Page 57 - KBHA BULLETIN 2

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and Kalk Bay - the train merely stopped alongside the Church. This meant that the Church had to

be demolished and rebuilt on the opposite side of the Main Road - the site it occupies to this day.
(Fig. 3.6.)

When Fr. Duignam heard of this he was infuriated and immediately set off in his trap with his
favourite horse, Larry, to see the General Manager of the Cape Government Railway. Yes, they

were going to put a railway station there, and they wanted the property where his Church stood.

They would pay for it of course.

The following conversation took place:

Fr. Duignam: What are ye going to call the Station?

General Manager: Well, I’m not sure. We haven’t thought about it.

Fr.Duignam: Then I’ll give ye a name for it. Ye’ll call it St. James, after my little Church.

And they did, and that is how St. James got its name.

At the turn of the century the size of Fr. Duignam’s classes had increased greatly in number, and

pupils of different race groups together attended St. James Mission School. He also found

himself under increasing pressure from the growing number of local white residents to take their
children for schooling in a separate school. In 1906 he appealed to the Holy Cross Sisters for help

but they had no suitable Sisters to spare. He then approached Mother Pius at Springfield Convent

with a request for her to send Sisters to open a Private School and to run the Mission School, to
which she consented. When she agreed Fr. Duignam once more set to work as architect and

master builder and in 1908 the beautiful stone Convent was completed by him at a cost of a little

over £5500, and named Star of the Sea.

Star of the Sea School opened on 24 January 1908 as a Junior School up to Std. 2, with a total of
10 pupils, which grew to 20 by the end of the term. Initially three Sisters were commissioned to