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1951:  Shân looked to be a happy baby as she lay in her pram with Marilyn’s doll, Peggy, and as she posed for group photos with her big brother Ceri and big sister Marilyn, who quite obviously enjoyed being in-charge of her baby sister, especially when Shân was just starting to walk and run around the lawns of 18 Kendal Road, Escombe.  A huge bougainvillaea hedge grew alongside the driveway in this house and provided a flush of lovely coloured blooms for much of the year.  The drive also provided a good place to practise skipping.  Marilyn and Ceri went off to school on foot in the mornings, not forgetting to wave good-bye at the gate.  Relations quite often came to visit by car and were always also greeted by the Corgis, Kimmy (Cymru) and Daisy.  These folk in the footage, at a guess are: – cousin Malcolm in his striped university blazer, the other young man could be cousin David from Bulowayo, Rhodesia with his sister Jill.  Auntie Gwen is holding baby Shân and Granny, Marilyn and Ceri are also in the picture.

Some unfortunate double-take “ghosting” in parts of this one

This footage was taken during 1947 when Ceri was about 3 and a half years old and Marilyn nearly one.  It shows Mum enjoying time with her 2 toddlers on Durban South Beach whilst she lounges in a red and blue blow-up canvas chair and helps them build sandcastles.  The chair gave the children lots of fun in years to come until it eventually perished.  A favourite activity along the beachfront was a train ride on a narrow gauge line, pulled by a steam engine.

That year, the Llanstephan Castle, one of the ships in the fleet of the Union Castle Line, docked in Durban  This was her first post-war voyage sailing down the west coast of Africa, having been used during the 2nd World War as a troop ship. On board was a friend of Dad’s who delivered 2 Welsh Corgis for the family (Cymru (Kimmy) and Topsy) as well as belongings for Dad from his late mother (who had died in the March, 1947).  Dad, Mum and Ceri bid the grand old ship a fond farewell as she leaves the port of Durban bound for England via the east coast of Africa and the Suez Canal.

1950:  It looks as though this footage starts with Ceri and Marilyn having their last run outside the Rossborough home because the film then goes on to showing events in the garden of 18 Kendal Road, Escombe.  This was to be the family home until Easter 1958.  The grounds were large and provided a superb area for us 4 children to be free to run, play games, including hide and seek and cricket, climb trees, swing etc etc.  The large wooden kennel became the wendyhouse and Marilyn was happy to wash her dolls clothes and hang them out to dry on the line provided.  There were several hen-houses where Mum raised chickens and collected eggs for market.  This venture didn’t prove to be too lucrative, so the stock was allowed to dwindle, but not before having made the family self-sufficient with Sunday roast over the years!

Topsy, the Corgi, died and was replaced with Daisy.  Who is the white dog with black patches around the eyes?  Might have belonged to Auntie Gwen?

Dad acquired a plot of land in Northdene to which he took Ceri and Marilyn to help him saw fallen trees into logs using a double handled log saw, Ceri doing his best to help with the job whilst Marilyn was given a turn, too.

One of the items that had arrived from Wales aboard the Llanstephan Castle, was a wooden train for Ceri.  This provided joyful fun in the garden for Ceri and for Marilyn, as well as a small wheelbarrow.

The family now lived in Sarnia Road, Rossborough and being 1949, it was time for Ceri to start Class 1 at the local Primary School. Footage here shows Ceri going off to school in his uniform with sister Marilyn waving goodbye to him at the garden gate.  Ceri was a pupil at Rossborough until mid-1950 (halfway through Class 2) when the family moved to live in Escombe and his education continued at Escombe Primary.  Ceri stayed at this school until mid-1952 when he was sent up to Dundee to stay with Auntie Gwen to complete that year. For the following 3 years (’53 – ’56) Ceri was a boarder at Cowan House in Pietermaritzburg.

The Corgis had a substantial wooden house for their kennel.  This later became a wendyhouse for the children’s own fun.

Neither Ceri nor I are sure about the significance of the parade showing floats taking part in a procession.  It seems that the Cambrian Society entered a float depicting the Welsh Miners who had arrived in South Africa from the coal mines of the Welsh Valleys to work mainly in the mines in Natal.  Several of the Welsh folk dolled up in Welsh national dress.  Dad, together with Ceri and Marilyn, as a small child, and one of the Corgis (Kimmy) were aboard for this celebratory event.

In 1947, the Royal Family (King George VI, Elizabeth the Queen Mother and Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret) visited South Africa, travelling aboard The Royal Navy ship, The Vanguard.  In Durban they drove through the city centre, the procession being watched by a large crowd and being escorted by marching soldiers.  Here Mum, positioned in West Street outside the City Hall to watch, has Ceri with her.  He has a small Union Jack to wave as the cavalcade passes and continues down West Street.

During this visit, princess Elizabeth celebrated her 21st birthday (21st April 1947) and broadcast to member nations of the Commonwealth her pledge to serve, whilst in Cape Town.

This film also shows Uncle Oscar from Pietermaritzberg at the beach ( favourites were Isipingo and Port Shepstone) with his daughter Merle and Ceri, playing in the sand and in rock pools.  The children would have been 3+ years old.

This footage was taken when Stephanie was a baby in 1954 and with her as a toddler, 1955, whilst the Davies family lived at 18 Kendal Road, Escombe.

The grounds offered space to run amongst an orchard of orange trees as well as Guava and Frangipani trees which were easy to climb.  Stephanie looks keen to try and keep up with her siblings.  Both Marilyn and Shân  loved their baby sister, taking her for rides in the pushchair and carrying her whenever possible.  The corgis, Kimmie (Cymru) and Daisy were wonderful pets.  Shân loved her doll Susan which she received for her 4th birthday in August 1955 and in October 1955 cousin Amber Jones married Douglas Ross and Shân was chosen to be the Flower Girl.   There was a Wendy House in the garden of Kendal Road in which the girls spent lots of time playing…it had originally been a kennel for the dogs!  Marilyn and Shân attended Northdene Methodist Church Sunday School every week and here they are going with their neighbours Hilary and Alison Hunt, being taken in the Hunt’s family station wagon.

Ceri enjoyed his 3rd birthday party on Boxing Day 1946 with Granny’s, Mum’s and Dad’s company, (Marilyn would probably have been sleeping in a pram) in the garden of 9 Botanic Grove.  The sponge cake was decorated with a statue of Peter Pan, used on all birthday cakes for years to come.

This rockinghorse was a favourite plaything for the 4 Davies children. Being new and fluffy when Ceri had use of it from 1946, it had become quite threadbare by the time Stephanie had her chance to ride it about 11 years later. It seems that Ceri also had a firm friend in his pull-along duck on wheels, venturing out to the island in the middle of (quiet) Botanic Grove to give it a walk.  In this film, Ceri is shown to be taking an interest in garden activities, helping to sweep up and admire flowering plants, both at home and in well-kept Jameson Gardens, a favourite outing not far from the house.  He seemed happy entertaining himself making mudpies, too and he was soon to have a sister.  Marilyn was born on 10th September 1946 and here is being shown off to her big brother by a proud father.

In 1942 during the Second World War, the luxury trans-Atlantic cruise ship, the Ile-de-France, on loan to the British Admiralty, was deployed to South Africa where she was refitted as a troop carrier in Port Elizabeth before continuing her voyage to fetch POWs back from North Africa.  She docked in Durban and here Dad is filming her arrival with the Bluff in the background, an historic moment, being the largest vessel to have entered the Port of Durban at that time.  The tug, the William Hoy could well have been used in docking the French-owned ship, seen here flying the French ensign and with troops crowding her decks.  The Ile-de-France continued  military operations for 5 years before being returned to France to be changed back to a cruise liner sailing between Europe and America once again.

Ceri shows that he is a contented baby, happy to lie in pram, have nappy changed and find his toes at the end of his very flexible legs!  He enjoys a bath and although sitting for the first time isn’t easy (ouch!) he gets the hang of it, surrounded by cushions should another over-balance happen, and amuses himself with the first toy….a rattle.