My Father's Story 1

This was compiled by myself after my father died. Like many others, our family was dysfunctional. There was a lot of bitterness surrounding my father’s behaviour.

I found scraps of diaries and letters. I interviewed some surviving friends. The document you are reading is the result of this. Most of what it contains was revelatory to even those closest to him. He was secretive and not forthcoming about his past.

I have not made this "net-friendly" as it was a document designed for the family. Nevertheless, I believe it will be of interest to those who are interested in the Great Depression and WWII. It will also be of interest to those whose parents who went through similar experiences.

Throughout the document my father speaks as "Jack" and his text is in Blue although he is referred to by many names.

The rest of the Greek Chorus are;

• • Danie (his brother, Daniel Greeff. Now deceased.)

  • Mike (his cousin, Michael Ryan. Now deceased.)

  • Bill (a friend, Bill Greenwood)

  • Retreat to victory: A Springbok's diary in North Africa : Gazala to El Alamein 1942 (a book written by James Ambrose Brown.)

  • Maatjie (his wife)

After reading this story I hope you are inspired to converse with your parents and capture it all on tape. Trying to do this after my dad’s death left so many questions unanswered.

--------------------------------------

1920

Mynderd Jacobus Greeff marries Edith Maud Greeff.

19/1/1921

Myndard Jacobus Greeff born

Also known as : Jos (rarely), Joe (by those closest to him, mostly in his youth), Jack (a later adoption, probably after his search for a Birth Certificate).

Peninsula Maternity Hospital

15/6/1922

Anne Rosario Greeff (girlie) born. (sister)

17/3/1924

Frederick Harold Greeff born. (Brother)

Jack: "Take a poor- white child of a rural area (Southfield) who spends his days playing in the fields and bushes near his home which is wood and iron...a manure floor, one room, water pump, out-door privy a little distance from the back door...and let him absorb the primitive values of that economic level while the family relationship is antagonistic (The paternal relatives calling the other "rooinekke" and the maternal side always answering "kruiskoppe"), by the time he is first attending the primitive two-room school there will certain things that stick in his memory; Often eating out at relatives. Eating condensed milk and brown bread at another Scottish person’s house. (Mr & Mrs Burnie) Getting a hiding for refusing an onion omelette prepared by his father because there was no other food in the house. The family affair reaching the point where an aunt tried to stab my mother with a pair of scissors.

My father was frequently away for long periods as he was a steward on the railway. He is fondly remembered; particularly for his ability to make bed-time "wolf and jackals", "dol-osse" and "spook" stories very real. Also, in my father’s company people were always sociable.

8/5/1925

Daniel Peter Greeff (Danie) Born. (Brother)

Jack: "I later lived in a small house at the top of Strand Street. Probably 1926.

...even later, living with my maternal grandmother in Woodstock (a warm comfortable period) with a box of acorns to make the coffee go further. An uncle from the Whaler’s (Alfred) who hand-carved me a small sailing boat and who was to poor, or rough, to go to a doctor to remove a large wart from his thumb. He tediously and carefully dug it out himself with caustic soda. No memory of my father.

I then moved to a different house in Southfield with more sharply defined periods associated with the intermittent appearances of my father against the backdrop of my relatives’ dependant economy. Being sent out to borrow money from the neighbours. Always going to an antagonistic Aunt’s shop for food for the house. Not very successfully hawking home-made sweets from neighbour to neighbour. My father chasing my mother into the street with a revolver in his hands. My father, with awkward hands, dressing us for bioscope two miles away and not greeting my mother when we met her along the road there. Us children having to take sides.

Then on to another house that I don’t associate with my father but where my mother is the breadwinner. Which was obvious to us children.

Still on to another house where my father reappears with suitcases of clothes and stacks of copper coins. He was now a waiter in Cape Town.

Once again to another house not associated with my father. Repeatedly having to get food on the "never-never" from my Aunt’s shop."

Danie: "These sweets that he was selling were tamaletjie. I was too young at that time to register what was going on. We were living together as a family but my father was often absent because of being a steward on the railway. Once a week, or so, he would come home. I can only remember seeing him once coming down to the house in Southfield.

My mother was working. There was no income from my father. She had employed a coloured woman, Nelly, to look after us youngsters. Nelly was my, and Freddie’s, foster mother.

We went from house to house because my mother changed jobs and wanted to live nearer to where she was working. From Southfield we moved to Plumstead. We used to go to Southfield school. Always barefoot, summer or winter, and if you wore clothing it was khaki shorts and shirt. We used to run home from school to see who could be at home first. In winter we ran through the vleis and the rivulets which were in Southfield in those days.

From there we moved to Landsdown, just below Belvedere road. Our mother got a job at the corner of Belvedere and Landsdown road with a grocer.

Then we went to another school, Claremont Primary. We had to have black shoes, grey socks, white shirt and white cap. That was a hell of a drag on finances, my mother couldn't keep it up.

Joe was taking the brunt of the trouble whenever my father did pitch up. It generally ended in a squabble. If it went far enough it ended in violence between our parents. Joe was a pawn, thrown in-between, from one to the other. One couldn’t escape these squabbles in the small places we lived in. In those days our father earned practically nothing. He was away for a week, back for a day, then he’d go out again on the mainline to the Free State, Transvaal and Natal."

1932

His father leaves his mother

19/9/1933

Future Wife, Maatjie Katharina Kotze De Beer, born in Kuibis, South West Africa.

Jack : "The family then breaks up and the children and my mother live with her sister, Tottie, in Picketburg. "

Danie: "At that stage (1934) Tottie and her husband in Picketburg volunteered to take us as a family. He had an old Studebaker and he carted all of us up there. All the furniture we had was sold. They had six children; plus the four of us was ten. There was a couple from their first marriage making it twelve. It was one big job to feed and clothe and do the rest for everyone on this small farm. There were labourers and he had to provide food for them. It never really worked out.

He couldn't cope financially. My mother made arrangements with my father's people down in Southfield to take the children. So we were brought back in the little Studebaker. Girlie and Freddie were brought down first to my relatives in Southfield.

Freddie was ten, going on for eleven. I was going on for ten. Joe was fourteen in 1935. Joe and myself were left at the farm because the car couldn't take all of us at once. About two weeks later, Joe and myself were brought down.

I remember that it was after dark when the car rolled in and dropped us at my grandmother’s place. A wooden and iron shack, corrugated iron walls and roof. A pump outside for water. A bucket privy twenty yards down on the left. No electricity. The rest of our family had gathered there to receive us and then my uncle went his way. I remember I sobbed my heart out because the new environment was strange, the people were strange, I didn't know these relatives.

I’d just said good-bye to a situation that we four children loved because we were together, on a farm and were free. We had been to school there for six months, the last six months of 1934."

1935-1939

Four years at SA Liberal Insurance Company as Office Boy.

Jack: "In 1935 we came back to Town and I start work while living with my father’s relatives to which all of my wages are given; the £ 4 a month I get as an Office Boy. Yet we live so poor that the slices of beetroot are placed side by side to cover the bare areas of the plate and two cousins develop Tuberculosis and die. My father and mother now actively try to stop me from living with the other. Consequently, after about two years living mainly with my father I end up living wholly with my mother in the slum for about two years. This was the coarsest and the most sensitive part of me and the beginning of a twisting away from myself. "

Danie: "There was no place in Southfield for all four of us. Joe was then taken by my father who was living in the gardens in Cape Town, in a room with some other people. That's where Joe speaks of saying that he took a job as an office boy, living with my father.

By this time our father had finished being a steward, his problem was alcohol. Then he worked at the Hotel Assembly as a waiter. A waiter in those days was even worse off than a chap on the railway, because a chap on the railways got free medical aid and a pension fund. Joe didn’t have a stable existence. He was working in Cape Town as an office boy. He didn't have an outlet. He was there with a lot of adults.

All my school years I received free books. In those years if you received free books, you had to make a special application for them. There was a stigma attached to it, you were a poor white. I didn't know it at the time but my Aunt was applying every year for free books.

I was unaware that I was on free books until, one day in Std 8, the History teacher who was a big Nat asked me something in class and I wasn't able to answer him. He passed a snide remark about the government wasting its money on children who don't appreciate it. Only then did it hit me. Of all the children in that class I was the only one with free books.

I was then sent to Lansdowne and they started dishing out books. By the Friday I hadn't got a single book and I had to share with a chap in the desk with me and take notes because I didn't have any textbooks. The thing that really irked me was that I had full knowledge of the fact that I was a poor white. So when Monday came I told my Aunt I wasn't going back to school.

Joe had been through a far worse period of having to accept charity from others. He had to ask for charity, for food for the household when he was a young chap. Year after year, having to rely on others for food and clothes. This is why he would react so strongly, so abnormally, when he felt he was given something that he didn't really earn or want."

1936

Danie: "There were times when the three children in Southfield were allowed to go to Woodstock, to be with my mother. She had taken a job as a housekeeper at the convent in Woodstock. She’d be waiting there. I remember this solitary figure in a blue overall on a deserted Woodstock station on a Saturday afternoon. We’d walk up the Main Road together. She would give us tea and cookies in the kitchen, which was very quiet and dark because everything on the weekend was non-functional at the convent. We'd spend a few hours with her. It was no existence as a family.

Then Girlie passed her Std 6 at Southfield and left. By that time my mother had taken a room in Cape Town, working as a counter assistant in a shop on Cape Town and Girlie went to stay with her. Then Girlie got a job as a shop assistant with my mother.

Freddie lived with my grandmother because my grandfather had died long before that and she was alone. I lived with my aunt. Joe lived in Cape Town with my father in Gordon Street."

1938

Danie: "I remember going into town once, when I was 13, to where Girlie was and Joe came down and said, "Well, let's go to the bioscope." In those days you had café bioscopes spread all over Cape Town. So Saturday afternoon, we queued at the Ritz and see the program. Afterwards he said, "Let's go to the Apollo, it's near the station, I'll pay for you. ". He was feeling very magnanimous. He had his wages in one pocket and a big packet of cigarettes in the other pocket. At one time Joe was smoking a lot. To me and Freddie, coming from Southfield, which was way out in the country, this was quite an experience.

Joe tried Tech, but it didn't work. So he just kept company with other guys and there was no real direction in his life. Then he turned nineteen and he was old enough to join the army, he signed on."

Jack: "I start a correspondence course equivalent to Junior Certificate. I fade out about the time I lose my job as an Office Boy. I start work in a garage and start going to Technical College. I lose my job and start dropping Tech. I start living a more outdoor life with new friends. We climb Table Mountain while discussing The Science of Metaphysics and Eschatology. "Can wishful thinking make a fractured bone knit and is pain real?"

I end this period living off my mother; bumming cigarettes to kill time in a completely aimless, petty existence."

About 1938

Mike: "Prior to the war, Jack’s father was a member of one of the extreme right wing organisations which had sprung up all around the world. It was the Grey Shirts if I remember rightly."

Danie: "The whole Southfield was a hot-bed of Nazis. They wore their Nazi uniforms with Swastikas and Jackboots. Our father was a bit aimless in his life. Alcohol was rampant, it was like a roaring lion."

3/9/1939

South Africa declares war on Germany.

Last night our firing brought down a Jerry. Hell! It was ghastly to watch. It was like shooting down a hawk. She was flashing past like a bat out of Hell. She faltered as High Explosives burst on her nose, wavered, glided leadenly, then came the coup de grace, a terminal velocity dive. The shrill scream of the wind past her idling prop. A sickening grinding thud followed by an earth-blasting roar as her death-dealing freight ignited. Four souls enter that glorious gate of self-sacrifice and duty to their country!!!

We have just had to take post on the guns. These Italians are a source of annoyance. They dawdle around just out of range while we sit on our haunches licking our chops and watch with wolfish eyes for the least loss in height. This would be tantamount to their death warrant. What a beastly thing this war is.

A fight is starting through someone’s inability to hold his liquor. The chairs are flying through the air. I long for a sight of Table Mountain."

He must have just started fighting as there were no "Jerries" in Italian Somaliland, only Italian planes.

14/2/1941, Italian Somaliland

South African and Gold Coast troops take the port of Kismayo. Jumbo Fortress falls on the 23^rd, Mogadishu on the 25^th.

Jack: "... just after you left Mombassa a fifth section was formed at "Likong". We worked there for a month but had to give it up. This is not surprising if you remember what the terrain was like. We then embarked to assist in the taking of Kismayo. To our disgust we arrived 12 hrs late and could hear our fellows engaging the Itys at Jumbo, which was 20 miles inland, as we entered the harbour.

After we had been there for a few days I realised that the taking of the place either spoke well of the valour of our fellows or damn bad of the Ity’s courage. Imagine Table Bay with a string of Robben Islands from Blouberg Strand to Oude Schip Point being taken by such a small force. I’m damned if I can.

Life there was much after the style of Mombassa. Replace the latter’s verdant tropical undergrowth with sand, sun, Somali’s and flies."

5th April 1940, probably between Kismayo and Mogadishu.

"....I am now in Somaliland. I am being pestered by some fool singing hymns. He must have had and attack of Religio Spirituosis.

Curse and damn these flies! There are so many that one thanks Heaven that they haven’t the brains to form a Mass Attack. They almost gave us Dysentery. There happens to be countless millions of them. To stop them carrying the food from our plates we have to gobble it up at a most indecent speed. The resultant disorders have so weakened our digestive tracts that we were easy prey to such maladies as Cramps, Dysentery, Gallstones, Pox and Housemaid’s knee. They grow to such dimensions that as I write I can see a grain of rice sticking to the whiskers of one as he flies from the remnants of his repast.

... I saw the effects of a Blitzkrieg up here. You simply can’t imagine the havoc our troops caused. The devastation was so complete that I was in doubt as to whether our fellows did the damage or a convoy of Messerschmidts.

If you saw the Section now you would be justified in thinking that 55% were down with VD. We were all attacked by a rash in the groin. The Doctors so padded us that it looks like a dinkum case of Wet Shankers.

I was having an after-dinner smoke in the Mess the other day when my senses started throbbing to the rhythmic chanting of a Sub-Division of Askari’s as they marched by in perfect unison. I was dumbfounded to realise that I had never heard the Ack-Ack sing on the march!

A jigger-flea I picked up recently came to a head today. I reported it to the Medical Orderly. He solemnly ordered me to the Medical Officers. Asking me to park my carcass he proceeded to lay forth his surgical instruments in a row. He applied a local anaesthetic by freezing the area with a solution of Chloride Fluorine. Seizing a forceps with a professional air he endeavoured to force apart the surrounding skin. Which proved too strong. Pausing a moment he took a scalpel in the other hand and proceeded to pone off the gangrenous skin.

Imagine the dismay and horror when he found he had pierced an egg sac this allowing the toxic fluid to spread to the unaffected part of my foot. He attempted to clean the mess with an Accra-fluorine Compound and started to bandage my foot. I pointed out that he had left the remnants of the sac in the wound. It was excruciatingly painful. I looked down to see a copious flow of blood welling from a gaping cavity in the ball of my toe. This Veterinary Surgeon then bandaged my foot in a smart and soldierly 26 minutes.

Realise my disgust when I saw a Wa-Inyika Native perform the same operation in 5 minutes.

Procedure : Lay patient on stomach. Wet sheath knife on palm of hand. Grasp diseased foot in a toe lock. Make two incisions. Withdraw and hold up egg-sac for inspection."

He then embarked for Egypt via Mogadishu.

30/6/1941

Danie leave’s Aunt’s home in Southfield to start work as a trainee telegraphist at SA Railways in Johannesburg.

During 1942

Freddie joins the Merchant Navy. Girlie joins the Woman’s Air Force.

January 1942

Libya (Cyrenaica) in Allied hands. The final battle at El Agheila is under way.

1/1/1942

Jack: "Dear Dad ... You will be pleased to know we spent a rather wet New Year with Gimlet’s Bean and Brandy. I had enough to make it a rather riotous affair. We made a good pyrotechnic display with very little lights. We had a rather precarious quarter of an hour dodging ricochets. A few louts were put under arrest.

Retreat to Victory: "Last night, Old Years Eve, there was an outburst of firing. It began at the stroke of midnight with a few isolated Very Lights. Then a burst of tracers went up…. In a few minutes men were firing weapons all over the brigade. Wherever you looked grinning men were sending up this incredible fireworks display. It went on until staff cars from Brigade began to turn up shouting orders to "Cease Fire!"."

Jack: "Dear Dad ... It is pretty hot here and a lack of water makes one pretty uncomfortable. I don’t doubt that you are suffering pretty much the same down there.

How many planes have you brought down? It is believed that we have destroyed about 14 Jerry and Ity planes. These raids are beginning to pall.

They dropped flares to illuminate their targets the other day. These were immediately destroyed by LMG fire. Here it is an occurrence of note if the Ity planes drop below 14000 feet."

I think our Brigade should be awarded a Standard or Colours. We kept up active defence while the Infantry was resting. At "Matrup" we brought down 29 hostile aircraft.

I have sent for a course from the Pelman Institute out of curiosity and to pass the time of day."

January 1942

"Here I sit completely browned off. Knowing now what I would have to go through, should the occasion reoccur I am not at all sure that I would sign on again. Such fools we are. This is morbidity brought on by excessive heat and it is only the beginning of summer.

This land is such that the only relief is to be found in travelling from place to place. No sooner do we become static do we start snapping at each other due to frayed nerves. This is caused by the inactivity that is only alleviated by a swim or bath. The fellows almost welcome a Stuka attack.

I would not go so far as to relish Stukas but 30 strafers could come and be damned to them. They cause almost no damage due to the terrain and are such beautiful targets. The other day 52 Macchis (G56’s) tried to attack us and 10 of them were knocked down. Several of the rest were damaged in so much as they could hardly have reached their base.

Though we have had a few cloudbursts the wet did not affect us much as it dried up in a few hours. As for that pest, the louse, we suffered neither it nor its cohorts, the ticks, jiggers, flies or migs.

I visited the infantry. About 75% were studying languages or the intricate ballistics of the lowly rifle and grenade. Are these the seasoned, uncouth, conquerors of Abyssinia, Somaliland and Libya?"

February 1942

Jack: "At the moment I’m trying to enjoy T.E. Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom but due to pernicious attacks of flies and sand fleas I am making heavy weather of it.

The German Ammo works must have some underground work going on. Their planes dropped a 2000-pound bomb 4 yards away from a railway line yet it did not even disrupt the rails. They also dropped a 2500-pound bomb near a gun section, which did not explode. It was disposed of in double-quick time by our Bomb Disposal Squad."

Retreat to Victory: "Then came the shrill scream of falling bombs…I lay on my back and tried to hold the cave roof up with my feet. The ear-splitting crash of the bombs shook the cave. Brittle rock fell around us. My eardrums practically exploded….bonk! bonk! went the Bofors and a few belated rifle shots. The bombs fell right through the company area, the nearest about thirty yards away. Another lay unexploded…slightly menacing. Sappers blew it up an hour later. "

1/4/1942

Danie transferred to Bloemfontein as a Telegraphist/Wireless Operator.

27/5/1942

Rommel Engages the Eighth Army in a tank battle across a line stretching between Bir Hachein and Gazala. He defeats them heavily.

26/5/1942

Jack: "Woken up at 3 o’clock by heavy artillery fire. The Italians bombed about 3 miles to our left. This was followed by quick dive-bombing attacks of 20 minutes that lasted until 8 o’clock. 108 planes participated and two were destroyed in the last raid. There were short dogfights in the morning but no planes were brought down. There has been no sign of our planes since then. Not feeling too good about the whole thing. I hope it will be done and finished with as quickly as possible. "

Retreat to Victory: "As I watched, the volume of fire increased, appearing to burst in the lines of the Cape Town Highlanders and even further back. An extremely heavy barrage was laid down for some time. By 3 o’clock the 2^nd Brigade’s line had been dive-bombed 3 times by successive waves of 7 Stukas. All the raids appeared to be directed at the same spot in the lines of the Cape Town Highlanders.

This evening someone said ‘That’s the 13^th raid since 3 o’clock’.

‘It’s the real thing.’ Said Charlie.

We emerged into the last light to watch 10 Stukas fly over. The Ack-Ack was heavy and accurate but they wheeled above us and made for the Cape Town Highlanders again. Poor Devils, they seem to have born the brunt of it all today."

29/5/1942

Jack: "Shelling still going on. Nothing close to us. A large number of Italian prisoners have been brought in. At first we thought they were advancing to attack. There was shelling and machine-gun fire throughout the night. The infantry are apparently having a whack at each other. Dive-bombers passed overhead twice during the afternoon bombing further up the lines. We got orders to conserve food and water and were pretty thirsty today."

Retreat to Victory: "Enemy soldiers covered the valley. They were running in all directions. Some ran towards us, others were making towards the Cape Town Highlanders. As they ran they were disappearing in clouds of high explosive smoke, the artillery pounding them. They seemed completely bewildered and without leadership. Some would appear to rally at the ridge and turn back towards us, coming into the teeth of the machine guns. From here, it looked like absolute slaughter.

…As the sun rose it was possible to see scores of vehicles with dazed Italians wandering amongst them, seemingly oblivious of shells. I have seen some miserable Italians but I have never seen such a crowd of dirty, wretched, under-sized creatures. As for the officers! They would not qualify for privates in the South African Army. No wonder the Germans despise them."

The Sabritha Division lost 400 men in the attack on the South Africans.

30/5/1942

Jack: "Shelling not so hectic. It has died down to a steady exchange. An Italian Officer surrendered, bringing along his suitcase and blankets plus the inevitable white flag. He asked us if he might bring his batman too. Mad lot!

Good news today from the air force which destroyed 400 trucks which were behind us. The tanks are also being thoroughly dealt with and are trying to get back to their lines. There was flare-up in the artillery duel this afternoon and 10 to 15 shells dropped amongst our trucks.

A Savoia-Marchetti 81B passed slowly over our lines and was hit by Ack-Ack. It contained a Colonel, a Major, a Captain and 2 Lieutenants! They thought they were over Derna and were trying to land. There was also the good news of a German General from the Tank Corps being captured.

In the late afternoon we were strafed by 7 Macchi G50’s. I saw one crash about a mile away after two direct hits by Sgt Wobbe. A JU 88 flew low along our lines with our Ack-Ack going all out. It turned and came straight for us. It then hit the ground, bounced up, and actually managed to get away."

Retreat to Victory: "We hear that there is still bitter fighting behind us and the enemy are reported on the Acroma road. It has been reported that 200 enemy vehicles have been destroyed and Rommel is withdrawing southwest.

The Italians were told by their German overlords that they must make for Grid Point 183…that is, behind us. They would meet with no resistance! It seems as if the Germans wanted to get rid of them.

A flight of 6 Macchi G50’s have just circled over us very low. Everything opened up on them. Another formation of Macchis has just strafed us. The pilot of the first machine, an audacious fellow, paid with his life.

Later a German bomber flew low over the Cape Town Highlanders’ lines where he ran into intense fire. He came down to zero feet. As he streaked over our lines he was so low that his bombs fell flat on their bellies without going off. Good luck to him! He was a daring fellow."

31/5/42

Jack: "Last night our Artillery put over a days worth of shells in half an hour. We heard that the Infantry were going to attack. There are no results yet. I’ve heard that we now have some Spitfires up here. I’m anxious to see them in action!"

14/6/1942

General Ritchie now knew that the decision to stand and fight was useless. The withdrawal order was to the Egyptian frontier.

Retreat to Victory: "Already the retreat is being called the Gazala Gallop…We found our three columns merged into one at Fig Tree Pass. We scan the skies for Stukas. ‘No room to run here’ I mutter. Two Bofors protect the Pass. The gunners are stripped to the waist. Still no Stukas. We may be lucky and get clear before they come, but the gunners are here to the end.

The Stukas came. Down, down they screamed on the packed Pass, into the path of the Bofors fire…bonk-bonk-bonk…the top Bofors is silent. Dead men loll among the spilled sandbags. We are passing trucks on fire, broken down, abandoned, and men running for cover, staring backwards and upwards.

…(16/6/1942) No sooner had the main body left the old lines at Gazala than the enemy attacked the Cape Town Highlanders’ rear party. Our line including the company areas were heavily shelled by big guns rushed forward for that purpose…the rear party escaped intact to reach the pass where they spent the night anxiously watching the flares of the approaching enemy. In the bombing of the pass, vehicles were clustered thickly around the bottleneck at the mouth of the pass and two trucks filled with artillery men plunged to destruction over the sheer cliffs."

After Gazala

Jack: "Dear Ma…you, no doubt, heard about our retirement from Gazala. We were placed in a rather precarious position guarding a pass against marauding Stukas. The evacuation of vehicles proceeded in a calm and orderly manner notwithstanding the havoc caused by long-distance shelling. About sunset there was an almost inaudible yet ominous drone that warned us that aircraft were in the vicinity. We lit cigarettes to help us through the lull before that which was to envelop us. The rest of the action was a chaos of noise and dust and the acrid tang of powder.

After the smoke had cleared our Lieutenant came over the Pass with a gash in his forehead. He not only saw to my comrades wounds before his own but he also remained on duty for three weeks before they could induce him to take a rest.

Gawd bless’is soul!"

07/12/1942

Frederick Harold Greeff dies. He was a Merchant Navy Trimmer on the "S.S.Ceramic" (1912-1942). A White Star Line vessel. It was sunk by U-515. 656 lives lost - 1 survivor

His name is on the Tower Hill Memorial. Panel 26.

"On November 23, 1942, Ceramic left Liverpool, commanded by Captain R. Elford, on what was to be her last voyage. She was carrying about 200 military personnel (mostly medical staff) and 150 civilians including children.

Sailing in a convoy initially, Ceramic departed the convoy and continued on her assigned route by herself. On the pitch dark evening of December 6, while sailing in bad weather West of the Azores, Ceramic was hit by a torpedo fired from U-515 commanded by Kapitänleutnant Werner Henke. A few minutes later, two more torpedoes hit the engine room below the water line, permanently stopping the ship. About eight lifeboats managed to get launched.

Ceramic was slow in sinking, and a few hours later the U-boat, lingering in the area, fired 2 more torpedoes at the liner breaking her in two. She disappeared within minutes. In rough seas and pouring rain, the lifeboats began capsizing and survivors were left struggling in the water.

The next day, still in rough seas, U-515 returned to the scene and surfaced near the survivors. Trying to find out where Ceramic was headed for, the U-boast crew threw a rope to one of Ceramic's crew the water, Engineer Eric Munday was taken aboard the submarine but not able (or willing) to provide much information to the German U-boat captain.

U-515 departed the area leaving Ceramic's survivors behind to die. Engineer Munday was kept on board the U-boat as a prisoner and transferred to Stalag 8B in Upper Silesia where he remained a POW until the camp was liberated at the end of the war. No one knew the story behind Ceramic's disappearance until Munday's release and he was able to tell the story." The above is from http://www.titanic-whitestarships.com/WSL_Ceramic.htm

1/10/1942

Danie transferred to Port Elizabeth.

October 1942

Battle for El Alemein. Rommel defeated by the Eighth Army.

Jack: "Dear Ma…After minor skirmishes we pulled into El Alamein where I experienced a shell barrage such as I never wish to experience again. I take my hat off to the artillery. It was a scene from hell. A pall of smoke interspersed with flashes of fire and lightning appearing as if by magic. The sibilant whining and moaning of shell splinters caressing the dugouts.

We had to contend with German artillery, tanks and infantry on three sides. What tore my heart out was when a draught lifted the smoke and I saw their artillery officers standing and shouting their commands as if at a practice shoot. After repaying them in like we withdrew under cover of darkness with incendiaries whispering past our ears wishing us ‘God Speed!’."

During 1943

Jack: "Dear Ma…I don’t know how to express myself about Freddie. Mere words seem insipid and inane. I hope it is not true. Although this war has not long to run I hope that you will prevent Danie from enlisting."

1943, Helwan

Jack: "Dear Dad.... I received a letter from Mums about Fred’s decease and I almost got into trouble because I got drunk at the hospital where I happened to be when I received the notification.

Dad, I don’t know what you are going to think but I am a complete Base Whalloper. I am attached to Echelon S.A. Base. I was boarded on Neurosis after an action at El Alamein last year. We seem to be in the backwaters of the war now that the action has gone so far East. When Tripoli fell (23/1/1943) some of the fellows didn’t hear of it until 24 hours later."

Beginning 1943,

Back to Union of South Africa

" ....What job am I going to do after this *** war?

What are my assets?

Education, Standard 6

Manners, uncouth

Incapable of dealing with the least social engagement without stammering or being gauche

General knowledge, small

Disposition, quite selfish

Previous experience: 4 years as Office Boy, a meddling of motor mechanics.

Should I follow the line of least resistance and go overseas and hobo? Perhaps I should go on the railway, as they want about 2500 men after the war. By some good luck I may grab some office position and rot there for the rest of my life. Perhaps I’ll develop into one of those birds that go around tapping railway truck wheels so that someone else can listen to the tone.

Either I get married and settle down to a very drab life scratching away for a rather humdrum existence or just let go of the whole idea of living the life of an ideal subject of the community and go anywhere and everywhere to do as I please: Learning different languages and live from hand to mouth.

This may be youthful ego but I am wise to what I am capable of. The fact is, I cannot bear to face just how small I am mentally. Rather than be born, exist and die I want to be selfish and feel what there is to feel and see what there is to see. After that I want nothing more than to bore everybody stiff with what will remain half-baked ideas.

Yet I could still be the selfless type. I can possibly go around doing good where I find the chance. Still, I know that I’ll only be good when in the limelight. Behind the scenes I’ll still be my irascible self."

2/5/1944

Address listed as Room 12, Drill Hall, DHQ, Pretoria.

4/8/1944

Corporal "Joseph Johannes Jacobus Meynderd Greef" was issued with an Invalidity Badge No.36858.

2/5/1944

Address listed as Room 12, Drill Hall, DHQ, Pretoria

11/8/1944

Released by Westlake Dispersal Depot (Army), contingent on receiving a (Medically Unfit) discharge certificate, so that he may take up employment on 19/8/1944 in the Accounts Department at the Public Works Department, Caledon Square, Cape Town.

17/8/1944

Official Termination of Service.

Received the Africa Star, the 1939-1945 Star, the Africa Service Medal and the War Medal 1939-1945.

17th August 1944

Jack: "Today I left the army and again I am the master of my fate (or is it my soul?) and that sense of knowing that I may do what I like, when I like and how I like it without let or hindrance exhilarates me almost beyond endurance. This afternoon I went into Town to get my clothes with the 15 Pounds they gave me. I told the fellow behind counter the circumstances. He was most sympathetic and helpful to the extent that the family praised me on my turnout. The colour scheme was green, grey and a touch of red here and there.

In honour of the occasion I took to smoking, as it was the only excess that one could enjoy out of company, but the once fragrant zephyrs only gave me a headache. That made me go to bioscope to gain surcease in escapism. I took Girlie and Ronnie to see "King’s Row".

We came home and I went to bed with Ronnie whilst Ma and the girls slept on the floor and the couch. This, of course, very much against my will but as Ma seemed very much taken up with this idea, what could we do?

Ronnie is not so bad as a probable brother-in-law. We got to talking about Aeronautics and he was decent enough not to choke me off when he very much wanted to go to sleep."

18^th August 1944

Jack: "I woke up at 5am and heard Ronnie go off to work. Notwithstanding my firm intentions to do otherwise, I fell promptly asleep to be woken at 7am and prepare for the first bit of work I was to do in 5 years."

"I had a row with Ma because she gave me too much to eat and wanted to give more than I was prepared to take to work. Why doesn’t she realise that I hate to have my senses dulled by any excess? I don’t understand how some people can go on living wallowing in that soporific lethargy induced by an over-full stomach. I shall be glad when I’ve stopped smoking for good. I’m well on my way to doing so. I’m bluffing the people at the office that I don’t smoke. I am forced to eschew the narcotic between the hours of 8am and 5pm. When I live on my own, as I intend to do shortly, I shall be in a better position to exercise control over my own habits that, at the moment and of necessity, are those of the people in the house; which is awfully small. One cannot escape them or their influence. For instance; I wanted to study...they put on the wireless...then they start a heated argument that drowns out the wireless...I Want to go visiting...so it rains but my £ 15 didn’t go as far as a presentable Greatcoat...I Want to read the paper...they want to dance...I want to go to the room...so I’m a boor...and so on. Now I have to see the Social Welfare and haven’t time. I have to take out Betty and Joey and haven’t money. I have to spend the weekend at Somerset West (with his father and Maggie at the De Beers Dynamite Factory) and I don’t know what I’m going to do there.

I am the master of my own fate (or is it soul? ) and so I look forward to tomorrow and forgetfulness in my work. Thank heaven for it."

2/9/1944

£ 26-2-0 paid as a Civilian Clothing Allowance by the Army.

17/9/1944

Corporal "Johannes Jacobus Meynoert Joseph" Greeff, No.14168V, Discharged from the Army as "Medically Unfit". Fought in the North and East African Campaigns.

Cash paid in lieu of 30 days leave.

1944

His mother obtains a Restitution Order against his father in the Supreme Court. ’She asked him to make a home for her and he refused.’

27/9/1944

£33-2-3 paid as the balance of Accumulated War Pay to 5 Campbell Street, Observatory, where he was living with his mother.

20th October 1944

Jack: "I hereby declare that I have abstained from the Flesh of Animals, Fish and Fowl for the space of three months and that I desire to become a member of the London Vegetarian Society and to cooperate with that body in promulgating a knowledge of the advantages of Vegetarianism."

3/11/1944

Registered with the Pelman Institute in Durban (a self-improvement course). He writes that he would like to become a Doctor more than anything else in the world but that he has a bad memory, especially when it comes to figures and abstract data, and that it is undermining his self-confidence. His address is 16 Cambridge Road, Observatory.

5/2/1945

He made an application for a copy of his Birth Certificate under the name "Johannes Jacobus Maynard Joseph Greef". He listed his Birth Date as 20/1/1921.

Danie: "There was so much doubt, I'm sure he didn't even know what his full names were. We knew him as Joe."

21/5/1945

Ended his employment as a Temporary Clerk in the Public Works Department.

23/5/1945

Address listed as Haslemere, Hatfield Street, Gardens. This was a run-down boarding house.

1/6/1945

Employed as a Temporary Clerk at Grootte Schuur Hospital.

5^th June 1945

Jack: "It is almost a year now since I forgot to continue this attempt at a diary. Looking back, I don’t think I can see any momentous change in myself. I wear the same clothes that I had from the Social welfare. I am just as "abandoned" in my habits as I was heretofore. No, I am not changed and I am only more determined than I was then to succeed in this "folly" (I think Dad would call it). Because of that I wish that I had better means to accomplish it than this wayward flesh that remains constant only in its inconsistent reactions to my, what has proved to be utterly futile, attempts to control and restrain it. But, to do what I want to do, I must be in a position to rely entirely on it’s carrying out the behest of my will. So, it will do as I say even if I have to subject it the most rigorous discipline to inculcate in it those habits of restraint and moderation I require. I will now keep a chart of my forthcoming studies but I have to face, without being unduly pessimistic, the possibility of failing in all three.

What a pity I couldn’t keep Alida but it is to her benefit as well as mine. If she could only know. What an ego!! It is now 10pm and I haven’t been able to get far with the chart, as I don’t appear to have all the required texts. This month I sit for English A, Geography and Biology. What of December? Maths-I know nothing about Maths, although it interests me. Afrikaans -...Well? I picked up all I know in the Army. What is the sixth subject? Bookkeeping? I doubt it. I feel a bit sick. I thought I was going along fine when I tried to do a bit of revision. I came across the following in Biology, my favourite subject!!...’A Capitulum is a Lacemose inflorescence in which the flowers are sessite and crowded together on a reduced pedimole.’

Everything seemed to slip loose in me for I hadn’t grasped a word of what I had read!"

6^th June 1945

Jack: "The major event today was the intimation that I was instrumental in overpaying a merchant a matter of £ 700. Luckily, he was honest and returned the cheque. I ‘phoned the Tech half an hour after that to find out about my studies. During the course of things they let me know that I couldn’t finish my Matric this year as the papers I was so assiduously reading were for Junior Certificate.

I don’t think I will very often feel as bad as I felt then. All my hopes of security and relaxation gone for good. The realisation that I had still another year of this fleeting span spent in rectifying my stupid adolescent laziness.

Then the thought struck me that I was free at last; for I had an idea some time back (perhaps the petty reaction to not living more fully and responsibly) that even if I was in doubt as to the genuineness of my interest in Medicine I would, at least, get married to a decent girl. For this I required a sure job, and a very steady one that, though she might not live luxuriously, she would not want for much through my inattentiveness to my bosses’ whims and fancies. That is what I fear; not my own capabilities, but having to interpret my superiors’ fancies. Now the possibility of even getting into the Administrative Section of the Government Services is gone for good. Now there is no reason for me to stay on in the Public Works Department anymore for I had an idea that if my Matric pass wasn’t high enough to warrant me taking up Medicine I could, at least, make a very good Accountant and a hard worker.

My vanity would not permit of my remaining mediocre, no matter what I set out to do. I am wrong. It is not my vanity, it is my ego."

8^th June 1945?

Jack: "Tonight I have to decide whether to protract my studies to June next year or to make a bid to sit December of this year. The case is not as bad as I thought because the Geometry they had given me was really for Senior Certificate. What is going to be difficult is the Algebra and Trigonometry. I don’t know whether I am able to acquire sufficient knowledge to scrape through.

I have to get used to the examination atmosphere and over the stage fright that might freeze my memory. I need mainly to get a rough idea of just what is expected of one for I notice that they won’t permit explanations of queries at the time of sitting. I wonder what Claude Cross will think when he sees the results. Suffering cats! It is unfortunate that he has only seen the motions of studying I go through. I don’t blame him for his apprehension. I found out only a few days ago the exact value of these formidable labourings I went through to impress myself. I was really learning.

I wish I had someone to talk to."

13^th June 1945

Jack: "It is evident I am an Ass. A posturing, Hollow-Headed, Damned Idiot.

To be tripped by my vanity. I have bluffed myself and am now face to face with this vapid self. The result of the exam has stripped all form of pretext from its shrinking self. How blue it looks! From the lengthy duration of its imposture (about 25 years) it has gradually stripped any semblance of self-reliance it may have had. How pitifully small it looks and it is me.

My heart is sore."

Apparently the fact that I am studying pleases him. I’ll have to study some more and to better effect than my last effort. I am going to see how far I can get to passing in December. How difficult it is going to be I fear to acknowledge. There is one good thing in this prospect of labour and that is if my work at the office should increase I can, at least, do it in confidence and not hold myself back through paralysing fear; for my heart is big. Where I am sure of the way, I enjoy pitting myself against deterrents. Don’t get me wrong, it is not that I like labour for its own sake. I revel in the sense of achievement, be it ever so small or trivial. No, wait, I am wrong. It is not achievement but the achievement of production and to know that I have done a work that will endure; if only as a moral certitude.

I thought, just now, that we must ever regret the fact that we will never know our fellow man’s thoughts and emotions in their fullest degree through the written medium. No man can, at the height of his sorrow or joy, take up a pen and explain what he experiences without killing it."

17^th June 1945

Jack: "What I opened this for was to plan my week. The hours at my disposal are 6-7am and 5-10pm with a half-hour for a meal. That makes 6 ½ hours. It is inevitable that I will fritter away the half-hour in inessentials. What I’ll do is my reading English and Afrikaans from 5 to 6.15, which should be relaxing as well as informative. From today I will do my studying as much as possible at the office. The 1/4hr walk should be well repaid by the increased comfort, heater and the absence of distraction. I must do all my writing between 8 and 11 because all the tests are based on three hours. This will help me rid myself of this test phobia that I am not immune to. Whether this is fluid enough will have to be seen in practice. I do not mind the extent to which the shape changes, provided the size or content do not.

...4 hours later. It does not work out so well. I can only absorb information at a fixed rate. I will have to drop the library after work till I can work faster. I will have to relegate Trigonometry to a later date, when I have mastered the use of symbols."

18^th June 1945?

Jack: "What is it to be poor. Today hobos (one in Naval Uniform) twice approached me for a Touch. Twice I had to refuse because I had not a Tuppence on me. In future there will be a Half-Crown in my pocket, no matter what happens. When I say that, I mean it literally; for I can always go home for food and a bed and the debts that I incur are through people who can always give a few days warning, so that I need not part with my last Half-Crown except for purpose it will be kept. Admittedly, it will in many cases be misspent but then who can without fail judge whether a cause be worthy or not or know a genuine case from one less deserving. Rather than once refuse the needy, I will fool myself ten times over."

August 1945?

Jack: "I will not permit these thoughts to undermine my purpose. I will pursue the execution of my program in the face of all opposition till I have proved by the material fruits of my labours that they have not been misguided. What is so important is that the ideas backing and inspiring my program are sane and moderate and not the rank outgrowth of escapism and self-centeredness. It is that which is at stake and not, as Bill (his Father) thinks, the material gain of quality or position but the fact that I am not mad."

Danie: "In the years that followed after the war our father couldn't keep a job because of alcohol. Coming from a farm school with a Std 3 certificate into a strange city environment was part of his problem which alcohol couldn't relieve. Then he developed an appreciation for literature, beauty and other things and became a mini philosopher. He started to sense the deeper things in life. I think it was latent.

Part of our domestic problem was that he had become caught up with this other lady and my mother wouldn't give him a divorce. He lived with this woman. That caused a lot of problems with Girlie. They just didn't get on.

This lady did her best to keep him going straight. She’d succeed for awhile then he'd manage to get hold of a bit of cash and he'd blow the lot at the nearest pub. They had a good job in Somerset West. She was the housekeeper and he was in charge of the bar, of all places. That went on all right until things went a bit too far.

They came back to Cape Town and with the bit of money she'd saved. She was like a hawk and kept strict control over the money they'd earned. They opened up a fish and chips shop on Lower Main Road in Salt River. It was a cash trade there was always money in the till. Unfortunately the pub was on the next block and it was no problem for him to dip his hand in the till and spend it at the bar. They just didn't make anything. He spent everything. They gave that up."

October 1945

Danie transferred to Naauwpoort.

1/11/1945

Passed English A, Senior Grade.

2/11/1945

He registered with the Employment Exchange in Cape Town.

19^th November 1945

Jack: "Am I mad? Today I sat for Maths and was shown up horribly. I can’t sleep"

4/12/1945

"Johannes Meyndert" Greeff employed as a Conductor by the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company. He resigned on 11/1/1946.

17^th January 1946 (at 6 Cambridge road, Observatory, where he had a room.)

Jack: "Today I am discomforted in both mind and body.

Last Friday I got paid off with £ 3.10 and had, besides, 1/16 from the previous Friday. I faced the forthcoming few months with this. Whether to use the money to feed myself if I should fail to find work or to pay my rent of 4.10? If I did the last it would ensure the accessibility of "Madeleuse’s Pathology" and other textbooks. So I paid the rent. Since then I’ve had to walk to work twice and back from work six times in the last few days.

I’ve had to eat; Friday -a slice of bread, two tickey-chocolates

Saturday -some slices of bread

Sunday -1/4 pound of sugar, some pieces of ProVita and Acorns

Monday -rest of sugar, some acorns and 6 tickey-chocolates

Tuesday -acorns

Wednesday -can’t remember

Today -tea, four plums, ½ pound chocolate with supper at home (bread and onions), I begged at 5 Campbell street (where his mother and Girlie lived) and was given Tomato, tea and jam, Girlie gave me a mango, it’s made me quite full. I did not mind the fatigue. I only minded it’s preventing me taking interest in anything but sleeping and eating. I wanted to read but found my brain numb. That is why I asked for supper at 5 Campbell Street. I prefer anything except this that keeps me away from my interests. At work I am going to read if I am not too tired from walking tomorrow.

This is why I am secretly embarrassed. I would die slowly, willingly, if I knew before then I had finished my Doctor’s course. I would give each limb individually and piece by piece for my Doctorship were it not that I needed them to practice. Hymie Lipshitz, after his first year, decided not to go on anymore. He says he does not like it. What can I say? Perhaps he thinks he failed the exam or thinks his parents couldn’t carry on with the six years financial drain on the shop. How I wish the people would hurry their advice as to whether I’ve passed or failed. It holds me back. I want to go onto the next step. I wish I could take this Pathology to work with me."

22nd January 1946

Jack: "I’ve just picked some figs in the garden. Why should it be wrong? I know it is, or I wouldn’t have been trying to justify it ever since. The Ficks don’t mind. In fact they would think me daft, under the circumstances, not to. I picked figs yesterday and before that and Mrs Ficks knows because she approved and said that the fig is a good fruit. Personally, their only fault is that one has to eat so many to last out the day’s energy. It’s a good blessing I have the pint of milk every morning to partially balance it."

Mike: "I helped Jack ‘steal’ the figs. Jack had a room at the back of a house that belonged to an old couple. One didn't realise just how big the property was because the house seemed to occupy most of the property, but when one got to the back there was a garden with very few flowers but plenty of fig trees. They were magnificent figs, large and purple. Under the fig trees were garden benches and Jack and myself often used to chat. Jack used to guide my reading occasionally. He introduced me to Plato. He would have a quiz session afterwards and take it to the nth degree.

I must say the figs compensated. Sometimes I wouldn't read an article and when he quizzed me it became very apparent. I tried to bullshit my way through and he would lose interest, but the figs were always there."

19/2/1946

Application for recruitment to 160 Military Hospital, Wynberg, rejected by the South African Medical Corps.

24th February 1946

Re-Application to SAMC

Jack: "... I applied to SAMC when I was first boarded down in Cairo and was refused. I had just awoken from a youthful lackadaisicalness to find that I wanted to become a Doctor. I was then sent to the General Services Corps in Helwan. I decided to take a Typing and Shorthand course at the Lecole D’Hulerey so as to better qualify myself to earn the money necessary for my plans.

I have only a hazy idea of the rest of my conduct. I developed a complex attitude of mind. I had to keep my "B" category or I would be sent up the line and that would be the finish of my plans.

During the course of your duties you’ve handled cases of the D.T’s and so realise just how warped a man’s ideas can become. How he can develop the sincerest persecution mania and the daftest of ideas.... Just such a one was I. Only three times as bad since I had deplorable personal habits and a deep seated fear for my own personal safety.

I went so far as to think that the Psychiatrists had put spies to watch my least action even down to giving me injections when I was asleep to find out what I was thinking.

Having read about autosuggestion I talked and argued with myself to build up what I considered adequate replies to these nocturnal catechisms. I even fervently prayed for assistance to circumvent "their" machinations.

I wonder, at times, which personality I sloughed off when I got the order to come home....

In the end I just walked into the Medical Office and asked for my Medical Discharge. I was put in the care of Captain Perls. I was discharged on being a "Schizoid Personality".

.... I realised that only passing Standard 6 militated against my competing successfully against the more privileged of the community. Would to God I realised the magnitude of what I wanted to do.

I co-ordinated my studies into a more intense Rhythm until I found that these hours I put in at night were taken out of my work by day in the form of lethargy, absent-mindedness and rank carelessness. There was also dissatisfaction in expending the best part of the day and my energies on trivialities. So I resigned.

I landed a job as Stores Ledger Clerk at Grootte Schuur Hospital. Try as I might I couldn’t see them cut up any bodies. At the end of three months I had to find something else to do. I decided to use my Provident money to keep me whilst I prepared for the November exams. At the moment I have a temporary job at the Traffic Department.

.... I find no happiness in any pursuit but that of Medicine and Biology. Rather than be a securely positioned clerk and have my vicarious pleasure in reading of (Medicine) I would stay a Medical Orderly the rest of my life."

1946 through 1949

Mike: "If I just sit and think about incidents in my life where Jack touched me, it could have been for a split second. It's amazing, because Jack did it.

...I was thirteen and in Standard 6. Every Sunday morning Jack used to come down to our place and pick me up and a dog called Laddy who I didn't know could swim. We used to go down to the Liesbeek River. That was before the canal was built and before the road was pushed through. The banks of the Liesbeek were lush with grass and Laddy used to enjoy himself tremendously. He was a mongrel but stocky and quite big. We always tried to entice him into the water. On one occasion Jack picked him up and tried to throw him into the water. Well, he clutched onto Jack and clawed him to hell and gone and Jack tumbled into the water with him. Then, of course, we realised that Laddy could swim and that the trick was to throw a stone or a stick in the water and he would follow it blindly. For years your dad used to come down to the river and Laddy and I looked forward to his company."

3/5/1946

He was employed as an Enumerator in the 1946 Population Census and General Registration of Voters. He worked in the Wynberg Magisterial District until 16/5/1946.

He also worked for Dr Van Eck's Ration Scheme.

1/6/1946

Passed BookKeeping, Senior Grade, and Geography, Senior Grade.

1/6/1946

Employed as a Grade "B" Male Telephonist at Grootte Schuur Hospital.

28th November 1946

Jack: "Listless, Useless and Stupid. I’m wasting time. I’ve got to sleep."

1/1/1947

Receives his Matriculation Exemption with credits in English, Afrikaans, Biology, Geography, BookKeeping and Mathematics.

March 1947,

Enrolled as a Medical Student at the University of Cape Town.

12/5/1947

He resigns from Grootte Schuur Hospital. Because he couldn't cope with daytime lectures and working at night.

27/5/1947

The Director-General of Demobilisation turns down his application for financial assistance to study medicine.

12/7/1947

Application for work rejected at George Loader Pty Ltd.

27/11/1947

£ 186-11-8 paid to University of Cape Town by Army.

13/12/1947

Enrolled as a Life Member of the South African Legion of the British Empire Service League.

1947

Danie transferred to Cape Town.

1948

Stayed with friends, "The Parkins", until they left for East London in 1948.

1948

Became a member of the UCT Ex-Service Association.

7/5/1948

Danie marries Joyce Langley (from Naauwpoort) and settles in Naruna, Southfield.

30/11/1948

Application for work rejected at the OK Bazaars.

10/12/1948

Application for work rejected at the Government Brandy Board.

December 1948,

Failed the Physiology section of Second Year.

Mike: "In about 1949 Jack and myself used to come out some Sundays to spend the day with Danie where the Plumstead Primary School is. That used to be the field that we used to play cricket on. It wasn't built up yet. The golf course was there and there was a big canal but there was no Prince George’s Drive, no houses at all, this was a vlei.

This is where Jack taught me chess for the first time. Danie then gave me a chessboard and pieces, which I've still got. I was introduced for the first time to classical music because Danie had 78's. I was very fortunate because I learnt a lot about things, by just being in the company of Jack, and later Danie."

February 1949,

Re-enrolled for Second Year Physiology.

6/6/1949

Application for work rejected at the Cape Argus.

9/6/1949

Application for work rejected at the Cape Times.

February 1950

Enrolled for Third Year.

1950

Mike: "Jack met Paddy Caulfield through me. Paddy was a very good friend of mine and when I lived in Maitland, Paddy lived about six houses down the road from me. Paddy and I used to do a lot of climbing together. I was about seventeen; Paddy was a year older than I was. He had just gone to University. Jack came around and met Paddy. It was a meeting of kindred souls. Paddy’s family came from Woodstock - Observatory.

We then created a threesome and we used to go climbing as frequently as we could. Sometimes Paddy and myself went alone because we had more time than Jack had. There was a bond between Paddy and Jack because Paddy, in many respects, was similar to Jack. His background was the same. But he was a committed Catholic and he was at the University at the time and they just hit it off. I was the guy that brought them together and used to organise things. I used to say, ‘Come on let's go and do this’, and they used to fall in line and do it and enjoy it."

1950

Joined University of Cape Town Flying Club but relinquished membership in August of the same year after being unable to utilise it's facilities.

1950

He lists touch-typing as one of his skills.

21/11/1950

Application for work rejected at M.Bloch & Co.

22/11/1950

Application for work rejected at African Explosives, Brooks Lemos Ltd and Bertrams Distillers.

23/11/1950

Application for work rejected at the OK Bazaars, Coast Lines Africa, The Postmaster (Registry), C.T.C Bazaars, Colonial Mutual Life Assurance, Clarke Nickolls & Coombs and The Citadel Press.

25/11/1950

Application for work rejected at the Receiver of Revenue, Fletcher & Cartwrights Ltd and Imperial Cold Storage & Supply Co.

27/11/1950

Application for work rejected at African Homes Trust & Insurance.

28/11/1950

Application for work rejected at Edblo, Mercantile-Atlas Printing Co., David Graaff's Interests and Baumann's Biscuits.

29/11/1950

Application for work rejected at Dunlop and the Cape Times.

30/11/1950

Application for work rejected at Lever Brothers.

1/12/1950

Application for work rejected at the Divisional Council.

4/12/1950

Application for work rejected at the Hospital Department of the Provincial Administration.

5/12/1950

Application for work rejected at the Electricity Supply Commission.

Jack used to join us and we'd go to about three bookshops up Long Street, then come down Long Street and go to a pub there. This pub, The Green Hansom, had a bar on the one side but it had a tavern, which we came into off Long Street. Jack, Paddy and myself used to go every Saturday and we'd have a pint of beer and then we'd order lunch. Both Jack and myself had a problem in that we didn't eat meat. The guy at the tavern used to make special arrangements for Jack and myself.

I was a youngster when I decided that I didn't want to eat meat. This was while Jack was up North. I was a vegetarian before he was. But his being a vegetarian reinforced my resolve."

Bill: "Mrs Blake stayed in the house next door to us. We stayed in St Michael's road in Observatory. Jack, as a student, came to Mrs Blake, who was next door and rented a room. Then he got to a stage where he wasn't getting in sufficient capital or money or work because he used to do this and that, he said to Mrs Blake, ‘Look here, I can't afford a full rental, let me stay in the garage.’ and Mrs Blake says, ‘No, you should stay in the house, I'm quite happy to have you here, at least it's company.’ But he insisted that he went into the garage."

Bill: "But your dad had a complex about women. He'd run a mile, I'm telling you. Like if someone wanted to wish him for his birthday or for Christmas, he'd stand back if they wanted to kiss him. They used to tease him about it at school."

Mike: "He used to run away, he wouldn't allow anyone to show affection towards him."

Mike: "Sometimes for devilment, the women would chase him around the block and every one thought it was a big joke. It was a problem for him to physically touch somebody. Sometimes it was said that he wasn't stable. Some of his actions were contrary to what you expected from a man."

10/6/1954

Received £ 279 from the Governor-General's National War Fund for University fees. Repayable at £ 5 a month starting at 1/1/1956.

28/8/1954

The Officer in Charge, War Records, returns his War Medals. "Your Campaign Stars and Medals are returned herewith as they are your property, despite the fact that you may not feel justified in wearing them. You are at liberty to dispose of them as you wish but kindly do not return them to this section."

Bill: "I remember the 5th of November, Guy Fawkes, he celebrated his graduation by buying a whole lot of fire works. We were at my mom's house and someone let a spark in the box and the whole thing went off. What a disaster."

17/12/1954

Bought a 7.62 MAB pistol.

29/12/1954

Registered as an Intern.

3/1/1955

Appointed as Intern at Port Elizabeth Provincial Hospital. Worked in Departments of Medicine, Surgery, Gynaecology, Obstetrics and Paediatrics. He also administered approximately 120 anaesthetics. This lasted until 3/1/1956.

It is here that he met Maatjie in the Casualty Department.

Bill: "He went up to Port Elizabeth to serve his housemanship and then my mother and I went up on a boat trip and we met him there in 1955. We met Maatjie there for the first time at Port Elizabeth General. He took us all over the hospital and he entertained us that day."

5/4/1955

Offered post as Junior Resident Medical Officer at Paarl Provincial Hospital.

26/11/1955

Applied to do Internship at Victoria Hospital, Wynberg.

December 1955

Jack: "... My reasons for leaving are:

I am ageing too fast to be as adaptable as you would require. I find it difficult to throw aside the habits of the last five years training; Thinking before acting, consultations in difficulties, innovating under supervision, working without stint.

At the moment I don’t feel competent because I like working under immediate supervision. There are few people to turn to and I am sorely in need of people to discuss things with. I don’t seem to remember the things I was examined on. Everything I do since passing exams seems new and strange. Those things I do remember seem so fraught with complications. Unless I have someone at hand to agree with me, I feel too scared to prescribe the mildest treatment. "

12/1/1956

Registered as a Medical Practitioner with the S.A Medical and Dental Council

16/1/1956

Appointed as Junior Resident Medical Officer at Somerset Hospital, Green Point. Worked as a House Physician in the University Medical Teaching Unit until 16/3/1956.

Mike: "He had lodgings behind the hospital and this was really bohemian. The guys living there used to be very casual. He used to have his guitar hanging on the wall. I used to know which medical books had the terrible pictures from the days Jack was living with Mrs Blake. It took particularly long to meet Jack on one occasion and I knew that Mike, "Vernie", had a weak stomach so I showed him pictures out of these various books. I was an absolute swine."

?/3/1956

Worked as House Physician in the Paediatric Department at Somerset Hospital until 6/6/1956.

19/4/1956

Applied as House Physician at City Hospital for Infectious Diseases, Cape Town.

21/8/1956

Passed his Driver's Licence.

17/7/1956

Appointed as Temporary Medical Practitioner Grade "A" at Somerset Hospital, Green Point.

Click Here to continue reading...