Page 129 - KBHA BULLETIN 5

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Tommy Carse

I would like to make mention of Tommy Carse. I think he is still alive. His role in the life of

Kalk Bay has been very remarkable. He is an Afrikaner and was a policeman; to many that
would cast him as a double villain. Yet he is one of the most respected people in the

community. In his book ‘Die Bloudam is Hul Oesland’ he has recorded so much of the life of
this community. During the 1950s he involved himself with the community and in those

activities which mattered to them, notably fishing and rugby. It is said that he worked himself

out of a job, as there was so little crime in Kalk Bay that the Police Station was closed.

Discrimination

One of the paradoxes of Holy Trinity Church, and perhaps Kalk Bay, is that there were

attitudes and actions where there was racial separation and discrimination, and hurt was
caused, and yet there was at the same time communication in the church between white and

coloured people.

In the records of the church the race of people has always been given in the Marriage

Registers - that was required by the State, but otherwise that has not been mentioned. It is
fascinating to note that in the first Confirmation following the victory of the Nationalist

government in 1948 the race of people is given for the first time. Oral history also records
that at this time a coloured person was asked to move from the front of the church to sit at the

back. A person who played the guitar and loved to sing, asked the choirmaster if he could
join the choir. He was asked to sit in the benches and sing loudly. And it was the custom for

coloured people to sit on the mountain side of the church. We are also told that in fact Mrs.

September, the schoolmistress, sat in the front row, and those in the choir of that time do not
recall that it was exclusive on the grounds of race. What is important is that these stories are

told and there was and is the perception of exclusion.

In 1963 an event of great significance took place. This was the closing and demolition of the

church school, ‘Stonehaven’. It had been built in 1884 itself continuing a work begun well
before 1883. It stood opposite the church on Main Road where the car park now is. (Figs. 6.3

6.4.) Ostensibly it was demolished for the purpose of widening the road by 20 feet. We’re
still waiting for that.

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