GADD

EP Herald, 24 Apr 1980
Birthday in the KNIGHT Clan

Mrs. Fay GADD, who will be 90 on April 30, is a fairly new Port Elizabeth resident. She is the mother of Mrs. Olga CORNWALL-JONES.

Mrs. GADD used to live with her daughter and son-in-law in Johannesburg, but when they too retired and decided to make their home in Port Elizabeth, Mrs. GADD became a resident in Laubscher Park, Walmer.

The remarkable thing about Mrs. GADD is that until a month before her 80th birthday she was gainfully employed as a bookkeeper and would possibly still be working if arthritis had not made writing a difficult task. Instead, she now concentrates on needlework and makes beautiful needlework tapestries.

One of Mrs. GADD's great-grandchildren, David KNIGHT of Port Elizabeth, aged 11, gained the highest marks recently in his Unisa violin exams. He is the eldest of the three children of Derek and Ann KNIGHT. The children now have two great-grandmothers, two grandmothers and a grandfather living in Port Elizabeth. The other great-grandmother is 95-year-old Mrs. Joyce SNOOK.

GRACEY

Herald Reporter
Herald, 25 Sep 1979
Bowler 89, played last game

Mr. James GRACEY, 89, who died on Sunday night at Fairhaven Holmes for the Aged in Port Elizabeth, played bowls four times a week. He played his last match on Sunday morning.

Mr. GRACEY died in his sleep. He was found by a close friend, Mrs. A. PARTRIDGE, when he did not arrive for breakfast yesterday morning.

He was an honorary life member of the Victoria Park Bowling Club where he had played for 47 years.

On Sunday, he played a friendly match in the same side as the club president, Mr. Ken BRUTON, and won the regular novelty 'tickey contest" for bowling closest to the jack.

Mr. BRUTON said Mr. GRACEY was an excellent bowler, despite a recent eye operation.

The matron of the home, Mrs. C. PELCHER, said Mr. GRACEY was in high spirits on Sunday night. He had his supper and watched television. He was well liked member of the Fairhaven community who enjoyed his lively jokes.

In his younger days, Mr. GRACEY was a keen swimmer and water polo player for the Anchor Swimming Club, which was based at the tidal pool near the Campanile.

He leaves a son and two daughters.

GRACEY - James Alexander aka Jim.
Dear father of Joy,Una and Ellwyn, passed away suddenly at Fairhaven in his 90th year.

GRINDLAY

EP Herald, 23 Oct 1980
True warrior by Keith SUTTON

A man who vividly recalls General BERRANGE's force setting off on its 1 100 kilometre trek from Kimberley across the Kalahari into South West Africa [now Namibia], in December, 1914, is Dave GRINDLAY of Port Alfred. As a boy of 14 he watched them crack their whips and leave. He was itching to go too, but he was not old enough. His father, a chief clerk at Wesselton Mine, was in the force and so was his eldest brother, Willie.

Dave's time came soon enough. Today he's a familiar figure in his wheelchair, evidence of his service in the First World War. Both legs were amputated after he was hit by a shell just 34 days before Armistice on November, 11, 1918. "I didn't loose my legs," he says with grim humour. "I know where they are." When asked how old he is, Dave says: "I'm footloose and over 40." Actually, of course, he is 80. Dave's brother, Willie, was wounded at Ypres, Gordon was wounded too and so was Ron. Not a bad record for one family

"I did not get home until 1920," he told me. "The gangrene was terrible. We were all badly infected. We were fitted with artificial limbs in England, but they were made of willow and were very heavy. "It was the wounded French airman DE SOUTTER who first experimented with aluminium. An alloy was found which was tough enough to take the punishment, and eventually we were all fitted with them."

Dave went to work for De Beers after the war and remained with the company for 30 years. Despite his legless state he joined up in the Second World War and spent five years as a sergeant in the SAAF.

His service was at 21 Special Flying Training School, Kimberley, though his special responsibility was training telephonists. "Quite a few famous South Africans passed through 21 Air School. There was Ed SWAILES, VC, Tony HARRIS, the finest flyhalf I've ever seen in a lifetime of watching rugby and Bobby LOCKE, the golfer. The famous "Tiger" BOSCH, AFC, was there too. I remember one occasion when a pupil pilot doing a solo 'froze' and couldn't land. BOSCH took off and guided him safely in, except for a broken undercarriage."

Dave has a photograph taken in the Provincial Hospital to remind him of the last visit to the Eastern Cape of legless Group Captain, Sir Douglas BADER, the RAF's most famous pilot. "He came to see me in hospital. "Here we are, the two of us," I remarked, "and we haven't a leg to stand on."

It was about four years ago that Dave took to his wheelchair due to arthritis. Apart from that, his eyesight is not what it was, but he remains unfailingly cheerful. You cannot, it seems, get Dave GRINDLAY down.

EP Herald, 30 Oct 1980
Problem solved by Keith SUTTON

My piece about Dave GRIDLAY (RAB, October 23) brings back memories of bygone days of Kimberley.

"Dave", Joffre SIMPSON, a former sub-editor of the Herald tells me, "Was known to everyone in the city, not only for the high price he paid in serving his country in the First World War - he lost both legs before he was 21 - but especially for his irrepressible sense of humour. A fine example of it appeared in the Diamond Fields Advertiser, a newspaper of which Joffre's father was later editor,

"My memory is a bit vague after the lapse of half of a century," says Joffre, "but in a letter to the newspaper, or in an article, the question was asked: "What can wives do about husbands who slip out on their own late at night?"

"Dave GRINDLAY's letter, published in the DFA, had the entire city chuckling. His wife, he wrote, had no problem. When they went to bed all she did was to throw his tin legs on top of the wardrobe,"