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Chapter
one - page 10 Ruth outgrew the school in George and finished her schooling at a Maris Stella convent on the Beria in Durban. Early on Ruth had shown a remarkable talent for music, the choice of Maris Stella in Durban was no accident, here Ruth was able to take annual exams set by the Royal Academy of Music in London. By this time the eldest of the five girls, Gwen had herself studied in London not at the Royal Academy but at the slightly less prestigious Royal College of Music. Ruth would in time go to London to study at the Royal Academy, it would be whilst on one of the several voyages she made during this time between South Africa and England that she would meet and fall in love with a young gangly fourth officer. But this is still all very much in the future for this young man still has to survive the Great War, not in the trenches but in an equally unpleasant situation, on a mine sweeper in the North Sea.
Thatched Cottage, George
From a water colour by Mr. Bourchard who’s house is on the left. The last of the old houses to go was Thatched Cottage by which time corrugated iron had replaced the thatch and the building was run as a Greek owned convenience store when my mother took me to see it in 1949, referred to in South Africa for some reason as a ‘tea room’. Long since gone the site is now occupied by shops and a large office complex, the garden now part of the road and a car park. |
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