Infancy

Much of the material in this short history of my older brother is included in my memoir, Brokie’s Way, but here the focus is on Guy and his story.
Like many biographers, I regret that I did not start this project earlier, rather than now. Had I started earlier I should have had the immense advantage of key informants – particularly my mother,1 and Lizzie, who helped bring us up, both of whom knew Guy intimately from his babyhood until he left for England in 1937, aged 19. I could also have consulted some of his contemporaries – the few who survived World War II.

Lizzie (Elizabeth Marshall Calderwood) was our nanny (although we never called her by that name, nor thought of her as a ‘nanny’), a significant feature in the lives of all of us three boys. Ouma had lost her firstborn, a stillborn boy; she was forty years old when Guy was born and for these reasons she employed Lizzie, who had recently come to Durban from Scotland. Lizzie joined our family in July 1919, when Guy was sixteen months old, and remained with us, an essential part of our lives, for twelve years. The final member of the family was Punch, my smooth-haired fox terrier; today he would be called a Jack Russell.
Our house at 37 Eleventh Avenue, the Berea, in Durban, had a large sloping lawn, on which we played rounders, using the monkey- puzzle tree (Araucaria) as a wicket. Punch, acting as a fielder, was allowed one bounce, becoming very pleased with himself  when   he was applauded for catching one of us out. Lizzie sat on a deckchair, knitting, calling out when there was any commotion, ‘Guy, Paul, David, Punch – whoever it is, stop it.’