Reminiscences of
William Andrew Kerkham

Transcribed and edited by
Andrew Summers Kerkham

Preface

"This is partly a family history, partly a history of the times and partly a collection of memories of times which will too soon have been forgotten, times when tension was a word applied to stress in materials, not to the human mind, times when there was a contentment with what we had, an ability to find and produce our own entertainments, with memories going back to days when motor cars were rare, when there was no radio or TV and the films were silent." W.A.K.

These reminiscences were originally published as Forgotten times : Cape Town in the early twentieth century, Cape Town, Friends of the South African Library, 1990, and long since out of print. They evoke a vivid picture of life in Cape Town during the early years of the twentieth century which formed the background to William Kerkham's early family life, starting with his father's emigration to the Cape of Good Hope in August 1890. The original manuscript, written about 1980-1987, consisted of notes in various stages of completion. There were several versions of some sections, while other sections were incomplete, but the whole has been combined into a single narrative using the original wording as closely as possible. Measurements in the old Imperial measures have been left as such, and prices are of course in the non-decimal Sterling of the day (pounds, shillings and pence – £sd). To clarify family relationships referred to in the text, a brief family tree is given below. Note that although William Kerkham's father and brother both had the name Fred, he consistently refers to his father as 'Father' and to his brother as 'Fred'. A.S.K.

Contents

1. Father and his background

2. Father comes to the Cape

3. The Cape in the 1890s

4. Father's early days in Cape Town

5. My early days

6. Life at 'Norfolk'

7. Transport

8. Everyday objects

9. Shops and foods

10. Schooling

11. Holidays

Abbreviated Kerkham Family Tree

Kerkham Genealogy Page

© Andrew Summers Kerkham, 2005
(email kerkham at gmail dot com)