16 Dec 2012

Query answered

by | posted in: Mini Memories | 3

A couple of posts ago I put up an inquiry about Southbound Transport bus company from Shalendra Ramadhar. I have since had the following from my informant Frank Beeton:

I have just seen the request in FAD for information on Southbound Transport .

I can tell you that I had some contact with them around 1974/75. There were twelve brothers named Ramanand  who lived with their families in one huge house at Isipingo near the railway station and ran one bus on a route, I think, in the Clairwood/Jacobs area. The bus was an underfloor-engined Leyland Worldmaster with bodywork built by Bobby’s Coach Works of Clairwood.

I was working for Lawson’s Autodiesels in Umgeni Road at the time, and tried, unsuccessfully, to sell them a Volvo bus!

By the way, anybody with an interest in Durban’s Indian Bus operators should try to get hold of the fascinating softcover book: “Indian Buses – The History, The Memories, The Personalities”, that has been written by  Zainul Aberdeen, and published by  Osborne Porter.

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10 Dec 2012

Richard Seidle

by | posted in: InfoRequests | 18

My informant Mike Thomas reminded me that he made some requests for info in his contribution which I published here a while ago. He wants to know if anyone knows of his friend Richard Seidle (son of the Lady in White) and the name of the runner-up in the 1961 Miss South Africa who won a trip on Mike’s ship, City of Durban, as part of her prize.

A look at Wikipedia reveals that the lady in question was probably either Marlene Boyes or Rita Rheeder but I would appreciate hearing if anyone has news of Richard.

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10 Dec 2012

Namaqua

by | posted in: Appeals, Mini Memories | 0

Site visitor Patrick Voorma is a keen scuba diver and has dived a number of the wrecks off Durban. He now believes that he has found the the wreck of the Namaqua which was scuttled in 1932 off Durban. She apparently lies at a depth of 61m, upright on the north east side of No 1 reef. The interesting thing is that Patrick took some video of the wreck, which can be viewed on this page of his blog.

He is also interested in finding the whereabouts of Jill Forrester who contributed some information on wrecks in the very early days of this site – see the entries for 31 July and 6 August 2003 on page 3 of the diary. Please ask Jill to get in touch with me if you have her current address.

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9 Dec 2012

Vetch’s saved

by | posted in: Mini Memories | 0

I have just had very pleasing news from Durban Paddle Ski Club chairman Johnny Vassilaros. Vetch’s beach and the remains of Vetch’s pier have been under threat from developers for years after it was proposed that a hotel be built on the site.

The city was all for the project and the other water sports clubs which had clubhouses fringing the beach reluctantly agreed to make way. Thankfully, the bloody-minded members of the paddleski club fought the developers through the courts and managed to delay the project for so long that they forced them to come up with a compromise.

Johnny sent me the announcement of the club’s famous victory and here it is:

Vetch’s peace deal Read More

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7 Dec 2012

Sparks Estate.

by | posted in: Uncategorized | 108

I mentioned that I visited Evelyn House in Richmond in a previous post, see Elizabeth Robb’s Memories. I was loaned a little booklet giving some detail of the Sparks Family by Mrs Maureen Stoute, a descendant and Evelyn House resident, who gave me permission to put the notes up on FAD.

The main body of the the booklet is a long family tree which I did not put up but what I did was extract the parts that are relevant to Durban namely the area we know today as Sparks Estate. It is a short memoir.  There are very few pictures and I include the best ones. The little booklet is undated as to when it was written.

THE SPARKS SETTLERS

by

David Gifford N. Sparks

Introduction/Foreword

From records to hand the first Sparks family to land in South Africa came out with the 1820 Settlers – they sailed with Sephton’s Party in the ship “Aurora” .

Henry Sparks and his wife Mary, sailed out to this country in the year 1817 when he was 30 years old. They landed at Angola Bay Cape then made their way up to Grahamstown.

Read More

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6 Dec 2012

North Ridge Road

by | posted in: Appeals, Mini Memories | 53

Before we kick off with today’s contribution, Maurice Warren wanted to know if anyone had a picture of Smuggler’s Inn. Click the Contact button above and drop me a line.

And now, my informant Rodney Coyne, who has been busy in the comments section of the diary, has sent in these memories which are mainly of Morningside in the early 1950s. He wrote:                                                                           

Mainly about North Ridge Road 1950 – 1953

Perhaps I should start with a brief background regarding my connection with Durban. My mother’s surname was Bellengere. She was born in northern Natal at Dundee, I think (her parents were moving around a lot at that time). She was baptised at the Anglican church in Weenen and then again at St Thomas’s Church, Musgrave Road, Durban – remember, the Anglican Church at the time was still in turmoil after the split with Bishop Colenso. They lived somewhere near the Botanic Gardens when they arrived in Durban. Read More

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5 Dec 2012

To Durban the hard way

by | posted in: Mini Memories | 0

I recently had a brief note from Maurice Warren to the effect that his father had served in Durban during WWII and liked it so so much that he decided to return at the ens of hostilities. He wrote:

My father, Kenneth Warren, served in Durban with the RAF during WWII at both Congella and later Lake St. Lucia, and decided to emigrate there by truck in 1947, via Algiers, Congo, and on to Durban.  He was a builder and built half the houses in Durban North. The truck, a Chevrolet, subsequently served as a builders’ truck for the next twenty years.

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I think that the journey must have been a rare adventure and I’m itching to hear more details about it. I’ll try to prevail upon to Maurice…

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2 Dec 2012

Telegraph Office

by | posted in: InfoRequests, New Articles | 2

A quick query on behalf of Shalendra Ramadhar. Does anyone know anything about an Indian bus company called Southbound Transport Co.? Please contact me if you do.

I have had a very interesting submission from my informant Graham Read on his uncle, Eddie Londal. Eddie joined the post office in Durban as a telegraph messenger in 1917 and later became a telegraphist. The page does also touch on Eddie’s career outside of Durban but it is very interesting.

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