Page 99 - KBHA BULLETIN 6

and kitchen facilities, attending to doors and windows, and painting the place. The

surrounding dusty areas outside were tarred. As the numbers of troops using the building

swelled it became necessary to enlarge the kitchen, to add an extra lavatory as the single
facility was inadequate for the numbers of servicemen being entertained (between April

and July 1942, 5795 men had used the Hall), to make a window on the sunny side of the
building to admit light and warmth as all the other windows were painted black (for black-

out reasons) and the Hall was cold and gloomy during daytime, and to add on a small
office. (Figs. 3.15 & 3.16).

Due to the proximity of the Kalk Bay and Muizenberg branches there was overlapping
help, and co-operation was common between the two commandants and their auxiliaries.

Recruiting was done on an organized basis. People living in St. James joined either the

Muizenberg S.A.W.A.S. with recruiting taking place at the Municipal offices in
Muizenberg, or the Kalk Bay S.A.W.A.S. where recruiting took place at the Olympia

bioscope.

Taking care of children was an important aspect of the S.A.W.A.S. organisation. This was
in order to free mothers of young children so that they might take up auxiliary services

such as watch-duty in the local municipal fire stations, and the assisting of Civilian

Protective Services. For this reason an emergency home for children of service personnel
was opened in Muizenberg. This children’s hostel was run by the Muizenberg S.A.W.A.S.

in the home “Lucknow” on Beach Road Muizenberg. This house was owned by Miss
Florence Robinson and was lent rent-free to S.A.W.A.S. during the war years. It also acted

as a holiday home for service children of school-going age and it catered for the children of
the Kalk Bay branch. Furthermore, in co-operation with the Red Cross, who ran the

Seahurst Hotel in St. James as a convalescent home (known as the Red Cross Auxiliary

Military Hospital), young mothers were given training in first-aid and home-nursing.

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