Page 48 - KBHA BULLETIN 4

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After completing his studies at The Royal Mountain Academy, Freiberg, in Saxony he emerged

as a mining engineer in 1906 and then drifted into the developing ‘Automobilbau’ industry. His
father, a financier in London, was considering an interest in either the Renault or the Vauxhall

companies and Tromp needed little pushing to change direction to the exciting field of high
powered cars. He entered a technical college specialising in this new branch of engineering

science in the beautiful little duchy of Sachsen-Altenburg. In 1907 he was asked to race a new
Rex Simplex built under a Renault licence, in a major event, but unfortunately in trials the car

broke down and burnt out. A sad ending for a 144 kph vehicle. Still, having been involved in

racing in 1907 probably makes him the first South African racing driver. He then switched to
motor bike racing. In 1910 the Wanderer factory had built a special racing bike for him to his

specifications. In England he did well with this machine at Brooklands.

In 1911, after his father had lost his money on the Stock Exchange, they returned to South

Africa. The local wrestling was largely modern catch-as-catch-can and a more limited version of
the traditional Greco-Roman, so Tromp retired from the sport having fulfilled the faith of the

‘Sports Paper’, unbeaten in all his many amateur fights.

Back home the vehicles weren’t quite what he had been used to in Germany. Soon, in December

1912 Tromp’s early physical culture teachings were mentioned in the press for the first time. In
1913 he left the mining industry and formally started teaching his course which he called ‘Health

through Common Sense’. When he wrote his autobiography in 1954 he proudly said he had
‘Brought health to over 100,000 South Africans.’ I am conscious of two things relating to this.

One, an appreciative letter from a doctor who said Tromp had done more for the health of the
country than anyone else and, two, a really surprising number of people who throughout my life

have said to me that Dad had made a significant difference in one of their family’s health.

One of his most cherished recognitions of his ability was, after putting on a show at the

Parliamentary Club, when General Smuts said: “Tromp if you talked in Chinese people would
still listen to you.”

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