How it works: FAQ

Posted on December 12, 2011 by Allan Jackson

This section is designed to answer frequently-asked questions (FAQ) about how to use these new diary pages on FAD. You’re welcome to leave a comment or get in touch if you don’t find what you’re looking for. Continue reading →

Posted in Housekeeping | Tagged | 2 Comments

Hotel name

Posted on May 6, 2012 by Allan Jackson

Bob Gooderson asks if anyone can remember the name of a hotel that has slipped his mind. He wote:

Does anybody remember the name of the hotel which stood on the site where Marine Parade Post office is now sited?

In 1957 when my Dad family purchased our first hotel, the Lonsdale, I was installed as manager. We had Jack Bartram playing the organ in the ‘Lonsdale Lounge’ and Cashel Kelly was the singer.

On nights when it seemed quiet I used to walk round and check on how many people were in the Palmerston and then up the road to the [other] hotel where the owner or manager played the piano and his wife sang with him. I seem to remember that she was a soprano. Neither my brother Alan nor I can remember the name of the hotel, who does?

Bob also sent in this picture of the beachfront which, he says, has the following inscription ‘Photograph by D.John Lucey Studio, 22 Albany Grove, Durban.’ and the reference number 61-6  52-A. He surmises that the picture was taken in 1961.

Posted in Appeals, Mini Memories | Leave a comment

Getting old

Posted on May 3, 2012 by Allan Jackson

I must be getting old. This is the first time I’ve been convinced I’ve done something on the site and discovered I haven’t. This story goes back a while to 2010 when my informant David Vickery sent in some of his memories of the Cookie Look era and mentioned visiting the Four Seasons Hotel where he enjoyed listening to a singer who he thought had been called Maxine.

Turns out that it was Maxine Lemarr and I heard from her fairly recently and that is where my memory let me down. I felt sure that I added her remarks to the site but today I discovered I hadn’t and I have fixed that. See her remarks on her career here. She also wrote:

Thank you for going to so much work putting together such a great website.  I still have much to read – it is so interesting and also humorous. I hope you are well.  I wish you all the very best.
With regards and gratitude
Maxine Lemarr.

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Flying Boat

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Allan Jackson

Can anyone provide the name of the Empire flying boat in the picture below? It was sent in by reader Nicole whose grandfather was Captain Roger P Mollard of Imperial Airways and BOAC. Captain Mollard was apparently based in Durban for a while.

It seems as if the picture was taken in Durban. I don’t recognise the view [although it does look like the Berea in the distance] but the reverse of the picture has the following inscription:

Photo supplied by Lynn Acutt (Pty) Ltd
343 West Street Durban Natal S.Africa”
“Original of this photograph has been passed by U.D.F. Military/Royal Naval Censor”

Lynn Acutt was a well-known Durban Photographer, so I guess that settles that…

Posted in Appeals, Image | 1 Comment

DJ Run Website

Posted on April 15, 2012 by Allan Jackson

John Austin Williams has announced that the website commemorating the Durban-Johannesburg motorcycle race is up and running. You can find it here.

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Durban Johannesburg DJ Rally

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Gerald Buttigieg
This is a reply to the previous post asking for information about the DJ motorcycle race. Ed.

I looked through my late father in law’s scrapbooks 1970 to 1975 and came up with three cuttings on the DJ. I tried to get them as a comment on your post but failed so here are separately. The captions tell the story and they are in the order from top to bottom, 1971,  1972, 1975. When was the DJ Rally reinstated?

Posted in Mini Memories, Pictures | Leave a comment

Durban-Johannesburg

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Allan Jackson

The (DJ) Durban Johannesburg Motorcycle Race was first run in 1913 and completing it must have been a real feat of endurance. The event runs each year and I have been approached by John Austin-Williams to appeal for any information about the race. He is currently working on a website and hopes to include a page for each year the event was run and a page for each of the motorcycle types as well.

Please leave a comment below this post or get in touch with me, in the first instance, if you have any information, pictures and, especially, if you rode in the race. I’ll put up an alert once the DJ website is up and running.

Posted in InfoRequests | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Going to the Army 1st April 1962.

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Gerald Buttigieg

Today Sunday 1st April 2012 is exactly, to the day, 50 years since a group of between 200 to 300 Durban boys left Durban Station en route to Bloemfontein to start our 9 months Active Citizen Force Training.  We were headed for 1 Special Services Battalion (1 SSB) Training Regiment.  We were not the first intake as three months previously the very first contingent of ballotees had set off. We were eventually to meet up with some of that group at 5 SAI Bn Ladysmith (KZN) when we had completed our basic training and they were into their last 3 months of service. Continue reading →

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Perks Pies

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Gerald Buttigieg

I know Durban lays claim to the Bunny Chow but in the 50s / 60s, my diet, and I would be safe to say that of countless others, was often supplemented by Pie, Chips and Gravy. This would have been true whether you were “having a graze” at the Cuban Hat, The Nest, XL Tearoom, Noddys on the beach front, the OK Bazaars Milk Bar, Greenacres Lounge, The Three Monkeys, the Roxy / Oxford Bio Cafes, the Varsity refectory or one of the small eateries / tea rooms in and around the CBD. Continue reading →

Posted in Mini Memories | Tagged , , , , | 11 Comments

Umbilo Drive-Inn

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Allan Jackson

Today, we have a request by Katrina Anderson for information from anyone who might know the background of the Union Club. Her grandfather William Ewing Watt was apparently a member before he died in Durban in 1943. I’d welcome any information about the club or about William, who may have lived at 48 Prince Street Durban and at the Stamford Hill Hotel.

Secondly, I’ve got an evocative contribution from GM Enerson on his memories of many evenings spent hanging around outside Umbilo Drive-Inn. Take a look.

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Search is back!!

Posted on February 23, 2012 by Allan Jackson

We have been getting along without site search ever since Google cancelled FAD’s free search facility. Happily, there seems to have been some sort of u-turn and the facility is now back on the site, and accessible from the menu bar above.

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