sat next to Br Anthony and remarked that St D’s were batting very slowly only to be told
that St Stithians were all out for 17 runs – Terry O’Mahony had taken 4 wickets off 4 successive
balls! Br Anthony announced the following day that the ball would be mounted and presented to
Terry later. At the end of 1974 when Br Anthony was packing up to leave, a ball was found in a
drawer, he realized that ball had never been mounted. The ball was duly mounted and given to
Mrs O’Mahony to give to Terry.
In late June 1964, there was a very heavy snowfall. Dracula (Br Andrew) and Br Mario went to
the top balcony for assembly and the boys started hurling snowballs at the two. Br Anthony told
the boys not to throw snowballs at brothers unless the brothers had started first!
Br Anthony did not like paperwork but preferred to walk around the school looking to see what
the boys were doing.
In 1962 young Irish Br Ignatius did not see eye to eye with one of the boys in standard 7.
Rumor was that the boy in question had a gun and one of the boys told Br Anthony. Br Anthony
went to the classroom walked around, put his hands into the boy’s jacket and found the gun,
then quietly took the boy out of the classroom and disarmed him.
There were 44 beds in each dorm and 4 dorms. The brothers then lived in Willem’s house.
A priest came every day to say mass for the brothers in the old chapel and once a week for
senior boarders at 6:30. School started at 8:30.The mass for silver jubilee was held outside on 6
June but it was unfortunately not a nice day.
Vatican 11 realised that the world had changed – up to then there was still a feudal culture in
the church. The church now began thinking of it as being a community..
Br Aidan was in charge of the junior boarders and taught Latin in standard 9. He then became
the bursar. Br Timothy taught Biology and RE from 1967. The first secretary to the headmaster
was appointed in 1963. There were no staff meetings Br Anthony told brothers at breakfast
what was due to happen that day. The timetable was the same every day in high school.
In the late 1960’s Beyers Naude was invited to give a lecture during a period of Lenten lectures
or talks for the boys and staff in the chapel. Beyers Naude, a member of the Broederbond made
a deep impression on Br Mario. The lectures were organized by Br Patrick Kearney who was
once detained and became a director of Koinonia.
In 1970 the 1st rugby team beat Obs and planning started for the Science wing with a R30 000,
00 grant from Anglo but the building eventually cost R188 000. Prof Fassler was the architect
and Joe Stravino was awarded the building contract with a R50 per day penalty clause and it
took much longer. In 1971 building started in 1st week of January and Br Mario planted trees in
the quad. The Science wing was opened in Aug 1972 with a Science expo. Br Anthony was very
good at delegating tasks and never wrote anything down, made appointments verbally and then
forgot about them. The auditorium was handed over before the rest of the building.
In April 1971, Br Anthony gave permission for a mixed cricket match to be played on the rugby
field at St David’s. There followed a controversy which raged on for a week with articles
appearing in many of the newspapers including Die Vaderland and issues were raised by a
white activist Kane-Berman. An article appeared in the Rand Daily Mail, the newspaper which
railed against apartheid questioning why sport could be played in the Homelands but not a
mixed team.
The boarding house closed in 1972 after a decision was taken at a brothers chapter meeting. It
was becoming too taxing to look after the boys. The brothers decided that one boarding house
should close in Johannesburg and Br Neil stated that Johannesburg did not need a boarding
school.
Br Anthony went on leave in 1974 leaving two acting heads, Br Timothy in charge of boys and
Br Mario in charge of admin. Br Mario played a trick on Br Timothy when some parents applied
to have their child admitted to the school which had no discrimination; unfortunately the child
was a girl!
1972 was the 1st year that Champagnat mass was held at Rosebank Catholic Church initiated
by Br Mario who also instituted the collection for the poor and the Champagnat mass is still
going today.
The Rand Daily Mail had a competition to raise money for bursaries for children in Soweto at
R30 per child. Br Mario set this as project for Lent and the grade that brought in most money
would visit Soweto. The matrics brought in the most money and visited the Morris Issacson High
School in Soweto. Very cleverly the boys were paired off in 2’s and 3’s to walk around and in
this way the boys could get to know each other.
Br Mario spent 2 months at Berkley University in the USA on a Science teacher’s course which
cost 10 dollars per day because he was a brother and couldn’t afford the fees.
Br Ephrem, the Brother Provincial, gave the house the name of Maryknoll and used the house
as his office. The farm was originally called Zyferfontein.
The school was known as Marist Brothers Inanda but the PTA wanted to emphasize St David’s.
Br Anthony used the words St David’s Marist College at a swimming gala in 1963. The school
magazine was the Inanda Review until 1959, then became St David’s College Inanda 1960, St
David’s Marist College Review in 1989 and the school, was renamed St David’s Marist Inanda
in 2001.
Br Mario is currently acting as a personal secretary for Br Jo and is based at Sacred Heart in
Observatory.
JLE 2010 and November 2014
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Jean-Paul Renouprez 1990
Interview with Jean-Paul Renouprez – 1990
Jean-Paul came to St David’s in 1979 in grade 1 in Mrs Scaafsma’s class. Jean-Paul recalls she was a
combination of a battle axe and enforcer of the law being very strict with a good memory. Jean-Paul’s son
started his career at St David’s in grade 1 in the very same classroom.
As Jean-Paul suffered from bad asthma, he was not that good at sport and it wasn’t a big feature in his life
at that time, He played some soccer, was thrown into the baby pool and learnt to swim. There was he
recalls, a pecking order in the cricket practices which were held where the hockey field is now. He wasn’t
very competitive but remembers participating in the prep standard 5, inter-house general knowledge quiz.
He remembered Willy Castle and playing in an U7 D soccer match under threat. Mr Manolius was the prep
school headmaster, Mr Coetzee his standard 5 teacher who had a big, booming voice, Mrs Hurley taught
Music and organised the nativity plays in which Jean-Paul took part, Heather Joseph taught Art and Mr
Bronkhorst was the sports teacher for the C and D teams who took him under his wing, positioning him as
the goalkeeper.
Jean-Paul has memories of racing down to the tuck shop near the present D & T centre to buy some food
before it sold out.
On entering the high school, Jean-Paul had overcome his problem with asthma and made the 3rd team in
rugby, C and D teams for cricket and was a member of the swimming team.
Mr Olivier was a Maths teacher who made a difference; The Computer Science teacher and class teacher,
Mr Schafer died during his matric year; Mr Webster was the sports master and class master during
standard 6 and 7 and took great delight in holding water-polo practices in the unheated swimming pool
during August. Mr Finlayson was the History teacher and coached 1st team rugby, sport and PE, he was a
former Springbok, Zimbabwean squash player was absolutely feared in the high school and no-one wanted
to be in Benedict house. Jean-Paul enjoyed Religious Instruction which led the Brothers to, at one stage
believe that he may become a Brother. He enjoyed a trip to Slough meeting Br Anthony and used to help
make soup in the kitchen at St David’s .Mr Davies was the headmaster from 1989 until his matric but Mr
Murphy stands out as Jean-Paul was involved in a fund raising drive which entailed licking envelopes and
Mr Murphy told the boys that the resin was made from Camel’s hooves.
Richard Girdwood took over from Trudy Elliot in 1989 and Jean-Paul enjoyed helping with special effects
with various productions such as Hamlet and Julius Caesar and got in a lot of practice setting up lighting
and building sets in the area now occupied by the high school library. He was also involved with some
acting roles and put together a play for Osmond house for the inter-house plays competition. He also took
part in inter-house debating which he enjoyed. Apart from that he really enjoyed the war cries and attending
1st team rugby matches. A memorable and proud moment for Jean-Paul was when his uncle, a former
rugby Springbok and leading businessman, was asked to address the school at the prize giving ceremony.
A month into his matric year, Jean-Paul, together with Denis O’Regan was appointed a prefect and was
awarded a Champagnat Medal at the annual prize giving.
On their last day one of the boys went off in his car and brought back ciders which some of the boys drank
at the back of the pool. Jean-Paul went to the matric dances in standard 11 and in his matric year.
After matriculating Jean-Paul went on to study engineering at Wits University. Working for Altech he made
detonators for the mining industry, was active on the regulatory committee at Wits and in 1999 studied fulltime
for an MBA at UCT. He then spent 4 years with Dimension Data followed by a period in the
pharmaceutical industry and joined South African Breweries in 2007. He has four different roles within
operations and logistics management and is involved with packaging at the Newlands and Rosslyn
Breweries.
Jean-Paul felt that school was a good place, a safe place to be and gave him a special grounding. He
wasn’t particularly good at anything but would repeat his school career again. He is married and has a son
currently in Grade at St David’s, is a member of MOBS and is a member of the MOBS committee.
JLE March 2014
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Chris Marsay 2003
Interview with Chris Marsay – 2003
Chris joined St David’s in 1991 going into grade 0. He remembers a party that was held the year before he
came to the school with all the cool guys lying on the nets in the playground and Chris feeling quite
desperate as he was unable to find the toilets.
He will be forever grateful to Mrs Ansell, his grade 1 teacher who picked up that he had a squint. He was
very fortunate as he had to wear glasses for two weeks and then have an operation to correct the squint.
He has some good memories of the prep school one of them being the regular April holiday soccer clinics
run by Willy Castle. The East London train trip for the soccer tour was an annual highlight travelling
together with four of his best friends from grade 0 until matric, Sean Schoombie, Glynn Allen, Robert Smith
and Jason Simaan. Everyone had to particpate in the sport in the prep school and Chris joined in with the
swimming, athletics, cricket and soccer. As he was young for his year this put quite a bit of good pressure
on him.
Chris recalls Mrs Walton, his grade 0 teacher asking him when his birthday was, he wasn’t sure but said it
was on a date last year but he didn’t know when it would be this year – a lesson well learnt that his birthday
would always be on the same day every year. The infamous Mrs Scaafsma, his grade 2 teacher who drove
an orange beetle, Mrs Hurley, grade 3 who convinced all the boys that she was a witch and lived in a cave
on Northcliff hill. Dave Hosmer who came from St Vincent’s School for the Deaf and taught them all some
sign language. Mr Mitchley, the first male influence and Mandy Everson who was one of his favourite
teachers. The boys were all very sad when Greg Royce announced at assembly that he was leaving and
going to St Peter’s. Chris remembers him saying that St David’s is not a good school, it’s a great school.
Chris was friendly with Andrew Castle and often stayed over at their home and he remembers always being
very much in awe of Andrew’s father Willy Castle.
Chris had a unique entry into the high school with his older brother Michael being a prefect in matric. The
grade 8 camp to Glenmore was very different with all the new guys and the macho guys. Chris was a
member of The Bishops, a fun house to be in.
Chris played water polo in the high school, was vice captain of the 1st team, is still playing for MOBS and is
still friends with Kyle Biller who is in teaching for all the right reasons. He was selected to play for the
Gauteng U14 team but was dropped because of new quota requirements but nevertheless it was an
experience to remember.
There was also the Argentina rugby tour in 2003 with Gareth Kolkenbeck-Ruh, which set the tone for rugby
that year. Rod Smith, Bradley Ireland and Graeme Mcmillan accompanied them together with Gary
Hodgson who co-ordinated the tour together with Clive Gladulich and got sponsorship from Microsoft.
There was a great group of parents with them and a Uruguayan exchange student Nick Rosenti. Everyone
wanted to host Nick or the two black members of the team.
Champagnat day was always a good day with cokes and donuts after mass at the pool, getting extra
pocket money for a free day from school and he was often part of the team playing soccer against the staff
or parents. He remembers the day Mandela came to St David’s in 2002 and the photo taken with him
together with the 2002 1st rugby team – very special.
Chris remembers Marius Buys with affection and recalls great school tours with him. He gave the boys lots
of responsibility and always said ”What goes on tour, stays on tour”. Marius started a Friday afternoon
activity “Power of the Pen” and all the boys who attended had to bring R10, wear a funny tie and go with
him to Sandton City and read poetry.
On a cultural level, Chris was involved in the production of “As You Like It” in conjunction with Brescia
House and directed by Mrs Wylde. Because of inclement weather, the unconventional production took
place in the hall performing from the entrance and not the stage.
Academically Chris did well and achieved 1 A, 2 B’s, 2 C’s and 1 D in matric, he was awarded general
honours and was appointed prefect. 2003 was a good year and the boys stood well together as a group.
Sport was particularly good with the Cricket team winning the Johnny Waite Trophy and the 1st team rugby
beating both Jeppe and KES at away matches.
After leaving St David’s Chris studied for a BCom at Wits for a year then moved to Varsity College, Cape
Town and completed two years sports management winning an award followed by a year at Damelin doing
a course in events management. He then applied to complete a post graduate degree in marketing
management at UCT and felt that he learnt more in that year than the preceding four years. He then
worked for Dream Lifestyles, owned by Gareth Simaan selling shares in a lodge and vacation lifestyle
products. In 2010 he joined the family business Marsay Equipment as marketing manager and hasn’t
looked back since.
Chris is a member of MOBS and of the MOBS water polo team. JLE
March 2014
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Frederick Barnard 1989
Interview with Frederick Barnard – 1989
Frederick first came to St David’s in 1985, midway into standard 5 as his mother had moved to
Johannesburg from Cape Town. The religious aspect of a Catholic school was completely new to him
coming from SACHS, a large government school. The classes were much smaller, the boys had to line up
in the prep school quadrangle, it was mid-winter and very cold.
The teachers he recalled were Trudy Elliot, acting head between Boswell and Davies, she was a strong
teacher who Frederick liked and inspired him. She retired at the end of 1988. Also in the high school there
was Brian Webster who taught Science and Biology and who was the water-polo coach; Mr Hall; and
Father Brewer was very influential, everyone appreciated him as a fantastic human being. Frederick came
to his funeral in 1999. A number of the boys’ parents lived and worked on the school premises such as
Father Brewer, Brian Webster, Mr Finlayson, Mr Castle, the headmasters and the estate manager. Having
the teachers around was a good thing.
Another big influence in Frederick’s life was FatherTom Nicolson, based in Cape Town who led him through
his first holy communion, married him and has baptised Frederick’s children.
Frederick found that he thrived in a smaller community together with boys from different backgrounds which
included black children too. It was the first time that Frederick had encountered boys from other
backgrounds and different economic environments such as Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. The country
was not very stable during the late 80’s and some of the boys had problems getting to school and Fredrick
remembered offering Sophiso Ngwenya (the first black head boy) to stay with him. It was a family
community which was strong throughout his childhood years and even later on. It was such an influential
time in a child’s life and left a lasting impression on Frederick when he was trying to figure out who he was
and what he wanted in life. Frederick is still in close contact with many of the friends he made during this
time.
In retrospect, the religious aspect of the school also influenced and affected Frederick in different ways.
Some teachers also had the ability to inspire and motivate him. Frederick’s parents were not very much
involved with the school and some of his teachers became role models, which is very important in a child’s
development.
As the numbers were low, there were only two classes in matric, everyone participated no matter how good
they were. The school was very liberal in its approach and as to what was right and wrong. During the time
of the riots the school took the stance in what was believed to be fair and not along government lines.
In those days the school did retreats and socials at the Rosebank Convent and, whilst Frederick was in
standard 5, prefects’ tea still existed. There was huge respect for the older boys and all the boys underwent
an initiation in standard 6.
There were outreach activities in the prep school, in the high school, Frederick participated in debating, the
Stock Exchange Investment Game, was vice captain of Benedict house with Wayne Muller as captain, was
a member of the 1st team water-polo. He was awarded academic colours and received an Art prize in
standard 8, Heather Joseph was his Art teacher. In standard 9, Frederick remembers that receiving his
honours blazer from Trudy Elliott in assembly was very special and being made a prefect.
Frederick helped prepare for and attended the matric dance in standard 9 and again in his matric year. It
was a highlight and was held in the school hall which was decorated by the standard 9’s.
After matriculating, Frederick went to Wits University to study for a BComm Law and Business Finance. He
was also awarded a CFA – Chartered Financial Analyst (USA) which he did by correspondence. He then
went overseas and did an internship with UBS in Zurich and London. On his return to South Africa he
started to work in finance and now has offices in Switzerland and Johannesburg with his company Avance-
Suisse which was established in 2001.
All in all Frederick felt that the time he spent at St David’s was hugely influential and if he was living here he
would send his son to the school without any hesitation. Frederick instituted the MOBS water-polo team
first playing at the Wanderers and then St David’s.
JLE November 2014
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Conor MacFadden 1991
Interview with Conor MacFadden – 1991
Conor began his career at St David’s in grade 0 in 1979.His first classroom was where the old swimming
pool used to be and Mrs Walton was his teacher. He was also taught by current teachers Willy Castle,
Carol Ansell, Heather Joseph and Belinda Marais.
The clergy still played a major role in the school at the time with Father Plestus being exceptionally kind
and caring. Father Brewer was also very special, a mentor and very close to many of the boys. He stood up
for the boys and operated in his own area within the school which meant he wasn’t always popular with the
teaching staff.
Conor was a member of The Bishops and his housemaster, who taught History was Mr Howarth.
The most significant memory he has is of the soccer tour to Belgium in 1985 with two teams, the U10’s and
U12’s. South Africa, because of apartheid was a pariah country and it was unusual to play any sport with a
foreign country. It was an amazing experience touring Belgium for 2 to 3 weeks and a very significant one
for the boys. Because of the rarity of such tours at the time, the SABC decided to do an insert on one of its
programmes Video 2. Martin Bailey was the host and came on the tour with the boys. Conor has a copy of
the broadcasted footage.
Conor also participated in cricket and rugby as well as soccer. He was the junior school cricket captain and
played rugby in high school. Other pupils such as Ivor Rugani played provincial cricket and Brad Rains
provincial rubgy in 1991. They both have sons at St David’s as does Conor. Conor also played golf at the
Wanderers. There certainly wasn’t the variety of sports that are available to the boys today and everybody
had to participate. Hockey had been introduced but was quite contentious at the time.
Conor remembers being a co-worker and was part of a group who visited Brother Anthony’s mission in
Kuruman.
The boys attended the matric dance from standard 9 and it was held in the school dining room. It was much
lower key than today with the boys decorating the venue themselves.
After matriculating, Conor studied law at Wits University and joined Bell Dewar and Hall which recently
merged with the Canadian firm of Faskin Martineau. Conor, a partner is involved with corporate and tax
law.
Conor has a son Liam at St David’s who is currently in grade 1 and is happy to see the Marist tradition
being carried through to the next generation.
Conor is a trustee of the St David’s Foundation and is a member of MOBS.
JLE September 2014
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Allan Wotherspoon 1980
Interview with Allan Wotherspoon – 1980
Allan came to St David’s in the junior school but then left and went to the UK for 4 years and on his return
went into the high school. In principle he was put into the same class as people he would have been with in
junior school such as George Daras who was his closest friend in junior school, but had a different group of
friends by senior school, so Allan joined a new group of friends at senior school. Three of those five friends
now live close enough in Australia that they keep in touch on a regular basis.
Allan lived close enough to the school to be a day boy and saw his close friends out of school on a regular
basis but still had his parents and sisters around him. As he was one of the youngest in his class he had to
play sport with guys from the year below for many years.
He recalled Mr McFadden as he enjoyed History and remembered his favourite quote of “A for away and O
for Go”.
Allan enjoyed the sport, athletics 100, 200, 400 and 800m, physical education and especially games like
gaining ground, the odd game of cricket when he scored 50 runs or took a hat trick for the 2nd 11 team, or
played a good game of rugby. In athletics one year Allan broke a couple of school records and was victor
ludorum of both track and field, ending up with quite a few trophies and his father was asked to donate one
of them. Allan also ran in inter schools competitions.
He didn’t enjoy Afrikaans as he never had a good grasp of the language and struggled to pass the exams.
He disliked the sadistic canings by the headmaster and brothers and the attempts at bullying himself and
his friends.
Some disappointments included not being able to compete in running for athletics and not getting an
athletics scroll or honours blazer. Allan also had an accident which meant that he had to write his matric
exams with the wrong hand.
In standard 9 the boys decorated the hall and he recalled the difficulty and shyness of getting a date. His
matric dance was a great night out, the hall looked good and it was fun dressing up smartly.
On his last day he recalls all of the boys signing their school shirts, sneaking back in the middle of the night
and putting toilet rolls to stream all over the place.
After matriculating, Allan went on to Wits University to study BSc Commerce and completed many courses
throughout his business career. He is currently employed as an IT manager. Allan is still in touch with Lloyd
Wilkins (who he has known for 33 years), Brian Muller and Geoff Slaven, all living in Australia and literally
bumped into Gavin McLauglin who used to live in the same housing estate as his parents and went running
with him on weekends whilst he was temporarily staying in SA.
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Anthony Chappel - Board of Governors 2001 -2007 Foundation 2006 - 2014
Interview with Anthony Chappel – Board and Foundation 2001 to date
Tony has seen two of his sons matriculate at St David’s, Daniel in 2007 and Patrick in 2009 with both sons
starting their career at St David’s in Grade 0.
Tony is Catholic and was educated at CBC in Springs and his father at CBC Boksburg and is a director of
the law firm, Norton Rose Fulbright based in Sandton.
In 2001, Tony joined the board of governors of St David’s, proposed by Eric Annegarn, vice-chairman. At
the same time Robin Smith also joined the board and Tony Reilly was chairman. Tony was on the board for
7 years and retired as chairman of the board in 2007. Tony is currently a trustee of the St David’s
Foundation.
Tony asked the board for a mandate to establish a foundation and led an investigation into this, preparing
the constitution in 2004. Paul Edey’s wife Susan put Tony in touch with Chantal Ratcliff, an experienced
and very practical fund raiser. Chantal knew how foundations worked and how to make them successful.
Her advice was that the board must be really committed, embrace the concept and understand exactly how
it should work bearing in mind that there is not a culture of giving in South Africa. Chantal was appointed in
2005 and was involved in the development of the Foundation for 4 years. There is no doubt that she played
a significant role in the success of the Foundation which was established in 2005. Tony’s vision was that
the Foundation would endow the school adding value, assisting in transforming the school and that the
Foundation would be used to mobilize MOBS (Marist Old Boys). Tony believes that you cannot have a truly
great school without its old boys being involved and supportive of it.
Thierry Dalais was the first chairman of the Foundation in 2006 and Robin Smith the current chairman
being an ex officio trustee whilst he was chairman of the board of governors.
Following his appointment as executive head in 2002, and prior to his joining Gibbs, Paul Edey had
indicated to Tony that he needed to move on and suggested that a consultant would perhaps be better
suited to the role of executive head of the school. Paul had mentioned Mike Greeff, a businessman with a
passion for education, who had run some staff workshops. Tony, then chairman of the board, followed up
on this idea and Mike was eventually appointed as the chief executive in 2006.
JLE August 2014
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Allan Schwarer 1941- 1945
Interview with Allan Schwarer – 1941 – 45
Allan and his brother Paul attended Saxonwold Primary until Marist Inanda opened in 1941 and
were pupils at the school until they were relocated to Kimberly.
Allan recalled that Br Urban was the headmaster and a Br Pius was the eldest brother and well
liked by the boys. Br Urban came from Australia and Allan’s father helped him with regard to
local regulations etc regarding building work. As far as he can remember the school started with
standard1.
Allan’s family lived next to the Killarney golf course in West Street and he remembers playing in
a lane than ran alongside their property. To get to school they caught a bus as far as Dunkeld
and from there the school provided a taxi. All the roads to the north were dirt roads and Inanda
was very much in the country.
Other boys that he remembers being in his class were Michael Clarke, Steve Muller and Carl
Vermeulen. They used to play marbles in the quad and cricket although there was no soccer.
The school’s chapel was upstairs,
Allan currently undertakes legal work for the Catholic church.
JE July 2012
Egenrieder, Julie