Page 11 - KBHA BULLETIN 5

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But she spent a lot of time in Muizenberg, and, as she got older, she became more and more

eccentric. When she saw the boys at Hillel College (now ‘Knights’) peering into her apartments
she promptly bought the building. (Figs. 1.4 & 1.5.) Similarly, the house ‘St. Margaret’s’, above

‘The Fort’, overlooked her swimming pool so she bought that as well, and at one stage owned all
22 properties on the mountain side above her house.

She stored her father’s pictures, including many priceless originals in the empty house ‘Knights.

When Maurice Myerson bought the house in 1949 he found pictures stacked up against the walls.

Vyvyan Myerson particularly remembers Millais ‘Cherry Ripe’. Incidentally, one of the
conditions of sale was that no fires were to be lit in the house, presumably because she did not

want smoke blowing onto her property!

There was only one small garage at ‘Knights’ with steel doors which the Myersons were unable

to open. Mr. Myerson oiled the lock well, hoping that when they next came on holiday the oil
would have worked through. However, the following year it would still not open so they got

someone with a blowtorch to cut out the lock. When it was finally opened they found inside a
brand new 1936 Rolls Royce standing on blocks. Mr. Myerson contacted her solicitors and the

car was towed away by Porter’s Motors.

Because the driveway at ‘Knights’ was so narrow and difficult to get out of Mr. Myerson would

get his young son, Vyvyan, to take his Chrysler out onto the Main Road where his parents would
wait on the pavement. On one occasion when he parked to wait for them outside ‘The Fort’

Princess Labia sent her major-domo, Frank, to tell him to move his car. (Frank was from
Mocambique and lived at ‘The Fort’. He had a telephone in his room so that the Princess could

keep in touch with him when she was at ‘Hawthorndene’). “Does she think she owns the road?”

asked young Myerson, whereupon Frank said that indeed she did own the road at that point as
she had a servitude over the road for the pipes bringing sea water to her bathroom.

I believe that at the beginning of the war she, being an Italian subject, was not allowed to own
any property, so she sold most of her houses and transferred ownership of the rest to her sisters.

‘Lucknow’ on the beach was lent rent-free by Florence Robinson to S.A.W.A.S. to run as a

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