Memoir of Mary Alannah SUMMERS (née Berthelsen) 

At what age, my mother came to South Africa or where and when she met my father, I do not know. I can only presume that after the war, he must have come up to the Witwatersrand and met her. We know that his first wife died in East London [South Africa]. It’s a shame that I never thought to ask my mother about it and she never told me either. However, their first child was a girl—Olga Mary—she lived only for a few months³ and died of a heart condition which, probably today, could have been rectified.

On a visit to Australia [1913-1914] my mother said that she was seasick from the time the ship left Cape Town and she spent most of the time in their cabin. My father, who was apparently very good at accents, spoke for the whole journey in a Scottish accent to two Scottish teachers going to Australia. They were amazed for when the ship docked, Alf’s father was waiting for him and they were calling to each other in Danish. The girls had been convinced that he was a Scot.

How long Mom⁴ and Dad stayed in Australia is unclear, or where, by this time, my father’s father was living. They did go as far as Townsville because my mom once told me that it was so hot there that by the time you finished hanging the washing on the line, you could just about take the first lot off.

My mother, having been born in Ireland, was a devout Roman Catholic and my father had joined the Freemasons. I have often wondered what religion the Berthelsen folk grew up with. My father was a tailor, just as his father was. Before my sister and I were born he worked for the government boring for water on farms. During this time, my parents lived in tents and my mom said that she enjoyed it which amazed me as I could not imagine here living under canvas.

Sadly, I have no recollection of my father as he died of pneumonia when I was five years old. In Krugersdorp, I think he worked for a foundry, coming home only on weekends. He used to cycle to the station and pedal back at the working week’s end. (I do not remember this; it is what mom told me.) I believe he was a keen gardener and had bought the spare stand next to our house. Here he grew flowers which must have been lovely because my mom said that people used to stop and take photos. He also supplied the flowers for the altar and enjoyed grafting plants.

After my father’s passing mom and I returned to Ireland by ship. We stayed only a year as mom could not take to the weather there. Upon our return to South Africa, I boarded at the Ursuline Convent while mom worked as a governess to a wealthy Russian Jewish family, taking care of their children. I enjoyed my school days and spent all school holidays with my godmother at the East Rand with the exception of Christmas which I spent with mother at my Jewish family’s home.

Mary Alannah’s memoir goes on to record that when she finished school, she had thoughts of becoming a milliner and with this in mind, began an apprenticeship with a large Johannesburg department store but it was not meant to be and instead she went to work for the Bantu Press which was more to her liking. By this time she and her mother were sharing a flat.

Mary Alannah met her husband Henry Robert Summers through a hiking club. Coincidentally, his mother was Queensland-born, just as Alf was and arrived in South Africa as a young fourteen-year-old. “Harry” as he was called, was a very good cricketer and enjoyed all forms of sport his whole life. They married during World War II and Harry, a mechanic at the time, soon found himself based in Foggia, Italy serving with the South African Airforce. Upon his discharge, Mary and Harry decided to move to Northern Rhodesia, as it was then known (now Zambia) where Harry obtained work in the copper mines at Luanshya in 1946. Twelve months later Alannah and her mother followed. According to Mary, life in Northern Rhodesia “was very good and rather lazy; the weather was glorious, hardly ever becoming cold.” She spent much of her time playing tennis and swimming. Being a plumber by trade, Harry eventually left the mining industry and went into business with a builder. Three children—Shana, Trevor and Ingrid—were born to Mary and Harry in Luanshya.

On 24th October 1964, Northern Rhodesia gained independence from Britain by which time Harry was back working in the mines in what is now the Republic of Zambia. Mary Alannah and Harry upped stumps in 1968 having decided to settle in East London, Eastern Cape Province. With Harry’s passing at the beginning of 1992, Mary Alannah packed up and returned to Roodepoort, Transvaal. Mary Alannah passed away in 2006 in Johannesburg, Gauteng.

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