The 2025 Chronicle

in World War I from men who had served and had been to independent schools in either South Africa, Australia, New Zealand or Canada. Moreover, I believe that the ranking will be similar when the statistics are tallied for World War II. A sad but heroic record. On 3 June, three Old Boys were honoured with the St Michael Award – the most prestigious award the school can bestow on an Old Boy. The award is made to Old Boys who have lived lives of exceptional and selfless service, without thought of recogni tion and reward. This year the award was made to a doctor who has been serving in Gaza and Pakistan, a naturalist who has been instrumental in having the Magaliesberg region declared an International Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO, and another doctor who has invented a combined portable X-ray and ultra sound machine for the detection of breast cancer, so saving the lives of innumerable women living in rural areas. When I look back at the lives of the 51 awardees since the inception of the award in 1996, I marvel at the incredible ex ample set by these men. Not the least, the six OMs who were incarcerated by the apartheid security police for their beliefs. One of these men was imprisoned without trial for 96 days and then endured house arrest for 10 years, another served two terms of solitary confinement exceeding 70 days each, and a third, aged only 23, served a solitary confinement sentence of no fewer than 180 days. Are there any greater examples of per sonal courage than holding on to your beliefs when you are all alone, withstanding both physical and mental torture? Perhaps similar moral courage will be needed from the next generation, if we are to avert the downward spiral which our country seems intent on pursuing. In 1897, at the very first Speech Day of Michaelhouse, when the school consisted of fewer than 80 boys, the Rector and found er of the school, Canon James Cameron Todd, uttered some remarkable words, “Our aim is to make, not accountants, not clerks, not clergymen, but men; men of understanding, thought and culture.” I imagine that parents were expecting to hear that Michaelhouse would transform their sons into amazing aca demics or sportsmen. But no, Todd’s statement unequivocal ly put values first. Todd believed that values were the building blocks of a man’s life. I often wonder what he would make of the modern world: where some world leaders are unashamed liars, where our political classes have completely excised the word “integrity” from their vocabulary and where we have to resort to “commissions of enquiry” to help us distinguish what is obviously right from what is obviously wrong. Today is of course Speech Day, where we come together to rec ognize and honour our boys, particularly the matric boys, for their talents and hard work. We extend our sincere congratula tions to these boys and hope that their efforts in the future will continue to be crowned with success. This reminds me of a story about Speech Day. Young Paul was a very average student and was being berated by his father. “Paulie, why can’t you be like your friend Grant, who has won stacks of prizes and who always gets As and Bs?” “Oh, but Dad, he’s lucky,” replied Paul, “he’s got very clever parents.” I will leave you with a quote from Stephen Hawking. “Remember to look up at the stars and not at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder what makes the universe exist. Be curious, and ( remember ) however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.”

was likely to hide, they would carefully skirt it. In addition, by this time my eyes were streaming from the ever-tightening grip of Arbuthnot’s shorts, and my commands were reduced to a series of high-pitched squeaks. In the afternoon, Major Goldie-Scott swooped from the sky like the fearless Red Baron, dropping his flour bombs. They all fell harmlessly wide, except one which hit Farmer Cairns’ prize bull in the middle of its hindquarters. It was feared that the shock had rendered the poor animal impotent and the vet was sum moned immediately. During the course of the afternoon, many combatants claimed grievous wounds and were ferried back in the school lorry. Dunkirk 1940 was an evacuation picnic com pared with Cairn Marsh 1962. Naturally, Major Goldie-Scott de clared the exercise to be a magnificent success. One of the great advantages of boarding schools is that they bring together boys from different backgrounds and, of course, with different personalities. Just look at the Crazy Gang from Spud. Living together provides the environment for making lifelong friends. It is for this reason that the spirit of camaraderie of a boarding school must, by its very nature, exceed that of a day school. Probably the greatest gift that Michaelhouse gave me is the friends that I made here who are still central to my life. Another gift that this school gave me is the deep impact of the beauty of this campus. For much of this I have to acknowledge the work of Nick Grice, who has been the school’s architect for almost 40 years. When I cast my mind back to my time here, some of the buildings erected in the fifties and sixties had very little architectural merit. Enter Nick Grice, stage left. Nick has transformed these structures into welcoming, light and hand some buildings which remain true to the style and original vi sion of Sir Herbert Baker and his partner, James Fleming. It was Sir Winston Churchill who said, “We shape buildings, thereafter they shape us.” Please take a look at Nick’s extension to the chapel. Last year, I undertook a tour of the great English cathedrals and, in its own way, the simplicity and beauty of the Michaelhouse Chapel has a presence which is equally impactful. If you go to St Paul’s Cathedral in London, you will find an epitaph to its architect, Sir Christopher Wren, which is inscribed as follows: “Reader, if you seek his monument – look around you.” What incredibly appro priate words for the legacy of another architect at a school far away in a remote valley in KwaZulu-Natal. During the past year we added a display of bestselling books written by Old Boys to the existing displays in the Heritage Cen tre of artworks and sculptures created by Old Boys. The criterion for inclusion was extremely stiff: a book with sales of at least 20 000 copies (a real blockbuster in today’s terms). We have add ed ten authors, ranging from Africa’s bestselling writer, Wilbur Smith, to Professor George Ellis, co-author of the seminal book, with the world-renowned scientist Stephen Hawking, The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time , which has totally changed our understanding of the physical universe. This book appeared in the UK Sunday Times bestseller list for a record-breaking 237 weeks, despite its complex scientific nature. It has indeed been a busy year. In May, to mark the 80th an niversary of VE Day, we honoured the 128 Old Boys who gave their lives in the Second World War. A recent book published in the UK, called Public Schools and the Great War , ranked Michaelhouse as having the highest percentage of fatalities

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