ABOUT THE ASSOCIATION

Pretoria Boys High School was founded in 1901 in the old “Staats Model” School on the corner of Skinner and van der Walt Street. In 1909, after several other homes the Pretoria College moved into the new school buildings on the hill (Waterkloof Kop), east of Pretoria. In 1910 the Pretoria College amalgamated with ‘Eendracht Skool” to form the Pretoria Boys High School under the headmastership of Mr WH ‘Billy’ Hofmeyr. This was as a dual medium school, which it remained until 1924 when Afrikaans Medium High School, ‘Affies’ was built.

While 1901 was the starting date of the school, it took until 1919 before the school issued invitations to the Old Boys to attend a reunion. This can be seen as the opening of the Old Boys front. An attempt had been made in 1914 to start and Old Boys body but this did not come to anything.

It was on the 6th of December 1919 that 60 Old Boys, who had responded to the invitation of the School, gathered for an enjoyable day spent at the School. Cricket was played during the day and in the evening the first Old Boys Dinner, ‘which was a powerful testimony to the skills of the Matrons of the Houses’, was held in the Big Hall of the School. After the feast a meeting was held and it was unanimously resolved that an Old Boys Association be formed. Carson Cross was elected the first Chairman with Albert Meeser as his secretary.

It was at the meeting that it was decided that on the first Saturday of every December a reunion dinner would be held. Later the date was changed to the second Saturday of November. This was again changed due to exams and the close proximity of Guy Fawkes to the third Saturday in October. In recent years it has been held in the first half of March. *

It was during the war years that many of the minute books went astray, as a result no official records remain of the Association activities until after the war. Research still continues, however, in order to fill the blanks in our history.

On the 20th of December 1948 the Pretoria High School Old Boys Association was formed as a Registered Limited Company, not for gain, and the Articles and Memorandum of the Association were signed in Solomon House witnessed by Mrs Francois Brooks, the wife of Bill Brooks.

The formation of a company was necessary in order to enable the Association to purchase a piece of property in what is now Lynnwood from Frank Struben. This is now Hofmeyr Park and the home of the Pretoria High School Old Boys Club.

The objects for which the Association was established were:

To foster, promote, encourage and provide facilities for, social intercourse, sport, intellectual pursuits and all types of meeting and association between, and mutual interest among, ex-pupils of High Schools in the Union of South Africa and elsewhere, particularly between and among Old Boys of the Pretoria High School for Boys, pupils of the said school, parents and well-wishers of Old Boys and pupils of the said school and masters thereof.

To promote, establish, assist in the administration or government of schools, colleges and educational centres, to promote education and sport in all their branches and particularly to do whatever may be required or calculated to further and advance the good and interest of the Pretoria High School for Boys, its Old Boys, Pupils and staff.

– Roger Herbert: A Brief History of the Old Boys Association (The Pretorian 1997)

* The Annual Old Boys Dinner is held on the first Saturday in June every year.