Page 9 - Bulletin 5 2001

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After the death of Mr. King she married, in 1906, William Alfred Tozer who was a pharmacist in

Cape Town. She bought a large amount of property in Rosmead Avenue, Kenilworth and built
several houses and blocks of flats. She bought a vacant plot along Muizenberg Main Road to

build a seaside home, and at the same time bought ‘Sunrise Mansions’ next door.

This was a period when Jews were fleeing Europe. She took families into ‘Sunrise Mansions’
and her other properties and, since they had no money for rent, allowed them to pay for their

accommodation with beautiful carpets and other valuables which they had managed to bring with

them, undoubtedly of considerably more worth that the paltry rent required!

She decided to build the house ‘Yokohama’ on the vacant plot. It was to be a house which

needed no maintenance, so she obtained from Japan instructions on the making of papier maché
which she used for the walls of the house which she designed herself (as told to me by her

granddaughter). All the wood was imported from India and all the screws were of solid brass.
There were no nails in the building and the roof was of Madeira tiles. The reason for the

deterioration of the papier maché, as is now evident, is that later owners used acrylic paint which
did not allow the paper to sweat.

In 1943 she sold both Muizenberg properties to S. Tollman and, crippled with arthritis, she
moved to Kloof, Natal, where she lived with one of her daughters until she died in 1955.

Princess Labia

A real larger-than-life character was Princess Ida Labia. She was the daughter of the randlord,

Sir J. B. Robinson. (Fig. 1.3.) He was a man who was held in great contempt by Frederick York

St. Leger, owner and editor of the Cape Times who accused him publicly of illicit diamond
buying. There was an ongoing feud between these two men. So imagine their horror when Eileen

St. Leger married J.B.’s younger son, Jack! This son was cut off without a penny and J. B. left 6

million pounds and his considerable art collection to his favourite daughter Ida, who, like her
father, was a very strong character.

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