User:St Benedict's, Bedfordview

History
Today nearly one thousand four hundred boys study and play on a piece of land in Bedfordview that more than fifty years ago, consisted of smallholdings, the largest of which was used for training and kennelling greyhounds. At the time Bedfordview was semi-agricultural and sparsely populated, with little indication that large-scale development would one day take place. It was Fr Philip Erasme, Oblate of Mary Immaculate and Parish Priest of Maryvale who responded to Bishop David O’Leary’s request that a Catholic Boys’ School be established on the near East Rand. He saw the Bedfordview site as ideal as it would, in addition, cater for the boys from St Paul's School, a Parochial Primary School he had established in Maryvale.

The Oblates duly bought the 26-acre site [later additions make it nearly 40-acres today] in January 1957. In February, an application for the registration of a new school was sent to the East Rand School Board. On 11th July, the feast day of St Benedict of Nursia, official approval was received. Hence the name “St.Benedict’s”. We like to think, however, that Fr.Erasme's choice of name was influenced too by the fact that Benedictine monasticism was at the centre of learning in Europe for fourteen hundred years! By May of the same year, the Oblate council had commissioned an architect, Mr.Voorvelt, to draw up plans for the building of the new school. At that stage, neither the N3 nor R22 had been constructed so Kings Road connected directly to Gillooly's Farm.

In the Southern Cross of November 6, 1957, the following progress is recorded:

“Building has already started on the first section of the School and the foundation stone will be formally laid in December. The first building will comprise five classrooms, library, science room and administrative offices and will be ready in June 1959. The first class of Std 6 boys will be started in a temporary building. It is planned to add one class a year over a five year period. Ultimately, it is hoped, the school will accommodate up to 400 boys educated on the two stream system, with two classes in each standard.”

It is interesting to note that the initial goal of 400 boys at the school would be attained only in 1988, some thirty years later. It is rather astounding to think that fifty years later in 2008 enrolment is approaching the 1 400 mark!

The prospectus of 1958 listed the school fees to be charged:

Admission fee: £1 Std 6 (Grade 8) per term quarterly: £8 Std 7 (Grade 9) to Matric per term quarterly: £10

Fr Hugh Dalton, a CBC Kimberley old-boy, was appointed Headmaster. He had completed his B.A. Degree at the University of the Witwatersrand, his Diploma at the Johannesburg Teachers Training College and a course in Administration at St Patrick's College, Ottawa, Canada. He was to serve the School as Headmaster at three different periods. Was it only co-incidental that twenty-six years later, Mr Tony Dobson, also a CBC, Kimberley old-boy and a graduate of Wits University and the Johannesburg Teachers’ Training College, would be appointed the first lay Headmaster of the School?

On the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8, 1957, Bishop Boyle, Bishop of Johannesburg, laid the foundation stone of the first building - the building we now call the “Erasme Block”. An airtight container, placed behind the foundation stone, contained a historical record of the events leading up to the establishment of the school, as well as a list of staff members. The construction of a new Administration block in 1997 necessitated the relocation of the foundation stone to the new entrance foyer. The contents of the airtight container were further supplemented at this time.] With prophetic vision, Bishop Boyle assured parents that "as time goes by and St Benedict's develops, there will be a professional staff here second to none in South Africa".

A group including those responsible for the establishment of St Benedict's College: Fr P.Hogan, Fr T. Kelly, Mr Strickland (Quantity Surveyor), Mr Brocco (Contractor), the Very Rev, Fr P. Erasme (Provincial), Mr Voorvelt (Architect), Fr H. Kay, Bro. L. Tiernay