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