OD11 digital HR - Flipbook - Page 88
SEMPER BISHOPS
John Gardener was the ultimate Bishops man: pupil, prefect, staff
member, principal, council member and vice-president of the ODU
JOHN GARDENER
(1930-2025)
Tribute by Dr Paul Murray
John Brett Gardener (1947G)
entered Bishops Prep in 1939, the
year that saw the outbreak of World
War II. Headmaster George Charlton
announced the news at assembly,
following a long list of rugby fixtures.
“Boys,” he declared, “I’m afraid to
have to inform you that we are at
war with Germany.” The eight-yearold Gardener was heard to whisper,
“Which school is Germany?”
John went up to College in 1943
and was a prefect in Gray House in
his matric year, 1947. In post-matric
a year later, he was made senior
prefect (head boy). UCT and Oxford
followed, and then a seven-year stint
at Wynberg Boys’ High School, an
institution for which he retained a
great respect and fondness. In 1962,
he joined the Bishops staff, teaching
English and Latin until 1970, when
he was appointed headmaster of
86 | THE OLD DIOCESAN
Kingswood College, Grahamstown.
His career at Bishops resumed in
1975, and he served as vice-principal
from 1977 to 1988. At the end of 1988,
he succeeded John Peake as principal,
becoming the first OD, the first South
African, and the first grandfather
to assume the role. It was the last
of these citations that gave him
the greatest, wry pleasure. In 1992,
he retired – but he retained a keen,
undimmed interest in the school,
serving on the College Council
and many of its sub-committees
and becoming an honorary vicepresident of the ODU.
As a schoolboy, John participated
widely in most land-based sports,
with fast bowling, tight scrumming,
high jump and hurdles as particular
specialities. His athletic tussles
with Clive van Ryneveld (1945G)
on the Frank Reid track, with Chris
Chataway on the Iffley Road cinders,
and with Piet Koornhof in an Oxford
line-out provided him with rich
material for subsequent stories,
possibly slightly embellished over
the years. His 1947 Matric Senior
Certificate contained a clutch of
distinctions, and he won prizes
for English, classics, mathematics,
physics and chemistry. In the
schoolboy argot of his day, he was
a brainbox. His range of extra-mural
activities included the Ten Club, the
Democritus Society and the Cadet
Corps, where he commanded an
inter-school platoon that acted as
a guard of honour to mark the 21st
birthday of then-Princess Elizabeth,
on a visit to Cape Town. On this
occasion, the SADF catering corps
had provided a batch of beyond sellby date pies, and half the platoon
keeled over with food poisoning.
Luckily, their student warrant officer
had brought his own sandwiches.
In 1948, in his first year at UCT, John
was elected as the Diocesan College
Rhodes Scholar, and he took his place
at Magdalen College, Oxford between
1950 and 1951. Sadly, a combination
of ill health and acute homesickness
cut short his Oxford studies under
CS Lewis – a somewhat diffident tutor,
apparently – and he picked up at UCT
again in 1951. There he obtained a BA
with distinctions in classical culture
and English, going on to complete
an MA and a BEd before joining the
Wynberg staff. In 1955, he married
another, equally gifted, Wynberg
teacher, Beryl Canning, a good family
friend from Rosebank Methodist
Church. They went on to have three
boys, James (1956), Richard (1960)
and Andrew (1962). In 1962, John
returned full circle to Bishops,
becoming housemaster of Gray
House and throwing himself into
every single aspect of school life.
