Page 25 - Bulletin 12 2008

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the end the King had his way and Greece declared itself neutral. As a result Greeks in South
Africa had been declared enemy subjects which resulted in the backlash of 1917.

In Johannesburg Arthur Goles was introduced to the person who was to become my

Grandmother - Judith Maree. She was of French Huguenot descent and her family had

taken part in the Great Trek ending up in what was then Zululand. Her father had fought in
the Boer War against the British. As a child of 9 she had witnessed the Battle of Talana

from a nearby kopjie. Her sister Mabel was the first white child to be born in Zululand and
was named Mabel Diniszulu Maree at the request of the Zulu King Diniszulu. In 1918, my

Grandmother was visiting Johannesburg and didn’t want to go back to the farm in
Zululand. She spoke Afrikaans and Zulu but little English. My Grandfather needed a wife

and despite the difference in their ages they were married in a civil ceremony in

Johannesburg on 10 June 1918. She was 25 at the time and he was 40.

It was a marriage of convenience and must have been a difficult relationship, given the

diversity of their backgrounds. Besides the language problem - he spoke limited English
and she spoke no Greek - there were the cultural differences. It is strange that he never sent

to Greece for a bride as arranged marriages were the custom of the day. My two great-
grandfathers - Peter Maree on the farm in his later years, and Nikolaos Goulias in

Foustanella – are pictured for interest. (Figs. 2.4 & 2.5). The skirt formed part of the
uniform of the Greek soldiers in the Peloponnesus. It was also worn by dignitaries. The

skirt has 400 pleats representing the 400 years the Greeks were under Ottoman rule. My

mother’s Greek cousin, George sent the photo and wrote as follows: “At the time the photo
was taken your Grandfather was member elect of the Town Hall Council (County

Councillor) of the town of Tripolis which was a very high dignity and office at the time.
Tripolis at this time was one of the biggest towns of Greece and one of the most glorious.”