Page 197 - Bulletin 19 2015

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who employed the well-known architect Kenneth Vernon Commins. He designed a
magnificent house for which plans were passed on 20 March 1940 to a value of £3,500.

Construction was completed by builder J Passet on 14 September 1940. (Fig. 3.85.)

No information has been found about Violet Brown and she sold the house less than 18
months later (30 January 1942) to Gwendolen Lotta Kilvington Connock, the wife of Francis

George ‘Frank’ Connock. (Fig. 3.86.)

Frank Connock was a prominent and successful Johannesburg-based businessman. As an

entrepreneur he had seen the potential of the motor car and beginning in 1904 had over years

built up a large business as Connock’s Motor Garage. For 30 years he campaigned tirelessly
for the improvement of the country’s roads. He was a member of the Governing Council for

Motor Traders and for 24 years Chairman of the Johannesburg Motor Show Committee.

When he retired he and his wife moved to Kalk Bay and lived at Arlington until it was sold in
1963. In his retirement he was a great philanthropist, supporting many sports clubs and being

the driving force behind the establishment of the Rosebank Cancer Clinic in 1951. He also
had designed and built Connock Park on the Main Road in Fish Hoek.

In 1949 and 1950 plans were drawn by architects Walgate and Elsworth for additional rooms

and changes to the stoep. In 1950 the Connocks bought a portion of the Petrava erf (erf
88714) behind Arlington from Frances Carleton-Jones.

The house today is largely unchanged from when it was bought from the Connocks in 1963
and transferred to the name of Joan Barbara Cooper. (Fig. 3.87.) She was the wife of

Reginald Atkinson Cooper, father of Simon now resident in St. James. Reginald Cooper, after

schooling at Rondebosch Junior and High Schools had qualified as a CA and worked for
what became Deloittes. He became a prominent businessman in his own right and was also a

Director of a number of companies, notably Old Mutual and Standard Bank. To quote his son
Simon ‘He was a passionate fisherman and owned a boat called Snowgoose which was