Page 159 - Bulletin 22 2019

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Mayor of the Kalk Bay Muizenberg Municipality, for £450. Delbridge was a wealthy property

investor who owned several properties in Kalk Bay and Muizenberg. (Fig. 3.54.) He bought
Essex Cottage for his daughter Alice, then unmarried. She was living there when her ailing

brother Charles came down from his farm at Beaufort West and died shortly afterwards aged 35.

Alice’s father had died unexpectedly soon after buying Essex Cottage and it was sold in 1926 to
Maud Mackenzie who owned Gordon Cottage next door.

In 1958 it was bought by a character known to all in Kalk Bay – Mrs. Lesley Talbot ‘Tommy’

Thompson. Born on a farm near Kimberley in 1912 she found her way to Kalk Bay where she
was employed by Stavrou, one of the owners of SL Bazaar. As his English was limited she filled

a vital role in running the shop. She comes across as a very nice person in this anecdote from
David Just:

When we popped in to the shop hot and bothered from school in Wynberg in the

afternoon, we would have to persuade Miss (sic) Thompson that it was ok to buy a sucker
on Dad’s Account. She was always so understanding and interested in what we were up

to. A really nice human being.

There is another story, one of many no doubt about Tommy. The locals felt she kow-towed a bit

too much to the wealthy shoppers from St. James.

The one story always told in our Goles family is about Tommy always falling about over

the St. James people and those who lived ‘on the hill’. Do you remember that saying?
Anyway my Gran is at SL Bazaars and Tommy maybe serving others before her. My Gran

says in a loud voice “Tommy my money's the same colour as hers!”

Such was life in a village where everyone knew everyone and people who had lived here for 30

years were newcomers.