Nostalgia trip stirs up childhood memories for London evacuee

A PROMISE made to him by his son on his 90th birthday to go on a nostalgia tour of Durban came to fruition recently for former World War II evacuee from London, Stephen Woodville.

Father and son arrived in Durban earlier this month to stay with relatives, Philip and Heather Everitt ,and revisited 91-year-old Stephen’s never-fogotten childhood haunts around the city.

Chatting to Berea Mail on their city walkabout, Stephen explained that he had been a Scout in London when he discovered that children were being evacuated to South Africa. “As scouts we used to help as runners to get people to air raid shelters. One day I saw a notice about going to South Africa. I took a leaflet home and instigated the move to Durban. My uncle lived in Durban and as a businessman, he travelled to Europe and had visited us in London, so I knew him,” he said.

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Stephen said there was only one ship, the Llanstephan Castle, which came to South Africa, carrying 300 evacuees from Liverpool to Cape Town. Stephen arrived in September 1940 at the age of 13.

“Originally there was a plan to evacuate 400 000 children from the UK but two ships were torpedoed in the Atlantic, so the programme was cancelled. The Llanstephan Castle was the only ship to bring evacuees to the country, and children were dissipated to families and relatives they had here,” said John.

When he arrived in Durban he started schooling at Mansfield Road High, where the Steve Biko Campus stands today. He attended St Thomas Church and took up Scouting with the now 4th Durban Scout Group at St Thomas, and joined the church choir.

As part of the nostalgia tour, arrangements were made for Stephen to visit the church and meet the Scout master who took out all the history books on the Scout group for Stephen to peruse.

“I used to ring the church bell when I was here as a teenager and once I damaged the organ pipe,” he recalled, delighted to have been allowed to ring the bell again when he visited the church on his nostalgia tour.

In December 1940, a concert entitled the Good Luck Revue was held at Durban City Hall and Stephen was chosen to sing a solo finale of “There’ll Always Be an England” at the end of the show. One of the highlights of his trip back to Durban was organised by his host Philip, who organised through the municipality’s Eric Apelgren for Stephen to visit City Hall and to stand on the same spot on stage to relive that night.

After finishing school in Durban, Stephen went to technical college in Smith Street where he achieved a general qualification in engineering and construction. He found out about a job in the radio section on BOAC, the British Overseas Airways C Class Flying Boats, in the Congella ship yards, and started work there.

BOAC used to run a passenger service from Durban, which was completely separate to the Air Force operations from the same area, which used Catalina and Sunderland flying boats. The BOAC C Class was a civilian version of the Sunderland though there were slight differences in appearance.

“The passengers sat in wicker chairs on board and the pilot would slow down for them to view elephants and game en route!” he said.

Philip planned a meeting for Stephen with Durban surgeon John Buchan, who has been gathering information about the flying boats in Durban for the past 19 years tfor a book he plans to write on the topic. Stephen enjoyed a long visit and reminiscences with him.

“In 1947 there was the last transfer for evacuees back to the UK and I went back home. My love for the flying boats lived on and I worked for 47 years of my career with BOAC and British Airways. Heathrow Airport was in its early infancy when I went back,” he said.

John said the family had been out to South Africa a few times, but that this was a special holiday.

“I promised my dad that we would visit his old haunts on a father-son trip to relive his youth, and it has been great. We also visited the Playhouse, which was a cinema in my dad’s youth and we drove to where he lived, a property at the intersection of Moore and Manning Roads. Although we had visited South Africa frequently, I didn’t realise it had been 19 years since we had been here. It was fabulous to learn more from my dad, to remember about places we’ve been before and relive it all with my dad,” said John.

“I’ve unearthed memories along the way on this trip. It’s been a great outcome from John’s promise, one year later and here we are!” said Stephen.

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