The 125th year of the Maritzburg College Old Boys Association
Khanyisani Mthimkhulu (Deputy Head Prefect)
From Pietermaritzburg High School to Pietermaritzburg College to Maritzburg College. Three different schools with the same heart, the same passion, the same pride in one’s school, and it was with that pride which led to the birth of the Maritzburg College Old Boys Association. A brotherhood which we, as the 6th Form Class of 2022, will be inducted into in a few month’s time.
We give many thanks to the pioneering efforts of this elite association, particularly those of three men of vision:
- The then Headmaster, the great Mr. RD Clark,
- The first president of the Old Boys Association, Sir Henry Bale.
- Ernest Holgate, an Old Boy and former teacher.
Gatherings of Old Collegians have gone a long way since the inaugural meeting in the Super Room of the Town Hall on the 11th of January 1897, with Old Boys meeting in France in June 1916 before the battle of Somme; in a Prisoner-of-War Camp, in Germany during World War II and even on the ice in Antarctica, with chats often starting with the mere question, “Dayboy or Boarder”.
Maritzburg College is home to many unique traditions, its famous cheese zarm and of course, the most important meeting of all; Reunion Day.
Two years ago, a feeling was taken away from us; a feeling that brought goosebumps this past Monday, of Reunion Week. The feeling of your blood racing on a cold winter’s evening on Clark House Quad for Friday Night Shouting. The feeling of the emotion when your shirt is placed under your pillow the Friday before a game. The feeling of the true Maritzburg College.
Tomorrow on the field, we honour all the Old Collegians who have walked past these walls individually bell by bell, and have left with their hearts bound as brothers. We honour with a plaque on the Wall of Remembrance, Sir Henry Bale, a noble son of College. And best of all, we honour the pride of Maritzburg, the red, the black and the white.
Three long years we have waited; for the heart of AB Jacksons to be reborn, for the spirit on Pape’s Astro to be relived and for the passion on Goldstones to echo across the field.
To Maritzburg College, to the Old Boys’ Association, we as College boys pledge to always strive to be the very best, to play with heart and fire, to never give up and to never say die.
College is College because of its brotherhood. College is College because of its passion. College is College because we live for the red, black and white; and College will forever be the pride of Maritzburg
“For those who love this school will realize what it means to be one of us, and as long as we realize then we’ll never go extinct.” (A. Vermaak, 2018)
Our field of Gold time and again, ignites our hearts both boys and men, and we have returned from whence we roam. Always for the glory, for hearth and home.
Pro Aris et Focis