Stellenbosch Seminary School
The story of the Stellenbosch school, Paul Roos Gymnasium, has its roots in 1806, the year in which the British occupied the Cape for the second time. Many Dutch-speaking parents showed their dislike of the new regime by refusing to send their sons to the English-medium free schools.
The Dutch-speaking community were victims of a more fundamental slight, however, when the governor began importing Scottish Presbyterian ministers to serve the fledgling Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) in the Cape. Among the first of the Presbyterian clergy to arrive was the staunchly Calvinistic Andrew Murray. Among the five sons who followed in their father's footsteps and became DRC ministers was Andrew Murray junior.
This South African-born Murray — a theologian, educationist, writer and mystic — established the Stellenbosch Seminary for the training of DRC ministers. However, it was not long before the founder-teachers of the Stellenbosch Seminary found they had their hands full. In 1863 the local church elders and seminary teachers met to discuss the founding of a secondary school where formative training could be undertaken. A Scotsman, one WEW Braid, considered the post of headmaster because of the remuneration and justified going 'out to the colonies' to take up the position of rector of the new school in 1866.
In July 1869 Reverend C Anderson, another Scot and a member of the Gymnasium staff, took over the rectorship from Pastor Braid. Anderson known to the boys as 'Ou Kalie' — was both highly efficient and highly forgetful: during the morning service he regularly neglected to announce the Bible text, but it was during his term of office that the school was to win the high acclaim in which it has been held since.
Stellenbosch Gymnasium was soon bursting at the seams, and in 1874 had to make the first of what would be four moves during its history. The old police station on the corner of Plein and Van Ryneveld streets (now a storage room of the Stellenbosch Museum) became its second home. The next headmaster was another Scotsman, one William Milne, who in March 1880 took over a school with a healthy enrolment of 228.
Stellenbosch is undoubtedly one of the prettiest little towns in South Africa, founded in 1679 and the second oldest town in the country. Th...