Welcome to the website for the Durban High School Class of 1958-1961! Membership is open to all who were with us in 3rd form in 1958 or joined us at any time up to 6th form in 1961. 

There are now six brother websites from around our time at DHS:

                            ANNOUNCEMENTS

22/08/2024 -- We are very sorry to report that our classmate Neil Buss passed away in Pennsylvania, USA, on 20 July 2024.  Please see the entry for Neil in the In Memory section of the website. You can use the "Post Comment" button below the entry to add any memories or reflections of your own.

21/08/2024 --- We have added a photograph of the 1952 teaching staff to the Staff Photos feature in the left column of this page.  Many of our teachers are in the photo, looking much younger than when we met them in 1958!

20/08/2024 -- We are very sorry to report that our classmate Anthony Oshry passed away in Port Elizabeth on 23 May, 2024.  Please see the entry for Anthony in the In Memory section of the website.  You can use the "Post Comment" button below the entry to add any thoughts or memories of your own.

19/05/2024 -- We are very sorry to report that our classmate Richard Kaplan passed away in Johannesburg, on 24 February 2024.  Please see the entry for Richard in the In Memory section of the website.  You can add any memories or reflections of your own by using the "Post Comment" button below the entry.

04/05/2024 --We have added a new Tuck Shop Chit Chat topic, "Classmates meet around the world..."  It contains photos of recent gatherings of classmates, and can be found in the "50 Year Reunion -- and later ones too!" forum.  If you meet up with any of our old chums, please snap a pic and we will include it in this feature for all to admire!

11/03/2024 -- Our classmate John Bartlett has published a novel -- a fast paced medical thriller!  The book, Double Blind,  already has all 5-star reviews on Amazon.  See all the details in Tuck Shop Chit Chat, in the General Discussion (Part 2) forum.

06/01/2024 -- We are very sorry to report that our classmate Alan Poorter passed away in Pinetown, South Africa, on 1 January 2024.   Please see the entry for Alan in the In Memory section of the website.  You can add any memories or reflections of your own by using the "Post Comments" button below the entry.

0412/2023 -- We are very sorry to report that our classmate Derek Hopkins passed away in Gold Coast, Australia, on 19 November 2023.  Please see the entry for Derek in the In Memory section of the website.  You can use the "Post Comments" button below the entry to add any memories or reflections of your own.

23/10/2023 --  Have you visited Tuck Shop Chit Chat lately?  It features classmates' contributions to over 250 separate topics about our life and times!  The most recent contributions are "The Golden Age of Drama at DHS" and "Roy Campbell's Poem about Bill Payn".

23/10/2023 -- We are very sorry to report that our classmate Barry Thornton passed away about 2017, in England.  Please see the entry for Barry in the In Memory section of the website.  You can add any memories of your own by using the "Post Comments" button below the entry.

20/09/2023 -- We are very sorry to report that our classmate John Pears passed away in Durban, on 19 July 2023.  Please see the entry for John in the In Memory section of the website. You can use the "Post Comment" button below the entry to add any memories or reflections of your own.

15/09/2023 --  A warm welcome to our latest member,  Wally Parsons!!!

19/08/2023 -- Our class website was launched in 2010, and has been highly successful ever since!  Here are some statistics for our 13 years in operation.   We have been able to locate, or confirm deceased, all but 6 of the 224 classmates who were with our cohort 1958-1961. Of those we contacted, 171 joined the website, but 8 declined our invitation.  Some 74 of our classmates are now deceased.   Since it was founded, the website has had 164,167 individual visits, and our classmates have exchanged 5,568 messages through our internal message service.  May our successes continue for many years to come!

14/08/23 -- We are very sorry to report that our classmate Raymond Lalouette passed away in Durban, on 4 May 2023.  Please see the entry for Raymond in the In Memory section of the website. You can use the "Post Comment" button below the entry to add any memories or reflections of your own.

27/04/23 --  Ian Robertson visited Australia recently, and while there he assembled a complete set of current photos of our eleven Australian members. You can admire their amazing vitality in Tuck Shop Chit Chat, under the "2023 Kangaroo Roundup" topic in the "Fifty year reunion -- And later ones too" forum.

13/03/2023 -- Before he passed away earlier this year, our classmate Dave Guy wrote down some memories of the DHS teacher and headmaster he admired the most, Des Thompson.  You can read Dave's contribution in Tuck Shop Chit Chat, in the "Our Teachers!  Part 2" Forum.

12/03/2023 -- Chris Harris has unearthed an archaic document, the old DHS school uniform rules. See his entry on this topic in Tuck Shop Chit Chat, in the "Hign School Memories Part 2" Forum.

04/02/2023 --  We are very sorry to report that our classmate David Guy passed away in Swellendam, in the Western Cape, on 21 January 2023.   Please see the entry for Dave in the In Memory section of the website.  You can add any memories or reflections of your own by using the "Post Comment" button below the entry.

08/01/2023 --   We are very sorry to report that our classmate David Heywood passed away in Cape Town on 5 December 2022.  Please see the entry for David in our In Memory section for more details. You can leave any comments or memories of your own by using the "Post Comment" button below the entry.

06/01/2023 -- We recently reported the passing of our classmate David Hooey last August.  We are very sorry to report that his twin brother Michael passed away in Surrey, England, not long after, on 6 November 2022.  Please see the entry for Michael in the In Memory section of the website for more details.  You can use the "Post Comment" button below the entry to add any reflections or memories of your own.

06/01/2023 -- We are very sorry to report that our classmate Aaron Rose passed away in Durban on 6 December last year.  Please see the entry for Aaron in the In Memory section of the wehsite for more details.  You can add any comments, memories, or reflections of your own by using the "Post Comment" button  below the entry.

24/11/2022 --  A few classmates attended a mini-reunion in Morocco after the main event in Israel. You can read a report in Tuck Shop Chit Chat, in the Forum entitled "The 50 year reunion -- and later ones too!"

1711/2022 -- Our fabuluous 61-year reunion in Israel is over.  It was an enormous success!  You can read some particant comments in Tuck Shop Chit Chat,  in the Forum entitled "The 50-year reunion -- and later ones too!"

19/10/2022 --  One of our guest members, Rick Prins (Class of 1962) has written a novel with a school very like DHS and a villain very like Jiggs Gray!  The book is called The Colour of Flying, and it is available on Amazon as a paperback or kindle download.

28/03/2022 -- We have added a new section to the website!  It is called "Books about DHS".  The new section provides details of several books relevant to our own era at the school.  You'll find it in the column on the left of this home page.

26/03/2022 -- Unfortunately Alan Wilkinson, one of the last survivors of our teaching staff, passed away in Pietermaritzburg on 25 March.  He was an excellent maths teacher but left DHS to become headmaster of Northlands and then Beachwood high schools.  Alan remained in excellent physical and mental health well into his nineties.  He joined this website as a guest member and visited regularly to keep up with our activities. You can add any comments in Tuck Shop Chit Chat: go to the  "Durban: A trip down memory lane" forum  and then to the topic "Which of our teachers are still alive?".

18/10/2021 -- You can now add your WhatsApp contact information to your profile -- just go to the "Edit Profile" tab on the left of this page.  While you are there, you can also update your profile with any new details that you would like to share with our classmates!

2/06/2021 --  Do you remember Ralph, the adult fan of our school sports who had the mind of a child after a head injury decades earier?  Neill Levy recalls him in a recent entry in our Tuck Shop Chit Chat.  Other recent entries are from Terry Dowdall on our stage of life, and Ian Robertson on the school assembly ritual.  There are now over 100 separate discussion topics there;  the most recent ones are in the right column, and a click on headings in the left column brings up past contributions.

27/12/2020 --  Check out the "Notify me" tab under Member Functions on your left.  It lets you specify if you would like an email notification of new items on the website, such as profile changes, new messages, new obituaries, etc.

7/09/2020 -- Two new items have been added to the School Histories section on the left of this page: a fine appreciation of Bill Payn written by Izak van Heerden; and an article drawn from an academic thesis about the legendary Headmaster A.S. Langley who shaped the school of our day , "The classics, the cane, and rugby".

27/08/2020 -- The DHS Foundation has published a limited edition, 199 page book about our teacher D.G. "SAS" Nourse.  The book consists of recollections, photos, press clippings, etc, and is compiled by his son-in-law Clive Shedlock and the former school archivist Jeremy Oddy (Class of 1963). The price is 300 rand with all proceeds donated to Blackmore's house.  To order a copy, contact the DHS Foundation CEO Andrew Shedlock at ceo@dhsfoundation.co.za, or call him at 083 791 7646.

08/07/2019 --  Jeremy Oddy (Class of 1963), the former school archivist, is preparing a publication about Blackmore's house. He invites anyone to send him recollections, anecdotes, photographs, press clippings, or other material of interest.  Jermey has already written two books about the school: "Where the Baobab grows at Durban High School", and "A celebration of Rugby at Durban High School ".  Jeremy's email address is jjoddy@gmail.com.

12/05/2019 --  As part of its leadership campaign against sex abuse in schools, DHS hosted a Safe Schools Seminar on 10 May.  A report on the event and announcments of futher events will be published on www.safeschoolguide.co.za

11/01/2019 -- David Brosnihan has lmade a video of our Moroccan adventure and placed it on YouTube.  You can enjoy it here:   https://youtu.be/OB4eXPXDwto -- copy and paste the link into your browser.

25/04/2018 -- The school has issued an impressive marketing video that showcases the many facilities available at DHS today:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUEDdQHTCRQ&feature=youtu.be

11/04/2018  --  We have just learned that our 1958 head prefect,  John Lloyd, passed away in the UK on 7 May last year.  He was the last survivor of our four head prefects -- Ian Wallace passed in 1990, Mick Greenfield in 2014, and Jack Welch in 2016. 

28/06/2017 --  An expanded record of the circumstances of our teachers' demises has just been added to Tuck Shop Chit Chat, under the "Our Teachers! (Part One)" topic.  

180/6/2017 --   The DHS Old Boys Club site in Durban North was sold to developers in 2014 to raise funds for the school. Here's whats happening at the site:  https://youtu.be/tDF_CewGajU  

10/06/2017 -- We congratulate the DHS class of 1947 on their seventieth reunion in Durban earlier this week -- a true inspiration to us youngsters!   

25/03/2016 -- Does anybody have a copy of the 4GB form photo of 1959?  it's the only one we are missing from our 1958-61 set opposite, so please send us a scan if you have one!

1/03/2015 --  We have recently discovered some new facts about many of our deceased classmates in SA government records. As a result we have added additional information to most of the In Memory entries. In some cases we have made corrections to the cause or year of a classmate's demise. Please take a look at the entries, and use the "Post Comment" button to add any information, recollections, or anecdotes of your own.

18/12/2013 -- Jeremy Oddy (Class of 1963 and School Archivist) has just published a book, A Celebration of Rugby at Durban High School. This interesting book covers more than a century of rugby history at the school. For more information and ordering details, see the "100 Years of DHS Rugby" tab at the left.

21/02/2013 -- The "Where we live" feature above right has been refined to include SA provinces. You can now click on a country, a US state, a Canadian province, or an SA province, and get an immediate list of classmates resident there.