William Herbert Cook, is one of the oldest
Muirites alive. Bert or better known as Bertie by his friends, was born
in London on the 4th of April 1921. Bert arrived in South Africa at age
11 after the death of his parents in London, where he stayed with his
aunt who had been a nursing sister at the provincial hospital in Port
Elizabeth, but later was placed in charge of the nursing home for Dr
Braun in Uitenhage.
Bert attended Muir in the Old Redbrick Building
in Park Avenue. As you can imagine coming to Muir halfway through Std. 5
made things interesting for Bert, as he had to learn Afrikaans. It was
decided that Bert would only start Afrikaans in Std. 6. Mr Myburgh was
Bert’s Std. 6 teacher and also a hostel master. Without any shadow of a
doubt Mr Myburgh was the finest teacher Bert had ever met. Mr Myburgh
tutored Bert for an hour every day, while the other students were in
prep. By June Bert was able to write the same Afrikaans exam as the
other boys, with the exception that he was able to use a dictionary.
Bert then matriculated in 1937 and then began working for Standard Bank
in 1938.
Bert will be attending this year's Founders
Celebrations with his son Eric. We look forward to catching up with Bert
and all other Old Muirites who will be returning to their Alma mater,
No comments:
Post a Comment