Durban - Hilton College, in the run-up to
its 150th anniversary, is searching
high and low for its oldest surviving old boy.
“The school’s database records Michael Aronson, aged 93, who left Hilton in 1942, and is now living in Nairobi, as the oldest living Hiltonian,” according to Anton Jooste, chairperson of the Old Hiltonian Club, calling on anyone with information on anyone who could “dethrone” Aronson to come forward.
In a circular, Jooste pointed out that in January 1921, a year before the school’s 50th anniversary, it had closed temporarily, as it has now, because of a health crisis.
“An outbreak of enteric fever tragically claimed the lives of five boys and threatened the very existence of the school,” Jooste wrote.
“In its almost 150-year history, this was Hilton’s darkest hour.
“Fortunately, the proactive measures already taken by broader society and the school itself, mean we are unlikely to suffer the same consequences as those poor boys of 1921.”
That outbreak threatened the very existence of the school.
“When the school reopened in April of that year, numbers had dropped by more than 40%, and had it not been for the loyalty and generosity of parents and Old Hiltonians, the school would not have survived this shock.
“It was this devotion and self-
sacrifice that allowed the school to celebrate its 50th anniversary the following year, in an atmosphere of complete confidence in the future.”
Jooste added: “Like that generation that lived through the horrors of the Great War, the Spanish flu and the tragedy of enteric fever, now is our time to support one another.”
While Hilton College, like other schools, is using online education during the coronavirus pandemic, in the time of enteric fever “arrangements were made to continue
senior classes preparing for a public exam at the agricultural hall in Howick”, according to the shcool’s centenary book, Lift Up Your Hearts, by Neville Nuttall.
Nuttall mentioned in his book that road construction had taken place near the school in 1918 and that the roads department had left mud beneath the trees alongside
that remained a hazard for many years to come.
He also mentioned that 14% of the school caught scarlet fever the next year. There was one fatality.
“Although every care was taken of the patients, the public health department said the hospital’s arrangements were the best and most up-to-date of any school in South Africa, the sanitary arrangements had obviously escaped the attention of said department as they had escaped the attention of authorities for 48 years.
“In 1920, the blow fell. Another boy died and was buried as a cadet in the school cemetery. More and more boys were taken ill by December.
“The truth was known. Hilton had been attacked by an outbreak of enteric fever, the disease carried by flies from filth, which had
caused more casualties than the
fighting in the South African War 20 years before.”
Nuttall wrote that for three months the school became a camp with a resident doctor and 12 nurses in attendance. Four more boys died.
The school closed for the first term of 1921 and was brought back to strength with the help of efforts like those of its board chairperson,
Dr Archibald McKenzie who raised £8000 to install a modern fly-proof system of sanitation.
The college turns 150 in two years’ time.
Anyone with information on older surviving Hiltonians can contact Amanda Pistorius at [email protected] or Anton Jooste at [email protected]