Not many Scandinavians settled in Southern Africa before the 19th century, and only after the arrival of missionaries from their countries were settlers attracted from these Nordic peoples. In Durban some seamen had settled as artisans and craftsmen, many with the intention of assisting the missionaries. In 1879 a group of immigrants came from Norway on board the schooner Debora and made their homes in Durban, where the first Scandinavian congregation was founded in 1880. The members were predominantly Norwegians and this congregation later became the Norwegian Lutheran Church in Durban. In 1882 a group of 230 settlers from Norway arrived at Umzimkulu and made their new homes at Marburg. They started to build a church which was dedicated the following year, when also the Marburg Norwegian Lutheran congregation was constituted. The congregation opened a school in 1884. Scandinavians on the Witwatersrand founded a Lutheran congregation in Johannesburg in 1898. Most of the members were Norwegians or Swedes. A church site had been granted by the Transvaal Republic, but the war brought changes that made progress difficult. In 1911 the Swedish congregation in Johannesburg was constituted and this has since served as a spiritual centre for Scandinavians in the area.

Regular services have also been held in Pretoria and Cape Town, but no Scandinavian congregation has been organised in these places. Norwegian missionaries conducted regular services at Eshowe, where an English-speaking Lutheran congregation was founded in 1960.

Church council image from left to right: standing S. Gubrandsen, PEP Rorvik, OS Loken, OJ Hillestad, seated: Consul AE Larsen, Pastor E. Hallen.

The present Chinese community in South Africa did not originate in the labour force which was recruited in North China in 1904 for the Witwatersrand gold-mines. All those labourers were repatriated four years later by the Transvaal government. The present community has developed from sporadic immigration, which began in 1891 with the arrival from Madagascar and Mauritius of Chinese traders who had originally come from Canton. According to the 1965 returns they number about 7,200 and are distributed as follows: Johannesburg 3,000; the perimeter of the Witwatersrand 450; Pretoria 650; Port Elizabeth 1,800; East London 350; Cape Town 325; Kimberley 275; Durban 175; other centres in South Africa 250. In 1950 a total prohibition was imposed on the immigration of Chinese to South Africa.

The Chinese are mainly traders, and in both wholesale and retail trade they have built up a reputation for honesty and reliability. Bankruptcy seldom occurs. A few practise as doctors, attorneys, architects, engineers or accountants; many are employed in offices of Whites as clerks, typists, computer operators, dispatch clerks or travellers. They mainly belong to the middle income group and their standard of living is far above that prevailing in their country of origin. Very few South African Chinese are in needy circumstances, and one-third may be reckoned among the group of affluent businessmen. Both culturally and socially they are much nearer to the Whites than to the non-Whites, and very few of these Chinese have any connection with other non-White groups with whom they are legally classified. The South African Chinese have even lost contact with Buddhism and have in many cases adopted the Christian faith. In politics they are strongly anti-Communist, and 99 % of them support the Nationalist China of Chiang Kai-shek. Taiwan (Formosa) has full diplomatic representation in South Africa.

The legislation which affects and inconveniences them most is the Group Areas Act. Whenever an area is proclaimed as belonging to some particular racial group, whenever slums are cleared and the residents are required to move, the Chinese fall between two stools. They are neither White nor Indian, nor do they belong among the black or Coloured to whose way of life the area is to be adapted. Although they are mainly a race of traders, their community is too small to support trade among themselves, and they are now seeking an outlet in a greater diversity of occupations. Uncertainty is their greatest problem, but fear of discrimination or humiliation has not been experienced to any appreciable extent.

In April 2003, Lt.-Gen. Roelf Beukes, Chief of the Air Force, announced headhunting had lost the SAAF four female pilots, leaving 12.

Lisl Bennett

Lisl Bennett was 13 years old when she decided to become a pilot. Her 17th birthday present from her father was a flight in a Cessna, which was meant to scare her off flying lessons. In 1995 she graduated from Wits University with a degree in aeronautical engineering and was honoured as the top engineering student. When she joined the SAAF in 1996, she already had her private pilot’s licence and 95 flying hours. After her Candidate Officer’s course in July 1996, she was the top academic student, obtaining an average of 88%. Eighty-two students completed the course. Lisl became the first female instructor on the Pilatus PC7 Astra and the Alouette III helicopter. She went on to become the chief ground instructor at 87 Helicopter Flying School, AFB Bloemspruit. She was also part of the SAAF’s purchase project for the Augusta A109M helicopter. In 2003 she earned her Master’s degree in aeronautical technology from the University of Kingston in England. Lisl was one of 18 pilots who took the Royal Air Force Aerosystems course from September 2000 to July 2001. She was the only South African student, the youngest and most junior in rank. She passed with an 83% average, placing her in the top seven students. Lisl is the daughter of Chris Bennett and Mrs. Marion Taite. She has two sisters, Tania and Kirsten. She grew up in Somerset West and Stellenbosch, and matriculated in Boksburg. To relax she reads or does martial arts.

Francis Bester

Francis (Frankie) Bester is from Cape Town and was in the Navy at Simonstown before joining the SAAF. After completing her Candidate Officer’s course in July 1996, Francis was named Victrix Ludorum. The following year she withdrew from the pilot training course after the ground school phase.

Renét Venter

Renét Venter is from Sannieshof and joined the SAAF after matriculating.

Tanya Livingston

Tanya Livingston is a former Zimbabwean who lived in Amanzimtoti before joining the SAAF. She has a degree in sports management. She spent eight years as a part-time crew member of the John Rolfe rescue helicopter. Tanya (33) was recently made a Superintendent when she was appointed as a SAPS Air Wing helicopter pilot in Nelspruit. After her training in Langebaanweg she went to Bloemspruit for the Rotor Wing Conversion course. She did her training on Alouettes for three months, followed by a three-month Oryx Conversion course. Tanya spent two years at 15 Squadron as a co-pilot. She also qualified as a BK117 commander. After Durban, she was transferred to 17 Squadron in Pretoria, and later to 19 Squadron in Hoedspruit. Tanya was the first female pilot doing duty in Burundi. She has more than 2 000 flying hours and left the SAAF with the rank of Major.

Velma Scholz

Velma Scholz is from Swakopmund in Namibia. She was part of the helicopter rescue efforts during the Mozambique floods in 2001. After leaving the SAAF, she joined the SAPS Air Wing in August 2001, becoming the first female pilot there.

Kerryn Swemmer

Kerryn Swemmer is from Benoni and earned a BSc from Wits University before joining the SAAF. She had a private pilot’s licence obtained in her Matric year. Her father used to fly privately and she started flying at 16. After school, she could not get into the SAAF or find a flying job, so she went to Wits. By the time she had graduated, the SAAF was open to female pilots. She flew the Oryx and Alouette helicopters in the SAAF. After leaving the SAAF, she spent some time flying the Hunter’s Gold helicopter as well as operating tourist flights out of the V&A Waterfront, and doing traffic reports for Kfm. Kerryn also spent some time flying in West Africa. She became the first female helicopter pilot to join the South African Red Cross Air Mercy Service in 2001, first on a full-time basis and recently on a part-time basis. She has flown more than 700 mercy flights. Kerryn currently flies for SA Express.

Tamara Thomas

Tamara Thomas from Glencairn Heights is the first coloured female pilot, receiving her wings in March 2005 at Langebaanweg. Flying planes was a childhood dream, after her parents took her to an air show at AFB Ysterplaat when she was eight years old. She matriculated in 2001 at Fish Hoek Senior High. She joined the SAAF in 2002 and spent three years in intensive training. During her first year she did basics and Candidate Officer’s course. In her second year, she attended the military academy in Saldanha Bay, doing subjects such as aerodynamics under a University of Stellenbosch programme. Her third year was spent flying at Langebaanweg. After earning her wings she became the second female fighter pilot in the SAAF. She was born in Grassy Park to Edmund and Serena Thomas. The family later moved to Glencairn Heights.

Igneet Jordaan

Igneet Jordaan was born in 1977 and matriculated from Hoërskool Garsfontein. She joined the SAAF in January 1997 and qualified as a pilot in April 1999. She flew for 41 Squadron until going to CFS Langebaanweg in September 2002 where she qualified as an instructor. She was transferred to 44 Squadron in October 2004, where she qualified as the first female multi-engine flight instructor since World War II within the SAAF. Igneet is married to Bedford.

Annabel Macauley

Annabel Macauley, from Mafikeng, was the first black female pilot, and later instructor, in the SAAF. Her dream started when her father showed her a Boeing’s cockpit when she was 5 years old. After Matric, she spent a month at a chartered accountant firm, followed by a year as an assistant teacher, but neither career interested her. In 2002 she did a six-month instructor’s rating course in the USA. She taught her first pupils at Langebaanweg in 2004. She was also the Ground Liaison Officer for the SAAF’s aerobatics team, the Silver Falcons. Annabel has taken part in flying formation for parades, the Opening of Parliament, and the Ten Years of Freedom celebrations. Annabel is the daughter of Sydney, a church minister, and Annie. She has a twin brother who is a university lecturer, an older sister who studied economics in England and a younger brother.

Mandy Lee Dilley

Mandy Lee Dilley is a qualified aircraft instrument fitter in the SAAF, having completed her apprenticeship in 1996. Her duties include apprentice training on Oryx helicopters. Mandy became interested in aviation when her brother joined the SAAF when she was in Grade 4.

Caren Kok

Caren Kok was in standard seven when she saw a helicopter and decided to become an aviation engineer. In 2006 she moved to Cape Town where she is responsible for maintaining the Red Cross AMS fleet of four helicopters. Caren spent nine years in the SAAF as a helicopter engineer and technical instructor with the rank of Sergeant. This was followed by five years at CHC Helicopters Africa, where she lived in Luanda for a year. Next she worked for eight months at Eurocopter.

Kerina Moodley

The first Indian female pilot in the SAAF, Kerina Moodley, received her wings at Langebaanweg in April 1999, just prior to her 21st birthday. She graduated along with four female pilots – Melanie Habben, Ignette Jordaan, Lauren Pipes and Michelle van Wyk. A female navigator, E. van Rooyen, also received her wings. Since the SAAF started accepting females for pilot training in 1996, nine women had received their wings by April 1999.

Kerina, a former pupil of Burnwood High School in Durban, was inspired to join the SAAF after reading a newspaper article about SAAF female pilots. She initially wanted to join the Police but went to the University of Natal to do a B.Sc. She left university when she was accepted by the SAAF in 1997. Kerina’s first solo flight was on 12th June 1998. She is the daughter of Tharum, a teacher, and Malitha, a pharmacist originally from Cape Town. Kerina has younger twin sisters and a brother.

Melanie Habben

Melanie Habben

Melanie Habben and Musa Mbhokota were the first two SAAF pilots to undergo flight instructor training in the Swedish Air Force. Melanie was previously with 21 Squadron, the SAAF’s VIP squadron based at AFB Waterkloof. Musa was a Cheetah pilot with 2 Squadron at AFB Makhado. They started their 14-week training course in August 2005 in Melmen. Afterwards, they were part of a group that included all the SAAF instructors, to design the SAAF’s new training system.

He came to South Africa, provisionally to teach pianoforte and harmony at the Diocesan School for Girls in Grahamstown. He taught for 29 hours a week, but he also had a select private practice and was appointed to the management of a new branch of the music dealers, Jackson Bros. In time he also took up the teaching of pianoforte at St Andrew’s College. He became prominent at concerts at which he featured in the company of Percy Ould, a violinist whom he assisted in organizing music for the Grahamstown Exhibition of Arts and Crafts (end of 1898 – beginning of 1899). Wendt composed an Ode for chorus and orchestra to mark the beginning of the Exhibition and also spent some time playing on the pianos exhibited by Jackson’s. Shortly after his arrival, and towards the end of 1899, he presented pianoforte recitals at which a few of his own compositions featured on the programmes. But the opportunities for a first-rate musician were too limited and in 1901 he left the town to take up for a short while the management of a new musical branch of Darter’s in East London and then to visit Durban for a year.

Wendt embarked on a tour of South Africa in July/August 1914 (despite war clouds) and gave over 50 successful concerts at Kimberley, Klerksdorp, Potchefstroom, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban (when the War broke out), Grahamstown (to revive old memories?) and Port Elizabeth. They returned to Cape Town by sea. The tours were resumed after the War and became an annual event, inspiring Durban and eventually Johannesburg to emulate them.

Amid the rather dreary round of recreational and social concerts, the Thursday evening concerts devoted to the symphonic repertoire formed an almost charmed circle and extreme measures had to be adopted after the War when they were endangered by financial considerations. A voluntary Thursday Evening Subscriber’s Society saved the situation by guaranteeing a few thousand pounds each year for their continuation. Without these concerts Wendt would have had no cause to stay on in Cape Town. In 1921 the reluctance of the Council to concede his artistic aims led him to the brink of resignation. He was approached by the Vice-chancellor of the University of the Witwatersrand to consider an appointment to the chair of Music in their projected Music Department. When Cape Town required to know the conditions under which he would continue as conductor, he demanded that the Council be relieved of the responsibility of the orchestra; this meant that an outside body would have to accept its management. The Cape Peninsula Publicity Association took up the burden and a new arrangement was reached which relieved the conductor of perennial financial worries. But after three happy years with the orchestra, there was trouble over the reinstatement of a previous reduction of 5% to the players, and when Wendt indignantly took up the cudgels, he was threatened with a reduction of R600 in his salary to meet the additional costs. In April 1924, on the eve of the orchestra’s sixth tour of the Union of South Africa, Wendt fesigned and became Musical Director and Studio Manager of South Africa’s first broadcasting station in Johannesburg. His first association with radio lasted two-and-a-half years and was ended when the broadcasting licence was awarded to Mr Schlesinger, a step which led to the creation of an African Broadcasting Company and the reconsideration of all aspects of broadcasting.

Wendt was responsible for supplying seven hours of listening entertainment each day. This included talks for women and children, operatic excerpts, plays, orchestral and chamber music concerts, as well as light music.

At the end of 1926 he departed from South Africa to establish himself in the United States of America. The American part of his career can be summarized. During the first six years of his stay he was mainly a lecturer in harmony and counterpoint at a college of music, but soon he had a variety of other occupations. He had some standing with Metro Goldwyn Mayer, for whom he composed original music and orchestrated existing music; on Sundays he travelled to Boston to conduct the Boston People’s Symphony Orchestra of 90 players; during the difficult times of the Great Depression he organized and conducted 90 orchestral players at Carnegie Hall and as a result was engaged by the National Broadcasting Corporation to conduct a series of symphony concerts. By 1933 he was established in American music circles and achieved an appointment as permanent conductor of the Buffalo Symphony Orchestra in Western New York State. Three years later he left America to visit Germany with his third wife, a Wagnerian soprano, presumably for the furtherance of their respective careers. While in Germany he had the opportunity of conducting the Berlin Radio Orchestra and was invited to London by the BBC to conduct his Six South African songs for a radio broadcast.

Barely a year after his arrival in Germany he was contacted in Munich by Rene Caprara, the first Director General of the SABC, to join Jeremy Schulman and Arnold Fulton in conducting the new SABC Orchestra. He accepted this proposition and landed in South Africa for the third time in February 1938, this time to conduct a body of players which, in combination with the semi-professional City Orchestra of John Connell, had at times a complement of 80. This arrangement lasted until 1944 when the SABC appointed him their official orchestrator and arranger. During these years he also returned to Cape Town as a guest conductor of the Symphony Orchestra he had established. The University of Cape Town awarded him an honorary Doctorate in Music on 10 December 1948.

Source: South African Music Encyclopaedia and Cape Times.

John Pike

Solicitor and Notary Public, Newcastle born on 11th July, 1867 in Durban. Son of William Pike. Educated at Durban Government School and Durban High School. He married Alexandra Gertrude on 21st October 1891, daughter of Capt. Jewitt; 3 children. Received legal training in the office of the late Harry Escombe, Durban and Messrs. Bale & Greene, Maritzburg. Member of the firm of Messrs. Watt & Pike. Hobby: Rifle shooting. Add. Newcastle, Natal.Source: South African Who’s Who & Business 1915

Rycroft’s interest in wind instruments, too, began in his childhood with a harmonica and a penny whistle. He advanced to the tenor saxhorn at school (Parktown High) and played in the cadet band. Thereafter he studied all the usual brass instruments and taught himself to play the flute, piccolo, recorder and oboe. He played the oboe in both his school orchestra and later in the orchestra of the University of the Witwatersrand, which he attended from 1942-1946. His studies (in Bantu languages and phonetics) were briefly interrupted by war service. At the completion of his university course he became Cultural Recreation Officer in the former Johannesburg Non-European Affairs Department and involved in many interesting aspects of music: he promoted Black cultural activities, including adult education in music, became a member of Hugh Tracey’s African Music Society and of the Bantu Music Festival Committee, and played the accompaniments to the Xhosa song recitals of Todd Matshikiza (composer of King Kong) on the SABC’s English programme (1950). In 1952 David Rycroft and his wife emigrated to England where he took up a post as lecturer in Bantu Languages and Ethnomusicology at London University ‘s School of Oriental and African studies. Since then he has frequently visited South Africa on field trips. He has published much of his research, which centres largely on the music, language and literature of the Swazi and Zulu peoples, and he has broadcast on the BBC, Radio Belgium and Radio Swaziland. He has also presented many conference papers and has lectured in the USA, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Ghana, West Germany, Belgium, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

In the meantime he has continued to be an active musician, in an unconventional way. He was a co-founder of the Guild of Gentlemen Trumpeters, which is called on to play fanfares at historic events; and he also co-founded the New Melstock Band (a name derived from the church band in Thomas Hardy’s book Under the greenwood tree). In the Band he plays period instruments such as the baroque oboe, early bassoon clarinet, serpent, ophicleide, cornet, cornopean, keyed bugle, natural horn, slide trumpet, trombones, helicon and tuba. They perform at old churches, stately homes, colleges and museums. In his spare time, Rycroft teaches brass instruments at a local school, directs pupils in a wind ensemble, and plays the accordion at village fetes or country dances when required. His four adult children have all inherited his musical talent.

Henry Selby Msimang

Born in Edendale, Pietermaritzburg, 13 December 1886, died in Edendale, Pietermaritzburg, 29 March 1982), interpreter, clerk, journalist, farm manager, and especially politician.He and his elder brother Richard Msimang were the children of the well-known African preacher who founded the Independent Methodist Church, Joel Msimang, and his wife Joanah Radebe.

Msimang received his primary education at the Emakosini Primary School in Nhlangano, Swaziland. Between 1903 and 1907 he studied first at Kilnerton Institution, a Methodist college in Pretoria, then Edendale Institution at Edendale, and finally at Healdtown Institution, a Methodist boarding school near Fort Beaufort in the Eastern Cape. Though he was then a qualified teacher, he never taught. His career started in 1908 when he was appointed as interpreter in Germiston, Transvaal. He never stayed in any career for long but kept changing jobs and homes. Between 1908 and 1965 he had fifteen occupations and lived in ten towns or cities in three provinces (the Transvaal, the Orange Free State and Natal ). From 1942, however, he settled in Edendale near Pietermaritzburg.

His political career started in 1912 when he was a founder member of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC, African National Congress (ANC) after 1923). During the following 30 years he participated in a number of their meetings, deputations and other activities. For many years he undertook the labour portfolio of the congress, and was a prominent member of the committee established to raise funds to send a deputation to Britain to try to have the Natives Land Act of 1913 repealed.

In Bloemfontein, in 1917, he was the editor of a newspaper Morumioa Inxusa (Messenger) (the title of the newspaper varied) which only existed for two years. (It could not be established if a connection existed between this newspaper and the one with which D.S. Letanka was involved in 1911, i.e. Moromioa.) During his stay in Bloemfontein (1917-1922) his long relationship with the labour movement started when, as a labour organizer, he led a strike of municipal workers in Bloemfontein in 1917, for which he was arrested and detained. In 1919 he liaised with Clements Kadalie, founder of the Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union (ICU), about the organization of African workers. Together they planned the establishment of a national ICU and in 1920 held a meeting in Bloemfontein with this in mind. Msimang was elected president of the national ICU. When Kadalie failed to be elected to the executive he withdrew with his supporters. This led to increasing animosity between Msimang and Kadalie, resulting in Msimang’s resignation as president and distancing himself from the ICU until after Kadalie’s resignation in 1929. Msimang then rejoined and during the decline of the ICU he held the post of national propagandist. From 1928 to 1937 Msimang was a labour advisor in Johannesburg.

In 1922 Msimang returned to Johannesburg and became a member of the Joint Council for Europeans and Bantu. He was still involved in the activities of the SANNC/ANC and served on the national executive committee of the ANC during the terms of office of presidents J.T. Gumede (1927-1930) and Pixley Seme (1930-1937). In 1932 he was a member of the so-called revival committee that wanted to strengthen the organization from within to prevent its stagnation. Three years later, during the first meeting of the All-African Convention (AAC) in Bloemfontein in December 1935, he was elected as secretary.

In 1942 he returned to Natal and was elected provincial secretary of the Natal branch of the ANC, a position he retained until 1956. He was also a confidant of the Natal leader A.W.G. Champion. In 1948 he became a member of the Native Representative Council (NRC) although at that time it was no longer an active body. In December of the same year he attended the discussions with the AAC as delegate of the ANC during an unsuccessful attempt to reconcile these two organizations. During the annual congress of the ANC of that year Msimang was elected to the committee which had to draw up the Programme of Action. Early in 1949 he represented the ANC in discussions with prominent Indian leaders in an effort to reconcile Africans and Indians after bloody clashes between them in Durban and surrounding areas in January 1949. A year later Msimang and Champion’s political ways parted and Msimang lost his position in the ANC. However, when Albert Luthuli defeated Champion as president of the ANC in 1951, Msimang was reinstated as provincial secretary. But he lost interest in the ANC and even before the Defiance Campaign of 1952 he resigned as provincial secretary in Natal.

In 1953 Msimang became a founder member of the multiracial Liberal Party of South Africa. From 1956-1968 he served on the executive committee and in due course became the national vice-chairperson. His activities were, however, hampered in 1965 when the government forbade him to attend meetings for five years.

Msimang was also interested and active in local politics and problems. For many years from 1942 he was secretary of the Edendale Advisory Board Local Health Commission. He was the founder of the Edendale Benevolent Society and served as its secretary from 1946 to 1952, and from 1967 as honorary life president. In 1973 he was elected secretary of the Edendale AmaKholwa Tribe. In 1975 Msimang became a member of the national council of the Inkatha yeNkululeko yeSizwe. From 1974 to 1975 he served on the executive committee of the South African Institute of Race Relations. He was a Methodist and served in various committees of the church.

Msimang was a prolific author. Apart from numerous newspaper articles, including series of articles in several newspapers, he published a pamphlet The crisis ( Johannesburg, 1936) about the effect of the 1936 Land Act on Africans.

He was married twice and had four sons and four daughters. His first wife was Mercy Mahlomola King whom he married in July 1913. She died in September 1951, and in August 1952 he married Miriam Primrose Oldjohn.

Source and Image: New Dictionary of South African Biography

Boswell Circus 1959

From the evidence of early Dutch and Cape paintings, it may be assumed that the first White inhabitants of the Cape were diverted by performing dogs and various animals trained to do tricks, notably monkeys (which were common household pets) and baboons. The garrisons at the Castle possibly spent part of their leisure in training such animals, and performing bears and various animals from the Orient may have been seen when in transit to Europe. In the country districts feats and tricks of horsemanship were highly esteemed, and were probably demonstrated at kermis (fair) and other occasions where the farmers gathered. Organised exhibition of performing persons and animals cannot be traced before 1810, when an application was made for leave to stage a circus in Cape Town. Except for occasional theatrical performances and amateur diversions in the town, organised entertainment was rare, and the circus was one of the first forms to develop.

One of the earliest was W. H. Bell’s circus, but by the eighties there were several, including Feeley’s, Wirth’s, Cooke’s, Val Simpson’s and that of the incomparable Frank Fillis who, coming to South Africa in 1880 to join Bell’s circus, took it over when Bell died. The two mining towns, Kimberley and Johannesburg, and the seaports of Cape Town and Durban now provided profitable ‘pitches’, and the smaller inland towns, formerly almost completely Fillis’s Circus building, Cape Town, in 1895  without entertainment, constituted a worth-while ‘circuit’.

Going overseas from time to time in order to recruit his ‘turns’, Fillis developed his circus into a major entertainment which the highest in the land were glad to patronise. He established a permanent building in Johannesburg in 1889 known as ‘Fillis’s Amphitheatre’ and specialised in spectacles such as a reconstruction of the Niagara Falls, ‘Dick Turpin’s ride to York’ and ‘Major Wilson’s last stand’. These were also staged at a structure opened in 1896 in Cape Town at the foot of Adderley Street alongside the Pier. Madame Fillis was an equestrienne of note and performed haute école at a benefit night given in Johannesburg in 1895. Mr. Lionel Phillips presented Mr. Fillis with a set of diamond studs and Madame Fillis with a ruby and diamond brooch on behalf of Johannesburg residents.

The artistes and company presented him with a gold star set with diamonds’. In spite of the high tone and spectacular scope of his performances, Fillis was frequently in financial straits. In 1900 he took an extraordinary show entitled ‘Savage South Africa’ to England, but despite the attraction of an authentic South African stagecoach, black warriors and other novelties, it failed and he was again bankrupt. He was reintroduced grandly to his old South African pitch by the impresario A. Bonamici in 1902 with an ‘Imperial Circus’, but the current depression militated against him. He faced bankruptcy again and again, and his animals were once sold over his head to pay his creditors. Finally ‘Madame Fillis’s Circus and Wild West Show’ went into opposition against him in Durban in 1910. (Vincenta Fillis, once the world’s first ‘human canon-ball, died in Durban in May 1946 at the age of 75.) Frank Fillis, with the circus that had become a national institution, then left South Africa and operated in the East. He died in Bangkok in Jan. 1922, but his sons continued in the entertainment field. The eldest, Frank, a well-known cinema manager, died in Johannesburg at the age of 80 in March 1961.

During the acute depression that followed the Second Anglo-Boer War the circus was often the only entertainment in the large towns. In addition to Fillis, Bonamici himself, Blake, Willison, Bostock and Wombwell, and F. W. A. Pagel toured during this period. Pagel and his wife survived many vicissitudes to become as much a national institution as Fillis. Born in Pomerania, Wilhelm Pagel was a professional weight-lifter, wrestler and lion-tamer. Madame Pagel also performed with the lions and tigers in her earlier days. Later she left the ring to undertake the entire direction of the complex circus organisation. She was known all over South Africa and frequently caused a sensation by driving about in the streets in an open car with a fully-grown lion beside her. She died at the Pagel training farm for animals near Pretoria in December 1939. The circus continued even after her husband retired in 1944 and after his death at Knysna in October 1948. Bostock’s Circus, based in England, visited South Africa intermittently. One of its clowns, ‘Spuds’ (George Kirk), later joined Pagel, and in 1930 formed his own circus, which was disbanded in 1944.
The cinema and other forms of entertainment were drawing audiences away from the circus except in the smaller towns, where it was a welcome diversion, and in the large towns during holiday seasons. James Boswell, who with his three brothers had come to South Africa in 1910 to perform in a circus, stayed to establish his own. It rivalled Pagel’s as a South African entertainment institution, and in 1956 African Theatres bought an interest in it and kept it on the road. Boswell celebrated his 80th birthday in retirement in April 1961. Competing with Boswell on the Southern African circuit was Wilkie’s Circus, the two amalgamating on 1 July 1963 under the direction of Wilkie, and the combined circus continued to tour. A less ambitious enterprise operating simultaneously was Doyle’s Circus, which was sold in liquidation in 1967. In 1964, the two enterprises were faced by competition on a grand scale when the famous Chipperfield’s Circus was imported lock, stock and barrel from England to settle in South Africa, and opened for the Christmas season in Cape Town. A succession of misfortunes failed to prevent its establishing itself and regularly touring the sub continent.
In 1968 the International Circus Performers’ Award was won by the clown Charlie Bale, the first South African circus artist to be so honoured. Nicknamed the Circus Oscar, the trophy is awarded every five years by an international body to a circus performer whose work is outstanding.
Source:Standard Encyclopedia of Southern Africa