Moving Moments Chapter 2 - South Africa Early Days

Moving Moments 

Chapter 2 – Rooting around the Relatives

Edith with baby Daphne

James with baby
brother Doug

To a greater or lesser extent we are all influenced by our ancestral roots. Both my Mom (born: Daphne Ada King) and my Dad (Douglas Wedderburn Cornish) had predecessors going back a long way to the 1820 Settlers in South Africa and also had English and Scottish roots.

Doug, as my Dad was known, was born on December 19^th, 1909, in Springs, South Africa, six years after the Boer War ended in South Africa and five years ahead of the First World War or Great War as it was described in those days. His father was John Cornish who was born in Scotland in 1871.

Doug’s mother was Mabel (Tickey) King who had ancestry going back to the 1820 Settlers. They had arrived after the Napoleonic Wars to settle an area in the Eastern Cape and provide a bulwark against the Xhosa tribe who were given to regular cattle raids against their white settler neighbors. We surmise that John came to South Africa after the Boer War when presumably opportunities were opening up. John was a bit of an entrepreneur and owned a dairy at one point in Springs called the Cornish Dairy and the road leading up to it is still called Cornish Road to this day.

Springs was 40 kms east of Johannesburg and was part of a long string of gold mines stretching along the length of the Witwatersrand Ridge which stretched east and west of Johannesburg. The Witwatersrand Ridge is where the gold reef made it’s way to the surface and was discovered in Johannesburg in 1886. The Witwatersand Basin holds the world's largest known gold reserves and has produced over 1.5 billion ounces (over 40,000 metric tons), which represents about 50% of all the gold ever mined on earth.

Doug was one of four brothers James, Doug, Maurice and Ernest. The boy’s world was changed forever in 1923 when their Dad, John who had got into financial trouble, went up into the mine dumps and shot himself. My Dad was fourteen years old and his childhood officially ended at that stage as he was forced to work on the farm to help make ends meet. The boy’s Mom, Tickey, decided to stay on the farm which she ran the farm and taught piano lessons, including teaching my Dad to play, so much so that he was able to earn some income playing at gigs on the weekend.

Surviving Brothers and Wives
Maurice/Mary, Ernest/Bertha, Doug/Daphne
Back Row: Maurice, Ernest, Tickey, Bertha, Doug
Front Row: Daphne, Rosemary, Neville, Mary

There are some apocryphal stories told of the four boys growing up. My favorite was that of James who had a very bad temper and of course the three younger boys loved to tease him. James had been left in charge of the younger three and was serving spaghetti to them. He was being teased mercilessly and was in a raging fury. His dishing up consisted of “one for Doug and one for the wall” at which point he hurled a spoonful of spaghetti against the dining room wall and so on down the line of brothers. I remember my Dad and Maurice and Ernest recounting this story with great glee, not for a minute having any sympathy for the tormented James. Sadly James died early on in life. He had been pursuing a lady who had spurned his advances and there is some uncertainty as to whether he committed suicide or died after an electrical accident at work. Unfortunately our family records can’t verify which of these intriguing options is the true one.

In 1926 at around age 16 or 17 Doug signed up as an apprentice fitter and turner, which was good work in those days when mining was booming. He qualified in 1931 at the height of the Depression. Each week he would ride his bicycle to Johannesburg and back, calling in at the various mines looking for work. From 1931 to 1939 when he married my Mom he worked at a variety of mines with evocative sounding names such as Sub Nigel, Swaartwater, Vlakfontein and Rietfontein Cons. During this time he also joined the Transvaal Scottish Regiment as a bagpipe player where he became a sergeant major.

Daph ready to
rock 'n roll

Daph, as my Mom was known, was born in Boksburg on April 26^th, 1917. She was seven and a half years younger than my Dad, but fate had them earmarked for each other. As it turns out they didn’t have to look to far to find each other. Read on. 

Daph’s father was Cyril King from a long line of 1820 Settlers. He was married to Ethel (nee Hunt) King whose parents had come to South Africa from Britain. Cyril was a farmer, an excellent tennis player and was the South African 440 yard champion at one point and it’s speculated he might have held the record at that time. Cyril and Ethel had two children, Daphne and then her younger brother Alan. 

Unfortunately Cyril had a wandering eye which settled on his housekeeper, a lady with last name Joubert. When Ethel found out about this she was devastated, wrote a farewell letter to Daphne and Alan and then shot herself. Cyril, apparently undaunted, then married the housekeeper Joubert, leaving 13 year old Daphne and Alan in her care. This cannot have been an easy thing for two impressionable youngsters. Daphne was shipped off to a boarding school for girls in Pretoria, leaving Alan in the hands of the happy couple. Cyril wrote a letter to Daphne complaining that Alan was proving difficult and in good South African tradition he was shipped off to a boarding school in Potchefstroom.

I haven’t mentioned that Cyril had a sister named Mabel King. Her nickname was Tickey. Is this ringing any bells? That’s right Cyril, Daphne’s dad and Tickey, Doug’s mom, were siblings, making Daphne and Doug first cousins. It seems that when all of this tragedy struck, Doug, 21 became quite protective of Daphne who was a tender 13 years old at the time. My Mom told me that at that time my Dad had said that when she got older he was going to marry her. She obviously had her share of admirers as evidenced by this rather charming letter from a distant admirer when she was 15. 

The family eventually decided that the relationship with Doug wasn’t healthy and it needed to end, so at that point Daphne was sent off to live with relatives in England in 1933.

Daphne in her prime.
Isn't she gorgeous?

Mom, was very happy in Britain. She found a place where she was loved and made some lifelong friends. She finished school, did a beauty therapy and a secretarial course. She also met a young man who she fell for in a big way and it is likely would have married him except at that point the fates intervened in the form of her Dad dying in 1938 necessitating her return to South Africa for the funeral.

Doug and Daph,
the happy couple

The rest is history. She and my Dad re-connected, and they were married a year later on April 15^th, 1939. The boyfriend in England was forgotten, which is a good thing because if he hadn’t been I wouldn’t be telling this tale. 

Doug, Neville, Daphne

On January 27^th, 1941 my brother Neville was born. My Mom had a difficult delivery and my Dad was notified he might have to choose between her or the baby. I wonder if my Mom was ever consulted on that decision? My goodness, times have changed! Thankfully both Mom and Nev survived. Doug was called up to war at the end of 1941, leaving my Mom pregnant with Rosemary who was born on May 25^th, 1942. 

Rosemary,, a sweet smile
but a tough cookie indeed!

My Dad had been shipped with the Transvaal Scottish Regiment to Palestine, Syria and Lebanon where his engineering unit built a tunnel which still stands today. He really excelled himself at letter writing to my Mom and demonstrated a meticulous streak by numbering each one consecutively, making it up to at least letter number 66. He must have burnt himself out with this effort as in all my years away from home at boarding school and university I received the grand total of one letter from my Dad. In fairness to him, the letter writing and keeping the family connected role fell to my Mom.

Doug returned from the war at the end of 1943 to meet 18 month old Rosemary for the first time.  Mom had been living with Dad’s mom Tickey. In 1945 Doug and family moved to Rietfontein Cons mine as an engineer. It was here that they bought “Daisy Bell” a dairy cow. Neville claims that after imbibing all of the cream, butter and milk coming off of Daisy Bell, he has suffered from an overweight problem ever since. It was here that we first meet Ronald. Ronald was a trainee house-helper from Nyasaland (modern day Malawi). One of his jobs was to milk Daisy Bell. Neville remembers Ronald taking him to the circus where they watched a performing black pig. Neville also remembers my Dad shaving off all of his hair because Nev kept snipping at it with scissors. My Dad was an “ all or nothing ” kind of a guy and I guess Nev snipped his hair once too often for my Dad’s liking. Neville also remembers the toilet was an outside one, commonly called a “longdrop”. He also remembers falling out of the car one day when my Dad jammed on the brakes too hard. I guess he was quite streamlined having no hair and all. Anyway he survived, as kids did in those days and all’s well that ends well.

Doug, Rosemary,
Neville and Daphne
hanging loose at the beach

 In 1947 Dad was transferred to South Roodepoort mine as Mine Engineer which I gather was quite a good job. His company car was a bicycle. He wore clips on his legs to prevent the bike chain from snagging his trousers. He used to come home for lunch every day, after which he would lie down for a power nap with a newspaper over his head. I must note that this has become an important family tradition, which I now emulate and I’m training my grandchildren to do the same, with some success. I’ve discovered that a hat, book or pillow all do much the same job of blocking out  the light.

Rob and grandson James learning
the art of the power nap

On May 14^th, 1950 Alan was born. For some reason which seems unfathomable these days, it was necessary to send Neville, aged 8, to a Catholic boarding school at Marist Brothers in Johannesburg so that he would not be present while Alan was born at home. Neville happened to find out he had a brother when he bumped into one of the school Brothers who cheerfully announced “Cornish, you have a brother”. No muss no fuss. I wonder at what stage Nev found out the baby’s name? For some obscure reason it seemed fine for Rosemary to stay at home for the birth of the baby. Actually in fairness to my Mom and Dad, the mindset of the day was that boarding school was a good place for a young man to form a strong character and learn how to be a man. It seems to have worked in Nev’s case because he’s definitely a man who goes at life with great vim and vigor.

The happy family re-united
in school holidays

Rob, cute and 
cuddly then too!

On March 22^nd 1952 I was born in South Roodepoort. Neville, still banished at boarding school, has no recollection of this news ever being communicated to him. He probably just discovered an extra addition to the family when he got home for his next school holiday.

Rose’s distinguishing act in South Roodepoort was to run away from the convent where she wasn’t enjoying the nuns. One day, at age 6 she just decided that she was no longer going to the convent where the nuns weren't to her liking, so she took herself off to the next school along and went to school with a friend who took her to her classroom. The teacher was a bit puzzled as to the new addition and eventually after an “orange alert” going out from the convent, the police and parents managed to figure out what had happened. Needless to say, Mom and Dad moved her to another school. Nev says she is the youngest person ever to be expelled from her school. She was in grade 1. As her photo indicates she has a sweet smile, but there is a tough cookie underlying that sweet exterior!

Ronald had moved with Mom and Dad to South Roodepoort. It was here that July (Dhluwayo) first makes an appearance in our family story where he joined the family enterprise as a “gardener”. July was to be a member of our extended family until his death in the 1990s. July was sixteen or seventeen and was fresh from the Rhodesian bush, off to the big city in South Africa to make it big. At that stage Ronald was probably working in the house and July started off at the bottom weeding and trimming. He would work his way up and into the hearts of our family over time.

Rob, Mom, Poetsie, Neville,
Rosemary and Alan

Over the years my Mom primarily had three “servants” working for her, not all at the same time. They were Ronald, July and Fred. Ronald and Fred hailed from Nyasaland (current day Malawi) and July from Southern Rhodesia (current day Zimbabwe). They were part of the migrant labor phenomenon in Southern Africa, whereby mainly men would come from a variety of countries to find work on the mines in industry or in the homes of white folks. It was common for them to work for periods of time, saving money and sending it home to their wives and families. All of them came to my Mom fresh out of the bush as it were and needed to be trained from scratch. Ronald and July ultimately both worked in the house, cooking, cleaning and doing laundry. Fred was relatively uneducated and remained a “gardener”. The relationship between master and servant was quite paternalistic but worked for all parties as each party derived benefit. In many households the longstanding servants became de facto members of the extended family, with the employer assuming an informal responsibility to help with schooling for the servant’s children, clothing, health issues and so on. In my Mom’s case, long after Ronald, July and Fred ceased to be employed by her, she and they maintained a lifelong correspondence. The relationship had grown way beyond master and servant to one of mutual caring and affection.

Dad sporting his
Indiana Jones look

Dad with "some" of his
shooting awards

My Dad had developed an interest in long range target shooting whilst in the Transvaal Scottish. In 1952 he made the South African team and represented the country at Bisley in England. Bisley is the mecca of all serious target shooters. In South Africa someone who represented their country in a sport was known as a Springbok. In a country as sports crazy as South Africa this was a big deal. To this day I’m immensely proud of my Dad’s shooting achievements. Over time he represented South Africa, the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland and Zambia where he captained the team He was also an accomplished pianist, playing mainly by ear and was often called on to play at parties and club socials.

South Roodepoort was not a happy job for my Dad. He spoke of having lots of fights with the Mine Manager. Post war Southern Africa was booming. The copper mines in Northern Rhodesian were the largest producers of copper at the time. Mom and Dad obviously turned their sights north and began to consider what the future might hold for them up in that part of the world. Little did they know, they were about to launch us into probably the most memorable twenty years of our lives.