My Grandfather Karl Röttcher was a form 1 boy in 1950. He was in School House.
His parents wanted him to be schooled in English and for reasons which are unknown to me he was sent 400km by train to attend PBHS.
From the day he arrived at Boys High he was not overly eager to excel in academics. What he did however enjoy was art, shooting and running small businesses from within the School House walls which included barber services and biltong at a price.
In 1952 he completed the Danny Swart statue. The PBHS history books make almost no mention thereof – but in the 1994 version of the Pretorian the following was said:
Bottom: Mr Dan Swart, Mr Bill Schroder and Mr Karl Rottcher look on as the statue is hoisted into place. WHEN Walter Battiss embarked on the sculpture of “the Boys High boy” for the cupola on top of the main dome of the school he could never have anticipated the drama that would follow some forty-two years later. The “boy” was carved out of a solid piece of kiaat. The facts behind the sculpture have through the years been obscured by embellishments to the story. Originally thought by many to have been carved by Battiss himself, it came as a surprise to learn that one of his senior art pupils, Karl Rottcher, did the bulk of the carving. Apparently Battiss only reserved the carving of the face and genitals for himself.
And
On Friday 19 August, less than two months after he was removed, “Danny Swart” was returned to his place of honour. It was particularly moving to have both Mr Karl Rottcher and Mr Dan Swart present at the replacement ceremony. It should be noted that the funds have not yet been raised to pay for the full cost of the restoration project and any further donations would be appreciated. Other people who need to be thanked for their part in this venture include: Dr Buks Maré and Mr Wim Kossen for their help with the physical removal and replacement of the sculpture; Mr Werner Obermeyer for making the mounting for the replacement and, of course, Dr Trebot Barry without whose energy and motivation, this project would never have taken place.
(I apologise if this may be confusing – these are extracts copied from the digital version of what I think is the 1994 Pretorian.)
On the bottom right hand side of page 7 of the 2001 Pretorian there is a photograph of a boy standing next to the statue, that boy is my grandfather. (I believe the original is in the museum).
My grandfather did not matriculate – somewhere during his form 4 or 5 year he decided that ” he had now learned enough” and he “knew what he had to know”.
The story told by his age old friend – Glen Smith was that during an exam my grandfather simply got up and decided he had now had enough of school – he walked to his younger brother’s (Peter Rottcher’s) class and asked him “kom jy saam?” – he did. His younger brother went back to school – he did not.
He was well known to Mr Bill Schroder and had an extreme love and passion for the school.
His son Robert Max Rottcher attended Boys high and we, his grandsons, literally had no choice but to attend PBHS. He was extremely proud that all of his grandsons had been accepted into PBHS, and was equally proud when we were accepted into School House. His daughter Louise was also given no option but to attend Girls High.
He was an advocate of the school and would tell anyone who would listen how good the school was.
He sadly passed away on 8 February 2018 after a long period fighting diabetes.
Thanks to him when my brothers and I attended PBHS from 2001 to 2011 we were the third generation of our family to do so.
Kind Regards,
Heinrich van den Berg (2007)