Plaque unveiled in honour of Angel of Durban
An event at Killie Campbell celebrated two bursaries presented again this year and the unveiling of a plaque.
THE Killie Campbell Bursary Award Evening attracted 90 members and invited guests to Muckleneuk, the home of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) Campbell Collections.
The event celebrated two bursaries presented this year to award winners Kerry Glover and Anton Coetzee, registered at the University of the Witwatersrand, and the unveiling of a plaque donated by the Returned Sailor’s, Soldier’s and Airmen’s League in memory of Ethel Campbell who was fondly known as the Angel of Durban.
A welcome address by SA National Society (SANS) chairman Hardy Wilson highlighted the objectives of SANS in preserving objects of historic interest and natural beauty.
Prof Donal McCracken painted an entertaining yet fascinating picture of the Campbell family who arrived in Natal in 1850.
The family and its descendants made an important mark on the sugar industry, legislature and education in the Colony of Natal.
Delia Francis shared anecdotes about her distant cousin Ethel Campbell before unveiling the beautifully refurbished gift from Australia: “The placement of this plaque here at Muckleneuk brings together two great Campbell women, Ethel and Killie, who were first cousins born only six years apart. It is a great privilege for me, as a cousin of Ethel Campbell, to be here this evening at the unveiling of this plaque in memory of her. While I never met Ethel who died in the year I was born, I have fond memories of tearing around the garden here at Muckleneuk as a seven-year-old and then coming up to the house for one of Killie’s famous morning teas,” she said.
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In Durban, as elsewhere in South Africa, women played a great and indispensable role in both world wars in furthering the war effort.
“In 1914, Ethel Campbell started her own special war effort: Being an expert signaller, she began signalling to every Australian troopship as it arrived in the harbour. Offering a genuine warm welcome and cheerful hospitality to total strangers, day in and day out through all weathers for years, must surely rank high up there as one of the greatest gifts of selfless love. No wonder Ethel Campbell became known throughout Australia as The Angel of Durban. When she died in 1954, Australian servicemen all over the continent mourned the passing of their Angel of Durban. Tributes and condolences came pouring in to the Campbell family; culminating in the arrival by sea of this plaque. The words engraved here are fitting tribute to the Angel of Durban, a girl whose unconditional love captured the hearts of a continent, ” she said.
Many people contributed towards seeing the Ethel Campbell project to completion, particularly Arthur Gammage who found ‘tanglewood’ photo frames to show Ethel and her flags and provided a brief write-up. Special thanks went to Durban Local History Museums for holding the heritage flag high.
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