29 Apr 2012

Flying Boat

by | posted in: Appeals, Image | 9

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…

Added 18 June 2012: Capt. Mollard now has a page on this site where you read some newspaper clippings and view some of the pictures that he collected.

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11 Apr 2012

Durban Johannesburg DJ Rally

by | posted in: Mini Memories, Pictures | 0
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?

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2 Apr 2012

Durban-Johannesburg

by | posted in: InfoRequests | 2

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.

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2 Apr 2012

Going to the Army 1st April 1962.

by | posted in: Mini Memories | 14

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. Read More

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20 Mar 2012

Perks Pies

by | posted in: Mini Memories | 67

Click on picture to enlarge and enable you to read the script

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. Read More

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29 Feb 2012

Umbilo Drive-Inn

by | posted in: Uncategorized | 1

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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23 Feb 2012

Search is back!!

by | posted in: Uncategorized | 0

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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30 Jan 2012

First day cover

by | posted in: Pictures | 1

I have been unpacking boxes and, among my stuff, I discovered this First Day Cover commemorating the centenary of Durban becoming a borough. I had forgotten that I even had it but here, at last, it is.

It brought back a sour memory or two, when I contrasted the 100th celebration with the stunning burst of indifference which greeted the 150th anniversary in 2004. The sad fact is that the city authorities totally ignored that milestone, as they did the fact that the Metro (City) Police had also turned 150. I mentioned this in diary entries at the time, here and here.

Talking of the City Police reminds me of a long-standing oversight. At the time of my initial research into Durban’s history, it was commonly stated that the Durban City Police was the oldest police force in the Southern Hemisphere.

That ‘fact’ did make it into print all over the place, including Facts About Durban, and I’m indebted to reader Peter Gaffney, once the force’s Deputy Chief Constable, for the information that this isn’t so. Turns out that the Royal Falkland Islands Police predates Durban’s force, having been established on November 1, 1846.

By coincidence, the Falkland Islands were once adjacent to the KZN coastline, as readers of my article on Durban’s geology will remember.

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