Page 133 - Bulletin 22 2019

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It seems the pull of Kalk Bay and of fishing was very strong. In 1935 he was living at Essex

Cottage; by 1951 he was living at the Olympia Hotel. When he died that year aged 74 he had
what some fishermen would consider the perfect ending. He left the Olympia that January

morning at 5.30 am, as was his habit, and went down to the breakwater – a beautiful summer’s
day. A while later someone noticed his fishing tackle on the wall and no sign of him. It turned

out he had had a heart attack and fallen into the water – it’s believed he was dead before hitting

the surface. The Cape Argus of 13 January 1951 notes that friends would come from far and
wide to meet him at the Cape Peninsula Angling Club in the harbour. He was buried from Holy

Trinity Church.

In 1913 Woodbine Cottage was bought by the widow Beatrice Marian Bromley (b. Nightingale)

and she owned it for the next 20 years. She also owned the house Delphi at 19 Gatesville Road

and had it extensively altered to the plans of architect William John Delbridge in 1912.

She was a minor poet and had 3 small books of poetry published between 1912 and 1925 (Our

track in the storm; The song of Table Bay and other verses; Where the aloe grows and other

verses).

Beatrice Bromley complained bitterly to Council in 1927 that storm water rushing down off the

higher ground of Harris Road was destroying her garden and damaging her wall every winter –

the road was unpaved and there was no storm water drainage. Following the regulation petition
to council, drainage at a cost of £680 was installed and a proper road laid at a cost of £280 in

1927. This was a lot of money for such a short road!

She made out a Will in 1929 leaving Delphi to her son Colin [Colin Percy Montford Bromley]
and Woodbine to her daughter Madeleine Blanche Harding in New Zealand. Strangely, her estate

file says she died in Pretoria in 1936 leaving no assets.

Woodbine Cottage had been sold to Ada Pinder, the wife of William Cubitt Pinder in 1933. (Fig.
3.24.) Her husband was a hot water, heating and sanitary engineer with offices in Plein Street.

When he died in 1954 he was a director of Pinder Brothers. In 1938 the cottage underwent major